spicyjack

I used a shell script that generates the app bundle to do the same thing. https://mathiasbynens.be/notes/shell-script-mac-apps The app bundle (Altirra.app) that this script generated used to work on this computer on Ventura (13.x), but now it doesn't work on Sonoma. My Intel Mac is still on Ventura, and it still works there. I'm using WINE installed by Homebrew, instead of an application installed into the Applications folder. I can launch Alitirra via the shell script that gets embedded into in the app bundle by hand with no problems, and no freezes on Sonoma, I have it running right now. So I don't think your "launch issue" is an Altirra problem, it sounds like a Sonoma problem. I have an M2 MBA, my hardware info is in this spoiler: The shell script that I'm using for launching Altirra under WINE is in this spoiler; adding or removing the ampersand to background the process doesn't make a difference;

Yeah, so I just did this... If you have any questions, please ask me in that thread.

Current A8PicoGram status (2023-12-12) I have 10+ of both white and black PCBs, I have envelopes, and I have a little bit of free time. Let’s get these boards out the door and on their way to you! Hello, I am starting an A8PicoGram service. I will send you two (2) bare “OG” electrotrains A8PicoCart PCBs, anywhere in the world, shipped direct from California, for one single price. What is an “A8PicoCart”? The A8PicoCart uses a clone of the Raspberry Pi Pico board to “listen” to the electrical signals on an 8-bit Atari computer’s cartridge slot, then emulate the electrical signals of a “real” ROM cartridge. To your Atari 8-bit computer, it won’t know the difference between an A8PicoCart and a real cartridge. You can find out more about the A8PicoCart in the thread here on AtariAge: Currently, the A8PicoGram service will be offering the “electrotrains” variant of the A8PicoCart. You can find the user manual for the A8PicoCart here: https://github.com/robinhedwards/A8PicoCart/blob/main/A8PicoCart%20Manual.pdf About the PCBs… I have the “electrotrains” A8PicoCart PCB’s in white or black, with a HASL lead-free finish, and with a 45° bevel on the insertion edge of the board. If you decide to order an A8PicoGram, you can choose one of: Two white PCBs Two black PCBs Or you can be extra daring and/or fashionable, and get one white and one black PCB. Here's a picture of the 45° bevel compared to the 90° edges. Shipping I will be using USPS Domestic (USA) or International First Class mail for shipping, which is untracked. Let me say this again: I will be using USPS Domestic (USA) or International First Class mail for shipping, which is untracked. Getting tracking numbers would in most cases raise the cost of shipping between 5 and 10 times, and I’d have to start thinking about customs forms and such. It kind of defeats the purpose of distributing such a low-cost project in my opinion. The PCBs will be wrapped inside of a piece of paper with your address on it, in case the address on the outside of the envelope gets ripped off during processing/shipping. The paper-wrapped PCBs will then be inserted inside “photo mailers” (cardboard envelopes used for mailing photographs) and sent out. What I can do instead of tracking numbers is send you a picture of your envelope dropping into the mailbox, so you know about what time it will leave California on its way to you. If you want the picture, please ask for it, otherwise I won’t shoot one. How to order? Send me a private message (PM) here on AtariAge (https://forums.atariage.com/profile/30908-spicyjack/), and I’ll send you my PayPal address. I’m accepting PayPal only for now. When you send me the PM to order, let me know the following info: Whether you want 2 black PCBs, 2 white PCBs, or the fashionable 1 white/1 black pairing of PCBs Your name, and the address where I should ship the A8PicoGram to Your PayPal email, so I can connect AA people to emails in PayPal; you could also include your AA username in the “Notes” box in PayPal, that would help a lot If you are including extra money as a donation to “electrotrains”, and/or you want me to make your donation "anonymous", let me know that as well If you want me to send you a picture of your envelope being dropped into the mailbox, for “tracking” purposes; if you don’t mention it, I won’t take a picture When you send me the money via PayPal, make sure you check the box that says: "Send/Receive Money for Goods and Services" And send the money in “US dollars” (USD). I will ship from California on Wednesdays and Saturdays, excluding US holidays (Christmas, New Year’s Day, etc.), when the post office here is closed. If you PayPal me the money before noon California time (that would be 8pm UTC, we are 8 hours behind UTC) on Wednesday or Saturday, I'll ship the same day. Well, how much does all this cost? Here are the total prices in US dollars (USD) for sending 2 x A8PicoCart PCBs to you in a nice envelope, with all postage and handling included; If you live in… USA - $11 (estimated ship time: 2-8 days) Canada - $12 (estimated ship time: 1-2 weeks) Mexico - $14 (estimated ship time: 2-3 weeks) South America - $15 (estimated ship time: 2-4 weeks) Europe (EU Zone)/UK/Australia/New Zealand/Asia - $16 (estimated ship time: 2-4 weeks, depending on where you live and how close you are to a big city) If your country is not listed here, PM me and ask, so I can go find out and let you know. Most likely, it will end up being the $16 total price. For the curious, shipping weight is 2oz (55g I think), and the envelope size is 6.5" x 4.5" x 3/16" (16.5cm x 11.5cm x 4cm) Donations to electrotrains $2.00USD from every A8PicoGram will be donated to “electrotrains”, $1.00USD per board. I will add your AtariAge username to the donation, if you want, so he knows who it is from. I will also make “anonymous” donations if you want, it’s up to you. If you want to donate more $$$ to “electrotrains”, just let me know beforehand, so I know what to do with the extra money you will be sending. Those prices are kind of crazy! Yeah, so let’s break the costs down… The two PCBs, envelopes, tape and labels are about $6 total. $2 for donations for two PCBs, so that’s roughly $8USD just to get it ready to ship. The rest of the money is for postage and PayPal merchant fees, the cost of which depends on destination. I’m getting more or less about $1 per board (usually less), depending on which country I’m sending this to. It’s still too much Feel free to download and order your own PCBs, the Gerbers are up in the “OG” electrotrains A8PicoCart repo: https://github.com/robinhedwards/A8PicoCart You’ll see it gets expensive quickly for small amounts of boards. More about the A8PicoGram Service Everybody who orders an A8PicoGram will be shipped two (2) PCBs… even if you only want one. It’s FAR cheaper to ship two, and it allows for things like solder mistakes, spilled drinks, making new Atari friends, and so on and so forth. There is a limit of two (2) PCBs per order, so that everyone who wants a pair of PCBs has a chance to get them. If this “service” becomes really popular and I order more PCBs, I may go back and revisit this limit at a later date. Known A8PicoCart Variants The “electrotrains” variant of the A8PicoCart (https://github.com/robinhedwards/A8PicoCart) has the PCBs designed so that the USB-C connector on the Purple Pico clone is facing “down” when inserted, i.e. the USB-C port on the Purple Pico is facing the cartridge slot in your Atari. This is so you can’t plug in USB-C power with your Atari turned off and accidentally “back-power” your Atari, thereby letting out “magick smoke” and causing great sadness to be had. These are the simplest A8PicoCart boards to buy parts for and solder, you only need to find a Purple Pico Clone, some pin headers (usually included with the Purple Pico), and possibly the optional pushbutton switch. There’s also an optional 3D printed cartridge shell for the “electrotrains” OG PCB, see the GitHub repo above. There are older designs by “electrotrains” that have the USB-C port pointing to the side of the cart. These versions are not being offered by me at this time. There is now (as of December 2023) also the “mozzwald” variant of this PCB, which I am NOT currently offering, this version is still being developed (somewhat) and tested. If you want some of the “mozzwald” variant A8PicoCart PCBs, you will have to either order them yourself from a PCB fab house, or have patience and wait for someone to order a batch and sell them. I may sell the “mozzwald” variants of the A8PicoCart at a later date, but no promises. Also, the “mozzwald” variant will need more parts and more soldering, but it will be more flexible as far as hardware and software development on your Atari. The “mozzwald” variant PCBs and 3D printed cartridge shells can be found here: https://github.com/mozzwald/A8PicoCart Ordering the rest of the required parts I’m not currently selling anything but A8PicoCart PCBs, everything else you will need to source yourself. For Purple Pico clone boards, I’ve had good luck with this vendor on AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804090698520.html I’ve received Purple Picos from this vendor with the "faster" Winbond SPI flash chip, however, both of the known SPI flash chips that have been seen so far “in the wild” are supported in the current A8PicoCart firmware. Last time I ordered Purple Pico clones from AliExpress in August, it took about 2 weeks to take delivery from China to me here in California. If you want to save some wear on your Atari’s power switch, you can add the optional pushbutton switch to the A8PicoCart. You will need a “6x6mm thru-hole tactile momentary switch”. If you are going to 3D print a cartridge shell, then 9mm+ pushbutton height is suitable. But I don’t know how to solder… If you don’t know how to solder at all, you can buy cheap kits on FleaBay/Amazon/AliExpress that are sold for the purpose of helping you teach yourself how to solder. They are probably somewhat more “expendable” than your soon-to-be shiny new A8PicoCart. Search for “soldering practice kit” or “soldering practice board” if you are interested in this. A “cheap” soldering iron would also work for this project, but again, I would use it on the practice board first before trying it out on the A8PicoCart, so you can get a feel for how your new soldering iron works. The “electrotrains” version of the A8PicoCart is (in my opinion) an “okay” first soldering project, in that if you make a mistake soldering, you probably won’t be able to figure it out as easily as you could with a dedicated soldering practice kit. Don’t be afraid to try it however, and if you run into problems, post pictures of your soldering job on the A8PicoCart thread here on AA, and you’ll get help. Here’s a list of other suggested places where you could get help with soldering… Ask around at local computer clubs or user groups; I think all of the VCF’s usually run a soldering table. Ask around at local electronics clubs or at electronics supply stores Look for local computer/electronics groups on Meetup Ask around at community colleges or trade schools Ask on your local Craigslist, maybe in the “gigs” section Find a local makerfair and ask/look around for the soldering area, there will usually be one there There’s also probably a billion videos on all of the popular video services… this may be a case of “too much is not such a good thing after all”. I definitely trust anything Dave at EEVBlog posts, so you can start there (https://www.eevblog.com/) How can I trust you with my $$$? No tracking numbers, remember? Know that I’m not putting this all together to “make money”. However, I want to do it, because 1) I think it’s a great project that I want to support however I can, and 2) I feel it will help me connect to others in this community who feel the same way. If you have any questions about A8PicoGrams Ask them below, I'll do my best to answer. Ordering info again, just in case… Send me a PM here on AA (https://forums.atariage.com/profile/30908-spicyjack/). When you send me the PM to order, let me know the following info: Whether you want 2 black PCBs, 2 white PCBs, or the fashionable 1 white/1 black pairing of PCBs Your name, and the address where I should ship the A8PicoGram to Your PayPal email, so I can connect AA people to emails in PayPal; you could also include your AA username in the “Notes” box in PayPal, that would help a lot If you are including extra money as a donation to “electrotrains”, and/or you want me to make your donation "anonymous", let me know that as well If you want me to send you a picture of your envelope being dropped into the mailbox, for “tracking” purposes; if you don’t mention it, I won’t take a picture

