Leaderboard

Hey all, Doctor Clu here! hope all you Bubsy fans have had a great year so far! Not bad here! Wrapped up some projects for some friends, and with that done, here we are! I heard from our old pal Spongefox who had some great pictures for the Easter season... Love the Bugs Bunny feel to the first one. Also had the fortune of talking to B!ockbubster who is a big Bubsy fan and sent me these pictures... Love the last one! Whatever blows your hair back! Also here is what inspired me to get a post out, not later, but RIGHT NOW!! Chris Ytps on YouTube, otherwise known as "I do a lil trolling" on the Bubsy Discord found the Bubsy commercial that was over in Japan and did some sub titles for it! Now that truly is pawsome! Hope you've been well, and hope to send another entry out on here soon-ish. -Bubsy Bobcat Fan Blog Originally posted here: https://forums.atariage.com/blogs/entry/18912-cruizin-the-interwebs-japan-bubsy-commercial-march-2024/

I thought the boss screen in Flying Hamburgers looked rather sparse, so I decided to attempt to put some clouds in there. That was easy, but then I discovered the shots and the burger were going behind them. A whole bunch of sprite address rearranging then occurred and then I finally got the result I was looking for. It's amazing what adding just four sprite tiles does to the look of a game. I also fixed the blackness (or sometimes whiteness) that appeared to the strawberry milkshake. That was due to the number of colors in the palette. The light pink used to highlight the shake was in pos. #2 in the palette, but so was also the numbers. I changed the color on the fly to color the score and lives counter. Fortunately, I only had 14 of a possible 16 colors in that palette (for the sprites), so I added a 15th color. I have one left in case I wanted to add something else, but I don't see a need to right now. I also worked pretty hard on Intellivision Pac-Line but nobody seems to care any more. I saw that Brian's Man Cave had put a version of Paku Paku in the contest, which made me sad. But who knows? Perhaps he thought of it and started working on his before I did mine. Which is what led me to resume work on Flying Hamburgers.

I've installed the FM upgrade board 4 times now into a few different SMS NTSC consoles now and something that I tend to always forget, is that the official instructions for installing the board has a few mistakes in it. One of those mistakes is a pretty big one that I've mentioned to Tim Worthington a few times but it never seems to get fixed in his guide. That step is regarding the process for getting the region switch working on NTSC consoles. Now the steps listed I'm sure are accurate for PAL versions of the console, but 3 different model 1 and one model 2 unit I've installed the kit into all required the same thing to get it working. The specific step to install the region switch wire states to solder a wire from the IORQ pin off the FM board and to isolate and solder the same signal pin on the 2516 IC chip in the console. This chip is the IO Gate array IC btw. The docs state this is pin 19 on that IC and that is a correct statement. However, removing this pin from circuit on the NTSC consoles will prevent the SMS from booting at all. Just a black screen when powering on the console. Attaching the region switch wire to that pin while isolate does nothing. The pin you want to attach to instead on that IC is actually Pin 23. It is listed as the KillGa pin and I assume has something to do with a halt or reset. In some models of the SMS pin 23 isn't attached to anything. But on the NTSC systems it is part of the circuit. So, you have to either cut the trace to this pin or lift the pin from the board to isolate it and then install the IORQ wire from the FM board to pin 23. This will correctly allow switching the region on the SMS. The region switch isn't dynamic so you have to either reset the game after switching, or power the SMS off and then back on for the region switch setting to take effect. Here is a picture of the wire I'm talking about attached to a lifted pin23 off the IC I did the other night as an example. Here is the IORQ pad the other end of the wire attaches to on the current and latest version of the FM board upgrades. Depending on the version of the FM you have, this pad has changed places but it is always labeled the same. In the pic below is the yellow wire soldered on the upper left section. So if you ever install one of these or possibly have one installed and hadn't gotten the region switching working on your NTSC console, now you know why and how to correct for it. BTW the switch is advised because it allows you to select between US/PSG audio, US/FM audio, and JPN/FM audio settings. There are 2 games known that require the JPN/FM setting in order for them to work with the main one being Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap here in the US (Wonder Boy II in JPN). View the full article

I'll be doing a stream tonight at about 9:15-9:30 EDT in honor of @Charlie Cat's Neo Geo thread having it's 10th anniversary! I'll just play random Neo Geo games casually. Requests welcome!

