Magic Knight

Interesting as i understood 800XL with the basic C and Freddie were perhaps Secam only(?) - opens my scope for getting one from the French side of Atari for the latest 800XL Pal B i understand as just tuning the tv on different frequency on the 'ye olde tuner' on the older tv's!

I live in the uk and use a monitor that switches between 50/60hz for a 800 machine that is NTSC. The PSU is a UK version - 50hz 240V one and since all psu's go to low voltage DC by the time the A8 see's it, this has no problems powerwise. Ebay has ones usually for £10 + £10 postage often - as they are CRT they aren't in demand the same. I wont even bother with French Secam models even if they are cheap - too much problems with doing this i think!

The port was on a thread here (plus the rom): http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/44025-chess-for-atari-5200/ Interesting that the original 2600 chess game was made purely because a picture of a chess piece was on the console packaging. As Atari didnt have an actual game it was seen by some as false advertising. Atari (US) was getting sued so they conceded in developing and fitting a complex engine on to such a small amount of ram - just to avoid litigation!

I normally play chessmaster 10 on the pc for all round enjoyment, but i love the thrill of pitting my wits against the A8! (CC4 or masterchess) Masterchess can be found here: http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari_search_109.97.115.116.101.114.32.99.104.101.115.115._8_G.html Masterchess was ported across many platforms in the uk and was was one of mastertronics top sellers, which considering how many other games MT made overall was quite a feat, Atari chess is the original one on 16k: http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari_search_99.111.109.112.117.116.101.114.32.99.104.101.115.115._8_G.html

On a side note, A while back i set up a league of the Atari only chess games playing each other These were 1. Atari Chess (Atari) 2. Masterchess (Mastertronic uk) 3. Colossus chess 4 (CDS) Colossus unsurprisingly came first, followed by Masterchess. I also did these against state of the art 'engines' such as Rybka and Houdini (which kicked all of them as you would expect), however it was alsoup against the latest 'colossus engine (2008b) which does fairly well and has come a long way! Colossus 2008b sits at 63 in the rankings which is high considering there are thousands overall with competing ELO's http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/

Thanks!

Hi I stumbled across this game whilst looking for unreleased versions of interest for the A8 http://www.atariprot...e/xenophobe.htm After a search on this subject it looks like a master copy was bought back around 2006 / 2007 and the owner was looking to recoup the $2000 or so paid for this, (with some copies being sold) now thats its 2013, is this likely to go into the public domain for sharing? or is there carts available for buying if its still the case?

Just spent a good while playing the latest version on the game, the bug is still there and is indeed related to the droid being given a battery. Afterwhich a random splatter of rocks appear at the most (in)convenient places! After 2 droids go down and replacements added (with the bug just adding to the issue) it became almost impossible for the the 'real' bugs to penetrate the compound, this made growing my mushrooms an easy task and i ended up moving my solar panels to the outer regions (to be eaten up) just so that the power wouldnt blow the compound up because of too much energy. A joy to play, but a bug free version would make this a more rewarding experience. Love the game, but id like it better with this bit fixed! Any chance this can be done?

I should get my A800 anyday now, fingers crossed i dont suffer this sloppy standard of packaging. Im not sure what you can do in these instances with ebay - negative feedback sometimes doesnt dent the surface where there are thousands of positives. Im not sure but perhaps paypal or creditcard tranactions automatically insures for this type of thing? this may be worth persuing,

Got a 14" JVC NTSC/PAL combo for £10 - so i can play NTSC in the uk. Just waiting for my A800 from the states to turn up - hope it gets here before christmas! http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fitm%2FJVC-14-Monitor-%2F110985904288%3F_trksid%3Dp2047675.l2557%26ssPageName%3DSTRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT%26nma%3Dtrue%26si%3DxSrIXWWx10MuIukNFUjGsbwlJv4%253D%26orig_cvip%3Dtrue%26rt%3Dnc

Wonder what they would charge if it came with a box and manual?.....

I seem to remember getting random hits on the screen as the scanline or tiny dot that croscrosses down the tv at the rate of 50 or 60 times a second (pal or ntsc). The lightgun picks up the current position depending on where it is pointed and looks like its actually beaming at the tv where its the opposite, The joystick just hits where ever the beam position is at that time so its like a lottery. . So in short, the joystick wouldnt know where the beam is and is similar to aiming in the dark and hoping for a hit.

Looks like that Robbie robot thing that Nintendo did just a year or two later - not obvious where Nintendo got the idea from then?

