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Xebec

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Posts posted by Xebec

  1. Posted

    15 hours ago, MrMaddog said:

    Don't know the exact date, but it was definitely 1993...

     

    I remember going to the nearest Atari dealer at a mall and hearing the guy behind the counter saying, "Oh, Atari is not going to sell computers anymore!"  And this was exactly one year after my mom, who bought me an STe for graudation, asked them if Atari will still be around and they said, "Oh sure they will!"  :roll:

     

    It would be one thing if they canceled production of the STe models for the Falcon but nope, Sammy T. wanted to make a vida game system which ended up as a flop and destroyed the company again.

     

    What, me upset?

     

    Similar to this, I remember occasionally going to the mall as a kid and young teenager, and seeing the Atari software section slowly shrink from an entire wall or even multiple sections..  to a moderate section of the wall..  eventually to a single stand up thing in the middle of the floor that wasn't particularly large (i.e. 20 boxes max).  Not having had access to magazines or other news sources at the time (just BBSes - where the software was plentiful..  :) ), it was the only solid indication I had something was wrong.

     

    I do remember thinking "Atari is back" when the Jaguar did the limited launch in NYC and appeared on track for more success..

     

    I was a little lucky that I had access to a PC or two around 1989-1990 so I had time to transition as the market dried up for the ST.  The ST had been in my rear view mirror (unfortunately) before the Falcon launched, and I never even knew about the STE until much later thanks to emulators pointing it out (i.e. mid-late 1990s).  

  3. Posted

    Hey All,

     

    I know Atari ended / exited the Atari 8-bit business effective January 1992; though it seems like sales (and some kind of support?) continued a little bit beyond that, especially in Eastern Europe.

     

    What's the official timing of Atari exiting the ST (and Falcon) platforms?  I see the generic date of '1993', but I was looking for some more specifics:

     

    - When Atari introduced the STe in late 1989,  did they immediately stop production of the original ST(f)?  or did they coexist in production for a year or so?

    - When did Atari officially/publicly pull the plug on the Atari STe in 1993?  I think it was later in the year - was it at the very end - December?  or earlier?

     

    Not related, but I thought it was interesting that Atari (unlike C=) took advantage of Moore's Law / manufacturing to lower cost of some components within the ST line twice -- once with the STe (combining MMU+GLUE into the GST MCU single chip, and some other consolidations), and again with the Falcon 030  (COMBEL = MMU+GLUE+Blitter).  I'm curious if the Falcon040 had planned any further consolidations?  Did the TT030 share any components with STe or Falcon that were consolidations of the original ST chipset?

     

    Thanks!

  6. Posted

    So what are your (favorite :)) nominations for Atari 8bit games that are most capable of inducing #Ragequit?

     

    Yes these are just games, and yes they're all meant to be enjoyed.. but let's have some fun and assume you're predisposed to raging at "unfair" games -- what would they be? :)

     

    A few to start the discussion:

     

    - Fort Apocalypse - some sections are *extremely* unforgiving on collisions requiring a lot of patience

    - Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves - If you're not prepared for constantly respawning (Dark Souls style) then you won't have a good time

    - The Last V8 - played on a NTSC system when it's intended for PAL is quite the challenge

     

    What else do others recommend? :)

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    1 hour ago, MrMaddog said:

    No way!  That would have meant having to buy a seperate interface box just to use standard printers & modems like on the Atari 8-bit, which weren't available anymore.  It was one of the reasons why I got a ST to use for college in the early 90's.

    That is a very fair post..  the 8bit accessories were extra expensive for the user convenience..   too bad Wifi and Fujinet weren't available in the 80s ;-)

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    Wow serious flashbacks watching this.  I remember the first time I downloaded a file from a BBS -- as a 7 year old kid.  It was a game from an Atari 8-bit BBS ("The Tardis" - near Woodbury, NJ) and the modem program would show the internal code when transferring via XModem..  300 baud then later 1200..   via 850 Express.

     

    Dad was focused on teaching me good manners and had me thank the SysOp for the piece of software.  IIRC the SysOp as a joke tried to run the Eliza program at some point which didn't fool me but reflecting back is epically hilarious..

