Bill Lange

I unboxed the Communicator kit. It has three manuals (850, Telelink I, Dow Jones), a Telelink I cartridge, an 850, an 830, two power cords and a cable from the modem to port 1 on the 850. It also has the internal boxes and inserts. Everything seemed to power up. As I mentioned above, I don't yet have a phone to test with, but my brother said he might have one laying around. The 830 needs a good cleaning. Looking forward to exploring Dow Jones and Compuserve! Maybe play some MegaWars II at a speedy 300 baud. :-) Bill

I picked up a complete in the box Atari Communicator kit off eBay last week. I wanted to test the 830 modem, but I realized I don't have a phone headset that will fit! Looks cool though, Wargames cool! Bill

I've been using my 850 to experiment connecting an 8-bit to an Arduino equipped with an RS232 shield. Bill

I'm looking forward to seeing this at VCF East. Bill

I wonder if every time that there is a product post like this or a product mention on one of the Atari podcasts that Best and B&C get a bunch of orders for the product.

Between the spring of 1982 when I purchased my Atari 400 through the summer of 1986 when I left for military service, I wasn't a member of any official Atari Users Group. If there was an Atari Users Group in my area, I wasn't aware with it. During my freshman year in high school, starting in the fall of 1982, I had access to the Apple II computer in one of my classes after I taught my teacher the ins and outs of BASIC. I was allowed to use the computer whenever I wanted as long as my class work was done. The Apple II had a Hayes SmartModem hooked to it and I started calling local BBSs. One of the most popular ones in the area was called The Jersey Shore Telecommunications Breadboard System (JSTBBS) based in southern Ocean County, New Jersey, running on some flavor of TRS-80 I believe. For Christmas 1982, I received a Hayes SmartModem 300. I hooked up the modem to my 850 interface and then to my Atari 400. +++ AT S11=50. I called JSTBBS more often and started calling other local boards as well. I met a lot of local people, many my age, some older, through BBSing. There was never a shortage of information or software. Some of the JSTBBS crew would meet up for breakfast at a local Dennys every Saturday (or maybe one Saturday a month) from Sept to May and talk computers. The summer months were too crowded with tourists at the Jersey shore. Good times. Bill

I was in Las Vegas last week for work. Usually when I am there, I stop by The Pinball Hall of Fame to play some classic arcade games and pinball machines. And I did so on this trip as well. I noticed a game store next door called A Gamer's Paradise at 1550 E Tropicana Ave. While they didn't have any Atari 8-bit stuff for sales, they had plenty on display. See the pics. There must be six display cases or so of older machines and boxes line a high self around the store. Bill

I made some progress today organizing my Atari documentation using some new Atari binders and White Removable Avery ink jet labels. I also used some new 3-ring Atari 5 1/4 diskette holders and some 3-ring binder pockets to hold smaller manuals. Bill

Thanks for posting. I may order one for printer and 850 interface in the next couple of weeks. I'll you know the measurements and how they turn out. Bill

I rebuilt a couple of CX40 joysticks tonight using the gold plated PCB boards from Best Electronics. Of course I also replaced the orange fire button, the fire button spring, the white inner handle and the black outer handle cover. The gold plated PCBs and new handles have a great feel to them. I played a few games of Centipede to take them for a test spin. More and more I am finding that the four rubber feet and even the black outer handle cover are turning to that black inky goo like the 410 drive belts and the 1027 printer heads. Now I need to find some more worn out CX40s to rebuild! Bill

The Andy Robot is listed on eBay again.

Do you have a list of measurements for the covers that you ordered by hardware? I might try this site to get a cover for my Star Gemini 10x. Bill

Here are some front, side and back shots. The covers pull all the way down to the table. There is plenty of room for the power and monitor cables. Bill

I was looking around for a dust cover for my Commodore 1702 monitors. I found these dust covers on Amazon. I ordered a couple of the 15" CRT size and they work great. Bill

I had to ask my wife if we would actually pay to make a long distance call (to Austin Texas???). She said no. I'd use both dial up and telnet! Bill

If you get a Star Micronics Gemini 10X printer, it uses standard typewriter ribbons which are still available. Bill

This thread seems to have some good info: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/99666-ace80-xl/?hl=%20dumb%20%20terminal Bill

Anyone have one of these? http://www.ebay.com/itm/EXTREMELY-RARE-Atari-ACE-DT-80-Dumb-Terminal-Emulator-1984-ATR8000-800-/141497067257?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item20f1e1e6f9 Anyone have the manual if one came with it? Bill

We started out with the Atari 2600. We got that in ’78 or ’79. My first taste of ‘programming’ was my Big Trak (fun) and later the BASIC Programming cartridge (ugh!) on the 2600. When I was in the 8th grade, in March of 1982, I purchased an Atari 400 (from a Consumers store, a catalog showroom store in the northeast USA). The Atari 2600 was put aside and later sold off to a neighbor along with all of our cartridges. Later when the Atari 800XL came out, I purchased one of those (through the Crutchfield catalog). I was using the Atari at home and had access to Apple IIs and IBM PCs when I moved on to high school. In my senior year in high school I took a UCSD Pascal class on the Apple IIs and at night, I was teaching two semesters (fall, spring) of an 'introduction to computers' class in my town’s adult class program. So in Aug or Sept of 1985, I purchased an Apple IIc which became my main home computer throughout my senior year. After I graduated, I enlisted in the US Army. I brought my Apple IIc with me when I was able to. By the time I got out of the Army in the spring of 1988, my brother had purchased an IBM PC and I started using that. Sometime soon after all of the Atari and Apple hardware was regrettably sold off. I did retain a shoebox full of floppies and some boxed software (Ultima, Universe, etc). I've been using Wintel boxes ever since.

I didn't see the Atari Energy Czar manual on atarimania.com, so here it is if anyone wants it. It is a 20 page 300 dpi pdf file just under 21 megs. Regards, Bill Atari_Energy_Czar.pdf

Found this ad in Analog #20

Here are the ATRs and some instructions ... cosbal.txt Cosmic Balance II.atr Cosmic Balance.atr

That ATR8000 sure looks like it needs some love and attention! Bill

I love this altar to Atari! Nice display. Bill

Once I set the emulated drive to R/W, it works. I'm using Altirra x64 2.5 NTSC 64K. Thanks. Bill