x=usr(1536)

It's the only port But I do agree. I have a copy and am still blown away by just how good it is.

If your network hardware supports it, put the RasPi in the DMZ network. Forward the ports as you would normally. Most consumer-grade routers with DMZ capability allow traffic from the LAN into the DMZ (for administration, etc.), but not from the DMZ to the LAN. This pretty much takes care of the issue of it being used as a pivot point into the internal network. On top of that, have tnfsd run as a non-privileged user inside its own chroot jail. This should pretty much negate the most obnoxious things that could be done if someone did manage to exploit it.

Summary: everything I was trying to do here was wrong. Everything. The non-working keyboard had nothing to do with the keyboard itself, or POKEY, or anything you'd normally find in a stock 800XL. What I discovered was that this 800XL - which I've owned for around 20 years or so - contained a hitherto-unknown 256K upgrade. Two of the wires soldered onto the PIA from the upgrade had come adrift. Fixed that, cleaned all of the adhesive idiocy I'd inflicted onto the keyboard PCB with isopropyl alcohol, and it's as good as new now. Actually, better than new because it has 4 times the memory it did when it left the factory The other thing I've learned is that I need to get back into the proper mindset for troubleshooting older hardware. Can't approach it completely the same way I would modern stuff, and it's an end of things that I've been out of for long enough to be more rusty at it than I thought.

Oh, this was an historical issue. Until serial cables for my 850 arrive, I won't be able to test whether or not it's still a problem.

That's one of the few I regret having sold. Every time I play one I'm reminded of just how fun it was. Difficult as hell compared to the other Pac-Man games until you start getting a feel for how the ghosts behave, as well as how to properly use the pinball table to your advantage. Really like it. It also reminds me of just how temperamental it could be, too, but that's par for the course.

These are clearly the hallmarks of quality. It's just that it's spelled 'kwality' in this instance.

I seem to recall (at least on macOS) needing to restart SyncTerm before the change in character set would apply. Never used it under other platforms (IIRC), though, so no idea about those ones.

Bob, I overnighted a box of live (and extremely venomous) snakes to you. As the issue seems to be resolved, please disregard them when they arrive. Thanks!

To give some background: growing up, I was an Atari computer kid. Until about 1997 or 1998, I'd never owned an Atari console. Then, one day, I saw an ad in the paper for a 2600jr. IR£15 (they had previously retailed at IR£50, IIRC), relatively unused, still in the lunchbox carrier, and with the power supply, joysticks, and 32-in-1 cartridge. Called the seller, drove over, and picked it up without even making an offer. I reckoned that it was exactly as advertised and the price was more than fair, so just bought it and made it my first non-home computer Atari acquisition. Fast-forward to today: I'm digging through a plastic tub that I haven't looked in in years. I see a box and... It's the one that my 2600 was sold to me in. As it turned out, it was just filled with knick-knacks; I'm still no closer to knowing where the 2600 and its assorted bits and pieces are. But I'm still absolutely thrilled to have found this, and am hopeful that the unit itself may turn up. And if it doesn't, I'm hopeful that serial number x708 3042723 is still kicking around somewhere in PAL territory. Had a lot of fun with that machine, and hope it's found a good home. Photos of the box are below. Some are likely more interesting than others, but it's good to see one of the Irish retail boxes still surviving. If I find the machine itself or any of its related bits & pieces, I'll certainly update the thread. Oh, and no need to let me know that the stove needs a good scrubbing; I'm aware Top of the lunchbox: The lunchbox, from the rear: Moving around to the front: And one of the sides: The opposite side: And, finally, the bottom:

It's working on my 7800 with a CX24, CX78, and Wico 'The Boss' one-button stick. Which post did you get the Galaxian ROM image from?

IIRC, the Spectrum +3 also used them. This is why the 3-inch floppy achieved total market dominance, completely decimating Sony's 3.5" format. I really never understood Amstrad's rationale behind using those; they must have been exceptionally cheap in volume. 3.5" disks were already on the market and picking up considerable steam.