Awhile back, I had this idea of a grand Odyssey 1 project called "I Need to Escape the Aliens." Then I forgot about it. Until last night. I woke up at about 4 a.m. with a fully fledged idea for an Odyssey 1 game. But I was too tired to get up, so I went back to sleep. I woke up at around noon. A few hours later, I decided to try to flesh out the idea to see what is possible and if I could add anything to it. The second (or perhaps third?) game doesn't need an overlay, but I think I'll make one for it anyway. So anyway, back to this idea. Later I'll design an overlay. It will consist of squares, like the six² project I released last year. And another one for the second game. And then I'll need to think of a third part to conclude the game. This will be a game that uses multiple cartridges (like, say, Football). And I'll try to not forget instructions, print them out instead of having them be downloaded. It does seem kind of odd to have a video game console still having games released for it 53 years after it is released!

Recently, I was looking into improving the sprite flicker management of Chaotic Grill. I took the following notes to give myself a general idea of the timing of this routine/process (6507 code). This is just a list of timestamps and some basic notes / calculations for handling 5 sprites. Overall, this is probably not that useful without the code or more context, but it might be interesting to some people. --------- Start on cycle 768 (scanline 10, cycle 29) 768 - Start of call 812 - Start sort initialization at cycle 842 - Start of sort 1022 - Done with sort 1038 - Call find split function 1130 - Done with finding split (2 sprites at top) 1216 - noSprite1: 1240 - SavePlayerMetaDPC 1385 - jump doneLoadZone1 1423 - SaveMetaDPC_split 1567 - done with SaveMetaDPC_split 1654 - loadSpriteGraphics 1668 - loadSprite0Graphics 1748 - done with loadSprite0Graphics 1764 - loadSprite1Graphics 1844 - done with loadSprite1Graphics 1910 - done with PrepPepper 1923 - DONE 1923 - 768 = 1155 = ~15 scanlines for the entire thing 1022 - 842 = 180 = ~2.5 scanlines for sorting 5 sprites —— Basic breakdown 1130 - 768 = 362 = ~4.7 scanlines for all prep work (sort + find split) 1654 - 1130 = 524 = ~6.9 scanlines for prepping mid-screen sprites 1923 - 1654 = 269 = ~3.5 scanlines for loading first two sprites Outside of prep work, it takes approximately 2 scanlines per sprite.

