ATARI 8 Bit Desktop Does one exist or not?

[Sean39]

Hi Everyone

 

I was wonder did anyone ever create an Atari Desktop for the 8 bit computers such as the 800XL or 130XE with all the memory they had.

Tandy created one for their Color computer II which only had 64K of ram and later their Color Computer III which had 128K of RAM....

As you can see the memory was the same and they did it, so did anyone ever do it for Atari users. A desktop program would have been nice with

a calculator and other useful tools found in the early desktop programs..... Well did anyone ever see one for Atari computers?????

Just a Question that been on my mnd now for along time. Thanks

 

 

Sean

[UNIXcoffee928]

There are several 'attempts' floating around out there. The thing is, most of the user base bought an ST, Amiga, or Mac at that point... so it was less of a pressing issue.

 

The c64 had GEOS, which was very impressive at that time, considering the hardware.

 

You will find several 'Attempts', for the Atari, as I have mentioned. None of them are full-featured, but they would be good starting points if you were planning on making one.

 

Recently, I thought that it would have been very do-able, had someone taken the time to re-define character sets to achieve it. Gr.0 can yield some very nice characters that can be bunched together, just like letters (this is how tile-based games were made). Very detailed Icons, scrollbars, windows & such could be done on the Atari, using this method, and it would be VERY fast, just write it to the memory location, and blam it's there in an instant. With this method, and a 6-way scrolling playfield, you could actually have virtual desktop space, too.

 

I experimented with it a bit, using Envision, and made up a few character sets that looked great. I'll look around for them & post them.

 

L8R.

[dinosaur]

Three come to mind:

 

1) Diamond GOS

 

2) G.O.E.

 

3) B.O.S.S.

[+Larry]

Hi Everyone

 

I was wonder did anyone ever create an Atari Desktop for the 8 bit computers such as the 800XL or 130XE with all the memory they had.

Tandy created one for their Color computer II which only had 64K of ram and later their Color Computer III which had 128K of RAM....

As you can see the memory was the same and they did it, so did anyone ever do it for Atari users. A desktop program would have been nice with

a calculator and other useful tools found in the early desktop programs..... Well did anyone ever see one for Atari computers?????

Just a Question that been on my mnd now for along time. Thanks

 

 

Sean

 

Several were created, and probably the best of the lot are "The BOSS XE" written in compiled Turbo Basic, IIRC, and the commercial Power-Per-Post "SAM" (Screen Aided Management). This was an 80-column desktop that likely is the best overall. The Boss XE is available at Atarimania:

http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=17611

 

SAM is commercial and you can find more info about it at the Dean Garraghty web site:

http://www.dgs.clara.net/

 

-Larry

[Sean39]

HI

 

I am so glad that some else thought that Atari machines were powerful enough to make a nice Desktop program. I really think that it was a mistake that no one took full advantage of Atari memory to make a wonderful desktop. Especially when an Atari 130XE can be expanded to a full 320K of memory

or even more. Well they claimed more than 128K of memory right on the box they came in.....Can you just imagine what could have been done with

the 130XE computer. Here what I notice . Most the cartridges were not made for the 130XE but for the XE game system which was 64K of memory,

so all that extra memory went to waiste because Atari did not just make games for the 130XE..If they had the games would have been so much more

powerful than the XE game system. I think they could have made a mouse and driver for the 130XE computer with a very powerful desk top....Even

16 bit programs could have been ran but only 8bits segments could have been loaded in at a time... I know that they use to do that and it just slows the program down a little since you don't load a full 16 bit word in but a 8 bit in two segments to make up a 16 bit word.... That why on the ST computers

you see 16 bit/32 bit because of the way you load the programs in. They did it on some of the XE games..Space Harrier had speech that was very clear

talking on the game. Well that was a 8 bit game with some 16 bit segments for speech... 8 bit speech alone sound like a speak and spell system if you remeber that old thing talking . It sounded like a broken robot ,and nothing like a human well in space harrier is sounds human because they load in one

8 bit segment then a second 8 bit segment then that make a 16 bit word which then can produce a very clear audable voice.... Well with 128K or 320K

you have plenty of memory to load two 8 bit segments to produce the 16bit programs......It a lot of work to do this but it makes for great programs on 8 bit computers it just slow the program down a little because your not doing the 16bit in one segment, but in two instead. I may be going over some people

heads on this but I use to program computers for NASA , so I may be getting to technical here. Anyways there is no excuse for a great Desktop program

on a 800XL or 130XE computer....I don't want to hear the ST Computer is better because most people do not even realize how powerful 130XE is.......

