Britishcar

Question for the posters here: What is your "typical" competitive setting for Utopia when playing a true competitive game against an opponent? In other words, how many rounds and seconds per round do you typically set when you play?

Ok...this does seem to be a problem with my Incognito. I've pulled up the same Top-Dos 1.5 ATR that I'm using on the 800/Incognito into Atari800MacX and set the emulator to Atari OS/B (Axlon Memory). Then I can enable an Axlon RAM drive, format it and copy files to it. Using the same ATR, I set the Incognito to 48K, OS-B with Axlon emulation. Using the same Top-Dos procedure, it enables the Axlon drive, formats it but pukes (freezes) the moment I try to copy any files to it. Does the Incog have a different sort of set up for Axlon memory when in Coleen (800) mode?

Ah. I ran across a new "Apple" game. "Bug Attack" by Cavalier, first developed on the A2, ported, etc. It plays normal Pokey sound except when you kill off the boss in a sort of bonus wave, the software declares SUCCESS! and begins to play the music through the built-in speaker on the 800. That's why I love playing games on an 800 -- the damn built-in speaker is just so cool.

Rybags, you're correct. I've been reading more about the Axlon memory scheme. It does use 16K blocks at $4000, etc. I've now tried MYDOS 4.53 which sets up RAM drives fairly easily. It will set up a huge RAM disk in XL/XE mode, format it and write to it. When I set up a RAM drive in Coleen 48K, Axlon mode, MYDOS will set up the drive, format it but the moment you copy anything to it, MYDOS freezes. Again, the Incog may be functioning perfectly and I just am not aware of how much configuration is needed for Axlon use in most software or DOS environments...?

It sounds like you might be describing Sherlock 4.0. It will even disassemble the disk but that function is tough without the docs. It can also scan an entire disk for an ascii or hex patten. Otherwise, an easy, menu driven app and one of the easiest to simply write changes right back to a sector.

Thank you, Rybags. After further futzing around, I've discovered that 52K plus Axlon in Incognito freaks Top-Dos out. However, going into 48K plus Axlon, I can finally get Top-Dos to create an 883 sector RAM drive (what it defaults to). BUT, despite showing 883 "sectors" of RAM available, it fails when trying to copy any file greater than about 40 sectors long (about 5K?). So....as long as you stay under about 5K of RAMdiisk, it works, otherwise, pffffttt. I suppose it's only staying in the original 4K area or so and not banking out to extended RAM. Dunno...if anyone else is trying to use Coleen/Axlon in an Incognito, please let me know! Again, thank you for the advise, Rybags.

I feel like I can do just about anything Atari related on the Incognito 800 thanks to its beautiful engineering! One thing that has me stumped, though, is the Axlon emulation when in Coleen mode. When in XL/XE mode, one can choose Stock Config, 320K RAMBO, 576K CompyShop or 1088K RAMBO. You can also choose stock OS's, Fastchip, etc. Very tidy. However, in Coleen mode, you choose Base Memory first: 16K, 32K, 48K or 52K. Then of course, you can choose your OS such as Stock A, Stock B, A-Fastchip, B-Fastchip etc. Also in Coleen, there is the option of choosing "Axlon Emulation" Enabled/Disabled but with no amount of memory option, etc. So my questions are: 1) Do you need to choose 48K or 52K for this to work properly? (Doesn't the Axlon extended RAM bank into the "unused" 4K at $C000 to $CFFF?) 2) Does turning on "Axlon Emulation" automatically assume 1meg of Axlon extended RAM? (And should I have the base RAM set to 48K or 52K to do this?) For example, I can't get Top-Dos 1.5 to recognize any Axlon behavior in my Incognito 800 despite my goofing around with these settings. Top-Dos will enable Axlon mode but then flips out when I try to access it's RAMdisk at D8:. Any Incognito experts have any advise for me?

