Atari800MacX Version 1.2 Now Available

[Albert]

http://members.cox.net/atarimac/Version 1.2.0 of the Atari800MacX Atari 8-bit emulator has been released. Atari800MacX is a native OS X Cocoa port of the Atari 800 emulator. Lots of new features and bug fixes in this version, including the ability to program keys used for keyboard emulation of joysticks, subdirectory support for DOS functions, new support for AlphaOmega Software's Extended Software Updater, and more. Please visit the Atari800MacX page for complete details and to download the latest version (source code is also available).

[davidbrit2]

Spooky... I downloaded the previous version just last night, and the only reason I didn't really like it was that the keys weren't redefinable. I think the author is telepathic. :-)

[oesii]

yeah, I gave up on defining the keys a few months ago

 

I switched to using a usb gamepad and it's worked great the last few releases, this one appears to be running solidly on my Powerbook right now, I'll have to test it out on my desktop tomorrow.

[davidbrit2]

I'll probably hook up a USB/PSX converter and try that sometime. Do you have any idea if the 5200 emulation will properly handle the analog axes? And does the Mac port have the problem of not recognizing the second fire button from a gamepad? Most of the Windows versions suffer from that, making them mostly useless for 5200 emulation.

 

I must say, this is one of the most well written emulators for Mac OS X. I'm using it on my 500 MHz iBook with Terminal, Console, Entourage, iChat, Safari, and X11 all running in the background, and it goes full speed easily. I've got a feeling I'm going to pay even less attention in CS classes now.

[oesii]

I'm not sure about the analog controls because I've been using a digital gamepad but I would be interested in finding out. The 2nd fire button is recognized very easily on the joysticks after you assign it.

[atarimac]

Hi...I'm the author of the Emulator. Actually, people were asking for the key programming, but they were really asking harder for the gamepad support...so it came first

 

Analog joysticks should work with 5200 mode, I have two different brands, and they both seem to work. Let me know if you have any problems.

 

Please report any bugs to the email address on my web site. The next release will probably be mostly bug fixes, as I think I'm done with major features at the moment. I wrote this thing because I wanted to use it, but I've been to busy writing it to really play with it. So I should be testing it more extensively as I use it as well.

 

Thanks,

Mark Grebe

[oesii]

thanks for the reply mark, I actually sent an email to you today about the emulator crashing on my Emac but I finally found the problem. It was faulty OS roms, I was using some roms from Rainbow that were 2 years old and I don't know where they came from. I downloaded the 5200 bios rom from AA and now everything works great.

 

thanks again.

[isen]

Can anyone point me to a guide for using the Atari800 emu for Mac OS X? I have the program and several OS ROMS and games ROMS. What is the best set-up to use for 1) using the emu to play games and 2) as a computer? Is game playing satisfactory using the keyboard or mouse instead of an external joystick? How do I determine what type a cartridge ROM is? (to answer the question that appears in the dialogue box when I insert a cartridge).

 

Thanks for answering this and for any other help you can give.

 

Cheers,

isen