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pixelmischief

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Posts posted by pixelmischief

  5. Posted

    I already had a set of TOS 2.05's in there.  They are also the "long" chips, so no change SHOULD be necessary; at least from what I read.  I suspect I may have put them in upside down at some point in this whole journey.  Perhaps I fried them.  I'll order another set and see how I get on.

  6. Posted

    I have a working kludge, and the buttons are still available, so I'll order one and replace it.  Next...

     

    I bought a pair of TOS 2.06 ROMS, but I can't get them to boot.  Quick research tells me they should be a drop-in replacement.  Is there some other "gotcha" I should look for?

  7. Posted

    Ok.  I accidentally happened on something that improves the situation.  I power the machine on and get a full "almost white" screen.  Then, I connect a jumper wire to header pin 2 (second from the left on the picture of the system board).  NOTHING ELSE.  I just slip the wire onto the pin.  The screen blinks black, goes a slightly brighter white, and boots.

     

    @TGB1718 So, you recommend I remove the header pins I soldered in?  Is that still your recommendation given the new info?  After I remove the pins, what do I have to connect to what?

     

     

  9. Posted

    @snarkdluG So...let me back up a step.

     

    When I first got the board, I would power it up and, if on color, show a blank white screen.  If on mono, a black screen.  I looked around a bit and noticed that reset button was not bouncing back out.  When I pulled it out, the machine booted.  I removed the reset button and soldered header pins into into the board.  I also replaced the memory sockets and changed the TOS ROMS to 2.06; though I have walked the TOS upgrade back now.  When I power the machine on now, I get the same behavior I was getting with the stuck reset button and am ASSUMING that I need to jump some connection there to make it work again.

     

    Is it possible that the identical behavior is actually being cause by some other problem?  How SURE are you that the machine should work fine without a rest button, or did I misunderstand you?

     

    Again, thanks for the help.

  12. Posted · Edited by pixelmischief

    I've raised this in the past and the current discussion brings it back to mind.  Why don't some of the super-powers here create their own "distros"?  It would even be OK if some of those distros required particular upgrade stacks.  Many of us have several A8's and others of us would probably be willing to build a configuration to host a particularly promising distro.

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    11 hours ago, Philsan said:

    There are some good games that need >128KB to run in XEX format (but CAR versions need 64KB only).

    Atari Blast!

    Bomb Jack

    Commando

    Mean 18

    Space Harrier

     

    There are some other good games that necessarily need >128KB to run, CAR versions don't exists:

    Duszpasterz Jan Rzygon

    Letter Scrabble

    Pang

    Thank you very much for offering an answer that is targeted to the spirit of the question.

  14. Posted

    5 hours ago, hloberg said:

    If it is a multitasking OS then, yes, very good reason to get 1mb.

    No doubt about it.  When FJC's GOS is released, it will fundamentally transform the Atari ecosystem and make the U1MB, Antonia, and Rapidus (of those supported) must-have upgrades.  If the platform has a well-documented API that developers can write applications against, it will raise the potential of the A8 platform to the Macintosh 512K level; an exponential elevation of power.

  15. Posted

    59 minutes ago, Gunstar said:

    That reminds me of Snapshot for Atari's.

    SpartaDOS X running Snapshot and a number of productivity apps from hard disk with easy switching would definitely qualify as a "killer setup"; especially if it could support a music maker and paint program at the same time as a word processor, spreadsheet, and coding app.  Even more if all of those applications could be working from the same hard disk, such that a unified project repository was possible.  Absolutely freaking killer.

     

    I don't have time at the immediate moment.  But if one of us hasn't published a 16MB image with this setup by then, I'll get to it in the spring.

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    11 minutes ago, hloberg said:

    QEMM was the memory manager that made memory > 640K accessible (through segment mapping, so pretty much how the Atari does it!) and DesqView, a related but separate project, was the one that did the multitasking part.

    In 1994, I was at a trading software development company.  I used QEMM and a product called DesqViewX to give developers on Sun Workstations access to productivity apps running on Microsoft Windows via their local X Server.  I used an array of IBM PS2 Model 80's with SCSI cards and 1GB hard disks.  At first I was a hero.  Then I was a villain as all the developers ended up using it primarily to play Mine Sweeper.

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1

  17. Posted

    I get the feeling that the collective defensiveness of the community makes my question seem more like an attack against the practical usefulness of the platform, rather than an honest question about some really cool, higher-memory use that I could enjoy.  Sorry to have bothered you.

  18. Posted

    Just now, Stephen said:

    Well, don't come in here and say that all we need is 16kB.

    I said no such thing.

     

    Just now, Stephen said:

    Don't come in and ask why do we need extra RAM and then get pissy when I give examples.

    The only person who got "pissy" was you.  And no, you didn't give any examples that rise to the level of "killer app".

  19. Posted

    2 minutes ago, Stephen said:

    If you are an app coder, or use the machine as a content creator rather than a content consumer, then you wouldn't even ask this.

    Please, enlighten us all about what excellent capabilities are activated by having the higher memory.

     

    3 minutes ago, Stephen said:

    Go back to playing Combat on the 2600.  2kB is all you need.

    This statement is as irrelevant as it is rude.  I'd apologize for having annoyed you, but I honestly don't give a damn.

     

    That said, if you told me that I would be unable to play Ultima IV without 256K of RAM, or that it would have better graphics as a result, I would be sold.  If you said that Yoomp! needs 1MB, I would sell blood and semen to get a RAM upgrade.  That's the kind of high-value proposition I am asking about. 

  20. Posted

    Just now, Stephen said:

    What are you looking for?  Porn movies?

    Ummm...confess much?

     

    1 minute ago, Stephen said:

    Did you have one of these machines in the 80s?

    Yes.  I got my first 800XL and 1050 in 1984.  I have had an 8-bit Atari of one kind or another ever since then.

     

    2 minutes ago, Stephen said:

    Going frmo a 16kB machine to 128kB and then above was a major event.

    OK.  Tell me why.  Tell me what was especially exciting about it.  Tell me what would be exciting about it today.

  21. Posted

    1 minute ago, _The Doctor__ said:

    The Last Word may use the extra memory

    C'mon guys.  Even if you told me that The Last Word REQUIRES the extra memory, I would still argue that a Word Processor on an 8-Bit system can not be considered a "killer app".  I'm looking for something that needs the memory and is an experience or capability that makes getting the memory an exciting proposition.

  22. Posted · Edited by pixelmischief

    4 minutes ago, Nezgar said:

    SpartaDOS X...DOSKEY

    Really?  That's the "killer app"?  What can I do with more RAM in SDX, other than unnecessarily big DOSKEY buffers and faster disk copies?

  24. Posted

    Other than the Numen demo, is there any real reason to have more than 128K.  I admit to being only an intermediate participant in the Atari ecosystem, but I do flatter myself that I play just about everything that comes out on the platform.  Why so much RAM?  What can I do with 1MB that I can't do with 128K?

    • Like 2
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