rdemming

RGBCTL is used for a SCART connector. It is a signal on the SCART connector to tell the television that there is a signal on the SCART connector. The TV could use this to automatically switch to SCART input. Often used by video recorders so the TV would switch to the video recorder when you turned it on. Here it will switch your TV from TV-signal to VBXE as soon as you turn on your Atari. See also the "vbxe2-con.pdf" and "scart_cable.pdf" from the VBXE documentation. Robert

You can't convert STX images to ST images because then you loose the copy protection information stored in STX images. ST images don't support copy protections. STeeM supports STX images but you have to copy the Pasti DLL to the STeeM directory. After that, when STeeM is starting, it should show a dialog that pasti was loaded and it is possible to open STX images. Robert

The C128 had digital RGB out for its 80 column mode. All the other modes were outputted via the composite video port. (It had two separate graphics chips). So you needed two cables to be able to view all modes on a Commodore 1084 monitor that supported composite/chroma/luma (C64 40 column modes), digital RGB (C128 80 column mode) and analog RGB (Amiga). Digital RGB was also used by CGA graphics cards. Robert

AFAIK, only the HxC floppy disk emulator has limited support for STX images and then the USB version. The SD-card version does have some support for STX images as well but the success rate is far lower than that of the USB version. From the website for the SD-card version: (Note : Variable bitrate not supported. So protected floppy disk image (IPF and STX file format) file support will be only partial ! If you look for a device supporting IPF / STX please a have a look to the USB HxC Floppy Emulator device) Robert

The bright news is that people are now receiving their UltraSatan. So he fulfilled those outstanding orders which hopefully will become the case for the SIDE as well. I received my SIDE and DivIDE already a long time ago, and I'm very happy with Zaxon's work. Zaxon did a great job building them. It is too bad that his "project management skills" turned out not as good as his "soldering and building skills". But with the UltraSatans being delivered, I'm hopeful that the remaining SIDEs will be delivered soon as well and that the fun and usefulness of SIDE will (partly) make up for the long wait. Robert

Thanks for the explanation. I was afraid that the modifications would affect the 64-bit driver signature verification when you said a warning will pop-up. Good to hear that it is not the case.

One question: Did you test this on 64-bit Windows? 64-bit Windows needs properly signed drivers and to work around this problem you have to reboot the system with "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" everytime you need to use the driver. Or modify your system to always boot without driver signature enforcement. Robert

Here how the 7800 joystick is connected: Joystick Pinouts 2600/7800 pinouts: _________________ \ o5 o4 o3 o2 o1/ \ o9 o8 o7 o6 / \___________/ pin # 2600 control 7800 control 1 WHT- Up WHT- Up 2 BLU- Down BLU- Down 3 GRN- Left GRN- Left 4 BRN- Right BRN- Right 5 unused RED- Button (R)ight (-) 6 ORG- Button ORG- Both buttons (+) 7 unused unused 8 BLK- Ground(-) BLK- Ground(-) 9 unused YLW- Button (L)eft (-) 2600 control (button) pin 6 ORG(+) --------------()------------BLK(-) pin 8 Button 7800 control (buttons) /----------YLW(-) pin 9 Button L / /---------()---| YLW splits / \----/\/\/-----\ pin 6 ORG(+) -------| ORG splits 520 ohm |---BLK(-) pin 8 \ /----/\/\/-----/ \---------()---| 520 ohm Button R \ RED splits \----------RED(-) pin 5 Pin 5 & 9 are normally the paddle inputs. In the 2600/7800 they are handled by the TIA AFAIK. So according to these schematics determining which of the two buttons was pressed is indeed done by reading the paddle POT inputs. Robert

If you want to buy Alpine Games or the Demo cart, you should contact Lars (who is making the carts) and not Duranik. Robert

The same here. I haven't received payment instructions too.

According to wikipedia, the transputer video output ranges from 512*480 to 1280*960. So I think it outputs 31KHz signal so you don't need a scan doubler. At work I have a 19" monitor with BNC connectors for RGB and H-SYNC and V-SYNC. Don't think it will work with sync on green. At DealExtreme they have VGA to BNC cables. I suppose they are meant for VGA on PC and BNC on monitor but I think they should work the other way around to. About sync, I suppose you can try to connect green to V-Sync/H-sync connection too using a T-connector. I don't think modern monitors work without a signal on the sync inputs. Robert

Another Atari ST related kickstarter project: Battle Chess remake It looks fun for a casual chess player but I suspect that after a while you have seen everything and will get boring. And I suspect that a real chess player prefers a regular type of chess game instead of waiting each time for the animations. Robert

If it really did that, then it would be good value for money

I don't know how the Amiga/ST versions handled it but they have the CPU power to do decompression or other tricks as you describe. And also reading floppy data is using DMA so you need very little CPU time to load data so the CPU can decompress while loading the next data. The Atari 8-bit does not have DMA loading so the CPU is occupied during loading. Combined with less CPU power there would be little time left to do decompression. Robert

