TT030 VME Video Cards question

[AtariSociety]

Question... expanded video via VME for a TT030.

 

I never explored that in the day. I know there were video cards one could buy to add better video, more colors, higher resolution, etc...

 

Today, guessing unless you luck out and find one on eBay, am I right to say the only current path is to buy one of these adapters, and a proper video card for it, and that the video card will NOT fit inside the TT but would be outside the case, etc... and can offer the TT030 the better video capability.

 

Am I on track with this or are there other solutions?

[larrylaffer]

You are right. You either need an old VME card (like Matrix or CrazyDots) that is difficult to find, or you need a "nova" adapter that does VME to ISA conversion and you can plug either a Mach32, or a Mach64 (best by far but very expensive - remember you need an ISA version of it, VLN and PCI are cheap but don't work) or an ET4000 and use the drivers here. The driver will be asking you which graphic option you want at boot time (nova or TT).

 

And yes you are right, the card and adapter won't fit inside your TT. I am lucky to have my Mach64 fit nicely in a towered TT 🙂 (the beautiful Tetra)

Lukas from Germany is making these adapters, if you PM me I can get you in touch with him if you want to buy one.

 

One detail however that you need to be aware of: With nova (or the old VME cards) you get worse compatibility... A lot of software is incompatible, with some other you won't see a difference and some is going to take advantage of the graphics card.  And one more detail: I use a VGA auto switch that takes input from both the TT and the Mach64. That way when I boot with either graphics port I don't need to disconnect/reconnect VGA cables. These auto switches are pretty cheap.

 

Oh! and Mint looks beautiful in high resolution and many colors!

 

 

Edited February 26 by larrylaffer

[AtariSociety]

3 minutes ago, larrylaffer said:

You are right. You either need an old VME card (like Matrix or CrazyDots) that is difficult to find, or you need a "nova" adapter that does VME to ISA conversion and you can plug either a Mach32, or a Mach64 (best by far but very expensive - remember you need an ISA version of it, VLN and PCI are cheap but don't work) or an ET4000 and use the drivers here. The driver will be asking you which graphic option you want at boot time (nova or TT).

 

And yes you are right, the card and adapter won't fit inside your TT. I am lucky to have my Mach64 fit nicely in a towered TT 🙂 (the beautiful Tetra)

Lukas from Germany is making these adapters, if you PM me I can get you in touch with him if you want to buy one.

 

One detail however that you need to be aware of: With nova (or the old VME cards) you get worse compatibility... A lot of software is incompatible, with some other you won't see a difference and some is going to take advantage of the graphics card.  And one more detail: I use a VGA auto switch that takes input from both the TT and the Mach64. That way when I boot with either graphics port I don't need to disconnect/reconnect VGA cables. These auto switches are pretty cheap.

 

 

Thank you.  Very helpful advise.

 

Tom

 

[moulinaie]

2 hours ago, larrylaffer said:

One detail however that you need to be aware of: With nova (or the old VME cards) you get worse compatibility... A lot of software is incompatible, with some other you won't see a difference and some is going to take advantage of the graphics card.  And one more detail: I use a VGA auto switch that takes input from both the TT and the Mach64. That way when I boot with either graphics port I don't need to disconnect/reconnect VGA cables. These auto switches are pretty cheap.

 

Oh! and Mint looks beautiful in high resolution and many colors!

 

 

It depends on what you're using.

I have been working with a NOVA card for many long years and a lot of stuff work correctly: programming (PureC, Assembler, Forth), editing (Atari Works, QED, Papyrus, Calamus, Interface), graphics (Vision, Gemview, Zview), videos (Aniplay, M_Player) in a far better way than on the standard output.

I have even made an adaptation of the Supercharger software to be able to display the Hercules mode (720x348) in fullpage on a mono 800x600 resolution.

 

Most games don't work, but hey, they mostly don't work on the TT....

 

Guillaume;

[Tillek]

Cyrell made a card too (I have one) but it doesn't always play well with others (application wise)

 

Some of these cards worked in the Mega STE as well.  Can't say I'd recommend it for Mint, but it works ok usually with regular TOS.

 

[+SoulBuster]

I have a cyrell too.

[Tillek]

23 hours ago, SoulBuster said:

I have a cyrell too.

Out of curiosity, do you know the latest version of the drivers they had for that?  (Assuming it was the Sunrise card?)

 

[+SoulBuster]

This is what I have for drivers

 

cybercube.zip

[Tillek]

Thanks... if it turns out mine are newer, I'll send them your way.

 

[+SoulBuster]

Cool