If you haven't seen any of the videos from @flashjazzcat yet, he did a few videos on restoring an Atari 400. I asked him the same question about how to clean the gunk off, and he replied: Here's the full restore video:

That's because the Atari doesn't come with an "ABCDEF" keyboard. The first mechanical typewriters had an "ABCDEF" layout, but it didn't last long. The scan codes are generated based on how the keyboard electrical matrix is laid out by the PCB designers, while the order of letters in the English alphabet predate computers by a few years. Quite a few years.

I'll call this one the "Orange Creamsicle A8PicoCart". The white was the test filament that came with the printer, so not the greatest stuff out there. I got too happy with the superglue 😐 This 3D print shows the updated rear shell, so that the updated PCBs, with the USB port of the Purple Pico board pointing "down" towards the cartridge connector, can be plugged in to USB only when you remove the cart. My PCBs should be here in 2 weeks or so. Usually, to print in multiple colors, you tell your slicer program to insert codes into the 3D printer file (*.gcode) which tells the printer to pause printing and move the printhead away from the print bed, so you can swap filament. The default "logo" file that comes in the repo doesn't have the pause codes, because they can be different for different makes/models of 3D printers, you have to add them for your printer when you slice up the model to be printed. I've attached the logo file that I created for my Creality Ender 3D printer; if your printer is an Ender 3D or compatible with it, then the attached CE3E3V2_a8pico_logo.gcode file (below) should work for you too. You'll know when it's time to swap filament, the printer gets very loud and beepy, probably about 10 minutes after starting to print. CE3E3V2_a8pico_logo.gcode

The case as designed has the front shell and the logo printed as separate pieces, so it looks like this printing service combined the two into a single 3D print. The case front has a rectangular void missing from it, which is the same size as the logo piece; you glue the logo piece into the void on the front shell once the logo piece is printed. I'm just about to print the case front and logo, I will post pictures when it's done.

Sorry, I forgot one bit of info when flashing UF2 files onto a Pico. If you've already flashed a UF2 file to your Pico(s), and you want to flash a different one, unplug the Pico from power, press and hold down the BOOTSEL button, then plug the Pico back in to power. Holding down BOOTSEL and applying power will cause the Pico to start up in "USB Mass Storage Mode", which allows you to drop a new UF2 file on to the device in order to program it.

