Mr.Amiga500

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?

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.

I remember when you couldn't even unplug phones. Jacks didn't exist. Phones were just wired into the wall. That's why you needed the phone coupler. I feel like an old man talking about radio before television existed.

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.

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.

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.) 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 ) It's still only opinion.

Actually, I overreacted a bit there. That Memotech MTX512 does look pretty amazing... and the Spectrum QL too. (I wonder if they look as good in real life... or if they're just flimsy cheapo plastic) But the Oric Atmos and Enterprise make me sick.

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.

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) The XE and ST look like garbage in comparison.

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)

Is a spell-checker really needed? You can do what ever you want of course, but I'd rather see your valuable Atari programming time spent making other useful programs. I've always hated spell-checkers. My speling is perfekt.

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.)

Oooh... "customize colours"... awesome.

The Atari 8-bit was the best home computer of its era. The ST was not. When I first heard about the ST in 1986, I wasn't impressed at all. I tried to like it, thinking it was supposed to be the next generation Atari - but it just bored me somehow. The Amiga, however, blew me away. It was the same feeling I got years earlier with the 800XL and 2600. Even now, the ST is one of the few popular 80's computers I don't own and have no desire to get.

Who wouldn't be bored with 2009? What a boring year. I suggest we scrap the whole thing and start a new year. We can call it "2010". What do you think? Anybody with me? Although... apparently, 2010 will be "the year we make contact". I think a guy who looks remarkably like Roy Scheider will be sent on an expedition to Jupiter with a group of annoying Soviets. There will be a bunch of monoliths and Apple IIc portables will be all the rage. That's my prediction anyway.

I like it better when older machines emulate newer machines. On my 1987 A500, I emulated 1998 MacOS 8.1. (...and in that I emulated....) But emulation of anything on such an old computer as an Atari 8-bit is very impressive indeed.

I agree with that. I once used an Amiga 500 to emulate MS-DOS to run a DOS Atari 800 emulator. Now I can emulate a PET inside that Atari emulator and "quad-emulate" on my Amiga. (...or is that "tri-emulate"? I've lost count. ) No, now that I've got a real Atari, I'll just run it on that.... until I get a real PET. Thanks for the emulator, perry_m. The screenshots look great. Is there a way to make the PET emulator green on black? To me, a PET isn't a PET unless it's green-screen.

Nice label! I'd buy a cart for sure if I didn't already have my SDrive. I'm trying to get away from using carts now. Plugging and unplugging them is causing wear on my 800XL. (sometimes I have to pull up on the motherboard to turn on) I know it makes sense to put joystick as default, but I was hoping for another version with trackball as default - for people who don't like to press Control-T every time (and it should be an easy change). Oh well. One can dream.

Thanks for uploading that. This one moves even smoother than the one tep392 uploaded (and no corruption). Is there any chance of a version with trackball mode as default? (I assume not, but I thought I'd ask ) I noticed that the score font is "fancier" on this one. Were there two versions of 5200 Centipede?

Shift+Ctrl+Q, and type LW <Return> to make it the default configuration. Yes, I figured that out right after I posted. I got off my ass... well, on my ass, actually.. and read through your impressive PDF manual. Thanks very much for this program!

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Thanks. That's exactly what I'm looking for. It's much more readable. Now... how do I save the settings? Edit: Never mind. I didn't realise that an amazingly huge PDF document came with the program. I should probably read the thing. (wow... I'm even lazier than I thought)

Wow, this is great! Thanks very much. It's amazing seeing great new software for a 30-year-old computer. I've got a couple questions. (sorry if this is already answered in the help files or manual... I can't find it and I'm a bit too lazy to search right now ) 1. Is it possible to change the colour scheme? 80-column text on a 1084 monitor is a bit hard to read. Maybe other colours would help. 2. Is it possible to get rid of the carriage return symbol when editing? (I've never been too fond of carriage return symbols.)

What do you think of the player speed? Too fast? Too slow? Just right? The way it's setup right now, you can really zip across the screen when the ball is spun. I think the speed is just right. Wow, what a major difference in accuracy - compared to joystick mode. I think my CX-80 has a bit of an alignment problem or something (even though it's brand new) because it's jerky as hell when moving slowly in joystick mode. I had to spin the ball like hell just to make it move smoothly. But in trackball mode, it's now very smooth and accurate. I almost feel like I went back in time 30 years and I'm playing on the arcade machine.

It seems to be working (at first I didn't notice I had to press Control-T), but the spider has a bit of graphical corruption for some reason. If you could solve that problem and make it trackball mode by default, it would be great. Thanks.