svenski

Thanks for the posts guys, so basically the scanner was pretty limited anyway then, not like the "Computer Eyes" gizmo. If I find anything out myself I'll add it here.

Mitch, its a 2 port. I think I might have solved the problem, my worldwide VCR came with coaxial adaptors (which have since vanished) but reading through the VCR manual gave me a flash of inspiration. I have an old cable set top box which low and behold has a coax adaptor on the end of it so that should work, by connecting the 5200 through the normal switchbox - switchbox and coax adaptor to vcr. I'll give it a go.

If you follow ebay you'll see what looks like a crappy "Oscar" battery operated scanner for sale cheap cheap for the Atari. The seller has no clue what software would work with the scanner, or anything else for that matter. Has anyone here used it or know what 8-bit software supports it?

I have one of these beasties box with smart dos manual but no smart dos disk or drive documentation. If anyone knows of an online source for the info or could post some basic information on using it that would be great. I'm presuming you just specify which drive is which in DOS and thats about it?

My 5200 arrived today. The deal didn't include a switch box but I wasn't necessarily too concerned about that but I'm stuck when it comes to connecting to the TV. I presume its the same all over now but modern UK and European TVs have a female RF input, no screwing the RF or arial cable in the back, or anything similar. As an example a US Atari computer would have a computer to switchbox cable then connect to the TV via the switchbox. UK and European Atari computers just had a computer to tv cable. I have a few old Atari computer and Radioshack switch boxes which the 5200 will connect to, but the outputs are for old North American TVs. Would the 5200 switchbox get around this or is it just the equivalent to what I've already got? Sorry to sound vague, any European or UK 5200 owners should know exactly what I need. Any help would be appreciated.

With the 400 you're limited, no monitor out so no easy composite cable as you know. I would try and bring the original rf out back to life rather than using a direct solder connection - hopefully a hardware wiz will give you some help when they see your post. Good luck.

Why why why so many?? I've only got 2 boxed 6 switch woodys and 2 2600 Jrs...+ 1 Darth.

My opinion - Commodore did extremely well with the A500 and A500 plus - we had them piled up to the ceiling and sold every one and all the others as fast as we could get them. The A1200 was a good machine but suffered like the old Atari 1200XL had - new machine, new design....scary. Plus there were the compatability problems with older software. The A600 was a disaster. Nobody liked it, many just hated the look of it and went no further. Also Commodore were venturing into a range of Commodore PCs....these flopped. The CD32 was another flop but a great machine. I think Commodore stretched themselves too much, as consoles impacted sales and the 386 arrived, they were probably too slow to take preventative measures.

During all this time wasn't Atari milking the 2600 for all it was worth?, up to 86?

From what I remember people soon realised the limitations of the Vic20 and it died pretty quickly. Same for the Acorn Electron which no doubt UK guys will remember. I agree that sales would have been the main priority for companies such as EA etc dropping the 8-bit. Lets face it, piracy is much worse today than it was back then. Anyone who thinks the Xbox is a hard platform to copy for has their eyes closed. The problem though was lack of software support compounded the piracy problem on the 8-bit. In the UK at least 8-bit users were dedicated fans, you had to be - if you wanted the latest releases you bought another computer. So this group of die-hard fans banded together, and generally exchanged/copied games because that was the only way they could get software. When new titles did get released the rush was on to get them first. If every Atari user had purchased legitimate copies of those games released by the few companies supporting the 8-bit then we'd have seen more titles and perhaps seen the big guys dabble in the 8-bit market from time to time. Lets not forget though at the time Atari dumped the XL onto the high street, where was the advertising?, the promotion? Zero. To say at that time it was too late for an 8-bit platform is just plain wrong. The speccie was going strong, the C64 was riding high, the Amstrad CPC was taking off.... If Atari had wanted to they could have made it a success. A point Thimo raised was publishers were obsessed with 48k titles and maximum compatability with the 400/800..funny that whilst they limited the games potential to run on a 48k 800 a lot of them never tried the game out on one. Sure there were 64k games or 64k versions but they were few and far between. As for being critical of Atari for showing support for the XEGS and the 8-bit line toward the end, well I guess the poster isn't an 8-bit fan. Obviously anyone who used the platform back then appreciated any support from Atari no matter how little or too late. The XF551 was and remains a great drive (cheap components aside) , the XEGS brought new life into the 8-bit software library. If Atari matched the money they spent on launching the XEGS and the revamped cart range with money spent on advertising again they could have made progress.

