Curt Vendel

El D, I couldn't agree more, if someone has put the time/effort into such a task and it is in an enhancement then all the more power to them. This isn't just another dead end dongle, but instead a gateway for further expansion and a very nicely designed one at that. Kudos galore to the PcBridge project. Curt

Matt, Okay there.... whatever you've been drinking... your cut off dude!!! Curt

Hi guys, I'm here at work in Weehawken, NJ right now. Power to a section of a major switching station is down and I've been getting reports from my network engineers checking with our network communications peering partners (companies that share off of the Exodus backbone like Sprint, Excite and so forth) that ConEd is working on the problem, power may be restored by 6pm tonight and communications should then be restored to the DSL POPs up and down the entire east coast, for right now, the Atari History Site server, mail server as well as other domains which were given free webhosting space are unavailable at this time since my net routes through the affected switch, sorry for the inconvenience. Matt: As for name of artists, many have their names and artist studio's on many of the artwork pieces I have in the AHS archives, I will try to post the names this weekend for everyone's use. However, please use retraint when searching for and contacting these people, best to send and email and not dig up their phone numbers and such. Curt

The power supply for the Atari STacy portables was made by Phihong, its a standard switching power supply with an output of: 16.5VDC 2.5A Best Electronics may have spare power supplies to sell, if not, then try www.jameco.com as they sell a multitude of various power supplies, one of which may suit your needs. Curt The Atari History Site

Now wait a sec there Len.... We can call New Jersey "Jersey" all we want, after all.... even New Jersey refers to it as "Jersey" my case in point: Jersey City {VBG} Curt

Hi Devin, Yup, I know the place your talking about, the classic games in the back by the large carousel on the boardwalk. I remember at one time going in the back by the "forest skeet shot" area and there were dozens upon dozens of coin-ops facing the wall off to the side not even in use. Great place for playing some classics, some not in the greatest shape, others holding up fairly well though. Curt

Here's what your looking for: The Atari "Graduate" Computer add-on, also known as the Cx-3000 as the model # and "My First Computer" You'll find pictures of the actual prototype, an internal photo of the motherboard, a sales flyer announcing the peripherals and also the original design documents from Peripheral Visions, Inc. which was the company that approached Atari with the idea and licensed it to Atari to sell: http://www.atari-history.com/a3000.html Curt The Atari History Site

Well, you have a lot of avenue's available to you already with emulators and other projects from the past, but hey, I never talk anyone out of trying to come up with something better and who knows, maybe something will and everyone benefits, so here ya go: http://www.atari-history.com/archives/SIOspecs.pdf Curt

Here is a link to a photo of the original artwork for Airworld from the Atari History Site: Swordquest Airworld original prototype artwork This came out of Atari from Brian Ballestri who used to be one of the editors for the internal Atari company newsletter Atari Coin Connection, its a hand painted work and if you look closely you can see the Knowledge stone in his hand. This is the artwork which is being used by Chris Drum for the box and label for his Airworld resurrection project. Curt The Atari History Site

Nothing "PROTOTYPE" about it. Prototypes are first runs, pilots, sometimes because they go no further then the evaluation phase, they become One of Kinds. That is NOT a prototype, all it is, is a standard Pokey chip 7800 PCB with a Zif socket on it for easy on/off of eprom chips for testing purposes. I've emailed that seller many times telling her she is misrepresenting the items by calling them prototypes, I told her she should be calling them Test boards, but obviously she'd rather call them proto's in hopes of netting more cash. If you want a tester for doing some experimenting with 7800 games, then its a good item to have. Glenn Bruner and John Hardie put together a document on how to encrypt 7800 games and the info is up on www.cgexpo.com The process is not for the faint of heart and you need experience it manipulating HEX code around, but its not too hard to pick up and learn. So a board like that might come in handy for a budding 7800 developer. But its not a prototype. Curt The Atari History Site

Gunstar, Congrats dude!!! You certainly seem happy to have your 7800 back! As for your question about Pong being released, the answer is yes, it was released as part of Video Olympics by Atari for the 2600 and as Pong Sports by Sears Telegames for the 2600. (Same cart, different name & label). Curt The Atari History Site

