Topic for newbies or veterans returning to Atari

[SviRu]

32 minutes ago, iscariot said:

I've had the avg cart for awhile now and I've got nothing but good things to say about it.  I've yet to have any issues with it at all.  I still haven't really gotten hdd enjoying working but that's mostly my fault for not trying hard enough

Do you have 800? Or 800xl? I need it to work on 800 with 48k. And run games ofc

[mimo]

20 hours ago, SviRu said:

IF I buy SDDRIVE MAX or SIO2SD can I count on that it will work?

yes if you power the sdrive externally 

 

20 hours ago, SviRu said:

Games like boulder dash/river raid etc?

Yes, if they are 48k or less and an atr or xex file and do not require the XL OS

20 hours ago, SviRu said:

Do I need BASIC cartridge in internal slot of 800 to run?

Not if the program does not require Basic

[SviRu]

Quick question. What is the bes cart for 800 48k. AVG, SIDE, ULTIMATE, UNO? I just want to play normal games - nothing fancy. I prefer cart over sio2sd.

[+Philsan]

3 minutes ago, SviRu said:

Quick question. What is the bes cart for 800 48k. AVG, SIDE, ULTIMATE, UNO? I just want to play normal games - nothing fancy. I prefer cart over sio2sd.

Please read first post.

[SviRu]

6 minutes ago, Philsan said:

Please read first post.

Read that. There is a great comparison but I need something that actually works in 800 and fits inside the cartridge bay.

[SviRu]

6 minutes ago, Philsan said:

Please read first post.

Read that. There is a great comparison but I need something that actually works in 800 and fits inside the cartridge bay.

[iscariot]

https://avgcart.tmp.sk/

 

That should tell you all you need to know

[w1k]

Hello, i looking for simple stereo for XE/XL

[iscariot]

Depending on how your getting audio, there are plenty of low cost mono-to-stereo adapters.

[_The Doctor__]

22 hours ago, w1k said:

Hello, i looking for simple stereo for XE/XL

do gumby, have simplestereo pcb made or buy one premade, they were cheap last I saw

[Rafael1138]

Hi there. I have a question because I'm kind new with Atari 800xl. Mine works perfect BUT the option key sometimes gets faulty. When stop working if you "shake it" a little bit works. I knoe the keyboard has a new Mylar so I'm not sure if can be some mechanical issue. Anyone that experimented this in the past can provide advice? I don't want to mess with that without knowledge.

 

Thanks.

[_The Doctor__]

I'd be checking keyboard connector/connections or seeing if debri found it's way into the key chamber. Not much else to say.

Sometimes people over tighten the keyboard screws and backing them off to clear a stuck key etc helps.

Edited June 19, 2023 by _The Doctor__

[Rafael1138]

Hi, I have maybe a dumb question. I have a game in 2 different formats, CAR and ROM. I load it with fujinet but when I run it from FN menu with OPTION I get the ready screen. What command I have to write to run the game?

 

I tried with run and nothing.

 

Thanks.

[+Philsan]

You have to use a multicart.

FujiNet and other ATR devices don't load CAR or BIN files (cartridges format dumps).

Check out first post for more infos.

[Rafael1138]

19 minutes ago, Philsan said:

You have to use a multicart.

FujiNet and other ATR devices don't load CAR or BIN files (cartridges format dumps).

Check out first post for more infos.

So FN can't run ROM files neither?

[+Philsan]

No, sorry.

[Rafael1138]

Thanks for the explanation. It looks like AVG Cart is the way to go. Will wait, is around 80 bucks.

[jenorton]

Hi:

My name is Joseph Norton.

If any of you are also using the TI 99/4A, you will have heard from me over on those forums.

I am a totally blind computer user.

For a while, I have been playing around with emulation, mainly of the TI 99/4A and APPLE //e and IIgs (these last 2 using the emulation in MAME of the Echo II speech synthesizer).

A lot of my playing with the TI 99/4A emulation is through a program called Classic99.  It's author (tursi, here on Atariage) has done an excellent job making the emulator easy to use, and, my Windows screen readers (JAWS and NVDA) work very well with it.

Someone in the TI community told me that Altirra was the Classic99 of the Atari computers.  And, there are some interesting similarities.

One main thing is that the emulator uses fairly standard Windows controls and dialogs to accomplish configurations, disk manipulation, and the like.  This means it is very easy for a blind person to handle those sort of things using many common screen readers.  Avery Lee has done an excellent job writing an accessible program, and my hat's off to him.

