pixelmischief

For a while, I wanted to do exactly that. But then I couldn't find any information on how to use the ST keyboard on the XE. So I abandoned the idea.

Are you working on a replacement for the WD1772 on the XF551 PCB or a new board entirely? Is there anything I can do to help?

Droll, Orpheus. Very droll.

The disks are simply too much a part of the nostalgia for me to let go. But why put a xf551 in a sf case? Because the SF314 has a nice small form and native Atari branding and style that match the XE. Same reason people case their SIO2SD's in an XM301. Plus, it is a really simple, "dumb" drive, since disk controller (WD1772) is on the motherboard of the ST's. Perfect for the mod.

Is any of that "crap" available anywhere? I would love to get my hands on it. Yeah, I figured I'd have to reuse the one I have. Also, I found an IP core for the WD1772. That said, disk control is part of every emulator. There must be a way to simply provide the functionality of a 1772 if I can't find one to use or if its not possible to emulate. I would love to do that, but it is even further from my technical abilities than the other options. Could I commission you to develop this? Is there someone else who you think might do it? Can you suggest a training path that would lead to me having the skills necessary to give it a go?

The disks are simply too much a part of the nostalgia for me to let go.

(1) Atari 130XE, (1) Atari XF551 3.5", (1) SIO2SD (cased in an XM301) (1) Atari 1200XL, Atari 1050 5.25" (1) Atari XEGS (1) Atari 7800

If you absolutely, positively HAD to make an XF551 PCB fit into an SF314 case, how would you do it? With only my basic skills, I am thinking to replace some of the taller components on the XF551 PCB with newer (and smaller) versions of the same, so the ass of the 3.5" drive can pass over them. The PCB will "stick" out of the side edges of the case at the rear, about 2mm on each side. I could fabricate some plastic to cover it, or simply paint it "Atari Grey". The rear ports I can make right with a replacement plastic plate and a Dremmel tool. Zero elegance. Potentially ugly. High likelihood of breaking the hardware. Not too difficult. I guess I could find a way to fit an XF551 PCB into the case of a 130XE. I could power it by getting the 5V off the motherboard and onto the XF551 PCB. I wouldn't need the 12V to power the drive since it would be powered externally. I could hard-wire the SIO port and reroute the floppy ribbon through the standard ST external floppy cable, adding a port to the 130XE. It looks like this is all the ST does anyway. Zero elegance. Could be pretty on the outside, but WOULD be ugly on the inside. Dedicated port, yuck. High likelihood of breaking even more hardware. High degree of difficulty, stressing my abilities. Way out of my league is to develop an FPGA that would emulate the WD1772, 8040/8050 and whatever I want in the 2764 (or 27128 in my case) and be infinitely smaller. It would fit in the SF314 case easily. This would be the best option, as far as I can see the forest through all these trees. I could commission it, but I am betting that it will be hard to find anyone with the skills who would be willing to apply them to a floppy disk controller project. Another "way out of my league", but less so, is to develop a PCB with a smaller form factor that uses more modern and smaller components where possible and sockets for the other stuff. Not as cool as the FPGA solution, but solves the immediate problem. Same potential problem finding a willing tech. Please control your urge to convince me that floppies are dead and that the SIO2SOME-OTHER-MEDIA (I have them all) is the way to go. The disks are simply too much a part of the nostalgia for me to let go. Otherwise, I can't wait to read the responses.

I love the 3DO. In particular, Sewer Shark and Casper really impressed me. No flames please. I love Sewer Shark. "MAYBE YOU'RE GOOD ENOUGH DOG MEAT! LET'S FIND OUT."

Please control your hatred when I tell you I just got a Pioneer LaserActive for $125 and a PAC S10 for another $100. That's $250 shipped. But I didn't come here to gloat (not ONLY to gloat). I can't find directions for the S-Video or RGB mods. Now, I've been known to work the Google machine on the Internets pretty good. Does anyone know about where I can find these mods?

If the scale on the bars gets too expensive, you could always have the bars remain a fixed size and just vary the "steps" between the extremes.

Am I too late? I want one; XE.

You can cheat reversi with text, but paint might be a little harder. =) Looking at this GUI system reminds me of another time when I saw a program on Atari and was absolutely amazed that the machine could do it...Envision. (Stop me if you've heard this one...) It allowed you to create really huge "drawings" by replacing the font set with your own bitmaps and then laying them out - I guess it's called tiling when you do it in a game - and it had an extremely cool, super smooth scrolling viewer for the files. It came with (or somehow I obtained) an excellent map of the good old Enterprise NCC-1701. They must loaded the replacement font bitmaps over the defaults, the whole map as a list of character codes in memory, and then rendered the viewport. The smooth scrolling I have no idea how they did. Are you using any of those paradigms in your work?

Is this thing still happening? Given how close to "done" it looked in the last demo, I am surprised we haven't heard about it since '08!

I'm completely out of my league here, so take my questions as aiming to understand the issue better, rather than (God forbid) correct you or offer solutions. That said, after the initial icon rendering, isn't the unchanged desktop just a bitmap over which you draw the active window? Or do I overestimate the available resources by assuming that the display bitmap is flipped onto the display from a place in memory at which it is rendered by compositing the unchanged and changed parts of the desktop? The earliest programming I did for graphics was the DOS mode/x days. I never really understood (but am wholly awed by) the whole "scanline by scanline" thing.

Jeez man. This thing is cleaner and more responsive than GEM on a stock 1040. That is impressive.

"I truly and genuinely believe the purchase of a Windows PC and Microsoft Word is what put the final nail in the coffin of my writerly aspirations." I had the exact same experience! I had a novel fully developed. It was laid out on cards, I had the first chapter written, as well as a bunch of development material that would make into the book at other points. Every time I sat down to write, I just couldn't. It was impossible. A buddy of mine who does web dev told me it was the platform. He owed me some money and convinced me to let him buy me a MacBook to do my writing. To tell the truth, I loved the Mac. It wasn't the solution to my writing problem, but it did show me just how much difference the right environment can make. So I bought a TT, tricked it out, and it was my writing machine. I used a text editor instead of a word processor. No urge to format, no nag about misspelled words, and most of all, no games or Internet to distract me. For 2 hours a day, I focused on one thing: writing. The novel was done 3 months later, I an 1/2 way through my second now. Do it. Dedicate a machine to writing; a platform you love - one that feels like home. Then, set aside some time every day and write. It will change your life. It changed mine.

Because it's plastic. And it's burning. =) I'm sorry. I simply couldn't resist.

I bought the first computer I ever owned at my church's garage sale. It was an Atari 800XL with a 1050 disk drive, 1027 printer, AtariWriter Cartridge, and brown vinyl covers for everything. It's funny, now that I think of it. While my church was trying so hard to show me the path to joy in the *next* life, they inadvertently gave me everything I love most about *this* one.

Atari 8-bit computer and ST rejects and orphans wanted. Shells, printers, modems, etc. Most gear accepted. Let me get it out of your basemen boxes and from under your beds. Sure, you'll have to box it up and get it to the post, but I'll pay the shipping! You'll feel a whole lot better and your wives will thank you for the extra space.

I am looking for an ICD MIO. Either of the 256K or 1M version will be fine.

I am looking for a CT60 to put in my Falcon.

I am looking for a CSS BlackBox. I have a 130XE, but would buy an 800XL if I couldn't get the adapter.

I am looking for a CMD FD2000 or FD4000 floppy disk drive. These are 3.5" drive replacements with high 1541 compatibility.