That computer never even had a chance to show what it was really capable of doing because very few programs took adantage of he extra memory in

that computer and most the XE programs are under 64K because of the XE game syatem that was out at the same time. Atari make a 128K computer that can be expanded to 320K of memory and does nothing with it ,and that was really sad...Almost every commercial out at the time was for the XE Game

System which only had 64K of memory, and the game cartridges were made for that system not the 130XE they just work on the computer since they

were similiar.......Atari was trying to sell their 520ST 1040ST, and XE game System...The Atari 130XE was just in the Back ground being forgot about.

What a sorry story for such a great computer. I wish a programer now could make a great desktop for the Atari 130XE and 800XL computers which

should have been done in the first place for the consumer to have a great home PC with useful tools for everyday life. Like a calculator and so many

other things found on desktops. Well enough of that.......I think they are great computers and it would be nice to see some new software for them

that just did not come out at the time. Now we have so many users on this site that I don't think it would be a waiste of time to write such a program.

I bet the programer could sell many of them too....Well take care and GOD BLESS

 

 

sean

Edited May 24, 2008 by Sean39

[pps]

If you want all the information for BOSS X, try this German url: http://www.atarixle.de

It´s the official site of the project, but... all written in German!

[MEtalGuy66]

HI

 

I am so glad that some else thought that Atari machines were powerful enough to make a nice Desktop program. I really think that it was a mistake that no one took full advantage of Atari memory to make a wonderful desktop. Especially when an Atari 130XE can be expanded to a full 320K of memory

or even more. Well they claimed more than 128K of memory right on the box they came in.....Can you just imagine what could have been done with

the 130XE computer. Here what I notice . Most the cartridges were not made for the 130XE but for the XE game system which was 64K of memory,

so all that extra memory went to waiste because Atari did not just make games for the 130XE..If they had the games would have been so much more

powerful than the XE game system. I think they could have made a mouse and driver for the 130XE computer with a very powerful desk top....Even

16 bit programs could have been ran but only 8bits segments could have been loaded in at a time... I know that they use to do that and it just slows the program down a little since you don't load a full 16 bit word in but a 8 bit in two segments to make up a 16 bit word.... That why on the ST computers

you see 16 bit/32 bit because of the way you load the programs in. They did it on some of the XE games..Space Harrier had speech that was very clear

talking on the game. Well that was a 8 bit game with some 16 bit segments for speech... 8 bit speech alone sound like a speak and spell system if you remeber that old thing talking . It sounded like a broken robot ,and nothing like a human well in space harrier is sounds human because they load in one

8 bit segment then a second 8 bit segment then that make a 16 bit word which then can produce a very clear audable voice.... Well with 128K or 320K

you have plenty of memory to load two 8 bit segments to produce the 16bit programs......It a lot of work to do this but it makes for great programs on 8 bit computers it just slow the program down a little because your not doing the 16bit in one segment, but in two instead. I may be going over some people

heads on this but I use to program computers for NASA , so I may be getting to technical here. Anyways there is no excuse for a great Desktop program

on a 800XL or 130XE computer....I don't want to hear the ST Computer is better because most people do not even realize how powerful 130XE is.......

That computer never even had a chance to show what it was really capable of doing because very few programs took adantage of he extra memory in

that computer and most the XE programs are under 64K because of the XE game syatem that was out at the same time. Atari make a 128K computer that can be expanded to 320K of memory and does nothing with it ,and that was really sad...Almost every commercial out at the time was for the XE Game

System which only had 64K of memory, and the game cartridges were made for that system not the 130XE they just work on the computer since they

were similiar.......Atari was trying to sell their 520ST 1040ST, and XE game System...The Atari 130XE was just in the Back ground being forgot about.