     

    Also kind of spooky to hear "we recovered xyz from the archive" -- this really is digital preservation and ancient history we're using just to re-experience these things..   Amazing work on this!  

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    12 hours ago, Lynxpro said:


    Nega-TiVo. Joe Decuir was asked that very question over in one of the Atari Facebook groups and he said "no". Surprisingly. But then again, as he contended, even the Atari 800D - the rare developer's version of the Atari 800 - had 2 MC6850s for their own serial ports separate from SIO.  But it was a surprise since Mr. Decuir has patents related to USB 2.0 and Firewire. He's not a fan of USB 1.x.

    Very interesting - I had a feeling it wasn't even considered.  I guess they never thought back then the speed would amount to anything useful vs. the awesome speed and low latency of slots.   IMO the user experience of even SIO is better than having disks, printers, casettes, and modems each on unique cables vs. just daisy chaining with a universal cable.   

     

    Do you know what his main objections were to USB 1.x?   2.0 obviously adds speed, but also new connector types, USB OTG, and a battery charging spec.  

  12. Posted

    19 hours ago, Lynxpro said:

     

    That just goes to show that the Amiga should've had a next-gen SIO port in it and not allowed Commodore to insist upon using those crummy CIA chips in their system. Should'a had a PIA. And a Fajita Pita for good measure... 

    Lol - I always wondered if the Amiga designers thought about continuing something like the SIO / a universal serial port for all of the reasons it was awesome on the Atari 8bit and later in USB...  

  14. Posted

    Hey there,

     

    Just two technical questions for the ST ;

     

    Were there any 80 column terminal/modem programs that supported 16 color ANSI on the ST?   maybe via 640x200 and some kind of color changing tricks?   

     

    Also, did screen resolution affect the stability of the serial port at higher baud rates (19200 or above) on the ST?   I know on the Amiga desktop resolution * color count -- lower was better for ensuring higher serial port speed stability.   I'm curious if that was just due to the multitasking nature of the OS or something else going on ..

     

    Thanks!

    John 

  15. Posted

    53 minutes ago, tschak909 said:

    @Xebec if you don't load the handler (NDEV.COM), you don't get the N: device. ;)

     

    -Thom

     

    LOL - Duh - that worked - thank you :) 

     

    I am now getting occasional hangs on the XIO read/write commands (either they work immediately or they time out eventually with Error 138) but will mess around later today to see what's going on.   Thanks again for this wonderful device!

  16. Posted

    I'm getting an Error 130 in BASIC when trying to access N:

     

    I'm using the commands from the Fujinet "N: Has a JSON Parser!" video (bottom of email).

     

    Atari 800 - Incognito - SpartaDOS X (w/Fujinet utilities) - (recent ROM flash on Fujinet).  I boot to SD X;  type 'BASIC',  then run both commands in the video:

     

    DIM A$(99)

     

    OPEN #1,12,3,"N:HTTPS://JSONPLACEHOLDER.TYPICODE.COM/todos/1"

     

    then receive ERROR-   130

    (I receive the error regardless of whether I just try to open N: with no internet addresses or with the full type out above)

     

    Any recommendations?  My goal is to see it work and then write a stock symbol/price lookup program (using JSON) as something to do on the Atari..  Thanks :)

     

     

     

     

     

  19. Posted

    Youtube has been kind of enough to remind me that the ST got a Wolfenstein port much later on..

     

    And knowing it's a STe enhanced game - I was wondering what STe features are being used?    My google-fu isn't working well here.

     

    I assume it's using the PCM/audio enhancements for sound,  is it also using the blitter for faster drawing, and/or maybe more colors?  I saw the claim that it's using 32 colors on screen, but that may also be the case on STfm.  

     

    I also saw it requires 2MB of RAM, and I'm curious if that's due mainly to textures/walls or if that is to help accelerate certain functions.. 

     

    Lastly (separately), for STe enhanced games - will they typically use a blitter on a STf is one is found?  