Up until 1984 the UK had expensive import 400/800s to keep everyone happy. I remember that all my friends had a computer - all had a speccy. My parents had just divorced and money was tight, they chipped together and my mum dragged me around town at the time looking for a computer. I remember walking into Dixons, and right at the back by itself on a display shelf was a speccy. "Wow" I thought...... "is that it?" . That small Spectrum 48K did nothing for me. So, it was the Amstrad CPC. They were new, they were in your face advertising wise but they were expensive. Packaged with a monitor, the only one my parents could afford would have been the one with that crappy green screen monitor. Again, I didn't see the point . So, off to look at C64s. That christmas Commodore had decided to bundle it with the music keyboard. That bundle put it on the edge of my parents budget. I thought writing music was for girls. So back to Dixons. There, on display with a tape recorder, joystick and games was an Atari 800XL. I walked around a few shops and everyone had games for it. "Wow" I thought. My parents were laughing at the price. The 2600 was already considered old and out dated back then, can you believe it, so it was never an option for me. So, 800XL it was and never looked back I guess. Shame that within a few months major retailers dropped stocking atari software and distributors pulled the plug, apart from budget titles. That, and the arrival of the ST pretty much did it for the 8 bit in the UK. My friends stopped laughing when they saw the graphics and sound on the 800XL compared to their humble speccies. By the time I could afford an ST they were old hat and Atari was up to their usual tricks of having their heads up their asses and spending 5 dollars a year on advertising. I remembered how Atari , in my view, had let me down all those years before and so I bought an Amiga 500. Eventually that got replaced with an Amiga 1200. Of course in the store I managed I did my bit for 'the cause'. We stocked 8-bit games and had people travel 50 - 60 miles to buy. We sold the Lynx and the Jaguar when all everyone wanted were Game Gears, Mega Drives and Master Systems. I watched as the Atari UK rep came around less and less often then was no more. Then Commodore messed themselves up by venturing into PCs and by launching the Amiga 600. Shame. Distributors of JINKS to the world. "Mom, I need an Atari 7800, I wanna play JINKS!!" Buy your copy today.

the address is a subdomain of go.ro , a romanian site. That redirects to home.ro , looks like a webhost. Try contacting their abuse department , usually [email protected] , [email protected] . But well spotted . Ebay will no doubt try and shut them down. Most of the crap comes from eastern europe, Russia is the worst offender and you can't even blacklist the entire country because they couldn't afford their own ip ranges so use everyone elses.

The Rana 1000 supports single, double and 'enhanced' density - the 1050 format. When the drive was first launched there were some problems with a couple of obscure titles. Rana swapped out initial units and after that there were no problems, I doubt this would be the problem.

Thanks for the input guys, apart from titles mentioned are there any other 'must have' games for the Ti? I should be able to snag a couple of carts with it. King, can you enlighten me on the RF output. I'm in the UK and (I think) our tv input is different to the old style US tv inputs.

I can't see it being a great success. How many of us have wives or girlfriends or partners who force us to retire from the living room to go play Atari. Plus people don't tend to like integrated systems like this, they outdate quickly, tend to be less reliable and you just can't pick and match ideal product.

Ok...... some saw the funny side, some saw the obvious, some didn't so before everyone gets all steamed up about it....... The real subject is this: Do you think Atari (Infogrames) could launch a new console?, do you think they have the resources and the cash? If so, do you think there is a possibility they actually would launch it, would you go out and buy it anyway because it was "Atari"? Would features would you like to see on a new Atari console? Sauron wins a 12 month subscription to "Antic" magazine .

No you can't.

Didn't Coleco go bust?

Donkey Kong But that is probably because I can't get passed level 2.

'Atari Inc confirmed today development of a new, next generation, console had been underway for some time. Jack Reynolds, leader of the project "Phoenix" development team told the press that limited information on the design and planned specifications of the new console would be made public within "a few days". "This is without a doubt a machine that can beat anything Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft can currently throw at us" said Reynolds. The out of the blue announcement suggests there was a lot more behind the Infogrames name change than previously thought. When asked if development of the console would impact on licensing deals and software development for existing platforms, Reynolds declined to comment.'

We all saw your debating style in the 7800 sound thread.

I was looking through some Atari promotional material and stuff by Ingersoll who distributed the 2600 in the early days. I can't believe 2600 games retailed in the UK for anything from £39.99 to £49.99, thats British Pounds, times your dollar by 1.65 to get an idea. Unbelievable. That would have been a monthly car payment or half a mortgage payment back then surely?

No, the power input is different. You need a PSU that came with either an XL or XE , if you live in California why not give myatari.com a call. They sell PSUs on ebay quite cheap. Failing that buy another system off ebay, basic systems don't sell for too much and then you'll have a spare Atari.

Can anyone give me some info on the TI99/4a - capabilities, availability of software etc etc. I'm going to be given one as a bonus with some atari gear, just wondered if it was worth asking for some atari gear instead. The TI99/4a would be boxed, with manuals. Don't think they're worth too much.

In theory it is pretty big even when removing the ST and Jag element... But not much interest here so far, I'd have thought the words "beer drinking" would have clinched it.