ParanoidLittleMan

Something I did not see mentioned here: maybe diverse packs just included (what means not that all of it was such) already manufactured but not sold game releases ? So, game in original box, disk with original publisher printings, and like. I did not see any of packs mentioned here, so someone who did could say more about such case.

I tried interlace method mono emulator with TV with RGB input then, when was actual. The problem appears when there is vertically black by white pixel. Especially bad when one horizontal line is black and upper and lower ones are white. Then it will flicker, and even looks like it jumps fast up-down if picture is really interlaced (happens on some TVs). It is OK when 2 adjacent hor. lines are same color. But that looks good with 200 lines (normal medium res) too, so really not good for blue prints, schematics and like. Interlaced mode is for normal grey scale or color video.

Year problem is not corrected in TOS 1.62 .

This with year 2K (in)compliance was present even by later computers and SW. I was writing about how in TOS 1.xx they lowered year span from 100 years (what IKBD chip can with 2 BCD digits) to only 20 years - 1980-1999, by unnecessary starting year number by 80 instead 0, for IKBD chip only, then just could add that 1980 to what is read from it, so it would be fine until 2079 . Don't know how it goes exactly with Ricoh chip in Mega ST and other where it is built in or added. Probably good for some decades yet. Then, usual SW is not ready for it, and that stays for my Copyacc program too. In big % of cases there is only 2 digit for year, what starts with 19, so people can type in year faster - 2 instead 4 keyboard presses 🙂 We can fix it in TOS, but that's not enough. All problematic SW need fix too - and that can be not simple. As we see, only 2 variable digits are provided for year, so changes in code are not enough. Changing screen/dialog layout is necessary, and that can be really hard, especially without sources of code. Now, I'm thinking why this save on digits was so spread ? People was too optimistic, watched too much Sci-Fi, and expected that in 2000 we all will travel for weekend to Mars. OK, those with not so good job only to Moon, and will have supersmart, supersmall computers which will think instead us, doing almost everything possible. And most funny is that actually we are now somewhere there - at least in adverts 🙂

No. What have yet: German 1.02 and 1.04 in 2-2 chips. Ge. 1.62 in 2 28 pin ROMs . Actually all it is in ROMs, not EPROMs. Can send only 6 chip variant of UK . In 6x 27C512, where 2 TOS versions fit. Switch is not mandatory (at start). It can be even like 1.04 and 1.02. Recommend to look this page: http://atari.8bitchip.info/TOS/TOSdep.html It can be even regular 1.04 and Line-F less 1.04. 35 Eur. incl. shipping.

Now there are 3 little different 3 floppy image sets of Chaos Strikes Back here: http://atari.8bitchip.info/ASTGA/C/chaossb.php Oldest is RAMdisk based version, min RAM 1 MB. Version what works with 512 KB RAM too, and v. with STE DMA audio - min 1 MB RAM, and of course STE, Mega STE needed. All it is with faster loading than original and opt. cheat.

This is interesting - I mean the whole 'cracking' topic is about something not legal, and on top of it it's known how dirty this activity was considering messages to other crews, crackers. As I see it, it was basically about: "me, the nerd, not popular in skool, in society want to show how capable I'm. Will not only destroy that copy protection, but add some fancy effects, smaller demo to it". And publishers added oil on fire with their new protection systems, messages, which were nothing smarter than messages of those (mostly) kids. In style "don't even try, this is so good ". For me, most funny in whole thing is that crackers self started with protections in all this. Mostly protected own text about who did it, but I even saw case that crack self was not possible to copy without special SW. Maybe not best time period for this book, considering financial effects of this already too long disease .

