jbehnke747 Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 Hi, I used to have an Atari 400 with imagic's Demon Attack game. I the computer and all of the games and recently bought a 600XL with Demon Attack once again. The Demon Attack cartridge does not work on my Atari 600XL computer. I read that some third party games do not work on a 600XL. Would someone please tell me if Demon Attack is a compatible game, or perhaps I may have gotten a non-working cartridge? I have Galaxian and Centipede and both of those games work great on my 600XL so I don't think there's a problem with the computer. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 AFAIK, Demon Attack original cart is not compatible with XL/XE computers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 There is a fixed executable version that runs on XL/XE machines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
José Pereira Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 (edited) Here it all started on the Atari side with the 800XL, the one I bought and some later the 130XE (because there was lots of 800XLs in stock on the stores they try it because of it has 128KBs of RAM). I remember that I oppened my 800XL a couple of times but as I never got nor we had here 600XLs, why it has a smaller back part (where is the cart slot)? Just for the difference of the RAM chip 64<->48 KBs it sure wasn't because I think the two RAM chips have almost the same size. And I remember that when I first oppened my 800XL I realized it had lots of empty places inside. Couldn't the 800XL be same sized as the 600XL and then had the costs and final selling price lower? Or was just to dintinguish the two and in a marketing view the larger one was to show it has more memory? And if it was possible that the 800XL be smaller then cheaper maybe then the 600XL wouldn't make sense. Less production costs and it would got the software developers to focus in 64KBs and not the traditional all the A8 range life of 48KBs that when games and other software together with the born of the C64 was, I think, one of the starting of sales and the later dead of the A8s. What's your opinion? Edited November 24, 2013 by José Pereira Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Westphal Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 A little off topic, but think what games would have developed into if they used 64k from the initial release of the 8 bits. I bet they would have been better and better through time, and would have probably extended the life of the machines....initially putting up a better fight against the C64. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbehnke747 Posted November 25, 2013 Author Share Posted November 25, 2013 Thanks for the information everybody, I really appreciate it. I figured Demon Attack was one of the non-compatible games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoundGammon Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 I put a dual-os in my 600XL years ago and put a switch on the back to pick between the 2. The other os was a 400/800 rev A. It would play Demon Attack cart version fine in 400/800 mode! Also, Ghost Hunter, a Pac-Man clone, that had issues with the newer os's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlazer Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 A little off topic, but think what games would have developed into if they used 64k from the initial release of the 8 bits. I bet they would have been better and better through time, and would have probably extended the life of the machines....initially putting up a better fight against the C64. Exactly why the Commodore 64 did so well and why most of the C64 ports were superior to the Atari 800 versions!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 The C64 is from 1982 and the Atari 800 is from 1978/1979. It is not that strange that there is a difference in memory capacity between them. The 1200XL (1982) had 64KB just like the C64 and so had the 800xl in 1983. The 600Xl is and was easy plug and play upgradeable to 64Kb so I do not think the differences in port quality has that much to do with the memory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
José Pereira Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 (edited) The C64 is from 1982 and the Atari 800 is from 1978/1979. It is not that strange that there is a difference in memory capacity between them. The 1200XL (1982) had 64KB just like the C64 and so had the 800xl in 1983. The 600Xl is and was easy plug and play upgradeable to 64Kb so I do not think the differences in port quality has that much to do with the memory. Sorry that was me that turned this off-topic but it was indeed, in a certain way, the 48KBs limit.Remember that even at the late of the 80s they were still 'shooting' to the 48KBs target because for a small comunity they need to cover almost all possible buyers. How many games in on A8 back on those days that really need 64KBs to run? And why the 130XE 128KBs? I can only see it just because of marketing. Don't remember (90s Eastern Europe demos apart) any commercial release that on those days really needs 128KBs. Isn't this '(one of) the sad trues' of the A8 life? EDITED: C64, for example, was one and only RAM Memory machine. More modern and with some neat features it also had just only one model and greater/always 64KBs RAM Memory. Edited November 25, 2013 by José Pereira Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 I thought the C64 had a predecessor called the VIC-20. Weren't software houses back in that time trying to write software that was backward compatible for the Vic-20 then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
José Pereira Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 No. VIC-20 is an early Commodore machine and has some things that same as the C=16 Plus4 range maybe a Commodore 'way of' but VIC=20 is a bit like our Atari VCS2600. It maximum resolution is like ours 2:1 ratio although different sized pixels on T.V. But it has some neat features like our visible on screen 42Bytes wide they can had the same wide their 22Bytes that is if ours 44Bytes wide. Their higher resolution is like on the VCS. Their 1:1 is ours 2:1 so one letter one colour is 8x8 pixels wide monocolour like our GR.1 text/charmode. The C16 Plus4 is a more modern and best to compare with C64 but although it has 128colours VS C64 only 16 (indeed 121 because black it's always black and doesn't have 8shades) it has other main processor, the TED and doesn't have the hardware sprites and the SID sound chip that they late put on the C64. P.s.- You're making confusion: VIC-II is the main processor like ours A8 ANTIC. Please do not make confusion with that older Commodore machine that VIC=20 is it's name and not the chip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbehnke747 Posted November 25, 2013 Author Share Posted November 25, 2013 I'm considering buying Pitfall for my Atari 600XL. Does anyone know if that game is compatible on a 600XL? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 I'm considering buying Pitfall for my Atari 600XL. Does anyone know if that game is compatible on a 600XL? You can look up just about any game you want on Atarimania.com and see if it needs OS-B or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbehnke747 Posted November 25, 2013 Author Share Posted November 25, 2013 Ok thanks MrFish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 No problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlazer Posted November 29, 2013 Share Posted November 29, 2013 Pretty much all early 1980's cartridges work on the Atari 400 and 600XL with 16K. The XE carts normally don't as they require 64K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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