Compatibility questions

[T.A.P.]

I am primarily planning to just play games on my A8 machines, especially cartridges, although if I can get a Fujinet, I would definitely dabble in disks and tapes too.

 

Are there any games that wont work with a 1200XL?

 

What about the XE line (especially the XEGS)? Is there any thing that won't run on that? Can they run anything that wont work on a stock 800 or 800XL?

[_The Doctor__]

1200XL needs a few modifications  generally to run most things, it needs a bit of shoring up on the cart port, and reset circuit, it's should have rev 11 OS etc. Using the forum search button will yield how, what to do, and why as you work through the discussions. Only a handful of items don't run but there was a list in those threads as well. There were a couple carts that were still stubborn after the touch ups.

Carts that don't work, Blob on Cart, Crap Karts, Blob on karts, etc are some search terms to try as well as the normal key word you would type in.

Other than that the usual make sure you have enough memory for whatever it is and you can try using a translator OS for some older titles etc.

Edited February 4, 2023 by _The Doctor__

[Beeblebrox]

There are 1000s of games in the Atari 8-bit library spanning 40 plus years, so there will be a handful of earlier games I believe might not play on certain machines, and visa versa. 

 

On a very basic level in terms of ram, which is one of the main consideration for games obviously, (so not taking into account other factors like OS versions for example), ideally to maximise your chances of being able to play the titles you want, you wanna go for at least a 64k A8:

 

Stock A8's Ram specs:

 

600XL 16k

800XL 64k

400 16k

800 48k

1200XL 64k

65XE AND 800XE 64k

XEGS 64K

130XE 128k

 

Of course there are various ram upgrade options out there but that is another topic. 

 

Other forum members can chime in with the OS limitations on some games, (which I believe would affect the likes of the 400/800 and 1200XL), but ram is an obvious initial consideration when it comes to games. 

 

So a good all rounder is the 800XL. 64k ram, pbi slot, top mounted cart bay. 

 

If you want to play the likes of Prince of Persia you'll need 128k. We'll worth it as an amazing achievement. The port came out in 2021 and is one of the best games to finally make it onto the A8 imho. 

 

Fujinet is a great choice. So are the cart's Side3 and AVG. 

 

If course there is the excellent Sio2pc which connects to your laptop or pc and through free software called respeqt you can mount Atr and xex images of games and boot them as if they were loading from a virtual disk drive. The Sio2pc typically costs £25 over here in the UK. Also the sdrive max and similar devices give you a standalone virtual drive. 

 

Personally if you can stretch to it one of the aforementioned carts or the Fujinet would be worth paying the extra money for. (Many go for the AVG and side3 carts). 

 

Other considerations include the following :

 

The 1200XL and 400/800 machines do not have pbi slots. 

 

BTW xegs, whilst a good choice, is generally more expensive to buy. It's the only A8 to come with a detachable keyboard. Imho it's much cheaper to go for an 800XL or, if 128k needed, a 130XE.

 

Again, you will often source Atari's that have had their ram and also os's upgraded/modded. But to simply things I thought I'd talk about stock machines. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 4, 2023 by Beeblebrox

[patjomki]

Seems you already have a 1200XL and an XE?

 

If so, short answer: use your xe, buy an AVGCart + eci cable (which gives additional 512k ram). That's all you need.

Edited February 4, 2023 by patjomki

[_The Doctor__]

AVGcart with SIO and PBI cable will expand the 800XL memory, runs damn near all disk images, provides cart emulation so you don't need cartridges, tapes, or disks anymore and it provide an IDE hard drive and so on. No muss no fuss.

Edited February 4, 2023 by _The Doctor__

[T.A.P.]

Yeah, my dad left me his whole A8 collection, which consists of like, 8 or so machines spanning the entire line.

 

I just don't have the room to keep everything, nor do I have the resources to keep everything running, so I was looking to see which systems I might be able to part with while still maintaining maximum compatibility.

Edited February 4, 2023 by T.A.P.

[reifsnyderb]

If I had every A8 but could only keep one or two, I'd prioritize them as follows:

 

1.  Atari 800 - Pro's:  S-Video out, Memory is easily upgraded (even to 4MB), 4 joystick ports, Has easy access to cartridge port.  ROM very easy to upgrade.  Nice keyboard.  Con's:  No XL compatibility without major surgery.

 

2.  Atari 800XL - Pro's:  Memory easily upgraded via PBI, Has PBI port, Has top loading cartridge port.  Chips usually socketed.  Con's:  Only 2 joystick ports (maybe not a problem?), Usually missing chroma on video out (easy fix with soldering iron)

 

3.  Atari 600XL - Pro's:  Memory easily upgraded via PBI, Has PBI port, Has top loading cartridge port, small footprint.  Chips usually socketed.  Con's:  Only 2 joystick ports (maybe not a problem?), No monitor output.  (Can be fixed with surgery.)

 

4.  Atari 130XE - Pro's:  128k of RAM, Has ECI (instead of PBI), Memory can be easily upgraded via ECI.  Con's:  Cartridge port is in the back, ECI doesn't supply all signals of PBI, Only 2 joystick ports, lousy keyboard.

 

5.  All other A8's.

 

[patjomki]

2 hours ago, T.A.P. said:

Yeah, my dad left me his whole A8 collection, which consists of like, 8 or so machines spanning the entire line.

 

Ah, I just read the other thread.

 

For maximum compatibility I recommend keeping one of the 800XLs, just buy an AVGCart with both pbi and sio cables so you can read disk (atr) and rom files. This is the most cost effective solution.

 

In one of the rare cases that a game needs the old A800 OS you can use a translator disk (atr) if you don't want to install a switchable OS in your XL. 

 

If money is not an issue just buy an incognito board for your A800 otherwise.

 

I'd keep one of the A800s anyways.

[T.A.P.]

6 hours ago, patjomki said:

 

Ah, I just read the other thread.

 

For maximum compatibility I recommend keeping one of the 800XLs, just buy an AVGCart with both pbi and sio cables so you can read disk (atr) and rom files. This is the most cost effective solution.

 

In one of the rare cases that a game needs the old A800 OS you can use a translator disk (atr) if you don't want to install a switchable OS in your XL. 

 

If money is not an issue just buy an incognito board for your A800 otherwise.

 

I'd keep one of the A800s anyways.

Thanks for the advice!

I'm not really tech savvy, and money and space are definitely concerns so I appreciate all the info I can get to help me narrow things down.