tep392

If you look at the upper right corner of 3rd drawing from the top, 400-fcc-tawain-domestic.jpg, you will see that the drawing was revised on 5/3/83. I could see Atari making drawing revisions for service parts even after production has ceased, but it seems strange to update labels that would only be used in production. Maybe they were still making machines into 1983.

I have an 810 Archiver. Is that the same as "The Chip"? I opened it up and looks like it's just a ROM upgrade. I have to say that I prefer the 810. It doesn't have the performance of the other drives, but it looks so cool and retro sitting next to my 400. I really need to get another to stack on top of it and complete the look. Perry

I used the ROM from the Atariage archive. If this is the one you say has the same problem then it could be a problem with the ROM dump. Could also be a problem with your multicart. I'll start by checking the AA dump against some of the others available on the net.

It's not working on my 5200 for some reason. It boots, but I can't control Ms. Pac-Man and when I move the joystick, I get a couple tiles of garbled graphics here and there. Any idea what's wrong? BTW, I'm using the 128-in-1 Multi-Cart. I don't have a 5200 so have only tested on the Atari800win emulator. Maybe someone else who has tried it can let us know if it worked in hardware. In the mean time I'll take a look at the code to see what might be happening. Perry

Just received my GBA Activision Anthology from Chris. Shipped fast and packed well. Easy transaction here. As far as the game is concerned, I'm really digging it. What a great collection of games! I wish the Atari Greatest hits volumes for the DS had such a great selection.

mine too.

This is just an aside. That was my first 48k upgrade, back in about 1982/1983. I paid $190 (!!!), installed, for it. After that, the 400 would work a while and blow the fuse in the power supply. Before I figured out how to open the PSU and replace the fuse, I went through some power bricks. Perhaps that's a reason someone would rip it out? Anybody know why the Intec board would use more power (and blow fuses) over anybody else's 48k upgrade? I wouldn't think the 48k board would increase the power draw enough to blow a fuse. I have an Intec 48k board in my 400 and haven't had any problems with fuses blowing. The installer could have caused some damage to your machine.

I've purchased flash carts from Atarimax and they have worked flawlessly. Steve also provides excellent support. I was working on an 8mbit project and needed some code to write too the flash cart. Steve had some 1mbit code, updated it for the 8mbit and sent it to me in under 24hrs. He also has a great forum to support his products. I've also made a number of purchases from Best Electronics for s/w and repair parts. Always shipped quickly and provided good phone support. Very knowledgeable on Atari products. Perry

Lance (Video61) Has Permission For All The Games He Sells. I don't see the word reproduction anywhere in Lance's 400/800 cart list. How do I tell if a cart is proto, repro or original? Perry

It's the same as this one but I've added the original TIA sounds back in for play on standard 7800's. Perry

2600 Pac-Man hacked with Pokey sound. It would be just like playing the real thing. Did you see this hack that I did as a joke? It's the exact opposite. 7800 Pac-man with 2600 sound.

I was thinking that I would somehow interfere with the screen being redrawn. But Maria would take over and draw the screen anyway, right? And any dli's that were started would just interrupt the late running VBL code. So I suppose there would only be an issue if the DLI's were dependent on some calculations being performed during the vertical blank. Running the sound last would probably make sense. At worst a few notes might start a fraction of a second late if the code was to run into the start of the screen redraw.

Huh? Don't think I suggested that. But if I'm running in-game music during the vertical blank and I should have more than a few instruments change at the same time, it won't be difficult to exceed the time that's available to me. It all depends on how much other game code would be running in the VBL. Is a glitch in a single frame invisible? If so, then I won't worry too much.

Grooveybee, I don't know how much you've played around with the YM2151, but maybe you can help with my question. The YM2151 user manual indicates it will take up to 68 clocks (at 3.5 mhz) for a write to the chip to be processed. This works out to be about 35 clocks of the 6502. To write a byte to the chip requires an address write and a data write. I don't know if this wait apply's to both. My concern is that I will waste a lot of clock cycles waiting to write to the sound processor. For each note that I start, I need to write a note value and key on the channel. This means 4 writes (2 * address+data) for each note. In an 8 channel tune, this can add up fast. But my biggest concern is when I need to write the "instrument" data to setup a channel. Each channel has 28 bytes of parameter data to define. 28 bytes * 2 writes per byte * 35 clocks is a whopping 1960 clocks of the 6502. That's a lot of time to waste while waiting for the status bit to toggle. This could be done during game initialization, but would limit the number of instruments if they can't be changed on the fly during a tune. Maybe I'm missing something here and this isn't really an issue. I'm hoping that this 68 clocks is just a worst case number and that in use it will average out to something much lower. Am I mis-interpreting this spec? Perry

Thee is a TrakBall version of Centipede for the 7800. That's the version that currently resides in my centipede cartridge.

