machf

SimCity is one of those games I always thought could be run on an Atari 8-bit machine... Given that it's now open source (as Micropolis), has anyone considered that for a more "direct" port?

Well, there were only two more issues ever published (aside from the earlier Atari Creativo #0 issue that preceded it), so I'll try to have them both scanned by tonight, or tomorrow at most... Regarding RAR compression... that still leaves the size at 16MB, isn't that an issue? And I'll try to work on a translated index after I'm done scanning them. Also, remember that there are already disk images of the unreleased disk with the program listing in the UMich 8-bit archives, in the Magazines section.

Yes, I photocopied those articles from a friend's magazines long ago, too bad I never actually got to build anything... my problem was that PBI required a ROM and I had no way to program an EPROM. BTW, wasn't there a "Build your own EPROM burner" article in some Antic issue? That's one I'd like to take a look at...

OK, so here's issue #0 of Informática Creativa scanned by yours truly and converted into a 16MB PDF file: http://rapidshare.com/files/124842343/InfCre_0.pdf Feel free to download it and host it elsewhere if you want... uploading 16MB with my connection takes qround 40 minutes at max speed, so I'd rather not do it again. And I think this is the best I can do, given the quality of the paper on which issues #0 and #1 were printed. An optimum PDF scan would be one converted directly from the original files for the magazine... it was made using Signum! 2 on an Atari ST computer, if IAQ can get his ST up and running again, I guess he could print the issues to PostScript files and then convert those to PDFs. Or maybe he already has them in PS format archived somewhere...

Well, you may want to disable BASIC so the computer can use the full RAM for loading some other program (not one written in BASIC, of course) that needs it. The way the computer addresses memory, on XL/XE models you either have the BASIC ROM at addresses $A000 to $BFFF, or available RAM, but not both at the same time.

Have you tried going to http://www.pigwa.net/ and reading what it says there?

And their design is so good you don't even notice they are there...

The printer in question is a run of the mill desktop printer. Nothing special. Maybe I should have mentioned that. Yeah... I just meant that printers capable of printing white are possible, it's only that since ~99% of people will only print on white paper, they aren't popular. There are lots of stories (true stories) like that... on IAQ's office, there was this guy who brought his article for his Anime magazine on a diskette - and it turned out he had just dragged a shortcut to the file into it. They still keep reminding him of that. He's learned a bit more nowadays, though...

Well, I'm halfway scanning issue #0, and I must say that even using JPEG images at 150dpi, it's going to be ~20MB per issue...

Take a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroDry

Well, Mathy... actually, there are a few printers that can print white color, they are used mostly for decals and such - things where you are printing on a transparent surface, so "no color" doesn't mean the same as "white". ALPS printers are some that can do that, they use thermal ribbons. But the average desktop printer meant to just use white paper doesn't provide an option for that.

Hi, Hias. So, this should allow SIO2PC to work at higher speeds, for example? And other interfaces using the SIO port too that so far have been limited by the regular 19200bps speed of it?

First, the ECI, AFAIK, was basically the PBI minus the signal lines that were also featured in the standard cartridge port - thus its location next to it, so that they could be used together if needed. Check the XL/XE edition of Mapping the Atari. Basically, ECI+Cartridge port = PBI. Second, I think the ECI-less 65XEs may have had the electronics removed but kept the motherboard... in any case, it's cheaper to manufacture a board with fewer things on it. Third, the PBI was virtually unused after all those years of having been created, so changing the design wasn't a big issue regarding adapter compatibility. EDIT: heh, Rybags just beat me to it - what he's saying is almost the same.

If you want to load BASIC programs, you need to have 1) the drive switched on, 2) a disk with some DOS on the drive and 3) BASIC enabled. Don't hold OPTION down when booting.

So... tonight I spoke with IAQ, the editor/publisher of the former Informática Creativa magazine, and he authorized me to scan and upload the issues of the magazine. He also said he was going to search for his archived copy of Atari Creativo #0 (the predecessor to Informática Creativa) in order to scan it too, and mentioned the possibility of offering the back issues of IC for 1 Euro plus shipping (shipping costs still need to be estimated right now) if people become interested in them later. His server should probably be back in action during this week, he just needs to solve some issues regarding the DNS - since his old hosting is down, he couldn't access his e-mail account on the server, and he can't have the DNS redirected to the new server he's moved everything to unless he sends an e-mail from his e-mail account, which is the one "officially" registered for the domain... stupid bureaucrats. I told him to take a look around here, too. Anyway... before I start scanning the magazines, I wanted to ask a few questions: - What resolution should I use for scanning them? I was thinking either 150dpi or 300dpi - What format to save the scanned images to? My choice would be PNG for the 150dpi ones or JPEG for the 300dpi ones - Should I just ZIP/RAR the images together, or use them to make PDF documents instead? - Thinking of scanning the front and back covers in 24-bit color, but the rest of the magazines in greyscale only, is that OK? - After I'm done, should I just upload them to RapidShare, or is there someone/somewhere I should send them to?

Don't think so... I had seen Infiltrator back then, and it didn't look the same (although I don't remember it anymore nowadays).