Plays great, and the graphics enhancements work extremely well. It's shaping up very nicely Did catch one thing, though: on the high-score entry table, only the left button is recognised for character entry. It feels a little odd for that to be the case after having had both buttons work in the game. This was with a CX78 that was rebuilt about 3 months ago, FWIW.

If one wanted to stretch the point, it could be argued that both Amstrad and Sinclair's Z80-based machines should be lumped into the same category, at least after the Amstrad buyout of Sinclair. It really would be stretching the point, though.

Atari did also do Blasteroids, which was released around 1988, IIRC. That one was definitely raster and had 3D-effect rocks and enemies as well as powerups, etc. Agreed; there's just no comparison. They really have a distinct look and feel from anything else. Just be ready to get good at maintaining them. Vectors can (read: will) require a special kind of love to keep running.

@GameEngine: sorry it took 14.5 years for your post to garner replies. But better late than never, amirite? Anyway, I grew up as an Atari user in ZX Spectrum (and Commodore) territory. Never had a Spectrum, but did use them a bit at other kids' houses. Comparing the Spectrum and the Atari really is an apples-and-oranges comparison. The Spectrum was - just like nearly everything else Sinclair cranked out in the consumer electronics world - built to a price point, and that price point was rock-bottom low. This dictated both its architecture, features, and physical construction. Atari wasn't immune to this, either: obviously, any development and manufacturing process is going to seek to keep sunk costs to a minimum. But the A8s were designed to move the state of the art forward. Comparatively large amounts of RAM for their time, dedicated ICs for video, sound, and graphics, SIO, first-party peripherals available at launch, etc. What's more relevant are the time and place of both machines' development. The ZX80 and ZX81 were essentially obsolete at launch - but that didn't matter, because they were being launched in an era where home computing in the UK was just barely starting to take off. The A8 machines had the benefit of the 2600's design to guide where improvements over that hardware needed to be implemented. And while they were also under development at a time when home computing in the US was just starting to take off, they had one critical advantage over the ZX80 & ZX81: Americans had more disposable income to spend on things like home computers than people in Europe generally did. This meant that the Sinclair machines absolutely had to target the cheapest price point possible, though it would be at the expense of features. The Atari machines could sport a better featureset, but at a higher price because enough of the market could bear that price to eventually allow mass production and refresh cycles drive prices down. Note that I'm not saying that the ZX Spectrum was rubbish, just that it was a product of its time and place of birth. It remained a very influential machine into the early 1990s, and was responsible for giving huge numbers of people their first taste of computing outside of a miscalculated electricity bill. Some of those people even went on to make careers out of that technological exposure. And none of this is very much different to the A8 over its lifetime, just that the background was not the same.

The status screen intermissions in Major Havoc had a Breakout sub-game during the intermission. It would allow the player to skip levels if they were able to achieve certain scores.

Both Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe were vector games

One thing I'll mention about the 1020: it's a neat little printer, but you really do not want to use it for anything involving a lot of text. Slow, clacky while it prints, and not the best for readability, though it's far from the worst print quality I've ever seen. For graphs, charts, and plots they're great - but so is a screen dump to a dot-matrix.

Look in the garbage file. Note: visual representation of hax0ring is at least 157% accurate.

FWIW, this version was on at least 3 or 4 menu disks along with other bootlegs; I remember it because the rotated Pac-Man maze was the one I played growing up, but also because it was repeated on 3 or 4 disks. Such a terrible abuse of disk space 😁

I'm not sure if it's just my perception, but it really seems as though the short amount of time between cabinet releases is noticeably resulting in a 'quantity over quality' approach.

I may have found something that works: E6000 Precision Tip Adhesive. Left one pad on the main PCB and one pad on the console key PCB to cure, and they appear to be sticking. This will make reassembly possible, because without the rubber contact pads being able to stay in place when turned upside-down, there's just no way to put the thing back together. Found it at Wal-Mart; a 1-ounce tube (plenty for this job) was around $2.50.

If the radar map I just saw on the weather is any indication, expect delays - roughly 70% of the country is under the current Winter storms. They're stretching from Canada to South Texas and the Rockies to the Appalachians from what I saw. That leaves no good route to get it to you, unfortunately.