Even though I cut my teeth on a 400 back in the early 80's, I prefer the full stroke keyboard for ease of use. But I do much prefer the look of the 400's membrane keyboard. I bought my current 400 last year with a Cherry keyboard. I immediately sold the keyboard and replaced with an new membrane keyboard. The machine just didn't look right with those keys sticking out of it.

I just picked up a boxed Zork I. Very excited to have bought my first disk based Atari software. I only had a 410 tape drive back in the day. Perry

Bob, That was my concern about the pokey boards. I don't have a feel for the availability of Ballblazer carts or their cost. The Commando carts don't appear to be as common and fetch a high price on e-bay so I didn't think they were an option. Perry

With the XM module release quickly approaching, I would like to get some opinions on the Pokey version of Pac-man Collection. I've made two versions of this code. There is a 32k version for use with a Pokey (Ballblazer) cart. And then there is an XM version that would use a standard 48k cart. This version support both TIA and Pokey sound. It will use Pokey sounds if an XM is detected or use the original TIA sounds if not. So my question is, with all the people that have pre-ordered the XM, does it make sense to offer a Pokey cart and XM version or should we just do the XM version? What do you see as the pro's/con's of offering both versions? I like the XM version because it doesn't require doner Pokey carts. The obvious con is that it requires the XM module for the enhanced sound effects and some people may not want to buy the XM. I'm not sure what the cost difference, if any would be since I don't have experience producing these. Maybe Al can chime in on the cost implications. I suppose it will come down to demand, which is why I've created the Poll. Let me know what you think. Regards, Perry

My guess would be the plastic housing due to the tooling cost. Tooling and setup costs are a huge factor in the price of these low volume projects. Perry

The s/n on mine is AV 321493 and it has ATARI / 302 stamped in the case. Guess that means it was made the 30th week of 1982. Perry

I copied the characters and sprites directly from arcade Pac itself, so the 'filled in' maze was part of that. It just so happens that the inside color was shared with Pac and Pokey. I can erase the inside, but that leaves very boring mazes That being said, I got the scrolling to work - and the game is now playable. You can also choose the correct starting level. Please note that individual colors cannot be changed, as they all are shared by other objects. Also, the sounds and intermissions are not correct. Thanks, Bob Great work Bob. I was just wondering if it's possible to reorder the DL's so that Pacman and the monsters get drawn before the maze so the box's don't show up. Would that work?

You'll never get everyone to agree on which is "better" because it's too subjective. You can argue the technical points until you're blue in the face, but in the end, all that matters is which one YOU enjoy playing. Some will prefer the 7800, some the A8, some the NES, and so on. These arguments of which is "better" are really just for people who like arguing. Jut my 2 cents. Perry There are objective things as well as subjective things in the games. It's objective that Donkey Kong on Atari 800 has superior sounds than on Atari 7800 amongst other things. You can say which color scheme you prefer is subjective but not things that make the game superior to play. Robotron, taking the example being discussed, requires graphics to be more clearly discernible as the action is fast. Yet some people on this board will argue that sound isn't important. Still subjective as to whether it makes the game "better". I suppose you can objectively compare sprite size in Robotron if you assume all other factors like screen size, seating distance, visual accuity are the same. But wether or not that makes the game "better" for any individual is still a matter of opinion. I still say debating whether or not one game port is better than another is a pointless waste of time. Thats all I have left to say on the matter. See ya Perry

You'll never get everyone to agree on which is "better" because it's too subjective. You can argue the technical points until you're blue in the face, but in the end, all that matters is which one YOU enjoy playing. Some will prefer the 7800, some the A8, some the NES, and so on. These arguments of which is "better" are really just for people who like arguing. Jut my 2 cents. Perry

Wow! That would have been cool. What a shame we can't get more colors.