Bill Lange

Thanks for the info. I actually have an original SAM disk. The problem with SAM is that it blanks the screen while producing voice. With the AG VB, you just send the data to the device and forget about it. I'll check out the link. WRL

Does anyone have any info on this product? It would be interesting to emulate this product on the Atari800WinPlus emulator. Does anyone have manual scans or rom dumps of this? WRL

Also, if the power indicator on the disk drive is on, but it doesn't seem to load, check the switches on the back of the drive to make sure it is configured as drive #1. WRL

I was able to get all the Atari Ultima disk images from Holmes site before it when down. I also scanned the manual for Ultima I http://www.langesite.com/Atari/Ultima/index.html WRL

The only thing I can remember playing on Intelevision was baseball and football. Is there an emulator somewhere? Isn't it HACKMASTER??? I've seen the spoof of Keep On The Borderlands, but I never looked at it. I've been playing 3rd edition D&D for the last two years after not playing for about fifteen years. WRL

That's funny considering your avatar! WRL

Ron- What tool do you use to design your character sets/ backgrounds? WRL

www.sunmark.com has new 8-bit cartridge cases as well as the hardware that goes inside. WRL

Are you looking for an action type of game for the 5200 or something like The Bard's Tale and Wizardry? WRL

I have an 800XL and two semi-working 1050 drives. I can read from both drives, but I have trouble writing to or formatting either. I just picked up another 800XL and a 600XL from e(P)ay so I can figure out where the problem is. I also have a huge box of 5 1/4 diskettes full of software. There most be 200 floppies. WRL

Ron - Here is a whole book about sidescrollers - http://www.makegames.com/sidescroller/index.html As for detecting where the floor is, using the collision registers or a table both work. Also you can create a function that converts the players x-position into a character position. Then check what character is in the 'floor' below the player. If it is a character of 'no floor' the player falls or dies or whatever. The player's x position can be between 0 and 255 (or 00 and FF). In Antic mode 4 there are 40 columns (0 -39). You have to do a little testing to figure out what x value is the right most edge of character column 0 and what x value is the left most edge of character column 39. Then just subtract min_player_x from max_player_x and divid by 40. Then do the same thing with the player's y position to figure out the character row the player is on. WRL

I was looking for 411 on the Synassembler today and found this nice site - http://www.atariland.com/members/oldatarian/index.htm WRL

It is easy enough to create a Atari readable disk from an .ATR file, which is a disk image, but my point is that not many people still have working disk drives or had them in the first place. There are less changes that have to be made to convert a 5200 cartridge image to a 400/800 cartridge image then to a 400/800 disk runnable program. This is a really good point. I don't have an answer to that one! :-)

There are slight differences to making a cart on the 400/800 than on the 5200. These are just memory location difference, of course you have to make the regular 5200 to 400/800 memory/register changes too which should be included in the equates header file (if you are using one). I've been able to make carts (images) for both the 400/800 and the 5200 with DASM, but I haven't been able to make a disk loadable binary with it. I can however easily make disk loadable binaries with the Atari Assembler Editor and other 8-bit assemblers .... not fun ... but not to bad on an emulator running at 500% speed. :-) I'm not sure how many people still have working disk drives with their 8-bit machines so making Koffi as an 8-bit cart image might be a better decision. Let someone else (AtariAge) or whomever produce the actual cartridges ... that has got to be a lot of hard work on your part! SUNMARK has 8-bit cart cases and boards. If you make it as a disk based game, people can run it on an emulator or only if they have a working disk drive. If you make it as a cart image, it can be run from an emulator or anyone can run it on a REAL machine if they want to invest in the cart. Just my .02 WRL

Are you going to do a disk based version for the 8-bit machines or a cartridge based one? WRL

Curt - Your top link doesn't seem to be working. WRL

Cafeman - 1. Display objects that can be picked up as background characters. This assumes that the objects can't move by themselves. 2. When the player hits them, then remove the background characters and add the object data to the players pmg ribbon. The limitation here is that the object must be above or below the players "square". WRL

This is a great parody of the classic saying "All your base are belong to us". Do a Google search and see how many times / parodies are out there. WRL

I don't see this eraser listed on thier website. Maybe I am just blind. Can I just put the chips in my tanning bed and hit "TROPICAL"! :-) WRL

Are you guys still happy with the Transtronics' Pocket Programmer and the Datarase? I was pointed to the Eprom Programmers at Jameco, but it seems like most of you guys are using the Transtronics equipment. The Als - You guys should put up a technical notes section on how to burn cartridges for the various Atari systems, including equipment and component suppliers. WRL

I have to disagree. You should play them in order as there are characters and such that show up again and again in the series. I remember seeing Ultima I on a friends Apple II and was blown away by it; of course he was blown away by Star Raiders. Ultima II was kind of easy as you could just sit off shore in a ship blasting monsters with your cannons and they couldn't touch you. I though Ultima III and IV were great. I think I have all the disk images for Ultima I - IV if you want them. I also have all the docs which I can scan. WRL

I have Ultima I - IV sitting in front of me. Ultima I has one two-sided disk. Ultima II has two disks; one is double-sided and the other is single sided. Ultima III has one two-sided disk. Ultima IV has one two-sided disk. WRL

How are they connecting the C64 to the net? Network card and TCP/IP stack? WRL

I have multiple 1050s and multiple SIO cables, problem is I only have one 800xl to test with. I run some tests this weekend, but I think I'll need to get another 800xl or some other 8-bit pc to finally figure out what the problem is . WRL

I doubt you! Well, actually I don't really doubt you, but I would like to see you get 30 colors on the screen at once. While I think it may be possible to get that many colors on the screen during a DLI, but you would not have time to do anything else. WRL