Here is Chaos Strikes Back, 2 floppy images (game and util) : http://atari.8bitchip.info/ASTGA/C/chaossb.php I have original disks, from 1989. Used them to make deprotected floppies for self, for playing (finished couple times). And I played mostly from RAMdisk version - because this is very slow with game start, like Dungeon Master. Well, I will dig those disks to see are still usable, what means attaching floppy drive to my Mega STE, brrr ... Yeah, in later 28 years, play was rather from hard disk, Flash card, and somehow doing floppy version of some improved version even did not came to mind. And that would be: using less packed GRAPHIC data file - on original it is packed in 2 levels, to make it fit on SS (400 KB) disk, and that's main reason for slow load from floppy. Because this game is very popular and appreciated, some people spent lot of time with, made Windows version based on Atari ST version, and there is SW with which can create less packed GRAPHIC data file, for faster loading. Of course, then it needs DS floppy, but that was not problem around 2000 . Now any floppy can be problem 😞 I have some other floppy versions somewhere - need to dig out them. And is possible to make DMAA floppy version too (only STE and higher, min 1 MB). Hard disk version is already done. Considering cleaning of diverse cracks: sometimes it is much harder than just doing text editing, replacing spoiled images/pictures. Crackers often added protection of their text, and if it is changed game works not. Surely, main purpose was to prevent that someone else credit self as cracker and like. Spoiling graphic with "Cracked by 'me the best' " type text is really too much, and bad thing is that in some cases is almost impossible to find original one. Plus, it is packed in most cases, what makes fixing harder. And even if not spoiled, it is worth to convert it to unpacked, because used ones (like ICE) are very slow in depacking. Storage is really cheap now. Well, there are still many games without images of original available. Someone please dig out flawless image of Son Shu Shi !

http://atari.8bitchip.info/ASTGA/astgam.php

I guess that it was rather cut off, after it was not working, then just abandoned. Unfortunately, this is common problem today too, and not only with mouse cables. I have problems with USB cables, USB extenders a lot. And likely main reason is low quality of cables. Atari mouses lasted more. If nobody has cable/connection order, it still can be fixed. For 4 from 8 (9-th pin not used by Atari) can find function, so on what pin on connector - and you can find Atari mouse pinout in 1 sec. That would be GND, +5V and 2 buttons. Remaining 4 can determine by experimenting - only 4x3x2 combinations, in reality less - when one direction works, then only 2 remains. Ah, and just swap 2 if goes in opposite dir.

Not sure that that similar mouse has same wire colors for same lines. Usually only 1-2 lines are broken, so you can check with ohmmeter what 9 pin connector pin goes to witch internal connector pin, and color of it's wire. Then, it's easy to find which one goes to GND, and that's almost always black. And then will see which lines are broken. It is almost always near to mouse, so can remove plastic haul of wire and look for exact break(s). Pulling them little helps -usually internal insulation is not broken too, only copper wire self. And then can check to which pin of 9 pin connector it leads.

I'm not familiar with those image types. And yes, sometime it is same as ST, what is actually RAW dump. And even "binary file of the disk contents " should be it. Best would be if you can post first 3 files (images) here , and best to put them in ZIP archive - it will make it smaller size and more reliable. Then can see exact differences, and provide you ST conversion. Images of one disk will be enough for start.

To be fair (and not be like some Amiga 'fans', who write all kind of deformed 'opinions' about ST) I would add here some things: Amiga was designed as gaming and video processing computer. So, it had real interlaced video, according to TV standards NTSC and PAL . That self resulted in not so sharp and clean picture. And therefore one of serious works what people could do with Amiga was making diverse videos. DMA sound was welcome in that. And there was genlock function too, what was used widely for adding subtitles to video - like VHS, Beta . And even lot of professional TV commercials was done with Amiga in early years.

Added some new stuff on page - like diverse Swiss German TOS versions. And little details from TOS history from programmer's view.

http://atari.8bitchip.info/pphdr.php There is e-mail address for concrete payment details, order .

If games don't work something is wrong, works unreliable. Should do write reliability test - copy some longer files with Atari, then compare written with original file on PC - I do it with Total Commander. PSU recapping is practically mandatory after all this years. That 1000Games... is demo version. It does not support hot swap, 2 cards. Things are that ST machines are very old, and there will be more and more problems. Hardest to find cause is when it works so-so.

Well, this looks as bad filtering of power , especially if that bad area is moving slowly up/down. Even if PSU is changed with one what works well in other ST it is possible. There is filtering with electrolyte capacitor on motherboard too. So, if both (in PSU) and on MBO are weak, +5V, +12V might be bad. Looking with oscilloscope is best what can do, before going in some component replacements.

