meatlog Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 Hello, I recently remembered the old local news-crawl for a public television station I used to live nearby in the 1980s, and how it had great pixellated text and bright colors. I decided that I would like to obtain a similar device for an upcoming video project, so I contacted the administrator of the station to ask around. He tells me that the system was Atari-based, but he couldn't remember what software it was. From the looks of it, this titling system was far too primitive to have come from an ST-class computer... at least compared to the ST-based titling programs I've found so far. What titling generation software was available for the Atari computers? I'm also interested in any other weird video/motion graphics type stuff. This is the perfect excuse to get one of these machines. Thanks for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krupkaj Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 I saw somewhere on internet hacked Atari 8bit for such purpose. What I remember there were some special ROM inside. Unfortunately I lost the link and cannot remember where it was Maybe somebody else has better memory... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrodegang Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 (edited) What titling generation software was available for the Atari computers? I'm also interested in any other weird video/motion graphics type stuff. There exist display systems by INFO/soft: "3000" (no graphics, just letters) and "5000" ( with simple graphics editor). Both came on cartridge (and are very hard to find, btw) and at least the "5000" version had some extension disks also. Probably a "7000" version was also available but I don't know what the difference between "5000" and "7000" could be. This is the perfect excuse to get one of these machines. Edited May 18, 2005 by Chrodegang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 I wrote a simple basic program to allow me to perform a few 'effects' for produce titles. Nothing fancy, just some print statements to a GR 2 or 3 screen and color fade in/out - I think I had 3 effects - it was very manual in nature Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 I was just looking through the public domain software available from B&C Computervisions (link here on AA in the links section under "dealers"), and I believe I saw a video titling program listed on one of those graphics/productivity discs. though I can't say how good it is, but it may be worth a look and a try, the PD disks are price at either $2.99 or $3.99 a piece (though B&C has a flat shipping rate of $8 last time I checked, so your better off only going to them if you have several things would like to get). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatlog Posted May 18, 2005 Author Share Posted May 18, 2005 There exist display systems by INFO/soft: "3000" (no graphics, just letters) and "5000" ( with simple graphics editor). Both came on cartridge (and are very hard to find, btw) and at least the "5000" version had some extension disks also. Probably a "7000" version was also available but I don't know what the difference between "5000" and "7000" could be. 857383[/snapback] It looks like the 3000 Text Generator is most likely the program that I am looking for. Thanks for your help... maybe I'll find one someday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR> Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 I saw somewhere on internet hacked Atari 8bit for such purpose.What I remember there were some special ROM inside. Unfortunately I lost the link and cannot remember where it was Maybe somebody else has better memory... 857380[/snapback] I have a couple of Atari 8-bits that were modified and remarketed for just this purpose. One is a modified 130XE that was marketed by a company called Control and Information Systems, Inc based in Honolulu, HI. Basically what they did was modify the Cartridge port so that it pointed up into the case instead of out the back. An uncased Cartridge board was then installed inside that plugged into the modified port. The cart board has an EPROM, a Clock chip, 3 logic chips and some other LSI chip that is hidden under the Clock chip. The software that boots is Graphtech Systems - Graphtech Character Generator. I haven't explored it much but it has lots of help screens and menus and nice Text editor. It can save files to a disk drive and transfer files over a modem. Looks quite nice actually. Amazingly enough it still holds the time. I don't remember when I last booted this, or if I ever reset the time, but when I booted it today it was only 20 minutes slow. It does have a Y2K bug, it thought today was Tuesday. Incidentally the 130XE Motherboard is late model with the 4 memory chips instead of 16. The other system I have is a modified 800XL. All Atari labels on this were replaced. It was marketed by a company called PromoVision Video Displays LTD and was called the PromoVisoin PRO-1000. I don't know for sure that all of the modifications were done by the manufacturer, but it has a 256K Rambo installed as well as an additional RCA jack in back that supplies Composite Video. It also appears that some of the video components were replaced as well. It does have a nice display. The keyboard has some sticky labels on some of the keys and the console keys have been relabled with what appears to be just a paper insert stuck under the smoked plastic window. Unfortunately I don't know what software this unit ran as I did not get any with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 What titling generation software was available for the Atari computers? I'm also interested in any other weird video/motion graphics type stuff. This is the perfect excuse to get one of these machines. Thanks for your help! 857356[/snapback] Here are a couple links to photos and disassembly of the units I had at one point. http://www.atarimax.com/technfo/cgi800/ http://www.atarimax.com/technfo/cgixl/ Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathtrappomegranate Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 @JR> and classics: These are interesting, and dumps would be very nice! Actually, the Atarimania team recently discovered a similar cart-based system, but we haven't done anything with it yet because of some potential copyright issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 It seems there were a number of different companies marketing this kind of equipment... I've seen a display of this type used in the US as late as 1998 for messages on an internal hotel TV channel. Don't know if it's true but I was also told local TV channels in Russia used modified Atari computers... BTW, John Harris was responsible for the Info/3000/5000 text generators. -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogstar_robot Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I've seen Amiga hardware used for this as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathtrappomegranate Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I've seen Amiga hardware used for this as well. 857811[/snapback] Yes, it was much more common on later machines. The Amiga has a very distinguished history in this field. Doing this stuff on 8-bit machines was pretty pioneering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I have dumps of both the 800 PCB roms and the XL cartridge roms if anyone wants them. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fres Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I remember reading an article or two about teleprompting with 8-bits back in the late 80s. Perhaps one of these: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v6n6/teleprompting.html http://www.atarimagazines.com/v8n7/Showbiz8bit.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybernoid Posted May 20, 2005 Share Posted May 20, 2005 I remember that here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area there was a channel that used an Atari 8bit based Video Titling Software Package connected to a modem. It was meant to have the station guys dial in from anywhere at anytime to adjust the scrolling text. A friend of mine had hacked in to the dialup BBS and had posted something about one of the dorkiest kids at school being a male whore. The end TV screen was complete with his telephone number. He got into a great deal of trouble, but it was funny at the time. Ah... the good 'ole days of hacking.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted May 20, 2005 Share Posted May 20, 2005 I remember typing up a program that was supposed to do this for you a long time ago. However when I ran the program the screen was garbled and screwed up looking so I gave up and just used basic print statements as suggested above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted May 21, 2005 Share Posted May 21, 2005 Here are some pictures of a 1200XL unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted May 21, 2005 Share Posted May 21, 2005 Here is a rom dump of the 2 2764s in this computer. It just looks like the standard 1200XL OS when I boot it, so it might not be anything special. Promo_Vision_PRO_1000.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted May 21, 2005 Share Posted May 21, 2005 Classics... that's pretty cool that the 1200XL was used that way! Thanks for sharing the pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatlog Posted May 21, 2005 Author Share Posted May 21, 2005 Wow, these modified computers are very interesting. Thanks for all of the helpful information! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathtrappomegranate Posted May 21, 2005 Share Posted May 21, 2005 Here is a rom dump of the 2 2764s in this computer. It just looks like the standard 1200XL OS when I boot it, so it might not be anything special. 859203[/snapback] Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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