[130xe keyboard problem]

Hi,

 

This is a common problem with the Atari 130 XE keyboard.

I used Nickel Print to fix the traces a few times. This seems to be a quick

fix and give you enough time to order a new mylar from Best Electronics.

 

A new mylar will last at lease 10 years.

 

-Atari8man-

[Berzerk on other platforms]

Hi,

 

I have the Berzerk Prototype with vioce! for the Atari XL/E.

I got it as a binary in the late 80's and it rocks.

It's still one step up from the new 2600 version and has more voice, and better room graphics. But that machine has 64k ram, a bigger OS and other features. Its just amazzing that the 2600 can do it with voice and Atari should have had a second release of the rom with voice.

The new 2600 version of Berzerk is veary close to it's bigger brother the XL/E.

 

/| Atari8man /|

[Supercharger Mod- what to test with?]

The Supercharger mod is easy to do, and its well worth it.

The hardest part was mounting the switch! I did not cut the board as the docs showed, what I did was mount the switch on the outside.

Its best to go slow and take your time, ask question if you need to.

But when your done you have something nice to show off.

I now load all 2k and 4k games plus all the Supercharger games from CD rom. I now can play games like Boing! and other that would cost a ton of money if bought on ebay. I will take some pictures and post it here this week of the SC mod.

 

/|Atari8man/|

[Atari 2600 I, Robot Discovered!]

Ok I hate you, You got me good this time

IRobot was a great game and I had tons of fun playing it in the arcades, When I saw it in 2600 format I started to drool and the I saw the text on the screen..

 

Shame on you!

 

/| Guy /|

[Favorite game on 8-bit]

Well in 1979 I was blew away when I first played Star Raiders, since then I've played just about every game made for the XL/XE line

so here go's

 

Star Raiders

Jr Pacman

Koronis Rift

Tron

Rockman

Saper

Mission Shark

Mad Stone

Caverina

Draconus

Zybex

 

There's just to many awesome games for the Atari but there you are.

 

Atari8Man

[Doom for atari 8bit]

Hi Heaven,

 

Im just wondering about a few things that's not in the FAQ.HTM file:

 

1) dose the gun swing left and right when a player walks?

 

2) will it use *.wad files like the PC game if so this would be great for programmers to make added levels.

 

3) will it also use ems or expanded memory if detected to load more levels to reduce slow sio calls?

 

Thats about it, I also would like to see a demo run at boot up

 

Atari rools!

But you already know that

 

Atari8Man

[Seriously clever 8 bit]

Kool, I also had a c64 with disk drive and a ton of games back in the mid 80's infact I was looking into running a bbs with it. That never happen, the Hard drives at that time for the c64 could only handle 190k partitions!! (Yuk) that would be around 100 or more partitions on a 20 meg drive. Plus finding a rs232 device was hard, so the c64 was out of the BBS picture. There was some good games for the c64 that I wished we had for the Atari XL/E like (Knight Games and Fairlight) and maybe a few others but there also lot of awesome games for the Atari that the c64 never got. I realy love 8bit games!! I enjoy them dearly, now that everybody has the PC's and I have 3 of them I only play a few games on it 'Doom,Quake and Unreal' plus a few driving games like Wipeout XL, Rollcage and MotoRacer. I just dont collect PC crap theres to much of it.

I guess where lucky that we have 8bits cause programmers have pushed the same hardware for almost 20 years not like the PC where your system is completly out dated in just 6 months

The SIO2PC cable is Kool, I made a few of them and sold them on Ebay, I have an old 386 DX25 Mhz just for it, and I would love to replace the 386 with a laptop to save space. I found an old 8088 XT system in the trash and it works great with the SIO2PC!

I dont think the c64 folks have a device like it.. I did find a company on the net Called CMD that make good hardware for the c64 but it cost way more that the Atari devices doses.

You have a nice system and I think you want to take it to the next level? you may want to save up for the Black Box (CSS) you'll be veary Happy you did!

 

Atari8Man

 

[ 12-16-2001: Message edited by: Guy ferrante ]

[I need an atari guru!!!!]

I thought it was ATAR-E ?

[Is that it..For Prototypes?]

Tempest are you planning to dump the Star Raiders prtotype? Im dying to play it! oh and Klax with the cool Fuji's?

 

Atari8Man

[8-Bit Hard Drive]

Hi,

 

The 2 mio I have are 256k each, the ram in the MIO's where used as a hard drive cache that speeded the MIO's up. The cache driver was wrote by Craig Carter, its amazzing I still remember names of programmers and sysop from 20 years ago. I still have all my Atari stuff and will set it up viva telnet on 1 slave and the other slave will have a dialup, a util cmd is in the works for the caller on the dialup to browse the internet from the other slave thats connected to the PC. Thats what Im working on also a photo session . When you ran your BBS was Carina

owned by (Shadow) Dave Hunt?

