Disk drive woes...

[TimsterAA]

Hey all - hopefully somebody may be able to help me out here. I have an Atari 8-bit setup in my 'museum'. It's a stock 130XE, with a 1050 drive, RF-out, and joysticks. I remember when I set it up, I could've sworn I played a bunch of disk-based games as the whole idea was to have a machine with a drive attached. Well, that was well over a year ago, and since then I've only used carts in it.

 

Last night, I decided to play some disk games again. But disk after disk failed to work properly. I'm pretty sure the disks aren't bad - as it will read them at least partially. For instance, I tried "Wavy Navy" (commercial disk), and it instantly comes up with the Wavy Navy line on the top of the screen. After a minute or so of loading, the screen garbles somewhat, and then the game screen comes up, but the bottom half is all digital multi-colored static. The weird thing is, the game runs, and is playable. I played a little, and could move my ship left and right and shoot (I just couldn't see it behind the mess). Then I thought maybe that game's not compatible with an XE machine. So I tried a handful of other disks - pretty much all menu-driven cracked game compilations. Most of them come up with a menu to pick a game, but once you pick a game, it starts loading and the disk drive eventually stops spinning, and nothing ever comes up.

 

Now I'm thinking there's something wrong with the 130, so I swap it out for an 800XL. Try all the same games and get the exact same results. Next, I tried a 600XL, followed by an XEGS, all with no change in behavior. So... then I'm thinking maybe it's the drive. I proceed to swap it out for the other 1050 I have, and tried the same games on a couple of those machines, again with no change.

 

The next to last thing I tried was swapping the SIO cable, which predictably had no effect. Finally, I swapped in a stock Atari 400, thinking that maybe somehow inexplicably ALL of these games are incompatible with XE/XL models (I'm getting desparate). No change at all.

 

Does this ring a bell with anyone? Am I doing something wrong, or has all my Atari hardware decided to simultaneously go south on me??? I'm confident it's not the computers, as they all still play cart-based games fine. I'd suspect the disk drive - but the exact same problems on two different drives?!?!

 

Any input appreciated. Thanks guys. Hopefully someone out there can help me square this away.

 

--Timster--

[classics]

Are you holding down OPTION to disable BASIC when turning on the XL/XE machines?

 

Steve

[LYNXGUY]

Are you holding down OPTION to disable BASIC when turning on the XL/XE machines?

 

Steve

 

I was thinking the exact same thing

 

I had the same trouble and I disconnected my 810 drive and hooked up my Indus GT drive and all is well now, maybe run a floppy disk cleaner in your disk drive (if you have one)

[TimsterAA]

Hey guys - THANKS! I'm such a moron! That was EXACTLY what the problem was! YAY! Atari 8-bit playin' in da house once again!!!

 

Don't know why the A400 was giving me problems as well, but I don't care either. The 130XE has reclaimed its throne, and all is well.

 

Thanks again!!!

 

--Timster--

[mimo]

If it is a stock 16k 400 you wont have enough RAM to use the 1050.

Welcome home btw

[LYNXGUY]

YAY! Atari 8-bit playin' in da house once again!!!

 

Awesome dude !!

 

What are some of your favorite 8-bit games ??

[TimsterAA]

YAY! Atari 8-bit playin' in da house once again!!!

 

Awesome dude !!

 

What are some of your favorite 8-bit games ??

 

The answer to that is constantly changing! My all-time favorite game is MULE, of which I have the original disk, the ATR image, and the hack cart. Other than that, I enjoy all the classic arcade games (Donkey Kong, Centipede, Pac-man, etc...). Since I posted this message last night, I have pulled another switcheroo, replacing the 130XE with the 48K 800. The more old-school, the better - LOL!

 

Another issue though (and if this thread doesn't draw any/many answers, I'll post a new one).

 

I cracked open my 800 because the video had gone fuzzy on me, and I wanted to swap out the RF cable, which I did successfully. While I was in there messing around, I found under the top cover (the part behind the cart slots) the place where the RAM expansion 'carts' are. I found my 800 has three 16K carts and one 10K ROM cart. I assume this is the limit the original 800 can be expanded.

 

Regardless, I got thinking that even though I fixed the video quality problem, I know for a fact that my 400 has even crisper video out. I got thinking maybe I could put the extra RAM from the 800 into the 400, and use that. But when I opened up the 400, it's 'ram-expansion' innards were not there (or at least not like the 800).

 

My questions are: 1) is the 400 expandable like the 800, and 2) if so, where/how do you expand the memory?

 

Thanks for all the help everyone! This Commodore-raised boy truly appreciates it!

 

--Timster--

[LYNXGUY]

I am not sure if the 400 is expandable but I do know that the TV/GAME switch box can be faulty and cause the video to be fuzzy and those can be bought at a Radio Shack for about $4, also the cord that goes from the computer to the switch box can also be replaced and those can also be bought at Radio Shack or at most any discount store for about $5

[TimsterAA]

Thanks for the suggestions L¥NXGU¥... I actually spent a good deal more this weekend than usual playing around in my arcade/museum. I moved some stuff around, replaced some things with others, etc... In the process of messing with me Atari video situation, I learned that the 800 puts out a composite signal (thru a 5 pin din out) along with the RF out. It just so happens that I had a VIC-20 hooked up to a composite monitor with that exact cable. I moved the 800 over there using that monitor/cable, and BAM! Everything is great now! (Except for the fact that I've now moved the VIC-20 to the 27" TV the Atari was on, and each individual letter on the screen is about an inch tall!!! )

 

--Timster--

[Nukey Shay]

If it is a stock 16k 400 you wont have enough RAM to use the 1050.

 

Incorrect. DOS 2.x eats up around 6k. Many commercial games do not even use DOS...instead, the entire game is the boot file, or use a custom boot loader that doesn't require all of that bloat. Some games labelled "16k" may work fine (because minimum requirements were usually listed in multiples of 8k...the smaller of the memory cart sizes). I cut my programming teeth on a 16k 400 + 1050.

[LYNXGUY]

Timster, not to get off topic here but my best friend had a stand up arcade game his father bought for him and I believe it was called "Crazy Climber" anyway the game finally went kapoot and we took out the insides of that game and put in his Atari 1200xl computer and Indus GT Disk Drive and made a new sign for the top that said "Atari Arcade" and we also intergraded 2 Atari joysticks to the 2 that was with the game as we figured out what color wire was for each direction.

 

So when it was finally complete (4 days) we were able to play all 250 games we had on floppy "Arcade Style"

 

 

[TimsterAA]

Sweet! Sounds like fun - and something I wouldn't mind doing. But, it'll just become one of those things I wouldn't mind doing, and never get around to!

 

I have so many ideas for things I'd like to do with all the 'excess' hardware I have, I just never find the time or resources to actually do it. One thing I DEFINITELY want to do one day is a Ben-Heck type 8-bit laptop OR take an extra C64 or Atari, gut it, and build a modern PC from it. I know it's all been done already, but I want one for myself. And I'm sure it would probably be a lot cheaper than having someone else do it.

 

--Timster--