joeybastard Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 Someone just gave me an 800xl and tape drive to go with it. I know nothing about the Atari computers, back in the day I had a Vic20 and could never afford an Atari. Anyway, now that I have this thing I have some questions that I haven't been able to answer searching thru this forum. 1. Do the 400/800/800xl/XE/etc. etc. all use the same carts? I think so, but I'm not positive 2. I know the tape recorder is slow but since I have it, I'd like to mess around a bit. Is there a site that has tape programs in WAV format that I could record to cassettes from my PC? I googled but only seem to find .CAS images for the emulators unless I'm misunderstanding what they are. 3. The caps seem to stuck on. I'm going to open it up and clean it anyway, but is there some key combo/keyboard reset thing to try also? I did the self test and it doesn't say anything is wrong. Thanks to all and any info is appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrroman Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 1. yes, they are. 2. there is a program called cas2wav. you can make some wav's of cas images. http://home.planet.nl/~ernest/atarixle.html or http://home.planet.nl/~ernest/atarixle.html. at second are also many cas images. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrroman Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 heh, second address should be: http://www.gdansk-orunia.eu.org/cas/ [/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 1. Do the 400/800/800xl/XE/etc. etc. all use the same carts? I think so, but I'm not positive There are a small handful of carts that won't work on an XL system. Roklan's "Gorf" is the only one that I can think of off the top of my head but I'm pretty sure that there are a few more. Luckily, more than 99% of the carts are interchangeable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeybastard Posted October 17, 2004 Author Share Posted October 17, 2004 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kuifje76 Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 I got submarine commander, and it doesn't work on xl/xe, only on 400/800. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 And "Springer", along with quite a few other carts, won't fit into the cart slot of the 130XE. But I guess that's sort of off topic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 3. The caps seem to stuck on. I'm going to open it up and clean it anyway, but is there some key combo/keyboard reset thing to try also? I did the self test and it doesn't say anything is wrong. Hey Joey! The normal typing mode is in caps, but pressing the CAPS key should switch to lower-case, and pressing Shift-CAPS should switch it back. -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeybastard Posted October 17, 2004 Author Share Posted October 17, 2004 Hey Joey! The normal typing mode is in caps, but pressing the CAPS key should switch to lower-case, and pressing Shift-CAPS should switch it back. -Bry Hey Bry! Yeah, I should have been clearer on that I know the regular font is caps but something must be stuck because on the numbers, I can only get the symbols and no numbers no matter what I do. For example: 10 PRINT looks like !) PRINT I also can't get lower case with any key combination. On the keyboard test, every key I press does light up but it also shows both shift keys lighting when I'm not touching them. I assume that's not right. I was considering opening it up to separate the keys from the membrane because cleaning the keys did nothing. I'm guessing that maybe the plastic is pushing the shift down somehow so I could try it without the key holders in place. Thanks! Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad2600 Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 When it comes to games, I recommend the following based on my experience with them: Miner 2049er Pac-Man Dig-Dug Caverns of Mars I just got done playing Dig-Dig for the 8 Bit High Score Club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 Hey Bry! Hey Again! Yeah, you've got stuck SHIFT keys. Now you're looking at tearing the keyboard apart. Read my keyboard topic here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=486540 -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeybastard Posted October 18, 2004 Author Share Posted October 18, 2004 Success! I took the keyboard apart, and the mylar was indeed being pinched at one of the shift keys. I cleaned it up, put everything back together and it all works fine now. I'll have to bookmark that keyboard fix of your's Bry, that looks like something I will need to do eventually. Tomorrow I go hit GamesUSA to see if they have any carts for this thing. Thanks for all of the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 Good news! Probably the best thing to have with an 8-bit nowadays is an SIO2PC cable (assuming you have a PC). That way, you can download and try any game you want, as if you had it on disk. -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 I got submarine commander, and it doesn't work on xl/xe, only on 400/800. My submarine commander cart works fine on my 800xl And on the subject of sub. commander, how the hell do I play it I have verified the cart works and I tried to play it, but could figure little out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeybastard Posted October 18, 2004 Author Share Posted October 18, 2004 Good news! Probably the best thing to have with an 8-bit nowadays is an SIO2PC cable (assuming you have a PC). That way, you can download and try any game you want, as if you had it on disk. -Bry I was lookin at that in the AA store. I'd have to cut the cable off of my recorder though right? That wouldn't be a big deal, but I'd want to double check with the person who gave me this stuff. I wouldn't want to hack it up and find out she wanted it back in 6 months I had some fun messing around last night, trying to remember some basic programming. It seems to be pretty similar if not the same as Commodore basic. I'm no wiz programmer to begin with and been a long time, but I got some simple stuff going. I'll have to see if I can redo a game I made when I was 10 on my Vic20! Sort of a crappy Space Invaders/Galaxian thing but when I was 10 I thought I was the man for getting it to work at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 I was lookin at that in the AA store. I'd have to cut the cable off of my recorder though right? That wouldn't be a big deal, but I'd want to double check with the person who gave me this stuff. I wouldn't want to hack it up and find out she wanted it back in 6 months You can probably find someone selling the whole thing so you won't have to hack up your cable (I see 'em on ebay sometimes). -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 Buy it from Classics, he has a website out there with the Sio2pc/Prosystem interface on it. http://www.atarimax.com/sio2pc/documentati...tion/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kuifje76 Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 I got submarine commander, and it doesn't work on xl/xe, only on 400/800. My submarine commander cart works fine on my 800xl And on the subject of sub. commander, how the hell do I play it I have verified the cart works and I tried to play it, but could figure little out. That's the problem, only on the 400/800 you can do stuff. Only one thing, I did not test it by myself, it's told when I got it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmileyDude Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 back in the day, we had a submarine commander cart that we used on a 1200XL. The trick was that the cart case had to be modified to fit in that slot. But, otherwise, I think it worked fine. As I recall, it was a pretty hard game, so it didn't get too much use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad2600 Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 I have a copy of Submarine Commander as well but I'm not sure if I already tried to boot it up or not. Got my 800XL hooked up in my bedroom, hooked up to a C64 monitor. When things get better financially, I'll consider the Sio2PC thingy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeybastard Posted October 20, 2004 Author Share Posted October 20, 2004 I'm going to pick up that Sio2PC thing with Xmas dough. After waiting 20 minutes for the datarecorder to load a game only to have a load error at the end, I'll be more than happy top hack the cable off of it for the Sio2PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmileyDude Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 i just purchased a SIO2PC cable, and I got the one with the SIO jack instead of the terminals. Saved me from hacking up a perfectly good SIO cable, and looks nicer as well. I would recommend going that route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeybastard Posted October 20, 2004 Author Share Posted October 20, 2004 i just purchased a SIO2PC cable, and I got the one with the SIO jack instead of the terminals. Saved me from hacking up a perfectly good SIO cable, and looks nicer as well. I would recommend going that route. Is that version available from the AA store? I'd prefer to support the AA store if possible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osbo Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 I'm looking to get me an 8 bit computer as well, my dilemma it's: commodore 64 or atari 800XL... what do u guys recommend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 I also have Sub Commander. And it works just fine on 800xl. I actually didn't know how to play it either, but found instructions for the C-64 version which apparently are nearly identical, even on the keys used for the most part. Anyway, I have manage to play a complete game or two of Sub Commander on my 800xl. Also the cart never had any trouble fitting into the slot on my 800xl. In fact, this is the first I have heard that Sub Commander shouldn't work on my 800xl... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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