Marius

In a few days I will reboot my Atari Inside BBS. It will be available on a new internet address, running on Real Atari 800XL (64KB) BlackBOX 80GB IDE Harddisk (conneted via IDE -> SCSI adapter) Lantronix MSS100 Ethernet -> RS232 bridge The board will give you: real atari 8bit feel online games message base (like a forum) Probably I will support some download, but that's just for the show. I think no-one needs a bbs with download... If I'm wrong, let me know. In the past I have had several problems with bad harddisks, and failing mux connections. Now I have bought a brand new harddisk, and I don't use the mux anymore. The BBS runs on very Stable 64KB 800XL computer. So I think this could run rock solid. Let's hope I'm right Stay tuned for more info. Thanks Sysop * Marius from BBS The Atari Inside (the Netherlands)

I was looking for this issue, and I found this topic. The only thing I need is an easy way of downloading the TIME and DATE like it works in APE. I don't want to run a system (taking a lot of electricity), so i hoped it would be possible with an atari ST or PC. Using a RT-8 would be a solution too, but I have used two of these from sunmark and I don't know WHAT was going wrong on my Atari but those things went nuts all the time (using atari with blackbox) I sold these carts, and found a great solution in running the apetime.com tool on my BBS system, so every hour the system time is updated. But now I'm running APE on electricity-eater (PC) and I think: this could be much more easy. Who has a solution? THanks Marius

I have exact the same problem with OS X (mac) Perhaps this is not a bug in vista, but in die libSDL library which is used when the emulator was compiled, or the part of the library is used when you run the emulator on Vista. Marius

Since it is based on the RVERTER, I suppose it does not allow concurrent I/O? This means: I can not save to Disk while connected on a BBS? Etc. Or can it? thanks Marius

I feel a little stupid always when news comes up about this emulator. Can someone standard compile a Windows binary when a new source is available, or can someone explain step by step (for dummies like me) what i need to compile it myself, and what i have to do? I really like to test the new emulator, but with the source i can't do a think now Thanks, Marius

Ah thanks, This will help me! But how to save ? I guess same way, but where exactly are the music files stored in memory? Thanks! Marius

Is there somebody here who can tell me how to load a complete song into the delta composer. I found out Shift + L = Load Instrument(s) Control + L = Load pattern But how can i load (and save!) complete songs? I tried (as far as i know) every keycombination; including SHIFT + CONTROL + key Thanks M

Hi! Where can I find a good paint program for atari 8bit. I would like to have a file-version... but if that is not available an atr will do too. I have the atari-artist cartridge. I would like to have such a program or better... Any suggestions (with links or attachments ) would be great and appreciated much!! Marius

If you have an atari 8bit and APE you can call my bbs in atascii on you real atari 8bit. If you have an atari 8bit, but you do not want to use a pc: get an atari 850 or other R: interface and buy yourself a lantronix RS232 -> LAN modem. There you go. My BBS is not available anymore on phoneline, but it is on the internet. Running on real atari 8bit equipment without a pc. Marius

Cool. I have a 600xl 16kb here (i bought it a few days ago from Mr. Atari (the designer of the MyIDE) ... I think it is a great Idea to write something for this tiny machine. But what is the last day I can send it in? I'm dealing with some time-problems (there are only 24h in one day I noticed ) So please let me know! This will be the revenge of the 600xl ha ha ha Marius p.s. let's build-in a naughty joke: 16kb ONLY! hahaha

The Atari 600xl with 16kb only does not support booting a DOS.... Does it support a bootable 16k game disk (or .ATR)? Marius

This is not the answer on the question. He asks: is the os replacable? The answer is: yes! But only when you upgrade the 600xl with more memory. A 16k -> 64k upgrade is very easy. I have the MyIDE OS in this 64kb 600xl and it works perfect. In this rom I have the Standard XL/XE os too (switchable) and it works fine. Marius

Setup is: Atari 65xe (pal version, with ECI port and cartridge port) BlackBox SCSI Harddisk 545 mb Lantronix UDS-10 RS232 -> lan adapter. Software: BBS Express Professional 7.0a Spartados 3.2c The BBS runs completely standalone. No emulators, No PC needed. Marius

WOOOOOOOOO! THANK YOU! What a nice contribution is this FreeCell XE! I used to play this game on pc and always wanted it on atari 8bit. thanks again! Marius p.s. I did not know the hexxagon game. I'll try to figure out how it works, looks nice too.

Hello! As you probably know I'm running (and with me other people) one of those great PRO bbs'ses on real atari equipment. I was wondering: * how do you think the bbs can be more attractive? * what would you really want to see on the bbs? First thing I find very important to say to the people running AtariAge: you are doing a fantastic job!!! I like the idea of atariage very much, and I think it is a great place of exchange knowledge, and meet other enthusiastic people. But... I would really love to see some people writing a message on my board. The way it is now: people (really interested) log in... give it a look... log in another time, and that's it... I'll never see them back. Without any messages posted (it still is a BULLETIN board system) the BBS is not interesting at all. Now it is only some kind of museum-piece people can look at. Nice ofcourse, but I think the atari 8bit can do much more. I think it would be very nice of real atari lovers, meet eachother on real atari equipment. There is only one little problem: when you are a guest, or you are a new user without a validated user account, you can not post messages in the public-messagebases. So IF you would like to write on REAL atari equipment. Please make 'a call' via telnet. And I hope someone will start some kind of discussion on it. When you use the right telnet-client (hyperterminal or ATS) you could download files! I would love to see the bbs doing more things as only watched like some kind of history- photograph . Thanks Marius

Hi! I will check your game in a few hours :-) Those other games you were writing about... where can i find them? Thanks Marius

