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Hi guys, I have received a new game developed from Richard Porter (England), he developed it using the real machine with TI-BASIC and a tape recorder. Just a fun project using the real things as it was in the eighties Richard was inspired from a vintage electronic game distribuited in UK in 1980 named Jimmy and he had the idea to try to build a TI-BASIC version of this game and named: Jimmy the Footballer it is nothing complicated and the mission is to be able to win the game doing 10 goal. anyway the full instructions are included in the game and you can also read a complete review on the ti99iuc website. the dedicate page review >>Here<< the direct link of the .ZIP file of the game (FIAD, DSK, WAV, TXT) and in addition @tmop69 also compiled it and you can find the compiled version in the dedicated thread for the compiled games_ Hope you will like this new add from Richard

Another one: - High Voltage. [GAME] High Voltage (1984)(Laurent Aupetit)[Compiled by TMOP].zip

My take: an instant classic. I freaking love this game.

Hi all, I wanted to share some sort of demo of what I'm working on for the past few months ? I thought, after having my 1st VBXE since 2009, it was time to really do something dedicated with it, I was thinking, such a cool add-on - and not that much support... (I did some tests back in those 2009 days, and ended with a little demo that also worked without VBXE). It's a funny adventure so far, I've learned how to make a scroller, which just doesn't scroll threw the ram, but with double buffering. Also learning about blit-lists, how to use them properly. Really nice to see how people work with it. At first I wanted to use the original NES tiles/gfx and make a sort of replica, but I did a little upgrading, because the VBXE is more capable than that ? Also made it so that the scroll engine so far can use levels which are built with the 'tiled' app so it's easy to design a level, If the tiles are ready. And yes, there is a little bug in the scroller, that will be fixed, but wasn't the main priority so far ? Things working so far are the scroller and Simon ? I also looked at using the original NES 6502 code, but I thought it would be easier to start from scratch. Staying motivated (and being busy with life) to keep working on bigger projects like this is always a little bit tricky for me. Perhaps starting a something smaller game was better Either way, it's so far a nice challenge. And yes, there's a lot of work to do ? The random color on top is the place where the score/indicaters will be. castleataria28.xex

New game: - Jimmy the Footballer. Read the description on TI99IUC page (Jimmy); [GAME] Jimmy the Footballer (2022)(Richard Porter)[Compiled by TMOP].zip

RAMBO XL-II Ready for Production Assembled Board TOP (I used HCT chips, but the original 74LS chips can be used as well) Assembled Board BOTTOM Installed in 1200XL with Sophia Rev C Buy Bare PCB from OSH Park (minimum order of 3 pieces for $16.75, which includes free international shipping) Buy LINK Schematic: RAMBO_XL-II_V1.1_schema.pdf Gerbers: RAMBO_XL-II_gerbers.zip Manual: RamboXLManual.pdf Sorry no BOM, but between the PCB silkscreen and the schematic it should be pretty easy to figure out what is needed. Here's a LINK to the double pin header strip used for piggybacking.

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-art-collectibles/winnipeg/atari-65xe-this-is-the-beginning-of-atari/1619862066?undefined

The tip of the desoldering tool gets very hot, so absolute minimum time in contact with any pad is critical. Technically, you are not supposed to let the tip touch the pad at all, but rather keep the liquid solder between the tip and the pad, while moving the tool in a back-and-forth or circular motion to make sure the pin is free; then activate the vacuum. It takes a lot of practice for sure, and I have had the heat of the desolder tool affect the epoxy of the PCB substrate itself. On older PCBs is does not take much to lift a pad, since the adhesive bonding the copper to the board has aged and on cheap boards it will release. I usually clean the connections, then reflow them adding new clean solder, then clean the pads again, then test a few with the desoldering tool. Even with flux, trying to remove original solder without at least reflowing first can make it really hard to get a clean desolder. The original wave-soldering used on most of the retro computers is very effective at making sure the pins are soldered all the way through the hole, so you have to make sure the solder you are trying to remove is also liquid all the way through the hole. Reflowing with new solder can really help with this, since provides more solder for that cushion of solder you want to keep between the pad and the desolder tool's tip.

Hey everyone, time to get rolling with *BPM Boy*!

