RAM320XE/576 order thread

[RAM320XE/576 order thread]

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[Grab Bag Piñata (Free Stuff!)]

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[Your Atari Monitor History]

I've been using the same monitor since I bought the 48K 800 in the early 80's -- an Amdek Color 300 with chroma/luma separation. It's tack sharp edge to edge to this day with saturated colors. It's been a remarkable piece of equipment.

[Any former A8 Sysops?]

Yep. I ran "The Flight Simulator" in Austin, TX in the early 80's. Modified AMIS-based. It ran on an 800 with a 1050 and a Percom FDD. I used a small thermal printer for the logs...an Alphacom I think. For telecom, I started off with a blue MPP joystick modem but moved to an 850 and a Hayes later on. Fun times.

[Atari Xmas music]

Does anyone have an .ATR (or similar) with a set of self-runnning, or auto-playing set of Xmas music on it? For example, a Pokey Player disk with Xmas music titles available for autoplay. If not, does anyone know of an way to collect and compile a set of autoplaying Xmas music? It can be in an emulator but I'd really like to turn the .ATR into an actual floppy or USB mountable image for real hardware.

 

Does anyone have such a collection?

 

Thanks!

[What's the one thing you wish for your Classic Computer, but cannot get.]

Fully funtional ATR8000 for an Atari 800.

[Photos of vintage 80's computer/game stores]

The Floppy Wizard! Is that the store (once upon a decade) in Houston? They sold a lot of Atari ST stuff for a while I believe.

[Photos of vintage 80's computer/game stores]

A website called plaidstallions.com appears to be about 70's toy and game culture. One of their interesting features covers game stores from the 70's and early 80's. I was fascinated by some of the photos as it really took me back to the early 1980's when one could stroll into a mall game store and witness the full battle between Atari and Intellivision, later adding the ColecoVision and home computers, 800, 400, TI-99/4A, VIC-20, etc.

 

Does anyone else have any photos such as these that are shareable on this forum? I'd love to see them.

[Atari 800 with Encore Video Productions Info Display System]

Thank you!

[Atari 800 with Encore Video Productions Info Display System]

It works as a straight load in the emulator (double click on the file), but fails when being binary loaded from DOS 2.5 on an .atr image (black screen).

[Atari 800 with Encore Video Productions Info Display System]

Kyle! Yes, please! I need to be able to load it from say single density, DOS 2.5, as an executable. That would be great!

[Mega Speedy, the ultimate 1050 upgrade. Intrest assesment.]

I'm in.

[Atari 800 with Encore Video Productions Info Display System]

Thanks Kyle and Doctor. I have to agree with DrVenkman: I don't know if I have the tools or the talent (Ghostbuster reference!) to be able to add FFFF and load/init headers to the file nor flash a cart.

[Atari 800 with Encore Video Productions Info Display System]

I'd love to be able to use this on actual hardware (800XL) for high school classroom for announcements, etc. I'm already using various other scrolly apps (thanks to members of this board) but would love to add this to the options.

 

The easiest way (for classroom use) is to get it on a real floppy, which I can do with .atr and .xex files. However, I can't figure out how to load a .rom file onto actual hardware from a floppy. Is there a convert .rom to .atr utiilty somewhere or does this file exist as an .atr or .xex already? It would definitely see the light of day again.

 

I'm using Atari800MacX as my emulator and the 800XL with an 810 as the real silicon in the classroom.

 

Thank you!

[Attractive attract modes]

Centipede plays itself and actually makes a great screen saver due to the constant movement and color-shifting.

[USEFUL/PRODUCTIVE things you do with your Classic Computer]

I may have mentioned this elsewhere on AA.

 

I'm a teacher:

 

130XE used to display a master calendar running on a CRT just outside of the classroom. Attract mode gets attention.

800XL on a rolling cart inside the classroom doing something similar -- different announcements from the outside one usually. Often scrolling or other colorful announcements (ROTBERG MARQUEE for example).

VIC-20 sitting on a desk displaying the day's classroom activities for each period.

Apple ][+ showing inspirational quotes on a green Apple monitor using an APPLESOFT BASIC program that scatters, recombines the letters of each quote that I usually change daily.

[Suggestions needed for A8 Two-Player games for modern teenagers]

Thank you, guys! I've also just remembered that Demon Attack has a weird alternating 2-player co-op mode where the ship control switches back and forth every 4 seconds between P1 and P2. Kinda fun and goofy.