The docs keep on coming.... Ok, up next in the Atari 7800 section is the programming guide to the Atari 7800 Computer Add-on. Its a good 21 page document which discusses how the 7800 and the keyboard negotiate communications and how the system address' SIO devices and so forth, makes for some interesting reading. Plus the 7800 section of the Atari History Site has a nice new look, the top header is from a prototype 7800 Prosystem console and you'll note it does not say ProSystem on it. A photo of the original 1984 box with the lettering across the bottom left corner detailing how the system is expandable into a computer and so forth (a label was placed over all original 84' 7800 boxes when they were finally sold in 1986). Also one of the original 1984 cartridges as well. Hope everyone is enjoying these new bits of information and images on a side of the 7800 many never knew about in detail. Enjoy! Atari 7800 Section of the AHS Curt

Nice catch Matt, Thanks bud.... as always Curt

Ok Folks.... Now posted in the Atari 7800 section of the Atari History Site: The actual Atari 7800 Maria OS source code listing from GCC date April 23, 1984. This is a copy of an original given to me by Gary Rubio former engineer and OOEM Laison between Atari & GCC, Photocopiers were not very good back then, so some area's of the listing are dark and may be unreadable, but a good 85% of the document is clear and readable. All of the encrypting/decrypting sections of the OS and clearly marked and heavily commented, so.... GET TO WORK and come up with a nifty little program to create checksums!!!!!! Enjoy everyone.... more to come!!!!!!!! Atari" TARGET=_blank>http://www.atari-history.com/archives/pdf/...Source_Code.pdfAtari 7800 OS Source Code Listing Curt

I'm not sure, but I'm speaking with a great deal of the Atari 7800 programmers from GCC (I am putting together a listing of who programmed which Atari 7800 games, something long missing from the gaming community lists and faqs) and according to one of the guys (I think Seth) Fractalus was nearly done, if one of the guys still has the rom's, lets hope they'll be willing to let them be released, I'll ask and keep everyone posted. Curt

The 7800 keyboards that I know of (3 of them) are all working units, not mockups. The problem is the keyboard is nothing more then an I/O interface, no intelligence whatsoever. Its the 7800 and more importantly, its software that do the work. I have 4 titles designed for the keyboard, however they are combo rom/ram boards consisting of 4 ROM chips and 4 static ram chips (to supply workable ram space for using the programs such as 7800 Basic, 7800 Videowriter and so forth) On the 7800 page of the Atari History Site, click on the Learn More about the 7800 Computer Keyboard and you'll see some screen shots of Atari VideoWriter. I'll also see about posting a shot of the inside of my 7800 keyboard, its basically a GI PLD1020 Field Demo board with a cable to a GCC fab'd PCB with connectors for the cassette, SIO and keyboard (the keyboard is the same as the 600/800xl keyboards, just using grey keys) I'm working with some of the GCC engineers and rattling their cobwebs in an effort to recompile the PIC code to a new MCU, at the same time I'm consolidating the current huge 7800 computer cartridge PCB down to something that will fit into a standard 7800 cartridge, so work continues..... Curt

Dan, I hope the schematics I'll post this weekend prove to be useful is assisting you further in your emulator and helping others as well. Curt

Ok, well I said I'd have these docs up by Sunday, but here is one of the first of many internal GCC documents on the Atari 7800, Maria chip and many other area's of the Atari 7800 design. GCC Maria 1702B SpecificationsGCC Maria 1702B Chip Specifications Much more to follow, enjoy!!! Curt The Atari History Site

Mitch, The interesting thing about your box... you see the label thats been added over the box stating 2600 compatibility? Well underneath the label is original box artwork that annouces "System Upgradable to a Computer with add-on keyboard" Since the keyboard would never be released and to avoid lawsuits for false advertising, Atari Corp slapped those labels onto the original run of boxes. I had a friend who used to work for Distributors International in Brooklyn, they used to be an Atari distributor before the Tramiels took over, he got ahold of 2 original 7800 systems in 1984 that were shipped out to distributors to show the new line of products coming down the pipe shortly. After he quit he gave me the units and the boxes don't have those Atari Corp. added labels on the boxes. Just some more cool Atari 7800 trivia. Curt

