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Everything posted by FastRobPlus
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I think the TRS CGP-220 adds Serial to the parallel of the Canon PJ1080a. I seem to remember that they aren't fully driver compatible with one another.
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I'm a big fan of this printer too. Unfortunately the ink path is normally pretty gummed up for most of them you may come across, requiring a teardown. The pumping mechanisms for the ink are also getting clogged and I have had mixed luck tearing down the piezoelectric head and pump assemblies and cleaning them ultrasonically. Also, the firmware varies a lot from printer to printer so you can't bank on compatibility, and the ROM sizes differ making it hard to use one versions' firmware with another. This is a tractor feed version of this - the IBM Color Jetprinter v2 - but yeah the rolls work really well even without tractor feed for banners. Unfortunately I only used this printer on an Amiga and don't know what supports it for the A8. I did manage to refurbish this one last month: To the OP I still might recommend the Okimate 10 because while it's slow and getting hard to find ribbons for (which do not yield a lot of prints, not to mention the OEM branded coated paper is un-finadable) it still has a lot going for it. It takes little space, needs no interface, is well supported and ought to be very low maintenance, and you can just set an ebay search to find some ribbon bargains that come up from time to time.
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I'd like to add stereo to one of my Ataris. I don't know of any good solutions around right now, but I did stumble across this Simple Stereo V2 in a drawer. Is there an assembly guide somewhere? Mostly I just need the resistor/cap values and the switch info. Lotharek's website is still around but I thought I'd ask here to save having to setup an account there.
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Discovered(?) The New Aladdin Collection disk magazine
FastRobPlus replied to Savetz's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
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Discovered(?) The New Aladdin Collection disk magazine
FastRobPlus replied to Savetz's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
I was unclear - have the A8 vol. 287 and A8 vol. 387 not been dumped yet? -
Discovered(?) The New Aladdin Collection disk magazine
FastRobPlus replied to Savetz's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
I was just digging out some disks and found in my collection some New Aladdin magazine disks so I came here to see what others knew about the magazine. I wanted to thank Kevin for the Antic Podcast interview that I just listened to. I was surprised to hear "Amiga" mentioned many times. I did a few quick web search and as far as I can tell, there is no online evidence that this ever actually came out for the Amiga despite John Henson saying that it did. Has anyone ever see an Amiga version of New Aladdin? (and if so, is it archived somewhere?) Also, I appreciate Kevin asking the obvious question - why was it named The New Aladdin? When I took about the disks recently I had an epiphany that it was an allusion to the user being a kind of New Aladdin and it turns out that was correct! But if I could talk to John Henson I think I'd tell him that as a teen in the 80's, I saw The New Aladdin subscription ads and assumed that it was trying to say that there had been a earlier computer magazine called Aladdin that folded and The New Aladdin was a re-launch attempt. I distinctly remember being interested in subscribing but deciding that it was too dangerous because the fact that it was "The New Aladdin" proved that it had already gone out of business once before! -
Agree that this game is really, really fun. While obviously not scary, the atmosphere and sound effects are great.
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Now that I have a VBXE for my NTSC Atari I can't wait to try this! I'm not a huge fan of the game, but have some strong memories of it when as a child I was part of cohort in a University of Washington research study on learning and the researchers used "Speed of learning to play the arcade game Popeye" as a baseline test (I think because Popeye had just been released and there was nobody with prior experience of it.)
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Desk space organizer for Atari XLs
FastRobPlus replied to FastRobPlus's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Hey TJ! Yes it was 3D printed on a large format 3D printer. You can see a slight difference in color partway through as I was using up cheap material. -
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Desk space organizer for Atari XLs
FastRobPlus replied to FastRobPlus's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Interesting. Is there a similar mod for the 1200XL? -
Desk space organizer for Atari XLs
FastRobPlus replied to FastRobPlus's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
You're probably right about vents. I've considered adding ducting throughout to carry air from a small blower fan as a means of cooling both the 1200 and the drives. -
I've always been annoyed by the sprawl of disk drives and peripherals all over my desk. It's actually worse recently as I collect more vintage computers. The 1400XLD's big appeal is the way it makes the home Atari XL into a conventional (for the era) desktop PC. I began to think somebody should have made a custom stand for the XL line similar to the "Bodega Bay" expansion for the Amiga: So I mocked this up in 3D to get a feel for what it might look like: So anyway, here's my first attempt at bringing this to the real world: It seems to work really well. I left a notch in the left side to support easy access to the power switch regardless of XL system used. I worry about ventilation since I didn't engineer in a lot of clearance. Any suggested edits? I was thinking maybe a custom dedicated power supply. I was also thinking this would look really sleek with two Indus GT drives in place of the 1050s.
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It's exactly the size of a raspberry pi 3a board. I don't recall the dimensions offhand, but the Pi "A" form factor is the one that fits exactly inside an Altoids mints tin.
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Yes. That's a thing that sits on a raspberry Pi and gives you an MT-32 clone. It's actually one of a few options out there. Here's the github for it: https://github.com/chris-jh/mt32-pi-midi-hat Update for Paul - I worked the kinks out of the high fidelity DAC and now it outputs to that just fine. And I've built 3 more of the these and am only waiting on the DAC modules for them (Thursday) to finish!
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Useful for very old contacts
FastRobPlus replied to ParanoidLittleMan's topic in Atari ST/TT/Falcon Computers
I've been using this stuff which I think is pretty good: https://www.amazon.com/MG-Chemicals-Contact-Cleaner-Aerosol/dp/B001U3X3PA I do find the precise flow spraying mechanism is not very well made. It tends to be messy. -
I'm sure others will weigh in with better recommendations as my ST troubleshooting experience is mostly faded memories from the late 80s, but I think the most common failure is RAM on those old systems. Would you be able to take the cover off, move the keyboard aside and re-seat any socketed ICs? After this, power the computer and see if any of the RAM chips get unusually hot.
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Thanks for tracking down all that info! I've been toying with the idea of relocating the CMI Processor Accelerator into the Stacy so I can have the blitter (I do realize that having a hardware blitter isn't really as big deal, I just kind of want one.) When I attempt to replace the screen I'll get a look inside and understand the space situation better.
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I just built an MT-32 emulator board so I can play Ultima with MIDI on my Stacy. I have a question I think you can answer Darklord: I feel like I can stuff this board, a small amp and a speaker all in the cavity that the Stacy was supposed to use to house its batteries. Then I could probably get 5V and the MIDI serial lines from the motherboard and route those in through a gap. This would give the Stacy portable MIDI audio. My question is: Is there something better I should be using that empty batter space in the Stacy for?
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Oh so this is your design? I think it's a great device for ST collectors. I actually saw somebody in using one over the weekend that reminded me I'd started down the path of trying to install one internally on my Stacy to replace the 30+ year old spinning platter drive. That person gave me a an original (non-fm) 520ST so now I guess I have two candidates for this device!