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Got my membership pack from Abbuc today, and that is a tasty membership number. Anyone got other significant numbers? Off the top of my head, 11, 12, 65, 80, 130, 410, 810, 800, 400, 551 are the obvious ones.

I typed all of these myself, verified with GIR where available, and typed the docs from the mags. Had a couple of the tapes when I was a kid, but no disks. Edit: there were disks available, but I wanted to make my own compilations - it's possible (without looking) that these compilations might contain some of the disk bonus programs.

Glad you like the menu, took me a while to get it how I like it all those years ago! IIRC, pressing Control + letter gives you the docs from the mag.

This kind of goes back to what I said about Green Beret though - as it was a port (presumably from the C64 version) it mostly inherited the inherent qualities that the source version had, which in this case was excellent gameplay in the first place. I don't perceive much difference in the controls of HoH between the two versions at all, and of course the C64 graphics were taken straight from the Spectrum original anyway. It's hard to see how it could have been improved significantly given the time frame. Looking at its isometric peers of the time the only one that springs to mind is Chimera, which looks nice but is incredibly chunky and lacks details in the building blocks, where HoH has the pixel count of a GR.8 screen at the cost of being monochrome.

First 10 were great, just orderd 11-14+tshirt! One question though - shipping to the UK is a bit steep for some of the items. I was interested in the Basic ten-liners book at €7.50, but shipping for this alone was €10 as its 0.5kg. Are there any other carrier options available?

I wouldn't necessarily have had a problem with Green Beret's graphics when I bought it for £2.99 back in the day, if the controls and gameplay had been tighter as Mr Mclaneinc says. The C64 version has better graphics sure, but it also has a fluid jumping action (compared to diagonal up and diagonal down with no arc on A8). The speed at which enemies appear and move on both versions is too severe, but exacerbated on A8 by the fact that when you jump you're locked in and the collision detection for the knife attack is shonky. Surprisingly, I find the Spectrum version has the "best" gameplay feel for me. Noone loves monochrome graphics, but the speed of enemies and your character ("responsiveness") are spot on. C64 version nails the presentation but gameplay fails for being far too punishing. Is there scope for improving the A8 version? Not talking about graphics, even if they were the same as they are now, it would be great to play it with a bit more care in the jumping, enemy spawning and collision detection.

Slightly delayed response... Thanks muchly for having a look at this, I finally have some time to get back to Atari stuff next week, been a busy couple of months. Should be able to report back Monday or Tuesday I reckon

Looking for some opinions chaps. I'm in the market for a new Flashback and fancied gathering some opinions on which model I should go for. Desires: 1. Paddles 2. Wireless joysticks 3. SD card slot 4. Easy "hackability" So of course wireless joysticks limits my choice to 8G or 9G, and paddles limits to 8GD. 8GD is available in UK at a fairly reasonable price, 9G, well, isn't, but is importable from Amazon without too much fuss. Paddles aren't a deal breaker but they would be nice to have. SD card versus "hackability" - well, SD card is obviously much easier (I already have a Legends 2018 and Megadrive 2018), but I don't know how involved the modding of an 8 is. Things I'm not sure of: are the wireless joysticks from 8 & 9 pairable with any other device at all? Are they bluetooth for example? How is the emulation on 8 compared to 9? Paddles - same question as above for the Blast ones, can they be paired with anything but the dongle? Finally, X is out of the equation - the thing looks great but wired joysticks for me is a deal breaker. Ta

Fractional MB: Yes, I agree certainly for the initialisation screen - the rarity of removeable storage with capacity under 1GB must be vanishingly rare these days; integer MB displays would certainly sufficient for me. Until such time SDFS can handle > 32MB, fractional display is probably better in that context. Resizing partitions: Thanks, I'll give that a try then Name: I was bored of typing out "SDX cartridge image with SIDE support" to refer to the image The fact SIDELoader has no capability of writing to disk completely escaped me to be honest I agree all functionality should be available across all platforms that are supported by SIDELoader notwithstanding U1MB or lack thereof. From my perspective, the IDE emulation is more important than the loader, but the loader is an extension of AVG, if you like. There will be times when XEXs don't work in AVG and vice versa, so having the best of both worlds is a definite advantage. There's the audio streamer as well, of course (which name escapes for the minute..) From a wider perspective, I guess it also means tmp doesn't have to reinvent the wheel for support for a certain feature, if it is already present in SIDE or its loader. FDISK: Ultimately I guess you will want to squash the bug we discussed, but as a temporary measure, how about disabling the sanity checking during parsing of the size fields, and checking the total of both fields doesn't exceed the device capacity at the point of pressing Return? Not sure if the maths for this would still be the same as you're using currently In addition, a minor suggestion: If one selects FAT16 as the type, there shouldn't be any need to have this larger than 4095MB in the sizing options, as FAT16 can't be any higher than 4GB anyway. If you need any FDISK testing, let me know - I'll probably be fiddling with this SD card for a couple of weeks yet anyway

