Ansiterm
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Posts posted by Ansiterm
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Ok, I abridged the link and found the figures. I also found my Atari memory upgrade folder. The version I have of the 400 48K upgrade is different, but I'll compare the two when I get home tonight.
The instructions I used came from a local Atari users group, but they might have been based on what you linked because that looks very familiar. If you have the figures that go with it, I'd take that as a sign from the Atari gods that I don't have to rummage through my Atari boxes
I upgraded the 16K board of a 400 to 48K (>15 years ago). It should be in one of the two 400s I still have. It's not for the faint hearted, but if you're handy with a soldering iron, it's doable. I probably still have the step-by-step instructions...but not sure where they are right now. If you want them, I'll rumage around in the storage boxes that contain most of my Atari stuff and see what I can find.
If so, I have all the parts laying around.
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The instructions I used came from a local Atari users group, but they might have been based on what you linked because that looks very familiar. If you have the figures that go with it, I'd take that as a sign from the Atari gods that I don't have to rummage through my Atari boxes
I upgraded the 16K board of a 400 to 48K (>15 years ago). It should be in one of the two 400s I still have. It's not for the faint hearted, but if you're handy with a soldering iron, it's doable. I probably still have the step-by-step instructions...but not sure where they are right now. If you want them, I'll rumage around in the storage boxes that contain most of my Atari stuff and see what I can find.
If so, I have all the parts laying around.
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I upgraded the 16K board of a 400 to 48K (>15 years ago). It should be in one of the two 400s I still have. It's not for the faint hearted, but if you're handy with a soldering iron, it's doable. I probably still have the step-by-step instructions...but not sure where they are right now. If you want them, I'll rumage around in the storage boxes that contain most of my Atari stuff and see what I can find.
@both - yes please, the board would be surplus to requirements otherwise, so nothing ventured, nothing gained
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Maybe I had/have an older copy. I recently unpacked some of my Atari collection but haven't had time to play with it much. I can look for my copy of VT10SQ, but unfortunately, I don't have a way to transfer it to my PC at the moment. Still, I could try it on my 800 and verify that it works. IIRC, there was a similar program called Ansiterm that was also a dumb terminal but supported the ANSI character set. That also ran on my 800.
I remember that as VT100SQ ("VT100 squared"), but yeah, it emulates a dumb terminal. I ran it on an unmodified 48K 800 as that was all I had 15-20 years ago. Could the program be having a problem with some of your other hardware?
I don't see how... It didn't run on the 800, so I swapped the 800 with the XEGS (unplugged SIO cable from the 800, plugged into the XEGS). If it didn't like my SIO2PC or something, well, it was still attached when it worked on the XEGS. I used the same DOS 2.0 boot disk image for both, too...
Maybe it was a different version you had, that worked on the 800?
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I remember that as VT100SQ ("VT100 squared"), but yeah, it emulates a dumb terminal. I ran it on an unmodified 48K 800 as that was all I had 15-20 years ago. Could the program be having a problem with some of your other hardware?
OK, I found another floppy with a copy (or at least, I think it's the same as what's on the bad disk).
Here's a .zip archive (includes bare Atari executable and an ATR image):
Maybe someone will recognize it... When you run it, you see a banner like this:
222 2 2 VV VV TTTTTTTTTT 11 00 2 VV VV TTTTTTTTTT 11 00 2 VV VV TT 1111 00 00 2 VV VV TT 1111 00 00 22222 VV VV TT 11 00 00 VV VV TT 11 00 00 VV VV TT 11 00 00 VV VV TT 11 00 00 VV VV TT 11 00 00 VV VV TT 11 00 00 VV TT 111111 00 VV TT 111111 00 by Dave Bailey and Alex Stevens (with help from a few others!!) Version 0.7
I've no idea whether this can be found in any of the archives on the 'net (Holmes, etc), but if not, I guess I've done my part for digital archaeology...
Edit: I've just found out this won't run on an 800. It seems to need at least a 64K machine (works on my XEGS). Bummer.
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Kewl. Does it work?
I have a Bentlyvision pong type machine. It's got the original box and it's complete too. The battery door is unfortunately broken, though I still have it.
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Glad you got it working. Mine just has a DC adapter jack. How many batteries does your Pong unit hold?
I found it! It needs some tweaking/reconditioning to eliminate screen noise. It's just a board without a box, and the layout of switches and pots fits that of a Coleco Telstar alpha, which is probably what it came out of way-back-when. So it is not the *original* Pong afterall but likely a ~1977 model. But still a relic.
I have a brown Super Pong kicking around. It is memorable to me because it has room for these big C or D cell batteries. This thing had the worst case of battery rot I'd ever seen. Twenty+ years of some old cardboard type batteries in this disgusting oozing mess.....so bad I had to use gloves to remove the batteries.
Still works even after the "ooze".
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Someone asked how the power supply could fail. If for example the transformer shorts out (melts), that could send line voltage into your Atari. I suspect that would be bad news.
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How'd you fix them?
