Civilan

Hi, I've got an opportunity to get myself a 1200XL to play with. Now I've never owned one of these just a 600XL (w/64K) back in the day which I still have. I've heard that an 1200XL was not compatible with a lot of software. I'm wondering if one can replace the 1200XL's OS ROM with an 800XL's and have everything work well. The 800XL's OS ROM is in a socket. Does the 1200XL also have a socket for the OS ROM? If I can't make good use of the 1200XL I'll pass up this opportunity. Anyone have any info on this? Thanks, Civilan.

Hi Chaos, I though of using an AT keyboard cable as well to make my own Atari A/V cable. I decided against it because I suspected that the cable would not have the right shielding or impedance to work well for video and sound. I ended up looking around for a 5-Pin DIN to 4 RCA plug cable. I eventually found one at Radio Shack. If you need the pin-outs description of the Atari's A/V jack look in the v2.0 link of the site I refered to above. Cheers, Civilan.

Hi Chaos, The video output of an Atari 800XL is not compatible with a VGA monitor. A VGA monitor needs separate Red Green Blue (RGB) signals that the Atari does not provide. The Atari ouputs an RF modulated composite video signal used to connect to the TV via the switch box. It also outputs a composite video signal from the 5-pin DIN video jack. The other pins out a Luminance signal and sometimes a Chrominance signal. These can to signals make up an S-Video signal. You'll need a adapter/cable that goes from 2 RCA jacks to an s-video plug to complete the connection to a modern TV. On North American Atari 800XL the Chrominance signal is not connected so the s-video signal will be just black and white. About 10 years Ben Poehland wrote a series of articles explain how to modify the 800XL video section to improve it and reconnect the Chrominance signal. You can find the article here http://www.wolfpup.net/atari/supervid.html. I'm planning to do this modification is a week or so. I hope this helps but I'm by no means an expert on this subject. Cheers, Civilan

Do'h! Double post sorry!

Hi, The following got me very confused. What's and OS board and do I need it for a MyIDE? I found this thread while trying to figure out what IDE interface was the best. I understood most of the discussion thus far but I one further question regarding the following. How difficult is it to replace an OS ROM and how to I do that? Thanks.

Hi Goochman, I was cleaning up the basement the other day and re-discovered my old 600XL. I haven't fired her up yet but I have started doing research on the mods an upgrades I can do. I now looking into hooking up an IDE drive to the computer. I've read about the MyIDE and another interface called SIO2IDE. May I ask why you chose the MyIDE way? From what if read thus far we need a modified DOS for run it but I can't judge if this a bad thing. The SIO2IDE can use any DOS but may be slower. What's you thoughts? Thanks.

I was just cleaning out my storage room and re-discovered my 600XL. It must be close to 20 years since I played with it. I'm thinking of taking it out for my kids to play with as well. I would be interested in knowing how to do the internal memory upgrade as well. I've seen sites that describe the SIO2PC and video upgrades but I haven't come across the memory one yet. I also have 2 1050 disk drives and graphics tablet. Unfortunately, I can't find any of my cartridges! I should have about 20 or so. I also don't remember a thing about using it but I seem to have kept the manuals. This 600XL was my second computer - it replaced a 400. I then went to a 520ST and then to 1040ST but I sold them both around 1992-93. I wish I hadn't. I'm looking forward to booting up the 600XL. Cheers, Civilan