RodLightning

The paint on those cx10 sticks looks nice. A final step for the stick tops is referenced in this thread. Hex logos emblems. I'm not sure if all heavy sixer stick had them, or just the early units.

I appreciate the time and care you are putting into this project. Very interesting stuff, and one of my favorite subjects to read about on the forums here. Thanks for chronicling your restoration of this great old machine. Definitely worth the effort you are putting in.

SCRAM (A Nuclear Power Plant Simulation) for Atari 8-bit. I had the cassette version, loaded from my 410 program recorder. This BASIC game could lead to goosebumps when you were losing workers and about to lose the reactor. "Steam Voiding!"

I'm probably the last person to answer this question, but I used to test them with a 9 volt battery. I had a two wire modular phone cord (red/green wires) and I stripped the insulation off in the middle, then bridged the battery. The weirdest thing I did was use terminal software to ATD and ATA command on two different modems to x-modem files from a 800XL to a PC. Land lines have around 48 volts, but 9v dc was enough to trigger the line detect so the two modems could squawk at each other. Noone was more surprised than me that it worked. There is probably a more elegant and safe way to do it, but they are looking for voltage on the line. Something more exotic would be necessary to test ring detect, where the voltage spikes and pulses to operate the bell.

Interesting idea. There were certainly other software (ROMs) available for classic arcade boards. Mostly enhancements to existing games. Pacman Plus comes to mind, as a slightly reimagined conversion for tired old Pacman machines, maybe not taking in as many quarters as they used to. I think there was a ROMset to convert a Galaxian machine to PacMan, but the audio still sounded like Galaxian due to the hardware. I read on here a couple of years ago about a new Donkey Kong ROM with updated levels. You could buy those ROM chips to install in your actual Donkey Kong arcade machine. These are just a few examples. I'm sure there are more. As for selling new game software to run on any of MAME's emulated hardware, there are undoubtedly still legal considerations with the arcade boards. Newly written games would have to be written to target one of the popular arcade boards. I suspect that licensing the hardware would be a big obstacle. Marketing any kind of ROM software on sd card or to download and use with a MAME capable console would be possible. Doing it "above board" and legally turning a profit would be the real challenge.

I would buy any brand of 4164 dram except Micron (MT) brand. They have a reputation for high failure rate and were the cause of many premature deaths of Atari XL especially XE. There are different stories of why, but I believe the one about Atari Corporation specifically being sold a large factory run of poorly constructed chips, which were installed in the second and third generation 8-bits. If any of that bad batch was sold to and used by other companies, I have never seen any confirming evidence. This topic has been discussed at length over the years. So yeah, avoid MT-ram. Brands like NEC, OKI, TMS (Texas Instruments), etc. seem to have a good reputation for longevity. Edit: Oh, and as for ram refresh rate, faster chips generally coexist in 8-bits with no issues. They are just rated to tolerate higher refresh speeds. They used to cost a little more back in the day. I think 256 was the Atari 8-bit spec.

Great ideas, I think. Further, marketing a modern single board ST mini to the music industry could be a profitable avenue. Imagine a solid state device in a heavy duty enclosure, styled after a Mega ST, complete with midi ports and tough enough for professional stage use. Built in licensed software such as Cubase or Notator would be aimed at musicians who remember using it and appreciate the simple interface. This is likely outside the scope of a company like Retro Games, and we probably wouldn't like the price tag on something made for that kind of use. But, it definitely plays up to Atari's strength as a midi controller. If the end product was faithful to the ST or STe, it could certainly be used for anything else. I would prefer something like that rather than building a MiSTer and cobbling together all the optional ports to achieve the same result.

Ah the flyback. Those who have the balls to discharge that circuit with a screwdriver blade have my respect. Always gives me the shakes, especially when working alone with nobody to operate a defibrillator or give CPR to restart the old heart. Better to just unplug it and wait two years. I love CRTs, but LCDs are much less stressful.

I second the idea of using the Mega Ste as a case design. No fake keyboard necessary. A standard usb keyboard could be plugged in if the user desired. Built-in games would only require a gamepad or stick, included with the console. I personally prefer the original Mega ST design to the wedding cake style Mega STe case, but I doubt the brand recognition problem would allow using either Mega design. We would be more likely to get a tiny 1040STe with fake keyboard. SD card slot for floppy image and hdd support would be mandatory. I don't see either becoming reality, although anything is possible. A few built-in games I would like to see, in no particular order: Bubble Bobble, Stunt Car Racer, Vroom, RodLand, Atomic Robokid, Captain Blood, Populous, Rainbow Islands, Xenon, Xenon II, Gauntlet II.

This one will be available soon. It should work with the ST in a standard controller port. It is an Atari branded product. Fire button one would work on ST games. I'm not sure if any ST games ever supported the 7800 scheme for button 2. https://atari.com/products/cx78-gamepad Edit: Oops, I read online that the the original 7800 controllers would confuse the ST and cause problems, although I would swear that I have plugged in and used a 7800 proline controller with my own ST. Atari's description sort of claims backward compatibility with "all atari systems". Maybe they have different logic inside than the original 7800 controllers? I do plan on trying one on my ST when they are available in May 2024. Maybe the new one will work as-is? Sorry for any confusion. Here's the article I read on the subject: https://ctrl-alt-rees.com/2018-11-14-atari-7800-controller-st-compatibility-modification.html

I built a 386SX 16mhz clone pc from used parts in 1995. I can't remember the exact specs, but it did have vga graphics, mfm hard disk and two floppy drives (3.5 and 5.25). I wanted to play ms-dos Doom I. That system would run Doom in a mediocre way. At first, the only sound I had was from the pc speaker. Harsh squawks, but Doom did make noise without a sound card. My 386 pc was fine for BBS and early dial-up internet. It would run Windows 3.1 well enough, but most games ran best with just dos. Less than a year later, I was shopping for 486DX cpu and motherboard. Prices were dropping fast, as the pc gained traction. So yeah, 1040STFM to pc clones. I did keep the ST on a desk next to the pc for a long time. I wonder how many people migrated to the pc world as a direct result of idsoftware releasing Doom?