I tried mono and color emulators on that site. So, there are color mode emulators for monochrome mode. And 2, what I saw there act pretty similar. Conversion of medium res is OK, and enough fast. Low res converts by both to only half screen, 320x400 px res. After little thinking I see why - converting to 640x400 would be too slow. Too much operations needed, because must put together for every pixel color index value from 4 bit planes, which are in 8 bytes, then get RGB value for it in palette, then calculate brightness from it. 1 src. px goes to 4 dest. px. So, only 5 brightness levels are possible - 0-4 . I made code for conversion, with speed in first place, and conversion takes almost 2 secs. I don't think that it can be less than 1, even with blitter. So, not good for emulation, maybe only for static screens, pictures. Example:

Interesting. Most likely the reason is low quality SD card. And what to expect from someone using illegally SW, not reading instructions, and actually using wrong version of driver. What is capacity of that card printed on it ? Asking because there are no cards with exactly 1 GB capacity. It is written only because Basic ACSI has max 1GB accessible, and this driver has capacity test what goes up to that size, if card is bigger, it will be not shown. Then, first partition can be much bigger with this driver (512 MB). For UltraSatan there is special driver,what has letters hs after version number, supports hot swap of cards, very large SD cards ... You missing decent seller.

Reasons for Atari Co. fall are constant topic here. What is sure by me is that we can not blame only one thing for that. And that there were internal and external circumstances which made sales lower, especially after 1992. Here I will say only that STE, launched in 1989 had 2 silly bugs, which are for sure result of not enough testing, which again could be result of bad relations inside company, rush ... So, there is known medium resolution bug in TOS 1.06, it was corrected with TOS 1.62 . Other is less known audio mixer HW bug - impossible to set correct PSG and DMA audio volume balance because they miscalculated resistor values for it. And that error exists in TT too, only in Falcon it is correct.

I don't think that giving some smaller quantity (like around 10) of games with new computer changed motivation of game developers and distributors. Looking prices of games in Europe, may say that 10 games were approx. half worth of computer price, so it was for sure good for sales. Btw. my opinion is that high prices of games were biggest factor, what made sales not so good. Of course, they blamed piracy in first place. But big part of customers, players were young people, still in school, so not able to buy many games. For instance charging game on 1-2 floppies around 100 DEM is in range of cartridge games for home consoles, which manufacturing costs much more - connectors, ROM chips ... Surely, developing some complexer game for 16 bit computer takes more time than some simple game for console, but with higher sale numbers it would be covered. Well, if incoming is distributed properly, and not most of profit goes to publisher, sellers . I saw lot of not well tested games - poor programmers did not have ST(E) with more RAM, and one of common errors is crashing with 1 MB RAM or 4 MB RAM, while works with less.

Here is page about with DL: http://atari.8bitchip.info/TOS/ME3modes.html 640x400 is emulated in mode 1 - and because in color modes max line count is 200, it works so, that if 2 adjacent pixels, one under other are both black will give 1 black pixel at output. If both are white, will be white, and if it's like Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson it will give grey pixel at output. I tried interlaced mode (long time ago), but that's bad and vertical white-black transition flickers a lot.

This was very useful Mr. Undo. Now many things are more clear. For instance how word Lisa came in all it.

Yes, pressing Ctrl. and right shift at once will switch to next mode, in circle. That works until SW changes keyboard input from TOS-es to own code. Rare case with SW using GEM (Windows, menus ...) .

Examined that NC Mono - has short and fast code, but there are some flaws too (like not working well at 60 Hz refresh rate), so I did serious changes, starting from installing way: instead running installer to bootsector (what limits it's size too under 512 bytes) I use AUTO folder run, so simple install, to hard disks too. Additional 32 KB and code are placed at RAM top instead low RAM, what is more compatible and robust. Works with regular TOS versions 1.00-2.06 . 3 versions done and tested: CPU only for STs. Blitter version for STs, Mega ST. Blitter version for STE, Mega STE. Blitter gives less slowdown of running SW. And there are 3 modes: 640x200 px , so 2 adjacent hor. lines are joined. That's not too sharp, so there is mode with all 400 lines, but only half is visible at once, in original sharpness. Mouse vertical pos. will set starting vertical line. Pic is of course stretched vertically. And there is 3-rd mode, never seen by me, and probably anyone other: quart pic, so 320x200 px at once, to get correct AR. Mouse hor. pos sets horizontal shift. And with quart mode slowdown of running SW is smallest, because only quart pic. is converted.