BBCS

[BBCS]

BBS Express Pro was solid... there isn't much doubt that it was the cream of the crop. Still, some pretty decent BBS's used Forem XL and heavily modified versions of AMIS.

 

There must be enough legit registered versions of BBS Express Pro out there to get one at a reasonable price. My disks simply have a number stamoped on the original disks... I'm sure that Keith's original customer database is long gone.

[New TV show - Halt and Catch Fire]

 

 

 

I noticed what looks like one of the XL models in one of the scenes as well, as shown here:

 

HnCF_XL.jpg

 

But it looks like it's hooked up to an 80 column monochrome monitor, which wouldn't be right. As to the machine she uses to play the game... ...I don't think they're supposed to be using IBM PCs at Cardiff. You might recall that in the first or second episode, Gordon Clark buys an IBM PC so they can figure out which chip is the BIOS, and pull it out to reverse engineer it. In the scenes that show the software developer machines, it looks like they're either Zenith Z-100 computers or terminals...

 

 

 

I used a monochrome green screen (then later an amber one) for years with my Atari. Initially I had an RCA XL100 Tv which I used with the RF output (which was really terrible from my 800XL by the way), and the green screen off of the monitor jack. For word processing or BBS'ing you get used to the sharpness of the mono screen real fast. Last on I used a 130XE with a Commodore monitor, relegating the ambre monochrome screen to working with my XEP80. My green screen stayed with the 800XL to run the BBS. Other than for gaming, the mono screen is really the way to go... one thing I liked with the particular amber screen I had was that it had a speaker and a volume knob.

[What's the latest Atari related thing(s) you've bought on ebay?]

Not eBay, but I bought my first 8-bit Atari locally on Kijiji- $40 for a 65XE with 1050 drive, all seems to work perfectly. I know that the earlier models tend to get more love, but part of the appeal for me is that it looks like a mini ST.

 

The only 8-bit Atari I've ever seen before was my 2nd cousin's 400, the 8 bit Atari micros weren't to popular in my area of the UK- it was all BBCs, Spectrums, C64s, and Amstrads.

65XE is a fine machine... some even have the ECI (parallel bus). Good video output compared to a stock 800XL or 1200XL (which suck unless they are modded).

[Ataritools 800 , Is it for real ?]

Just don't insult him on atariage or you may never see it, or pete the assistant manager. sorry... couldnt resist.

["Apple-like" games on the Atari 800 etc.]

Castle Wolfenstein and Beyopnd Castle Wolfenstein were as Apple II as it gets, speech synthesis and all. Awesome games in spite of the crude graphics...

[Top 5 Atari 8-bit games]

Mule

Lords of conquest

Rescue on fractalus

Ultima iv

Alternate reality

[Question about happy drives.]

You could use chipmunk to crack the games... The last versions had a pretty comprehensive set of cracks.

[Seeking Ottawa NCAUG Bytown Bytes Newsletters and Disks]

I was part of a local user group in the 80's called NCAUG (National Capital Atari User's Group), in Ottawa Canada, which was active until about 1995. My affiliation ended around 1990... NCAUG had a pretty good newsletter called Bytown Bytes and also produced a disk of the month. They also did a newsletter exchange with a Washington DC user group that produced Current Notes at some point (Current Notes was awesome).

 

Does anyone have these newsletters and/or disks archived?

 

Any other former NCAUG'ers?

[Counterfeit Carts - Atari 8 Bit]

Those parker Brothers games were sold by Consumers Distributing in Canada (catalog retailer) and they had a lot of them... most didn't sell and were eventually heavily discounted. It could be a fake, but it's not obvious like the other bullcrap (take the B&C repros for example).

[What's the latest Atari related thing(s) you've bought on ebay?]

Thank you. Didn't find the service for Austria yet, but probabyl just needs more googling.

 

To cease OT, here's my last catch. (I know, some rather worthless but the package price wasn't too bad, methinks.)

The SpartaDOS book muist be worth something. probably the best book there.

[one of my bigger atari treasures (look!)]

what do you mean by the tag? the label on the bottom with the serial number?

[Best 8-bit Atari disk drive? 810, 1050, XF551]

I've owned three different drive models over the years: Percom, 1050 and Indus GT (the Indus was my first drive). While i loved the Indus, i think the overall best drive has to be the 1050. Ultimately the 1050 has the most upgrade options, is relatively easy to repair and parts drives are plentiful.

 

But really the 1050 is only a contender if upgraded via US Doubler, happy or comparable upgrades.

[Comprehensive list of Atari 8-bit Arcade Conversions?]

Maybe the list should be in two parts: officially licensed conversions and another list containing clones and knock-offs. i think the list of knock-offs might get a tad long.

