Do you use The Great Gazoo's XB 2.7s Cartridge?

[Omega-TI]

In memory of Gazoo, I'd like to take a poll of how many people world-wide have and use one of his XB2.7s cartridges. It does not have to be one purchased from him, it can be one purchased elsewhere or even assembled and burned by yourself.

 

Spread the word to other messages forums in other countries for all who own one to come forth and click yes.

 

If you feel comfortable, please feel free to leave a few words on how you use his cartridge as well.

[am1933]

I already get good mileage from my XB 2.7 cartridge, it is pretty much my default cartridge, where else could you format a disk, load an E/A file then have a quick sneaky game of Donkey Kong without using a Navarone expander.

 

Thanks Gazoo!!!!!, you crazy far sighted genious you!!!!!!, I sincerley hope they have the AtariAge forum in TI Heaven.

[Opry99er]

I got my cart directly from Tony about a year ago... I no longer use TIXB, even in emulation I always use 2.7.

 

Glad to have it, glad to have known Gazoo.

[Iwantgames:)]

I was able to get in on Tonys 2nd run last year and im glad to have been able to get it direct from him dealing with him was awesome and he was always very nice glad to have also grabbed his game carts as well

[Omega-TI]

There were just so many things I wanted to do with my TI, but not being able to get my hands on a Gram Cracker or P-Gram Card I felt a little limited until Gazoo came along with his XB2.7S cartridge, then later when he improved his already awesome cartridge with that BOOT modification... damn, I was ecstatic. Even now, after all this time, that cartridge is still my #1 favorite and most used. That cartridge rarely leaves my computer. In fact, if I were to lose that cartridge, I would probably get out of the TI, it's made that much difference in my TI enjoyment.

[Shift838]

I got my original cartridge from Tony on his first run of carts. I then asked him if it was possible for me to purchase the chips for a backup cartridge since I had an extra UberGrom board. He of course did it.

 

The XB2.7 cartridge is rarely comes out of my cartridge port!

[JamesD]

I was thinking of purchasing one but it was on the back burner because I'm not currently doing any TI development

[+Ksarul]

The cartridges will remain available--through me and through Arcadeshopper, based on Tony's wishes (I was his designated code backup in case anything happened to him).

[Tursi]

I brought mine to China since space was limited and it's got everything so although I live in NA the cart is physically in Asia at the moment.

[wyerd]

When I got back into the TI scene, I was told it was THE cart to get. It has not and will never fail my expectations. It is the one and only cart you will ever need!

[PeBo]

Those times where I sit in front of the 4A not certain what I "feel like" doing, it is always the first cartridge I plug in (If it wasn't already plugged in, which is far more likely)

 

It's a cornucopia of entertainment on it's own, but combined with disk based software (be it on SD, CF, HDX or real floppies), there's little reason to ever unplug the thing (except maybe for switching languages).

 

A shelf of favourite carts can ignite some warm nostalgia, but once you've got Xbasic 2.7 you're really cooking with gas!

[Shift838]

I bought a new cartridge from ArcadeShopper a month or so ago for friend. He is not registered here so you can add one to the total # of people.

 

But how many of us have more than one of his XB 2.7 carts? I myself have 2. (I love to have backups of everything I can!)

[Omega-TI]

 

But how many of us have more than one of his XB 2.7 carts? I myself have 2. (I love to have backups of everything I can!)

 

I'll be picking up an Uber Cart tomorrow, as well as an Atmel, then I think I'll finally order that MiniPro. Of course I've never personally burned a chip before, I've just had it done for me, but now it's time to learn. Many of the new class of games are just so bloody awesome they are just too big and cool to reside on disk! Besides, if anyone ever needs a beta test on something new, I'll be able to accommodate them.

 

I still have an extra XB2.7S label that Gazoo sent me, so I just might attempt to make my own backup as my first attempt. When the time comes, you can be sure this NEWBIE to burning will be putting out an S.O.S. for help.

[sparkdrummer]

I got my first XB27 when Tony asked for anybody wanting to sell some carts so he could use the cases for repurposing.