     

    Thanks :)

  20. Posted

    Interesting thread..   I'm not necessarily recommending PLM spend time doing any of these, but some useful things with early OSes that came around the late 80s / early 90s were:

     

    - Built in Calculator (i.e. something the iPad still doesn't have :) )

    - Disk or other device drivers

    - Basic network stack

    - a Basic terminal or comms program

    - A text editor or notepad type app

    - In the ST's case there's sort of a "necessary" set of ACCs - forgetting but on/off for MegaSTE cache and speed, blitter on/off, etc.

    - A basic game or two 

    - Disk compression software

    - Something in the ROM that allows you to Shadow the ROM into RAM to make functions quicker

    - Improved diagnostic software for system health/etc

     

    Look forward to seeing what people come up with and what happens.  And of course - you're awesome ParanoidLittleMan - really great work on making the ST even more fun to use! :)

    • Like 2

  21. Posted

    On 1/30/2021 at 12:41 PM, tschak909 said:

    Before you do anything, please ensure that you are running the latest firmware, use the FujiNet flasher to flash to the latest firmware, as there was an experiment tried recently on optimizing network connectivity time, which didn't initially work. @mozzwald and I went back and fixed it in the latest build.

     

    -Thom

     

     

    Thank you - forgot to check for the firmware, and this resolved it!  Thanks again! 

  22. Posted · Edited by Xebec
    Added troubleshooting

    Dumb question time - My Fujinet for some reason can no longer connect to any servers (have tried at least:  fujinet.pl, fujinet.atari8bit.net, atari-apps.irata.online, atari8.us) without success.  The UI will sit there for several seconds, then eventually revert back to reconnecting to my AP (which is successful), showing the list of servers and drives again after doing so.  

     

    Are websites such as:  http://www.cacaculopedopis.net/   the only real way (or best way) for me to test connectivity to TNFS or is there a piece of software I can use to get more information about why the connections are failing?  (and if I'm on my AP with a Chromebook, and that webpage is able to connect to Fujinet.pl - then safe to assume it's not my network but something with the Atari?)

     

    EDIT, additional troubleshooting completed:  IP Address / [C]onfig info in Fujinet looks legit.  Weather.ATR is unable to connect to retrieve info (loaded from SD card).  Tried both APs that I have available.  I *also* have a condition where the Fujinet fails to connect to wireless (or see any APs) every other boot, but I'm not sure why.

     

    Info:

    Atari 800, Incognito,  XL ROM, 1088KB

    Wifi connectivity IS successful from Fujinet - I've tried both of my Access Points

    Powered by Atari 800, no other peripherals detected

    SD card works flawlessly

     

    Thanks all! 

    P.S.  I think i'll take the 'extra' troubleshooting step of ordering a second one of these for another 8bit since they're..  AWESOME! 

    P.P.S.  Good Morning Atarians! 

  23. Posted

    13 hours ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

    Just received e-mail from one user of  TOS Extension Card by CodeHead Technologies - it is for TOS 2.06 in STs .

    And what saw in original DOCs for it (PDF attached): "WARNING: Beginning with TOS 1.04, Atari computers allowed GEM hard drive partitions up to 32 megabytes in length; however TOS 1.00 and 1.02 are limited to 16 megabyte partitions."

    Sadly, not so rare case of misinformation.

    Thanks - would love to see the PDF if possible;  do you think ICD is incorrect here?

     

    I guess I can pull my 520ST out of storage and do some tests with my UltraSatan... 

     

    Thanks :) 

  25. Posted

    I see per the ICD Drivers page that TOS 1.00-1.02 can support up to 16MB for a boot partition but then 256MB per subsequent partition..

     

    However, "back in the day" when I ran a BBS on a 520ST with a SuperDrive 65MB hard drive (Seagate ST276N IIRC), I remember having to split into 4 x 16 MB partitions..  (Rather than 1 x 16 + 1 x 48 or whatever).  For BBS software I started with BBS Express ST! but later switched to FoReM because it handled reading/writing file transfer forums/folders across multiple drives effortlessly.  (No disk space management).

     

    Were there older disk drivers / utilities back then that might have limited me to 16MB only even for subsequent partitions, or did I just not realize i could have partitioned it better?  (i.e. 1MB boot/BBS, and rest for file storage). 

     

    Thanks!

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