What a sorry story for such a great computer. I wish a programer now could make a great desktop for the Atari 130XE and 800XL computers which

should have been done in the first place for the consumer to have a great home PC with useful tools for everyday life. Like a calculator and so many

other things found on desktops. Well enough of that.......I think they are great computers and it would be nice to see some new software for them

that just did not come out at the time. Now we have so many users on this site that I don't think it would be a waiste of time to write such a program.

I bet the programer could sell many of them too....Well take care and GOD BLESS

 

 

sean

 

hahahah.. Sean.. I want some of what you are smoking...

[dwhyte]

HI

 

I am so glad that some else thought that Atari machines were powerful enough to make a nice Desktop program. I really think that it was a mistake that no one took full advantage of Atari memory to make a wonderful desktop. Especially when an Atari 130XE can be expanded to a full 320K of memory

or even more. Well they claimed more than 128K of memory right on the box they came in.....Can you just imagine what could have been done with

the 130XE computer. Here what I notice . Most the cartridges were not made for the 130XE but for the XE game system which was 64K of memory,

so all that extra memory went to waiste because Atari did not just make games for the 130XE..If they had the games would have been so much more

powerful than the XE game system. I think they could have made a mouse and driver for the 130XE computer with a very powerful desk top....Even

16 bit programs could have been ran but only 8bits segments could have been loaded in at a time... I know that they use to do that and it just slows the program down a little since you don't load a full 16 bit word in but a 8 bit in two segments to make up a 16 bit word.... That why on the ST computers

you see 16 bit/32 bit because of the way you load the programs in. They did it on some of the XE games..Space Harrier had speech that was very clear

talking on the game. Well that was a 8 bit game with some 16 bit segments for speech... 8 bit speech alone sound like a speak and spell system if you remeber that old thing talking . It sounded like a broken robot ,and nothing like a human well in space harrier is sounds human because they load in one

8 bit segment then a second 8 bit segment then that make a 16 bit word which then can produce a very clear audable voice.... Well with 128K or 320K

you have plenty of memory to load two 8 bit segments to produce the 16bit programs......It a lot of work to do this but it makes for great programs on 8 bit computers it just slow the program down a little because your not doing the 16bit in one segment, but in two instead. I may be going over some people

heads on this but I use to program computers for NASA , so I may be getting to technical here. Anyways there is no excuse for a great Desktop program

on a 800XL or 130XE computer....I don't want to hear the ST Computer is better because most people do not even realize how powerful 130XE is.......

That computer never even had a chance to show what it was really capable of doing because very few programs took adantage of he extra memory in

that computer and most the XE programs are under 64K because of the XE game syatem that was out at the same time. Atari make a 128K computer that can be expanded to 320K of memory and does nothing with it ,and that was really sad...Almost every commercial out at the time was for the XE Game

System which only had 64K of memory, and the game cartridges were made for that system not the 130XE they just work on the computer since they

were similiar.......Atari was trying to sell their 520ST 1040ST, and XE game System...The Atari 130XE was just in the Back ground being forgot about.

What a sorry story for such a great computer. I wish a programer now could make a great desktop for the Atari 130XE and 800XL computers which

should have been done in the first place for the consumer to have a great home PC with useful tools for everyday life. Like a calculator and so many

other things found on desktops. Well enough of that.......I think they are great computers and it would be nice to see some new software for them

that just did not come out at the time. Now we have so many users on this site that I don't think it would be a waiste of time to write such a program.

I bet the programer could sell many of them too....Well take care and GOD BLESS

 

 

sean

 

hahahah.. Sean.. I want some of what you are smoking...

me too

[miker]

http://www.atari8.info/trsdesktop.php

 

[UNIXcoffee928]

Now, there is a USEFUL error message!

 

ROFL!

 

= )

 

 

But, it should say, "Press RETURN to UNF*CK."

 

 

Ha!

 

 

You could have a field-day with this Windoze hex editor:

http://www.hexworkshop.com/

 

 

Good rainy day project.

 

ha.

