Leaderboard

I invite you to watch the material as Atari loads the game from a vinyl record. I use the Technics SL-1900 turntable as the sound source (1978). See for yourself how Atari deals with mechanically generated sound and interprets it into program code https://youtu.be/waG2akcMuIA

Mario pixeled the title picture. I like it very much ? What do you think?

There's nothing wrong with a nice game as long as it can be skipped for people wanting to see the game ending.

It's PentaGo! The full version has Novice, Arcade, and Expert difficulty levels. Each difficulty has its own high score board, when used with a high score save device. (One combined scoreboard when no device is present) Difficulty Levels: (Demo does not have multiple difficulty levels.) Novice: # of Pengos = 5; Extra Pengo = 30,000; Snow-bees start off at very slow speed Arcade: # of Pengos = 3; Extra Pengo = 30,000; Snow-bees start off at standard pace. Average intelligence. Expert: # of Pengos = 3; Extra Pengo = 50,000; Fast snow-bees Demo: # of Pengos = 2; Extra Pengo = 30,000; Arcade difficulty; # Of Playable Levels = 4 I tried to take the best of the arcade and 5200 versions, to make what I feel to be the most balanced conversion. I feel that the arcade can be brutally unfair. The arcade collision heavily favors the snow-bees. It is easier to miss with an ice block, especially on higher levels. Also, the wall stun is delayed in the arcade version. If Pengo stuns a snow-bee that is next to him, the arcade snow-bee will slide into Pengo, kill Pengo, and then it will be stunned. Pengo is momentarily unable to move after pushing or crushing an ice block. My version has a slightly lesser delay after Pengo pushes a block or crushes an ice block. The arcade delay seems to get longer as the snow-bees get insanely fast. It makes the game feel impossible at times. I think the game is difficult enough already. If Arcade Mode is too easy on this version, Expert more than makes up for it. I have not yet decided what to do about the rounds. The arcade game has 16 rounds. The arcade game becomes almost impossible after round 14. It becomes harder to hit the snow-bees with the ice, they crush the ice before the player can push a cube, and they are much faster than Pengo. After round 16, the game loops to level 1, and the difficulty is back to level 1 difficulty. I believe this is because the game is so difficult and cheap at that point, the programmers never expected anybody to get that far. I currently allow the game rounds to continue on indefinitely. I kind of like it this way. The game has 12 different intermissions. The last two intermissions alternate after level 12. Unlike the arcade game, this version does not reset to level 1 after level 16. This version has the button pause option in the settings menu. It defaults to off, and the most recent setting saves to the HS Device. It has some clean-up over the previous too. Found more Bugs. Also added Pause from joystick (Need feedback on Pause, but read conditions in post!!) Title and "Got Bonus" tune update - 4-17-2023 Pretty Big Update - 4/14/2023 Update 9/29/2022 Updated for PRGE All options are now moved into the menu. The difficulty switches no longer control the tune that plays. It is now selected from the SETTINGS menu. The chip is now selected from the SETTINGS menu. (TIA/POKEY) Here is the post! Update 07/24/2022 Arcade difficulty is easier. The difficulty has been adjusted to ramp up more slowly on the arcade setting. The arcade is ruthless from the beginning, and I want this to be enjoyable. I hope I found a good balance. New on-screen indicators for HS Devices, TIA or POKEY selected (Left Difficulty SW), and more... Updated sound effects. Code cleanup, allowing extra features. The code, "up, down, up, down, left, right", can be entered on the Title screen. This changes the Penta title to an alternate name. This change is saved on your HS device. Another code will unlock the ability to play in CHEAT MODE. This unlock is also saved to your HS device. New Settings page. I was not TRYING to please @ZeroPage Homebrew , by making the game couch compliant, but it's a cool side effect! Some settings are unavailable in the demo. Bonus Levels * - Select Blob mode, @ZeroPage Homebrew mode, and cheat mode (unlocked with code). Force Tune - Previously set with code. This will force the background music to one song. The song is selected by changing the right difficulty. Once forced, the song can be changed mid-game. Left difficulty still switches TIA and POKEY selection. Level Select * - Select starting level and which board layout to play. Select at the beginning of each round. Invincible * - Pento doesn't die when hit by a sno-bee. Reset Unlock ** - Go to page to delete game parameter saves, such as the title change or once cheat mode has been unlocked. New Page! Reset Scores ** - Go to page to delete high score saves for each difficulty. No longer necessary to hold Select and Reset on power-up. Note: In "Cheat Mode" Penta can die, but will never lose a life. In this mode, the "Select" button will automatically clear a level. This was my debug setting. This mode is also available in Popeye, but it is only available in the full version of the games * - These modes will disable the high score functionality. ** - These options are only available if a high score device is present. Click here for link to game demos. Update 11/13/2021 Fixed issue where sno-bees travel through star blocks and blocks with eggs hidden inside. I wasn't going to change this, because it can happen in the arcade. I still allow it at level reset, if a sno-bee is trapped in its corner. Fixed issue with sno-bee randomness. This makes the sno-bees a little less predictable. It's been broken for a while. "Pento" can no longer hide on the other side of a star block when all of the sno-bees are on the same vertical or horizontal path. Updated the banner to match the arcade bootleg, "Penta". More TIA harmonies & updated Pokey alternate tune. Other sound tweaks. Minor cosmetic changes PentaDEMO(11-13-2021-AM).a78 PentaBUP(11-13-2021-AM).a78 Update 11/06/2021 - Many updates Refined controls. Smoother navigation. Button action now mimics the arcade, so it can not be held down indefinitely. Credits screen has been added Snow-bees hatch faster Tighter snow-block collision. (Almost too easy now!) Intermission penguins walk from off-screen now. Music is sync'd to where it plays the full tune after level 6. The arcade ALWAYS cuts the tune off. (The intermission can be skipped with the joystick button once the penguins are half-way across the screen.) Additional level layouts: 16 regular and 2 hidden (ZPH & Blob mode) Minor cosmetic changes The most noticeable updates: Refinements to POKEY music. Thanks again @playsoft for the engine and Popcorn POKEY. Intermission has dedicated POKEY music @Pat Brady Brady updated and refined the TIA Engine, adding dedicated harmonies. He reworked the TIA tunes (LEFT DIFFICULTY selects POKEY/TIA) I have no issues with my versa-cart or Dragonfly. POKEY sound is fixed on Concerto (At least is works on my cart). TIA sound also works on Concerto. I did have one issue where the game would crash when I tried to start the game. I erased the game off of my card and recopied it to the card. It has been running on my Concerto for 3 hours now in invincible mode. It's now up to level 80, since the snow-bees forfeit after 2 minutes of inactivity. Half has been in POKEY mode, and half in TIA. PengoDemo(11-06-2021).a78 PengoBUP(11-06-2021).a78 Update 10/23/2021 - Alternating BG tunes; Updated TIA Popcorn This version alternates the background tunes per-round. I start with the Popcorn tune, since that appears to be the original tune used. This also includes an updated Popcorn tune for TIA A new cheat code has been added. This one can be accessed inthe demo: At the title screen: {right, right, right, left, left, left} toggles the ability to force the background tune. This just unlocks and locks the right difficulty switch, to be used as the versions prior to the alternating tune. Tighened up the collision when an iceblock catches a snow-bee Added a sfx when a snow-bee is crushed PengoDemo(10-23-2021-AM).a78 PengoBUP(10-23-2021-AM).a78 Update 10/22/2021 - TIA Popcorn, for those without POKEY. Sorry for the quick post, but this may be the last for a while. A lot came together, and I think I am winding down to more of a maintenance mode, unless I decide to alternate the background tunes. This contains general clean up in sound. Key Pokey harmonies from a table. PengoDemo(10-22-2021-MD).a78 PengoBUP(10-22-2021-MD).a78 *** Bonus: There are 6 hidden modes that are unlockable in the full version. I compiled a couple into a demo. Pengo doesn't lose any lives, but the demo is only limited to a number of level clears. Blob Mode (Used to test the Blobs. After being on a level for two-minutes, this mode is activated in regular play.) - PengoBlobDemo(10-22-2021).a78 ZPH @ZeroPage Homebrew Mode (Every other board is the ZPH level) - PengZPHDemo(10-22-2021).a78 Update 10/21/2021 - Popcorn added for POKEY sound. LeftDiff = POKEY On/Off; RightDiff = Alternative/Popcorn PengoDemo(10-21-2021-PM).a78 PengoBUP(10-21-2021-PM).a78 Update 10/16/2021 - High Score saves (To clear corrupted high scores, hold RESET & SELECT on options screen.) The previous demo skipped the high score entry screen. This is fixed, and music is added. PengoDemo(10-16-2021-AM).a78 BUP does not support high scores. PengoBUP(10-16-2021-AM).a78 Update: 10/13/2021 PengoDemo(10-12-2021-PM).a78 PengoBUPDemo(10-12-2021).a78 First Public Demo - 10/08/2021 PengoDemo(10-08-2021-PM).a78

