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x=usr(1536)

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Posts posted by x=usr(1536)

  1. Posted

    Something that might be worth thinking about for the future: a lightweight directory service for TNFS servers.  My initial thoughts are something along the lines of DNS, but with a P2P capability in case the root servers ever crap out.  Even something like an official equivalent to a hosts file that could be downloaded manually or automatically retrieved and applied to the server list would work.

     

    Don't really want to get into the minutiae of that idea here since this isn't really the place to do so, but can start a new thread if there's enough interest.

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    40 minutes ago, manterola said:

    Sometimes I feel like ordering a bunch of 4464, ls158 and ls375 and sell the kit pre-cooked, i.e. the two wires soldered. I guess I would be beneficial to the community... And help people afraid of making a mess, even though there's no way of making any mess if you solder to the chips pins.

     

    While I agree with you in theory, Lotharek's 64KB SRAM module appears to have made doing this upgrade about as simple (and inexpensive) as it can get.  Not that what you're proposing wouldn't do the same, but can it compete against his design?

  4. Posted · Edited by x=usr(1536)

    Oh, wow.  That is some killer work.  Congo Bongo is one of my all-time favourites, and it's fantastic to see a screenshot that is so close to the arcade game's graphics.  None of the home versions have really done it justice in that regard, IMHO.

     

    Hmmm...  A graphics engine that works for Congo Bongo should also be able to support the other Sega isometric games (Zaxxon, Super Zaxxon, and Future Spy, though the less said about Future Spy the better).  Just saying :-D

    • Like 2

  6. Posted

    5 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

    See tf_hh's comment earlier in the thread. The entire system runs at a slightly different clock speed depending on whether the machine is NTSC or PAL, and VBLANK runs at a different frequency. The peripheral has to sync with the host machine; 1050s of either standard are apparently able to do so, but the XF551 cannot and has to have the drive firmware matched to the host.

     

    Oh, right.  Not sure how I managed to completely confuse the TV systems in a display sense with the machine's region.  I'll call that my caffeine-then-post moment for today ;)

  7. Posted · Edited by x=usr(1536)

    3 hours ago, bfollowell said:

    Really? That's funny, because in Post #10 he specifically said he's going to get a Sophia 2, 64K of RAM, an U1MB, and a SIDE cart. Even if he used a 1064, for external memory upgrade, the Sophia 2 and the U1MB kind of rule out keeping it stock, though both are reversible. For that matter, most 64KB upgrades are reversible as well. Regardless, @Mazzspeed mentions in at least a couple of posts that he wants to upgrade his machine. I think you're mixing up @x=usr(1536) posts. In at least two of them he mentions that he wishes Mazz would keep his machine stock and in another that he really wants to keep it stock if at all possible.

     

    I think there may be some conflation of what I and others have said taking place.

     

    To clarify my position: I'm keeping my 600XL stock so that it can serve as a reference machine.  However, I am looking for a 1064 for it because that will expand the memory while still falling into the category of 'stock'.  Since I'm not holding my breath for a 1064 to just fall into my lap, if Lotharek's external U1MB becomes available I may do that in the interim just to have the 600XL be usable.  If I really get impatient, the two-chip 64KB upgrade option is also there, but it is by far the least-preferable route given the intended use of this machine.  Fortunately, with a memory-upgraded 800XL and a stock 1200XL sitting around, there's no pressure to make the 600XL a daily driver.

     

    As for everyone else's upgrade plans: I have zero issue with what anyone else wants to do in that regard.  There are opinions that I hold about the various upgrades out there, but that's pretty much all they are.  I'm just sharing them if and when it's appropriate to do so, but I have no objections to anyone installing upgrades.  They likely have different goals for their machine than I might, and that's perfectly fine by me.

  8. Posted

    7 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

    So it should, since the 1050 is TV standard agnostic, unlike the XF.

     

    Not quite sure I understand - neither one should care about PAL vs. NTSC since they're not display devices.  Having said that, I've run into stuff in the past where 50Hz vs 60Hz (or vice-versa) is an issue, particularly for anything that draws its timing from the mains frequency.  Never having owned an XF551 before, however, I have absolutely no idea if they're affected by that or not.