One of the most blatant examples had to be "Bandits" by Sirius. My friends and I called it "Apple Bandits" since on the title screen it had an "Apple" before the word "Bandits." The Atari intro screen was identical to the Apple version except an "alien" swoops out, "eats" the "apple" to reveal an Atari logo underneath! Wierdly, the Atari logo was left with a little stem and two leaves on the top! It was actually kind of creepy since the Atari logo was gray and make it look like the Apple's skeleton. The scrolling of the intro screen has a lot of modulation waves running through it as if it were using a brute force scrolling technique and not a hardware based one. Tons of soft sprites in this game and very Apple-esque sound effects. Fun game, though. Hard as hell if I remember correctly.

Wavy Navy! Yes!

True! PCS was very A2-like. My biggest problem with PCS was the plethora of junk home-made pinball sets that made it out to 1980's BBS's and are still with us!

I was having a nice recollection about the days just before the C64 made it's appearance when all of the computer magazines were filled with info on the 400/800's, Apple II's, PETs and VIC-20. It was during those days that the 800 would occasionally "inherit" a game that seemed to be developed on and marketed to the Apple II first and then later translated to the 800. The point being, these games had a very "Apple-like" feeling to them. Some of the characteristics of these games were often: 1) Scratchy sound effects and/or music 2) Hi-res (GR. modes with artifacting to create color 3) Little or no use of Atari-specific features such as P/M graphics or wide color pallets Some examples of what I mean might be: Lode Runner (Broderbund, the original artifacted color one). Chop Lifter (also Broderbund) Snake Byte (Sirius) in which ALL of the game sound came out of the 800's built in speaker -- just like an Apple II The Ultima Series To me, these games were great fun and it was fun to see games that looked and felt like our Apple brethren playing on the A800. It was even interesting to see the same "limitations" in terms of sound effects or video slowdowns with lots of non-PM moving objects on screen. In an odd way, the A800 and the A2 never seemed to have same type of vicious competitive vibe that the A800 and C64 seemed to get into. A2 owners were sort of a slightly different breed, whereas the C64 owners that followed were nothing like them. After the C64, these types of software ports seemed to lessen. Perhaps because fewer games were developed on the A2 first and were now on the C64 first? At any rate, feel free to comment if you remember this the way I do. And can you think of other games that follow my examples?

I've never thought about taking a photo...it's just a CRT sitting on a small desk on the inside of a classroom alcove. I'll see if I can take a shot at some point.

How about a non-game, non-home usage today? I'm a teacher and just outside of my classroom I have a CRT hooked up to an Atari 130XE that I use to type in upcoming events -- think Memo Pad on an 800. The 130XE rotates the screen colors, etc. to keep it lively and stop screen burn in. It's a snap to simply type in new dates, events, etc. and the large (for today) 40-column text (or GR.1 or 2 if needed) keeps it easy to see and read. On special occasions, I'll do a scroll or etc. in GR.1 or GR.2. to really catch attention. I leave the 130XE running 24/7 since I often don't want to re-type, but just edit my changes. I occasionally have an Indus GT hooked up to it but I find that just using BASIC like the 800's Memo Pad works the best. As long as you move your margins with POKE 82,0 and don't hit RETURN, it's a great solution. Occasionally, such as on a back-to-school night, a parent will recognize the font (the 130XE itself is tucked away) -- some think it might be a C64, but true Atari people from way back recognize the font and the "attract mode" screen color roations. The look on their faces is always interesting.

Most of these based on lots of color and/or smooth animation or speed: Alley Cat Rainbow Walker Donkey Kong (4 levels, fast and smooth) Defender (smooth and responsive) Fort Apocalypse Archon

I'll take one.

Yep. It sounds like you are trying to use 1.2MB floppies or etc. Way, way too much for your 1050 to deal with. The magnetic surface is all wrong and they will never format. What kind of BBC computer. If it was an IBM clone, there's your answer.

So run this XEX from the internal SIDE loader?

I ordered one of these and really love it: http://home.arcor.de/grasel/sio2usb_e.htm It uses thumb (flash) drives so no adapter is needed to hook it up to a Mac or Win.