Here's an added piece of info for everyone who has one of the original 1984 Atari 7800's: Look underneath the motherboard on the solder traces, you'll find the initials: DJS That was Dan J. Schwinn formerly of GCC, Inc. He was also the guy who designed the original Atari 3600 single sided motherboard prototype 7800. Art Ng was the architect of MARIA, the graphics processor in the Atari 7800, it seems according to some engineering notes from Art that he recently shipped to me that early into the design of MARIA, the project was originally called GINGER. I will be publishing the schematics and technical documents for the MARIA 1702B chip shortly, the schematics are on reduced 11X17 sheets so I'll have to scan them in 1/2 per page so people can print them out on normal 81/2 X 11 paper, then tape them together. I'll also post the original GCC source code to the 7800 as well, its fully commented and gives the exact detail of how the encryption checksum works, so it will be easy to reverse the encryption check and allow 7800 games to be encrypted. The other document I'll post is the programming guide for writing programs to use the 7800 Computer keyboard add-on. I'll try and post everything sometime Sunday night. Curt

If the label has completely fallen off, I found that Architects adhesive spray is the best. I've used it for the homebrew labels that were made for the 7800 High Score Carts as well as the graphics added onto the custom retro-replica boxes too. Staples sells a spray can for I think about $5 or so, maybe a little much if you just have one cart to repair, but if you have mutiples, this will do the trick. Curt

Hi everyone.... I had performed some maintenance the other day on the Atari History Site server, but only for 10-15 mins while adding a new IP to the stack and also applying some new security updates to the site. If the site was going to be down for a few hours I would post a notice so everyone would know. Sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused, as for what Jah was referring to, Justin and Chuck shutdown atari7800.com due to many orders not being shipped by Justin. Chuck did the right thing by all, paid out of pocket back to everyone including me which also involved turning atari7800.com over to me as payment for the high score cartridges owed. Justin apparently is still MIA and I feel its important that people know that Charles Gooderis did the right thing by all by picking up the loose ends his partner had left hanging in many deals, paid everyone back and should not be held at fault for his business partner's shortcomings. While I haven't decided quite yet what will happen to atari7800.com the site was a really slick tribute to that console and I promise that it will return sometime soon (less the storefront.) If anyone has any further access problems with atari-history.com please let me know and I will try to look into it. In the meantime the Atari History Site is also accessible via www.atarimuseum.com as well. Everyone have a fun and more importantly SAFE 4th of July Curt The Atari History Site

Ah!!! The infamous 7800 Side Expansion port... It was meant for external devices such as a Laserdisc and also engineering notes reference "OptoDisk Project" I'll see if David Leonardis can scan those notes in sometime soon and I'll post them up onto the Atari History site in the 7800 and tech doc's section. Thats why the expansion port directly tapped all the lum lines off of the MARIA as well as other bus lines so that you could mix video input (not output) with graphic overlays, I can say this: Dragons Lair would have been kick ass on the 7800 if it had been done!!! :-) Curt

Crossbow: As for a 7800 adapter for the 5200.... Its a possibilty you may see that sometime down the road, right now I'm stilling working on the 7800 keyboard, ran into a very expensive snag and I'm trying to code a new processor to replace the original which is the weirdest PIC MCU I've ever read up on. Its tough working without the source code, if I had the source code it probably could've been done in a night or two, but what I do have is the source code to the protocol that the 7800 uses to talk to the original keyboard, so I'm going in that direction, the rest is a matter of creating a keyboard scanner, the SIO portion is really hanging me up but it'll get there. But back to the 7800 adapter.... well, you may see that sometime down the road, but with some interesting twists and enhancements which I feel are rightly necessary... I'll keep everyone informed. Sorry I don't post often, I'd like to more, but time is tight and life is busy Thanks and take care... Curt

Crossbow hits the bullseye. That is precisely why they were made transparent, after speaking with Regan Cheng (former Atari Industrial designer and a very active member of the AHS) and with Tom Palecki (also a former Atari employee and contributor to the AHS) they explained that pre-production runs would be "shot" with the new molds to look for tightness of fit, markings, flaws, and other issues. Doing the shots in clear plastic also afforded them a way to looking inside of the cast and see if there were any internal issues. Of course with todays 3D CadCAM software doing such things is a breeze without costly retooling of aluminum mold forms. 20 clear molds were shot for examination, all but 3 were trashed from what I've been told. Curt