I didn't know if I would be doing too much with it, since there are probably a lot of graphical things, but, I found that a copy of SAM was available in the MAME software list.  Looking further, I found an excellent site that had, not only disk images, but, had the manual as a regular Web page.  I even found the routine that could be run in conjunction with the reciter program that gave one a "V:" device, letting you, among other things, list a program through SAM and have it spoken.  How cool is that?  And, all in software!  It can be done on the TI 99/4A, but, you need both the Terminal Emulator II cartridge, and, the hardware speech synthesizer, whereas, with the Atari, you don't need any added hardware.

Anyway, the only thing that's difficult is reading the emulated screen.  This is, however, expected, and both my screen readers have the ability to perform OCR on the screen.  This has already gotten me out of some jams that I otherwise would have needed sighted assistance for.

I see it is possible to copy the text to the clipboard, but, first, one has to highlight the text with the mouse, which I don't even use.  I may hook one up and see how successful I can be, but, not too sure.

I wrote to Avery Lee to see if he might be able to add an option to just copy the text of the entire screen, like doing a select-all and copy.  This does exist in sever emulators, so we'll see.

Anyway, for anyone who else is totally blind, I just figured I'd put this post on Atariage, just in case another blind person out there ever wonders about the emulation of the Atari family.

Got another 5200 question, but, I'll head over to that forum.

Thanks very much to Avery Lee, and, to all you other excellent folks over here.  I have learned quite a few things from several of you, just searching out how to accomplish this and that.  Atariage is definitely a great resource, and all of you make it great!

Thanks again!

[+Philsan]

@jenorton thanks for introducing yourself and for explanations!

[scitari]

Dear Newbies and Veterans alike,

 

I have compiled over 200 fun projects for the Atari 8-bit computers in a simple how-to format accessible via the web. Projects include purchasing old and new hardware, software, programming, hardware mods, and resources. Most projects can be completed in an hour or two. Enjoy! Atari Projects – Fun projects for your Atari 8-bit home computers and video game consoles

[kenp]

I should have found this thread earlier.  🙂    I really should have.

 

I thought I was a veteran, having been an original owner in the old days, writing my little programs, making mods back then and such.  (put a voice chip in my 800 for a while.)  BUT, there's been so many add-ons, new revisions to old chips and all the new software and operating systems coming out that I'm demoting myself to newbie.  I just heard of someone, not necessarily in the Atari world, using a microcontroller to emulate an old static ram chip.  For heavens sakes, I've grown a box around me if I couldn't see that one coming.

 

Great work to all the people still keeping these old machines going and even bringing them into the future.  I hope I can catch up and join you.

Edited July 26, 2023 by kenp
puncuation counts

[+Stephen]

39 minutes ago, kenp said:

I should have found this thread earlier.  🙂    I really should have.

 

I thought I was a veteran, having been an original owner in the old days, writing my little programs, making mods back then and such.  (put a voice chip in my 800 for a while.)  BUT, there's been so many add-ons, new revisions to old chips and all the new software and operating systems coming out that I'm demoting myself to newbie.  I just heard of someone, not necessarily in the Atari world, using a microcontroller to emulate an old static ram chip.  For heavens sakes, I've grown a box around me if I couldn't see that one coming.

 

Great work to all the people still keeping these old machines going and even bringing them into the future.  I hope I can catch up and join you.

Stick around and ask away!  I'm lucky - I've had an Atari in my life since I was 2 years old - my dad's 2600.  In 82, the folks got me a 400 with a b-key.  Used that and a 130XE until 1990, then in 95 got back into it via emulation and by 98 was Ebaying everything I could find.  I've stuck with it ever since, helped beta test a ton of upgrades and did several full machine builds (1088XEL, 1088XLD, 576NUC).  There's so much fun stuff out there, and if you don't want to go broke and take up the entire house with that stuff, Altirra emulates damn near everything that exists including these new upgrades and custom hardware.  I will say without a doubt, 2023 is way more active and there's more great new stuff out there than there ever was in 82.

[Ray Gillman]

Pigwa is certainly a good one - I also stumbled across the Archive.org site which has an impressive collection of old files 
here

https://archive.org/details/atari_8bit_library_applications?page=3&sort=-downloads

that's just the applications from this origin tree here 
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_atari

 

usually when you drill down into an entry you'll need to click show all files and find the ATR or ROM or XEX and get that - some even have a pdf of the manual which is pretty helpful because so many atari programs require secret keystrokes to access features

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by Ray Gillman
misspell

[votraxman]

Hi votrax man here. Anyone ever mess w/ a Votrax chip? I just bought a 1200XL, a laptop, and a connecting cable from a pawn shop. I'm interested in Alien voice box, and anything associated with it.

Thanks.

 

[_The Doctor__]

A number of us have the voicebox, and you can snag the from TI or other machines and make so nice Alien Voicebox remakes etc. Some nice software is sprinkled through out the threads on the forums here and elsewhere.