Sardonyx

Works great on Atari 800XL. I played through the Novice Tunnel and then First through Fourth tunnels. That's working well. I didn't notice any glitches or anything odd. I only tried one of the cheats - the extended energy pods. That worked fine too. Thanks again for making the patch!

Thanks for taking a look at it and for making the patch! I'll give it a shot on my 800XL.

It's looking good! One thing I noticed is the color of the highlight around the page numbers in the new theme isn't as easy to see as before: New: Old: The "Sort by" and "Mark as Read" buttons are OK in the new theme. Not sure if this change was intentional, but it's a little harder to see the full click area with the reduced contrast.

Is it possible to change the starting Zone and Tunnel in the 5200 conversion of Vanguard? The player count and fire type are mapped to Option/Select, but I couldn't find a key or key combo to change the Zone and Tunnel. This was one of my favorite 5200 games, so it's great to see a conversion on the 8-bit computers ?

I've now been able to test the video cable on another stock 800XL. The cable is displaying color over composite, so the cable seems to be working fine and can probably be ruled out. I guess the next step is to open up the parts 800XL and see what it looks like under the RF shield. In the meantime, since it failed the memory test - what's the best source for replacement RAM? Are these or compatible chip still sold?

I don't have another non-UAV XL to test with currently, but working on that. That's true - it could have had parts removed or who knows what someone did to it. Since the RF can output color means the color circuitry is present/working. It boots to BASIC, is able to load over SIO, run the self tests, etc., so I assume most of it is present/working. There's likely a memory problem as it fails that self test and tends to crash after running for a bit. I may have to go over it in detail to see if any components have been removed or any alterations have been made. I haven't seen what's under the RF shield so anything could be (or not be) under there.

So I used a multi-meter on the cable a little earlier this morning as a sanity check. It looks like all the pins are connected to the plugs they're labeled as, and ground goes to all 4 outer rings. That leads me to think the cable is fine. It also works fine on the UAV modded 800XL it came with. But that means the theory from last night of the cable being made such that chroma+luma were tied together is not correct. I get continuity from the composite pin to the composite RCA plug. I also checked each of the 4 signals on the DIN connector and all they go to one unique plug. There's nothing odd like Luma showing up on both Luma and Composite. So it should be feeding whatever's on the composite pin in the 800XL to the composite video RCA plug. Looking at a schematic for the 800XL it looks like the color for the Composite and RF outs are pulled straight from the same amps. It's hard to see how one would have color and the other wouldn't. The only component that looks like it's different is a ferrite bead (L7) that filters the composite line on the way to the DIN connector.

That makes sense, maybe that's what's happening. I tested Composite and Luma connections on the cable from the modded 800XL into Composite input of my video setup. Composite has color, Luma doesn't as you'd expect. If a stock 800XL feeds the same composite signal to the DIN connector and the RF modulator, I don't see how the color information could be present in the RF output, but not on the composite pin in the DIN cable. So the cable being wired as you suggest would explain it. I guess I'll order a regular Atari composite video cable and give that a try.

I suppose it could be cable, but both the luma and composite plugs come out as black and white on the 800XL I'm testing. On my UAV modded 800XL, I'm using the composite plug and getting color from that. Though to be fair I haven't checked the Luma connector on the UAV moded 800XL as my setup can only accept separate chroma/luma through S-Video and I need to get an adapter for that. I don't know for sure the cable works on a stock 800XL. It's behaving like both the Composite and Luma RCA plugs are connected to Luma on this 800XL I'm trying to test. I guess I could test it on the modded 800XL and see if the connector marked as Luma is outputting color as well or if it truly is a B&W Luma signal as it should be. It's possible the cable isn't wired correctly or labeled correctly. When it came with the modded 800XL I just plugged in composite and audio and it worked as expected so I didn't think more about it.

I was able to hook up RF and test it. Wow! I don't remember RF being that bad, but it's been forever lol It did have color over RF, so that's something, but still only black and white over composite. What could cause that? I would think it would be the same composite signal running to the DIN connector and input into the RF modulator.

I think something may be wrong then, the composite output seems to be black and white. The video is very crisp, but no color. I'm not sure if I have the connectors to hook up RF, but I can take a look and see if I still have an adapter to test it. I may have to setup an old TV too, I don't think the one I'm using has an NTSC tuner in it.

I tried the different connectors on the 5-pin DIN cable. I'm getting audio so that one is correct. The composite connector, which does give color on the UAV modded 800XL is black and white on this 800XL. I also just separately tried the luma and chroma connectors into the composite input in case the pins may have been swapped on the modded 800XL. The luma was black and white (as expected) and the chroma provided no signal (also as expected, even it was connected). Just for clarity sake - would the composite output on a stock 800XL normally be black and white without the chroma mod? Normally composite on most devices would carry the luma+chroma signal by default. Or is the chroma mod only needed to get color with separate chroma/luma?

Interesting. I'm using a 4-connector cable that came with another 800XL I purchased. That one has a UAV mod in it. The cable provides composite, chroma, luma, and audio as RCA connectors out of the 5-pin DIN. I was using the composite and audio as I don't have an adapter handy to take the separate chroma and luma into an S-Video connector. Would the pin out have changed to move the composite signal to another pin? I can try the other 2 signals and see if composite might be on a different pin on the stock system. Or do you mean it just doesn't provide chroma at all, even on composite on a stock 800XL?

Hello, It was through the 5 pin DN monitor port

I just recently picked up an 800XL that was listed for parts. It was inexpensive and came with some other things I was interested in purchasing that bought individually cost about what I paid for the lot. The case is missing all the screws, but the plastic is like new and keyboard also looked amazing. I figured worst case I get a spare case and some keycaps. It arrived a couple days ago and aside from all the screws being removed looks new. I figured I may as well fire it up and see what state it's in. To my surprise it actually powered up to BASIC. However, it was in black and white. I tried the onboard self tests and the audio/video tests were fine. The keyboard works completely, but the RAM test failed on one block. Repeated tests had different results usually hanging the machine. I was able to load a couple demos and they seemed to work, aside from being in black and white. Any thoughts on what might be causing the issues? I'm assuming bad RAM, and maybe a bad GTIA? Would it be worth trying to fix? One other oddity I hadn't notice - the font on the keyboard is slightly different from what I'm use to on the 800XL. Also the keys are light, silky smooth and are very easy to press. I'm use to them being a bit more firm. Were there different keyboards used or possibly an aftermarket keyboard?