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Pengwin,
I can sympathize. I had a similar experience when I dusted off and plugged in my Atari 8-bit equipment a few months ago. Is the DD set to D1:? Have you tried a different SIO cable? Also, have you tried the channel 2/3 switch on the 800XL in both positions and tried adjusting the TV tuning for each?
Hi, I've been lurking around this forum for some time now, just watching what's happening in the world of the Atari 8-bit. I finally decided to do some programming on the Atari, not done any since about 1988, so I dug out my trusty 800XL and 1050 DD. Plugged it all in turned it on and....
nothing
The power light came on on the Atari, but there was no signal to be found on the TV screen and the DD failed to start reading the DOS disk I had inserted.
I know this is a long shot, but does anyone have any ideas as to what could be the problem??
I remembered that the Oric, Spectrum and Atari all used a similar frequency on the TV, so I made sure I could tune it in to both of them, but still no luck with the 800XL.
Last time I started it up was about 2 years ago and I had no problems then, however, I have moved house and I'm wondering if this sort of thing can occur in transit and whether it is easily fixable.
Thanks for reading this and for any responses.
Mark
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lol. I haven't had mine running long enough to see if this happens.
The orignal Pong console from Atari (or at least the Tele-Games one that I have) does have a screensaver, though, actually. When you're not playing, a grid of dots moves diagonally across the screen and because of the way the system displayed color depending on horizontal position, the dots color change through the spectrum as they move. This is amazingly hypnotic, especially when you're stoned, and I suspect that many people in the '70s bought the system just for that reason.
...word is bondage...
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Thanks! That's a great resource and helps a lot.
Try link for Jerzy Sobola page: http://www.dereatari.republika.pl/schematy.htm - you can find here many schemats, maybe this page helps you.
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Yeah, I have two 400s that I bought years ago. One works, though, so I would canabalize the other one if I needed parts. Heh, actually, I had three of them. I gave one to a neighbor kid. It broke after a month. So I just gave him a working one in exchange.
I was helping a friend get an Atari 800 back online and I learned something that will keep me from never turning down an Atari 400 ever again. Atari 400 is a wealth of parts!!
Took one antic out of the 400 for the 800, and now the 800 is back online!And I find Atari 400's to this day here in Dallas for cheap. So while it might not be much of a computer... it's awesome for cheap parts!! (that are socketed none the less!)
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Does anyone have a circuit diagram or a service manual for the Atari 410 Recorder or a link to one? The circuit has only 3 active components, but I thought I would ask here before I draw out the circuit myself. Why reinvent the wheel if I don't have to, right?
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Which reminds me that I have a dead 410 that I want to take apart and look to repair. Anybody have any suggestions as to what's likely broken when it doesn't power up at all or know where I can find a circuit diagram? I'm guessing motor first, but I may change my mind when I open it and see the circuitry.
That is the original model 410. It was quickly replaced with the more familiar (and much more common) version.
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There's no screen saver, if that's what you mean. So any pixel/object that remained stationary on screen eventually would have burned out that spot on an old TV screen.
Ah, the Coleco Telstar! That brings back a lot of good memories... however, I think it did ruin our TV. Or was the idea of old video games wrecking TV's just an urban myth?
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I found it! It needs some tweaking/reconditioning to eliminate screen noise. It's just a board without a box, and the layout of switches and pots fits that of a Coleco Telstar alpha, which is probably what it came out of way-back-when. So it is not the *original* Pong afterall but likely a ~1977 model. But still a relic.
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I downloaded Xformer2000 yesterday (Atari 8 bit emulator). It is supposed to support PC joysticks, but when I select joystick in the menu, I can't get my joystick to work. Does anybody know how to enable joysticks for this emulator? Using the keyboard arrow keys just doesn't cut it.
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Zektor800,
Thanks for the info. I have an old P2 with a serial port, but I don't know if it's a real 16550 Uart or emulates it. I'll have a look when I get home. My other regret is that I had to get rid of a couple of old TVs that would have been great for setting up an Atari and cataloguing my disk collection. Moving is painful especially when it's downsizing.
How old a PC are we talking about for getting a sio2pc working? Is it mostly that the parallel port has to have a standard fixed address? Are there any other requirements? And here I got rid of an old PC in a recent move. (bangs head against wall)
(But I kept my Atari collection )If it were a traditional serial card with jumpers (so I would be able to force 3f8/2f8 IRQ 3/4) I would have had no problems from the get go. But those cards (in PCI form) are pretty hard to come by. Most of these are plug & pray, and Windows XP decides the address....and in most cases (including mine) it is not changeable. I guess it was considered progress in the ease of computing...never running into IRQ conflicts again. But the user that *wants* to configure is screwed in the process. Thank god Steven got it going for me. The guy REALLY knows his stuff. I'm just giddy about playing around with the few thousands of images I have archived
The PC itself does not have to be old at all....I am using it on a 3.4Ghz Pentium 4 HT. It is the serial ports/card. Newer PC's (mine included) do not even have serial or parallel ports. Everything is USB or Firewire nowadays. I did not even realize I did not have serial ports initially as I automatically assumed I did! All you would need is a serial card, but one that has a TRUE 16550 UART. Almost all newer cards are emulating the 16550, and these cards will not work. I got ahold of a SIIG PCI plug-n-play serial card with a true 16550 UART, and it now works great. Because of the nature of WinXP and PNP, the OS was forcing the card on an odd base address....and that needed Steven's adjustmet of the software to be able to see the card. Yes, an initial rocky road, but all well worth it. It is working so well now, and I am completely enjoying it. The best investment in time and money I think I ever spend in regards to retrogaming.
