rdemming

There was also a video digitizer in a cart form. And in The Netherlands they also sold a cart that could decode the Teletext data in a TV signal and display and store the teletext pages on the ST. Coincidentally I got a box of old Atari magazines and was looking through it. I noticed an advert for two programs on cart, a database application called "Databox" and a typing course program. In another advert there was an advert for "Freezer Frame" which seems like a freezer cart that could save programs to a disk after pressing a button. Has anyone heard of this product? Robert

Maybe it was because at those days there were no digital cameras and people brought only their analog cameras when they went on holiday and not when they were going to the Atari store. Also capacity on analog film was limited and prints expensive so why waste a picture on a store front while you could better use it for a picture of your kids. And at that time I was still a kid so I didn't even have a camera. Nowadays I've have a camera in my phone which is always with me and I still don't make pictures of stores Robert

As already said, the cart range is only 128KB. Of course it can be extended using bank switching but compared to having 720KB on floppy, publishing on floppy was much cheaper. Also there is no write signal on the cart port so for bank-switching you need tricks like reading from specific locations to write data. Similar to Atari 2600 work arounds to bank-switch. The same tricks were needed to control sampler carts etc. Not much software was available on cart. One famous one is the Ultimate Ripper which was used to disassemble memory and rip graphics/music after a reaset. unfortunately it was not possible to continue. Another one was the Multiface cart. This was a dual mode cart. First it contained freezer that could be activated by generating a monitor interupt. But most games etc disabled the monitor interupt so it was of little use. But if it worked, you could continue your game. Furhter it was also an application cart. In this mode, the cart behaves like a rom disk (the lower-case 'c' device) which can be opened/listed on the desktop. It contained a file copy utility which I used a lot since you could see how much space the selected files would use on the destination disk. Also as far as I know, some (midi) software used a dongle in the cart port for copy protecten. Robert

It was Star Castle, and it raised $23946. Robert

A reboot?: http://www.thesilicashop.com/

I assume he is still using the same PCB so adding the activity leds should be possible. According to the schematics you need for each activity led: 4k7 resistor 470 resistor BC807-16LTSMD transistor And a led of course But since these (except the led) are smd components, you need good soldering skills. Robert

@remo: LOL, so you are in then? $15 for the full DRM free game is a bargain compared to BS. I know it has not much to do with BattleSphere except for the space battle thing, but it was a good excuse to get some attention for the game here. The game looks great and they have already done so much (a demo version can be downloaded), that it would be sad if they don't have the funds to get it finished. And it looks like my post already resulted in at least one extra backer @Gunstar:The game is for Windows and Apple Mac (DRM free). A Linux version is under consideration. As Austin already said, KickStarter is a community/crowd funding website. Here independent developers can raise funds from fans for development (e.g. when the big publishers are not interested or if you are a small Indie company). It is not limited to software projects but there are also hardware projects (e.g. ePaper watch), book projects (e.g. Curt & Marty's Atari book), CD projects (e.g. Turrican soundtrack CD), art, etc. The catch is only that you are officially only supporting for development and not buying the product. But normally they promise something in return for your support (usually the completed product). But there is no guarantee that the project will ever be finished and that you will get what was promised. @JagChris: They are planning to release it on Steam as well. @SoulBlazer: 200K seems a lot but in a world were game development costs millions, it is not much. Other projects (Carmageddon Reincarnation, Leisure Suite Larry Comes Again, SpaceVenture (Space Quest), Tex Murphy) raised more than 500K. But of course they had the advantage that they were already well known. But already well know is not a guarantee for success like the Battle Chess project showed. But also some small unknown developers got more than 500K like Grim Dawn and the Banner Saga. So I hope this one gets funded as well. Robert

Currently there is a KickStarter campaign for SkyJacker, a space battle game. Seems like a BattleSphere like game on steroids. The visuals are great and has interesting features like ships that can be partially destroyed (and surviving parts can be salvaged) and the possibility to fly to planets and inside structures without transitions. What do you think? To me it looks like a great game and I would like to see this KickStarter project succeed. Robert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3zg4l_nnlc&list=UUAS6tnor8-Nq2gvsgFuWFmQ&index=5&feature=plcp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4HWs9M_390&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIi_gK368-Y&feature=relmfu More videos.

As the current documentation on spiflash only mentions mapping ram to $D600-$D7FF space instead of $D000-$D7FF, I suppose this is only in the "new" U1MB 'firmware'. I quess this base RAM in IO space is also used to implement ATR mounting? Robert

I got mixed experiences with Royal Mail sending packages to The Netherlands Post from Royal Mail to The Netherlands will be brought to the RM office in The Netherlands and then outsourced to various other companies for delivery. Normal letters or when the package is sent as registered package then it is OK since then it will usually delivered in a few days by the Dutch mail company (PostNL). When you are not home, it will be delivered again the next day or you can pick it up at the local post office. But when it is a package that is not registered, then Royal Mail is not using PostNL for delivery but it is using (a cheaper) (local) mail company. In my location it was some small delivery company and it took much longer for packages to arrive. When I was not at home, I had to call a mobile number to make a delivery appointment (if someone will pick up) or send an e-mail to tell when you are at home (I never got an answer to say when they would come). They don't seem to deliver in the weekend and you can't pick it up elsewhere so if you are the whole week at work it is a pain to make an appointment. To avoid delivery problems I mostly use my work address. From 8:00 till 18:00 the building is open and there is somebody at the reception. But the last time, the guy from the reception found my package dropped in front of the door while it is a busy road with lots of pedestrians passing by. So it was a wonder it was still there. And I not the only one having problems with packages coming from the UK to The Netherlands. On the Dutch eBay there is a 1200+ post thread about packages from the UK not arriving etc. Sorry for the "off-topic" post but I had to tell my experiences Robert

