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Mr.Amiga500

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Posts posted by Mr.Amiga500

  2. Posted

    eBay search is crap! This doesn't come up when I search for "Atari 1200XL". I had to search using the auction number. (link is for German page)

     

    I've noticed this many times before. I wonder how many auctions I've missed.

  5. Posted

    Run load 'LW.EXE'

     

    CRTL+D

     

    Scrool to LW.EXE and press 'R' at prompt type AUTORUN.SYS [RETURN]

     

    Press ESC and then CRTL+X .. back to DOS and reboot.

     

    That did the trick. Thanks. I didn't think of using the program to rename itself.

     

    I'm still wondering what I did wrong with the DOS rename. Can somebody tell me?

  6. Posted

    It's definitely useful to me to communicate through the joystick port as fast as possible and having a BASIC in cartridge is useful to me and being able to start coding almost instantly in BASIC or ASM is useful to me.

     

    How so? What does a fast joystick port do that's useful to you? (not trying to be hostile here - just wondering what that could be.) What kind of BASIC programs do you write?

     

    Okay, I can load up any Atari file (not cartridge) in about 4 seconds or less. Most Amigas grind the disk drive for a while before getting to Workbench or loading the application and the applications are usually bigger (taking longer to load/seek) whereas A8 files are small and are either boot disks or can be loaded from some quick menu system.

     

    As I said, I certainly appreciate fast boots and fast loads. If I can find fast loading useful Atari stuff, I'll be very happy. As for Amigas "grinding the disk drive for a while", when I boot I see WB screen in 6 seconds and everything is fully loaded in 15. (and it has no disk drive to grind - it's CF and SD)

  7. Posted · Edited by Mr.Amiga500

    It's DOS 2.5. I tried renaming it to AUTORUN.SYS many times, but I keep getting errors. I'm probably using the wrong syntax (I've never renamed an Atari file before). The prompt says:

     

    RENAME - GIVE OLD NAME, NEW (so I assume syntax is: NAME, NEW)

     

    LW.EXE, AUTORUN.SYS

    ERROR - 165 (file name error, so I try again)

    E

    LW.EXE AUTORUN.SYS (without comma then)

    NAME TOO LONG

    E

    LW.EXE , AUTORUN.SYS (comma with space)

    NAME TOO LONG

    E

    LW.EXE (I try carriage return after each)

    ERROR - 165 (NOPE!)

     

    Then I tried all that again with a different shorter name, with the same results.

     

    So what's the proper way of doing this then?

  8. Posted

    Atari XL and Amigas actually boot faster when in close proximity to one another (sone sort of Jay Miner subdimensional transport enhancment layer apparently) so you may want to move them apart and retest.

     

    Ha! I wasn't aware of the "Jay Miner subdimensional transport enhancment layer" (...is it documented in the technical manual?).

     

    The Amiga is upstairs and the Atari is downstairs in the living room. So... you're saying I could get even faster boot times when I move them together? That's worth a try, I guess. ;)

  9. Posted

    I've been trying to think of things I can use my 800XL for. I have plenty of games, of course, but I also want to find some other uses for it - uses that are at least (semi) practical. I've got Amigas and other computers that can do everything the 800XL can do (and far better), but the 800XL is the only computer connected to my TV in my living room and I thought I might as well try to do something useful with it. (and the 800XL has a reasonably short boot time)

    ...

    That's not a true statement that Amigas and other computers can do everything 800XL can do far better. Just from the top of my head, Ataris have faster joystick ports (far faster) than Amiga and other PC (going by standard joystick ports), Ataris boot faster than Amiga and PC (via cartridges or even disk based), and many programs on Atari don't exist on Amiga.

     

    I use Ataris, amigas, and PCs for useful stuff; games usually are played on Atari for fast set up time.

     

    This isn't an Atari vs. Amiga thread, so please don't turn it into one. When I say "I've got Amigas and other computers that can do everything the 800XL can do (and far better)", I mean for useful things I want to do - such as viewing/creating graphics (jpg, png, gif), listening to/sampling/creating music (mp3, aiff, wav), viewing/printing/creating PDF documents and creating relational databases with custom GUIs. It is undeniable that the Amiga is far better than the Atari 8-bit for doing these - higher resolutions, more colours, better sound, faster, etc. (and a modern PC is likewise better than Amiga for many of those). I really don't care about the speed of a joystick port. My main point is that I'm looking for things to do in addition to the things I do on the Amiga. (...because I love the 800XL, it's small, connected to my TV and boots reasonably fast)

     

    Yes, Ataris do boot faster than Amigas and PCs when using cartridges - and that is a major advantage and one of the reasons I'm looking for things to do with my Atari. Unfortunately, I don't have anything useful on cartridge. I'm using an SDrive - which is amazingly fast compared to a 1050, but when loading programs, it's certainly not fast enough to beat the boot time of an Amiga.