 

He was a caller on my board for years. You can still get a New Black Box from CSS its like the MIO but uses super fast scsi drives that are easy to find and dirt cheap. The BB cost $200.00

 

I was lucky a few years ago I was at the Ham fest in Orlando FL and bought 5 segate st225 20 meg drives at $1.00 each, all formated perfect with no errors.

 

Even these days Im looking for the old MFM drives for the MIO, I was looking for replacement backup drives for the Segate ST4096 and I browsed the vendors on the web and one vendor had them in stock for $175.00 each!!! the 2 St4096 drives I have can from dead PC's (free!)

 

I remember the days when Atari 8bit BBS ruled!

 

/| Atari8Man /|

[Future games?]

DOOM! I want doom for the Lynx..

I may just buy the GBA just for a portable doom. I would rather have it for the Lynx.

 

Atari8man

[REAL Atari Carina II BBS online and accessible via the Inter]

Shadow the last author of Carrina BBS was a Member on my BBS for years. I ran BBS Epress Pro but had a DL sig for Carrina mods and have them on CD rom now if you need anything I may just have it. My BBS was in Miami Fl and my good friend Jeff Worley (Technoid Mutant) ran 'Cheeze Daddys house of Funk' with Carrina. Ring any Bells?

 

Atari8Man

[8-Bit Hard Drive]

Dos 2.9 - Dos 3 both have no PBI code and cant see the Hard drive interface. Use Sparta dos or Mydos 4.5 both have full PBI code and sub-directory support.

 

Atari8Man

[8-Bit Hard Drive]

Hey Albert what BBS software did you use? my BBS (Star Net Omega) pro node 449 multi-line with BB/2-MIO and a Multi-plexer with 500 megs storage for DL files.

The Master had the BB and a 300 meg scsi drive the 2 slaves had MIO's with adaptec 4000 controllers each controller had 2 ST4096 (80 meg) MFM Hard drives, all my MFM HD where pulled from Dead IBM PC's and after some years all 500 megs where full, the BBS program alone was over 14 megs in size! I took the BBS off line in 1999 after a 11 year run. I have moved most of my 8bit files to the PC for CD rom burnning. Im at the 2 GIG mark!! and Im not done yet.. Theres seems to be Millions of 8bit files.

 

Atari8Man

[anyone using BBS express Pro?]

Yes Tom Hunt CGS Xlation for Pro BBS was great, I had lets see ASCII/ATASCI/RIP/CGS/IGS/ANSI/VT52 on Star Net Omaga BBS node 449. Im missing a few CGS files like the converter program that converts koala files to CGS files. anyone have them please send asap.

 

Tom Hunt wrote some of the most awesome PRO util ever and he still is pushing the 8bit!!

now with his new ATOS gui Desktop.

 

Atari8man

[Seriously clever 8 bit]

Hi,

 

I put the system together in 1990, I order the Black Box and Multi-plexer From CSS in NY the price was a bit steep $350.00 There's nothing like hooking up the BB to the 8bit, you'll be jumping up and down at the speeds. The Multiplexer in a real Networking system, each slave can access what ever is on the master, each slave can chat (send packets) to each other in realtime. I ran Pro BBS multi-line with 2 phone lines and it was awesome, user would chat with each other. The Software that comes with the Mux is all you need.

 

My 1 meg XL has the Newell upgrade (hard as hell to do) I had a beta version with lots of bugs, but Wes Newell help me fix them. All my other XL are 512k rambo and more compatible with the XE's ANTIC mode that any other upgrade. You first need the 256k rambo or compatible then ad 1 decoder chip and 8 more ramchips. I also have 2 XE's one of them is 576k and the other is 320k. as you can see I hate stocked computers and must upgrade them rite away If you have an XE Bob Puff (CSS)has a 1 Meg upgrade (PD) but I would just do the 320k XE it rocks and is fully compatible with all the awesome polish demos that need extra ram, for the XL it 512k! it will run all the XE 320k demos.

 

The BOSS desktop can be found at www.atarixle.de Its also freeware and looks great! ATOS ROCKS, I too had some problem running it but there's a faq on the CTH website, with ATOS you can use ANY Atari demo as a screen saver!! and there's thousands of them all over the net! ATOS also will clean exit when you run programs or games under it! and then return back and your desktop will be just as it was.

Both ATOS and BOSS with work with the Multi-plexer BB and MIO's I have the SAM desktop, Dont bother with it! ATOS and BOSS rule.

 

I runn BBS Express Pro Multi-line It will use all my Atari hardware at the same time, I have also used IceT (term program) to surf the NET with a dialup to FREENET a service in most big Citys

You could also just use a proxy program and let the 8bits surf the NET with just a RS232 device and connect it to your PC.