Can you take a clear overhead view photo of both sides - in particular the area damaged should be clear , i should be able to see where to alternatively attach the power wires instead. Ive done/seen this on a few pcb's before and if its just an overheated track lifting and melting away then there is usually a further point to attach. Richard

Given the equipment available such as a XEGS keyboard, XF551, pc case and small monitor, i can see how this can be a project waiting to be built!. Im possibly doing a A400 version of this if i accumulate some bits and piece over the next year - Given the color scheme - i think it will look retro-steampunk at the end of the day.

Ouch! I had to build a Mame Arcade machine to divert my young kids away from my Atari corner - so far so good. I tell the wife to leave the equipment alone!

Well said Richard Its a brighter picture with new lease of life for the 8 bit Atari now that interchanging parts and retro brighting exteriors is proving to be acomplishable without too much trouble!

Programming a static 'Ready' prompt is one that give laughs. Of course randomly hitting keys in frustration ends with break being hit!

Please can you (or forum members) list some examples of right cartridges - i ve never seen a 'right cartridge' so far, thanks in advance

Its a bit of a contrast on A800 prices between UK and US (i live in Aberdeen, UK) - The A800 in the Uk for availability is very scarce and is not often and when is is rarely found below £200 ($320). Ebay dont have these cropping up very often and Retro games in the UK have this at £200. http://www.retrogames.co.uk/more/on/details/028445. There is one on ebay for £600 which is insane. I won a good looking A800 and A400 from Ebay US the other week for $100 (£60) plus around £60 postage to the UK -which is still a bargain! It came with a 410 also. As its NTSC - i need to mod a little, but as far as uk availability is concerned this is still a bargain and a fun project for me. A400 PAL in the uk appear to be between £35 and £70 with PSU only. The 800XL's are getting higher in price and the 65XE's dont seem to be getting much attention (even 800xe's) There have been several 800XL//1050 combos going for sale and getting between £80 - £150 which is higher than the last few years etc. must be some upsurge of spares or interest going on! I think the interest in retrobriting old units may be have some influence on this, but just my opinion.

Thanks guys I may try swopping the boards change crystal and the link on the GTIA. Being as its a signal type frequency and not messing with power as such, i dont think much risk is run as ive played around with similar before (trying to record from ntsc video to my video card - and getting b/w) Especially dont want to spend the £120 or so for a pukka resampler to take it to from 60hz to 50hz as its a cost id rather spend elsewhere. i think its maybe also that a pal vhs recorder may take the ntsc signal and translate to the (50hz) tv - this may work as it works on video tapes and some dvd through types in the past.

Im thinking of doing this with a NTSC 800 for the uk (PAL-I) To recap the above - to change a NTSC to PAL-I - i understand i would change... - system crystal (from 3.579 MHz to 3.546 MHz (Atari part no. CO16112 )) - ANTIC (Atari part no. CO21698 (the XL/XE type with more 8-Bit refresh, better for DRAM based memory expansions) or the older one from 800 with 7-Bit refresh: CO14887) - GTIA (Atari part no. CO14889 - I´m not really sure, but I never heard about a second PAL version of the GTIA or a PAL version of the CTIA). - Operating system ROMs (better to rip-off the three ROMs, insert one 27128 and a logic TTL). - Play around with pin 16 and 28 of the GTIAand affect the little circuit shown in the diagram. - change the modulator to a PAL one To make things simpler would i get away with it if? > - i substituted the required boards and modulator from a UK PAL A400 - affect the GTIA (as explained earlier) - use a UK power supply (220-240Vac) would this be all i would have to do to get this running on a 50hz television? Onacheaper note - would putting a £20 ntsc to pal convertor box-thing on composite do the trick instead? -through the 5 pin monitor port of course ( with a uk PSU and use a 60hz capable tv). a few questions i know but it would be great if this was as simple as it may look and with the above options.

A ram upgrade can be found to up the 400 from 16k to 48k from Best Electronics in the US. http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/800.htm I dont think it would have a problem running mule, but others here will know better!

Wow - Thanks for the comparisons and guide on your other forum, looks like youve your on top of this sort of thing!

I dont plan doing any programming or adventure gaming as such. Im basically collecting up early atari programs that are mostly 8k / 16k and having a 'time-capsule' area in my hobby room at home for this entry level atari. (my 800xl will do for the high end stuff). Im toying with doing a complete custom version of a Atari 400 type XEG for next year but it will be entirely a 400 based unit (picture how a 400 xegs would hve looked like in 1979 to see what im thinking). I will need another 400 for that and have a few ideas to do the keyboard (like the one that came out for the 2600). As for the existing 400 - i agree with you that keeping the original looks is vital to maintaining the character of the model.