Channeling your inner Bill G eh! It's interesting that it only happens for a certain total range. I fiddled with the numbers in both fields again, and in short, entering numbers above 8192 in both works fine. As a potential workaround, if I create both partitions at 8192mb and then resize the FAT partition using Windows to 4095mb, would the APT partition still be visible, in theory? I recall reading in one of your posts or possibly in the userguide that messing with partitions after the APT one could destroy data, but I don't know if FAT and APT have to be contiguous. While I have the user guide open, could you clarify something on the FAT access side of things? On page 16 referring to ATRMOUNT, the guide states that this command is designed for U1MB, and goes on to say that IDEPlus users should use their proprietary tools to mount ATRs. My question is if ATRMOUNT would work under SDXSIDE (good name eh) if an ATR was copied to an SDFS partition? Lastly and unrelated, going back several posts ago when we were discussing the OSS carts embeded in the SDX image, you mentioned the inability to save config for SIDEloader due to their being no NVRAM to save it to. As a suggestion/feature request, would it be possible for SIDELoader/SIDEcfg to save its configuration to a file directly on the SD card? The theory being that the program would try to read NVRAM first (succeeding on a real SIDE cart, failing on an AVG cart), and as a fallback, look for a file on the FAT partition of the card, say in the root?

Aye, using diskpart on Windows reports it as being 59gb, but that's rounding off of course, not to mention that these days 1gb is 1000mb rather than 1024mb (don't get me started :)) The set up is what I'm having some issues with. I'm running Windows 7 so I've been through a painful day or so trying to find ways of using more than one partition useable by Windows, and failed. Until such time I upgrade to W10 I decided on having the card set up with a 4gb (4095mb) FAT16 partition and the same for APT for OCD reasons (!). The current issues I'm having revolve around AVG not refreshing the card slot after boot, meaning I have to manipulate the card in Windows to have a FAT partition on to which I can slap the SDX car file on, so that I can boot to SDX and repartition on the Atari. This necessitates creating a FAT partition through FDISK of course. The current issue is that when using FDISK from the SDX car file, there's some strange behaviour when entering digits in the size fields. Even with auto-fill deselected the behaviour persists. Steps to replicate: - Open FDISK, select initialise from menu, confirm warnings about MBR being destroyed, this brings us to the partition screen - Tab to auto fill box and deselect with space - Tab to FAT size field, type in any number above 3560, press tab again - FAT size field reverts back to the full size of the card (in this case 60904) - Type any number above 3560 in APT field and press tab, APT field reverts back to full size of card Interestingly, if I enter 8192 in both fields or numbers above this (I haven't tried all numbers ;)) the fields both stay as they should be. Naturally to work around this I can use numbers below 2000 or so (certain other combinations of numbers in the two fields seem to behave similarly to the above description). The preference would be to have the FAT16 partition as large as possible however, as I tend to use the old card as a scratch disk for non-Atari related stuff. Edit: FDISK version is 4.67

So just some quick updates on my latest shenanigans (hopefully tmp and FJC will like some of these tinkerings): 1. I bought a 64gb SDXC card because it was cheap, and am pleased to report it works fine in AVGCart (with caveats, noted below) 2. You probably already knew this FJC, but FDISK that is on the SDXSIDE car image recognises said card and its capacity correctly (something like 60992MB) 3. After updating the AVGCart with a test firmware from tmp, running CAR from SDXSIDE car image works correctly, and launches SIDE loader Re the 64gb card, it's a Sandisk UHS-I Class 10 SDXC card (full size, not micro). Had some interesting behaviour from AVG on first using it. I didn't bother with any initialisation on the card before it went in AVG, so on booting, I got the usual grey AVG screen with "reading directory" message, which hung the machine, and pressing Reset just brought up the same thing again. I then powered off the Atari and slotted in my existing working SD card, powered up, and just got a black screen. Power cycle and same result. 64gb card in AVG, same result. I was quite concerned I'd blown something up, so disconnected AVG and booted up Atari fine. AVGCart back in and power up with old SD card in, and black screen again; but on pressing Reset the SD directory comes up. Power cycled again, and behaviour repeated - Boot to black screen, press Reset and directory appears. I can't explain that one Moving on, after (eventually) finding a utility to format FAT32 under Windows > 32gb, I copied the contents of my old SD card to the new 64gb one, slotted it in AVG and Atari booted first time into the cart menu. A few test car files and fiddling with SDX seem to work okay. Got some current logistical challenges on prepping the SD card for use with SDXSIDE as AVG doesn't (yet) have two SD card sockets...