Byte magazine published 287 issues from September 1975 through July 1998. It covered all platforms, from the RGS 008A in issue #1 to IBM ThinkPads running Windows 98 by the end. In the middle, there was lots of Atari and Commodore and TRS-80, the fun '80s microcomputers. I wanted to create an edit of the entire run of Byte — with only the Atari-related articles. I did so by downloading VintageApple's set of complete Byte PDFs using wget. (https://vintageapple.org/byte/) I used pdfgrep to find occurrences of the word "Atari" and pdftk to extract just those pages. Then the time-consuming part: editing by hand. Removing ads with the word Atari and incidental mentions. Also re-adding pages that were relevant but missed — e.g. a 10-page article that didn't use the word Atari on every page. Byte's 23-year run encompassed 287 issues — 103,973 pages. I found significant mention of Atari in 101 issues — 729 pages. So, 0.7% of Byte's pages had some Atari content. You can read the best 729 pages in Byte here: https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-atari-articles -Kay

hi, I would like to let everyone know about the 600XL video upgrade. when the switch is removed to place the % pin DIN connector, please do not throw those switches away. they are the same ones used in the 1066 RAM Expansion board for the 1090XL. I would ask you to make them available to anyone wanting to assemble a 1066 board. I also intend to add a footprint for a more modern spst slide switch. I am open to suggestions on which one I should add. thank you in advance for your input. Ken

I have been testing 2x 65XEs for GTIA issues and i managed to paste (lazy or efficient..? ?) the code of 3x basic listings into Altirra emulator and then save them to a bootable dos 2.5 disk image. i then put the .atr file onto my Fujinet SD card and load them as follows Boot the .atr with basic and at the ready prompt type: RUN"D:GTIAx.BAS" (where 'x' is 1, 2 or 3 for which test you want) If you want to load another, press break and then type NEW to clear the existing basic listing from memory. then goto action 2 above. To save others from typing in the listings, here is the .atr image with them on. DOS_v2.5_Atari(GTIA tests).atr

I posted some covers for this game in a previous post. This time the manual. It is the first version, so if anyone find errors, please let me know. The manual is based on the original IBM/Tandy manual and was adapted for the Atari 8-bit version by me. popmanual_v0.1.pdf

Hahaha. A Garfield Sunday joke on Jon.