OK—To make this DBF0-thing work, each field block must start on an even address boundary, so Store field address as a word. Store field type byte. Store beep byte. Since the field count is handled in EXTR as a word and you are even storing it that way (even though you apparently thought otherwise for some reason!), store it as a word. The above scenario is an even-numbered 6 bytes. Storing 6 + 30 = 36 bytes in the block pointed to by DBF0 would require 612 bytes so must start at >7D9C to end on >7FFF. If you store just the 6 bytes, you will only need 6 * 17 = 102 bytes, you can start DBF0 at >7F9A. In a few minutes, I will attach an updated EXTR (as a Windows TXT file: extr.a99), which retains your 36-bybte scenario, but with corrections to the storage at DBF0. Here is the promised, modified file (modified lines marked with ‘*--*’ and their replacements, with ‘*++*’)—extr.a99 ...lee

Hi all, I made a recent discovery in relation to how the indexes are allocated - it was an interesting lightbulb moment after all this time!! It appears indexes are being allocated based on the order the color is found starting left ->, top -> bottom - this includes the transparent color. So after allocating your colors to the PXCX and then scan through matching the color based on the index. Lets take Arthur from GnG P0C1 = $0f : P0C2 = $37 : P0C3 = $79 incgraphic gfx/arthur0.png 160A 0 3 1 2 160B images are the same just spread over the 4 palettes - 0 (transparent), P0-1,2,3, P1-5,6,7 P2-9,10,11 P3-13,14,15 Hope that helps! Also if anyone is using Atari Dev Studio, install the Luna Paint extension as it allows you to open/view (and edit images) with VS Code.

Yes!

hi, I am sure everyone here has seen but there is a new 1090XL pc board design available and open to everyone. it is at I have not done any work on the chassis for this project so if anyone wants to jump on that, please do. Thanks everyone. Ken

@justclaws did you see the Chaos Chassis "billboards" in BPM Boy?

I love my Atari 2600, it's very precious to me and if I could only have one old system it would win... ...but when the NES hit I didn't look back for a very long time. I know they talk about home computers or even "the crash" killing the video game industry back in 84 but a lot of us kids didn't really know any of that was going on and were ready for something better, something new. It would have been near impossible for the 7800 to give us what the NES did for a plethora of reasons already mentioned a million times in a million topics (and tech specs is the least of those reasons) The bottom line in my opinion is Atari, like a lot of the "grown up" world, thought video game systems were dead. Nintendo didn't...and they were right :)

@Tony Barnes I just bought "BPM Boy", and it's as polished so far, as it looked in the videos. Great work, again. Now BPM Boy is out, I can hope that you'll spare a bit of time to focus on this one. ?

Here is another issue. The last issue in fact. Not the last issue I will scan nor the last issue of Computer Shopper magazine, but the last issue of Computer Shopper that had Atari 8-bit coverage. Sadly there are no program listings. There is a multi-page description to 8-bit programs released in 1989. Some are still not archived in any way sadly. https://archive.org/details/computer-shopper-dec-89-vol-9-no-11-atari-articles

Disagree about the emulation... do you actually own one of these? It's great, plenty of power under the hood and believe it has run most everything I've thrown at it with nary a hitch - usually remedied by configuring the input ports. Speaking of which, the mouse and controller are excellent too, and let's face it... many/most of us are used to gaming on a Genesis pad for its two button play all these years. For me, the CD32-like gamepad is a much more welcome addition than a cheap feeling, easily broken (looking at you C64 Mini) or obnoxiously loud clicky joystick. ? As someone that's not normally into emulation and gaming on LCD screens, I'm really impressed (input lag is super low here too, which means the pinball games are playable for a change) with the overall quality and experience of this little machine.

Chicago Times January 1987 Ready to print. Chicago Times January 1987.pdf

The repository from the Graphics Gems books can be found here http://www.realtimerendering.com/resources/GraphicsGems/ The C source for the Jag Chris mentioned is at http://www.realtimerendering.com/resources/GraphicsGems/gems/DoubleLine.c

Run the Spartados x toolkit program called CLX.COM CLX D8: after booting from drive D1; and having clx.com in the path.

Wizard of Wor (1 A/A) : ROLLAGE (95k+)

It's really great to see more interest in TI Basic. With all its shortcomings it's still no language to poopoo on. I feel that -compared to other languages such as Extended Basic- there's a lot more unknown territory to explore. So it's great to see what people like @senior_falcon, @speccery and @pixelpedant are doing in that area. Myself I got rather fond of TI Basic while working on its integration in Stevie. Should do a proper video, it's kinda cool having multiple TI Basic sessions open at the same time and jumping back and forth between sessions)

One thing I've always wondered is how common those were, because I've never seen even a single namco racing cab of any flavor. Mind I do hunt for them. I've lived in 3 states, on two coasts, and have even taken 'arcade vacations' outside my local areas, and I've still never seen even one. Growing up it was all sega or midway/atari titles in arcades.

