Ganky Ghost

Okay. According to whom? lowendmac.com says the Mac Plus ran at 8MHz. Wikipedia says the Mac Plus ran at 8MHz. I realize that you don't trust Wikipedia or Lowendmac so I went straight to the horse's mouth for its word. Apple's technical specifications for the Macintosh Plus says 8MHz. http://support.apple.com/kb/SP190 You can't make a blanket statement like that. Let's do a little digging and see what we can come up with. Let's start by looking at when the Spectre GCR was released. Hmmm, let's see here. The Spectre GCR made it's first public debut at the World of Atari show held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim on April 22, 1989. The Macintosh Plus was released on January 16, 1986. That's more than three years from the time the Macintosh Plus was released until the time the Spectre GCR made it's first public debut at World of Atari. Surely Apple must have released some other Macintosh computers in that time. Let's check, shall we? Yes, we shall. Between January 16, 1986, and April 22, 1989, Apple released the following Macintosh computers: Macintosh 512Ke Macintosh SE Macintosh II Macintosh IIx Macintosh SE/30 Macintosh IIcx Which of the above Macintosh models was the Spectre GCR 20% faster than? The Macintosh IIx (1988) was shipping with 1.4MB floppy drives. The Macintosh SE/30 (1989) was shipping with 1.4MB floppy drives. These were the first modular and all-in-one Macintosh computers to ship with high density disk drives. The SE/30 was a speed demon compared to everything from Atari, even the TT and Falcon. The SE/30 featured a 16MHz 68030 and 68882, RAM could be expanded to a whopping 128MB by simply adding the requisite SIMMS, and could run applications in 24 bit or full 32 bit with a software patch or new ROMS. By the time the Spectre GCR was released, Apple had released several Macintosh models that could do color. Even the SE/30 had an 030/PDS slot that allowed you to plug in a video card and run a second external color monitor. The Macintosh II, Macintosh IIx, and the Macintosh IIcx had 6, 6, and three NuBus slots respectively. Each of those slots could sport a video card, meaning that each of those Macintosh models could run six or three monitors simultaneoulsy each. The video card that shipped with the Macintosh II, the first Macintosh with a color monitor, which was released on March 2, 1987, two whole years before the Spectre GCR was debuted, could display 256 colors at a resolution of 640 X 480. There were certainly better video cards available for these machines at the time that could do even better. What were the Atari machines doing in 1987? Oh, right. Something like monochrome at 600 x 400. You got that right. The Macintosh II, IIx, and IIcx were much more expandable than the ST. The Macintosh II, for example, featured 6 NuBus expansion slots. Memory was upgradeable by adding 30-pin SIMMs. The Macintosh II had 8 SIMM slots that could use 16MB SIMMs for a total of 256MB of RAM. (Memory upgrades were limited to 20MB without the Macintosh II Superdrive upgrade) You could also have two internal floppy drives in this machine as well as internal hardrives. The Macintosh IIx and IIcx were also much more upgradeable than anything from Atari. The SE/30 was more upgradeable than anything from Atari. These were Atari's contemporaries at the time the GCR was released, so there's no way in Hell that your blanket statement about GCR equipped STs being faster than real Macs is anywhere close to being accurate. The Macs of the day would have run circles around anything released by Atari. Not really. The Mac was a fierce competitor in the MIDI world, even though it didn't ship with standard MIDI ports. Where the Mac was really shining in the late eighties and early nineties was in the area of direct to disk recording. Something I don't recall the ST ever being suitably capable of. Macs had builtin Localtalk networking through the printer port. Macs with expansion ports, like the Mac II or the SE/30, could also run ethernet through the addition of an ethernet card. October 1991 saw the release of the Quadra 700 and the Quadra 900, both of these machines shipped with builtin ethernet on the motherboard and featured Motorola's 68040 processor, two things that Atari computers never ever shipped with. The separate keyboards of the Macs or the Mega/TT machines? The extended keyboards of the Macs of that era were orgasmic to use. They were well laid out, good tactile feel, solid construction, and virtually non-destructible. So durable and well made were they, that you could use them as lethal weapons one minute and type up your confession to murder on them the next. Purely subjective, but that grey colored brick that Atari called a mouse was terrible. Almost everyone I knew who owned an ST soon bought a replacement mouse for those bricks. You gotta be kidding. The ST case was as cheap and brittle as it looked, and it looked really, really cheap. I could bend my 520ST in my hands with little effort. I seem to recall reading in an Atari magazine of the time that twisting the bloody case with your hands could actually remedy some malfunctions. It was insanely crap. The Mac has always had character and class. Almost everyone agrees on that. Apple has probably won more industrial design awards than any other computer manufacturer that has ever existed. If Atari were to win an award for case design, it would be an award for having built the cheapest case ever without having to resort to cardboard and tinfoil. I didn't like the original iMacs either. I started developing a fondness for them when the white half-globe/table-lamp model was released. Everything after that has been very nice indeed, cosmetically speaking. The Mac II has never sold for that much. It was introduced with a starting price of $3898 for a Mac II without a hard drive, and $5498 for a Mac II with a hard drive. Hard drives for the ST weren't exactly cheap either. Oh, and the ST didn't offer near the features and expandability that the Mac II did. The Atari Falcon was released in late 1992. By that time, Apple was shipping Macs with 68040 processors. The first Quadras, the 700 and the 900, were released more than a year before Atari introduced the Falcon. The Macintosh IIfx was released on March 19, 1990, more than 2.5 years before Atari released the Falcon. With a 40MHz 68030 processor and a 68882 FPU on a 32-bit bus, the IIfx was a speed demon. It featured two 10MHz 6502 processors to handle the floppy disk, serial ports, and the Apple Desktop Bus. It featured a new fast type of memory SIMMs and SCSI DMA. This was the $10,000 machine -- and worth every last penny. It had six NuBus expansion slots. RAM was expandable to 128MB. It featured an accelerated video card. It was built for speed and power. It was even faster than the first Macintosh 68040 based computers. As a matter of fact, IT WAS the fastest Macintosh until the Quadra 840AV was released with its 40MHz 68040 processor and a DSP chip running at 67MHz.