That collection was where I picked up a lot of the software I took with me to Germany, BITD. I kept my membership in the group active for most of its existence. It is good to see that it didn't disappear forever.

Atari invaders 10460

I don't know how many of the development members visit the other channel but i though ya'll might find some interest in this collection I uploaded. it was part of a TI Hardware Salvage. The inventory once belonged to the TI99ers user group of York, PA. Seems it was abandoned decades ago in a closet. Found during renovations. A friend of mine was tasked with "Proper Disposal" and called me immediately. As far as the hardware and original disks, they are almos prestine and everything is in perfect working order. Even the console's origianl Keyboard. Anyway, there is a collection of 144 disk images. Some are repeats (discovered afterwards) and some are blanks but not many. There is TI Forth Stuff in there, early version of programs in development, interesting (to me anyway) index program for the tape player, other cataloging and content listing programs, utilities, etc.... Every disk has it's contents cataloged to pdf. Each page of the pdf denotes which archive number you are reading. It's here in the first post if you're interested.

It's alive! It's alive! Got a replacement power supply now

23650 this game is tough I don’t get it

Yes, some people has asked me about that via private messages. If we send the rom to those who made pre-orders and then it turns out that the worst happens and the carts never arrive and we refund everyone we will not even have the chance to sell the rom. This game took a lot of time and work to do, more than any other Intellivision release we made. If we eventually have to refund the preorders, being able to sell the roms helps a bit to recover part of the huge loss that this implies, which is many thousands of Dollars. This is a very weird and unconfortable situation, and scary too. If I knew at a 100% certainty that the carts will arrive, and relativelly soon, at this point I would send the roms to those who bought it, but my faith on receiving the carts is getting lower every month. I know this might sound too pragmatic and direct for some people but I am a very transparent person, and please remember this is not just a hobby for me (it is for some of my collaborators, but not for me), it is my job (which I LOVE) , my livelyhood, it is how I pay the bills and I feed my kids.

Goodbye thumb Atari Invaders - 4,480 Gorf - 5,500 That little pink gorf dude with the angry eyes who bounces around reminds me of a mooninite...

unit ZX5 samples: https://github.com/tebe6502/Mad-Pascal/tree/master/samples/a8/compression

Following hard on the heels of our rundown of Vegas-II, the prototype of Las Vegas Roulette & Slots... ...we've put together an overview of what appears to be an early version of Math Fun... I don't think I mention this in the video, but the bulk of Math Fun was written by Kimo Yap while he worked at APh, as you can find out in Intellivisionaries episode 17... http://intellivisionaries.com/episode-17-math-word-and-learning-fun/ It seems that people like Larry Zwick, who were just making small changes, were much more likely to autograph their code. So it's easier to attribute their tweaks.

