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Pirates! would send game music to any available midi device as well. I seem to recall the game would crash if you were sending the music to a midi keyboard and happened to hit one of its keys.

I picked up a din-9 to USB adapter from raphnet and use the old 2600 joystick on the PC. Still trying to track down my favorite stick, a Kraft. No additional drivers are needed with this setup. I ended up buying just the populated board, and made a housing out of a plastic Easter egg, with USB cable coming out of one end, and a din-9 attached to the other.

...and it's ugly! Custom case from a damaged 1040ST. TOS 2.06 IDE Popsel/Pera board with 4 GB compact flash Eiffel PS/2 PC keyboard interface And one uuuugllyyy case! Currently listed on ebay, search for item: 180324118219 Shipping from Ontario Canada.

Marketplace didn't seem to have much 16-bit traffic, so hope I'm not stepping on any toes listing this here... Now that I've got my IDE interface working on the STe, I'm selling my MegaSTE to fund a few other projects... Shipping will be from Canada, via Canada Post with insurance and delivery confirmation where available. Listed on ebay, item number 180320676636 Link to ebay (Canada): Here This Mega STe was originally purchased new and only used for one month before being boxed up. It's been sitting in the original box, wrapped in plastic until just this year. It's in like-new condition. As you can see from the photos, there's no case yellowing. I've used it for a couple months, and have added these features: * hard drive controller modified based on Pera's instructions to allow larger non-parity drives * works with 1.44 floppy drives * upgraded to TOS 2.06 Currently installed you'll find: 4 MB RAM 1 GB Seagate hard drive Also included is a 16GB Seagate hard drive, and the original stock 40 MB Seagate drive, and a 1.44 MB floppy drive modified to work with the Atari (though the eject button is hard to access when installed in the Atari). Also included are the original TOS 2.05 ROMs in case you want to revert to stock configuration. All drives are for internal use and involve swapping out the currently installed drives. The original Mega STe manual is also included, though not shown in the photos. I'll also include an EtherNEC expansion that plugs into the cartridge port. This is a home-built device that is supposed to give ethernet access by plugging an NE2000 compatible card into the EtherNEC. I never found a compatible card, and used Ghostlink for all my file transfers from PC, so consider the EtherNEC untested and as-is. The Mega STe will ship in its original box. The auction winner is also offered an SM147 monochrome monitor free if desired, though shipping charges for the monitor will apply. Payment by PayPal only. Shipping fees may vary, since monitor option will affect charges. Actual shipping charges will apply, no handling fees ever. Note this is a 120V NTSC U.S. system and will need modifications for European use.

Yup. Bought one of those 1982-ish. By the time I'd got that and a memory upgrade, I wish I'd just bought an 800 in the first place.

Does anyone out there actually have the loader music from Synapse's Zeppelin that they could post? It played Pachelbel's Canon and the William Tell Overture.

Why are Falcons so expensive? For the same reason Bricklin cars are so expensive: they're rare, and despite a number of issues, have a small but obsessive fan base.

If you look at the schematic on Didier's site, it looks like the LCD is better suited for a separate board, with only 4 wires (I think) going from the Eiffel to the 74ls174 and LCD. That way, the LCD could be positioned in a case without being tied to where the ps/2 ports need to be. The hex file I've used for programming the pic chip is the latest 1.10 version, so it does have the capability to drive the LCD if anyone wants to add one in later. But for now, just getting this batch finished is challenge enough for me.

First two boards are done and tested! I'll PM those who have posted interest above as more are completed. If you want to contact me off-list, you can reach me at iraymond /at symbol goes here/ mailworks.org. Mounting holes aren't drilled at the sides...you know where and how you want to mount this better than I do. Keyboard pins can be removed and re-arranged depending on setup.

That's close enough to 7 for me I'll order the parts this week, and post photos, etc. once I've got the first of the Eiffels finished.

I've had a couple people contact me regarding making more Eiffel keyboard interfaces, and wanted to see how much of an interest there was out there. If I were to assemble a batch, I'd need to sell (rough estimate) about seven or eight to justify the initial investment in parts and labour. Estimated price would be $45 US, plus shipping from Canada (about $8 for Can/US/England). I'm also open to any minor changes to the design. My initial thought was to add some unused PCB space for mounting holes.

Well, here's an alternative to buying from that guy... I've listed my Eiffel on ebay, with the hope of covering some of the costs of this learning experience: Item # is 180172700529 I'm also interested in seeing what it goes for, with the thought of making up a few more.