The Mac Plus ran at 8MHz, the same as the 520 and 1040ST. The Mac Plus also had 800K floppy disks compared to the ST's 720K floppies. The Macintosh II was released almost a year later and featured a 16MHz 68020 with a 68882 FPU chip. The Mac II was more expandable than anything that Atari ever released. So the Mac was either comparable in speed or faster, depending on whether you're comparing 1986 machines from both companies, 1987 machines from both companies, and beyond. Yeah, I know the ST was released in 1985.

Good eye!

I have OS/A+ if you want it. I see that it's not in your site. I have the original disk and manual that I can scan for you. Probably sometime in February (when I plan to order my SIO2PC interface from AtariMax) I can get a disk dump for you.

What's the difference between a telnet and internet path? Aren't they both the same? Isn't telnet just a protocol that you use over the Internet, although not limited to the Internet?

I hated both. GEM is/was terrible in my opinion. Of course, I'm comparing GEM to my many years of using Systems 7.0.1, 7.1, 7.5. 7.5.3, 7.5.5, and Mac OS 7.6, and 7.6.1. I never ever spent much time with System 6 on a Macintosh, but with MultiFinder it was like Heaven compared to anything that Atari ever offered in any of their 16 and 32 bit machines. The only GEM based machine that Atari ever released that was somewhat usable, in my opinion, was the Falcon. Alas, the Falcon used the same horrible industrial design as the ST/e machines. It was precisely that style that always turned me off the 65 and 130XE machines. I liked the design of the TT machines, minus the terrible keyboard, but you were still stuck with that awful GEM desktop and the lacklustre TOS. Who was it that wrote that the ST out-MACed the Mac? In what way did Atari do that? Aside from cost? I believe the Macs outdid the Atari offerings in every conceivable way. They had a better operating system. They had better graphics capability. Better builtin sound capability. They were more expandable. Had a better industrial design. Had builtin networking as standard equipment. Had better keyboards. Had mice that didn't feel like bricks. For word processing or desktop publishing, the Mac Plus blew the ST/e/Mega with monochrome monitor out of the water. Just about every 68020 and 68030 based Macintosh kicked the ass of the Mega STe/TT/Falcon machines. The top of the line 68030 Macintosh, the IIfx, left everything Atari ever offered in the dust. The Stacy was a nautical disaster, rivalling absolutely nothing in Apple's Powerbook camp.

I've never seen any Atari stuff in any of the local thrift stores that I've visited. Although, I don't spend much time in thrift stores and maybe dare to enter one approximately once or twice per year. Usually it's just a matter of me being in the vicinity of one and not being in a hurry to get anywhere, which is, as I already said, rare. We have a local recycling center here, as well. I'll bet that he scraps any Atari gear that comes through his doors though. Pity, really. I know for a fact that there were some local 8-bit owners with MIOs and stuff at one time. If any of that stuff ever made it to this recycling center, it was torn apart and let go for pennies. Sad.

I guess not. I still have it. I could have sworn I tossed it. Oh well. I have the Pocketmodem, the Pocketmodem terminal cartridge, the manual, and the box. There's also an RJ11 phone cord in there too, though I don't know if that's the phone cord that came with it. You can see the cartridge, modem, and manual in the scans I've attached below. Mine didn't have a disk; it has a cartridge. Reading through the manual is quite funny now. Check out the introduction.