I have a confession - I think I am addicted to fixing Atari 8-bits! We may well have to set up an alternative to AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) for Atari hardware addicts! This latest fix involved another PAL 600XL, (my 2nd 600XL), and has almost been as tricky as my earlier 130XE from the dead fix, although that was a mammoth one I must admit as it was virtually totally dead and I was way outta my depth. AA users were incredibly helpful as ever and that one was a steep learning curve as it also involved passive components as well as ICs. Still that 130XE is doing well despite undergoing major surgery. (I am relatively new to this after all.) So with this 600XL I am pleased to say after perhaps a week or so of tinkering I've just this minute managed to completely restore it. It had 3 x established issues in the end, and is now upgraded with U1MB as well as S-video. Such a relief as I thought I'd exhausted everything. I thought sharing what I have done may well help any others with either similar problems or some aspects of the issues I came across. This was a case of a series of problems that were contributing to several issues, where only fixing one issue then enabled me to work out the other issues. Of course as usual I made some newbie mistakes on the way. (All of this seems to be the norm when hardware trouble shooting on the A8s and especially when you aren't an expert. Although I know it can happen to those who are seasoned experts in it as well... least that what I'll keep telling myself heh heh!). It'll all become clear..... read on if you can be bothered - it's a big post. Anyway, this 600XL was a recent aquisition as part of a bundle of Atari hardware I just couldn't resist. (I do love the 600XL): It was bought relatively cheaply with a known issue - namely it just displayed a red screen on power up: My first reaction these days is to assume bad ram chips as a minimum. Additionally since I planned to install a brand new U1MB module that's been sitting for a couple of month waiting for a host (euuuuuww!), if I ever fixed this 600XL I would need to order the RAM to upgrade it to 64K initially. So I placed an order for 2 x 41464C - 12 (120ns), chips on Ebay UK for peanuts. A quick look at the 600XL service manual was the starting point and unfortunately had no details relating to a red screen. However I have picked up from reading AA threads and fixing an 800XL with a similar issue that a red colour screen can indicate one or more of the following: Bad Ram chip(s) Bad MMU Bad OS chip Bad Basic chip Bad CPU Bad GTIA or ANTIC chips My first tool in the arsenal was to initially test things using my trusty Sys Check II. Unfortunately in diagnostic mode and any of the other modes I initially tried I didn't get a display, (either the same red screen or garbage). So at this stage it wasn't gonna help. (That's not to say later on when the first issue was solved it then didn't come in handy). So - what next? Well as mentioned I had ordered some replacement 41464C 18pin RAM chips so those were on their way at least. So I opened her up, and hilariously found what was unlikely to be the cause of any issues, but rather the antics of a child sometime in the 80's... ...namely a brown colouring pencil rattling around inside: Anyways, I removed the shielding, remembering to unscrew the hidden release screw, handily indiated in the above picture in the hole just above the pencil tip. (With my first 600XL disassembly I spent ages racking my brain trying to work out why the PCB and sheilding wouldn't come away from the base - having at the time removed what I assumed were all the screws. Sneaky Atari engineers! Anyhoo I digress.) (BTW it had a nice AWC keyboard which I AFAIK is standard with 600XLs, unlikey the variety of keyboards you get with 800XL.) Wires Straight away is was clear someone had undertaken one of the 64K upgrades, given at a quick glance the wiring was in place for it on both sides of the board. Frustratingly the two 18pin ram chips were unmarked with the model number and rating rubbed off ....which didn't help. (Why do people erase these?!) However on closer inspection of the upgrade it appeared one of the soldered wires coming from pin 3 of the 74 logic chip U5, (74LS158), had become detached from it's original solder point. Seemed this was it - a simple loose wire!! I did a quick search of my past notes, AA, etc given I've already successfully upgraded my other 600XL to 64K for that U1MB upgrade, and decided I'd mirror the latter wiring/setup. (As is commonly known there are several ways you can do the 64K upgrade which all amount to the same connections I've learnt. I went with one the legend that is Tf_hh kindly advised me on at the time. It was only a slight tweak to the wiring already in place. (Incidentally on the underside of the board is a jumper wire for U18 pins 8 and 10 - and you don't need the IC in place anymore.) So with the wiring re-established/checked both sides of the board and triple checked for shorts as well as continuity to ensure it mirrored my working 600XL's 64K upgrade, I booted up the machine hoping to see some progress. Nada! Red screen. I left the machine running and checked for any hot chips. Some different ICs ran slightly warmer than others but I've learnt that is to be expected. Nothing stood out. BTW I'd decided to use brand new replacement 74LS158 ICs for U5 and U6 but this made no difference. I also replace the notorious 74LS08 chip with a new 74F08 chip just in case. No difference at this stage at least, (wasn't expecting it to for a red screen). Incidentally whilst looking on the underside of the board I spied a large blob of old solder, (not from my work), which looked like it was clearly shorting two solder points. I removed it but it made no difference - so was a bit of a red herring but good to catch: So at this stage I had to rule out the initial disconnected wire as the cause. Knew it wouldn't be that easy! Ram I popped the working ram chips from my other working 600XL into the sockets. Nothing - Red screen. Hmmm. I popped the Ram chips from this non working 600XL into my working 600XL - they were good and it booted. So the original Ram appeared ok. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. So next on my list was to systematically unseat and reseat all the main ICs individually to see if there was a bad/broken/bent pin or oxidisation, etc causing a break. I did this one chip at a time testing after each. No change. I did this for all the 40pin, 28pin, 24pin, 18pin, 16pin ICs. Nothing. Red screen still. I also did the usual and check for continuity with sockets and IC legs/pins, check traces for continuity around them, looking for bad solder points, and also to see of any of the passive components (especially caps), looked dodgy. It all looked ok. At this stage I wasn't about to start checking the passive components with my multimeter. Next move was to pop the CPU, ANTIC, and GTIA chips from this 600XL into my working 600XL, and visa versa - all one at a time testing between swaps. The "bad" 600XL's 40pin chips were all confirmed working in the working 600XL and with the working 600XL's chips in the "bad" 600XL, I still got the red screen. So it wasn't the CPU, or graphics chips themselves at fault. I did the same for the OS ROM chips swapping between machines. Still a red screen. Not the OS chip. I then did the same for the delay line, MMU, 4050 and all the 74 logic chips (aside U5 and U6 which were already new ICs). Red screen persisted. I replaced the old 74LS74 chip with a brand new one. No change. Sockets So at this stage I now was thinking it was a bad socket somewhere. So I systematically removed the following 40Pin sockets from the board starting with the CPU, then GTIA, ANTIC, testing after each one. I checked the vias, traces and continuity between nearby points at the time of removing old sockets and installing the new precision ones. With the sockets checked I tried with the original 40pin chips as well as other CPUs, GTIA, ANTIC. Still a red screen. I did the same for the MMU socket. Red screen. I decided I'd wait until the new RAM chips arrived even though I knew the original RAM had worked on my other 600XL when exchanged. A few days passed and with the new chips having dropped through the letter box I popped em in. Still a red screen which I expected. Then I noticed that one of these new RAM chips was running hotter than it's partner. Just my luck, at least one of the new RAM chips was likely bad. Given I didn't know what rating the original unmarked ram chips were (12, 10?), I didn't want to risk mixing and matching existing and new RAM chips. I don't have an 18pin RAM chip tester, just a 16pin DRAM tester). OK - what hadn't I looked at? Not really thinking it would be a likely cause I removed the PIA chip and popped it in my working 600XL. Boom....I got a red screen on my working 600XL!!!! (Odd feeling seeing your "good" computer fail and being happy about it!) Bad PIA chip!! Another one to chalk up to experience Ok, so the PIA is bad. I hadn't realised the PIA would cause a red screen. In fact same for the Pokey. I'd not realised either of these 40pin ICs would be a problem in this context so I'd not swapped them out. Joy was short lived because