Tough one to locate. Found it using the wayback machine archive. Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160726072457/http://www.stojalowski.de/files/ Untested image is attached. SIMPLICALC.D64

No reason to have it, other than nostalgia. Express 3.0 may have added xmodem (crc) protocol? I don't even remember where I first got version 3.0 beta. Remembering back, I used 1030 Express 2.1 and later 3.0b to download files not long after buying the modem new. It's built-in terminal lacked any ability to download binary files, a massive disappointment. Not being associated with any user groups, or with any Atari owner friends, I had to order one of the Antic magazine disks through the mail and wait several weeks to get it. The disk I ordered (can't remember which one) had some program capable of doing xmodem downloads. I used it to download something better from a BBS. It seems like I used 1030 Express for a long time though before upgrading modem hardware and ultimately switching to BobTerm.

Peter tends to piss off people with his critical ways. His mean comments got him cancelled on AtariAge by the local "click" around here. Regardless, if you appreciate his various works, go to his forum at http://forum.8bitchip.info/ I post this at the risk of being criticized by the anti pppera group here. Let the anti Peter comments resume, if that makes some of you feel better about yourselves. You know who you are.

Thanks for your efforts! Looks like Peter has irritated a number of people in the "community" in a position to block any further direct communication. In fact, he seems to be living in the heads of a few, rent free, to this day. If some of these folks put their heads together, they could get him banned from the internet altogether. Maybe even from the human race! I will agree that Peter brought some of these negative reactions on himself, but it is a shame to witness someone being cancelled, regardless of the reasons. I see that he has resurrected the forums on 'Atari St pages by PP'. Fair enough. Maybe that was the best thing to have happen.

Well thanks, to both of you. Any curiosity I had is now more than satisfied.

Yes sir! / I think maybe I will just go back to reading more and posting less for a while. There are probably better (and safer) forums to go for freely expressing one's opinions.

It might be a lot of work at this point, but reversing the computer back to 512kb would help you troubleshoot. Is there a path back to factory condition you can follow or has that bridge been burned (no pun) already? That route often rules out any damage done to the motherboard so you can focus your attention on the upgrade board. I don't remember from your other thread if you started with a stock working 520ST or not.

@Tillek Wow, this guy has really ticked you off! If AtariAge is social media, as you say, I haven't been all that social since joining in 2007. I read far more than posting. I joined mostly to interact with content creators. It has taken me about 15 years to break 900 posts. Social niceties and popularity contests are not very important to me personally. I'm here for the hardware and software information, just like I always was back in the day. As for the hobby dying off, sorry to be a cloud of doom and gloom, but it's happening. It's inevitable. A small percentage of youths are interested in our old games and hardware, so it will never go away completely (I hope). Age wise, those of us who used this stuff when it was new are now nearing or past the half century mark. I don't think it will be anywhere near what it was, activity wise for the last 20 years in the next 20. We now have one less expert on here who is primarily into ST software and hardware. He is gone due to what appears to be a code of conduct violation. PPera has indeed been what I would describe as mean and eccentric over the years, but I hope some of you folks can understand why I am disappointed to see him removed. I doubt we will ever know what exactly got him banned unless a mod elects to enlighten us. I am curious what it was.

I won't argue that many of Peter's posts came off as insulting and he has every right to be called a jerk. Some people are just like that, but it doesn't mean they aren't worth knowing. I hope he wasn't "cancelled" just for being an opinionated jerk. I don't know if there were past conflicts with mods or admin, or what words may have been exchanged behind the scenes. I do know that I will miss releases posted in this thread. Those of us who care will have to check his page regularly from now on. I think this hobby is gradually dying off anyway. In a few more years, any internal conflicts we have with our fellows will be irrelevant.

According to his blog, he was banned without any explanation. I just hated to see a ST developer banned from the forums. We have precious few these days whom are so active. Sure, some of his posts have been critical and abrasive, but I never thought there was ever any ill will intended. It's a shame to lose another contributor to the hobby around here.

Hi Peter, I see that you have recently been banned from AtariAge. I hope it isn't permanent. I feel the need to say thanks, once again, for your contributions to the Atari ST community. I have personally enjoyed this thread over the years and miss seeing your posts. I always found them amusing, and felt that your point of view was largely misunderstood. Your programming and software fixes for Atari ST computers speaks for itself. Hope you will be able to read this. I still have your website bookmarked. Keep up the good work, my friend.

Meh. At 18, she's still a baby. That's probably not flab, just baby fat. It will be interesting to see how she fills out over the next two or three years. I will of course, now follow her on Twitter for purely academic reasons. Lets watch this retro collecting journey unfold. Thanks OP for sharing. Wow, I'm going to go pray now... 😇

Atari 7800, if I could have torn myself away from playing games on my Atari 48k 400 or 64k 600XL. In 1987, plenty of games were available cheap or free for Atari 8bit. By 1993, I already had a used 7800 and a few cartridges, so I can imagine picking up one a few years earlier if I was in the right place and time to buy one new. It took me a while warming up to the NES. Those gamepads were a foreign concept to me at the time.

Agreed. Great work you have done over the years. Thanks for fixing so many games! The Atari ST now has a fine library, compatible with a far wider range of hardware than would have otherwise been possible. Your efforts are much appreciated. Many are silent, but recognize the hard work and time going into this project.