7800 Keyboard

[+Allan]

On 4/20/2022 at 2:33 PM, Lynxpro said:

 

I can't remember if Curt got them from GCC or from Dan Kramer. If I recall, Dan may still have the AtariLab, 7800 BASIC, and AtariWriter/VideoWriter 7800 [or whatever it was titled] ROMs in physical form.

 

This is an exciting thread because there didn't seem to be any interest in modding the ROMs to work with the XEGS keyboard port on the XM back when Curt was still alive.

 

For the record, Curt said many times in the 7800 Facebook group - and privately - that the controller chip in the 7800 Keyboard was proprietary and he didn't have the means to reverse-engineer it. From memory, the keyboard plugged into Joystick Port #2 and could also provide pass-through Joystick/Controller Mode and SIO support while the keyboard was also being operated. Curt had speculated that the later Atari Corp might've planned to use the plans for that proprietary controller chip for an adapter cable that would make possible to network the 7800 for MIDI Maze since there were rudimentary plans to port MIDI Maze to the 7800 in the last days of the console's commercial life.

 

Does anyone else think the 7800 keyboard design looks a lot like the SX-64's keyboard?

Start listening at 52:30