This is the card I purchased:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=320026786366
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Sounds like maybe the older the better. But I was more interested in how new a PC could be and still use the sio2pc.
You can get an SIO2PC interface working on some pretty old PCs.
The original SIO2PC, back when the name meant the software not the interface cable, ran on a 80286, at least I think it did.
I use AtariSIO (Atari disk emulator for Linux written by Hias Reichl). It has pretty minimal system requirements, though I don't know not what the lower limit is. The slowest machine I use is a Toshiba Libretto 50CT, a Pentium 75 system.
I use the bootdisk version of AtariSIO but you don't actually need a bootdisk (floppy by the way) to use it. The mini Linux it runs on will launch from DOS.
Just for fun I made a couple of bootCDs (eltorito format), one each with plenty of binary files and/or ATRs. Had another CD that loaded random games but I lost track of it. It was just a novelty.
The boot CD, in general, is cool because it doesn't need a hard disk. Just boot from the CD and you're serving up Atari files.
- Steve Sheppard
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How old a PC are we talking about for getting a sio2pc working? Is it mostly that the parallel port has to have a standard fixed address? Are there any other requirements? And here I got rid of an old PC in a recent move. (bangs head against wall)
(But I kept my Atari collection )If it were a traditional serial card with jumpers (so I would be able to force 3f8/2f8 IRQ 3/4) I would have had no problems from the get go. But those cards (in PCI form) are pretty hard to come by. Most of these are plug & pray, and Windows XP decides the address....and in most cases (including mine) it is not changeable. I guess it was considered progress in the ease of computing...never running into IRQ conflicts again. But the user that *wants* to configure is screwed in the process. Thank god Steven got it going for me. The guy REALLY knows his stuff. I'm just giddy about playing around with the few thousands of images I have archived
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A museum. That's great! I'm glad you found a good home for it. (BTW, they shouldn't have any trouble finding unused punch cards on Ebay and cheap.)
I have great news, I put the computer on ebay and it sold!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...13073%26fvi%3D1
I know it's only twenty bucks, but the email I got from thye guy made it totally worth it.
" Your “computer” is going to the museum we (midatlanticretro.org) are building at the InfoAge Learning Center (formerly Camp Evans) in Belmar (infoage.org). We are planning to rent a truck in the next couple of weeks to pick up several other items. We would like to pick the computer up at that time. Do you have any manuals or other documentation for the machine? Obviously we would like to include anything you have as it may make it possible to turn the machine into a working exhibit. Also, do you have any cards – blank or used?"
What are the chances?
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Hey, that looks like fun. But I pretty much learned all the hardware and software ins&outs of the Atari 8-bits back in the 80's and early 90's, and I'm not sure I would want to revisit it
Somebody needs to make a $50 6809 game unit with Atari style graphics systems! Enough screen limitations to keep the 8bit allure alive, but a more powerful CPU to enable more complex experiences.
(I know, nobody but a few of us would care, but still....)
Something kinda like this?
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I too liked programming in ACTION! because it resembles Pascal and C which I used on other platforms. But eventually I built up a library of assembler routines and programmed in that. I could write very fast and lean code. This was back in the 80's of course. 6502 machine code isn't complicated, but I've forgotten the hardware and the details of display lists and squeezing the most out of 48/64K and all that. But it was fun.
Basic XE+ or whatever it was named has always been a favorite of mine, but I've seen people on here sing the praises of some PD basics.
Action is a prett cool language as well.
Yes, of course. Free public domain Turbo BASIC XL completely replaces Atari BASIC, with 3x - 7x faster execution, compiled programs gain even more speed. Unfortunatelly TBXL works just with XL/XE series of computers. Does anybody know if BASIC XE has runtime package for all others who do not own original cartridge?
Action! became my choice for programming. Executable files are very close to assembler in speed, even resulting code can be reduced if you know how. Its syntax has many similarities to Pascal and C, so it was logical choice for me. And reusing the code, modular programming, in-array assembler... I like it.
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Pondering putting broken 400 and 410 up for sale/trade
in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Posted
I have a 400 that powers up to blue screen. When I mothballed it ~15 years ago, it worked but had no sound (bad pokey). So I'll take it apart and reseat any socketed chips when I get some time. Have you tried that? My 410 also has some problems. It needs a new belt, and one of the rubber drive-shaft wheels has a flat from having sat in a closet for those same 15 years. So if I used a rubberband in place of the belt, it'll rewind but not advance past the flat. Probably not worth the money needed to fix it