I'm not sure what to suggest about a write-up. The etched board is probably the hardest part, and there's plenty of sites on how to do that (which is how I figured it out). I used a method where you print the board pattern from a laser printer onto inkjet glossy paper, then iron that onto the copper board. Etch with an approx 1:1:1 mix of sulphuric acid, hydrogen peroxide (3%) and water, and in about 15-20 minutes I had a board. Holes were drilled with a dremel and a very small bit of undetermined size. Once you've got that, it's pretty much dropping parts onto the board and soldering. Programming the pic was no more complicated that what I outlined above. The cable...I didn't list any parts below for the cable, that's why it's just a partial list. Like I said, I used a CD-ROM audio cable and salvage. My other option if I couldn't find connectors was to solder directly to the ST, making Eiffel a permanent install. Eiffel parts list (partial) ( 1 ) Pic16f876 or equivalent ( 1 ) 28-pin socket for above ( 3 ) 10Kohm bussed resistor, 6-pin ( 1 ) crystal 4 MHz ( 2 ) resistors, 470 Ohm ( 2 ) LED ( 2 ) din-6 PC PS/2 connector, female ( 2 ) capacitors 15pf ( 3 ) 8-pin (4x2) connector ( 1 ) 4-pin (1x4) connector ( 2 ) jumpers

Thanks! No one's more amazed and myself Everything's linked up above, but board layout is in this file: http://hardware.atari.org/disco/eiffel/eiffelpcb.zip and schematics are on Didier's site: http://perso.orange.fr/didierm/eiffel-e.htm

Something else I had to figure out: the part that made the blue smoke first time around...was the ST to Eiffel cable pin layout. Looking at the graphic I uploaded above, consider the connector pin on the left, where it says C3, as pin 1. For the ST, pin 1 is closest to the front of the case, and you'll see pin 2 is n/c. ST - Eiffel 1 - 4 (Gnd) 4 - 1 (+5V) 5 - 2 (RX) 6 - 3 (TX) For programming the PIC, I had no success using the Willem software. I downloaded WinPic, which is compatible with the Willem programmer, and that did the trick.

Holy crap, I actually did it! It took releasing the magic blue smoke from one of the pics I had on hand, but I now have a working Eiffel interface. Since it's not documented anywhere that I could find, I've attached a graphic that shows pin 1 placement for the 10K bussed resistors. I haven't installed any of the optional gear for thermal fan control, and haven't tested the joystick ports yet. One oddity looking at the Eiffel 3 schematic on Didier's home page is the inclusion of 470 ohm resistors on the joystick lines, whereas on all the board layouts I've seen they're absent. I scavenged as many of the parts as possible, like the keyboard din plugs, and the joystick and ISP connectors came off an old ISA multi-IO card. The cable to the ST keyboard is an unattractive mash-up of a CD-ROM audio cable and a connector pulled from an old monitor's innards.

Hi, Rob; I'm about 3/4 finished building Eiffel...right from etching my own PCB. Since I'm learning most of this as I go, it's a slow process. On the Eiffel main site, linked up above, I used the posted schematic for Eiffel 3 as a parts list, though some components don't appear on the basic version (coldfire connector, 74LS174 and LCD). Only thing I'm having trouble figuring out is the resistor packs...whether they're bussed or isolated (I'd love an answer to that if anyone here knows). For programming the PIC, I picked up a cheap Willem eprom programmer off ebay, and made an ICSP connector to program the PIC. 'Course, until it's finished I can't tell if I've done that correctly. The zip file that contains the component layout is here: http://hardware.atari.org/disco/eiffel/eiffelpcb.zip

I've tried composite, and s-video. Unfortunately, neither platform allows control over the interlacing with the input devices I have. I've tested the Gamebridge with a DVD player's s-video, and it's very good quality. But with the 800xl, as well as my 1040ST modified for s-video output (thanks, ppera!), but no luck. The ST does work well going into the Mac, so at least I've got a solution for my 16-bit fix. The darn thing is, the 800xl does display s-video properly on a couple of my older Macs, a Beige G3 and an 840av...but I need my G4 under the desk for work. Maybe I'll just have to make room for a 13" TV, or try out one of those standalone video->VGA boxes.

I've picked up an 800xl after being away from the hobby for many years. It's now had the Super Video mod done to it, and slightly un-done, as I've tried to sort out the problem below. I'm hoping one of you has gone through a similar experience and has a solution. The problem is getting the Atari s-video or composite to sync on my PC or Mac video in. The image is good on a TV, but I want to use it on one of the computers. On the PC, using an Adaptec Gamebridge, the image is overlaid with a skewed image of the same (pic attached). On the Mac, using a MiroVideo 30 card, the screen is very clear, but the whole image sinks vertically about 1/4 of a screen, then pops back up...and this repeats, like a slight vertical sync problem. I've tried holding different caps and resistors here and there, but my knowledge is limited, so it's largely trial and error and my chances of finding a solution on my own are slim.

If you try the yellow cable as video and aren't getting a picture, you might want to make sure the cable is for your computer. The 600XL and 800XL monitor pinouts were different, and the cable that came with the 800XL off ebay was the wrong one. From the Atari 8-bit FAQ: Monitor Jack (all but 400, N. American 600XL, XE Game System, SECAM systems): 3 1 5 4 2 1. Composite Luminance (Composite Video on 600XL) 2. Ground 3. Audio Output 4. Composite Video 5. Composite Chroma (not on 800XL(most),1200XL; grounded on 600XL) A newer TV should have some aux video/audio inputs on the front or back. Plug in, and select input with the TV remote. I'd been looking into VGA too, and it takes some expensive hardware to convert the signal, or you could run the signal through a computer using a video capture card or something like the Adaptec Gamebridge.

I haven't tried this myself, but one of the Apple II guys I know used hydrogen peroxide to clear up some case yellowing.