atarimac

Try this link: http://www.trs-80.com/wordpress/info-level-2-basic-language/#Graphics That manual says there are set and reset functions to turn a pixel on or off, and a point function to get the status of a pixel. Underneath, they will still be using the character graphics, but it looks like this hides it from you. (But of course, will not be as efficient for changing large areas).

Sorry, I copied the link from the old post, and got ... where I didn't want them.... http://www.atarimac.com/atari800macx.php

All, I just released a new version of Atari800MacX. There are bug fixes with regard to stray caps locks being issue from Mouse clicks, and fixes for Shift-Ctrl key combos. And I have added an option for how the emulator maps the arrow keys into Atari keys. Thanks to flashjazzcat for his help in pointing out the bugs and testing the fixes. The Last Word works even better with Atari800MacX now. Here is the link: http://www.atarimac....tari800macx.php Thanks, Mark

It may be a little of both. The current version of Atari800 has the code in there to support the MyDos commands for loading files in the H: driver. But if you are using an older version of Atari800WinPlus, it may not, as it is not up to date with the Atari800 code base, and no one is maintaining it. However, I suspect the real problem is MyDos expects D: devices for a lot of device operations. You can read/write and get directories with H:, but as I recall file deletes don't work either. And it's not just MyDos, as evidenced by a recent thread on here, there are problems with using Action! and other programs which expect a disk drive to be a D: device, not an H:. I have a solution for this. On the Mac, the latest version of Atari800MacX presents an alternative, and when I get time I will be checking the solution into Atari800 CVS, if the rest of the developers agree. What I do is use D5:-D8: as hard drives instead. The new D: patch replaces the original vector that DOS installs and checks the drive letter for the operation call. If it is 1-4, then it simply passes the call to the original DOS routine. Otherwise, it uses the same routines that H: uses to process the call. D5: and D6: point to the first 2 hard drive directories without translation, and D7: and D8: use translation. The limitation on the D: patch is it does require a DOS to be present, so it would work with a cartridge and no disk. It is compatible with H:, and both can be used at the same time. Mark

Flashjazzcat, Sent you a PM, so we can investigate the keyboard mapping issues you are having. Mark

All, I apologize, I built the disk image with the wrong version of the program. I have corrected it, and created a 2.1.1 on the web site which is the correct version. Thanks for your patience, Mark

All, I've released version 2.1 of Sio2OSX. It can be found at http://www.atarimac.com/sio2osx.php . Here are the changes: Added support of VAPI copy-protected disk images. This does not yet enable all images, but perhaps 90%. If the VAPI dll source is ever released, this number may be increased. The current images from www.atarimania.com which are known not to work are: * Alternate Reality: The City * Ankh * Attack at EP CYG 4 * Ballblazer Activision (UK) * Jenny of the Prairie * Mercenary - Escape from Targ _ Novagen Software * Mr. Do! * Music Studio (The) * Promoteur * Rescue on Fractalus! _ Activision (UK) * Spy vs Spy * Targets - A Number Game Mark

All, I released a point update that fixes the small problem with the monitor history command that was identified in this thread: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=148541 Here's a link to the site with more info and downloads: http://www.atarimac.com/atari800macx.php Thanks, Mark

Heaven/TQA, Your right, there is an issue with the history command in the monitor. It was a buffer overflow on the monitor output buffer, but once I fixed that it showed a few other problems that occured when I had integrated the changes the Atari800 team made to the CPU emulation with my monitor version. I've found the issues, but want to do a bit more testing. I should be posting a 4.0.1 version tonight or tomorrow. Thanks, Mark