with a working PIA from my other 600XL in place my bad 600XL it now powered up to a black screen! I tried another PIA from another machine. Same black screen. I decided to replace the PIA socket with a precision one just in case.... Still a black screen. I also replaced the Pokey chip with a working one and tested the Pokey in my good 600XL. Pokey was ok when in my good 600XL. So it's wasn't the Pokey chip at least. However just in case replaced the Pokey socket with a new one, did checks, etc etc.... Still a black screen. So it wasn't the socket. At least now I have a precision socket for a potential Pokeymax upgrade. According to the field service manual a black or grey screen can indicate a power/voltage problem. Also in threads and videos I've watched I've seen for 800XL and also XE machines a black screen can indicate bad ram or bad CPU as well as GTIA or ANTIC issues but I'd already ruled these out as possiblities. I tried another CPU, GTIA and ANTIC again just in case. Black screen. I then replaced the RAM sockets, tested - black screen still. Then I replaced a few other 74 logic chip sockets and checked after each install. Black screen. OS ROM At this stage I decided to try the Sys check II again. Whilst I got the same black screen with the diagnostic setting, (which disables the machines RAM and OS ROM), and garbage on another setting...: .... on one of the other settings which used the RAM on the machine but the OS rom on the Sys check II all of a sudden displayed and started testing! The RAM checked out ok... ....but the OS was reporting as bad. (Neglected to take a pic of that). Now it's worth noting I've had a false report before of the OS rom testing bad on a 65XE where a faulty 74 logic chip was causing it to report as such. I remember with that machine I tested 4 x OS ROM chips at the time and all of them reported as bad. It wasn't until I relaced the 74 logic chip in question did the same 4 x OS ROM chips test ok. So with this 600XL I wasn't 100% convinced the problem was the OS rom chip. But I had still had faith in the Sys Check II. So maybe during this whole process the OS rom chip, which may have been on the edge of going bad(?), finally gave up the ghost.... because I had checked it earlier in my other 600XL and it looked like it was working?!?! Who knows!?! So I had two spare OS chips left. First one I tried made no difference - black screen with Sys check II unplugged and with it in place it still reported a bad OS chip. The second OS ROM chip I popped in worked - bingo - Sys check II reported a good OS rom chip and without Sys check II plugged in I got a ready prompt popping up! OMG at last!!!! So it then looks like one of my spares was bad. Colour Of course being connected to my LG TV via the composite and 600XLs not having Chroma/luma be default I was getting a greyscale/black and white image. With the S-video cable I wasn't getting an image at all - to be expected. So I reinstated the Chroma and luma circuit with a 100ohm resistor and 220uf Cap, etc, (as I'd done before on my other 600XL) and voila: I ran the A8's bog standard Self test memory test run, all apeared to look ok: Ok - so could this be all fixed?.... Well of course not, the universe isn't that kind!! My go to check after reviving an A8 after tinkering like this has been to pop the SIDE3 cart in, which I did...... ....I got this in loader mode... a complete crash: Oddly in SpartaDOS-X mode I got this and it didn't crash: So the cartridge was at least communicating with the 600XL. I checked traces and vias, pin connections with the cart slot and they all checked out. One thing I'd noticed a few times with no cartridge plugged in was that after a cold boot of a few seconds, it appeared that the memory lingered with the Ready prompt on boot up. In other words turning the computer back on even after 5 seconds of it being off went directly to the ready prompt instantly, no "farting" sound.......it was just there straight away as if the machine hadn't been turned off. Got me thinking as to whether the RAM was a low rating of 10 (100ns) or less - if indeed there is a rating less than 10(?)... and it was taking longer for it to "wipe itself" of residual data. (sorry - I don't know the terminology). Please with progress albeit a bit jaded I took a day's break from it all. So at this stage with all the work I'd done so far the board looks like this: Incidentally it's worth pointing out at this stage I could get my stock 1050 Happy drive to load the Mecenary game. My thinking at this point is that having identified a bad PIA and OS ROM issue and confirming the RAM appeared to be ok, was as follows: That there was either an issue with a 74 logic chip somewhere Or perhaps the aforementioned ram quirk was at the very least contributing to something. However since both Sys check II AND self test memory test checks repeatidley indicating me the RAM wasn't bad, my money was one or more of on the logic chips causing an issue. So I decided to make sure the issue wasn't the 74LS158 chips U5 and U6 sockets which I replaced. I replaced a few other logic IC socketed, checking after each install. I also popped a precison socket for the MMU in advance of the planned U1MB install. No change - still has the same issue with SIDE3 cart menu glitching. I tried my Rescue on Fractalus (ROF) cart and just got a black screen on boot up. I replaced the OS rom socket with a precision one and BASIC chip socket with a dual wipe one just in case. Still the SIDE3 loader menu and ROF cart glitching persisted. I decided to order some new RAM chips as I could get some HM50464P 12 (120ns) chips very cheaply and thought it good to have spares. (Ebay has been amazing in that respect). This was despite the installed original RAM reporting ok. My thinking was at least I'd be getting some known 12 (120ns) rated RAM chips and I've read the HM50464P are highly recommended as reliable equivilants. Today is a good day So this morning whilst I waited for the new RAM chips to arrive I decided I may as well install U1MB. Besides, with the U1MB upgrade you remove the MMU and OS ROM chips. I thought if there was still some issue with these at least I'd be taking these two ICs out of the equation. The U1MB didn't take too long to install and it booted up with no issues. However no change in terms of SIDE3 loader and ROF carts just booted to black screens. And now it didn't even get to the glitching SIDE3 loader menu anymore. Still it was great to see U1MB it was up and running at least: I took a mucn needed break and popped into town, had a decent mid afternoon lunch, (as I'd neglected to eat breakfast such was my obession with the morning's tinkering), and being British .....a bottle of Punk IPA. On returning home the postie had delivered the new RAM chips: I popped them in the sockets honestly fully expecting to see no change....... ...popped in the SIDE3 cart and powered up.................. OMG........ you have got to be kidding me..........only bl00dy worked!! So - despite countless checks on the original RAM with self test's memory testing, (which I know is rudamentry), AND Sys check II multiple runs confirming the RAM was ok, there was clearly something with the original RAM chips that wasn't quite right. Could it be that whomever did the memory upgrade mixed up some of the chips? I assume you have to run the same rating of RAM chip? There was no way of knowing as the markings were erased. Incidentally I am not trying to lay blame on Sys check II at all - it is an amazing bit of kit that's saved me a lot of pain with previous fixes and is highly regarded. However I fully understand it can't pick up on everything regarding the RAM. So, to recap, the issues with this 600XL were definitely at the very least: BAD PIA chip causing the initial RED screen A recently failed BAD OS ROM chip causing the next issue of a black screen Quirky/malfunctioning RAM chips of unknown brand and rating causing the SIDE3 cart and ROF cart not to boot. It's worth noting I used a USB power supply for all my A8s and it was no difference with this 600XL. I never use original Atari (brick) PSUs. Now it has U1MB with the latest FJC firmware flashed and Chroma Luma and gives a good picture on both composite and S-video (the latter helped by the excellent Hercules workshop double shielded cable I recently received from Canada): Whether anything else I've done in the process by way of removing sockets, installing new precision sockets or double wipe ones, replacing some of the usual suspect logic chips (74LS74 with a new one and the notorious 74LS08 with74F08), etc has fixed anything else I couldn't say for sure. I am pretty exhausted but I think given my experience so far with several A8 fixes of this nature, and especially my experience with the Dead 130XE in September, I've learnt you have to go through several stages and revisit things several times. The investigative nature of the process is what drives ya I guess....... albeit both rewarding and hugely frustrating simultaneously! Certainly I which I'd checked the PIA regarding red screen earlier on in my investigations, but that is hindsight for ya. Besides there was still the OS rom and RAM issues anyway... and who knows what else. If you survived reading this post.... well done!