 

 

Interesting screen elements on the rest of it. I made some very high-quality sliders in that aforementioned character set bundle... I really have to look for that. My idea was to go more in a Motif-oriented direction, to provide standard raised widget elements, but that looks pretty cool, as is.

 

I haven't gotten to check if that was real, a demo, or a practical joke, but in any case, nice hack!

 

L8R

[UNIXcoffee928]

As far as I know, older versions of Hex Workshop don't have the evaluation period. v2.10 seems fine.

Edited May 24, 2008 by UNIXcoffee928

[emkay]

Three come to mind:

3) B.O.S.S.

 

 

BOSS is more an idealistic Playaround than a usefull Desktop.

The Resources are huge and it takes aeons to load and swap between desktop an the wanted programs..... when using a Harddrive!

The whole thing is based on Turbo Basic.

[Beetle]

Back in time i had such a slow hardrive, too... :-P

 

 

BOSS usually starts with copying itself to the RAM disk, which should be 256k at least for a full system.

It is not compiled Turbobasic, because here and there its using self-modifiying code.

 

After that, it runs considerably fast. More a playaround than useful, thats true BOSS

can start other (external) programs, like editors or such.

 

AtariXLE is still working on the project, last item added is a USB mousedriver for

the Atarimax USB cart.

 

 

Greetings,

Beetle

 

PS: i have a short video of my XL Laptop booting into BOSS X - through SIO, not Harddisk.

Maybe i add a 'BOSS X ready' sticker...

Edited May 24, 2008 by Beetle

[+bf2k+]

Tom Hunt was working on a desktop too but I cannot remember what it was called. I have it here somewhere but I am sure it was not finished!

[Heaven/TQA]

Miker, the TKS desktop looks interesting...

[Shawn Jefferson]

Tom Hunt was working on a desktop too but I cannot remember what it was called. I have it here somewhere but I am sure it was not finished!

 

ATOS. It's not bad, pretty fast compared to BOSS X, but requires SpartaDOS, and I haven't had any luck with the newer MyIDE ROMs. The last I was able to get working with was version 3.1. Anyway, ATOS uses extra memory as well to speed up swapping.

 

A lot of ATOS is written in cc65 (according to the docs). If the source code was released, it could be recompiled with the newer cc65 toolchain, and people could program their own modules...

[Sean39]

Metalguy66

 

I guess that I went on a little much,but I really thought Atari could have done more with the Atari 130XE than they did. I guess some of

those pain killers went to my head last night from the car wreck I was in this last year. I take medication for my migraines and broken bones in

my body..Broke all my ribs and collar bone, so the pain medication is strong. Well I hope that did not affect what I wrote, but I guess I made the Atari

130XE machine sound like a dream computer.......Now the 130XE can be expanded to 320K of memory pretty easy now more than that takes some work

to do. Anyways I just want a nice desk top for the computer. The BOSS sound good what about this SAM set up has anyone used it yet????

 

 

commercial Power-Per-Post "SAM" (Screen Aided Management). This is what I am talking about...

 

 

Thanks Sean

Edited May 25, 2008 by Sean39

[Kaz atarionline.pl]

Miker, the TKS desktop looks interesting...

 

TRS (Tristesse group), not TKS . According to Atariki it is written in compiled Turbo Basic, but with assembler subroutines for key procedures (icons drawing, 80 colums text mode and mouse support).

 

Minimal requirements:

CPU 6502

SIO2PC

128 kB RAM

SpartaDOS X 4.20

300 kB free disc space

 

Comfortable requirements:

CPU 65C816

KMK/JŻ IDE/IDEa hard disc interface, CF adapter/CF

1024 kB RAM

SpartaDOS X >= 4.31

ARC clock (by Pasiu SSG)

1 MB free disc space

[MEtalGuy66]

Metalguy66

 

I guess that I went on a little much,but I really thought Atari could have done more with the Atari 130XE than they did. I guess some of

those pain killers went to my head last night from the car wreck I was in this last year. I take medication for my migraines and broken bones in

my body..Broke all my ribs and collar bone, so the pain medication is strong. Well I hope that did not affect what I wrote, but I guess I made the Atari

130XE machine sound like a dream computer.......Now the 130XE can be expanded to 320K of memory pretty easy now more than that takes some work

to do. Anyways I just want a nice desk top for the computer. The BOSS sound good what about this SAM set up has anyone used it yet????