Some people used 80 track (720KB) 5.25" floppy's for storing ST software because at that time the disks were cheaper than 3.5" disks. Especially those who were collecting hundreds of cracked games. Robert

Airball was an 128KB XE cart. The file version is a hacked cart version thus it needs extended memory to store the 128KB cart data. Probably an Atari with 196KB (64KB base + 128KB extended) would also work but I don't think there were many +128KB extensions (196KB total) since it would require sixteen 64Kbit chips. Most extensions used eight 256Kbit chips giving 256KB extended memory (320KB total) so maybe that is why it says 320KB is required. Robert

Maybe Candle could add MAPRAM emulation in the Ultimate1MB so more systems support this mode. Although those extra accessible 2KB seems nothing compared to the 1MB extended memory already accessible in the U1MB But those 2KB might be just the extra memory that is needed for programs that want to run on non extended Atari's (with only a replaced MMU) and can than also run on U1MB systems too. Robert

Thanks for the tips The history list sounds like a convenient alternative to my "misuse" of swapping drives but it mounts the image in the first free slot thus still requiring to swap the drives or first eject the first drive. So I will keep "misusing" the drive swap feature to the select the image I want to be active which works very fine B.T.W. Thanks for updating AspeQt. It is a great alternative for APE. I like that you can edit the file contents of an atr image and extract files from images. But I still also using APE because I have an AtariMax SIO2PC USB device which is not supported by AspeQt. Robert

This great little device reached The Netherlands. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and also from my wife's bottom But seriously, it looks great and it works great. Thank you very much for this great device! Robert

Well, that's convenient... but not the real purpose of those drive image slots, is it? Maybe not the real purpose, but I use it all the time too to swap floppies of multi-disk games or switch between of set of often used floppies. In APE you can press 1, 2 to swap the images in drives 1 and 2 which is much more convenient than loading new images with the file selector all the time in drive 1 (I don't know if AspeQt supports keyboard shortcuts). So unless there will be another way to easily mount drive 1 from a limited set of predefined images, I will keep using the "swap drive image slot" "work-around" But maybe it could be a new option in AspeQt to have a small list in the GUI with images that are not mounted but that a keypress is enough to mount an image from the list to a drive. Then I won't have to look which image is in which position since the position in the list will be always the same unlike the swapping drive option. Then adding an option to save/load the list in a kind of profile should be added so that if you, for example, load the "Alternate Reality" profile, you get all the images in the small list and the first image in drive 1. When another disk is requested, just press a key to mount the next image in drive 1. Robert

Are you sure Airball has an editor? I never found an editor in my cart. Robert

The C64 version was by Rob Hubbard but he indeed denies that he did the Atari 8-bit version. The Atari ST version of the Ninja music was by David Whittaker but is completely different. So it remains a mystery who did the Atari 8-bit version. How could I forget that one. I like that very much because of the violin sounds. It is done by W.E.M.U.S.I.C. which are Ben Daglish & Antony Crowther. Seems this was the only one they (Ben Daglish?) did on the Atari 8-bit. Another one worth listening is the music from "Winter Olympiad '88". Robert

From the old days, those of Rob Hubbard are IMHO the best: International Karate Warhawk The Extirpator (Conversion of the C64 Sanxion music) Jet Set Willy (Only for Atari! not a C64 conversion) David Whittaker tunes are great too e.a: Amaurote Panther Red Max Storm BMX Simulator And the tunes from Adam Gilmore are excellent e.a: Zybex Dragonus Ninja Commando Blinky Scary School Jockey Willson's Darts Challenge Las Vegas Casino Mountain Bike Ninja Commando And also worth to listen to are some songs from Richard Munns: Black Lamp Plastron Rebound Zero War Robert

I have no problem waiting. I'm used to waiting for Atari stuff

The 8-bit emulator for the ST is called XFormer. It is special because it got permissions from Atari to include the Atari OS rom images. But the ST is much too slow to emulate the 8-bit. Maybe if it works on a Falcon or TT it might achieve usable performance. Robert

What is that interesting looking Jaguar card in your avatar?

I guess it depends on where you live. Bought an 130XE in 1986, with just a 1010 recorder. I had a hard time finding an original game on tape. Found exactly 1, which was Action Biker. Got a 1050 in 1987. It wasn't until 1989 I saw the first original Atari 8-bit disk. Pirated copies were no problem. Originals just didn't seem to exist over here. Maybe it was different in the south but in the north of the Netherlands there were a few shops who had Atari software When I got my Atari 8-bit chain store V&D still had 8-bit software. Also chain store Capi-Lux had Atari 8-bit & ST software for many years. Then you had the Byte computer shops in Groningen and Leeuwarden. And in the south you had "De Harense Smit" and another I forgot the name of. So they were there but you had to look for it. So I obtained quite a bit of original 8-bit & ST software. About piracy, I didn't knew many other Atari users so I didn't have much copies. And if only 10% of C64 users would buy originals and 90% of the Atari users would buy originals, then you would still sell more C64 software. In the Netherlands, the dominant system was C64 outnumbering the Atari 8-bit many times. So despite the piracy on C64 it was probably still more interesting to make C64 games than Atari games. Robert

Or MagicPC. This allows well behaved ST software to run on the PC.

Indeed, according to the ST schematics, Audio In is just mixed with the audio of the soundchip and feed to Audio Out. Robert