Atari xe's and the xtnd ram self test patch

[carmel_andrews]

I remember reading in either database's Atari User Mag or Page 6's mag that towards the end of the XE's shelf life Atari were going to release the extended ram self test patch into all of the xe range and not just the xegs (for which it was already available)

 

A little latter, one of the store executives for sillica shop told me that Atari had pulled an about face and were not officially or unofficially launching or releasing this self test patch anywhere (UK/europe or US)

 

I remember just after been acquainted with the internet and www, at the start of 1999, i read on various Atari forums incl. mydeja's. comp sys atari forum (now google) that various european atari users had managed to get xe's with the extended mem. self test patch

 

my question is, because atari never officially or unofficially released this patch, how did these various euro' atari users manage to get xe's with these patches built in, or did they just reverse engineer the self test patch in the xegs (for which the extended mem/ram patch was already available) as Atari didn't(according to my source at silica shop) have any proto's of pal or ntsc xe's with this self test patch built in

 

Your help (especially from ML european atari users) is greatly appreciated

[Rybags]

No idea. There are various prototypes that saw limited release, like the Arabian XE (backwards text).

 

All it does is test the RAM that's normally overlayed by ROM, and you could write your own utility to do that.

 

In any case, the self-test and international character set was a waste of 3K ROM space that could have been devoted to much better causes.

 

They could have just about included a half decent resident DOS in little more space than that.

 

Doesn't the XEGS have a slightly different OS anyway, due to having no keyboard by default, and a built-in game.

[carmel_andrews]

Didn't the 1050 euro upgrade 'speedy' 1050 or super speedy have a built in DOS (bibo dos)

 

Yes the XEGS did have the mod'd os but it also have built in (so i was told) the extended ram/mem self test patch

 

With regards to the international character set, at least the atari had it, the PC at default doesn't support it (esp. under xp, as you have to install the additional fonts/scripts), did they use the international char. set in NTSC Atari's (that would be interesting)