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New GUI for the Atari 8-bit


flashjazzcat

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Will there be a mouse sensitivity adjustment at some point?

 

My converted Logitech Bus Mouse moves the cursor from edge to edge with only 0.9 inch (2.29 cm) of travel.

 

Good question. I built in acceleration in the wake of complaints about erratic pointer behaviour (owing to missed bits when the mouse was moved quickly). Certainly that needs to be adjustable, though.

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Good question. I built in acceleration in the wake of complaints about erratic pointer behaviour (owing to missed bits when the mouse was moved quickly). Certainly that needs to be adjustable, though.

I don't know if this is because I am using an optical mouse via the peST adapter, but the mouse pointer will continue to move for a while after I stop the mouse. I'm not sure if this is from the acceleration feature or the adapter.

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Great news. AtariMax 8mbit or SIC! or SIDE version, maybe? :)

 

 

Yeah: all in the pipeline, and most flashable with UFlash 2 beta. :)

 

Waiting for AtariMax 8mbit version .atr flasher, I have a question.

How do you flash a cart that already has something on it?

For example, I plug the cart into computer, I put .atr flasher on SIO2SD, but when I turn on the computer the game inside AtariMax cart starts instead of .atr flasher.

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Waiting for AtariMax 8mbit version .atr flasher, I have a question.

How do you flash a cart that already has something on it?

For example, I plug the cart into computer, I put .atr flasher on SIO2SD, but when I turn on the computer the game inside AtariMax cart starts instead of .atr flasher.

SDX is rather handy here, since it can usually control the external cart. Hot-plugging also works in extreme circumstances. :)

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I don't know if this is because I am using an optical mouse via the peST adapter, but the mouse pointer will continue to move for a while after I stop the mouse. I'm not sure if this is from the acceleration feature or the adapter.

 

You could try the CMI08 in ST-mouse mode to exclude an adapter problem...

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Great news. AtariMax 8mbit or SIC! or SIDE version, maybe? :)

 

 

 

Waiting for AtariMax 8mbit version .atr flasher, I have a question.

How do you flash a cart that already has something on it?

For example, I plug the cart into computer, I put .atr flasher on SIO2SD, but when I turn on the computer the game inside AtariMax cart starts instead of .atr flasher.

Hold down the OPTION KEY just like you are going to not use basic I believe it bypass the cartridge...

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SDX is rather handy here, since it can usually control the external cart. Hot-plugging also works in extreme circumstances. :)

In the past I used that solution...

 

Hold down the OPTION KEY just like you are going to not use basic I believe it bypass the cartridge...

That solution worked with a Maxflash with Space Harrier on it but not with a Maxflash with Atari Blast.

 

SIDE2 will ultimately be your best bet for this, I'd say. Built-in HDD and RTC.

Can't wait!

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Most of the stuff built for the Maxflash cart uses Option to bypass the cart and boot from disk (note to self...;) ), but if it doesn't you can boot any Maxflash flasher ATR without a cart, and then "hot insert" the cart... I've done it before and it works, just a bit tricky and might need multiple tries. Some people swear by inserting at a angle, or quickly, etc... keep trying, it'll work eventually.

 

Or you can flash it outside the computer with the USB programmer Atarimax sells.

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Yeah the hot-plugging worked for me in the past too (also works with UFlash). More problematic is the difficulty an Ultimate 1MB equipped machine may have flashing or even booting a Maxflash cart. I had to resort to an otherwise stock 320XE during testing.

Edited by flashjazzcat
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That'll teach me to announce a project and then immediately take a one year break from it. :)

 

Thanks for the feedback though. I know the Maxflash cart cold boots with U1MB OK, but try going into the Ultimate BIOS and pressing C for a cold boot. Last time I tried that, the whole system went tits up.

 

Real hardware required to trigger the crash, I should add.

Edited by flashjazzcat
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I just tried it on my real hardware. The "feel" of the GUI is very natural, very responsive. For some reason, it "feels" more authentic & responsive as within Altirra - I guess it's somehow connected to the jerky windows-mouse emulation.

 

I dusted off my good old Atari STM1 .. haven't used it for years now. I was so excited to see, that the GUI gives me the impression that I'm using an Atari ST. The mouse driver has by far the best performance, which I have ever seen on the 8bit. Needless to say, that this alone is absolutely amazing.

 

I'm not sure if it is already time to report bugs. Within Altirra the GUI runs quite stable. I tried it several sets of open&close actions - it's running ok.

However, on the Atari hardware, it does not take too much, to crash the whole thing. Starting a second Profiler brings it to crash. Running one ore more "Jotters" runs OK, though but playing with the menus, it still goes crazy ..

I know it can be very difficult to reproduce and sort out bugs remotely. @FJC: just let me know if I can support you on real hw testing.

 

The equipment I used is: 1Mbit AtariMax cart, 130XE with VBXE upgrade. No other modifications.

 

/twh

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Many thanks for the generous appraisal. :) And yes: it's surely time to report bugs, so let me look into this. The offer of help as appreciated too. Anyone with a Turbo Freezer?

 

EDIT: Just ran up the stairs, flashed a cart and booted up the released build on my 1200XL. Got five Profilers and two Jotters running so far without problems, so clearly it'll be helpful to get our heads together to identify issues on different machines. The 1200XL is loaded with upgrades, BTW: VBXE, Ultimate 1MB, etc. I have plenty of machines to test here, although only one - an 800XL - is NTSC and has only 64KB and won't be of much use going forward.

Edited by flashjazzcat
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@FJC: do you have a flash image for the AtariMax 8mbit ? I just flashed the 8mbit version with the 1mbit flash-image. But it does not work. Gives just a black screen. I'm not sure, if this is a valid option though...

 

At least, that way I could sort out if the bug is due to my old AtariMax 1mbit (it's pretty old, 10 years at least)

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@FJC: do you have a flash image for the AtariMax 8mbit ? I just flashed the 8mbit version with the 1mbit flash-image. But it does not work. Gives just a black screen. I'm not sure, if this is a valid option though...

Ah... ah... I flashed my AtariMax 8Mbit cart too with the same result...

 

Can't wait to try GUI on real hardware!

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