All, I just released a new version of Atari800MacX. Atari800MacX now supports VAPI and PRO images, Copy and Paste from the emulator, Configuration files, and a new Hard Disk emulation scheme. There have been other enhancments and bug fixes as well, see below. Features Added/Changed: * Added support of VAPI copy-protected disk images. This does not yet enable all images, but perhaps 90%. If the VAPI dll source is ever released, this number may be increased. The current images from www.atarimania.com which are known not to work are: o Alternate Reality: The City o Ankh o Attack at EP CYG 4 o Ballblazer Activision (UK) o Jenny of the Prairie o Mercenary - Escape from Targ _ Novagen Software o Mr. Do! o Music Studio (The) o Promoteur o Rescue on Fractalus! _ Activision (UK) o Spy vs Spy o Targets - A Number Game * Added new D: patch, which provides an alternative to the H: hard drive emualtion. This sets up D5:-D8: to access hard drive directories one and two, with or without line feed translation. This allows the Macintosh hard drive direcories to be accessed by programs which do not recognize the H: device fully, such as MyDos and Action!. * Added multiple preference configurations, allowing you to set up multiple machine configurations, and load them by opening a .a8c file. * Added ability to paste text from the Macintosh to the Atari. The pasted text is input as keystrokes to the emulator, and should be usable in most programs. * Added ability to copy text from the Atari to the Macintosh. The copied text can be selected using Select All, or by using the Mouse to define a selection rectangle on the screen. It works in normal video or XEP80 modes, but is not available in full screen mode, or if the Mouse is being used for Mouse Controller emulation. * Added emulation of Atari 1200XL Function keys. You can press the Atari F1 by pressing Option-F1 in the emulator, along with optionally shift and or control. F2-F4 work the same way. * Added alternatives for the Atari keys mapped to the Macintosh Insert/Delete/Home/End/PageUp/PageDown keys as those keys are not present on some new Macintosh keyboards. * Added ability to use multiple analog joysticks on the same gamepad as multiple Atari joysticks. * Added the following features from version 2.1 of Atari800 Core Emulator: o Added Axlon and Mosaic RAM expansions for Atari 400/800 o Added emulation of MIO and Black Box o Added support of .PRO copy-protected disk images o Implemented tape loading with variable bitrates o Implemented cassette writing via hardware registers o Added emulation of CX85 numeric keyboard o R: device can be serial-only or network-only (selectable) Bugs Fixed * Fixed caps lock with International Key Mapping on. * Fixed a bug with turning joystick emulation on and off which was causing a stuck joystick. * Fixed a bug where one analog joystick was not selectable on Gamepad 2. * The following fixes were added from version 2.10 of Atari800: o Fix for "Ilusia" demo o Better GTIA bug mode emulation o Fixed POKEY registers: ALLPOT, IRQEN and STIMER o Various Atari5200 fixes o Fixed Atrax cartridge bank switching o Major source code cleanup, compiles with -pedantic etc. Mark

Spookt, Which version of the emulator were you using? Have you tried it on the Beta for the new 4.0 I sent you the link for? I tried it there, and it doesn't crash the emulator. Mark

OK, I've got the VAPI additions in the emulator and SIO2OSX as good as I can get them. Actually, it's not bad. From my count there are 159 VAPI images or image sets on atarimania.com. Of those, 152 will load and run, and only 7 do not work. The 7 that do not work at the moment are: Ankh Ballblazer Activision (UK) Mercenary - Escape from Targ _ Novagen Software Mr. Do! Music Studio (The) Rescue on Fractalus! _ Activision (UK) Targets - A Number Game Of those, Targets, is because I have not implemented writing to VAPI images (which is something most of the time you do not want to do). I may implement that in the next versions. The remaining 6 do work with the DLL, so something is different about my timing calculations. However, of those 6, two are UK versions of programs that do work, so we are done to really 4 programs that do not work. I'm going to declare victory with that. I will be having Atari800MacX and SIO2OSX in beta for another week to two weeks on other new features, and will then release them. Once they are released, I will check in a Atari800 version of the code into CVS also. I probably won't make other changes until (and if) the DLL source is released. The problem is, since this is timing, it's like pushing on a ballon. If I make a change that fixes one image, it may break another. And with 159 to test each time, it is a very slow process. Mark

Atari Frog, Thank you for forwarding the email, and reading through my vent And don't misunderstand, I appreciate the huge effort and contributions you are making to the Atari community also. Actually, I've even made some progress today. I have 134 of 144 VAPI images working in Atari800MacX. I need to grab the last 5-10 that you guys have imaged and try them too. All of those work with the DLL, so I am still missing something, but it is a lot closer than I was. Part of it was I realized how to deal with the weak sectors, which was part of the format information he has not published yet. I'm close enough with those, that I will probably release the emulator and SIO2OSX with VAPI support in the next couple of weeks, and will try to fix the other images to work when we get source, or when I make more reverse engineering breakthroughs. Thanks, Mark

I have never seen it released anywhere, and I would like it to be as well. I'm the author of Atari800MacX and Sio2OSX, and I really would like the solution to be available for the Mac also. Right now all we have is a Windows-centric solution. Since this is intended to be a preservation method for disk images going forward, it seems like it defeats the purpose to keep the source secret. If something happens to the author, then all the work on preservation goes down the drain. I've asked several times, and the only answer I get is that the author "has his reasons". I wish someone would explain what those reasons were. I also recently IM the person from www.atarimania.com that frequents this site, since they are obviously creating new VAPI images. I've received no response to that email either. I have managed to reverse engineer things based on the format that has been released, and black box testing of the DLL. But that only gets me to about 90% of the images working. Frankly, I'm frustrated after wasting a heck of a lot of time and effort on this. I don't think we are being unreasonable in asking for this. I'm not sure how much response we will get though, since the author's user name hasn't been active here since April, so perhaps my fears above have came true, and VAPI is no longer active....... (For those of you who think I'm just ranting and raving, you should talk to some of my users to find out how I bend over backwards to add features requests for them....)

