bbking67

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

Well you could take a list opf Apple II and C64 titles from companies that formerly supported the Atari and start with that. It's quite a long list. Most companies making disk-based software were dealing with fairly low volume sales on the Atari. Considering that a large number of systems were sold as glorified game machines and only had 16K of memory, it's easy to understand why they dropped Atari. Porting software probably didn't even cost that much... but the sales have to justify it. For me there are a few titles that we sorely missed on Atari: Ultima V Bard's Tale Sundog There are several other RPG/Adventure games that Atari was passed over for...

its actually a company called Fuel Industries based in Ottawa On\tario. Microsoft has bought the rights for the film.

I have tried a whole whackload of cheaper upscalers. Very poor results with older systems... I have a DVDO iScan Plus and an iSCan HD. The iScan HD/HD+ is way better than the iScan plus. The newer iScan models like the VP30 and VP50 are apparently even better (with better output options). Playing with TV Zoom settings will not fix much... Some TV's will output Atari as a "squished" image, so I guess zoom helps a little bit there. It won't fix back upconversion, and 99% of TV's will handle the Atari poorly. What is acceptable to some people might be terrible to another. The other factor with new TV's is the image processor, which can introduce artifacts and latency. Many TV's will let you turn off this processing, and I strongly recommend doing so for any video game usage.

I believe that SpartaDOS 1.1 will work on the 800 (assuming you are looking for a disk based option). I've never used SpartaDOS 2 (does it exist?)... I'll have to check my disks. I wouldn't bother with the various OSS operating systems... Of course SpartaDOS X on cartridge is the best for this if you have it, or flashing onto whatever device you have access to.

the view modes won't fix all the issues with an Atari... the analog to digital conversion for many TV's just butchers the Atari. I have heard that some older LG TV's are pretty great, but the newer TV's seem to have regressed. In addition, the new models (almost across the board) lack S-video, which is the best option for a stock 130XE or Atari 800 (1200XL and 800XL models need to be modded to properly support S-Video and the 400/600XL do not support it). If you use a professional video upscaler, you get line by line interpretation and fine grain control over the image. The best available seems to be the XRGB, but it runs $400-$600. Some folks also insist on recreating scanlines (as most of these solutions eliminate them), but I don't bother with that. If you find a TV that works and you are happy with that, that's fine--it's really hit an miss. But in order to use a computer monitor or get the best possible display you need an upscaler like the XRGB or the iScan.

A bundle of video game books is available... similar to Humble Bundle $12 minimum gets a bunch of ebooks including the Atari book. You can pay less (but you lose 3 bonus books). If you haven't already bought it, now is a great time to get it. There's also a Sega book that looks interesting. Kindle compatible. http://storybundle.com/

DVDO iScan HD and related products. easy to snag for low prices if you ware patient.

Or just fix the 5200 version... no need to convert the 8-bit one back.

Hey the ST was not a warmed over version of CP/M! I take offense with that comment... It WAS a warmed over version of MS-DOS. :-)

There are graphic versions of the scott adams adventures? on a8?

Dysan are generally very good... there are good BASF and there are bad BASF. I worked in a store that sold the bad BASF for a while and they don't last too long. These has brown/beige labelling and were sold in the 1982-1983 timeframe--probably a particular manufacturing location too.

One minor mistake on my part... the monitor is actually 5:4 apparently. The aspect looks okay to me with Atari... these regularly go for about $30-$60 on ebay (used).

I use an older Dell UltraSharp 19" (model 1908). It's a few years old and easy to find at used computer resellers or even thrift shops if you get lucky. Here's what I like about it: - it's 4:3 aspect ratio - has good image quality - supports DVI and VGA - tiltable to portrait mode (great for MAME!) - Height adjustable stand - has a built in USB hub (good for charging things or used as a hub) - real buttons - OEM Soundbar optional - Silver/black colour scheme closely resembles Atari XL styling http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/dell-ultrasharp-1908fp-19/4507-3174_7-32415166.html

There are also a lot of cheap vga monitors out there...

Most motherboards still have an RS232 header... you just need to add a little ribbon/backplate connector. For laptops and crummier systems that don't have a hardware RS232 components, you can get a $10 USB-to-serial adapter. These work fine in most situations. RS232 isn't quite as dead as you make it out to be.

Can you post the link for the reproduction ramrod and ramboxl upgrades?

I don't think this is accurate. Bill Wilkinson was involved with OSS, and was part of the team that developed OS/A+ and later DOS XL, an early command-line operating system for the Atari. DOS XE was an Atari product, and I don't think OSS or Bill Wilkinson was involved.

Bacterion is great... It's a knock-off of the arcade game Rip-Off.

I'm a little surpised to see so much MyDOS love. SpartaDOS just seemed to dominate as far as third party DOS's... I always saw MyDOS as an enhanced AtariDOS, not much different that SmartDOS and others.

Funny, I used to work for a retailer in the 80's who sold a lot of products that were branded JIL with a very similar logo to the Atari Fuji symbol... they were called Jutan International Limited and they sold electronics under the brands Candle and Citizen among others. You can google up the logo... total knock off. Retailer Consumers Distributing (in Canada at least) sold JIL products and Atari products.

Luckily ICD came out with the P:R: Connection and the Multi I/O to fill that gap. Personally I never saw a single 850 from '83 on. I'm sure they could be purchased, but they certainly were not stocked in my neck of the woods. /bbking67

I'm not sure I follow? The instructions say to add a resistor... I guess there might be one there already???

Oops I reversed that... add the resistor remove the caps i meant. What is the purpose of adding the 4K7 resistor between data and gnd?

One of the web sites for the SIO2Sd has some instructions to remove a resitor and add two capacitors to improve SIO speed and reliability. Is this a reliable mod? Seems easy to do and claims to increase speeds tremendously (I'm assuming using the right drivers). http://sio2sd.gucio.pl/wiki/HighSpeed_en "In most cases SIO2SD can work with speed up to 127kb/s (hsindex = 0) without major hardware modifications. The only important thing is to add 4k7 ohm resistor (if you do not have one already) between SIO DATAOUT and +5V (pin 1 and 5 of SIO connector). It should be enough, but more advanced users should remove also at least two capacitors from Atari. Capacitors to be removed connect DATAOUT and DATAIN with ground. Those are small, 100nF capacitors (looks like resistors). In 800XL, 65XE and 130XE computers they have numbers C77 and C78. To show the difference please look below at oscillograms - with and without those capacitors."