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I used a legally bought copy of DOS XL in the 80s as I preferred the command line interface and the extra RAM it provided with OSS carts. I came across a bootleg copy of a disk-based SpartaDOS but couldn’t really make sense of it without a manual. Today I have a lot of SpartaDOS X capable hardware (Ultimate, Incognito, SIDE2) but have not found the time to set up a system fully utilizing that capability. I think it’s vastly more capable than DOS XL but until I have learned it I prefer XDOS over DOS XL these days.

This thread (which I had forgotten about) came up and looking at page 1 I thought “wow, all these people are way younger than I am” only to realize that it started 17 years ago… 56 now, posting from Vienna, Austria.

Probably cargo space brokers going for the cheapest rates available on the day, like flying stand-by. Crazy.

The Atari’s display is defined by a display list which is in essence a program for the ANTIC graphics chip. It defines how many lines and which graphics modes are on the screen and where in memory the data for those lines comes from. The LMS instruction is used to define where to read the graphics data from. A different part of memory can be used for every graphics line (mode line) on the screen but if you don’t specify a new address the next line will be read from memory after the last one. So if you tell ANTIC to start with a hi-res character line (Gr.0 in BASIC) at $8000 the first character will be read from there, the second from $8001, etc. If you don’t add a new LMS the first character of the next line will be loaded from $8028. If the next line is a hi-res graphics line the first 8 pixels in that line would be defined by the bits of $8028. If that suits you for whatever reason, you can grab screen memory from a different address for every graphics (mode) line. On the 130XE or with compatible memory expansions you can even grab screen memory from a bank that is not currently visible to the CPU. Shifting the load address during vertical blank can be used for vertical and horizontal scrolling without moving lots of graphics data (which seems to be a lot more complicated and timing-sensitive on the C64). Due to hardware addressing limitations ANTIC cannot cross a 4K boundary while reading screen memory. You have to manage this and add at least one extra LMS instruction mid-screen to point it to the rest of memory. (You can also define a DLI on every line to change a few parameters like colours or player position to enhance the display. The multicolour pictures above probably make heavy use of that.) I am not an expert on this but there are lots of explanations in various magazine articles, De Re Atari, the Altirra Hardware manual, blog posts, etc.

I love the WiiU’s ability to run “asymmetric” games where players see different things (like Nintendoland). Unfortunately there are’nt too many games supporting that. Having an extra screen for inventory or such is nice, too (as is hacking to install all games on a hard drive).

If you have some kind of SIO to RS-232 interface for the Atari it should be possible.

The fascinating thing about assembly programming is that there are often a handful if not a dozen ways to perform the same task.

We learned that aluminum oxidizes the moment it is exposed to air so you'd probably have to anodize it. Now try to find a picture AI that is able to visualize an "Atari 800 computer in clear acrylic case with anodized aluminum shielding"

I was referring to the initial question about an acrylic case for the 800.

If the transparent case should resemble the original you’d need a number of curved parts which might not be that easy to recreate in acrylic glass.

I’d assume most UK titles came in cassette boxes while many mainstream US publishers just used a sticker to distinguish between floppy and cassette versions. I never owned an x10 bitd but recently acquired a boxed Crush, Crumble & Chomp.

I last used myus.com in 2021 and found them to be cheapest among those I found then. Most don’t require a membership unless you want to consolidate several shipments. (Last time I used consolidation I went on a shopping spree to spread the cost ). What is best may depend on warehouse location if shipping to a location closer to Best results in less postage on his part but there are some states where he doesn’t have to charge sales tax so what is best may depend on the value of the order as well.

A steal indeed. Looks like new. The very first program I wrote was on a ZX81 as well, hunched over a kitchen worktop where it was hooked up to the TV. That Memopak looks stylish as well but does it support the „wiggle reset“ of the original 16K version?

As a biographical note I recently found him listed as a donor in the entrance hall of the (very impressive and worthwhile) Polin museum on the history of Jews in Poland. Here’s their entry on the museum’s web page.

Atari should have licensed BASIC XL and make it standard and/or sell a BASIC that allows P/M graphics without PEEK/POKE. I also agree on the 180K floppies (plus they should have worked a bit to get a lower standard POKEY divisor). I don’t think the 65816 would have made much of a difference. I can’t claim extensive programming experience on either but while it has some neat features it seems rather complicated compared to 68K assembler, especially if you need more memory. While the ST wasn’t popular in the US it was much more so in Europe (where PCs were more expensive) and I don’t think the productivity software that became available would have happened without the possibility to program in C. But Atari could and should have had the Amiga as a successor to the 8-bits. A lot of things that seem obvious now were much less clear back then. Technical progress was faster yet it was much less clear/accepted than in the 90s that you’d need to buy a new computer/console every 2-3 years to stay at the leading edge. Parents would have balked at the idea to replace that rather expensive new “toy” for a better one after a year or two and general household use of computers was way into the future.