Questions concerning the XM and support for it:

[Giles N]

Will the XM become and available add-on officially sold on AtariAge?

 

Will Bentley Bear come as XM game?

 

Does the XM provide even better sound than Pokey/PokeyOne?

 

- - -

 

For those who’ve gotten the XM; what did you get out of it?

[+DrVenkman]

Just now, Giles N said:

Will the XM become and available add-on officially sold on AtariAge?

 

Will Bentley Bear come as XM game?

 

Does the XM provide even better sound than Pokey/PokeyOne?

 

- - -

 

For those who’ve gotten the XM; what did you get out of it?

Curt Vendel passed away this past summer. The status of the XM project and everything that went into to is all up in the air. If and when it ever does see widespread availability, the first 120-odd units will go to those who pre-paid for them over 10 years ago. After that, Curt had said they would be available through AtariAge but again, all that went out the window with Curt's death. 

 

Please search the forum for old threads discussing details of the capabilities, but the XM was to provide additional RAM, POKEY sound, Yamaha YM sound, High Score Cartridge functionality, and the possibility of installing a PIA chip and SIO port for possible future disk or serial-I/O based games that wouldn't require relatively expensive cartridges. 

 

The Concerto Cartridge allows installation of a user-supplied POKEY chip for playing POKEY-enhanced games and homebrews. Similarly, the Dragonfly Cartridge can be purchased with a PokeyMax FPGA POKEY clone, a Yamaha YM sound module, or both. Please see the stickied threads above for details.

[Shawn]

 

9 minutes ago, Giles N said:

Will the XM become and available add-on officially sold on AtariAge?

 

Will Bentley Bear come as XM game?

 

Does the XM provide even better sound than Pokey/PokeyOne?

 

- - -

 

For those who’ve gotten the XM; what did you get out of it?

 

Niles,

 

This is a soft spot and a black eye on the forum when it comes to talk about the XM. Only a half dozen people ever got even a prototype XM machine out of the close to 200 people who paid for one a decade ago. Best to just leave this one alone as it's an ugly fiasco from start to finish. Just be happy you didn't have any skin on the line and move on to other interesting things in the Atari world.

 

Cheers,

Shawn

[Giles N]

12 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

Curt Vendel passed away this past summer. The status of the XM project and everything that went into to is all up in the air. If and when it ever does see widespread availability, the first 120-odd units will go to those who pre-paid for them over 10 years ago. After that, Curt had said they would be available through AtariAge but again, all that went out the window with Curt's death. 

 

Sometimes, having certain specific interestes and time-investments, I have been unable to read up on everything here.

 

I’m so sorry for the passing away of Curt Vendel.

[Giles N]

12 minutes ago, Shawn said:

 

 

Niles,

 

This is a soft spot and a black eye on the forum when it comes to talk about the XM. Only a half dozen people ever got even a prototype XM machine out of the close to 200 people who paid for one a decade ago. Best to just leave this one alone as it's an ugly fiasco from start to finish. Just be happy you didn't have any skin on the line and move on to other interesting things in the Atari world.

 

Cheers,

Shawn

I intented no offence or discourtesy to anyone.

But I’ll move on to other subjects as you say.

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Giles N