  9. Posted

    24 minutes ago, AtariBrian said:

    Who tried to rip him off and how?? Who was using different paypal and email accounts?? Do you have some insider information or something?

     

    One of the main things he keeps an eye out for are people attempting to circumvent his one-POKEY-per-customer policy, or their prior addition to his 'do not sell to' list.  The former is one quick way to get added to the latter.

  10. Posted

    15 minutes ago, manterola said:

    Regarding the type of ram you to upgrade to 64kb I am not sure but you can search here and in Google for 600xl upgrade pictures. There are a lot of them, and you can see the dram part numbers used and where to connect the 3 pieces of wire.  If I remember correctly I used TMS 4464 10nl or something like that. 

    2*4464 (64kbit*4) ICs, 200ns or faster refresh rate, IIRC.  Been contemplating this for the 600XL if a 1064 / the external U1MB doesn't materialise.  Really want to keep it stock if at all possible, though.

  11. Posted

    11 hours ago, Allan said:

    It's going to be copy-protected so without Kryoflux or modern equivalent or a Happy-type drive, you won't be able to copy it.

    AFAIK this is a plain-vanilla 1050.  Going to have to open it up anyway to check its general condition, so will look for a Happy mod (or equivalent) while I'm in there.

    8 hours ago, DjayBee said:

    For imaging disks I always prefer Disk Wizard II because in case of bad sectors, it retains the most useful information

    This sounds very familiar; I think I may have used it back in the day.  Thank you for the reminder :D

     

    Copy 2000 looks interesting as well as copyr; may look into them also.

  12. Posted

    7 hours ago, juansolo said:

    Generally speaking the recipients are charged a handling fee of £8 plus the duty, which seems mostly random. Usually it's based on the declared value inc postage if it seems realistic, otherwise they just seem to make it up. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.

     

    This was exactly how it was (and presumably still is) done in Ireland.  Import duties and VAT were to be charged based on the Irish retail price of an item being imported.  If there was no equivalent on the Irish market, a number would be plucked out of nowhere and chosen as the retail value.  Even if there was an equivalent on the market, it would still happen sometimes and it was up to you as the recipient to prove that the valuation was wrong.

     

    There were a couple of instances where, upon attempting to pay duty on an item, the valuation (and hence import duty) was absolutely insane.  My tactic was to say, 'keep it' and walk out.  Within a day or two I'd receive a more rational assessment.  This was far easier than arguing with a bureaucrat.

  13. Posted

    13 minutes ago, Mazzspeed said:

    If such devices were plentiful and affordable I'd have no problem keeping it stock, problem is they're not. I'm a pretty good tech, I should be able to upgrade it in a way that's it's easy to revert it to stock should the need arise. I guess I need candle to release his external U1MB/SIDE PBI bus expansion!

    As a fellow stock 600XL owner, I'm waiting for that one as well.  Having said that, there is the 2-chip mod to bump it up to 64K.  That's likely your best route to pseudo-800XL-dom ;)

    • Like 1

  14. Posted

    Given that only the Start button is worn down, that suggests that it was always a 16K-with-cassette-drive machine.

     

    It's absolutely none of my business to tell you what to do with it.  Having said that, if you have another A8 that can do the 64K duties, I'd suggest keeping this one stock.  While I've no objection to making that particular machine more usable, there's also something to be said for keeping it original - especially given how many have had 64K upgrades.

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    12 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

    That's a good question, although Jurgen reminds us that this is only worth worrying about with the XF (although there are others; my Rana2000 won't work with PAL Ataris).

     

    I ran a US-model 1050 on 240VAC at 50Hz for years (including with either a Happy or US Doubler mod; can't remember which one) with just a PSU swap.  Worked fine.  If there were issues that could have been attributed to the differences between 50Hz and 60Hz, I can't say for certain that I ever ran into them.

  18. Posted

    While I'm waiting for my Kryoflux to get here (which could take 3 or 4 months), I'd like to take a shot a copying something that isn't currently dumped / imaged - the disk version of KoalaPainter that was a flippy disk with the C64 version on the other side.  My goal (assuming that the disk I received is readable) is to create an .ATR image of the A8 side.

