Osxster

Is there an easy way to block this update? I am afraid to turn on my VCS now given it could update it self and if I wanted to get into my Bios I won’t be able to. Preferably a method without blocking out Atari Store or anything else like that out.

Sorry I was unfamiliar with the extension and didnt realize .xex was an Atari .exe file. I assume to prevent it from showing up as a malicious windows file. I am not at all new to the Atari scene as I ran an Atari BBS with an ATR 8000 with 1.2 MB and 8 inch 1mb drives before going to an ICD Multi IO with a few hundred megs in Hard Drive space. I eventually added ST and Amiga before moving it to an ST and then a PC multi node setup. I use to move everything over through the BBS via null modem, but Im now using in my simplified Atari setup an AtariMax SIO2serial adapter connected to a Mac Mini server with respeqt. Its been a very long time since using this stuff, so Im new to the modern era of Atari, but its all coming back. I have the Holmes Atari archive of stuff, which is a lot easier to go through than hundreds of floppies, but I still have most of my stuff from the day. Some of it is still at my parents house. Never used Salt before though. Ill try salt and see what it comes up with. I have my fathers two Happy 810s which I brought home with my stuff which havent been powered up in 30+ years, I could use one of them as parts to troubleshoot this issue if need be. Then buy a new chips to replace it if this solves the problem. If I need to tear it too much apart, Ill just buy new chips. Osxster

Hello, Are there any 3086s in 810 drives? I have a few of them laying around, I dont really want to take apart my happy 1050s as they both work nicely. Otherwise Ill see if I can find the 3086 on eBay or someplace. I dont have any cartridge emulators but it looks like I have an ATR of SALT. I guess I can try that and report what it comes up with. Thanks. Osxster

Hello, I just ordered a 4050 chip and replaced it on the mother board. While the chip seems to work, I still get the exact same problem with my video. Does anyone have any clues on where to look next? Any other clues would be very helpful. Thanks for your help so far. Osxster

This was fun actually, it has been 30 years since I loaded a program from basic on an Atari computer. Its all coming back.. Maybe 23 years since I used ARC. Anyway it seems like the colors work with Chroma Luminance, but when the red color get too pink, it turns white instead. Some of the blue seems to turn white also when its supposed to get darker. See attached images from my TV... Both of these images are from the same Atari 800, just I only have this problem with Chroma Luminance. Composite works color wise, but the quality of composite on this TV is poor, so it looks like crap. But the colors are there. This same thing works fine on an Atari 130XE with the same TV / cables. Hooking this up to an SVideo to VGA converter gives you a very white image overall. Could this be a bad 4050 chip causing this? Osxster

Im not sure he even sells those cards any more since they were a prototype. But in any event, does anyone think my problem is in that board? Will a replacement video card fix it? Could there be circuitry on the main board that could cause this issue? Osxster

From reading that link, he claims his board is on par with the Atari 800 graphics. Thus it may not improve video at all over a stock 800. I guess if its likely my graphics card, I've seen replacement "fully tested" graphics boards with GTIA and all other chips for like $20. It might be worth buying that unless it could be something else that is bad. I have not opened it yet to see if there is anything obviously bad, but if generally this type of failure is the graphics card, it might make sense to buy a cheap one which was supposedly fully tested. Any hints on what could cause these types of problems would be greatly appreciated. Osxster

Maybe you cut and pasted the wrong thread, but that thread is for memory upgrades for the XL series.. Osxster

Hello, I just picked up an Atari 800 from EBay. The thing seems to work mostly, however when I noticed that I first hooked it up to an S-Video to VGA adapter, the screen got very white, washed out. At first it almost looked like it had no color. I played with the POT adjustment and got a little more blue out of it, but it still doesn't look like my 130XE. When I hook up the S-Video to a regular TV, I thought it looked better and was thinking the signal strength of the Atari 800 was over powering the S-Video to VGA adapter. But upon further investigation, some of my Red isn't really coming out right. Playing MS-PacMan, there is absolutely no pink at all even when I play with the POT adjustment. My Pinky ghost is white! The walls never get full red. There is no self test on the 800 so I am not sure what utility yet to use to display a full pallet of colors to see exactly what I am missing though. If I connect Composite out to a monitor / TV, the colors look fine. So it is just the Chroma and Luminance that is not displaying reds properly and seems to give me a whiteish washed out picture connected to a VGA converter. All of the black background becomes whitish too instead of a picture on a black background using this adapter. The same cable combination on an Atari 130XE is fine. Does anyone know where to begin troubleshooting what is causing this? I bought an Atari 800 for four joystick support, but it bothers me that the colors are messed up. Any help would be great. Osxster

I checked my findsystem, I only have one coolcv_pi on the filesystem. I call the one in /opt/retropie/emulators/coolcv manually from the command line and I get the same results. How do I know what version I am running? I am using the latest download of RetroPi which I flashed on a dedicated flash card. I also ran the update to update RetroPi and all active packages to the latest version. Looking at the cool video.txt file, I see the below. Could this not be the latest version and how would I get the latest version if it is not. Last revision: Nov/27/2015. Any help would be great. Osxster