yes, today the tools are better, but so what if their hearts are pumping the same blood of a man who can only spoil the work of others... patho-sceners

DO YOU WANT TO WRITE SOMETHING FOR PRO(C) MAGAZINE? NO!! WELL DO IT ANYWAY, YES RIGHT AWAY Seriously we have a standing start on this one with barely a mouldy crumblet in the delapidated Atari cupboard. Anything welcome e.g. game review, hardware, your own project, some Atari memories, something technical, programming whatever you like. Don't worry about the format (text is fine) or spelling (we can get those wrong for you) just message me here on atariage. Thanks all trbb If you haven't seen Pro(c) Mag checkout the link below. powersoft also has some quality merch including T-Shirts and Mugs which help cover the costs, and make great presents to yourselves

Return of the Fungi: 6,959! Kooky Diver: 1,800!

This is off-topic, but I hope you don't mind. The same guy making the 9995 microprocessor kit also makes another one using the TMS320C25 DSP. I built a PC plugin board about 30 years go probably in the beginning of 1993, since I wanted to learn to program the TMS320C25. I also wrote an assembler for it (in Turbo C), and got it calculating Mandelbrot sets pretty fast. The GAL chips used by this project were programmed using a programmer I also built myself, based on a magazine article. This actually was my second TMS320C25 DSP project, I build first a standalone board. It no longer exists, I only had this one DSP chip and reused the components. I was studying at the time. Telling about this hobby project landed me my first "real" job in the high-tech industry. Quite a lot of wiring this was one was... No cheap Chinese PCBs then.