These things are rare? I tossed mine in the trash a few months ago when I was cleaning up. If I had known it was rare...

Just to let everyone know, these torrents are still active. I finished downloading all three sets sometime earlier today while I was sleeping. I now have rtorrent running on my file server in a screen process and am seeding all three files to whomever wants them. I have made absolutely no changes to the files. I'm just joining the seed pool. I'll reattach the torrents below for anyone that wants them. These are the exact same torrents that were posted by Reaperman in post #55 of this thread. Holmes_Torrents.zip

I'll make a list of all of my 'original' Atari 8-bit disk software tonight and try to get it to you. I doubt that I have anything that you don't already have, but we'll see. I'll also make a list of my 'pirated' stuff. I don't have a way to make dumps yet, and likely won't until January/February/Marchish when I finally get around to ordering an SIO2PC interface from AtariMax. I only have 3 or four Atari cartridges remaining, and they're all very common titles. e.g. Atariwriter, Flight Simulator, et al. So I won't bother compiling a list of those.

The pink Sony: Bought at a local Surplus store before it went out of business. Box of ten: $7.00.

lol. I've got a couple that they don't have. I didn't see any pink Sony sleeves in there. lol.

Thanks. I just did a search for the torrents and found them here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...rrent&st=50 I'm downloading the torrents right now and will continue to seed them once I receive them, likely indefinitely. Thanks. I'll take a look at the atari800 documentation. I had just been winging it, thinking I'd only need to brush up on the Atari side of things. It's been years since I've actually done anything on an Atari -- emulated or otherwise. That should work for me as well. I'll give it a whirl and see what happens. Thanks. I'll take a look at what you have available and see if it's newer or different than what I was able to find at the Holmes site. I don't run Windows so I can't use software for Windows, like ATS. Yes, I know that I could probably run it in Wine, but I'm really reluctant to run software for Windows. I'm a "free as in beer" kind of guy. Thanks. I've downloaded some demos from Atarimania. Nice site. Taken care of, Doc. I'm receiving the torrents as I type this.

Were those the disks with the blue and white labels that covered the entire top portion of the floppy disk? The ones where you had to stick your disk label over top the brand label? Were those the disks where the sleeve was made of thick paper, almost cardboard, and every inch of the sleeve was printed with brand information? I don't remember what brand my first box of 5.25" disks was. I remember very rarely buying generic 5.25" disks. I didn't climb onto the no-name brand diskette train until I started buying 3.5" disks. I remember my first box of 3.5" diskettes being BASF brand. They were purchased from a Zellers department store and were in a white box with with a grey band that contained the company name, a multicoled logo in the center of the box, and were shrinkwrapped so bloody well that I remember cursing myself for having clipped my fingernails the day before. I know one year the company my father worked for offered disks and stuff to their employees at a discount price for the Christmas season. That year I got six or so boxes of 5.25" disks in my Christmas stocking. As a matter of fact, the BASF diskette that I scanned and posted in the original post is one of those disks. In the mid nineties, when I rediscovered the old Atari 8-bit computers again, I was buying my floppy disks from the only store in this town that still had them stocked. Canadian Tire had a shelf full of GoldStar floppy disks that were either in clear plastic cases or white paper boxes. I must have bought at least six boxes of the plastic cased ones (because that's how many of the plastic cases I have laying around with floppies still in them) and ten or so of the ones in the paper boxes. I must have at least twenty or so of these disks that are still blank and factory formatted for MS-DOS machines. lol. They all contained eleven disks, I believe. The eleventh disk contained free anti-virus software for MS-DOS. lol. Enough floppy disk notalgia for one day.

lol. I bought an Atari 520ST back in 1988 or 1989 and sold it again like six months later. I installed an Atari ST emulator (hatari) on my Linux box last night and remembered why I got rid of the ST in the first place; it's plain awful. Jack Tramiel and company must have been on crack cocaine when they made the decision to go with the ST and unload their stake in the Amiga. I think the biggest selling point of the Atari ST line was the low price and the built in MIDI ports. Even that wasn't enough for diehard musicians like Rush's Geddy Lee, whom I recall having read describing the ST as junk. Let's hear it for the Mac Plus. lol. Back on topic: I don't use/own/want an Amiga computer, nor have I ever used or owned an Amiga, so I don't care if an Amiga subforum is added or not. If one is added, I won't read it or post in it. If one isn't added, I'll just continue on my merry Atari way as though no one had ever suggested that an Amiga forum be added. That said, I'm taking the position of indifference. My only concern regarding the addition of an Amiga forum is that it may potentially bring a lot of non-Atari computer users to the forum, possibly slowing down the board or leading to platform wars. Although, I do recognize this possibility as being quite remote.