     

    Here's a test I just did:

     

    Boot Amiga 500, run FinalWriter 97: 36 seconds (CF, 33Mhz 020, 16 colour WB, lots of junk in WBStartup)

    Boot Atari 800XL, run The Last Word: 60 seconds (SDrive)

    Boot PC/Win 2000, run Word 2000: 214 seconds (Ultra SCSI HD, 1GHz, 1Gb)

     

     

    Once again, I don't want to get into a whole Amiga vs. Atari vs. PC nightmare. I'm just looking for useful things to do with my 800XL.

  10. Posted

    I am seriously considering wiring a 600XL up to control it..

     

    That's awesome. I wish I had the skills (and time) to modify all the boring modern electronics in my house and make them into interesting retro artefacts. I believe the term is "steampunk" but I prefer to call it something like "future retro". (the word "steampunk" reminds me of a head-banging punk with pink hair in a steam bath)

     

    Maybe I'd connect a rotary phone dialer to the microwave (dial the time) and put it in a polished wood case.... oh yeah - with brass dials and a small blue vector display... but now I'm getting carried away. ;)

     

    I suppose I could fairly easily put a slot-loading DVD player into an Atari 1050 (keeping it looking like a stock 1050 externally) and connect it to my TV.

  11. Posted

    There is a computer store in London, ON....that is where I actually got my first 800XL...way back in 1984 that still uses the a 130XE for the cash register/inventory management and printing receipts. I'm always amazed when I go in there that they still use it. The shop owner says if it ain't broke.....

     

    They only sell PC's these days....but they used to be an Atari/Commodore shop.

     

    Fascinating. That's the first I've heard of any business still using 8-bit computers. There's a bowling alley in Ridgetown, Ontario that still uses an Amiga 4000 for all the displays (they kindly gave me their "dead" A4000) and I've seen lots of Mac SE computers used as registers, but certainly no 8-bits. (home computers, that is - I'm sure there are plenty of 8-bit dedicated cash registers out there)

  12. Posted

    I actually do still keep recipes using Home Filing Manager.

     

    (See, all those articles from the 80s were right -- you really can justify owning a computer by using it to file recipes.)

     

    Recipes! That's an excellent idea. I can see my TV from the kitchen and the Atari has large lettering so I'd be able to read it from that distance. Thanks for the idea. :)

     

    I'll check out that Home Filing Manager.

  13. Posted

    I've been trying to think of things I can use my 800XL for. I have plenty of games, of course, but I also want to find some other uses for it - uses that are at least (semi) practical. I've got Amigas and other computers that can do everything the 800XL can do (and far better), but the 800XL is the only computer connected to my TV in my living room and I thought I might as well try to do something useful with it. (and the 800XL has a reasonably short boot time)

     

    I've got The Last Word for writing stuff, Calendar for appointments/to do stuff, and I just found a very nice little spreadsheet, Syncalc. Now I'm wondering... what else? Does anybody actually use their Ataris for anything practical? Is there anything left that is actually useful on an Atari 8-bit in 2009/2010? If so, what and with what programs?

  14. Posted · Edited by Mr.Amiga500

    There'll be a (final) update of version 3 of this program in the new year, with just a few fixes and changes. I just found another bug in version 3.1: can't alter the luma of the status bar text using the CTRL+K command.

     

    Feedback's gone virtually silent on LW lately, which I assume is a good thing (i.e. it must work for those using it).

     

    That's right. I'm using it and haven't said much because I haven't found any problems with it. I'm pretty happy with it.

     

    I suppose the only change I'd want is to have LW.EXE autoload if that's possible (not sure because I'm no Atari expert). With AtariWriter, I can just load the atr (800XL with SDrive) and AtariWriter will load automatically. With The Last Word, I have to load the atr, then type "L" "LW.EXE" from DOS to load it. It doesn't kill me to do this, but the less steps the better.

     

    It's a good thing you noticed the text colour problem in the status bar. That was the only other small problem I was going to mention.

  16. Posted

    I wish it was possible to have a version of this using joystick 2 as the default single player, trackball mode as default.

     

    Let me explain:

    Centipede is the only game I play with the trackball. All my other games are played with the joystick. So I always have to unplug the joystick and plug in the trackball... then unplug the trackball and plug in the joystick... and so on. It's a bit of a pain in the ass. Also, the trackball, when in trackball mode screws up the Sdrive menu - causing the cursor to go all over the damn place. So if I have the trackball plugged in, I have to switch from trackball mode back to joystick mode and back again later. Then, in Centipede, I have to hold Control-T - which half the time doesn't work and I have to repeat it.

     

    If Centipede would use joystick 2 for single player (trackball mode default), I could leave both my trackball and joystick plugged in, I would have no problem with the Sdrive menu and not worry about Control-T working. It would be amazingly great.

     

    I would pay for a file version of that.

  17. Posted · Edited by Mr.Amiga500

    I like that both computers saw 68060 and PPC upgrades.

     

    But I love how the Amiga architecture was designed so well that clever upgrades could be applied across the entire range pretty much agnostic of release date, OS, or other items.