 

 

commercial Power-Per-Post "SAM" (Screen Aided Management). This is what I am talking about...

 

 

Thanks Sean

 

You mean you really were on drugs? I was just givin you a hard time... You know, there are alot of reaswons that noone has taken better advantage of extended ram than they have to this point.. If you look at DEMOS like Numen, you can easily see that it is possible to utilize extended ram in ways that drastically increase the scope of what can be done with the machine.

 

The 130xe, in particular, has some potential that very few coders have tapped.. And that is separate ANTIC and CPU access to extended memory banks. This is sometimes referred to as "ANTIC extended video" mode. Unfortunately, most memory expansions (the 320k, 576k, and 1088k by Scott petersen is the most common) destroy this capability.

 

On any 6502 based machine, youve got 16bits of adress space which limits the ram directly visible to the processor to 64k at any one given time. The way that the 130xe (and any "standard" atari memory expansion) works, is to switch out the section of memory from $4000-$7FFF and replace it with one of many 16k banks of "extended" ram.. The 130XE has 4 such banks, equaling 64k of extended ram..

 

Heres the scenario.. Lets say we want to do some really custom shit with screen graphics.. And we want to use multiple 8k bitplanes (entire screens worth of graphics data in hi res) and manipulate them in the background, but keep them in memory so that they can be instantly "popped up" or "switched between" when the user accesses different features of our application. Well, of the 64K of adressable ram space on an XL/XE atari, about 40k (or less) is available for user applications after DOS is loaded.. So.. no problem.. We code our application in 16k chunks, stick it in extended ram, and just switch to the corresponding bank whenever we want our application to jump to any particular section of code.. BUT... Heres the problem.. If we want multiple screens worth of data to be available for display during the execution of many different routines, we are screwed.. UNLESS the ANTIC chip can be told to look at the "base ram" $4000-$7FFF bank, while the CPU jumps from bank-to-bank of extended ram, executing routines, manipulating data, etc. A well designed application that takes advantage of separate antic & CPU access would let us use almost the full 40k of base ram for graphics screens & data while running our executable code (and storing data that ANTIC does not use for display) in extended ram banks.

 

I have petersen upgrades on most of my 130XE machines. But.. I built them with a switch that "gives back" the PIA bit needed for separate antic & cpu access. This way, If I want to utilize this feature, I can switch back to 100% 130XE compatable mode. This sacrfices half of the 256k of extended ram.. effectively switching between 320k and 192k... So in "fully 130xe compatable mode" I can write an app that uses 8 16k banks (128k) of extended ram for my machine language routines, and leave almost all of my base ram available for graphics/screen data which can be accessed by ANTIC, uninterrupted by extended RAM bank switching of CPU code... 128k (or even 64k on a bone-stock 130xe) of well structured machine language can do quite a bit on the atari.

 

The reason that noone commonly uses this? Well.. There are ALOT of memory expansions out there.. The vast majority of which do not support separate antic/cpu access... This is because in the past, the added complexity of adding "100% 130xe compatability" to many expansions for popular machines such as the 800XL and 1200XL would have made the expansions harder to do, more expensive, and beyond the scope of what many "hardware hackers" were willing to do. This however is a trend that is changing nowadayze.. With the easy & cheap availability of programmable logic, many people are developing "universal" upgrades that work on most (if not all) ATARIs and offer many different modes of compatability, with the option to fully support separate CPU/ANTIC access.. As these newer, more complete, and better thought-out memory expansions become more popular, It is my hope that we will start to see some apps that fully utilize these features the way that could have been used on the 130XE all along.

