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JohnBuell

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Posts posted by JohnBuell

  2. Posted

    Thanks! Its always nice to get feedback, especially good! :D

     

    After I have done the Lynx one I will be following up with a Jaguar one.

     

    And one of these days I will unearth where ever the heck my brother's old Jaguar went to, and get into its games again ;)

  3. Posted

    Hello all. I'm at it again, modding yet another Atari, but am a little lost with this one. At first I thought it would be easy, till it got to the part where I'm supposed to solder in all the components into the open spot on the mother board.

     

    The picture below shows the area where I am supposed to do all the soldering, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what is what, I.E. which connection is R124, which one is R136, R137, etc. Some of them seem obvious, but some look like they could be one of two points.

     

    Also Sloopy mentioned that there is an easier method...

     

    ...any guides on this?

     

    I did this recently, but didn't take any photos, sorry :(

    Be careful what you solder where, as I wound up having the monitor jack working, but b/w only!

  4. Posted

    For those that are interested Part 1 of my Lost Lynx Games Guide appears in the latest issue of Atari User magazine.

     

    Follow the link in my sig :cool:

     

    Ah ha, that was you? Nicely done! Looking forward to the next part!

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    Anyone ever see these for sale anywhere?

     

    Is this the one that was supposed to be released as part of the AtariLab series, got a CES demo, and never again saw the light of day?

     

    If so I'm interested too. I always thought AtariLab was a cool idea, but just how much can you do with a thermometer and a light sensor? :)

     

    On the other hand, name for me another company which had the foresight to plug a little bulb in a 5v socket back in 1983? Yep, Atari invented the USB-light...well, sort of. ;)

  7. Posted · Edited by JohnBuell

    Ironically I will be doing demonstrations of my SIO2SD this Saturday for the Suburban Chicago Atarians. Thanks for posting the links guys, that way I can present who is still making the units, and for how much.

     

    The demonstration went fairly well. I have to say I'm a bit biased towards the SIO2SD for having the LCD panel that comes with it (and I don't, as yet, own an SDrive). I didn't do anything fancy, just explained the theories, how to get the SD card to work (both initial configuration and changing the directory tree structure from a Mac, a Linux box or a Windows box), and popped it in and booted a few different ATRs. I even booted a Translator image on the club's 130XE, then navigated the directories to get the original Blue Max to boot.

     

    One of the guys said he didn't realize that Atari had ever made an 8bit modem as small as the XM301, which houses mine.

     

    Flashjazzcat, they were suitably impressed by your case mod work. :)

  9. Posted

    Where can you download the new firmware?

    How do you load the new firmware to the Sio2SD device?

     

    http://sourceforge.n...s/sio2sd/files/

    http://sio2sd.gucio.pl/index_en.html

    http://sio2sd-dev.gu...iki/Features_en

    To perform firmware upgrade, just put SIO2SD.BIN into the root directory, then insert card with this file and press proper key combination.

    Note: the directory named ATARI must be present on the card or else SIO2SD won't recognize the card and won't perform the upgrade.

     

    Is there a way to tell which Firmware it is running (or not running)? I took my SD card, put it in a USB reader, plugged it into my Windows laptop, downloaded SIO2SD.BIN to the E:\ directory, put it back in the SIO2SD drive, held down the two buttons, and I'll be darned if it's doing anything. I didn't know about holding down button #4 to get the config options, that's handy.

  12. Posted

    OK, I stand wrong (again). It uses a roll of special heat paper, only about 5 inches wide, and four pens, black, red, blue, green. The pens dry out fairly much, but I imagine the new 1020 has the pens in sealed container. I've had a few of them. I recall they break fairly easy, and are mostly good for line pictures, sorta pinwheels and circles programs. I wrote a biorhythm program for it. There are instructions how to use BASIC in the plotter manual.

    It isn't thermal (heat-sensitive) paper; it's just an ordinary roll of paper. There's about a 50% chance that the pens are dead; about half the ones I've opened have dried out, and the other half seem to work fine (although not for long, in some cases). B&C ComputerVisions sells rolls of 1020 paper, and they also offer new plotter pens that are imported from somewhere in Europe.

     

    The 1020 has a built-in vector font, so it can print text in a variety of sizes as well as graphics. It was especially useful for things like diskette catalogs; you could print out a directory list from DOS and tape it to the diskette sleeve.

     

    The sample programs included with the 1020 are on cassette tape, but I converted them to diskette for my own use. See the attached image.

     

    Atari1020MasterDisk.atr

    It's Germany actually. They hiked the prices and B&C isn't carrying them anymore. See my post at: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/154287-atari-1020-printer/page__view__findpost__p__2004703

  16. Posted

    Did anything ever come of this? I was thinking during a long drive recently about what one could do for piano transcriptions that could potentially use ten notes simultaneously (or close to 10). If some kind of quad-pokey were possible, 8 voices on stereo left and 8 voices on stereo right, I would love to try to write music for it.

  17. Posted

    Huh, it looks like the Dorsett version was released twice. Thanks to PitfallJones's list http://www.pitfalljones.com/0800-med.htm - start with the "Original releases" and you'll find the Atari one, then scroll down to the Applications set, and you'll see one version of the Dorsett cartridge (the one I have), which is a Dorsett label on an Atari cartridge case. BUT also have a look at http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/116882-atari-8-bit-cartridges-a-big-list/page__view__findpost__p__1415592 and you'll see the same Dorsett label on a generic looking cartridge case.

