Lynxpro

Card(s)? Just how much ST platform software do you have that encompasses more than 4GB?

It sounds like you need a virtual disk drive for TOS to write the commands to to get around all of this mess. Then again, I'm not a programmer so I'm just talking speculation out of an orifice... And how do the ST emulators on PC and Mac get around all these TOS commands to read/write from floppy?

Not always true. Predator looks like it plays better on the ST than the Amiga, although the audio on the Amiga version is a lot better... I've come to terms with the Amiga after many years and having been an ST owner back in the day. The Amiga has Atari DNA through and through, it's just a brother from a different mother...granted, she was a street walker but I digress! I'll still welcome an Amiga in my home. Edit: If I end up with an Amiga, that Commodore logo is gonna get removed... Haha. Yeah, the Amiga really has Atari blood running through it. It was a Commodore machine in name only. Too bad the way things worked out. Personally, I wish both companies would've just agreed to merge the ST and Amiga platforms back in 1987 following their legal settlement. Then we would've had a pretty strong combined [third] platform that might still be going strong today...

Thanks for the heads up. So, they are 68060s but without the FPU? [like a 386sx on the Intel side?]. Are they usable in conjunction with a 68882?

Gauntlet on the ST is awesome.

Not always true. Predator looks like it plays better on the ST than the Amiga, although the audio on the Amiga version is a lot better... I've come to terms with the Amiga after many years and having been an ST owner back in the day. The Amiga has Atari DNA through and through, it's just a brother from a different mother...granted, she was a street walker but I digress! I'll still welcome an Amiga in my home. Edit: If I end up with an Amiga, that Commodore logo is gonna get removed...

Currently on "YouKnowWhereToBid": 140677848981 290656172263 220846013303 w. price suggestion Simply look for "68882" and you'll always find cheap FPUs. Sometimes they are defect, sometimes they are only 16MHz. Sometimes you'll find 40MHz gems. Someone sniped me at the last second out of a brand new 32Mhz 68882 for $15.50. I should've set a max bid or just "bought now" for $18 with free shipping. Thanks. I'll check those out!

Rolling Thunder was good.

Ato, can you either post here or in PM where you've found $10 68882s @ 32Mhz? Thanks... The auction, ahem, that I'm "watching" ends in a couple of days and their price is $15...

I don't remember that big of a price difference between the SF314 and the SF354. Was it $50 or $100? Competent sales staff would've swayed people over to the SF314 by explaining the long term cost of wasting theoretical disc space by only having a 360k drive. The SF354 was persona non-grata in the user's groups I belonged to...

Fascinating read. Interesting - and disheartening - to read about how games are often dependent upon the TOS version you have to work. It's bad enough there's too much incompatibility between the 68000 and the 68030... As for this being the last decade our machines will run, I hope that's not true...the 8-bits are still going and most of those models have more years on them than STs do! As for using SD/Compact Flash, does anyone use anything beyond 4GB? From anecdotal evidence, that seems to be the largest card size I've seen used by ST/TT/Falcon and Amiga users...

Impressive. I'm surprised it was 16Mhz; maybe Motorola didn't produce an 8Mhz version. Still, kinda a mismatch. Atari probably should've brought out a 16Mhz MegaST to match it in 1988 when this was apparently produced. Considering how the MegaST was marketed for DTP, I'm surprised more DTP software didn't support the co-processor if this was available... [or did they?].

There's an adapter currently being sold on "YouKnowWhere" for use with STs or Amigas that allows for the use of PC analog game controllers. It plugs into the standard Atari/DB9 ports as well as the parallel printer port. So, no, it doesn't use the STe/Falcon/Jaguar Enhanced Joystick Ports but yes, it is possible to use PC analog controllers on the ST and Amiga. What I'd like to know is how much more advanced - if any - are the Enhanced Joystick Ports over the Atari 5200 joystick ports?

Xevious was an A+ title even in 1986. The amount of quarters my friends and I spent on that game in 1985 at the local roller rink ensured it. And I prefer the 7800 version of Xevious over the NES version or the ST version...