Hi everybody, If you have your Purple Pico clones in hand, a quick way to test your boards prior to soldering is to run a "blink" demo. The Purple Pico clones have a green LED hooked up to GPIO pin 25 of the RP2040 microprocessor, which is the same GPIO pin as the "official" Raspberry Pi Pico boards (but NOT the Pico W boards). Any Pico "blinky" demo out there that blinks GPIO pin 25 will also work with these Purple Pico clones. The blink.uf2 demo is available in the Raspberry Pi Foundation's pico-examples Git repo, however, there is also a direct download link for the file here: https://rptl.io/pico-blink If the blinking becomes too obnoxious, you can use the flash_nuke.uf2 UF2 file (also from The Raspberry Pi foundation) to wipe the board and bring it back to the "factory defaults". The download for flash_nuke.uf2 is linked at the bottom of the Raspberry Pi Pico documentation page, it's the UF2 file in the "Resetting Flash memory" section. To flash a UF2 file to a brand-new Pico: Plug your Pico into a computer using a "power+data" USB-C cable A new drive called "RPI-RP2" should appear; if the drive DOES NOT APPEAR, then you are probably using a "power-only" USB-C cable, try another one Drag and drop the UF2 file onto the "RPI-RP2" drive when it appears When the UF2 file copy is finished, the Pico will automatically unmount itself from the computer, causing your computer to complain that the storage device was not ejected correctly I've also attached the blink.uf2 and flash_nuke.uf2 files to this post, if you don't want to download them from the RPI website and/or GitHub. Thanks! flash_nuke.uf2 blink.uf2

Hello everybody, I have finished adding page-level bookmarks for the entire "Operating System User's Manual" in the Atari 400/800 Technical Reference Notes. The updated filename the first post in this thread is now: Atari_400-800_Technical_Reference_Notes.2023-08-31.pdf Now I will start to work on the Operating System Source Listing, I plan on going back and redoing some of the existing bookmarks I added previously, and then try to add more bookmarks in general to that document. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

The "firmware" for the Neo6502, aka "the code for the Raspberry Pi RP2040 chip which will drive video/audio for this system", is still "in progress". That being said, they do have Apple II (not II+ or IIe) emulation running now. When it is done, the system will basically be a 65C02 + RP2040 version of the Agon Light, which is Z80 with an ESP32 as the video/audio driver. There's also the Olimex ESP32 FabGL SBC board (https://www.olimex.com/Products/Retro-Computers/ESP32-SBC-FabGL/open-source-hardware), which is just the ESP32 without the hardware Z80/65C02. You could write an emulated version of whatever CPU you want to learn on in software and then flash it to the ESP32. Or just write something in C and then flash that to the board. The ESP32 FabGL SBC is the cheapest board that I know if that will let you connect to a modern display device, it has VGA output which can then be converted to HDMI using an adapter. All of the current Olimex "retro computers" are here: https://www.olimex.com/Products/Retro-Computers/

You've hopefully seen this... This... And this? The tl;dr version is that there are Altirra XEP-80 drivers on the Additions.atr disk image that work in SDX, and the Altirra Help browser describes which driver is which.

For what it's worth, I tried this with the software that I'm using (Nitro PDF for macOS, used to be called PDFPenPro). The "Optimize PDF" dialog in Nitro PDF just downsamples to 150dpi for anything over a preset size (currently 200dpi). I manually downsampled using ImageMagick from 1200dpi to 600dpi and then ran it through the "Optimize PDF" cycle in Nitro PDF as a demo, and it managed to save another 200KB over the 150dpi version that I created by manually downsampling to 150dpi using ImageMagick and then importing. The front and back covers are in colour by the way, and the rest is greyscale, so there's more room there to shrink the PDF size. I'd still love to see and/or hear how others in the PDF-generation community are doing it, the way I look at it, for something like scanning documents, there's always more to learn.

Hello everybody, I have an update on this; I got a bit of free time today and scanned in the manual. The manual has a section on hooking up the drive and setting drive number switches, then another section on how to use a disk from BASIC. That's it. It looks like there was an "SK-DOS" or "DOS-SK" (it's listed both ways in the manual) released with the drive, but the drive didn't come with any disks at all. A quick search on various search engines didn't cough up any disk images, so I have no more info about the DOS. I scanned the manual at 1200dpi, then downsampled to both 150dpi and 100dpi and then OCR'ed, so you can choose which copy to download based on your Internet speed/desire/whatever, the contents of both PDFs are otherwise the same. The font is small, so there are OCR errors; the sample code came out good, because it used a bigger font. Please let me know if you have any questions. Next up, a teardown of the drive. Not sure when will happen though... skydata_sk-551_disk_drive.2023-07-04.100dpi.pdf skydata_sk-551_disk_drive.2023-07-04.150dpi.pdf

It looks like this was PEBCAK, I'm looking at a diff of the hexdumps of both files, and it looks like I dumped the SIDE3 ROM instead of the IDE+2 ROM using "Save Firmware" in Altirra.