simonsunnyboy

I can only tell from experience that all utilities which change settings in the NVRAM of the Falcon do need a softreset afterwards, or the settings will not take effect. It is not a problem either because it is a really small program and the time until anything else like NVDI/Mint is loaded from harddisk is not really streched out. The 2 seconds more are hardly noticed at all.

If you run Mint, the issue is fixed and you can simply the date. The NVRAM just won't keep its settings after shutdown. I have seen other solutions that copy TOS to RAM and patch it afterwards but I personally do not use this. Cyclone / X-Troll wrote a little utility in 2006 that will fill the NVRAM with contents at cold start and then immediately reboot to make the settings active. It still will not remember time and settings forever (and time in TOS stays broken) but atleast you can have harddisk type, keyboard language and startup video settings setup properly. It works well for me because I work with Mint for things where timestamps matter and I can set the time there via rdate over network. The problem is that this tool never had a proper public release as of yet so I'm unsure if I can simply post it here.

Are you sure it is the "Rainbow TOS" which is TOS 1.04? It will not run from ROM in a STE without hardware modifications. The STE TOS 1.06 and 1.62 do display the rainbow colored Fuji logo aswell on the Desktop. Try my simplistic Check TOS utility on your STE (see http://www.final-memory.org/?p=86) and maybe others (but I don't have particular tool names at hand)

I don't think there were any at all. All titles were either color or both mono/color but none were mono only. Maybe Oxyd and Esprit by Dongleware count for your point of view but those had playable shareware like copies given into PD that were complete but you needed to buy the manual to play them through. All others I know about, also work in color such as Starglider or the Sierra titles.

Hi Simon. Found Slayer in the Hangloose archive. Only seems to work with TOS1.x Anyway, very cool game. Very hard too. Thanks. Seems to depend on the crack. The Pompey Pirates crack (PP #9) works here under Hatari with a 4MB STE config and TOS 2.06. I have not verified it on real hardware though. Definitly a title for Klapauzius to patch for Falcon usage

Armalyte is pretty good for ST standards, I agree there. Besides Menace and R-Type 2 it belongs in the very small category of really playable ST shooters with horizontal scrolling. (BTW Slayer from Hewson is slick and smooth on ST too!)

And software support for it is probably non-existant. I doubt any game or demo will make any use of such addon.

There is a free and actively developed ANSI C compiler available. Try AHCC from http://members.chello.nl/h.robbers/ It is compatible with Pure C, ANSI compliant and has full support for TOS and all its subsystems. The "best" language is a matter of personal taste. For a plain beginner, GFABASIC is a good choice. If you already have experience with C, go for C.

You have full access to all chip registers. They are accessed with memory mapped I/O ports as follows: ===========#==#=======#===============================================#===== ----------------------|YM2149/AY-3-8910 Sound Chip |----- ===========#==#=======#===============================================#===== $FFFF8800.B|R-|PSG_SEL|Read Data | |-W| |Register Select | $FFFF8802.B|rW|PSG_DAT|Write Data | | | | PSG Register 14 - Port A %RICDPBAS | | | | Reset IDE 0:no,1:reset (slow down)---+||||||| |F | | | Internal Speaker 0:on,1:off-----------+|||||| |F | | | Centronics Strobe----------------------+||||| | | | | Reset DSP 0:no,1:reset------------------+|||| |F | | | Printer Select In------------------------+||| | | | | Drive B select 0:on,1:off-----------------+|| | | | | Drive A select 0:on,1:off------------------+| | | | | Side select 0:side1,1:side0-----------------+ | | | | PSG Register 15 - Port B %xxxxxxxx | | | | Centronics Data Port-----------------++++++++ | With clever use of interrupts (maxymiser tracker!), very decent music is possible. Basically you select the YM register with the upper register. And then you write data to this YM register with the second ST address. Write $01 to YM register $05 would mean move.b #$05,$ffff8800 ; select Ym register $05 move.b #$01,$ffff8802 ; write $01 to this

Websurfing on lowspec Atari computers can also be improved by visiting the mobile versions of webpages instead of the full ones. I also second that the recommended minimum configuration is 4MB RAM and a harddisk.

Lethal Xcess and Wings Of Death need to be mentioned, ace shooters and technically the best on the ST.

I think it is entirely possible to wire one up BUT there is hardly any software that will make use of it. Sofar I can't name a single title that will make use of analogue input. Enlighten me if possible, I'm willing to learn about new ST(e) and Falcon titles

JayMSA will work with one floppy and 4MB RAM. Do the following: install a RAM disk that can hold the MSA file copy the MSA file into this RAM disk start JayMSA from floppy insert blank floppy and write MSA file contained on the RAM disk to the floppy

You might get more luck directing that to the author(s) rather than "anyone" Bare minimum is the program file and the 4mb zip. The 14mb zip is pure eye candy At the time of that posting the D-Bug/Reboot forum was down...otoh "anyone" includes the developer team aswell

Did anyone try the bare 2,4MB pack without the special backgrounds? Does that work at all?

Will AtariAge sell the game in future or is this one of those "either now or never" opportunities?

No need, STOT is not bound to any forum. AF just happens to be the main forum. You can always simply post your scores on the STOT blog under the named game announcement as a comment. We will automatically count your score at the round's end! In fact, you could as well open a STOT thread here and post your score as well.

For a free/PD game on the ST, Megaroids just rocked! A great game that is still fun to play today!

I second Christos but I also want to detail his statement. 640x480 16 colors VGA mode works best with 3.6TT but I would strongly recommend using GBE, esp. if you are already running a multitasking OS like Mint or MagiC on your Falcon.

Hardly any software makes really use of an FPU. For the Falcon there are some demos but for the ST there is no real gain IMHO.

Try looking for the "No Fragments" CDs, esp. issues 1,2 and 8 should be interesting.

You can always buy a 1040STE later on if you really feel the need. For a start the 1040STFM will give you a lot to see play and enjoy.

The SC1224 works with the Commodore Amiga. Thorn/TSCC bought an adaptor at Xzentrix 2010 and it works as you can see on his photo:

Well I never had problems reading and writing to MSDOS 720k formatted DD floppies on my 520STM with TOS 1.0 TOS did not format them by default but that was no problem of the file system.

On Christmas 2010 Cooper / Paradize released his new puzzle game called Kolmik. The game should run on all ST/STE/TT and Falcon 030 with 1MB RAM and color display. (Use plain TOS and clean boot on Falcon.) You can grab it at the Paradize website: http://paradize.atari.org/