 

By the way.. If you havent upgraded your XE yet, and you want to... Contact Mega-Hz (on this forum) and ask about his 512k SRAM expansion.. It comes premade on professional PCBs, supports a multitude of "compatability modes," and has the option and provision for adding a small battery so that the ram becomes "non-volatile" and retains its data when the machine is off. This is the slickest "pre-made" ram expansion Ive ever seen.. But the guy is in Germany, so you have to pay shipping/taxes to get it here... Still well worth it if you ask me..

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

at the moment there are just two (2!) programs that make use of separate Antic/CPU access: 1) Video Blitz by Helvetica Bold (a 130 XE demo, there is also a newer version available without sep. Antic access by TeBe) and 2) The Wedge by Ed Bachmann (a sort of file-management program for Sparta-DOS only)... So, currently you do not have many programs that really require this mode...

 

On the other hand, there are already programs that will NOT work correct with separate Antic access, like e.g. Base 33 (a 320k demo by AIDS) and maybe others (I cannot test it, since my Atari does not have sep. Antic access). Next a battery supplied XRAM or Ramdisk may be fine - but there are also programs which do not like this, e.g. Numen will not work unless your RD/XRAM is completely empty (mega-hz told this already on the Abbuc forum)...

 

-Andreas Koch.

[DracIsBack]

The c64 had GEOS, which was very impressive at that time, considering the hardware.

 

GEOS *WAS* really cool. I remember being blown away by it. I think it was partly because the people creating it were experts at working with limited resources and partly because the C64 was a strong enough entity to promote its ongoing support from the dev community.

 

I liked the idea of DIAMOND GOS on the 8-bit (plug in the cartridge and your A8 will have windows just like an ST or a Mac) but it came out as the 8bit was almost dead. Hardly anything was developed for it.

 

Same issue as Multi-View on the Tandy CoCo III. Cool idea but not really a useful graphical operating system.

[Tezz]

You mean you really were on drugs? I was just givin you a hard time... You know, there are alot of reaswons that noone has taken better advantage of extended ram than they have to this point.. If you look at DEMOS like Numen, you can easily see that it is possible to utilize extended ram in ways that drastically increase the scope of what can be done with the machine.

 

The 130xe, in particular, has some potential that very few coders have tapped.. And that is separate ANTIC and CPU access to extended memory banks. This is sometimes referred to as "ANTIC extended video" mode. Unfortunately, most memory expansions (the 320k, 576k, and 1088k by Scott petersen is the most common) destroy this capability.

 

On any 6502 based machine, youve got 16bits of adress space which limits the ram directly visible to the processor to 64k at any one given time. The way that the 130xe (and any "standard" atari memory expansion) works, is to switch out the section of memory from $4000-$7FFF and replace it with one of many 16k banks of "extended" ram.. The 130XE has 4 such banks, equaling 64k of extended ram..

 

Heres the scenario.. Lets say we want to do some really custom shit with screen graphics.. And we want to use multiple 8k bitplanes (entire screens worth of graphics data in hi res) and manipulate them in the background, but keep them in memory so that they can be instantly "popped up" or "switched between" when the user accesses different features of our application. Well, of the 64K of adressable ram space on an XL/XE atari, about 40k (or less) is available for user applications after DOS is loaded.. So.. no problem.. We code our application in 16k chunks, stick it in extended ram, and just switch to the corresponding bank whenever we want our application to jump to any particular section of code.. BUT... Heres the problem.. If we want multiple screens worth of data to be available for display during the execution of many different routines, we are screwed.. UNLESS the ANTIC chip can be told to look at the "base ram" $4000-$7FFF bank, while the CPU jumps from bank-to-bank of extended ram, executing routines, manipulating data, etc. A well designed application that takes advantage of separate antic & CPU access would let us use almost the full 40k of base ram for graphics screens & data while running our executable code (and storing data that ANTIC does not use for display) in extended ram banks.

 

I have petersen upgrades on most of my 130XE machines. But.. I built them with a switch that "gives back" the PIA bit needed for separate antic & cpu access. This way, If I want to utilize this feature, I can switch back to 100% 130XE compatable mode. This sacrfices half of the 256k of extended ram.. effectively switching between 320k and 192k... So in "fully 130xe compatable mode" I can write an app that uses 8 16k banks (128k) of extended ram for my machine language routines, and leave almost all of my base ram available for graphics/screen data which can be accessed by ANTIC, uninterrupted by extended RAM bank switching of CPU code... 128k (or even 64k on a bone-stock 130xe) of well structured machine language can do quite a bit on the atari.

