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Xebec

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  1. Is this ‘authorized’ by Atari? Any issues there? (Thinking of the 2600+ that came from ‘official [modern] Atari’). This 400 looks intriguing to me..
  2. Thank you for the detail! IIRC SALLY was an extremely minimally modified 6502 - just some wiring and maybe a small circuit so likely still right around 3,510 transistors. (Interesting that the transistor count of the Atari 8bit custom chips combined isn't too far off the first 32-bit ARM processor @ 25,000). Also I didn't realize there was a planned Keri chip combining GTIA, ANTIC, and POKEY. Looks like Atari would have taken advantage of Moore's Law to reduce costs on the 8bitters like they eventually did on the ST line (STE and Falcon received "combined chips" from prior gens). Great info! (too bad Commodore never did this with the Amiga). Thanks again
  3. Does anyone have any good reference sources for (approximate) transistor counts of the original Atari 800 custom chips? POKEY, GTIA, ANTIC, etc?
  4. I forget which exact mode I used - but Connect 95 and Connect 97 each had multiple (and somewhat different from each other) ANSI modes. Oddly 95 had some modes 97 didn't. For example "Connect LIGHT" and "[something] DARK", and there were a few variations on those light/dark modes. I ended up using whichever one gave the most overall "correctness", and the best render I was able to get was the one I posted where part of "DARKFORCE" was cut off at the bottom. (I re-ran the tests using a larger terminal window size, which made no difference, and I also slowed the baud rate down just in case it was a buffering issue, and no difference). I SYSOP'd an ST BBS from 1987 to 1990 before switching to PCBoard on the PC (until I got in trouble / Microsoft took it away in 1994 ), so I am looking to use this Mega STE + VGA to connect to both ST (VT52) and PC (ANSI) BBSes for fun. (Off topic - I would like to re-learn about VT52, what it can / can't do). There are some other terminal programs out there that might yet do better, Example: https://www.stcarchiv.de/stc1997/05/starcall-pro . During the holiday when things are slow at work I plan to do some more testing. I'm assuming the DarkForce BBS won't eventually block my IP for connecting and dropping a bunch during testing :). P.S. https://www.atariuptodate.de/en/online/comm - if anyone has other recommendations for terminal programs to try for ANSI on this config, please let me know.
  5. Thanks! I was wondering if that was being cut off or if that was the source. Minor correction - Connect 97 is what produced the best results above; Connect 95 was significantly worse for ANSI Once I fix NVDI (crashes with NOVA on my setup - I have ideas on how to fix) I’ll try some more apps and modes to see if I can get it a bit better. Now that it’s working (without NVDI) I’m really liking the NOVA+ET4000 set up on the Mega STE!
  6. Final update - 1. EmuTOS 1.21 fixed my disk crash issue when running NOVA VGA with the Mega STE Cache enabled. 2. It also looks like it may be a known problem with 16 color mode clashing with the cache due to bitplane caching problems -- so if you're running a Mega STE and NOVA, and want to run the cache on, you'll need to use either 2 color or 256-color graphics modes. I need to figure out where to get a hardware TOS switcher for the MegaSTE ..
  7. An update - I was able to get other resolutions to work - 800x600 and 1024x768. It also appears the video corruption with cache ON *only* occurs in 16 color mode. There is no corruption in 2 color (mono) or 256 color mode. However, I still have the issue where writing to the UltraSATAN crashes my ST when I’m running the NOVA drivers. (There is no problem when running on the ST monitor with NOVA drivers not loaded).
  8. OK Round 2 - went to 640x480x256 color instead of 16 color, and the desktop is a bit faster on this card ironically. STalker behaved the same. (STalker is a LOT slower than Connect btw, at least on the NOVA monitor). Connect v2 had rendering issues, but Connect 95 renders ANSI nicely! It's really cool seeing 16 color ANSI in an 80x24 terminal on the ST!
  9. OK I ran Stalker 3.03 and I'm getting colors, but ANSI graphics do not seem to be using the right character set. VT-52 also has some issues. See attached. DarkForce BBS in ANSI and VT52 and another BBS with what the ANSI should look like, and how it renders in Stalker This is in 640x480x16 color mode. and Bonus pic - my favorite cat of all time was named "Stalker". She passed in 2019.
  10. Interesting Question. I don’t think it damaged the computer industry. It came at a time when there were so much competition, and a lot of companies didn’t realize how strong the software moat was that was starting to form around certain computers (Apple //, PC, C64, etc). I remember actually being initially disappointed with the ST after coming from an Atari 8bit. At the time, the 8bit was *very* mature, and had a lot of software. It was also quite colorful for an 8bit machine. The Atari 8bit had a ton more personality tbh; the POKEY noises while loading software was fun.. But then as I spent more time with the ST (and progressed into my early teenager years), I learned to really like it. Yes, seeing Sundog and then Dungeon Master made me realize it was ‘next gen’. But then 80 columns for BBSes, having the extra resolution and GUI tools for coding, file compression, and other functions — it was a great machine. I ran it along side PCs for some years before finally using it less and less (circa 1991). It feels like the ST had a really short lifespan but in 1987-1988 the future was extremely bright for the platform. In the USA the machine wasn’t sufficiently advertised (and partially the dealers didn’t pick it up very much), but from what I remember it was emphasized (at least locally near me) as a business machine with a modern graphical interface that could also run games.