     

    What I have to work with is a 256K 800XL, 1050 disk drive (likely in need of cleaning, alignment, and speed adjustment), and a Fujinet.  Between the three of these, the hardware side is pretty much taken care of.  What's not clear to me is which disk copier to start with.  It's been 30-plus years since I tried doing this on an A8, and I just have no clue as to what would be best to use.

     

    Obviously the 1050 needs to be sorted out first, but given that it was a) recognised as D2: by the OS and b) almost succeeded in formatting a blank disk (error 173, so am hopeful that it was just a bad disk), it looks as though there's a decent chance that it may be usable for creating a disk image.  Haven't stuck the KoalaPainter disk in yet because I'd just rather not risk damaging it unnecessarily.

  19. Posted

    Digging through some storage bins I haven't looked in in years, I ran across a boxed Z-80 Plus card with Apple CP/M disks and manual; Applied Engineering was the card manufacturer.

     

    This is a 'ran when parked' situation: the card and disks worked in the last Apple //e that I owned - in 2004.  They've been sitting for 17 years.  Granted, they were stored in a light-tight plastic storage bin in a climate-controlled environment for that entire time, but I can't provide any guarantee as to functionality.

     

    I no longer have any Apple ][ machines so cannot test.  However, I would like to find a good home for this set.  If interested, please indicate below.  Will do my best to get photos posted over the weekend. 

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    4 hours ago, juansolo said:

    Short term that'd likely be fine, but the EU are due to bring in the same system mid-year I believe.

    Agreed.  It'll be interesting to see how long this lasts for the either the EU or UK; despite eBay et. al. having signed on as VAT collectors, there are a ton of businesses that haven't.  This may end up being one of those things where either compliance is too low for it to matter, the cost of administering it outweighs the benefits, or both.  One can hope that it all quietly goes away after that and is not replaced by something even more idiotic, but as we are talking about government here...

  21. Posted

    48 minutes ago, Mclaneinc said:

    One thing I'm rubbish at is car work, mostly due to the lifting but I always find that the manual and the car I'm working on don't tally up :) 

    Every Haynes manual is based on a complete teardown and rebuild.  Of course, the teardown and rebuild will not be of the exact model you're trying to work on ;)

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1

  22. Posted · Edited by x=usr(1536)

    6 minutes ago, Sauron said:

    I thought "myatari" was B&C?

     

     

    Nope, you're right and I was completely wrong about that ;-)

     

      

    Just now, AtariBrian said:

    Foot in mouth??  That is B & C 😁

     

    Pretty much :lol:

    • Like 2

  23. Posted

    1 hour ago, Laner said:

    Did anyone figure out what his public facing eBay account name is?

     

    There's nothing to figure out - it's 'myatari'.  He's had that account for probably 20 years if not longer.

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    Speaking as someone with something of an interest in Soviet- and post-Soviet-era Russian computers, I'd be all over this if it wasn't for the two empty sockets.

     

    The seller mentions that caps were scavenged from the board, and those can be fairly easily replaced with close-enough substitutes.  But the missing CPU (which was almost certainly a Soviet Z80 clone, and probably not 100% Z80-compatible) along with whatever's meant to go in the other smaller socket mean 'good luck'.

     

    25 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

    Looks like a real professional job 🤮

     

    Given the time and place of its birth, I really do have to give whoever put that together credit.  It's rough and ready, sure, but if it worked, I can't really fault it too much.

    • Like 2

  25. Posted

    Years ago, I was given a 1050 that was said to be fully-working.  My own stupidity caused me to never find out if that was the case or not, however.

     

    With it plugged in and resting on a table, I happened to nudge the drive and heard something rattle around inside.  Without thinking, I picked it up at an angle, an action that was shortly followed by loud bangs and the smell of caps releasing their goo.

     

    Opening it up revealed two things: a loose case screw and a pair of shorted main caps on the power supply circuit.  The caps were replaced but it never worked properly after that, so it hung around for a while as a source of parts before being passed on to its next owner.

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