That is indeed a good way to do it, but please give the 'cold-boot'-ResetButton a thought too. Once you have this, you'll love it! And it definately saves your equipment. Marius

The best thing you could do is: Add a 'cold-boot' reset key to your atari 8bit computer. I hear you think: how to do this. At this moment I can not say exactly, but it is very easy to make such a thing by yourself, perhaps another member of this list could explain it. Another thing you could do (this is perhaps more work...) install another OS in your atari... I have changed the atari OS by myself, and with my own OS the atari does a cold-boot when I press shift + reset. This is much BETTER for the health of the atari. My atari is almost never turned off. When I need a coldboot, I simply press start + reset. The fun is: I use a ramdisk very much. When I'm programming my source, assembler, and compiled .obj files are in the ramdisk. When my program causes a 100% computer hangup, I normally had to switch off the computer... and then my ramdisk is cleared ofcourse! Now with this fantastic shift+reset button, my ramdisk is still ok when I reboot the computer. Last option: I really can not guarantee this is a safe way, but this was what I did before, when I had such troubles you wrote about. I turned on the computer. The screen = black as you told me (or the computer is not functionating well, hanging etc.) I insterted a cartridge in the computer (the computer is turned on now). Press reset. Release the cart, press reset again. The computer should reboot now. I really think this is a bad way... and I still think it could damage your computer (some people told me this is not bad... but ok). But it should work. Marius

Thanks! When I have fixed up the place here (hehehe what a mess) I am going to take some nice pictures, and put them online. You'll love the configuration. Marius

Hi Guys (and girls?) I am working very hard on my BBS. This BBS is running on a real atari 8bit computer: a 65xe with 320kb of memory. I have connected a Lantronix UDS-10 to this atari, and now it is able to communicate with my lan. Between 1996 and 2001 I ran BBS the Atari Inside on the phoneline. Now it is reachable by telnet. As new user you can do not much. So When you want to connect more than once, take a permanent password, and you have much chance I update your account very soon, and then you can do much things. When you have a telnet that is able to up and download (like hyperterminal) you could find a nice download on the BBS. It is a little outdated, but i will update things soon. When you can't get a connection: this means probably there is someone else on the BBS (only one user at a time) or the BBS is doing some house-keeping events. Well here is the telnet adress: Have fun! sysop*Marius

I have two favorite basic games: first: Nerm of Bemer ... it is a well known game idea: a snake getting longer the more mushrooms it eats. When 5 mushrooms are eaten there are exit-ports on the playfield, and you can escape to the next level. Very cool game in basic. second: this is a game called "Handel" ... it is in Dutch, written by Kees Beekhuis (this dutch guy wrote the Atari version of Into Eagles nest, and Dizzy Dice). The idea of this basic games is something like 'pirates of the barb. sea' .. just buy merchandise, sail away and try to sell it for more money on other places. Marius

At first... In my opinion the absolutely best HD interface for the atari 8bit is the CSS-Black Box. It supports SCSI HD's and is extremely compatible with almost any dos, and supports partition lists, drive swapping, build-in highspeed SIO drivers for upgraded sio drives, build in RS232 port (19k2) and parallel printer port... It is truly the best... and it is expensive. Then there is myIDE. A fantastic piece of hardware! The myide is fantastic because it is SO cheap to make. And with some little adaptions to software, it runs almost any software. If speed doesn't matter to you you could use sio2ide (in my opinion this system sucks; it is full of bugs, you need a PC to init your HD and because of the use of sio it is far too slow for me) Sio2PC/APE is very nice. Especially for backing up. As I said before: the BlackBox is absolute the very BEST peripheral interface you can imagine, but it is expensive. The MyIDE is a very interesting, and superb alternative. Marius

Hi! Is there any text in the green screen or is the only thing you see a whole screen filled with the colour green? Is it dark or light green? Did you hook up a keyboard to the GameSystem? Strange is the GREEN colour. But perhaps this is a difference between PAL and NTSC? When my PAL atari's are stuck mostly I get a DARK RED screen, or a dark-red screen with some yellow bars in it. There are a few possibilities. The weakest parts of the computer are: * Ram chips (2 4464 chips in the left under corner) * OS ROM (C101687) * MMU (C101686) The only easy-to-get parts are the ram chips. But you might need to ask more around, and perhaps you could look at: http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/custom-i.htm Greetz, Marius

Hi Folks, Perhaps you know me... perhaps not. I'm from the Netherlands and member of the brandnew "Inspiration Soft" (other member is also a writer in this list: Thelen) and our coders-group did release a nice new program for myide, and a modified game-dos (spartados compatible) for MyIDE. So If you are interested PM me. I'm working right now on a user-friendly format program for myIDE to format double density 65535 sector sized atrs in SpartaDos format. Beta release for D1: and D2: are already available. But you better wait a few days for the ready-to-use before you format something you don't want :-) The programs available: MySWAP : ever wanted to swap partitions without deleting and setting up them again with MyIDE? Use our MySwap. It's already out of the Beta-period so It works fine. There is file version that runs directly from the dosmenu, and there is an image version. I suggest you write this image version to image 1 of myide: in that case you have ALWAYS acces to your partition swapper. Perfect if you like to boot from a real disk without disconnection your HD, and a few seconds later you decide to boot your MyIDE again :-)) Just use myswap. MyMSDOS: this is a gamedos that can be stored on a spartados formatted partition of myIDE. It runs almost any binary file. The original MicroSpartaDOS did start on MyIDE, but didn't load any file. If you want to use SpartaDos on MyIDE contact me. I know 'everything' about it. Greetz, Marius