Upgrading my daily driver 800xl to have a Rambo 256K, what should I play?

[ryanmercer]

So I was checking eBay for cables last night and stumbled upon someone (based on what else they had for sell, one of you will be shipping me my 800xl this morning) selling an 800XL with a Rambo 256k mod and upgraded video for s-video/composite video/audio output and since I downsized my collection to almost exclusively 800xl's last year and have wanted to do a memory upgrade I just had to jump on this thing when I saw it.

 

Given the memory upgrade, what do I absolutely have to check out that I've never been able to play or what demos should I check out?

[Gunstar]

Well, anything that requires 128K, if you've only had 64K machines before, so Crownland and Treasure Island Dizzy, Amaurote 128, some (not all) of the new Spectrum/C64 ports of 'Ultimate Play The Game's' isometric games like Alien 8 and Nightshade can use extra memory for better animation. The BBC port of E-Type needs 128K. Beyond that, there really isn't much at the 256K memory level as far as games and demos. The file versions of some XEGS games like Commando and Airball will run on 256K (64K base+192K extended), but the sweet spots for games and demos seems to be either made for 128K memory or 320K memory, like Yie Ar Kung Fu and Bomb Jack, also Commando+. Most of the great demos are either 128K or 320K (Numen) as well. I only found one demo; 'Boogy Nights' that requires 256K (64K base+192K extended). Of course there are a few games and demos that use 1088K (ultimate 1MB) like Space Harrier and AtariBlast!.

 

So with just a Rambo 256K, like I have and you now have, the only way to play the 320K and 1088K games is still flash cartridges. There is an upgrade for Rambo to 512K documented, and I have an AtariMax version with that upgrade built in, and I did have 512K but some of the chips failed so I reduced it back to 256K. I was thinking of trying some 8x64K chips instead and see if it would work as a 320K Rambo though, since I have good 64K chips. I don't know if it's possible or if no one has done it because it's just as easy to go a full 512K.

[ryanmercer]

I have AtariMax's CF cartridge and an Ultimate SD Cart . I mainly snagged this machine because it already had a video mod, the Rambo was just a bit of a bonus. I also always like to buy myself something for my birthday which is next month so this ticked off my birthday purchase. I really gotta stop buying 800xl's though haha.

 

I'll check out:

• Crownland
• Treasure Island Dizzy
• Amaurote 128
• XEGS Commando
• XEGS Airball

[Paul Westphal]

Space Harrier only requires 64k when using a Atarimax 8mb cart.

 

The XE Mario Bros. cart is getting hard to find, so the cracked version requires 128k ram. There are a few of these bank switched XE carts. I use a MyIde II for .ATX files, and a SIO to SD for .ATR's ( disk files ). To bad Bomb Jack is 320k. The latest version of Bosconian is 128k also.

Edited February 9, 2017 by Paul Westphal

[ryanmercer]

I've got a few varieties of SIO to USB

[gozar]

Space Harrier only requires 64k when using a Atarimax 8mb cart.

 

The XE Mario Bros. cart is getting hard to find, so the cracked version requires 128k ram. There are a few of these bank switched XE carts. I use a MyIde II for .ATX files, and a SIO to SD for .ATR's ( disk files ). To bad Bomb Jack is 320k. The latest version of Bosconian is 128k also.

 

 

He has an Ultimate Cart, so he can play XE Mario Bros with only 64K.

[ClausB]

Keep it at 256K. It's more natural, not that piggyback stuff. As soon as the 800XL came out it screamed for 256K and that's why I designed the original upgrade.

 

That flashcart version sounds nice though. Does it use SRAM?

[ryanmercer]

Keep it at 256K. It's more natural, not that piggyback stuff. As soon as the 800XL came out it screamed for 256K and that's why I designed the original upgrade.

 

That flashcart version sounds nice though. Does it use SRAM?

 

 

https://github.com/robinhedwards/UltimateCart