CSS has the BEST 8bit hardware for the Atari, works forever and Bob Puff is a nice guy and would fix any problem you may have in a good turn around time (no more then 2 week) I know $350.00 bucks gets you a new P3 motherboard and CPU and ram.. but if your into old Atari computer and want to see them real rock! CSS is the way to go. I spend most of my time with my Atari's

 

Bob Puff also has Deals on a complete Hard drive setup give him a call.. I would get atlease a 300 meg super fast SCSI drive for starts If you want he would even do the formating for you at no cost and put whatever dos on it you want, and all you do is plug it in and boot! Both Sparta dos and mydos will boot in under 1 sec.

 

What type of system do you have?

 

Atari8Man

 

[ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: Guy ferrante ]

[8-Bit Hard Drive]

Oh lets not forget that even MSDOS 3 had the same problem with 16 meg partition limits and that was for the 16 bit itel 80286 chip.

 

Atari is Power with out the price.

 

Atari8man

[8-Bit Hard Drive]

The biggest Hard drive I formated with the Black box was 1 gig, the BB os rom had problems formating the last partition. A quick call to CCS and in no time a new rom was avalible. It took a LOOONG time to low level format the drive and then put all the partition information in and then format each partition!! Did it in 1992.

If I remember it was 96 partitions of 16 megs, a real wormhole.

 

Atari8Man

[Seriously clever 8 bit]

The SIO2PC is a slow device, The MIO and Black Boex's are DMA devices and are super fast. That PBI to ISA bridge device is also DMA (Super Fast) My Atari 8bits are fine just the way they are. System config:

 

Master: 800XL 512k ram with Black box amd 320 SCSI Hard drive and multiplexer

 

Slave 1: 800XL 1088k ram, MIO and 160 meg MFM Hard drive and multiplexer.

 

Slave 2: 800XL 512k ram, MIO 30 meg MFM Hard drive and multiplexer and SIO2PC to old 386 clone.

 

As you can see I have a LOT of 8bit hardware online, and it dose everything I need it to do just fine. Everything can still be bought at CSS in NY.

 

The ISA project is great if you have a lot of fee time to make it and program all the drivers for it.

 

I also agree that the Diamond Cart was a waste of money, I bought 2 of them and sold them on ebay when better Desktops came along like Tom Hunts ATOS and the BOSS system.

 

Atari8Man

[Barbarian! and some other late model 8-bit games]

Yes that it!! its a simple upgrade, most XL chips are on sockets and make the job easy, then some are not and must be de-solder. On the XE's its the same some have the Antic on sockets. I have all my XL/E with this upgrade! Full NTSC ans PAL compatible.

All of them also have the Super-Video upgrade and one of them has the Pokey-Gumby STEREO upgrade. Best Electronics has 2 versions of the ANTIC PAL you need the XE version for both XE and XL. Im the old sysop hacker from years gone by

 

But after you install the New Pal Antic chip its like getting a new computer!! All those european demos and games run Perfectly.

 

/| Atari8Man /|

[Activision Atari 2600 Remake]

H.E.R.O !! H.E.R.O !!

 

Tell me what Platform you have in mind?

I hope the 2600.

 

Beamrider is my second choice, Its awesome.

 

Atari8Man

 

Im jumping up and down over here

[Which game should be ported to ATARI 2600 ?]

Hi,

 

I would love to see Lode Runner on the 2600, there where talks in the early 80's that it was Comming Soon.

 

Atari8Man

[Barbarian! and some other late model 8-bit games]

Oh forgot, Barbarian is a Great game on the XL/E I also have it for the ST but I like the 8bit version better Out of this World has a bug in it, looks like a somewhat playable demo. World Karate Champ is one of the best 8bit games ever!!

 

I just wished that World Karate Champ II was released for the 8bit, I have the ST version and its great.

 

/| Atari8Man /|

[Barbarian! and some other late model 8-bit games]

Hi,

 

Its easy to Play ALL the european games and demos without the Pal flicker!! all you need to do is order a ANTIC pal chip from Best electronics for $12.00 and pop it in.

 

I have many Atari's here, 2600/Lynx/Jaguar and the 8bit Computer line also an ST 16bit system.

 

I use to run a Multiline BBS on 3 upgraded XL's each of them was eith 512k to 1088k ram all with Hard drives and a MUX network.

The BBS ran for 11 years and the 500 meg Hard drive was full of PAL games that just drove me crazy, so I started to research a fix and it was all so easy!! Change the Antic Chip!! I now run ALL Pal/NTSC games and demos perfectly!!

 

/| Atari8Man /|

[Announcing 'Qb' for NTSC]

I have upgraded all my XL's and XE with the Antic Pal chip, it will let you run all PAL and NTSC games. You can order this chip at Best Electronics for about $12.00 just pop it in and go. So you can then enjoy all those kool games and demos from europe without trying to patch them all.

 

Atari8Man