The only one I can find similar to this is: ba Break on memory access From this link: http://seriouscomputerist.atariverse.com/media/rtf/Altirra - Debugger Commands.rtf

Aha, brilliant! I suppose this takes us back to my original question 4 then, around getting to the SIDE loader from SDX prompt (by typing CAR). I'll await the results of tmp's testing on that one. I've never done anything with regard to manipulating cartridge images - do you have any recommendations on software to use to move the blocks of data around in the image file? (Windows or A8)

Heh, I was just in the middle of typing a reply to the effect of "How does AVG remember which OSS cart selected when booting from two different CAR files"! Your reply makes perfect sense in the context of a real SIDE cart of course. I had wondered if somehow a writeback to the CAR file was occurring behind the scenes when running the SIDE config utility. In that case then, as AVG (afaik) has no concept of passthrough carts (currently ;)) would the following idea work? Take your existing "SDX with SIDE support" car file and bake in one OSS language? Or indeed, any language cart (MS Basic, TBXL...?), such that the end result would be the ability to boot from say "SDX with SIDE support and M65 built in" and get to M65 by typing CAR. I'm not averse to having several SDX car files, each with a different language on - maybe there could be an ability to "roll-your-own" SDX SIDE language car file? Just thinking off the top of my head here. On a completely unrelated note, is there possibility of including the SDX MAN pages on the car files for future releases? I appreciate having the online help files when I'm fiddling with commands I have no clue how to use Thanks again, and I hope I'm providing you with more esoteric ideas Absolutely no rush on my side, appreciate the support you've always given.

Just re-read my last post and it could be clearer, so here goes: Current workflow Plug in MAC65 cart (OR AVG cart and select regular MAC65 car file) Boot from Spartados floppy with X32G.SYS Desired workflow Plug in AVG cart and select "SDX with SIDE support and OSS" car file (assuming M65 is set active) Get to SDX prompt Type CAR to get to MAC65 Assemble to my SD card Type DOS to get back to SDX prompt Hopefully that makes better sense. /ramble

Thanks tmp, I wasn't sure if Shift-S was required or not - given FJC's reply above obviously not A use case - possibly as a way to run a Basic program or the PDC (?) audio player without having to reboot? Thanks FJC, if I'm honest I've always wondered what the benefits of mass storage access would be on an A8 given that SIO2X devices are all capable of reading huge ATR files, but the examples given with the audio player do intrigue me and am keen to try them out! I'll try and dig up an unused SD card and prep from scratch, appreciate the advice on that score. For me, I think the benefits to having a dual formatted card would be the ability to use a single card for regular A8 usage (ie. my beloved type in programs/TLW etc.) and of course the features of AVG, primarily hosting cart files. With the above in mind then, it's possible I may have misunderstood the OSS cart functionality of a real SIDE. My desired use case would be akin to having a real SDX cart with an OSS cart piggybacked on it, so one can save directly to the SDX drives (whichever format) from say MAC65. As my intSDX refuses to play nice with AVG, currently I have to boot from a disk/ATR with ye olde Spartados on it (X32G.SYS iirc) with my real MAC65 cart attached. Given this, am I correct in assuming that a real SIDE cart can only be SDX OR SIDE OR OSS cart? And not a combo of SDX AND OSSS cart? I did run the SIDE config utility after running the SIDE CAR file from AVG UI, but after choosing 6 (I think) for MAC65 and then selecting reboot, the Atari just reset and booted from D1: as usual (or to BASIC prompt with no disk in D1). Running the SIDE CAR from AVG UI after further reset just brought up the regular SIDE loader menu. Sorry for the bombardment of text, hopefully it all makes sense, and thanks again to tmp and yourself for these tools.

