-
Content Count
741 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Sharky
-
-
It wasn't an option, so much as a side-effect.
If you use a monitor with the Chroma/luma interface you don't get artifacting and thus you get B&W in games that utilize Gr.8 and artifacting to get color (Ultima, David's Midnight Magic, Lode Runner, ...)
Oh I see because we just used a normal family television set, but now for the first time I will be able to play my old favourite in Colour!
This is cool then.

-
Ha thanks I got it in colour now use Artifacitng option, I thought It was the right model Atari I had to select.
Artifacting. Was that option avaible on a real Atari 800 because my dads Ultima 2 was always Black and white
? -
Ummm.. I prefer to use Atari800WinPlus to play my Atari 800 games and Ive noticed something strange that I cant figure out.
I wanted to play Ultima 2 and in Atari800win (not plus version) it comes out in colour but for Atari800winPlus it comes out in Black&white.
I dont get it, can someone fill me in here...

-
Someone once told me it was River Raid what started the Vertical Shoot 'em ups...Am i right ?
-
Just wanna know that since Ive got my collections of music from the C64 (SID), Spectrum (AY), Atari 800 (SAP), etc, etc.
I'll tried searching the web if there a Player somewhere that emulates MAME music.
Can find one.
I got Windows 98/Me/XP as my OS
Anyone know ?

-
Hi all,I am running MAME .61 and for a long time now I have noticed that any variant of Pole Position has incorrect acceleration and tire screeching sounds. I have downloaded the latest sound file for it but it still sounds the same...incorrect.
Anybody know if the sounds haven't been emulated correctly or is it something I'm doing?
Thanks.
MAME .61 is very much out-of-date now and they're up to .66.
I suggest upgrading your old version of MAME because it fixes so many bugs that were originally in hundreds of games.
If this isnt the case then you must have a bad ROM.
Go and register at http://www.mame.dk/ and download a later ROM Dump of Pole Position.
If Its still not the case then download a Bootleg ROM File of Pole Position (Make sure you keep your parent ROM in the same directory, or it won't work at all)
If thats still not the case, then Pole Position isnt emulated 100% and we start have to wait around (like me for some fixes) for later versions of MAME!
Hope this helps!....

-
Just take a look inside the Northstar Horizon without the Wood.

You'll think it would get awfully hot inside there.
And it certainly looks Home-built.
-
Wow! George Gray You came aross another Northstar Horizon
That one looks like wood but for this photo is looks like what Mintyfresh says a "wood-colour decal"
But the other picture i found on Old-Computers really does look like wood and according to someone on the previous paage says - it is real wood.

Its look quite different, were they sort of HomeBuilt Computers ?
-
No...she typed it correct. Maybe the emu does have some problem with string handling. More likely my program is just junk
BTW you can POKE 82,0 to get more out of your screen

POKE 710,0 gives you a nice dark screen too.
Oh
, I did have my setting on 320K Rambo, could that of been a problem since your using POKEs ?
Umm I can always try out my DOS Atari 800 Emulator somewhere is see if its emulates Basic better. Cause I know a Real Atari 8bit does not behave like that...

I just tried your POKE and got more out of the screen (Cool Poke i never knew that!
) still same problem. 
-
Whoa! It when back to normal to a while, I type RUN then READY came up then typed
SCR$(921,930)="0123456789" then hit ENTER/RETURN
It wouldnt be your programs fault because Goochman was saying in the other that most of his Basic Programs crashed on AtariWinPlus.
Its looks like AtariWinPlus isnt as compatible as I first thought.
But I try again and im sure it will work
-
-
Try this...
10 GRAPHICS 0: DIM SCR$(960)
20 SCR$=CHR$(0): SCR$(960)=SCR$: SCR$(2)=SCR$
30 DL=PEEK(560)+256*PEEK(561)
40 HI=INT(ADR(SCR$)/256)
50 LO=ADR(SCR$)-HI*256
60 POKE 559,0
70 POKE DL+4,LO: POKE DL+5,HI
80 POKE 88,LO: POKE89,HI
90 POKE 559,34
Im typing in your program now... Umm is this GRAPHICS 0 on Line 10 really nesscessary because your always on Graphics 0 as default from Cold Start.
-
@Nukey Shay - You surely know advanced basic well with those listings. Im half lost here
But I see what your getting at...
Im just experiment right now and seeing what tricks I can do... :wink:
BTW.. just curiuos does Atari 8bits have a Clock in it because C64 does but the thing is its not battery backed-up.
I use PRINT TI$ for c64 and it will give me something like that 0000803.
You can set the clock to real-time you lose your clock if u decide to switch off.