Sakura Taisen 25th anniversary marathon continues. 3 Sakura Taisen games and a random Castlevania game. Dreamcast Sakura Taisen 2 ~Kimi, Shinitamou Koto Nakare~ - 1011 (estimate) So yeah, this was the #5 best-selling game on the Saturn in Japan and it's easy to see why since it's a great game and way better than its predecessor in basically every way. This game doesn't actually keep track of your time properly, it seems; I noticed it early but didn't bother to confirm it until halfway through the final disc, where I put a timer on, fought a battle for 32 minutes, and then the game only added 18 minutes to my timer. What the hell, Sega? Oh well, too late now. Done with this game (Sakura's ending again, of course), which means that Oogami got reassigned to Paris. Goodbye for now, Teikoku Kagekidan. I will miss all of you except stupid Iris over the course of the next game, but I'll see you all again soon in Sakura Taisen 4. Sakura Taisen 3 ~Paris ha Moeteiru ka~ - 237 あああ　素晴らしい　巴里華撃団 So it's Paris and the game got a massive graphical upgrade again with official VGA support (strangely not listed on the back of the box, though it is there), an almost completely new cast aside from Oogami, and the ARMS battle system that later evolved into the Valkyria Chronicles battle system. It's very easy to see the massive influence that this series was on the later Valkyria Chronicles, which was done by mostly the same development staff. I wasn't sure how to romanize the subtitle ～巴里は燃えるか～, as 巴里 is read/pronounced as Pari to match the French pronunciation of Paris, and of course the particle は is pronounced as wa instead of ha in this case, but whatever. Anyway, not sure how I feel about the new cast yet, but this is supposedly the best game in the entire series and it is the #7 best-selling Dreamcast game in Japan for a reason. Probably. Hopefully this game actually tracks my time properly... Saturn Hanagumi Taisen Columns - 43 Yay, it's Columns! Normally I'd say that Columns is ultra boring, but when you add in the Sakura Taisen LIPS system, an actual story with the cast from the first game, and its current used price of ~300 yen (lol) it becomes good fun for a ridiculously low price. Sega really did crap out an unbelievable amount of side stories and spinoffs and stuff when this series was popular between 1996~2005. PS1 Castlevania Chronicles - 54 Still restarting every time I game over just to hear athe different soundtracks. Eventually I will make progress.

Hello you all, After the PlusCart update I realised a sad truth, I am probably the best Hellway player in the world. I was able to make a top high score in all game modes played by other people (https://highscore.firmaplus.de/?page_sort=0&game_id=35, with the name of OctavioDev). I am not a very good video game player, so I was expecting to see some amazing high scores from the community that I could not beat or would have a very hard time doing so. I updated the QR code landing page (https://opbokel.github.io/g) to display a unique tip every time you open the page that can help you improve your high scores (24 until now). I hope this helps. And I am opening a high score challenge, I would love to see some great high scores from you all, which I will try to beat. This process helps me to guarantee that the game will have no bugs before release, and is fun! AtariAge release should be coming soon. Kind Regards, Octavio

ATARI 2600: Plaque Attack (for HSC) - 75 minutes ATARI 7800: Pac-Man Collection - 170 minutes

Thanks for that! BYTE was the best IMO. In 1976 our high school computer club subscribed to BYTE and some others. I was a novice programmer and BYTE was over my head, a bit heavy on hardware, so I ignored it. Later in college, I frequented a computer store with a book and magazine rack. I had learned much more about software and hardware so I started buying and reading BYTE. It had a great overview of the budding industry. After the store closed, I subscribed. Later I went back to the high school and bought the back issues from the club. I finally completed my collection, buying the earliest issues, none too cheaply, from classified ads. I've kept those first ten years' issues as a chronicle of microcomputing history and nostalgia.

PART TWO of: PARCO (UK) Magazine v2 n1 undated (1986) as a zip of clean hi res TIF images- read, print, ocr or pdf as you wish: Due to the smaller font size I have scanned this at 600dpi. There is a single page extra, scanned in full colour at the original contrast - I have not amended the scan at all, it really was that low contrast and pale blue. This is page 17 onwards- contents include: Conclusion of listing for "Turn of the Card"; "Loan Calculations" by R King in TI Basic. "Scrolling Utility" by Graham Marshall in Assembly to use CALL LINK in Extended Basic. "Watchit" by Kathryn Finch (11)- a memory game for one player. The start of a series of articles on TI Writer by Jo Ann Copeland. An assembly article by Graham Marshall on The Status Register regards bb (next up will be a TI Home Tidings- an historic copy that first used reduction from A4 to A5 for some sample pages...) parco_v2_n1_1986_pt2.zip

Edit2: Uploaded dsk collection with catalog pdf. Please explore and share anything interesting you fine here. Now that the review is completed and collection uploaded, I'm going to start checking out a few of these. Edit: Attaching the complete collection catalogs in one PDF with renderable text. Header and footer reference the archive number which equals the page number. ***OP*** My last posts here were some training manual PDF uploads I did. I started to chip away at the floppy disks. So far I have 24 down with 3 binders full to go. Of the first batch, I ran into 4 floppies that threw errors trying to backup in DM2. I put them aside for now. * Of the 24 so far, one is blank and somehow I think I archived the same disk twice in there some place. This disk collection contains a lot of programs and data. Some of which is mailing list stuff and there is probably people's private information in some of those. I would want to release them to the public. After I post this, I'm going to reach out to one person here that I trust to keep the data private if they are interested in helping me to understand what I have in these floppies. Fo now, for everyone else who may want to help; I'm attaching screenshot of the Catalogs from DM2 for all 24 disks I've completed so far*. Have a look see, and please comment on a particular archive-screenshot name if you happen to know fo special carts needed to load any of the files in the listings. The next group I plan to do has a lot of disks labelles "TI Games and Entertainment". Maybe some obscure titles or lost games can be found once I start on that bunch. Entire_Collection_V1_dsk_files_only.zip Archives001-144_YorkPATI99ers_dsk_catalogs.zip

aaarghh...bloody damned variants!!!