Hello, I have coolcv installed with RetroPi on my Raspberry Pi. I purchased Arcade Joysticks to use for this and they are listed as SHANWAN Android Gamepad. When I use jstest, the analog joystick shows up as Axis 7 for vertical and Axis 6 for Horizontal. For the life of me I cannot get these joystick portion to work with coolcv. The buttons I can get working. I have the normal: up_1 key1073741906 right_1 key1073741903 down_1 key1073741905 left_1 key1073741904 But this does not work. I am assuming my problem is that those settings may be for Axis 3 and 4 for some of the popular Game Pads on an auction site, but I need support for Axis 7 and 6. For the heck of it I put in: joystick_1_vert joy0 axis7 joystick_1_horiz joy0 axis6 As that is listed late in this thread, but when I start CoolCV, those entries get wiped out and the config file gets overwritten which I assume is because those settings aren't supported? (seems odd but this happens when I execute coolcv_pi from the command line too). Is there anything I can do to get coolcv to support other axis's so I can use my Arcade Joysticks? Nothing I hate more than those game pads, and I don't like PS3 joysticks as much as the old fashion joysticks. Any help would be great. Osxster

I have tried APE for windows with my Prolific and FTDI USB Serial Adapter on the mac using a Virtual Box VM, I cannot get it to successfully boot the Atari. The closest I can get is if I setup RI flow control, the Atari tries to boot when using the FTDI interface. But I end up with some beeps and pauses with BOOT ERROR's. I can only get this when I set the SIO to slow speed. Otherwise I get nothing. None of the other flow control options work. I also don't see an option in there to disable flow control. I can get RespeQt 4X for Windows to work properly on an XP VM using DSR flow control, using my adapter which has RTS and DTR lines removed. This is with the FTDI adapter. The Prolific Adapter partially works with NONE flow control, I can get programs to boot, but I get BOOT ERROR's though. Using the Mac directly with RespeQt 4, using the FTDI Adapter with my custom DTR/RTS cut cable, I can get RespQt to work pretty reliably, but only with flow control set to NONE. No other option works. Using the Prolific Adapter with my customer DTR/RTS cut cable, RI and DSR flow control seems to work, although there are some SMALL pauses when booting. During the pauses you hear that 'farting' noise, but I am thinking that the Atari may be sending flow control because the MAC might be sending too quick. (It would be nice to know what the technical term is for that 'farting' sound). Looking at the logs on both the Windows and Mac version of RespeQt, when the pauses occur, you see messages such as "Serial port set to 19200" each time in-between the Read sector messages. With Flow Control set to NONE, you do not get any pauses, but I don't know if there are read errors occurring that I don't know about but I have timed booting and it is quicker with flow control set to NONE. Tapper for example takes 21 seconds to boot with RI flow control where as it takes 17 seconds to boot with flow control set to NONE. I guess I am getting some successes, but overall this isn't working completely as expected.

Thanks for everyone's help so far in this. I will give APE a try with RTS and DTR disconnected to see if it makes a difference. In regards to my Adapter, as it seems to work without disconnecting the DTR / RTS using RespeQt 4X for Windows, I am wondering if the drivers on the Mac are treating this adapter differently especially as when I open RespeQt on the Mac, DTR and RTS illuminate when the COM port is opened where as they do not with RespeQt 4X for Windows using the same computer, same cable, and same USB adapter (just using a Virtual Box VM). What OS are you guys running on your Mac's? I am using the built in FTDI drivers that come with High Sierra, are you using custom FTDI drivers? Osxster

More progress... With DTR and RTS cut, I am now able to get RespeQt for the Mac to boot my Atari up. However I was only able to get it to work with no flow control. If I enable any of the flow control options such as RI, CTS, or DSR, I get the same failures as before. Flow Control set to NONE seems to work. I guess the next question is why is flow control not working with RespeQt on the Mac? Also why is it turning on DTR and RTS when it seems that they should not be on. It seems to boot pretty quick, like my Happy in non-Warp speed mode. I only tried the game Tapper so far, but I am sure others will work. I might be able to use it like this, but I would think I could run into problems without flow control. The only other thing I wonder about is why did APE for Windows not work. I'm not too concerned about it, but I'd love to know why. Osxster

Progress... In a last ditch effort, I installed The Doctor's RespeQt 4X for Windows on a VirtualBox VM running Windows XP. Without my modification cable with DTR Cut, just using a straight DB9, it booted right up. One thing I noticed though when I plugged in my Courier Dual Standard, DTR and RTS were both OFF. So it seems that the Mac version of RespeQt is turning DTR and RTS ON, whereas RespeQt 4X for Windows does not. Not sure if that is breaking anything, I suppose I can try removing RTS from my breakout cable to see if it makes a difference when trying to run it directly off the Mac. Osxster