[Suggestions needed for A8 Two-Player games for modern teenagers]

Wow! These are great suggestions. Many of these I have never played before. Question: Ghosthunter dies on a 130XE with a purple screen but runs on an 800...correct? I'm limited to an actual 130XE for this project so OS-B only games and 4 joystick port games are out.

 

If you have any other suggestions, please do so...I'm compiling a list of these posts.

[Incognito run #3 interest thread]

I've never seen an 800 run Google Chrome before...

 

Also, respect for the knife stuck in the power interlock...nice.

[Enjoying Atari must see]

It won't take you long to discover that there are quite a few of these kinds of videos on PhewTube. I believe the first one I saw was a group of roughly 4 to 5 guys (with about half of them shirtless), beers in hand, destroy a functioning Atari 400. The 400 was in beautiful, almost museum quality condition before it met it's rapid end in the hands of these guys. Happy 34th birthday! I think they had an entire library of sledging computers and consoles alike but I didn't have the interest to indulge them.

[Who here still has their original 8bit stuff from when they were new?]

Hmmm...

 

48K 800 with Newell FASTCHIP

1050 with HAPPY chip set

850

410

MPP1000E modem / Hayes OPTIMA 2400

various joysticks

various game carts

Amdek Color 300 chroma/luminance monitor

lots of floppy disks

 

...all from the early 80's and still in use.

[Disappointments in Classic Computing -- (Your stories here)]

I have to go with a simple one: The stock BASIC in a TI-99/4A, dead dog slow and no (easy?) way to PEEK, POKE or otherwise supplement with machine language routines. I enjoyed learning BASIC on it early on and it did have some very nice features but weird, weird limitations such as only one statement per line and you're always in that light blue background with black text. Your eyes would faze out after a while looking at it.

 

Arg.

[Suggestions needed for A8 Two-Player games for modern teenagers]

I'm looking for some advice. I'm planning a small handful of tournament play with a bunch of high school aged teens and I'm looking for some great DIRECT two-player games for some head-to-head play. Virtually 100% of this audience will have never touched a game system that pre-dates the PS/2 / Gamecube.

 

I've already used the following games in this setting with great success:

 

Ballblazer

Archon

Joust

 

What I've discovered is that the game needs to be something that you can explain in just a minute or two and has a lot of action as it's basis. In other words, M.U.L.E. as amazing as it is, is not what I need...so no deep strategy but just a quick: "here's a controller, here's what you do to win" type of explanations so that teens that have never played these games can get right into them.

 

I'm also planning a "high score" type of competition and I've already used Pacman, Frogger and Galaxian so those type of games are easy to find/choose.

 

So...here's what I need suggestions on:

 

1) It needs to be two player head-to-head (being played on a 130XE).

2) I would like to avoid Karate/Beat 'em up's if possible since they have played that genre to death on other systems.

3) Co-op and/or competitive like Joust are ok, but probably best if it's pure competitive like Ballblazer, Archon.

 

Any ideas?

 

[Factory Sealed Activision Games]

Excellent analysis! As it sits, it tells a story...one of an orphan unwanted by all but those willing to pay but the mere cost of a footlong sub. Someone bought it in the 1980s. It then sat, or possibly was traded around, for 30 years until it ended up in my hands where it will be loved and displayed as one of the more prized pieces of my collection.

 

I think the answer is clear. Buy a second sealed Worm Whomper so I can have one with stickers and one without. Viva la variacion!

[Factory Sealed Activision Games]

I think you should leave the stickers on. Why? They are part of the "history" of that package. They have time-traveled along with the game and box to be in your hands today. Why would you remove them? They are part of the object that you purchased and own, presumably for its intrinsic historical interest. Why remove them? So that you can have a plain plastic wrapped box with no individuality or etc? As it is, no other WW box looks exactly like yours. Remove the stickers and you have made it look like every other WW box with plastic on it. If you're of the mind-set to remove the stickers, why not just remove all of the plastic and re-shrink wrap it yourself? Wouldn't that be just as satisfying? Is it the 30 year old plastic that prevents you from wanting to rip it open? Of course! If that's true, then respect the 30 year old stickers that are arguably the best and most interesting part of that particular collected piece. It's truly fantastic that the piece has a LOWERING set of prices on it. A visible, not authentically replaceable once destroyed, wonderful bit of consumer/social archaeology evidencing the video game crash of its era.