That sucks. The STe line should've had it...then again...some might say they should've had a 68020 too! What about the STacy, DarkLord? And it is disappointing the A1200 doesn't have such a slot especially since it's a contemporary of the Falcon. I've been looking at boards for the A500 [since A500s go for cheap in MegWhitmanLand] but all the CPU upgrade boards so far haven't had FPU sockets. Separately, it seems like Kickstart switcher boards in Amigaville are more common than TOS switchers ever were in Atariland. I can't remember anyone from my rather large Atari user's group having any TOS switchers back in the day. Then again, only a few people ever bothered upgrading to Rainbow TOS or TOS 2.6...they seemed far more amazed with NeoDesk which didn't really appeal to me back then...had it on the Falcon but GEM/TOS 4.0x was decent enough... And I thought for sure the MegaST had a slot for the 68881 because I thought I'd remembered much talk about it and the ads for Mark Williams C certainly hyped how it supported it. Even some summaries I read on the net prior to creating this thread say the MegaST does have a slot. Nice web page. I think I noticed that a multimedia player for the Falcon supports the 68882. I would've figured the MP3 portion would mainly use the Motorola DSP in the Falcon instead. Funny how a chip that was a contributing factor to the NeXT Cube's expense - a few years before the Falcon debuted - could now be implemented in Apple's cheap iPod Shuffles... Did Atari actually market such a card themselves? In the US or Europe only? If they had, it would've been nice had they included a provision for the BLiTTER on it back in 87... Such a shame those co-processors were so expensive back then [$300 plus if I recall correctly]. I guess a lot of publishers looked at it from the chicken-and-the-egg proposition. Gaming certainly could've been helped with them, then again, I don't recall PC gaming really taking advantage of FPU until the 386DX era... I've seen a *new* 68882 for $15 at "YouKnowWhere" but I haven't seen any for $10. I'd definitely like a PM if you know of a place... As I posted before, this is now a case of general principle too since I don't like the idea of gold hoarders buying up these uncommon FPUs for their gold value. They can do that to ultra-common Intel chips all they want to but don't touch these chips that Atarians, Amigans, and Classic Mac fans can actually use to this day... One thing I did see on Amiga boards is some fascination with crystal oscillators. Not much explanation on them; I take it they may be used for overclocking...

By "ZOOM" are you talking about the ability to speed up Pac-Man with a button? If so, yes you can set that option on the menu screen. The settings for that option are [OFF, ON, Button (Button being the one you'd want here)]. That would be the feature. It was an unauthorized button with ZOOM written on it with [if I recall correctly] lightning bolts around the lettering. It was a big square button that you'd basically press/smash with the palm of your hand and it would basically put the game into "super pursuit mode" [if you ever used to watch Knight Rider, you'd get the reference] and it accelerate the game to a speed almost impossible to play. I think there was a sound effect too.. edit: Okay, the button wasn't as large as I remember it to be but I was about 10 or 11 the last time I saw one. Here's a pic of one being restored online: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=4eba79ba9b8bdbc9e3cff75f5c7d09c8&action=dlattach;topic=102943.0;attach=147762;image

Problem is, by 1987, the Amiga 500 was out and it had the 880k disk drive standard while Atari only had 720k at the top end and was still peddling the 360k SF354.68 And by the time the STE [and/or MegaSTE] came out, it probably should've had a Motorola 68020 packed in but Atari wasn't hot on that processor plus they probably figured such a move might eat into TT sales. I'm still surprised to this day that the STE didn't even match the Amiga 32-color modes four years later. That was just plain odd on their part.

I've probably asked this a bunch of times... Does it have a ZOOM button option? [the unauthorized hack that was installed on a lot of the arcade machines; possibly made by GCC (don't quote me on that)]... I've been told the Tengen versions on other consoles had it included. And did anyone ever play "Pop-Man" back-in-the-day? I think I've seen one account of it on the net. Probably an unauthorized mod that made Pac-Man resemble Popeye. I played it in that knock-off chain called Circle 7 in some New Mexican town circa 1985...

Curt, can I ask you a quick question? I know it's a pretty stupid one [and as such it may have been asked already], but was I was wondering if you ever considered using 2 Pokey chips in the units when you were originally designing them? I can imagine doubling up the number of Pokeys to be used could've been a nightmare, not to mention there probably wasn't ever a plan by Atari Inc. to ever use multiple Pokeys in a 7800 cartridge and thus that wouldn't be fully within the spirit of the adapter, but I thought I'd ask nonetheless...