I must have misread the above quote then... and you got approval from 2 serial complainers, I think that says a lot... I can understand a valid complaint but saying that loading a demo wastes your precious time... after all that work...and with all the options available (cart or emulator) I just can't believe the crap I'm reading. If it's too much hassle for you to have load a demo, try a different version. I recommend playing the A2 version which I believe requires flipping disks every time you go back to the intro sequence. I did not ask how to get free sectors, I just stated why the release was delayed. Doesn't prevent anybody from making suggestions but suggesting cutting off content which you happen not to like, why didn't that cross my mind ? Last year's demos used a 130KB disk. 1. Go back to the beginning of this thread and someone asked for a 90KB disk version for those who have 810 drives. 2. The game takes 138KB without including the potentially wasted last sectors ( and without the demo ) Taking into consideration the 2 facts above I chose 2 SD disks and 1 DD disk.

Note that this score was on Atari Invaders, when you compile the final results tomorrow.

Atari Invaders - 10250 pts Gorf - 8510 pts Not particularly good scores, but satisfactory for me.

That would be great! I had an idea. Instead of picking out a separate set of POKEY tunes, I had an idea to play harmonies for the TIA music. With this concept, I play POKEY harmonies, based off of the TIA note. The game figures out the background music. I spent my entire day off playing with this idea, because it kept getting a little better. In the end, I find that the extra processing needed is causing bad slowdown on the levels with 4 snow-bees. That's a bummer. I don't know that I'll be able to save this. Here's the quirky Pokey version. It seems to play well on Dragonfly and emulation. For some reason, Concerto doesn't play well with it. The notes stick and lag with the Concerto. The left difficulty switch can be used to disable the harmonies & POKEY sound. --Darryl PengoPokeyDemo(10-09-2021-Mid).a78

Woohoo, my MVS copy of Xeno Crisis came in today.

Gorf: 19,700! Probably too late to catch the big 2, but I'm happy with this score.

The PC has been sold. But anyone else interested in DOS PCs can PM me. I have lots of PC stuff and can put together another. In 386 generation stuff I think I have a 386 motherboard, a 486SLC motherboard, possibly one more, then I have a few 486 mainboards, and even more pentium mainboards. I have some AMD Athlon/Duron boards, maybe a PPro or 2, and Pentium II/III stuff. And I have a supply of cases. So I can put something together for any of those generations.

It's not much, but it's the best I can do for now: 31,230.

I could be gone any moment because I like to live dangerously but I still prefer to wait for the CIB cart. ?

@globeron When that happens, something else is going wrong with your 99/4A. *Unlike* the 9918A, the F18A powers up with the display enabled and VRAM initialized with useful data, i.e. characters and such so you get some sort of indication that it is working. You usually don't see this "F18A screen" because the host computer usually initializes the VDP very soon (in CPU time frames) after power on. The fact that the 99/4A is not talking to the F18A, yet it did previously, would indicate something has started to fail in your console. If it is a power supply problem, be aware you can blow your F18A up if it gets more than 5.5V on the power pin. The "screaming banshee" is well documented. The default power-up mode for the sound chip (sn76489) in the 99/4A is such that is it making a tone, so one of the first things a computer using the sn76489 sound chip needs to do is turn the sound chip *off*. That is actually how the 99/4A emits a tone when you power it on, i.e. it is the fact that the sound chip has not been turned "off" yet. If your 99/4A is screaming, then the CPU has not executed enough of the power-on code to turn the sound chip off. This could be a lot of things, but the VDP is usually not one of them. The sound chip gets its clock from the VDP (9918A, or F18A in this case), so the fact that you hear the tone means the sound chip is getting its clock and has powered up correctly. Since the 9918A powers up "blind" (as mentioned above, with the display disabled since all the VDP Registers are zero until programmed by the host computer), a console with a 9918A will not display any video if the CPU is not executing its startup code, and the 9918A remains uninitialized. With the F18A, if you see the "F18A screen", then you at least know the 5V is good, the F18A is working, and the sound chip is getting its clock (which comes from the F18A). Since the other 9918A chips you tried also resulted in the screaming banshee, I would say there were probably all fine. Your problem is something else, i.e. bad ROM (doubtful), CPU failed, bad buffer IC on the address or data bus, bad +12V or -5V (the CPU needs 3 voltages), etc.

This makes me happy. Please make postings here about some of the cool stuff you're playing with. Screen shots work too. ?

Add me to the list for the Rebooteroids expansion CD. Thx.

This is my heavily modified system. no TI keyboard. KB to USB adapter to KVM. F18a to HDMI. SAMS and TiPi Cartridge port extension cable. FinalGrom99. on a shelf between other computer components not related to my TI.

This is my "non-TiPi" system.

Just added an RS232 card and printer today.

Installed the two Flash ROMs. Current consumption of those is 150+100 mA. And with that, it is pushing the 1A limit. The CPU is running code, but poorly, with no RAM. It is not going to run on this 1A power supply. Time to put the PicoPSU back in. It is the 80W model, the smallest. I estimated 25W for everything I'm going to put in. With the PicoPSU, I lose the ability to measure DC current... hmm, I have a KillAWatt I could use to get the AC power.

I'm really glad you are doing this. It must have been amazing to see the UG collection in person!

From the podcast, trackball/mouse support on their way to VCS and PC for Centipede. Global and friend leaderboards on their way to VCS.

ARCHIVE112!

No. 1 on Xbox for now.