Thanks, I'm mirroring that site as I type this with the helpful wget utility. I'll keep a local mirror on my server. Sure brings back memories to boot into TurboBasic, Home Filing Manager (I have a brand new unopened package sitting on my shelf. I loved this program as a kid. I stored almost everything in it.), AtariWriter Plus, et al. I really miss playing with that old Atari. Which terminal program do you recommend for connecting to Atari telnet BBSes? I didn't see anything in BobTerm about connecting over telnet. Also, where in Atari800 do you configure the r: network device? How can I tell if the network option is compiled in?

Until I get around to making an s-video cable for my 800XL and get one of those SIO2PC interfaces, I'm playing around with an Atari emulator in Linux. I'm using the Atari800 emulator because that's the one that's included in the Debian repositories. I may give Atari++ a spin later, too. I'll see what happens. Anyway, I need an online source of ATR images that I can download. I just spent the last hour searching Google and most of the sites I was able to find are no longer available. I was able to find one site hosted by AtariMax that had quite a bit of images, mostly games, and I downloaded what I wanted. I'm looking for other stuff though. A SpartaDOS ATR image would be nice. I'm also looking for an AtariWriter Plus image and a TextPro image. Anyone know where I can find this stuff? Oh, before I forget, is there a terminal emulator for the Atari 8-bit machines that will allow you to connect to telnet BBSes? I'll be running it under emulation, if it exists, and I'm hoping that Atari800 emulator allows me to have network access.

I used to have an old Rana 1000 drive that was nice. It had a smaller case than the 1050 and had a bunch of LEDs and a pair of seven segment LED displays on the front to show the track/sector count. It was full double density, too. I wish I still had it.

I'll snap a pic of it and upload it. It does have two stacked chips (piggybacked) but I couldn't tell you what they are at the moment; I reassembled the drive and don't feel like opening it back up at this very minute. I'll snap a pic tomorrow and upload it. You'll see what I mean. I'm not blind. If I say it's there, it's there.

Weird. I wonder what this wire could be for then? I'll see if I can get a picture of it or something to upload.

I'm trying to get my Atari 800XL to work with the TV Tuner card in my PC. I get a picture on channel 3, but it's really not very clear and is not a suitable option by any means. I may have to look into building an s-video cable for the 800XL and bypass the tuner on the card. I'll see. Anyway, while testing a bunch of stuff, I pulled out a random 5.25" floppy disk from my rather large collection of Atari software. This particular disk was a backup copy of Bellcom Theme Disk #351 -- Terix. I popped it into my 1050 disk drive (one that works) and powered up the old XL. It booted. I was greeted with the familiar but long forgotten Bellcom boot menu where I pressed the select key a couple times to boot tetrix.obj. It worked! These old 5.25" floppy disks have sat collecting dust for at least the last ten years (Not to mention that I received them as a Christmas gift about ten years prior to packing them away for ten years) and they still work.

I have a 1050 disk drive here that was having some problems. It wasn't dead, it just wasn't reading disks and the disk doesn't stop spinning when powered up. I opened the drive and discovered that it had an ICD U.S. Doubler installed. It looks like one of the drives that shipped with the rarer of the two chips at U10 as well, as it is evident that the jumpers have been relocated. Upon inspection of the board and the obvious U.S. Doubler upgrade, I noticed that there is a black wire connected to one of the upgrade chips that is just dangling free. I'm assuming that the other end of this wire must attach to one of the jumpers, as they are the only places on the board where I can see signs of soldering. Problem is that I'm not sure exactly where I need to reattach this wire. I believe this disconnected wire to be the only problem with this particular drive. Looking for answers. Okay, the obvious first step is to go looking for an ICD U.S. Doubler installation manual or something on the Internet. I did that and I found this: http://www.cs.xu.edu/~ryanr/atari/doubler.html Problem with this is that there is absolutely no mention of a 'wire' anywhere in those installation instructions. Does anyone know anything more about this? Is this wire part of the U.S. Doubler upgrade or is part of something else? Where do I have to attach the other end of this wire? Does it attach to one of the jumpers that have been moved? Why doesn't the U.S. Doubler installation instructions on the site listed above not mention this wire? Thanks.

The head does not move. What do I have to replace?

No. The drive doesn't spin. You flick the power switch on the 1050 and the power LED comes on. That's it. If it's connected to the XL and I boot the XL with BASIC disabled I get the boot error message scrolling down the screen. So the Atari knows that the drive is connected and powered on. I could have sworn I read somewhere about this being a capacitor issue in the 1050. Does anyone remember reading something like this anywhere?