(click here for ridiculously-oversized version) 413 < PreviousIndexNext >

REWRITTEN AS OF 12/07/21. NOT QUITE COMPLETE AS OF 12/11/21; just more pictures to add in. This is my blog on all the upgrades, modifications and hacks that have turned a standard 800 into a machine that is still the original vision of Jay Miner's 'Colleen' 800 at heart, and still fully compatible, but includes advancements and upgrades that Atari and Jay never envisioned over 40 years ago. Not just internal upgrades, but port and case modifications too. And finally, a complete "restoration" as the computer case, as well as the cases of peripherals including the 410 and 810 all were badly UV damaged (retro-brite done twice with yellowing returning) and the brittle plastic has cracked or broken in places. Some of it as a direct result of all the handling and modifications, and accidents. This has been an on-going project for over 2 years. Started after the first retro-brite attempt. So body work and a completely new paint job have been done, including other system matching peripherals and controllers. But my 800's face lift and make-over are not to the original colors of the 800 line. I instead decided to redo the look of my 800 in homage to the ill-fated 'IBM "ATARI" PC' that I fell in love with the look at first site, when I first saw the image of it. Of course shape of the 800 case is the same, but the colors are taken from the mock-up IBM PC in the picture directly below this paragraph. I have made minor tweaks better to my liking and taken some liberties of my own and extrapolated across my entire 800 "system." Images of the completely repainted and redone ATARI 800CX and peripherals are at end of this blog, after detailing the upgrades and mods with specs and pictures first, because it's what is on the inside that counts, and looks are only skin deep. My new 800CX* includes: Incognito board features include: 4 slots for OS separate for Colleen and XL/XE mode 64k of FLASH for future GUI 2 slots for BASIC/CARTRIDGE build in, configurable PBI CF card storage (works as PBI in XL/XE mode, and through SDX driver in Colleen mode) build in FAT32 loader (SIDE) with both ATR and XEX file handling SpartaDosX onboard RTC 1MB Axlon compatible memory expansion for Colleen mode 64k/320k/576/1088k total memory available in XL/XE mode up to 52k of memory in Colleen mode (configurable) Pokeymax 3 features include: Quad Pokey Dual SID Dual PSG Four channel Covox, with Paula style DMA GTIA audio digital pass though SIO audio mixing PBI audio mixing May be updated/configured via software on Atari Larger 10M16 FPGA, leaving adequate resources for future enhancements Spare 5V safe IO for future enhancements Sophia 2 Feaures: 100% compatible GTIA replacement PAL/NTSC encoding Independent RGB/YPbPr/VGA and DVI outputs 480p/576p 3:2/5:4, 16 luminance levels for all Antic and GTIA graphic modes 8 selectable DVI graphic modes from 2 color to 18-bit color onscreen 1280x960 4:3 1280x1024 5:4 1344x960 14:10 1440x900 16:10 1536x960 16:10 1600x900 16:9 1704x960 16:9 15 loadable 18-bit color palettes PBI upgrade (DIY) Edge connector for a true XL/XE physically compatible PBI port Connects to PBI out on the Incognito board via ribbon cable internally Dual-PIA board (DIY) Features: Allows 4 extra controller ports ( 8 total in Colleen (800) mode and 6 total in XL/XE mode) Second PIA uses POT(paddle) pins 5 & 9 on the 4 new ports for PIA CA1&2 and/or CB1&2 signals for communication instead of analog controller signals from Pokey. Header for future expansion New controller ports will be external, via ribbon cables exiting underneath the 800 case to a dual-use 3D-printed Turbo Freezer/external controller port case. The Turbo Freezer 2011 connects to the PBI, ports will be beneath Turbo Freezer Custom A/V and SIO port boards (DIY) Stereo out headphone jack for Pokeymax audio out Second SIO port (both ports upgraded for HSIO upto ~126K vs 19.2K single speed Mono audio out RCA jack Composite out RCA jack S-video out mini-din jack DVI out for Sophia 2 Original internal RCA RF out re-purposed for Pokeymax 3 RCA digital audio out jack LED RGB internal lighting & keyboard lighting (DIY) Full rainbow of colors Multiple flashing and fading color cycle settings Choose a single color Brightness and dimmer adjustments Remote controlled SEE PICTURES AT END OF BLOG TO SEE LED LIGHTING Other minor upgrades and modifications (DIY) Complete recapping of motherboard and PSU board Pal conversion with PAL CPU board, Incognito and new PAL crystal on mobo All 74LS series IC's replaced with newer 74HC or 74F series Keyboard repairs External upgrades Fujinet 1.0 features: The #FujiNet device provides the following services: Device Description Notes C : (Cassette Drive) Loads CAS images. Under Development D : (Disk Drive) Load floppy disk images from onboard MicroSD or networked TNFS server. Supports ATR, ATX, and XEX formats. Currently Working