As a noob as well, I can take an early stab at your problem. Have you been able to make APT partitions using FDISK? http://atari8.co.uk/apt/tools/index.html#fdisk4 Here's how I got mine going: 1) Format your CompactFlash card on Windows or a Mac as a FAT32 device. On the Mac, I think it's just listed as FAT. 2) Then run FDISK however you can. I ran FDISK off of a virtual floppy on a German SIO2USB thumb drive device after downloading it and the other tools in the suite. 3) This helped me a LOT: http://www.atari8.co.uk/apt/docs/APT%20Software%20Manual.pdf 4) You're going to want to use 1, 2, 3 or maybe 4 actual floppies or drives or other SIO stuff at some point so start your APT Compact Flash partitions at maybe DE: (D5:) or so. I could only set up one partition at a time and then save the table. If I set up more than one APT partition at a time, FDISK would lock while trying to save the partition table. Go figure. 5) FORMAT the APT partitions using SpartaDOS X after you've made them. Otherwise they will only save junk. Ignore the "this isn't a floppy" message. Then switch to D5: or whatever you've made and you should have the CF working like a virtual hard drive. Now, unless a more advanced user knows better, your XEX files should be copied to your FAT partition using straight Windows or Mac. I use a USB to CompactFlash device and copy them in from a Mac. So...your XEX files will never "be" in your SpartaDOS harddrives. You'll run them from the "L" key in the Incog menu and you'll access your APT harddrive partitions from SparaDOS. If I've said something wrong here, please correct me. I hope this is clear...?

bandit, Thank you. I've downloaded the bios-update.xex file. Now, I'm just sort of sweating it out wondering whether I should really try this. I've not had the best of luck with Flash BIOS updates in general. Seems like a perfect way to brick your hardware if just one tiny thing goes awry. I have no problem getting an XEX file onto the CF card since I just use a USB/CF reader to move the XEX file to the CF. I also have a virtual floppy drive setup on an SIO2USB connection using thumb drives. I use that to run mostly ATRs...I don't think I'll have a problem running an XEX from a virtual floppy mounted on D1: So here's my question: is it best to run this flash XEX from the SIDE Loader (with SDX enabled as Candle states) or from a virtual floppy on say D1: running DOS 2.5 or something?

Bandit, The more I play with the system, the more it seems like only carts aren't working. In other words, I've figured out how to partition the CF and it's working as a HDD and as an XEX launcher through SIDE. I assume the Compyshop RAM mode is working since SpartaDOS X has access to it's "O:" RAM drive. Is there a way to determine the bios rev. to see if we need updates?

Hmmm...well, I do have the Rev. D CPU card in this 800 but I am about as positive as I can be that I wired Incog pin #1 (on the left as you look down on the installed card from the keyboard side) to ANTIC Pin #9 HALT and Incog pin #6 (on the far right position near the CF card) to ANTIC Pin #15 RDY. I'm relying on this photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/8362421025/in/set-72157629855929494/lightbox/ And the pinouts for ANTIC on wikipedia as guides. If I have either or both of these two wires wrong, what would my symptoms be? Would I also get SpartaDOS X giving me a lot of "device not ready" errors except for its RAMdisk? What a puzzle this thing is for newbies!

I'm coming in late to this thread and trying to pick up the gist of the conversation. I've just finished my Incognito install and it fired up fine the first time. I'm new to SpartaDOS but as a command line DOS, it's not hard to figure out once you nab the docs online. There are so many things going on with this "new" 800 that I'm still figuring what's up and what's down. Apparently SpartaDOS has an odd relationship with carts since it was a cart with a piggyback option? Does the SpartaDOS built into Incognito "think" it's a cart? Secondly, and disappointingly, I replaced the 2 resistors with 2.2K's and feel good about the connections, etc. but any cart I insert either sort of ends up being "invisible" or begins to make the system act odd after a few warm boots into the Incog menu, etc. I can't get a single cart to fire up on a cold-boot or using any other "go to cart" type of trick. Am I a flash-update behind to have it work with 2.2K resistor carts? I just received this Incog...?

The 2-minute solution might be to reseat the socketed chips just to see if that does the trick. It's worked for me on some old Apple // boards in the past.

Could have easily been a personal hack. Not hard if you have (had) the right tools.