  11. An update - I have a sort of working ET4000/Mega STE setup. I may have a bad card but that's a longer thread. I can get the machine to work though in 16 color mode at 640x480, but unfortunately I can not get Connect to load without crashing. I've tried a few downloads, and it just loads and then eventually right as it draws the terminal window, bombs out and crashes to desktop. I installed NVDI in case it was looking for GDOS stuff but that made no difference. My copy of Connect also crashes on the ST monitor in Medium or Low resolution too so I'm not sure what it's missing. I looked through atariuptodate and can't seem to find anything else that fits the bill. TAZ would certainly require an Atari display since it's doing color cycling or timing tricks to get the 16 colors (it looks great btw). Now I'm on the fence of buying another ET4000 card to see if that fixes the issues I'm seeing or just calling it and boxing up the NOVA Adapter and ebaying my 2 ISA VGA cards :).
  12. Thanks! I am starting to wonder if it's the card. I can't get the card to work at any other resolution than 640x480, which I read was a problem with some cards such as the Diamond Speedstar. (My TSENG 4000 is a no name brand - not Diamond, but who knows). Frank indicated his Mega STE works fine at 16 MHz+ cache in color. Another person though Cyril Lambin indicated he had the same problem: No I couldn't fix it because that's an expected behavior. The 16 and 256 colors on VGA cards run in bitplane modes but unlike on Atari or Amiga, only one bitplane can be accessed at a time and you need to ask the card to switch bitplanes to be able to read/write to them. The issue is that the card then maps the requested bitplane within the same address space than the previous one, defeating the purpose of the cache. It's a bit like DMA. So when the 68000 reads graphics memory, if it reads from the cache, it will be incorrect data. .. Were you running in color modes on the ET4000? and were you able to set to resolutions other than 640x480? Is there a guide for figuring out pixel and line clocks for different resolutions? I really appreciate your help.
  13. Thanks. Ran all of the tests a few times and it's definitely strange. It's almost like a memory coherency problem where the cache gets de synced with whatever is going on with video when the active frame buffer is over a certain size. I emailed Frank. Does anyone else have their tseng 4000 working fine on a mega STE with 16mhz+cache enabled? Im curious what you have in your auto folder and your configs.
  14. No mods on this card. It was just plug and configure software only. Just grab all of the versions of the ET4000 driver incase you have a different DAC than the default "T0" driver.
  15. Hi All! I've been messing around with my MegaSTE - but running into some stability and other weird issues with the Tseng ET4000 adapter attached and running in 16 or 256 color mode (but not 2 color mode). My questions are: 1. What TOS version do people recommend for MegaSTE with NOVA / ET4000 adapters? 2. Any suggestions for the stability issues below when using the NOVA adapter in 16 or 256 color mode (that are not occurring in 2 color mode)? 3. What pixel settings do you use for resolutions other than 640x480? (i.e. 800x600 or 1024x768 - which I'd like to try in monochrome, or 640x400 for 16 colors) 4. Should I install GDOS for this config? I'm really fuzzy on GDOS as it's been more than 30 years since I used an ST for applications. My config: TOS 2.06 UK (but in the USA), 4MB RAM, SC1224 attached, UltraSatan via external ACSI, Gotek w/HxC firmware Internal floppy. SVGA 19" monitor attached via an ET4000 ISA adapter (ET4000.T0 working). No CPX accessories for troubleshooting. I use WhatAmI.PRG to verify the speed settings after using an app or a Control Panel accessory to modify. Issues: A. Video corruption on the VGA monitor when running in 16 MHz+cache when using 640x480x16 or 256 colors. *No* video corruption at 640x480x2 colors (mono). I did have stability once at 16 colors but I can't replicate. 16 MHz + no cache or 8 MHz + no cache looks good in 16 or 256 color mode. B. Crash when reading documents via TOS in 16 or 256 color mode on NOVA, but not 2 color mode. I can open a README.DOC, but when I hit 'space' after it says 'MORE', I get bombs on the SC1224 and a crash out. However, reading documents works fine in 2 color mode. C. File copying instability in color mode on NOVA - If I'm in 640x480x2 color mode, I can copy 50-100 files and do 50-100 deletions with no problems. If I'm in 16 or 256 color mode, after about 5-20 files the ST locks up with bombs on the SC1224. Note the system is completely stable when not using the NOVA adapter. Also turning BLITTER on and off makes no difference on any behaviors above. Running 50_60Hz.PRG to set the Atari monitor to 60 Hz also does not seem to affect results.
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