 

Bacterion from Analog is a fabulous clone of Rip-Off.

[Could Atari 8-Bit Core be Implemented in Mist FPGA?]

DynsDNS stopped issuing free accounts, so now its pay up or change to a different dns service.

[What kind of cable is this?]

Could it be the st x former cable? It's different than the pc vrsion...y

[Best solution for 80 column display?]

I have an XEP80 and used it as a second screen back in the day. I found it quite usable for terminal program use (at the time I believe the fastest modem I owned was 2400bps or possibly 9600bps) and some word processing. Although it seems like a bad design (I always though it strange to use the joystick port), it worked, at least for certain things. I had a copy of AtariWriter that worked with it as well.

 

One thing is certain: the text it very sharp and looks great on a monochrome composite display... It's too bad it wasn't faster.

 

The missed opportunity for Atari was to design a parallel bus version of the 80 column interface, or simply build it into the system. The 8-bit Atari could have been a very cost effective dedicated word processor or terminal type system. I believe that these capabilities were more enticing on the Apple II than the CPM/z80... 80 column is really a must for word processing. AtariWriter was serviceable, and 80 column versions of teh Synapse apps would have been rather awesome.

[Atari 8-bit Hardware Prices?]

Almost worthless... I'll give you $200 for the lot

[Any way to hook a stock 800XL up to an LCD monitor?]

Yes I have a Dell 2408 and the extra inputs are crapola. xrgb is the way to go. I really like the iScan HD... very good, and often come up cheap on ebay, I paid less than $50! I'm not sure how good a TV tuner would work... probably terribly, but then i am pickier than some. It's all a matter of expectations. I use a Commodore 1702 and 1902 and I like the image quality, so I expect an LCD to come close. 99% of the time they don't.

[Any way to hook a stock 800XL up to an LCD monitor?]

The difficulty with this is that many TV's misinterpret the Atari signal and you get a squished image or an image that is panned partially off-screen. Some TV's will work... certain older LF Flatron's seem to be most desirable.

 

Most of the TV's are 16:9 and the images are usually best in 4:3.

 

The next problem is that most new TV's have no S-video input, and a custom S-video cable is definitely the best way to output Atari signals. Easy to solder together a cable... if you have an XL, you'll need to do one of the S-video mods for the Atari as well. The 800XL composite out is pretty sad, so doing a video mod is highly recommended if you want decent video (composite or S-Video).

 

Personally I recommend using a computer monitor with a compatible upscaler.

 

For 8-bit Atari, there are video upscalers which can do the job.. but quality is variable. Of the units that work, some output very mediocre video and others to a good job. It all depends on expectations... the best device seems to be the XRGB2, which sells for a ton of $$$. I bought a used DVDO iScan and it works very well. i have a few other upscalers, but some don't work well with Atari and others are sub-par (pixel crawling and blurry images).

 

As for the ST, outputting the colour is more challenging. There are some bare boards (http://www.jammaboards.com/store/cga-ega-yuv-to-vga-arcade-hd-converter-pcb-gbs-8220-gbs-8220.html) that can be used to convert to VGA colour. This seems to be about the best option. The mono output can fairly easily be converted if that's all you need (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/170385-st-to-vga-monochrome-only-adapter/). You can probably find schematics for the mono-to-vga st adapter.

 

Good luck!

[Special Intellivision Announcement Scheduled for May 4 at 12PM Pacific]

Lego star wars for Intellivision! Yessss!

[Help: "High Rise" (1986)(Compute!"]

There are lots of good magazine games... sometimes graphically simple, but frequently even commercial quality. My personal favourite is a Rip-Off clone called Bacterion that I think was in Analog. But these may not have all been type-ins either...

 

The type in games mostly haven't aged well... at the time they were fun. I remember typing in some games before I got a cassette recorder and didn't want to turn off my computer!

[E.T. found]

its a big landfill site... there's lots more

[A dump of Rev B Atari BASIC]

There's a 1988 atariwriter rom? maybe you can get a disk copy of atariwriter plus or atariwriter 80... no cartridge that I am aware of.

[Diamond GOS on 8-bit disk?]

Thanks for making Diamond GOS, I enjoyed playing with it in the day and I still have it! I sure wish I had kept an ST mouse!

[SpartaDos Tools : Best List]

I am also interested in this... I stopped using SpartaDOS around 1988 or so and there must be tone of great utilities out there. It would be interested in the following, with the emphasis on performance:

 

Text Editor

Archiving tools (disk and file compression)

80 column handler (I`ve seen references to these but never used them, is there one that is the best)

menuing programs

file manager