     

    Personally I think trying to find and "rescue" the tapes will be more interesting, but if anyone is still working on a complete set of cartridges, there ya go. :)

  18. Posted

    There are two versions of this cartridge - the Atari one with the "flying owl" logo, which you can see at http://www.atarimuseum.com/atarieducation/education-menu/edu-menu.htm or you can see a partial image of the cartridge at http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/xe_game.htm (do an in-page search for educational system manager). Brad also has several of the original titles listed for historical purposes, but just two sets of tapes.

     

    The second version of the cartridge is the Dorsett Educational Systems one (they actually did all of the Talk and Teach lectures for Atari). You can see an example at eBay Auction -- Item Number: 3102555273771?ff3=2&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&item=310255527377&mpt=[CACHEBUSTER] or check out a 1983 ad on Google for the entire package: http://books.google.com/books?id=jzjRzYMdo4sC&pg=PA137&lpg=PA137&dq=dorsett+educational+systems+atari&source=bl&ots=YFuw69UR_X&sig=1X2JaUAxuuQcXE_G_OXk0w805Jw&hl=en&ei=JlmyTPyUK8ednAf1m6GJCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CB8Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=dorsett%20educational%20systems%20atari&f=false

     

    Sadly Dorsett merged with another company which in turn got bought out by a maker of novelty goods. I dunno if anyone has unearthed a treasure trove of tapes yet. But I did finally get my hands on two of the US History tapes.

     

    Here's how it works. Start an A8 with the Education master cartridge, and a connected cassette player (I've been using a 410 for right now, but only because my 1010 is in storage, I aim to get it out this week and test it, I might post a video clip online if I get better results). Press start when prompted, and various lectures will begin, AND text/graphics will follow the lectures on screen. The graphics aren't that exciting, simple Atascii art, but still kinda cool. Periodically, you get prompted to answer a question. Press #1 on the keyboard if the leftmost answer on the screen is correct, #2 if it's the one in the center, or #3 if it's the one on the right (sometimes you only get a choice of #1 and #3). The tapes are long, but are easily stopped between lectures, that can be resumed later.

     

    BUT, due to the age of the cassettes, although I've had no problems with the audio (so far), the text/graphics being drawn simultaneously on the screen get 'glitchy.' There's probably no real way to help this short of some really good dubbing/audio cleaning software. If anyone is interested, I've been kicking around the idea of re-recording just the lectures and saving them without the data.

     

    Oh and as far as I've been able to tell (so far, owning just 2 tapes in the US History set of four, and the spelling set that I haven't tried yet), these packages did NOT come with any kinds of guides or workbooks, unlike the later foreign language sets (Spanish, German, French and Italian, which also run with just BASIC, and don't need the Education Master Cartridge).

    • Like 2

  19. Posted

    I got an Atari Education Master Cartridge for $25 (the Dorsett version, not the original Atari one), and I've already got two sets of tapes. What a cool idea, text on the screen while it reads off the tape, too bad the tapes are degrading. But I'm NOT going for whatever nut that is trying to sell more tapes WITHOUT the cartridge for $499.

     

    I got the master cartridge, too, and boxed! It's in the small, green 2600 cart sized box, not the larger format boxes that Atari sometimes used.

     

    Aw man, this one was loose. I still like the concept, it has me tempted to dub and rerecord the tapes to see if more of the text and graphics will appear correctly.

  22. Posted · Edited by JohnBuell

    I recently got my hands on a stock NTSC 130XE. I've tried a couple of the 128K demos for it that I couldn't with any of my other machines. Not bad, but still doesn't seem to run as much as my old 800XL did. That machine (the 800XL) is back in storage for now. I've got my dad's modded (upgraded memory) 800, a 48k 400, another 800 I just acquired and haven't played with yet, a 600XL I added the monitor jack to, but still running just the 16K, a 65XE with SVideo I got off eBay, and the 800XE for PAL demos. No memory or video upgrades beyond what I've mentioned, and I've got the SIO2SD and SIO2PC/USB. I'm thinking about getting an SIO/Spider next and the flash cart programmer and usb cart from atarimax. After that I dunno, I guess it depends on if another run is done of a 320XL like external upgrade (did I mention I suck at soldering?)

  23. Posted

    you do know the megamax modul is preprogrammed?

     

    and nice alphacom, now you can print reciepts ;')

     

     

    sloopy.

     

    Funny, I can't get the Megamax Modul to do anything other than light up, and it didn't even want to do that at first.

     

    the 16k and ON buttons have to be down (left and right ones) and then it works...

     

    sloopy.

     

    Tried that. Played with the buttons in several different arrangements on a 130XE and 800XE and all I get is either READY or Self Test Mode.

  24. Posted

    There is ALSO a device from Best Electronics (email to ask) called the APE Link Interface (not the APE Face printer device)... I believe last one I purchased was $21.00 (with three SIO ports, you just supply a half SIO cable)

     

    Here are photos of mine http://orph.atarinet...?g2_itemId=4414

     

    it comes as a kit and is super easy to build, my first one was a little flakey, but I think that's my fault... the Second one is rock solid!

     

    Well, I utterly suck at soldering, so I think I'd rather get someone else to do it.

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