I contacted him and asked how many carts it would take to trade for an XB27. We struck a deal, I sent him gutted carts and he sent me an XB27. It has been in my second TI system ever since. I decided after awhile that I wanted a spare XB27 and bought that one outright from him. So I've got 2.

His "BOOT" modification is absolutely awesome. I changed the main file to load BOOT from one of my ramdisks (DSKA.BOOT) and it works beautifully (and fast).

I would have liked to have met him in person and shoot the shit about things TI.

Definitely miss him.

[globeron]

I brought mine to China since space was limited and it's got everything so although I live in NA the cart is physically in Asia at the moment.

 

I have 1x in Bangkok,Asia and 1x in The Netherlands (my father's place).

 

When Gazoo and Tursi helped with the speech that the XB 2.7 suite module now says

"#Texas Instruments#" when booting was a great thing and appreciated!

My kid loves it "the computer is talking"

[Omega-TI]

... I'm not currently doing any TI development

 

[retango]

I got mine from ArcadeShopper a couple of months ago..I use it mainly for the games, and for loading disks from the NanoPeb... it's the TI cart I use the most!

[slinkeey]

Yeah, that is the cart that put my NanoPEB to use.

[+acadiel]

I have one, but still am needing to get my Wrightline rack units set up to get my Vintage equipment back up and running (after moving twice in the span of a year.)

 

Do we have a PDF of all the extra functions of XB 2.7 itself somewhere?

[Opry99er]

There are 26 menu choices on startup on my cart... 15-18 or so I will never use... It is so thorough and complete, I just cannot imagine needing any more cart utilities ever...

 

The thing that I find just so awesome (and it seems such a simple and small thing) is never having to swap carts or reset the console to use DM2 and XB. A simple combination of keypresses allows me to format a disk, test the disk, check bad sectors, program, save, load, and copy those programs to other disks on the fly.

 

It is what SHOULD have been 35 years ago.

[Tursi]

It was pretty hard to build 35 years ago, though. The memory alone would have cost hundreds of dollars, and you can tack on another $50-$100 for the GROM emulation. It also would have been rather large. Consider that the GRAMKracker is only about 40k, and this unit has 512k of ROM and 136k of GROM (124k of which is non-volatile). Then there's the question of whether the console could power it - likely it would have required a separate power supply. We benefit a lot from modern tech in there.

[Omega-TI]

I have one, but still am needing to get my Wrightline rack units set up to get my Vintage equipment back up and running (after moving twice in the span of a year.)

 

Do we have a PDF of all the extra functions of XB 2.7 itself somewhere?

 

At one point an updated manual to cover some of the additional/updated functions of the cartridge was discussed, I even have the original document on my hard drive. However, since Tony's passing I did not feel it right to mess with his legacy work.

[Opry99er]

It was pretty hard to build 35 years ago, though. The memory alone would have cost hundreds of dollars, and you can tack on another $50-$100 for the GROM emulation. It also would have been rather large. Consider that the GRAMKracker is only about 40k, and this unit has 512k of ROM and 136k of GROM (124k of which is non-volatile). Then there's the question of whether the console could power it - likely it would have required a separate power supply. We benefit a lot from modern tech in there.

 

 

^^True^^

 

But the Apple // could init and catalog from BASIC. Just seems like it should have been "in the console".

 

In any case, I love my 2.7 cart. makes me happy.

Edited October 5, 2015 by Opry99er

[slinkeey]

Do we have a PDF of all the extra functions of XB 2.7 itself somewhere?

 

This, that was posted in the main 2.7 thread?

 

http://atariage.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=357812

Edited October 5, 2015 by slinkeey

[Tursi]

^^True^^

 

But the Apple // could init and catalog from BASIC. Just seems like it should have been "in the console".

 

In any case, I love my 2.7 cart. makes me happy.

 

Actually, INIT and CATALOG are loaded from disk, it's not built into the Apple 2 at all. Even the disk bootstrap comes from the card.

 

Now, having it built into the disk controller, I agree that should have happened.