lord_mike

Wait, what???? <tries it out> OMG, it does work!! I never would have even thought to try that! Mind blown!!!

I like it a lot, and play it a lot more than I expected. I have real arcade games, but I play them rarely, since I am worried I'll blow out something. I have no such worries with these, as they are new, without tubes of any sort, and cheap to replace. I did have to modify the spinner as I have the asteroids one. With that modified, it's a lot better!

So, i got one of the asteroids cabs a few weeks ago, and i too noticed the spinner problems. I was going to do some sort of 3D printer mod, but then i saw this mod on youtube and things are a million times better (especially after I sprayed in some silicone lube). This is the cheapest, easiest mod for the spinner, as it only needs pennies and electrical tape. I am very happy with the results: [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CFcOWWVLYg[/media]

I grabbed mine at WalMart at 12:01 AM last night--that saved me from having to wake up extra early this morning. I got there around 10:15, and I expected to see hundreds of people, but I was #12 and had no problems. they had 24 of them and everyone in line got one, so that was nice. Some people even brought their kids, including an infant!! I haven't even gotten a chance to open it, yet, but I'm thrilled I got one. I hear that it is as hackable as the original (which I never managed to get a hold of), so I'm looking forward to that!

Forgive me for getting in late. I just saw this post now. I was just thinking the other day, "Why BASIC?" Why did BASiC become the default language of microcomputers instead of something better? After all, the early computing pioneers were all familiar with other languages such as Fortran, why did BASIC become the default language. I think the simple answer is Tiny BASiC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_BASIC It was extremely small, which was necessary for the early micros, and it was free. Compilers take up a lot of resources such as memory and in the absence of those, required some sort of sequential storage that was not available for micros at the time. It only made sense that a really tiny interpreter would be used, even it made slow machines even slower. By the time microcomputers got more powerful, BASIC was already entrenched as the default microcomputer language.

The page has now completely crashed... nothing is showing up at all!!

Yeah, I'm in nerd heaven right now!!!

I know!!! I actually have one of those!! I can't wait to try it out on the game. In the meantime, can anyone figure out the Altirra settings for the touch tablet? There aren't any presets, and I can't seem to make anything work with the touchpad.

Thanks for the update. It looks like the only difference between the 2015 and 2014 version is the inclusion of Mortal Combat. Do you know if the hardware and software is the same inside?

Russ, thank you for responding! Check your private messages! I sent you a PM with some more detailed information. I doubt this unit had any customization. It was a donation to a rummage sale, and looks like it was nicely put away in the closet 30 years ago only to be discovered by the estate or something similar. It's possible that it was modded, but I don't think anyone messed with it. The phillips screw heads still look pristine as if no one had ever touched it. How can I find out which OS revision this unit has?

Ok, everyone thank you for your patience... I got Sloopy's SIO2PC working, and here is the ROM dumps Joey Z requested from C000 to CFFF and D800 to FFFF in an ATR disk file. 800XLRomDump.atr Let me know if you find anything! Thanks for all your help!!

You are likely to be in trouble w/ the TV. France uses a completely unique television system called SECAM which was used by France, French speaking countries in Africa, and the old Soviet Union . That has been superseded by modern digital formats, but I would guess that if you plug in a signal into a composite input, it would be expecting SECAM signals. A modern digital TV might be "smart" and be able to decode a variety of signals, though. You'd have to check the manual. The power converter should work OK (I think), but make sure you have enough watts. The computer itself probably uses up 15-20, but a disk drive can use up the whole 45 watts of that converter on its own. Just as a warning, when I worked at Radio Shack many, many years ago, we were told to advise people who would use these foreign converters that they shouldn't be used for "sensitive electronics." I'm sure that was to protect the company more than anything, but just letting you know that there might be some risk. Make sure the converter you get is OK with electronics. EDIT: Ah, you may be in luck with the TV thing. According to Wikipedia: "Most TVs currently sold in SECAM countries support both SECAM and PAL, and more recently composite video NTSC as well (though not usually broadcast NTSC, that is, they cannot accept a broadcast signal from an antenna)." You'll need a newer TV for this, and you'll need one of those monitor cables that has a composite plug in the end like they sell on ebay.

Hi again... Sorry to keep posting so much, but I'm in the market for an SIO2PC cable, and I noticed there are several manufacturers. I've kind of narrowed it down to the Atarimax http://www.atarimax.com/sio2pc/documentation/ or Atari8warez http://www.atari8warez.com/support.html versions. The Atarimax seems to be the original and "gold standard", but it's quite expensive. I'd probably get the serial port one if I went that direction, since it's much cheaper. Would that work with a standard serial to usb adapter if necessary? I'm also reading that there's no Linux support and you have to pay for the APE software? Is that true? The Atari8warez one is much cheaper, especially for USB, but I'm not sure if the software is as good as Atarimax's APE. I presume that the interface software for these things are propretary, and I can't use Atarimax's APE with Atari8warez's product... or is the interface universal and it doesn't matter what software I use on what hardware? Any comments, opinions, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

That certainly would make sense. I doubt many games would have used the built-in FP functions which would spare them from accessing the error. I remember reading that the Star Raiders author implemented his own functions for performance reasons. The self test has two "blocks" for ROM. I assume one is for BASIC and the other is the OS chip. Best Products told me that the Atari self tests aren't that great, so who knows what the tests really check. I will do a binary save like you recommended and post it here when I can. Thank you so much for offering to analyze it for me! It's greatly appreciated! It might take awhile for me to post, though, since I still need to order a SIO2PC cable (which will be the topic of my next post) to get the files onto the internet. Hopefully, I'll have the files for you by next week! Thanks again!! I'll post the files as soon as I can!

I talked to the folks at Best Electronics... prognosis is not good. It could be ANY of the chips, and who knows which one. They advised me to start swapping chips with a good working 800XL to see what's the matter, but I don't really have that option, unfortunately. I'll open it up and see if I can find any hot or cold chips, but other than that, not sure what else I can do... I'm open to any and all ideas out there...