flashjazzcat Posted April 12, 2010 Share Posted April 12, 2010 Would VBXE be an easy (if expensive) method of upping the RAM in a 600XL to 320K? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted April 12, 2010 Author Share Posted April 12, 2010 provided it has 64k already Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 12, 2010 Share Posted April 12, 2010 provided it has 64k already Of course... I forgot to mention that caveat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hitchcock4 Posted April 17, 2010 Share Posted April 17, 2010 (edited) OK, so here's an odd one... I opened up my 65XE (NTSC) tonight to look at the ANTIC. It has the number CO12296D (final char is the letter "d"). Below that is C04473. Now, according to a page on http://www.faqs.org/ this is the ANTIC from the 400 or 800 or 1200XL. Did someone switch out chips on me? Someone has also written GOOD on several of the chips. Also, most of the chips are socketed. Looks like I got lucky on that, if I order the VBXE2. Bought on eBay maybe 8 months ago. Didn't boot it up today, but last time I booted it it did work fine. Any comments? Edit: Should I use the Atari CO21697 or does it matter? Edited April 17, 2010 by hitchcock4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted April 17, 2010 Share Posted April 17, 2010 Antic "E" provides the extra rows of Refresh addresses that the 130XE needs for it's 128K. Also, many RAM expansion schemes also need it. AFAIK, many/most other XE machines use an Antic "D", my 2 XEGS do, as do both my XLs. I guess it's entirely possible that they went to the "E" revision and at some stage it might have become the standard fitment for all machines. VBXE will work with any Antic revision, so unless you also plan on putting another RAM expansion in that needs the "E" model, you should be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hitchcock4 Posted April 17, 2010 Share Posted April 17, 2010 Antic "E" provides the extra rows of Refresh addresses that the 130XE needs for it's 128K. Also, many RAM expansion schemes also need it. AFAIK, many/most other XE machines use an Antic "D", my 2 XEGS do, as do both my XLs. I guess it's entirely possible that they went to the "E" revision and at some stage it might have become the standard fitment for all machines. VBXE will work with any Antic revision, so unless you also plan on putting another RAM expansion in that needs the "E" model, you should be fine. You guys are a font of knowledge. I knew I would have an answer in an hour!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hitchcock4 Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 So, if I purchase the VBXE 2 upgrade and install it, can I still use the popular eBay cable that can take the DIN-5 output from the Atari and convert it to SVideo? [That is, I have the SVideo cable, can I still use it.] [i'm such a fence-sitter, trying to decide whether to buy VBXE or not.] Thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 So, if I purchase the VBXE 2 upgrade and install it, can I still use the popular eBay cable that can take the DIN-5 output from the Atari and convert it to SVideo? [That is, I have the SVideo cable, can I still use it.] Yes. My 130XE has both s-video and VBXE RGB outputs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted April 23, 2010 Author Share Posted April 23, 2010 but not much to see on s-video output if you want to use some of vbxe-enabled software besides - isn't a bit silly? to wedge $133 worth VBXE over $5 cable? its just like buying a blu-ray player and using it with RCA cable sure it will play blu-ray disks, but whre all that $299 worh quality is gone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 but not much to see on s-video output if you want to use some of vbxe-enabled software besides - isn't a bit silly? to wedge $133 worth VBXE over $5 cable? its just like buying a blu-ray player and using it with RCA cable sure it will play blu-ray disks, but whre all that $299 worh quality is gone? Not silly. Useful for testing monitors, and handy if you want to use the machine with VBXE removed for whatever reason (or if it blew up!). If developing VBXE software and the program crashes, stock output might offer a clue... I could go on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted April 23, 2010 Author Share Posted April 23, 2010 please do but seriously i was talking about the case when someone installs VBXE and expects that standard video output will get better - it won't, even a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rchennau Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 Quick question: will the vbxe 2 work on an Atari 400/800? Do I need an oscillator/timer (don't even know what that is)? I have an Atari 400 with 64K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 (edited) It'll work. I'm not sure how/if it'll do the PORTB bank-switching, although VBXE does it by shadowing the register - but the 400/800 use PORTB in input mode where XL/XE uses it in output mode. On the machines with a ~ 3.6 MHz crystal (practically everything aside from XE), you take that one off, use a ~ 14 MHz crystal on the VBXE, then feed the 3.6 MHz that VBXE supplies back to the Atari. Edited April 29, 2010 by Rybags Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rchennau Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 It'll work. I'm not sure how/if it'll do the PORTB bank-switching, although VBXE does it by shadowing the register - but the 400/800 use PORTB in input mode where XL/XE uses it in output mode. On the machines with a ~ 3.6 MHz crystal (practically everything aside from XE), you take that one off, use a ~ 14 MHz crystal on the VBXE, then feed the 3.6 MHz that VBXE supplies back to the Atari. Thanks Rybags! Now I'll go and research to understand exactly what you said but if the end of the story is I can take one of my machines and slap a VBXE 2 in and have a hope of it working I might go for it. Or should I just bite the bullet and get an 800 XL as it seems to be the best for hacking/upgrading and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 Personally, I'd go for an XL/XE. Chances are that when software really starts coming along for VBXE, it will assume you have 64K base RAM and XL style bank-switching which could rule out the 400/800. Aside from that, the XL is a much easier machine to take apart and work on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted April 29, 2010 Author Share Posted April 29, 2010 i would like to provide reference installation for 400/800 as i helped to do with Atari 5200, but - i simply don't have one ;( You would be out and alone with this - sure i would help as much as i could, but not having access to the real machine is not something that would help, is it? Sebastian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted May 8, 2010 Author Share Posted May 8, 2010 little something to keep everyone mind bubbling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwJE1AkVG6A hope You'll enjoy it source code (Electron's) will be released within a week or so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 8, 2010 Share Posted May 8, 2010 Stunning. Great to see a new demo which shows off this powerful hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w1k Posted May 8, 2010 Share Posted May 8, 2010 hm, nice graphics.. but.. that is not a atari 8bit 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted May 8, 2010 Author Share Posted May 8, 2010 didn't know that altirra emulates something else than 8bit atari guess i was wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havok69 Posted May 9, 2010 Share Posted May 9, 2010 didn't know that altirra emulates something else than 8bit atari guess i was wrong What were you running Altirra on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamageX Posted May 10, 2010 Share Posted May 10, 2010 Here is the stars scroller I posted last year, updated for newer version of VBXE core. Tested in Altirra. Don't look at the source, you won't like it http://www.hyakushiki.net/vstars.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+rdemming Posted May 16, 2010 Share Posted May 16, 2010 Since there was some discussion if the standard Atari 8-bit graphics modes benefit from VBXE's RGB output, I made a couple of pictures of the three possible output modes (composite video, chroma/luma & RGB) so you can decide for yourself. You can find the pictures in my blog. Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 16, 2010 Share Posted May 16, 2010 Since there was some discussion if the standard Atari 8-bit graphics modes benefit from VBXE's RGB output, I made a couple of pictures of the three possible output modes (composite video, chroma/luma & RGB) so you can decide for yourself. You can find the pictures in my blog. I think a detailed study like that was long overdue. For the most part, the results speak for themselves. The "fatter" characters in RGB mode explain why pseudo 80 column text is so much more readable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bf2k+ Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 didn't know that altirra emulates something else than 8bit atari guess i was wrong Heheheh BTW, very cool demo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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