I got a reply from the seller but.... he does not understand my questions :s Since he is selling lots of other stuff, I think he has no idea about the technical details of this floppy emulator. But looking at eBay there are lots of sellers selling the same emulator. Some advertise it a floppy replacement for embroidery machines and digital keyboards. This one has more information: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 230756513769 It says that it support up to 100 floppies on a pen drive. So the two digit display seems indeed to select one of hundred. Also it says "Do not buy this version if your machine only read 720K floppy drive." Another says: The USB stick used is FAT32 A built-in memory used to s tore data and convert format between FAT16/32 and FAT12, data retains even power down So I think it only support standard PC format floppies and that would be not very useful for an Atari and useless for an Amiga. Robert

That would be plausible but you then you have to remember which number is what image. I thought the display was the track indicator (0..79). But I've asked the seller my questions so lets see if I get a reply. Robert

As far as I can see, it does not tell which disk image formats are supported. Changes are that it only support standard PC formats and not special Atari formats like 10 sectors or 82 tracks. Amiga disk support is questionable too. Also there are only two buttons and no display so how can you choose disk images in sub directories? The only floppy emulator that I know of that support Atari ST/Amiga formats is the HxC floppy emulator but that one is quite a bit more expensive but more flexible as it has a display to select the disk image and also provides software for Atari/Amiga to select the disk image on the computer. Robert

In STeem you can indeed map a PC directory as hard-disk on the emulated Atari. Just press the disk icon (upper left in the STeem main Window) to open the disk manager. In the dialog box, click the "hard drivers" button. Now you can map a PC directory as for example drive C under STeem. Then start STeem to the desktop and then mount a floppy disk image as drive A (don't mount the floppy before booting to the desktop since then it might start the game instead of going to the desktop). Now on the emulated Atari you can copy the files from A to C (drag-n-drop) and they will end up in your PC directory. From there you can copy them with Windows Explorer file-by-file to a real floppy. Note that this only works for disk images of regular formatted Atari disks. Lots of games use their own format and do not contain files. Also lots of Atari disk are formatted with 10 sectors instead of 9 sectors and might not fit on a regular floppy created by a PC. To just test if the floppy drive of your Atari works, you can just format a disk on the Atari (select drive A, then file menu -> format). If that works save the desktop (options menu -> save desktop). Now the floppy should contain the file "Desktop.inf" and when booting your ST with that floppy, the open Windows should be the same as when you saved the desktop. Robert

Sorry for the late answer. I had to check and forgot about it. I didn't try to close my 130XE after installing the VBXE and Stereo board as I was planning to add a memory upgrade as well. I could get the 32-in-1 only below the shielding by soldering it directly on the motherboard. When putting it in a socket, it will be to high to fit the shielding. Later I got the VBXE and put it into a socket which makes it too high for placing back the shielding. But without the shielding, everything fits fine. Robert

Or you can ditch the floppy drive altogether and install the HxC floppy emulator into your Atari. Then you put all you floppy images on an SD card and boot them directly on the Atari ST from the SD card. That is in my opinion much more convenient than writing real floppies especially if you quickly want to try some software. Robert

I'd like to get a setup just to hear some of the games that use it. Do any of the soundtrackers/music players output to these devices? SoundTrackers use digital samples and as far as I know there is none that will have midi output because using midi instruments will sound completely different than the original digital samples. But some trackers like Audio Sculpture (I think also Quartet and some chip composers) support midi as input so you can play the note on a keyboard to compose a tracker song. Non-tracker software like Music Construction Kit (and probably Music Studio) output midi but those are not digital trackers and not focused on creating the best AY music. There are quite a few games that output midi like the Siera adventures and Paradox games (Bomb Jack). Robert

That this topic is featured on the front page of AA seems not much of a help. The funding is trending to only 4% : http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/1479679929/gubble-3d-new-retro-maze-videogame-by-ex-atari-des/ Robert

The kickstarter goal was met so this game is a go! I found this kickstarter project only 4 hours before the deadline so I'm happy I still could pledge for it. Robert

The scenesat radio interview with Chris was interesting. Did you know that the 7 channel replay code for Amiga Turrican was based on code written by Jochem Hippel who already did 4 channel mixing code for the Atari ST? Since the funding goes so well, it will maybe be a 4 CD instead of a 3 CD box. Also the Larry remake project reached its goal. They have plans for extra content if the extra money allows that so I can't wait to play it. I just found out that the creator of Chip's Challenge for the Lynx also has a kickstarter project for Chuck's Challenge 3D. At the time of writing there was only 2 hours left but they reached their goal too. Those fun kickstarter projects pull my credit card empty Robert

On atari-forum.com, there is a thread that someone (not Zaxxon) wants to build some more UltraSatans and behold, Zaxon posted the following there on the 24th of April: So hopefully you will get your US soon. Robert