NUON Controller Update! We are using the Logitech Controller as our source to get all the inputs to emulate the NUON controller. We have already been through one homebrew lab at Songbird and captured some of the stuff now it is off to Songbirds new partner and he is getting the rest of it. Since the logitech controller is mis-designed on the analog I have given them permission to do the Logitech mod so they can capture the full range and not reproduce a defective analog controller. Attached is the setup. Go NUON! Backstory: https://www.thehelper.net/threads/big-news-on-nuon-controller-development.167504/

The Videopac G7400 released in Europe in 83 could play all G7000 games. Which reminds me, I still don't own an Odyssey 2. Need to do something about that soon.

Too late to add this to my previous post... If you upload the zipped Gerber file to JLCPCB, then pick their cheapest shipping option (takes about 2-1/2 weeks), you can get 5-10 boards for half the price of what OSH Park charges for 3. As an example, I ordered 10 sample boards from JLCPCB and the grand total with shipping was $9.40 (less than $1 a piece). Pretty good deal, only requiring a tiny bit more work on your part during the ordering process

I think that's perfect. I'm still new to these so I don't know if there is a way to test integrity of the ram, so I assume if it shows the full amount of what I think it should be, it works? Like in an 800, if I have 3 16k sticks, it would show 48k and would be good to go? As far as the keyboard testing, that makes sense. The keyboard in mine is making characters it should not at the memo pad, but I've read that can be a number of things. I was looking for something to test the multiplexer chips that control the keyboard to narrow it down if possible. I'll keep looking. Thanks for the link! Yeah you would not want to power both at the same time. I built mine and added the switch, but only so I can leave it in the off position until I want to turn it on. Basically it's looking for external power until I flip the switch. If there is not a switch you can access from the outside, plug it in SIO only. If it does not turn on, it needs external power. If it turns on, do not use external power.

Man, the Summer Game Fest lineup was like a competition to create the most grim, joyless game possible! The AAA game industry is firmly under the control of cynical Hollywood cokeheads.

I don't think anyone's mentioned it here, but I think Spin Pair is a pretty neat puzzle game. The way it clears out other tiles of the same color to the sides when you make a match is a rather unique mechanic. This is also generally one of the cheaper PC Engine games.

The Neo Geo Pocket Color never seems to get the love it deserves but damn it I love it

The jaguar extremist pack source codes had something Atari had called the Graphic Gems collection. Whether from the magazine on a disk articles of the time or whatever someone at Atari was really fond of them. Adapting at least one for the Jag. I'm sharing them here because maybe some of the Lynx programmers here may find some of these 'Gems' useful. http://www.3do.cdinteractive.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=3430&p=39887#p39887

The original arcade game also impressed me. Reminded me of Sega's racer arcade offerings like Daytona:

Format in normal "skew" (the word "interleave" would be more correct) when the disk is going to be used in non-ultraspeed mode - ie with a stock 1050, or with an OS or other software that only operates in 19.2K mode. The modified firmware formats an interleave that's about 10% faster than other drives. In the case of single density, both are technically a 9:1 interleave, but optimizing the interleave to account for the space taken by the gap between the first and last sector of the formatted track. When you choose UltraSpeed skew, SpartaDOS uploads an alternate sector interleave to the drive and then issues a custom format command that is optimized for the reduced time that it takes to transmit a sector between the drive and the computer so that the next sector arrives at the read head sooner than a regular formatted disk. A regular single density disk is about 9:1 (the next sector is available after skipping 8 sectors), the "optimized" standard interleave is about 8:1, and a US Doubler ultraspeed single density disk is 5:1. An Indus GT syncromesh interleave is 4:1, and is too tight to be read at full speed on a US doubler, causing the drive to basically only be able to read 1 sector per rotation. Similar when reading a disk formatted with the "UltraSpeed" 5:1 interleave with a drive operating at regular speed - it will be a lot slower, reading only 1 sector per rotation. I believe all this does is allow use of the last sector of a disk by the file system. In the tradition of Atari DOS, the last sector of a disk was not usable by the file management system, and SpartaDOS I guess followed it. The post ICD/FTe releases of SpartaDOS from the SpartaDOS X Upgrade Project introduced this option in the formatter. SpartaDOS will try to engage the "UltraSpeed" protocol with all drives by default. You can tell the difference by the audibly higher-pitched and shorter sound of the sector transfer beeps. Since the US doubler has no track buffer, this will only help with the overall throughput with disks that have been physically formatted with the "UltraSpeed" interleave aka skew. It's a cool hack with minimal additional hardware which made it popular since it was cheap, but this is also where the more expensive enhancements like the Happy, Duplicator, Indus GT with Super-Synchromesh shined because their track buffer allowed maximum speed no matter the sector interleave of the disk...