And what does your dictionary define as "CPU intervention" in the first place? (What makes "your" dictionary an "authorized" one, anyway...?) Regarding P/MGs... they are to some extent exchangeable with regular graphics, somewhat of an extension, so to speak. For example, in AtariBASIC graphics mode 10, the color registers usually meant for the colors of players 0-3 become instead the ones for playfield colors 0-3, and the registers accessed through the common AtariBASIC SETCOLOR 0 to 4 command become the registers for playfield colors 4-8. Similarly, missiles 0-3 can be combined into a single player and its color will be defined by the register accessed by the AtariBASIC SETCOLOR 3 command (IIRC). In the end, P/MGs aren't your common sprite, they are rather graphics overlay "channels" which can be, well, overlayed on top of the "regular" graphics. Also... the older computers (400 and 800, not sure if the 1200XL too?) don't have any graphics modes 12, 13, 14 or 15 accessible through AtariBASIC, but you can still access those modes in them by setting up a custom display list. Later models just made it easier to access them from AtariBASIC. Can't call them "tricks", and the same applies to all the other capabilities of the Atari graphics chips. It's really pretty simple: Atari computers were designed to work in a way different from Commodore ones - you can't just judge them by the same standards.

Hopefully it was the same I saw and played... let's see if you can remember something else from it, I only played it for a few minutes, so there's not much I can say about it other than that it existed.

This is stupid. Why do those Commodore guys insist in calling "tricks" the capabilities of the Atari graphics chips? Only because AtariBASIC doesn't directly provide access to all of them? Since when does BASIC set the definition of anything? I'd accept defining the use of interlaced screens relying on the persistence of vision to give an ilusion of more colors as "tricks", but setting up a display list different than the ones preconfigured in AtariBASIC is no trick... the graphics chips CAN display those modes "from the factory", they were designed to do that.

The mention of the 400 made me realize that I have one that belonged to a friend from the university inside a box here... he also gave me his old diskettes... I really must go through all that stuff. Bummer, the 400 apparently has no power supply. At least, I can't find it together with the other stuff...

I've got a really poor quality 130XE schematic lying around... it's a photocopy of a photocopy of a reduced photocopy of the original, or something like that, in A3 size. Also a slightly better 800XL schematic (but only *very* slightly better). I can scan those, but I can't promise you anything about their usefulness... UPDATE: here they are, in case anybody wants to see them (even though, contrary to this thread's title, they are of bad quality) 130XE schematic ~5MB, 2 PNG images at 2550x3508 pixels (300dpi scans) 800XL schematic ~10MB, 4 PNG images at 3508x2550 pixels (300 dpi scans) Good luck placing the pieces together...

At least one other person must have had it, and that's whoever he got it from in the first place. I just found the list of programs he had back then, folded in the box where I keep my old cassette tapes (as I said, I didn't have a disk drive yet, I had only had the 800XL for a year). It's not his original printed list but a copy by hand I wrote to show to my cousin-in-law, but it definitely says "Gunship" there under "New ones", so at least my memory isn't betraying me. These other pictures are from our class in 1986. The guy in the red pullover (Roland) is the C64 guy from whom he borrowed the Gunship manual for photocopying, and since he left at the end of the year for Quito, it can't have happened after that, so this likely means that 1986 must be the year he (Andreas, aka Magilla) got the game at most. Those two were friends, and I located Roland (as well as about half a dozen other former schoolmates) yesterday on one of those "keep in touch with old classmates" sites which require you to register, I wonder if he'have kept in touch with Andreas after so long... If it is of any help, Andreas used to have a logo labeled "Nucleus Software" back then, which consisted of a mathematical graph vaguely resembling a spider web or a Christmas ornament with the word "Nucleus" on the upper left quarter and the word "Software" in the lower right, with the graph in the center. I may still have a printout of that logo lying around among some other papers somewhere... Hmmm, does my guess of one chip being required for one side and the other for a second side makes any sense, or is it more likely that he actually meant that one chip was needed to read the disk and the other to write the copy simultaneously? UPDATE: Scanned this ad from the January 1987 issue of COMPUTE!

Not much luck... the artcle basically describes how they started a BBS with a 130XE and an XM-301 modem, apparently with 2 1050s with US Doublers, running FOREM, then progressing through a Hayes modem and an SX-212, switching to a custom FOREM/AMIS hybrid and later BBCS 2 Construction Set, and finally in the beginning of 1989 (the issue is from April) ending up with a Supra Mode 2400, a 130XE expanded to 320KB, an XF-551, a 256KB MIO and a Seagate half-height 20MB HDD running X-Press Pro. Not quite the info you were looking for, I'm afraid...

IIRC, some people used just a hot pin to make a tiny hole on a spot of the disk. In recent years, this method has been "rediscovered" by some who are applying it to CDs...

This is no urban myth, I saw it and played it for a gew minutes... if I had a time machine, I'd convince my former self of getting it from him no matter what, I never suspected it was such a rarity that I'd never see it anywhere else again... Something else that I remember is that apparently it was a 2-sided "flippy", one side could be copied with the Happy but the other was the one that required that other chip, he said he didn't have it but had a friend who did, and thus he'd need to pay him something in order to allow him to copy the disk, that's why my cousin-in-law wasn't interested, it was more than what you'd pay for any other game back then... This is our class picture taken at the end of 1987 right after the final exams were over... the big guy with the girl on his shoulders is him, if anybody has ever seen him since 1988, let me know...