Civilan Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 Hi, I've got an opportunity to get myself a 1200XL to play with. Now I've never owned one of these just a 600XL (w/64K) back in the day which I still have. I've heard that an 1200XL was not compatible with a lot of software. I'm wondering if one can replace the 1200XL's OS ROM with an 800XL's and have everything work well. The 800XL's OS ROM is in a socket. Does the 1200XL also have a socket for the OS ROM? If I can't make good use of the 1200XL I'll pass up this opportunity. Anyone have any info on this? Thanks, Civilan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 AFAIK the incompatabilities would be the same as 800XL's...some older software written for 400/800 require that you load a program called Translator, which dumps the older OS into RAM. I don't think that swapping the OS chip with the 800XL's would solve anything. Techs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 Heres an OS you should swap it with: http://home.wanadoo.nl/mr.atari/hardware-info.htm Look for the new OS which claims 99% compat with 800 and XL/XE games Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 F'in A. Arr...that be a hard drivin' Atari. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGuy Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 I have a 1200XL with an 800 operating system....here's the link to the mod: http://www.atarihq.com/atcomp/1200os.html It's pretty simple, but you need some soldering skills. This mod is great because you get that 1200XL keyboard with 800 compatibility and 64K of RAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 How would you use the underlying Ram? I thought that the rev.A/B OS had no provision for banking-switching the Ram (?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 I'm not sure about the 800 OS and it's ability to use more than 48k, but the 6502 doesn't require bank switching until you've gone over it's 64K limit. In other words, with the 800 OS it wouldn't be a matter of bank switching, just that the OS rom wouldn't use the extra 16k, it would ignore it. IIRK. Personally, I think this mod is a waste of time and would limit you to only 48k or less programs. It's quite easy to stick with an XL/XE OS and just use a tranlator disk/cartridge for the older 800 stuff that is incompatible which only makes up less than 1% of the software...it only takes an extra thrity seconds to load the disk tranlator before the program and no time with the cart translator. Besides, the 1200xl is incompatible with random software from both the 800 and newer XL/XE computers due to bugs in it's OS, it's not the same as the newer XL/XE incompatiblities with the older 800 software (again less than 1%). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 I put the Steven Tuckers WARP OS into my 130XE - it uses toggle switches to pick which OS to use (800, XE, XE no basic and WarpOS with enhanced disk speeds) No translator for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 That's not bad...but I could never get used to the 130's keyboard. The 1200xl seems to be more my style (old 800 user). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGuy Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 I have Steve Tucker's Ape Warp in an 800XL....it's great! And since I grew up with the 800XL, I don't notice the mushy keyboard too much. But, that 1200XL keyboard is wonderful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 The mushy keyboard wasn't as bad on the 800xl...that became much more noticable on the XE keyboard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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