So after further fiddling I figured I'd try out SDX and SIDE Loader as it seems my intSDX and AVG won't co-exist, running into further issues, probably down to my lack of knowledge Now I'm not sure where these questions should go as some are likely not AVG specific, but for the sake of continuity I'll chuck it in this thread. Chain of events as follows: - Unzip @flashjazzcat's SIDE/SDX roms to working SD card - Load SIDE Loader car with no issues, and it can also see the SD card and its contents with no issues - Load SDX car with no issues, SIDE driver loaded message at top of screen before D1: prompt - Cycle through A: to O: and only D1: (A) responds with DIR, all rest come back "device doesn't respond" (paraphrased) - Try Shift-S at AVG menu, only thing that happens is a reboot and then booting from D1 - Hold right AVG button down at power on, get grey blank screen and nothing else or response to any keypresses, pressing reset boots from D1 again - Upgrade AVG successfully to R16 and behaviour above replicates Now I fully expect that this will be a combination of a lack of knowledge of mass storage access on an Atari along with me probably doing something wrong, but I really can't see the wood for the trees! At the risk of conflating contributory yet potentially distinct problems, my questions are thusly: 1. Do I need to use Shift-S/Boot with AVG right button for SDX to see the SD card? 2. Is the hang at grey screen holding right AVG button expected behaviour on my hardware? Only stuff active out of the hardware addons is 1MB of unknown vendorage, but behaviour is same with this disabled 3. Is having the SIDE driver active in SDX all that is required to see the SD card? 4. How does one access the SIDE loader from SDX? There only appears to be side.sys related on CAR:, and typing CAR at the prompt locks up the screen 5. Similarly, how does one access the OSS carts that are referred to on the download page for AVG SIDE roms? Disclaimer: I have literally no experience in using mass storage on Atari - I'm aware of MYIDE/Black Box/SIDE and so on and so forth, but I've never had the pleasure of using any of them at all (even under emulation), so apologies if I'm doing something wrong unintentionally. Ta

No IDE configured at all. As mentioned, this is not a physical SDX cart, it is intSDX inside the case and when it's activated by the toggle switch and the AVGcart is plugged in the regular cart port, on switching the XE on I get the regular blue display with cursor at top left and nothing else. If intSDX is toggled off, then AVGCart boots to its regular grey screen with the contents of the SD card displayed.

So I've been having lots of fun with the cart, but I have an issue which I'm assuming won't be able to be resolved, just looking for confirmation really. The machine I'm using it in is a Frankenstein 65XE I picked up on eBay almost a decade ago, and all still works fine. It has 1mb RAM (unknown type), inbuilt SpartaDOS X (4.42 I believe), stereo Pokey, Aki keyboard interface, and a 4 in 1 OS which has two versions of QMEG installed, and the 400/800 OS as well as regular XE. The issue with AVGcart is when XL/XE OS is active and intSDX is also active, the machine boots to blue screen and cursor and nothing further. With intSDX inactive AVGcart boots fine. Clearly there's a conflict but I've no clue what it is! AVGCart has the latest firmware on it (r15?) I've never had this machine to bits so at the moment can't provide any further detail on the hardware mods; but has anyone come across this previously? IIRC my Mac65 cart exhibits the same behaviour. ta PS. I should add that all the hardware mods have hardware toggle switches to switch them in or out - no software toggles. I do have one switch that I have no clue what it does but that's for another thread

This might have got buried in the previous version thread as the new version was released soon after: To expand a little here, the vision would be the ability to add a 1020 in the hardware section and have it write the plotter output to a seperate window (scrollable to emulate the paper roll) with an ability to use standard Windows printing to send it to a print driver (this would provide PDF print functionality via CutePDF or similar). Under the Altirra hood I assume it should work the same as the regular P: emulation as there's no difference in the SIO data flow that I'm aware of - the 1020 does all the work interpreting the specific codes to move the pens and roller around of course.

My AVGcart arrived today, thanks very much tmp!

Random feature request: is it possible to add 1020 plotter emulation as well as the P: device? Yes, I know I'm obsessed with 1020s I'm a big fan of the 1020 emulation in APE so would be very cool to see something similar in Altirra!

Received the S-Drive Max I ordered from eBay yesterday, and spent most of last night playing with it. No idea if the fella selling them is on AA, but I can recommend them for anyone in the market for one of these in the UK; it seems the seller makes five or so of them available every week or so, arrived quickly and thoughtful packaging as well. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sdrive-Max-Atari-8bit-800xl-600xl-65xe-130xe-Atari-XEGS-sio2sd-sio-tape-disk-fix/173710208225?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 Also received a 1020 I ordered from a retro website I found while scouring the bowels of Google, is in good physical condition but sadly it has the usual problem of not feeding paper through properly and the pen barrel not going all the way to the left so pens don't change. Hopefully the 3d printed gears I got from Shapeways will solve both of these issues with any luck.