R: (Modem) 850 Modem emulation, supports Type 1 Poll to load handler. Works with existing communications programs such as Ice-T, BobTerm, AMODEM, PLATOTERM, and BBS servers. Currently Working P: (Printer) Printer output saved to PDF files downloadable from the device. Available Printers: 820, 822, 825, 1020, 1025, 1027, 1029, Espon 80, Okimate 10, HTML for copy/paste, GRANTIC Screen Printer. Example 822 Printouts (PDF): Text & Graphics. Currently Working N: (Network) NEW networking device. #FujiNet configuration commands in place and working (WiFi, mounting, etc). TCP/UDP Currently working Other SIO2BT Bluetooth Connection. Apetime Real Time Clock (NTP). SAM Text To Speech as a printer, voice output from #FujiNet to Atari (Video with explanation, WAV File & SAM short video). MIDIMaze network gaming in progress (Video) Currently working Turbo Freezer 2011 Features: 1MB flash and 1MB battery backed RAM, both XL and XE adapter boards are equipped with a pass-through PBI connector (XE adapter also contains a cartridge slot) Freezer function: stop/resume a program at any time, save/load snapshots to/from TurboFreezer RAM / ramdisk / disk / tape. Built-in, enhanced, debugger. Stereo Pokey systems are now supported, too. Oldrunner mode: integrated OldOS 512k battery-backed ramdisk, 100% PORTB compatible CartrdigeEmulation: can use up to 960k flash and 384k RAM to run 8k, 16k and OSS carts. Supports new SDX (same banking as Ultimate1MB, up to 512k max.) plus "stacked" carts running from the CartEmu (so you can run SDX and MAC/65 from the TurboFreezer). Added AtariMax 8Mbit (1MB) compatible banking (up to 960kB) and new 8k + RAM banking (main 8k bank at $A000, optional 8k RAM bank at $8000). PBI adapter case includes 4 controller ports for use with Dual-PIA upgrade above The new look in homage to the 'IBM "ATARI" PC' Tragedy strikes! While carrying different case parts to the painting area for clear-coating I dropped the 800's hinged cover for expansion and cartridge ports! The hinges break in half and a chunk breaks off of the lower right corner of the cartridge door! Spot repairs ensue, first the hinge assembly is disassembled and then super glue is applied to hold pieces in place. Then J.B. Weld is liberally applied to the hinges and underside of the cartridge door for strength, leaving "welds" as-is for greater structural integrity. Then J.B. Weld is applied to the crack on the door front, and smoothed to hide the crack. It looked better before I painted, but it is acceptable for the time being and I will pursue getting a new cartridge door to replace this one. below are the broken pieces and then showing them repaired. The repaired door with paint applied will be shown below in the "finished" final reveal. System nearly complete. Still needed: paint touch-up, badges and name tags, raised letter on face plates detailed. close-up shots in final reveal. Here is are all the main system pieces, minus the Fujinet and Turbo Freezer connected. 99% complete. I have to do some touch up on the Fuji badge on the 800CX and finish detail painting the controller jack numbers on the lower front panel, and a touch up here or there. More pictures to come, with the system fully powered, with LED lighting and all sides and angles. (FINAL PICTURES NOT YET PRESENT) _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Custom eXtended line. I spent a long time coming up with a new designation for my 800, since it is anything but a stock 800 anymore, inside and out. I finally decided on "CX" since there are so many new features one letter just doesn't cover it (beyond the X for eXtended line since now it is compatible with XL/XE's). I came up with the idea while giving my repainted CX85 and repainted self-designated 'CX35' mouse (see blog on modifying a TRS-80 Coco analog mouse to the Atari). Why not 'XC' staying in-line with XL and XE machines? Because "XC" would imply that it was part of the eXtended Line/eXtended line Enhanced computers, but the 800 was prior to the extended line and is only compatible due to upgrades, not an official extended line machine stock that was then customized. Also because it matches the "CX" designation of my keypad and mouse.

I finally compiled all the different Eagle parts I had drawn over the last year into a single Eagle library and adjusted them to be more or less uniform in look. While I was at it, I also added all missing chips and connectors. Currently, it contains the following parts: 74LS08 74LS14 74LS51 74LS74 74LS138 74LS158 74LS375 4050 4051 4164 6502C/Sally 6520A/PIA 27128/OS PROM ANTIC BASIC ROM Cartridge Cartridge Socket EP8212 GTIA Joystick Port Keyboard Socket LM358 MMU Monitor Jack Parallel Bus Interface Parallel Bus Interface Device POKEY Power Jack RF Modulator SIO Jack Basically, it's everything you find on an 800XL motherboard. Update 2014-04-29: added conversion to Eagle 6.5.0 (XML file format). atari.lbr.gz eagle-6.5.0-atari.lbr.gz