Actually, yes, there is a very good reason. The PRO disk format has not been made public, so it's hard for emulator authors to incorporate it. I suspect the reason the PRO format is not public is due to the business model there. It's not in the authors interest to see more emulation in use than real hardware, as that would decrease his hardware sales. The fact that the PRO format is not public is why the VAPI/ATX format was created, but it suffers from some of the same issues. The format is now public, but some of the timing calculations and how the format is used are hidden in the DLL, who's source is not available. People are trying to work around both of these issues by reverse engineering. The author of Altirra has added support for both formats to his emulator, and Atari 800 has the PRO format in the latest CVS code. On both of these, they probably cannot guarantee 100% support do to doing it by reverse engineering. On Windows platforms, there is a version of Atari800WinPuls which uses the DLL to load VAPI images. For Linux and Mac, I'm about to check in a version of code that can load 80-90% of the VAPI images.

It matters greatly how you load the file. The load executable file is only used if you are trying to load a binary image that normally would have been stored on an Atari disk (one file, not the whole disk). Most of the time, these files have a .xex extension (although they could be .com or none if you take them off of an Atari disk). Most disk images are .atr files, and you need to use "Insert Floppy" for that (or even easier, use the buttons in the Media Window). Most Cartridges are .bin or .car files. Both are loaded with "Insert Cartridge...", but with .bin files you will need to know the type of cartridge (you will be presented with a list of choices based on size). With .car files, someone has already done that, and the cartridge type is stored with the file. Cassette images are .cas, and you use "Insert Cassette" for those. So, unlike a lot of the consoles out there that are emulated, the Atari was a real computer, so the images are just "ROMS", and you need to know what the file is you are trying to load.

Modern peripheral flash devices such as Compact Flash, Secure Digital, and USB Memory sticks have wear leveling built in, so that one sector is not erased/rewritten more than others, it remaps sectors with a built in micro-controller in the card. The only place not having wear leveling as a concern is with raw flash chips on embedded boards, there you have to worry about using a file system with wear leveling, such as TrueFFS or FlashFX.

The problem is that Atari800WinPlus is not up to the current revision of the Atari800 emualtor code base that it is based on, and there is no one maintaining it. Action! will work fine with Atari800 on Linux or Windows, or with Atari800MacX if you have a Mac. Mark

You can't use them at the same time on that emulator. My Mac emulator, Atari800MacX, has that capability, and I'll be adding it to the Atari800 CVS in the next couple of weeks, as soon as I get the code bases synchronized. If the people working on the new version of the Atari800WinPlus are interested in the change, they can contact me. Mark

Interesting....seems you must be dialing your own FTP port. I'll have to go look, but maybe the defaults are the loopback address and FTP port for dialout, I'm not sure. Can you send me or post the xex, and I'll check it out.... Mark

eegt97, Thanks for the tip on the Star Trek issue. I did take a look at the Atari800 CVS, and it looks like they always return 0xff for KBCODE, so I doubt it will work there either. I'll add it to my list of 4.0 fixes that are required (and when I get it working on the Mac version, I'll check that into Atari800 also.) Regards, Mark

I will admit that it has been awhile since I have played a lot of the 5200 games on the emulator, so I to was a bit surprised when the documentation said that the keys were the same on all of the controllers. I will have to do some research to find out if that is how the 5200 actually works, or if it was a convenience for the original emulator author. Like you though, I can't think of any 5200 games that might have issues with that. I don't know of any published problems with any 5200 games and the emulator, but I have had the same problem you had with the Star Trek. I've run across it, and have always meant to try it on one of the Linux or Windows ports, and then forget. I will have to do that this week and let you know what I find out. If it doesn't work in any of the emulators, I'll ask the question on the general mailing list for the emulator. Mark

If you look at the help file, there is a page called keyboard layout. The bottom of the page describes the other 5200 key mappings. At this point, they aren't programmable. I can look at the possibility/feasibility of doing that. I don't believe they are programmable in the core Atari800 emulator I ported from, but I will look there also.

thegoldenband, That feature is there, but it may not be obvious how to use it. You will want to convert your raw binary images into .car images. You do that from the Media menu, item "Create .car from ROM file...". You chose the input file, the type (the way you normally would when loading it), and then tell it where to write the .car. Then, you can load the .car without having to specify the type of the cartridge. The feature works about the same in Atari800 and Atari800Win+, the menu items are just in different places. Regards, Mark

Spookt, From the other thread on performance of USB dongles with OSX, c0nsumer gave a link to the FTDI page I hadn't noticed before (http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/EvaluationKits/USB-Serial.htm), and at the bottom of it is a link for a UK supplier of a FTDI dongle: http://www.easysync.co.uk/. I'm PM you as well. Regards, Mark