 

The reason that noone commonly uses this? Well.. There are ALOT of memory expansions out there.. The vast majority of which do not support separate antic/cpu access... This is because in the past, the added complexity of adding "100% 130xe compatability" to many expansions for popular machines such as the 800XL and 1200XL would have made the expansions harder to do, more expensive, and beyond the scope of what many "hardware hackers" were willing to do. This however is a trend that is changing nowadayze.. With the easy & cheap availability of programmable logic, many people are developing "universal" upgrades that work on most (if not all) ATARIs and offer many different modes of compatability, with the option to fully support separate CPU/ANTIC access.. As these newer, more complete, and better thought-out memory expansions become more popular, It is my hope that we will start to see some apps that fully utilize these features the way that could have been used on the 130XE all along.

 

By the way.. If you havent upgraded your XE yet, and you want to... Contact Mega-Hz (on this forum) and ask about his 512k SRAM expansion.. It comes premade on professional PCBs, supports a multitude of "compatability modes," and has the option and provision for adding a small battery so that the ram becomes "non-volatile" and retains its data when the machine is off. This is the slickest "pre-made" ram expansion Ive ever seen.. But the guy is in Germany, so you have to pay shipping/taxes to get it here... Still well worth it if you ask me..

This is a great point made. I stopped in my tracks upgrading my XEs for this reason. I wasn't entirely happy with the Peterson method and others bringing compatibility issues. I got all the stuff bought and set aside waiting for a definitive solution. I didn't realise anyone had pcb's ready made up with the non volatile battery backup that i've seen modded before that's perfect. I'll send a PM but does anyone know how much mega-hz charges and any install info to check out? Thanks for mentioning this.

 

EDIT** It seems looking at the profile that Mega-hz hasn't been on AA since January. Does anyone have a direct contact?

 

Here's an earlier post last year. I completely forgot about this post after i read it last year it seems.. http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=114040

 

@Beetle are you in touch with Mhz?

Edited May 26, 2008 by Tezz

[drac030]

Well,

at the moment there are just two (2!) programs that make use of separate Antic/CPU access: 1) Video Blitz by Helvetica Bold (a 130 XE demo, there is also a newer version available without sep. Antic access by TeBe) and 2) The Wedge by Ed Bachmann (a sort of file-management program for Sparta-DOS only)..

 

You forgot Envision. So there are at least three ones. And there are probably few more. Despite that, it is better to have one feature more (i.e. the separate ANTIC/CPU addressing), than more memory. More than 320k is not really required for anything, and big ramdisks are rather funny idea since there are hard drive controllers available. Same with battery backed RAM, from a hard drive you can reload the entire memory in less than 5 seconds, so ...

 

As about the desktops, the TRS Desktop is the only one I saw that actually works. The rest, if they're finished at all, are less or more crap (slow, unstable, and ugly). Diamond GOS has crashed after I played a while, but this might have been the fault of badly "updated" ROM image (it was a flashcart version homemade by someone, and apparently not working well, so I cannot judge).

Edited May 27, 2008 by drac030

[+Larry]

(snip...)

As about the desktops, the TRS Desktop is the only one I saw that actually works. The rest, if they're finished at all, are less or more crap (slow, unstable, and ugly). Diamond GOS has crashed after I played a while, but this might have been the fault of badly "updated" ROM image (it was a flashcart version homemade by someone, and apparently not working well, so I cannot judge).

 

Has anyone tried any of these desktops using the emulator? I'd think the extra speed would help. Couple that with 64- or 80-columns and a mouse, and some of these could get more useful.

 

And speaking of 64 columns, has anyone tried SDX 4.41 with it's 64 and 80-column console (E:) devices? Very, very nice.

 

-Larry

[DracIsBack]

For those interested, here's a review of DIAMOND GOS from back "in the day". This was how I learned about the product.

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/v8n2/diamondsystem.html