Gunstar

I've had two of these for I think about two years now, that @Bill Lange printed up for me, I love them. They are currently set-up side-by-side, and yes, this leaves a gap. I've also had them set back-to-back and rear left & right Corners touching in a right angle. I painted my stands XL-white, as I do to my proto/beta XEGS cartridges with the XL style cases. among others.

Just after I wrote all five sides across 3 floppy disks, now I have to do it again! I've been enjoying it today though! Now to see the new content...

I'll look into that, thanks. I was actually just noticing that the version of the keyboard I posted pictures of, doesn't have a row of function keys across the top, they have a version with them which I intend to get if I do get this keyboard. But I will admit that it's going to be hard to be sold on another keyboard, I fell in love with this one the moment I saw it, and not being a PC fan had to come up with some reason I needed it, so it's my entire inspiration for a 1088XEL project.

Yes, I had my doubts about the keyboard being something I would do heavy typing on, it's more for aesthetics and longevity, but now that I know I'd have to do some heavy typing on it, I won't be using it for heavy typing.

@Firedawg I'd be happy with DVI/HDMI, as your picture is perfect, except that on my LCD TV/monitors at least, it's only available at 16:9 ratio, maybe that's just the way it is for everyone, if you use HDMI inputs instead of DVI on the TV/monitor. With a PAL upgrade and the Atari PAL window being letter-boxed unlike NTSC, it actually works well, except for games and images that over-scan to 240P, then the image is cut off. And I use over-scan a lot with graphics, So I need to stick to RGB or VGA analog so I can have the 4:3 screen ratio that fits and doesn't cut off over-scan.

My extended family has been lucky, thankfully, with no cases of Covid yet (as I knock on wood), but my mother has lost several of her friends. One of them went to the hospital for a totally unrelated and non-life threatening reason and caught Covid there and died. My sister knew a 30 something delivery driver in Texas that caught it last summer and died. But we also know people that caught it and had only minor symptoms and are fine now. I see more and more people wearing masks in public now, but still plenty that don't, and some stores and gas stations, even though they have mask required signs and in some areas it's supposed to be mandatory, but they don't say anything if people walk in still without masks. Of course I live in the heart of red-neck country, with a lot of poor and ignorant people.

For a project like this, I always intended to put a lot of money into it, cost doesn't matter (meaning around $1000-2000). Once upon a time I was going to use a spare 1200XL motherboard I have and make a cherry wood case with gold-leaf trim and keyboard, etc. But then a friend gave me a case for it and I've since restored it to stock which it will stay. But now I've decided to go with brushed steel keyboard and case and use a 1088XEL instead. Yes, it's a pricey keyboard, and will be the most expensive I ever bought. But to me, this is a project I look at like restoring a vehicle. It's going to cost a lot, and take time as I don't have all the cash up-front. But it's not something I can't afford over time. But apparently, being American, I've got more free money on the way as a Covid relief/stimulus deal was passed and all tax-paying citizens will have another $600 in their accounts soon. With the possibility of even more in the near future. Plus, I was blessed enough to be self-employed in the contractor business, and business has only increased for me as people stay home and need repairs or decide to do improvements they put off or attempted to do themselves and then call me to finish it, etc. So I'm not hurting financially. My land and home are payed off and mine. There were times in the past couple of decades, like the crash of 2007/8, that hit me hard, but not the Covid as it's mostly outdoor work I do. The keyboard will be the first purchase, as I can use it with my PC (which also has legacy PS/2 connections which I am using with a Hi-Tek RT101 AT keyboard right now) in the mean time or I already have a TK-II clone board that I can install in my 800 or 1200XL and use it that way if I want. I use the TK-II board now while repairing and upgrading Atari's until I'm ready to put it all back together with the original keyboard (also in case of a bad keyboard too).