-
If I ever wanna see how many unused memory is in my system when im programming i type
PRINT FRE(0)
Just compare the Atari Basic with the C64 Basic on Cold starts.
Atari has 37902 Free
and C64 has -26627
So if im right, Atari has more Basic memory.

-
You ever wanna lock an 8-bit up HARD, try this:GR.2
DIM A$(FRE(0));
Then press RESET. Snarf.
Yoiks, I haven't done any serious programming on the beasts since the last version of Flickerterm.
Im trying to but I getting an error 9 on your DIM statement.
Whats going on
? -
The thing that threw a lot of people as that all string variables ($) needed to be DIMensioned first. The advantage is that you could make the strings as large as you wanted (to contain stuff like players and missiles)...making substring routines a breeze.How about this one...
DIM A$(2048):A$=CHR$(0):A$(2048)=A$:A$(2)=A$
That would create a 2k block zeroed out ready for use in a P/M routine

Basic Graphics modes were :
0 = the editor, 40x24 characters
1 = double-width multicolor characters, 20x24
2 = double-height, double-width multicolor characters, 20x12
3 = 4-color lo res., 40x24
4 = 2-color lo res., 80x48
5 = 4-color med. res., 80x48
6 = 2-color med. res., 160x96
7 = 4-color hi res., 160x96
8 = 1 color hi res., 320x192
9 = 8-color GTIA, 160x192
10 = 16-color GTIA, 160x192
11 = 16-lum GTIA, 160x192
Adding 16 to the number would remove the text window in all modes, and 32 would not clear the screen (so you could pop the window on and off when needed).
And you could use Antic to unlock other modes and mixtures of modes
I remember the DIM statements in program books but never made use of them myself. (I never knew what it meant).
My "adventures" listing were terrible slow code
KEY$="KEY", OPEN$="OPEN", GET$="KEY", LAMP$="LAMP" and so fourth and so fourth. (Almost ever adventure assigned to a $ and if a command wasnt assigned It would simply put "I DONT UNDERSTAND." No wonder y I would soon run out of memory after running the program.
Obviously your program needed spare memory for running as well and not just for holding on to your program listing.
Well that DIM Statement you typed above looks like the way to map out your RAM better. And obviously this would of had to be put as the start of your program as this A$ you assign to DIM (never knew it meant Dimension or i say AREA or Spare Area) would be all blank zeros 2K and ready for you to touch only.
I guess the best way to work this out is use AtariWinPlus in basic and experiment it myself and look at other advanced basic listing to understand this was really done.
-
Wow! That overhead racing must of been a challenge. I doubt Ill be much good in programming that on any machine.
Is that main racing you control a "sprite". A rarely ever made any of my "sprites" of my own because its so complicated and time-comsuming.
I guess it was easiler on Atari.
But the best programs Ive ever created was sort of Text adventures but ill ended running out of memory before I got too far into them because obviously my program listing was too spread out and too basic and too many $'s linked to variables, when it could of been programmed more compacted to save unnessary use of memory.
-
Another question. This is how i remember to delay a screen like 5 seconds so you had time to read something. (For C64)
10 PRINT"WAIT 5 SECONDS..."
20 FOR I=1 TO 8000:NEXT I
30 PRINT"THANK-YOU"
How was this done on the Atari 800? because I used to have to use the SOUND command just to delay the screen for a few seconds.

