rdemming

Maybe you can then donate to the Oton, the revolutionary Android game console that writes its own games. It has already raised a whopping $455 out of $1000000 in the past month. Robert

With running any 2600 game online you mean something similar like this? Can you explain what makes your plan different than running an emulator inside a webbrowser?

He was also making problems on the Dingoonity forums under the name "danilop2k2" and after he was banned under the name "GCWB". He preordered a GCW-Zero (Opensource Linux gaming handheld) and got impatient that delivery takes longer than expected. Then he rudely demanding a refund after he tried to re-sell his pre-order to people on the waiting list at a profit. Robert

For those that love the Dizzy serie, it seems this one won't make it: Dizzy Returns

Yes, the CD dev BIOS is an unencrypted ROM and can only be run by a BIOS that skips the encryption check. Thus you must use the Atari dev BIOS (stubulator) in the Jaguar to be able to use a CD dev unit. If you are handy, you can install a flash chip in the Jaguar with the dev BIOS. Would be interesting to test if the CD dev bios can be encrypted and be used on a retail Jaguar. Robert

Maybe a 'CIB' Giana Sisters would be worth something to collectors since it was taken from the market after "complaints" from Nintendo. Thus a CIB is quite rare and the game has somewhat of a cult status. Robert

Internal MyIDE uses the PBI IO ($D100) range. Thus when using a PBI device that also uses the PBI IO range, you need to disable the internal MyIDE. You can do this by adding a switch in the wire that runs between pin 14 of the 74LS138 chip and MyIDE. You probably also need to pull the now "floating" wire of MyIDE to +5V (I believe it is active low) via a pull-up resistor. Robert

Maybe you can use the LensLok emulator to decode the code. I think it lists only the spectrum games but maybe one of those use the same LensLok as an Atari game. Robert

Not being able to turn your Jaguar off is a common side effect once you start playing with your Jaguar Robert

Hi Marius, It is not the U1MB flash chip with the firmware (software) for the Atari I'm talking about. There are two types of firmware in the U1MB: The flash memory chips contain the firmware (software) used by the Atari computer. This one can be programmed in system and is the one you are talking about. The Xilinx chip contains the programmable logic firmware which ties the components (flash, Atari, ram, etc) together at a hardware level. This is the firmware I'm talking about. This can only be updated by a JTAG cable and not in system. The same is true for the Incognito board which also contains these two kinds of firmware. In case of the U1MB, the latests U1MB batch has updated programmable logic in the Xilinx chip to make it possible to use the SIDE card as a PBI device. The old version of U1MB can also be updated with the new logic but this requires an update of both the Xilinx chip firmware and the Atari firmware. Robert

AFAIK on a 800XL and 800XE, DOS 2.5 does not setup a ram disk. That it is setting up a ramdisk on on 130XE without extended ram chips is because the 130XE is wired differently. Check the 800XE board (which is the same PCB as the 130XE) and you will see that besides the missing ramchips, the EMMU chip is removed and replaced by some zero ohm resistors. On a 800XE/800XE/65XE, setting the port B bits always access the same memory (main bank). But when you do same on a 130XE without the ram chips, normal settings for port B will access the main bank of ram chips and setting port B will access the extended bank of ram chips. Since there are no ram chips in the extended bank, you will get random data. If DOS 2.5 checks for extended memory by only setting some value in the main memory, then switching to the extended bank to read the value, then it will see that those are different because the missing bank will return some undefined value. On a 800XL/800XE it will return the value of the regular bank which is of course the same as the value written. Remember that at the time of DOS 2.5, such a simple check is sufficient to check for extended memory since there are only two configurations. Robert

From what I understood the JTAG cable FJC is talking about is just a cable connecting to the parallel port. So no programmer needed, just a PC with parallel port. But when searching on the internet I see many variants of a JTAG cable and I don't know which one is needed for the U1MB. So a pointer to the required cable and programmnig software would be appreciated . I have a cheap USB Genius G540 eprom/flash/avr/pic/pal programmer but that does not support JTAG devices. Robert

I somehow get the feeling you used a crack of LSD for the conversion Robert

I'm still waiting for instructions (or link to) to build a JTag cable so I can upgrade my old U1MB firmware to the new U1MB firmware Robert

Thanks, I've found it. I was searching the magazine for a link to the atariuser.com website but since it is a shortened URL it didn't find it. Robert

Great info about First Star Software! The interview with Richard was interesting. But I don't see a download link for the First Star Anniversary PDF anywhere in the magazine. I only found the statement "Download more classified documents from this issue’s bonus page!" on page 34 but since you switched to payloadz.com for distribution, I haven't seen any link to the webpage containing the usual downloads belonging to the issue. So please where can I find the link to the First Start bonus PDF? Robert

A CF-card has a "real" IDE interface but the connector is just smaller. IDE-2-CF adapters are passive adapters that just wire from an IDE connector to a CF connector. So a CF-card is a "real" IDE device that just happens to use flash memory for its storage. Robert

The STSound code is also used in the SainT emulator (one of the best for running games/demos). It also supports advanced YM tricks like SID sound. In my ears it sounds like very like a real ST but my ears also think a 128Kbs MP3 is good quality so that does not say much An alternative is to look at the YM source of the excellent Hatari emulator. It has some influences from STsound but also others. Robert

The ST-Sound source code is available which could be a starting point to convert to DSP code if anyone would be interested. But as far as I remember the sound of ST Star Raiders is not so good so better replace it with samples. But an YM DSP player would be great for all those great Mad-Max/Count Zero/Scavenger/Tao/etc. tunes. Robert

I know Psygnosis only from the Amiga/ST games. I wonder if there were any people from the Amiga/ST era still at Psygnosis after 2000? I like the Lynx version of SotB. In parts it is quite different that the Amiga/ST version but I think it gave the game more depth. Robert

Lol, you do know Kaarts is German for Karts I meant of course in "Kaarst". My German geography is not so good The twitter message is from 5 October so the decision was indeed made quite recently. But now 10 days later I would have expected an announcement here. Robert

Seems that the €-JagFest is on the 3rd of November 2012 at the usual place in Kaarts. Strangely nobody did an announcement on AtariAge while it is only less than 3 weeks away. Robert

Yes, there are several different flavours of PAL and the UK used a different version than most of the other EU countries. (I believe you didn't hear sound because that is on a different frequency). But you would expect that modern TVs can use every PAL version nowadays. But why don't you use a SCART (RGB) cable. Every EU TV has a SCART connection and SCART give a far better picture than using the modulator. Robert

Wow, my ram carts just arrived. Very fast. And the carts look great and very professional with the etched text. Thank you very much! Robert