Actually, They are custom ordered and according to specifications (sorry about the format, I cut and pasted and that happened): Style: Multimedia Type: Wired Interface Type: PS/2, usb Keyboard Standard: 82 Keys Wrist Support: No Application: Desktop Brand Name: IKB-MKB Model Number: K-TEK-A361-TB-FN-MDT Place of Origin: Guangdong, China Products Status: Stock wall mounting: available trackball: yes trackball size: 38.0mm touchpad: optional interface: USB, PS/2 desk top: yes long key stroke: yes short key stroke: optional material: metal stainless steel: yes Supply Ability

Yep, the original equipment upgrades only guy has finally decided to build a 1088XEL. It's because I found a mechanical keyboard that is so cool and retro enough, to make me want to make a matching case and use it all with a 1088XEL inside: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/IP65-with-trackball-ESD-mechanical-Keyboard_1695575081.html I will be going with the trackball version, not the touch pad, though I can make either work as Atari trackball or touchtablet.

@Firedawg Is that DVI-to-HDMI ouput on the screen? I just payed for my 800 version yesterday, so it's on it's way or soon will be. But I think I'm going to do RGB out to my CRT. Below is my current video quality on my 800. PAL 50Hz S-video out to video-to-VGA upscaler/converter, and output to the screen as 1024x768 XVGA at 60Hz. Once the Sophia is installed the converter will be used on my 1200XL's s-video out with SV 2.1 upgrade, which has an even sharper and deeper color than this picture below.

I guess I'm one of these "older children" as I would have loved This is Ground Control and Through the Star Bridge when I had my first Atari at 17 as well as today. I doubt I'd actually learn anything I didn't already know, then or now, but I'd love to play with it and see the fly-by's, the graphics look phenomenal for the day and the Atari.

So this is a copy and paste from the ABBUC website and we need to still go there to be filled in on the details? Will there be directions on the page leading us? I have trouble with the site and finding stuff sometimes. (yes I translate it to English)

Indus GT's and clones do support 1050 enhanced density, most of the time, I do have a few games that won't work on them and require a real 1050 (a recent one to me that I discovered, Fountain Of The Gods with the dungeon disk side B from Atarimania, in 1050 enhanced density). But usually, as long as I write the floppies from ATR images on my Indus GT's and CA-2001 drives in enhanced density using Atarimax APE Prosystem with Indus GT compatibility turned on, they work fine. Indus GT's detect disk density and will show on the digital display 1A, 1B or 1C (single, double and enhanced respectively) or 2A etc. with multiple drives.

Even though I "know" my 1084 has RGB input (I haven't used it for years, I need to repair the PSU board), I've been thinking about getting it working with my 1200XL's Supervideo 2.1 for so long, it never occurred to me to think about using the RGB input on the 1084 with my Sophia 2 in the 800. I think I will do that instead now. Because, though my 800's S-video does look pretty clean and sharp since I modded it, the 1200XL's still has a superior chroma output via S-video, that works great with my S-video2VGA up-scaler/converter. And maybe upgrade the 1200XL to Sophia 2 DVI out down the road. At least it will finally encourage me to get the 1084 working again, since I have an RGB option and I'd rather have CRT RGB with the old 800, than DVI/HDMI to LCD. And I've apparently got a little time, since I'm waiting on the 800 version of Sophia 2. Part of the reason I've waited so long to fix the 1084 has been conservation; if I'd been using it all these years the tube might have worn out by now. But now that I'm in my 50's, I think I've waited long enough. I do have a new flyback to install in the 1084 too, a part I've had for a decade now, so I'll just do that at the same time as a bit of preventative maintenance.

Not all modern TV's allow L/R analog audio inputs to work when it detects HDMI. I know neither of my TV/monitors I use right now allow it. I have the Atari audio going directly to an amplifier and/or self-amplified PC speakers. Which I do anyway, and for decades because no matter how good the sound output on a TV, it's never as good as what I get from separate audio systems. That's why sound bars are so popular these days.

Nice. I still have my 32-in-1 in my 1200XL "every day" computer. I have a second ready to be installed in another 1200XL too. I also purchased 2 of @Dropcheck 's 4-in-1 OS boards which are getting installed in a 3rd 1200XL and an 800XL. Though I've modified both with piggy-back eproms to be 8-in-1's with an additional switch to choose which 27512 eprom is activated. I actually have more than 32 OS's on my "every day" 1200XL as it has a PBI port and I use a Syscheck XL for extended memory and an additional 3 OS's (and Syscheck diagnotsic OS). Yes, it's uber-overkill and I may decide to trade out the 32-in-1 with the other 1200XL's 8-in-1.

Yeah, if I were doing it today, I'd do the one chip version as I believe it handles both SIO and 1050 to PC, like the newer Atarimax ones.