Nothing beats an SDrive-MAX other than a FujiNet!

Just lol. and dont get me wrong I adore the 400/800 XL/XE line but I know insane when I see it.

Looks like the link I referenced didn't show up in the message. Here is the message thread: New MEMTEST V2.00 for the Geneve 9640 - TI-99/4A Computers - AtariAge Forums

Heeey Wooow, i absolutely never heard or readed about that mattel aquarius computer,man i swear the more i will dive into the history of computers and game consoles among it’s competitors,the more interesting it will get and the more discussions will be put by many more retro fanatics here ,this is another awesome stuff for wich i wanna learn more about it,againg thx alot for mentioning this?

I get flashbacks of "Howdy folks JT here" (?) when I see pics of those dusty relics. My word! All that dust and mold/mildew! ?

Oh wow, just caught this... that's the adapter I had with my TI BITD! Obnoxiously long, but I probably propped it up with a deck of cards or something. Was never a problem really. Wasn't even aware there was a 2-player adapter (and didn't have TI's own sticks then) until I saw the Wico splitter some time later. When you're young, you just learn to deal and accept. Especially on a budget. ha Went years and years with this very adapter. When my friends came over and we'd play something like Blasto!, we'd alternate who got to use the joystick vs. the keyboard. Loved the flexibility that way ... and such great times! ?

Oooh, good enough! I must have 8-bit wide RAM installed then, as the players never come apart in this tennis game. lol BTW: great game! Updated my inquiry to reflect I do indeed use joysticks (naturally) when playing most games. Thanks @senior_falcon. ? ?

The Pro Tennis program from TI99 gameshelf is one quick way to test this. If your 32K is on the 16 bit bus the players will come apart and the torso, head and arms will be separated from the legs. It looks quite funny to see the legs running around disconnected from the rest of the body. I think you need joysticks, so this might not work for you. http://tigameshelf.net/asm.htm

Welp, The C64 tried to prove it was the only thing that could really make unique waveforms and came out before 1983...

> Other (Please explain in a post) SIOCart and WiFiPrime:

39 colors First wide image, as far as I remember... GravityWorm_DIO01.xex

Ahh no miracle at all. It was a great design for that time. Apple II did the same thing. There were revisions to Apple II hardware - adding capability (but not speed). And there were revisions to the cartridge hardware for the 2600 Jr., new bankswitch schemes, bigger memory. The 2600 has complex-to-program hardware, but is simplistic to the end user/gamer. It was able to satisfy the more learned developer as well as challenge the gamer.

This is awesome. I was going to suss this out on my own -- I assumed but did not want to assume. Without a disk system, one would have to make a tape dump to be loaded in EasyBug as you would do, anyway. The speed improvements for HCHAR and VCHAR alone make the extra effort worth it if you plan to target console-only systems.

Just to consolidate the 2 threads, here's the list of folks attending: @Lathe26 @cmart604 @Kamikazi26 @ComputerSpaceFan (maybe) @swlovinist @Black_Tiger @BigDumer Anyone I missed?

Today I did something I had been resistant to do, and that was stripping all the components from my one and only original ICD RAMBO XL PCB so that I could really see all the trace connections more clearly. ICD used very tiny pads, so I did have a couple lift unfortunately, Well I guess it's a good thing I'm designing a replacement After doing this I could see that all unused inputs were indeed not left floating, and instead are pulled high (+5V). I also saw two places for decoupling capacitors to go (I marked these with yellow rectangles), However my board never had these installed. The cap down by where the RAMBO would plug into either U7 or U27 was redundant considering that the chip socket on the Atari motherboard already has its own decoupling cap, however the one shown between IC4 and IC5 is a good precaution. So I updated my schematic as well as the clone PCB to pull-up the unused inputs and to include one decoupling capacitor. We are now at Version 1.1 for the board with these changes. So I guess now it would be permissible to substitute SN74HCTxxx parts for the 74LSxxx ones, since all inputs now go somewhere (I should have done this right from the get go). Updated schematic: RAMBO_XL-II_V1.1_schema.pdf I'm now ready to order a few sample boards ?