bbking67

Go for an 800xl if you plan to mod. A working 130xe doesn't really need any video upgrades and 128k ram is enough--plus you have a Freddy chip in there. Of course the 130xe has soldered components and ram which is annoying. Personally I find the soft keyboard on the 130xe okay... not as clack as most of the 800xl variants. It's not as bad as some people say. On the 130xe sometimes you need to remove capacitors on the sio port to get better speeds... at least that's my experience. But all that to say the the 800xlnis the modding platform.

Personally i have used old router power supplies (lots of older D-Links use 5V). Any decent 5V power supply is going to do the trick... hacking up a PSP supply is as good as any, but I still use PSPs. Definitely avoid cheap cell phone chargers and go for better quality 5V supplies... remember, the current shouldnt matter much as original Atari supplies start at 1A (I think). A nice 2.5A supply is ideal if you have lots of upgrades and SIO devices to power.

Lords of Conquest M.U.L.E. Wizard of Wor Pitfall II Fort Apocalypse

I was an Indus GT user, but after I got a 1050 with a US Doubler clone I found this to be a more useful and compatible drive. Personally I never needed a drive to copy protected software. I know the track buffering mode is also a bonus with more sophisticated solutions, but my vote is the US Doubler--it's a must have. Cost effective and compatible with very little downside (is there a downside?). Generally a simple install as well.

These warehouse purchases were just for the hardware itself. Guaranteed they do not own a single IP of anything. All of the Atari IP was sold off separately as it is much more valuable than the cartridges and hardware. B&C holds no rights to any game.

well there you , sounds legit... i was really referencing the "new" ones listed at B&C... who does sell a few repros that they call legit from time to time (okay, well i mean all the time). It's hard to judge the authenticity from a seller who is sometimes not always on the up and up.

I can't help but think that possibly B&C made those brown carts from boards that they had and either custom made some stickers or had a supply of them. I have my doubts that Atari would put those out there... although I guess it's possible that the Tramiel era Atari would try to sell anything they had inventory of. Given the after-markets tendency to make repros and call them old stock dug out of the Atari warehouse I just wonder.

I think the Xformer cable can do it with Darek Mihocka's emulator. Its toward the bottom of the page... http://www.emulators.com/xformer.htm

This emulator is built in to Twilight Menu, however the version bundled is slightly out of date. I find this emulator to be excellent running most games i have tried. It's definitely a labor of love and the author is providing frequent updates (and seems open to suggestions to boot). I'm hoping he adds cartridge rom support (as of now he supports xex and atr files).

No its not worth it... nothing there is uncommon and you'd be able to get an 800 or 800xl for that price.

Why what’s with the sudden interest in xep80?

My memory must have been that. I must have Micron MT memory chips in my brain.

I thought the Mexico units had a weird batch of Antic chips... I seem to recall some people having the faulty Antics changed out.

Some of the interesting interpretations of games would be interesting I think. There was a 400/800 port of Space Invaders for example, however a version that approximates the 2600 version would also be interesting. Combat is also a classic.

So I had two Indus GT drives (which I no longer own) and my units were stock... the syncro-mesh that mine had (non super synchromesh im assuming) wasnt as fast as the US Doubler... that and not much supported it otrher than DOS XL until SpartaDOS X came out. It was pretty disappointing to me to be honest. Mind you I possibly just didn't have access to the right mods or software to make it work better. Over time I ended up preferring the 1050's with US Doubler (which I still own!). I had no idea that the Indus was capable of such high speed... I'm assuming the 64K upgrade is required for Super Syncro-Mesh? Or is it just an updated ROM? I tried so hard to like DOS XL, but I couldnt get into it... SpartaDOS 3.2 was my DOS of choice, but early on SmartDOS was the one I liked with the Indus (no Syncromesh though).

I'm not trying to start an argument or anything, but I am curious... back in the day I remember my buddy's C64 being excruciatingly slow loading disks. Now the Atari wasn't known for speed either, but the Atari drives always seemed faster than the C64 to me. Does anyone have any numbers for the stock transfer speeds? The other thing I am interested in are the various speed-ups (from back in the day mainly). The C64 had the Epyx Fast Load cartridge and the Atari had various drive mods (ICD U.S. Doubler, Happy, etc.). Was the modded Atari faster than the C64 with Fastload?

So is there a documented JoyB mod to the NES controller? The Adrian's Digital Basement hack just involves running wires to the NES controller's chip. Pretty straightforward... if the JoyB modded games are better I'm inclined to agree, so then the question really is how to mod the NES to that standard. This might be the best approach for me in the end.

I think this is the way to go for me... I should have some 3-button Sega controllers and I think the quality of the Sega controllers is pretty decent. I like the idea of using JoyB games. I'm thinking that I do this PLUS hack together one of my old NES D-pads with a second button for "Up". mostly just because I have many NES gamepads readily available.

Well I have alots of old NES controllers... not so many extra Genesis and SNES controllers. So hacking up some original ones won't bother me much. Now I like the idea of the up arrow, but there also seems to be a way to use the paddle line for a second input as well... are there any Atari games that have been modded to use a second button? I know there are some stock games like platformers that use the button to "shoot" and the up direction for jump.

So there is a thread on this here on AA, but it's not specific to Atari: It would seem that the "Select" button is wired to where the 5v is on C64. Would this be an issue with the 800XL or 130XE? The Atari also seems to have 5v on pin 7...

Personally I have never been able to use standard Atari joysticks... I have a bunch of Wico controllers and they are better made, but equally uncomfortable for longer gaming sessions... back in the day the only controller I could use was the Amiga Powerstick (which I no longer seem to have). Recently, I watched a couple of episodes of Adrian's Digital Basement and he has demonstrated a number of methods for adapting existing D-Pads for use on the C64 (which should be 100% Atari compatible). I'm thinking of pulling apart two NES gamepads and doing the "direct to the chip" method he describes. I'll just sacrifice some old cheapo Atari compatible joysticks or broken cx40's for the cables. One thing that I like with what Adrian did is that he also wired up the "B" button to the "Up" direction for those infuriating games that require move the joystick direction "up" for games. I have heard that Sega Genesis controllers would work, but then I saw something that said they could damage the Atari... is there anything definitive on this? I would consider modifying these, but I have plenty more NES controllers and knock-offs are out there for low $$$ as well. What is the deal here? Is there a better standard on Atari for a second button than what Adrian suggests with the Up? I'm sure this has already been beaten to death, so apologies for being late to the party.

My favorites: HardBall! Wizard of Wor Aquatron Shamus II Jumpman Bacterion (from Antic! Its fantastic)

Yeah as mentioned by bluejay the aftermarket supplies are actually far better anyway as the old ones can fail and take out other stuff. If the Amiga has a battery, carefully inspect for leakage and damage (and remove the battery)... I got an Amiga 500 that had a bunch of damage to the memory expansion from one of those crappy Varta batteries... luckily the Amiga worked fine without the expansion (which needs extensive repair). Post some pics and the model!

It looks okay to me... yeah its lots of wires... but go with it! You should be able to figure out what it is, there were many of these out there, RAMBO XL, Wizztronics, etc. That would help in troubl;eshooting and whatnot in the future.

Lotharek is the best in my opinion and he provided me with some excellent support too. Shipping was surprisingly fast from Poland. I have two SIO2SD devices.