This is the schematics I used to build my combo RS232 SIO2PC/1050-2-PC board back in the day, about 10 years later I re-installed this board internally in one of my 1050 drives with RS232 outputs. I still use it today, it's worked flawlessly for me for decades. I started out with the MS-DOS version of APE and have upgraded to every Windows version since. I highly recommend the APE software, even if it's not free like AspeQT/RespQT. There much more to it like the Prosystem and Imagic as well as many features that the others don't have.

Wow, some how I missed this thread all year! The pictures of the physical disk above say "boot in drive 1 unless otherwise instructed" I'm guessing that's because it's just a generic Adventure International label for any Atari programs they published and, indeed, one has to write the program to a DOS 2 disk as the manual instructs? (which is why they have the quote I just made on the disk) Thanks for all of this to all who posted images and sent stuff to Atarimania...now I just have to go download the manual from there. I do believe I will be using this a lot in the near future, since I'm teaching myself assembly, and the ability to examine most any program and change them will really help me in the learning process! Does anyone know if the output code can be used with Mac/65? That's the Assembler I use; it's not one mentioned on the back cover picture above. Maybe Mac/65 came out after Ultra-Disassembler?

I had an old projection TV for a while about 15 years ago (until it went belly-up) that the most modern input on it was DVI. At that time I had a direct TV reciever/DVR with HDMI output. I knew nothing of DVI at the time. Anyway I did my research and found out that DVI and HDMI used compatible video signals, so I bought a DVI-to-HDMI adapter plug that I plugged into the TV's DVI port, which worked great, with a perfect picture. I still have the plug and it's what I will use to plug my Sophia 2 out into the HDMI of my current monitors. (once the 800 version is available for me to purchase)

Thanks for looking through your AAAUA catalog disks. Unfortunately if I ever even received a catalog disk(s) from them, which I don't recall ever asking for, they would have been lost in the late 90's when I moved from Wisconsin (where I was attending college) to California and I apparently left the one big box with all my Atari disks, cartridges and cassettes behind in my old apartment. Something that wasn't discovered missing until around 2000 when I pulled all my Atari stuff out of storage and found all my software missing. The catalog disks would also have to be the most current of around the years '92-93 or after to have my art added into the art disks in the catalog.

I know Steve still sells an MS-DOS version of APE, so if you can run something similar to DOS-BOX on Ubuntu/Linux that should work for you. It's listed on the same page as the APE software on Atarimax's site.

@Stephen is absolutely right about the SDX environment being best for programming on the real machine. I use the 64 column mode with SDX and BASIC XE and MAC/65. Only Action! from OSS won't work outside 40 columns. The 80 column SDX mode is great too, especially if you have a video upgrade, but even a sharp 80 columns starts to hurt my eyes, that require reading glasses these days, after a couple of hours and I've found the 64 column mode an excellent alternative that is easier on the eyes, but not nearly as claustrophobic as the old 40 columns. And of course the margin settings are there too.

Gunstar has only been my handle since the dawn of Internet forums in the late 90's (I never had a modem for Compuserve, Genie, etc. back in the day). I doubt I used any personal tag on any of them; remember, back then we were restricted to 8.3 format and I was only worried about cramming in the name of the picture. Hell, I still don't Tag my own Rastaconversions. I was never really expecting someone to come here and say "hey I have your old pictures from AAAUA," I just wondered if anyone had any old graphic art they got from AAAUA PD library that I could get copies of and then search them for my art. If any name was used by an AAAUA PD library officer referencing my work it would have been under my real name Matt/Matthew Baker.

For all I know they were tossed on a shelf and forgotten, honestly. I doubt that's really the case, but all I did was send a floppy or two in when I sent my articles for the newsletter. I was only a subscribing member, and only for two years, 90-92. By '92 I was a freshman in college (I didn't go to college until I was 22-23 years old, when most my age would have been graduating) and with college life I didn't spend much time with my Atari except to write papers, and my membership lapsed and I wasn't involved in the community again until I joined AA in 2001(?). My guess is that the files were introduced into whatever PD library the group had, and any member probably would have to request Atari artwork from the PD library to see them. I forget who was in charge and how PD stuff was distributed by AAAUA.