-
Well for a black background on the 800:setcolor 2,0,0
For sound
sound 1,10,10,10
Not to shabby
I forgot about the $ stuf or whatever but this should work:
10 PRINT"Press Any Key"
20 INPUT A$
30 IF A$="" THEN GOTO 50
40 GOTO 10
50 PRINT A$
If you wanted really big text you could change graphics modes:
5 GR. 2
10 PRINT"Press Any Key"
20 INPUT A$
30 IF A$="" THEN GOTO 50
40 GOTO 10
50 PRINT #6:A$
The input would be at the bottom and the output would be in the 800's big blocky text mode up top.
Theres prob a few bugs in there but thats the gist

Wow! Some of those commands definately click back my memory.
Sound was a piece a cake to produce on the Atari!
(Its a nitemare trying it on the C64, Its would be lines of POKES and DATA statements for a simple sound!)
And Line 5 you did was GRAPHICS 2 right? I use to use those too, just to make some of my text big and stand-out.
The GRAPHICS command has 2 or 3 modes I think. What were they all again?
Its me wanna do some Atari 800 Basic programs again becuase ive got an Atari 800 emulator now!

-
When I first started making programs, they were much like yours. Little stories where the user enters a number of verbs, nouns, and things...and it dumps them into the story. Good time-killer, even if you have company

Yes thats was my type of programming! And make real funny stories like "Favorite colour?", "Whats your Brothers Name?", "Favourite Food?", etc, etc then make a werid story at the end of it all !
Classic! I wish I had kept em!
Did the Apple II have a built in basic? Im not sure because I used to have to use them at school and I wasnt allow to program on them.
On the VIC20 I ran out of memory im my first program!

-
Funny how people have different impressions of the machines. I never actually programmed the C64, which probably explains my lack of understanding on how easy/difficult it was.When you finally get down to first few basic programs and get fimaliar with the basics of Basic ( I started with a VIC20, then found it easier to move on to the Atari 8bits)
But most of Basic programming life was with the C64, because the Atari 800 wasnt my computer, it was my Dads.
I wasa never an advanced basic programmer but was good enough to make my own questionaires (INPUT A$), etc.
and I loved the black screen in C64 (10 POKE53280,0:POKE53281,0)
I still remember all those pokes and waiting for a keypress was EASY! I couldnt never work out to do in the Atari 800
10 PRINT"PRESS ANY KEY"
15 GET A$:if A$="" THEN GOTO 30
20 GOTO 15
30 PRINT"";
After the C64, I had a Amiga and dislike its Workbench Amigabasic so my last programming language was AMOS Basic (another basic language software for Amiga)
But it all became to easy and everything possible!
So I gave up and ended my Era of 9 years of Basic Programming.

-

^ A Coleco Telstar (Pong system) - Is that real wood on it ?

^ A Coleco Telstar Classic - Now thats looks like real wood.
-
I found programming on Atari 8bits quite nice. The sound of your keystokes clicks and no irrating blink cursor (like C64), and hundreds of colours to choose from in Basic.
I wouldnt say it was harder than C64. They both had their differences.
The only thing I disliked was the Atari gave you error codes if there was an error so you need your reference book handy at all times.
And another thing about it was that you couldnt name your file when saving to Tape.
But for C64 I didnt like the dull blank light Blue screen when saving or loading from/to tape.
-
Stumbled across this.....It's a Magnavox Odyssey 500

Notice the woodgrain, nice huh?
Minty
How would you know if thats real wood. Just as I thought the Atari 2600 has some wood on it (or even the Northstar Horizon). It could be plastic/metal painted with wood vanish or something. 

I need to get hold of a blank disk image.
in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Posted
Umm! A game has asked me to Insert a blank player disk.
I cant remember how it use to be done.
Was there a DOS Disk you needed ?
Where can I find this DOS Disk from (if it exists), or is there somewhere I could download a blank Atari800 Disk-Image?