I can understand 2600 emulators being an issue but unless the current Atari is seriously considering selling 8-bit or ST game ROMs as part of future updates to their Atari iOS and Android apps, I don't see this being an issue on their part unless they truly are trying to retain their IP. As a company, if you don't make the moves to protect your IP, you do lose it. I wonder if their legal department is aware of Atari Teenage Riot and The Ataris musical bands... I doubt you'll see similar actions committed by Warner Bros. Interactive concerning Atari Games Corp. arcade ROMS since Atari Games did license the rights to lots of their ROMs [including pre-1984 ROMs] to various ROM sites not to mention the company that was marketing through Costco a MAME machine in an arcade cabinet with hundreds of ROMs [Atari Games Corp, Capcom, and others] a few years ago. As for companies trying to make modern games that harken back to Atari properties such as Black Powder Media, I don't really have any sympathy. They even acknowledge they wanted to make an updated version of Battlezone but Atari didn't respond. That's like the filmmakers who created Nosferatu by ripping off Bram Stoker's estate. Plus, Activision updated Battlezone in the 90s, and it was officially licensed. If anything, Atari has been rather lax with people borrowing their IP's gaming elements but that goes all the way back to the Tramiel era with various public domain knock-offs. Warner owned Atari Inc. was the exact opposite of that.

Sorry about the job situation. I'm tempted to recommend shooting for an STe with 2MB of RAM as the baseline. Too bad you couldn't use a Falcon to start the project with and then downgrade to both the Amiga and the ST. Throw in support for a math coprocessor! I'd imagine that would help out with texture mapping... Note: And no, I am not one of the people on eBay selling pallets of unused Motorola 68881 or 68882 math co-processors either, thank you very much.

I'm getting an itch to dig out my Falcon and upgrade it with a Motorola 68882 math co-processor after all of these years. Prior to my conversion to PC in 96 [which I later switched to Macs], I had my Falcon upgraded to 14MB of RAM but I never added the co-processor. What's the consensus...is it worth it? Unless I'm mistaken, Cubase can use the co-processor, as can Mark Williams C and some DTP programs. But do any games [whether for STe or Falcon] actually use it? I'm a little alarmed at some of the descriptions from some eBay sellers trying to sell these chips based upon their worth in gold. What a bunch of heathens. Just out of general principle, that makes me want to buy one to keep at least one of them out of a goldbug's hands. Maybe all of us with capable systems [whether Ataris, Amigas, and pre- OS X Macs] should do that... But anyway... What other STs without upgrade boards can use such co-processors? If I'm not mistaken, the MegaST has a slot for a 68881 [not sure if a 68882 will work even though it is the same pin configuration]. The same goes for a MegaSTe. [And the TT comes standard with a co-processor]. But what about the 520STe and the 1040STe? And if they do, can they also use a 68882 or simply a 68881? I'm actually tempted to try to find an STe out there since they tend to be a bit more backwards compatible than the Falcon. I also retrieved my old 1040ST but it'll need a replacement keyboard and all the upgrades require additional boards. As for the users on here that also use Amigas, can any of the Amigas [besides the 2000] simply pop in a 68882? I was reading up on the specs for the 600 and the 1200 but couldn't find any info on whether they have sockets or if an upgrade board is required... Thanks in advance for any info...

Stupid question, but do any games make use of a 68881/2? Or is it just Mark Williams C and various desktop publishing apps that can not only recognize it but also use it? There's a guy on YouTube who posted video of the difference between running a stock 8Mhz 68000 and a 16Mhz 68000 when playing Gauntlet, but I was under the impression that most upgrades - like with TOS upgrades - tends to bring out incompatibility issues with the various games...

Federated wasn't cheap. Once factoring in the costs of closing it down, it was around $250-$350 million. And yes, a chip fab company [or two] could've been purchased for that price. Although I do agree with you that there never should've been a 360k disc drive option. But a machine like the MegaST should've been rolled out in 86 and not 87...

What does this have to do with the ST? Granted, there's a video on YouTube of a guy playing Duke Nukem 3D on his Falcon via the CT63 [Motorola 68060 CPU upgrade with 256 or 512MB of PC133 RAM]. Still haven't figured out if that's an unauthorized port of the game [from either Amiga or Mac] or if it's running in an emulation mode...