Assem

[i have to say that I am of the same opinion. I think if he was intending to cause problems then it would be a different story, but given his background (and in some respects his medical condition) I think they are taking things too far. He certainly is being made Scapegoat. There are a lot of technical people out that know for sure these claims for 'damage caused' are ridiculous, and hopefully this chap can get the support of some credible technical people.

Just wondered what people think of Gary McKinnon the British hacker the US want to extradite. It sounds like they are exaggerating just slightly about the damage he is supposed to have done. He started out with an Atari 400 - more can be found here.... Atari 400 Hacker

Thanks Rybags. That worked a treat.

I tried to disassemble a memory dump file that I created from the Atari800WinPlus monitor (ie: memdump.dat created via the WRITE command) using the DIS6502 Atari Disassembler, but unfortunately it does not appear to support these dump files directly. Is anyone aware of another utility that can do this? My reason for asking is I was comparing a 'before' memdump.dat with an 'after' memdump.dat using a program editor in hex mode (PSPAD) and I can see that some of the memory locations have changed which is actual assembler code (rather than data). It would be a lot simpler if I could actually view a disassembled listing of the whole memory showing opcodes, etc. A long winded way I can do it is to just save the object code to file within an ATR image and then use DIS6502 to open the file within the ATR and disassemble it, but this is quite time consuming becuase I need to do it frequently. Any ideas anyone Cheers.

I just worked it out. I actually right click on the Atari800WinPlus.exe and say 'Run as Administrator'. Then when I go to the monitor and issue a WRITE it creates the memory dump file. When I don't run as admin, the WRITE command does not produce an error, but the memory dump file fails to be created. Thanks for the responses.

Thanks for the responses. I initially looked in those directories but because it was not there I searched the whole computer and cannot find it. I also specified an optional filename and looked for that but no luck. I am using the emulator under Vista (fyi: I hate it!), so I am beginning to think it might be something to do with that (I even ran the emulator as the administrator). I will try it on my XP machine once I put it back together. Cheers

Does anyone have any idea where the Atari800WinPlus emulator creates the memdump.dat file? This is the file created when you dump the contents of the Atari memory using the monitor windows WRITE command. I searched my whole hard drive but cannot find it. Maybe it doesn't get created on the PCs filesystem???? Any help much appreciated.

Sounds like the problem I was getting with my drive. Unfortunately I couldn't resolve it but you may have more luck. Please see this thread.... 1050 Drive Problem

That was quick! Thanks Drac030.

Hello, Does anyone know where I can find a disk image of the dreaded DOS 3? I have had a look in a few places including Atarimania but have had no luck. Cheers Assem

For anyone who has never read the Archer MacLean Interview from a few years back here is a link: Archer MacLean Interview He says the following about the Dropzone conversion to the C64: "Squeezing the hardware in the Atari 800 to its limits and making it better than anything else then available. What was more amazing to me was the challenge of making it work on the less capable Commodore 64. It was a real nightmare implementation, but I did it. " I still look at the Dropzone game now and wonder how he did some of the things he did. Does anyone know what graphics mode/techniques he used in Dropzone? Another good interview is one with Peter 'BoulderDash' Liepa. The interview is here (click the link on left panel 'Interview : Peter Liepa') : http://www.boulder-dash.nl/ When asked "Have you created any programs/games other than BD (on any system)? Perhaps BD is your only game ever. If so, why did you stop?" he replies..... "I stopped working on videogames because I couldn't stand the platforms that came after Atari. I know you are a C64 fan, but I found it unappealing, and the IBM PC was much worse. The Amiga had a reputation as a wonderful graphics platform, but I don't know that game development on the Amiga was financially that viable. There are other reasons that I stopped. One is that the game industry had booms and busts, another was that game creation in those days was fairly solitary. So I just happened to move on to other things, namely 3D workstation computer graphics. I think that PC graphics finally caught up in the mid-90's to what I thought would be a decent gaming platform, but by then I had been out of the games world for a long time."

Another update. I have tried quite a lot of things mentioned in here, and I reckon it is thermal from what a couple of you said. I consistently get error 138 (timeout) after a few mins usage. Initially I boot to DOS 2.5 fine. Do a couple of directory listings. Jump to BASIC load a file and then get the 138 error. Turn off for a few mins and back on and works for a similar amount of time. After opening case and fanning the drive I got a little bit longer (about 30 secs). The metal upright plates that are towards the back of the drive are quite warm. These link to two things on the circuit board (sorry electronics is not my subject). I will get some coolant spray as suggested although if I do identify the dodgy part I probably won't know how to replace it. A stroke of luck though..... While looking in my garage for an alternative power supply I found my old 1050 drive that stopped working a long time ago. I gave it a go and it works now (I think it is because I said abracadabra!). I did try this drives power supply with the dodgy drive but it made no difference. Thanks for all the advice. I will drop a note back once I try the coolant spray. With regards to UnixCoffee928 advice "Press all of the socketed chips firmly, by first pushing both ends simultaneously with your first & second fingers, apply vibrato (wiggle both fingers quickly while pressing) then slide the edge of your thumb down the length of the IC.". Although it didn't help with the drive, I might be trying this on the wife tonight to see if I can get any results there. Cheers

Thanks for responses. As requested I have some extra info. The drive works for about 2/3 minutes fine. Then it struggles to read a disk sometimes getting a 'timeout error' If I then turn the drive off and then on again - it repeatedly lights up, turns, stops, lights up, turn, stop, etc. It will not boot up. At this stage it is NOT making a noise apart from the sound of the disk spinning. I NEED TO leave it OFF for about 5 mins and then turn it on and it works again for a couple or so minutes. I also took a fresh disk and tried to format it. Half way through it got the same problem. I will try to see if I can find an old spare power supply in case it is that.

Thanks for responses. As requested I have some extra info. The drive works for about 2/3 minutes fine. Then it struggles to read a disk sometimes getting a 'timeout error' - I only get this error with a DOS 3 disks (not DOS 2.5). If I then turn the drive off and then on again - it repeatedly lights up, turns, stops, lights up, turn, stop, etc. It will not boot up. At this stage it is NOT making a noise apart from the sound of the disk spinning. I NEED TO leave it OFF for about 5 mins and then turn it on and it works again for a couple or so minutes. I also took a fresh disk and tried to format it. Half way through it got the same problem. I will try to see if I can find an old spare power supply in case it is that.

Thanks for the rapid responses. That was unbelievably quick!