Getting started

[Ze_ro]

I admit, I'm not very well versed when it comes to Atari computers. My household was Commodore-owned when I was growing up, but I've always been curious about other machines. I haven't managed to find one yet (I've only been looking locally, as s&h (and customs) charges are a little high for anything bigger than a cartridge), so I've begun looking into emulation.

 

As I said though, I'm not entirely sure what's going on for the most part. Anyone have any pointers to guides on how to use these machines? Are there any archives of disk images around? (Similar to the arnold site for C-64 stuff) I'm mostly interested in the 400/800, but ST stuff would be cool too.

 

--Zero

[Nukey Shay]

Basically, you are already on the best "guide" (the internet). Just download an emulator that doesn't list any major incompatabilities, unzip it to a directory, and read it's text files. If you have any major problems, check out the emulator's home site message board (provided the emulator is still being updated).

BTW I use Atari800Win.

If you need software, here's a site for 8-bit Atari that's about as big as lemon64.com... http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/atari/

 

...and here's some links from PacifiST... http://www.pacifist.fatal-design.com/

 

The PaCifiST official homepage. Latest news, downloads & links.

HTML coding & site designing by Rich!!

 

[Demonburps Emporium] http://ireland.iol.ie/~ajankows/st/pacifist.html

 

Contains many versions of PaCifiST, latest version of AssiST,

some disk images (games), TOS and links.

Aengus was a pioneer in the ST emulation scene with his website.

 

- The Little Green Desktop http://www.fatal-design.com/desktop/

 

Incredible support site, with a bunch of cool ideas. The site is

done by Rich(ard) Davey who did a brilliant job for the ST emulation

community with site site, FujiBBS and the PaCifiST mailing list.

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/9967/ http://www.jetman.demon.co.uk/st/index.html http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Par...5000/index.html http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/8711/ http://users.iol.it/mamo7 http://home.pages.de/~stefansworld/pacifis...ist/st_page.htm http://www.geocities.com/area51/corridor/8458/ http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way...8264/index.html http://users.powernet.co.uk/sterling/pacifist/ http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/chriscox/home.htm http://hem.passagen.se/win95/index.htm http://www.ohz.north.de/user/ruediger/home.htm

 

 

Other Atari ST emulation-Related SITEs:

=======================================

http://www.mygale.org/09/leonard/

 

Arnaud Carre homepage, with all his great productions. Have a look

at his incredible YM-player!!!

http://www.why.net/home/adam/cem/toc.html

 

comp.emulators.misc FAQ, maintained by Adam Roach.

http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/nino/stemu.html

 

The STonX project homepage.

http://users.skynet.be/sky39147/

 

The NoSTalgia Emulator homepage.

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/4448/

 

The TOSBOX emulator homepage

 

[ 07-16-2001: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[Mindfield]

For emulation, I reccommend STEem Engine. It's fairly frequently updated, has an extremely high compatibility rate, has excellent sound (both chip and PCM) and supports most of the things the ST/e machines were capable of. (Some demos don't work tho) Altogether STEem Engine is pretty well surpassing the other emus out there.

 

You can grab it from http://steem.atari.org

 

I also have a bunch of disk images available on my FTP site at ftp://atari16:archive@mindfield.emulationnet.com:2026

including some disks I ripped myself. (Yes, including my own really bad early attempt at writing a demo in GFA Basic, as well as my much lauded but rarely registered shareware ANSI editor called FANSI! ... :-)

 

 

Lots of multi-disks online as well. Someday I'll have enough space to put it all online. :-)

 

[ 07-16-2001: Message edited by: Mindfield ]

[Nukey Shay]

You wrote Fansi-Console?

Well, at least you got royalties from "Dos 6.2 Secrets". Or did you?

[Mindfield]

Wrong Fansi... heh. I wrote the Atari ST ANSI art program by the same name (Well, similar gramatically - FANSI!, all caps with the exclamation point. :-) To the best of my knowledge it's still the only full colour, 80-column ANSI editor for the ST. Not that this has any relevance anymore. :-)

[Ze_ro]

Thanks for the links! The old 8-bit Atari's are pretty fun... I'll certainly be keeping an eye open for one of these at the thrift stores while I'm there looking for 2600 games

 

As for the ST, I'm still having a few problems getting things running. I'm running Linux, so my choices are more limited. STonX seems to sorta work, but I haven't managed to get it to do anything useful yet. I also had problems getting Atari800 to compile, so I've been using MESS for my 8-bit needs. Fortunately, MESS does things pretty decently.

 

--Zero

[Inky]

Ugg.. Linux..

 

Actually, I'm a newbie to the whole Linux thing, so I'm in the midst of a steep learning experience. Try installing the driver for a Comtrol Rocketport on a Linux box... Grrr..

 

I actually like Linux so far, but wish it were friendlier

[Ze_ro]

Man, I love Linux... I get pissed off when I have to use Windows It's a hard system to get used to, but now that I'm used to it, I actually find Windows hard to use (Seriously! I never know when a drag-n-drop will create a link or copy the file or what!). My only problem with Linux is the lack of hardware support... My scanner and DVD player won't work, but I still have Windows sitting around for them.

 

Emulators on the other hand seem a little primitive at times... MAME/MESS is great, but other than that, things are a little thin...

 

This is getting a little off-topic though, I'd better stop here

 

--Zero