     

    This is my Amiga 1000. It was used by Byte-by-Byte in Texas and was made in July of 85. The write control store has been replaced with an Expert Rejuvenator, giving the unit the enhanced chip set, 2MB chip (video) RAM, Kickstart 3.x, super denise (up to 1280x512 programmable resolution), enhanced audio filter, etc,), a PP&S 68040 @25Mhz with 16MB fast RAM, an ATOnce Plus 286 hardware card @16Mhz with FPU, an ADSpeed @14MHz for no reason at all (because I had a socket free for it), an ICD FFV 2 for retargeting Amiga display modes to VGA, and an expansion chassis for adding newer video cards, Ethernet cards, SCSI/IDE cards, etc.

     

    Not bad for a 1985 computer. You would have had to throw out a 1985 ST and start over before you could get near this.

     

    -edit- added pic

     

     

    post-11578-125978883692_thumb.gif

     

    That is one kick-ass A1000! I wish I could find one of those Rejuvenator boards for mine.

     

    By the way, I posted this using my "games machine" A500. :D

  18. Posted

    The Atari 1200XL hands down is the hottest and coolest looking of all of the XL's... it is also equipped with the best damned keyboard of any computer and I mean Atari 8bit, ST, Amiga, PC, etc... it has such a smooth and silky travel when you press the key's... what the 1200XL loses out on in incompatibility and expansion is more then makes up for it in looks, styling and feel... like a super model... she may be dumb as a doorknob, but damn she's hot! ;-)

     

    The 1200XL looks better than the 800XL in pictures, but when I actually got one I was a bit disappointed. The 800XL feels more solid and looks great from every angle while the 1200XL case has a bit of flex and from some angles looks too bulky. I don't know... maybe I'm too biased or I'm influenced by the fact that my 1200XL has yellowed while all my 800XLs look perfectly new. Or maybe I just got a bad 1200XL - there are parts variations among nearly all computers.

     

    The 1200XL keyboard is silky smooth as you say - but keypresses are slightly too springy for me. I actually prefer the feel of the TRS-80 Model III, early TI-99/4A and Kaypro. (or the clicky 1984 IBM AT I'm typing this on.)

     

     

    and on top of it - you can't really discuss personal tastes, can you?

    is there somewhere an oracle to say what is art and what is crap? don't think so... perhaps then would be better not to make any 01 statements?

     

    ps. if someone would like to poit out that i'm making such statement - there is magic word in mine, that those above lack - it is "me"

     

    I can't discuss personal tastes? Is there somewhere an oracle to say what I can discuss and what I can't? I don't think so... ;)

     

    And there is no need to say "me"... or "what I think" or "in my opinion" when making a personal statement. Whenever anyone says anything that isn't quoting another source, it is always implied that it is their opinion. (It's a subtlety of English few forum posters seem to know about. ;))

     

    If I say "this sucks", although I may consider it a fact to me personally, it doesn't make it a fact for everyone. (...although sometimes I would like it to :D) It's still only opinion.

  20. Posted · Edited by Mr.Amiga500

    The Atari 800 also looks great too though but the 800XL is just OK ...

     

    The 800XL is "just OK"?? Are you crazy? The 800XL is probably the most beautiful home computer ever made. (followed by the TI-99/4A)

     

    May I assume then that you do not know too many home computers? There were really awesome-looking ones like the Oric Atmos, Sinclair Spectrum+/QL, Enterpreise 64/128, ACT Apricot F1, Memotech MTX512, Triumph Adler Alphatronic PC, Sharp X68000, SMT Goupil 2, etc.. Compared with these, the 800XL is a rather square design.

     

    Thorsten

     

    Apparently, your assumption was correct. I didn't know most of the ones you listed - mainly because not one of those was ever sold in North America.

     

    Now that I do know what they look like, I can change my statement to:

    "The 800XL is probably the most beautiful home computer ever made."

     

    Most of the computers you listed are frigging ugly.

  22. Posted

    It seems there are also variations among the different "types". I've got two "type 4" keyboards - both revision 3A. The one in my main 800XL (revision 1A motherboard) has an annoying blocking problem on the large shift key. The other one - in an (unfortunately dead) 800XL with a Revision 2A motherboard - doesn't have that problem and the keys are a slightly darker brown. (so I swapped the keyboards so my good 800XL has the good keyboard)

  24. Posted

    It would be interesting to know the dates when each of these keyboards was released. Usually, the first release of anything is the best quality, the second is similar quality but bugs or potential problems are fixed, then each successive release is a cost cutting measure to the final "ultra-crap because we don't give a shit anymore".

     

    I just got an 800XL with a "type 1" keyboard from B&C. I thought "type 1" would be an early version - being considered "the best" - but it looks like a later one judging by the cheaper, thinner plastic. It is a good XL keyboard, but the keys look and feel a bit cheap. I bet it was released after the "type 4". The "type 2" must be the first one made - based on the pictures of the 800XL before it was released.

     

    I'd like to see a listing of the different 800XL case and motherboard revisions. The B&C 800XL I just got has a horrible cheap-looking case. The plastic quality is much cheaper than my other two 800XLs and the motherboard and RF shield are different.

     

     

    (This useful thread should be made a "sticky" or something. It was damn hard to find again.)

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