Xebec

Just to close this - it's in a box and will be going to the Netherlands . Chocolate Sprinkles, Windmills, and Atari.

Update - Touchdown Football case and disk are available, the other items will be shipping soon. Yes, can ship to cooler climates If any Canadians, Brits, or anyone else want the Touchdown football, PM me and I can ship as early as tomorrow via USPS.

OK Last set of "free stuff" - I will keep this until July 2nd then recycle. Just pay shipping. Graphic Master manual from Datasoft. Touchdown Football case (with floppy) ECA Movie Maker (with floppies) All three go in the mail together . I'm pretty sure these are low value but no flipping please - for an Atari collector only who plans to keep Atari stuff for a while. Pics: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-v7_ESQEV5LM1I5Z2g1MGNsd1E https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-v7_ESQEV5LSktCSUJKM0hrM28

Hi folks -- I have the game "Napoleon in Russia" in a box for free to a good home (just pay shipping please). -The box is in poor condition, the contents inside are in similar condition, and includes: - Datasoft floppy for the game - CAT no 1630 - Datasoft survey - "6 month trail to computer entertainer / video game update" mail in card :-P - A scale map (which opens most of the way but appears partially stuck, so i'm not opening further) Instruction manual (same thing - cover is good, front/back pages open, middle pages appear stuck due to moisture perhaps), but otherwise the text is clear. - Datasoft Frequency Buyer Program Coupon (save 7, 10, 14 coupons and get a valuable gift from Datasoft.. maybe that gift is pay owed to Philip Price..?) Anyway - if someone wants it, PM me and I'll ship it. It should be cheap to ship first class (box + contents weigh ~ 7-8 oz). Although it's in poor condition, please don't flip this on ebay or anything - I just want to make sure this goes to the right place. P.S. If you want pics, let me know and i'll put something up on gdrive - I haven't figured out how to add stuff to 'my media' here yet.. Thanks! John

I received a PM from someone here with 3,605 posts at 3:00 (very fast!) who wants them all. (Sounds like a true Atarian!) I've sorted out a ton I know I am not keeping. I expect to have some more (20-50) in another week or so (not a lot) - so i'll work down the response list here depending on how things go. Thanks guys! EDIT: I wish I had done this before. I recycled a ton of other floppies from my own collection previously.. although these disks were better kept than mine.

I have 'inherited' a friends collection of Atari 8bit software. Some of the stuff I'm definitely keeping (i.e. some commercial disks, Antic disks, a few unique things, some blank/unused floppies) - but I have a growing pile of floppies that are used and are either going to best buy for recycling, or to another Atari person who might want them. If you want any number of floppies with random software (.. "backed up" or otherwise) let me know. I don't mind paying a few bucks for shipping, as these might be going to a good home instead of just trash ultimately.. Just PM me with how many you want (i.e. don't ask for less than 20 , or tell me you'll take them all). For reference, I'm guessing most of these disks were formatted on an 810 or 1050 compatible format originally, but of course many disks are double sided / double density capable. I'll be sorted through these in the next week or two and can get them out after that.. EDIT: I can also ship with an old used plastic case - but would ask for some help on shipping then .

That URL didn't work but this one should: http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/webpage/antic-interview-286-william-leslie-omnitrend-universe The URL hyperlink underneath the text has an extra /category/ in it. (I really need to catch up on these podcasts -- keep up the great work guys!! )

So seeing that Atari Falcon's are now stupid expensive ( > $1,000 USD ) based on recent ebay sales. Is anyone going to offer a service to rent them? My interest in Falcon is just in getting a few hours of experience with one of these machines, just for the feel. Maybe play a few games.. I guess emulator it is. Anyway if anyone read this - what kind of monitors would Falcon 030 users have been using back in the mid 1990s? standard 14-15" VGA monitors? were there any Atari monitors appropriate for use with a Falcon? Thanks John

http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/userdata/images/large/PRODPIC-587.jpg Here's a pic of the 520ST(m) -- no floppy. It's very clean and classy It makes sense Atari didn't bother engineering a separate version of the STE for this smaller form factor.. Falcon some day for me.. just to play with.

Just to make sure -- that's the same footprint as the 1040STf ?

LOL understood. I like the smaller foot print of the 520STm -- but I guess there are no STE motherboards that size..

I always liked the look of my 520STm the most.. Are there any STE models that don't have the integrated floppy?

Hey folks - Just looking for some thoughts on paring down Atari 8-bit hardware/software. I've got a small "retro" area set up in my house with an Amiga 1200, Mega STE, and an 800XL set up for gaming. I also have an Atari Jaguar+CD that will probably stay hooked up in the area too.. Beyond that I have a lot of 'redundant' Atari stuff that i'm trying to figure out what's best to keep, give away, sell (and not to a scalper), or recycle.. Items like: - Commercial floppy disks -- most labels are in average or bad shape, a few are in good shape. Nostalgia says keep a box of these around for fun, but realistically I'm never going to use these. Does anyone here collect these for any reason? - 5 x Atari 1050 drives. Realistically once i'm done restoring as much data as I can off of floppies of my own/friends -- I don't really want to keep 5 drives around. All of them appear to work OK after cleaning. I'd *like* to find at least one Atari 810 floppy with the flip down center 1/3rd lid as that's what I had as a kid with my 800. (Then get down to 1 x 1050 drive for nostalgia only..) - The computers: I have ~ 5 x 800XLs, 2 of which work, 1 received a TON of care from Kyle22 (thank you so much!) but doesn't work and no root cause was established. I have 2 more that are in the "don't work" category. 3 are stock, 1 non working one has a 256KB upgrade, the other non working one has U1MB and Stereo Pokey (that I'd like to transfer to a working 8-bit). I think 2x 800XLs is appropriate; or should I keep a parts board around? 2 x 1200XLs - I really like these, so plan is to make one of these work flawlessly and keep 1 for backup/parts as needed (but never 'break' if I can help it). I think the 1200XL would be a good place for the U1MB + Stereo Pokey upgrade.. (I also have the SIDE cart). 3 x 800's - all 3 are 'non working' right now - 1 stopped working when a cartridge was put in the wrong slot. 1 has a physically broken off part of PCB+Atari SIO port ( = rendering this 800 a parts machine). I also love the 800, so i'm thinking reduce to 2 for now, maybe part out the one with the missing SIO. ST - Have and plan to keep a Mega STE, and a 520STm with 2.5MB. I wish the Mega STE had the enhanced joystick ports but i'm not realistically going to use those. The 520STm case is partially damaged, so I'd like to replace that someday. I also have a 1040STfm that I'm thinking may go to sale once I get a good 520ST case. An Ultrasatan is external to the Mega STE. ST monitors - 2 x color, 2 x mono Atari monitors. The ST never really looked good attached to an LCD unlike the Amiga (thanks to a hardware upgrade on the Amiga). Amigas - a 500 and a 1200; 500 sits in a box.. 1200 is the workhorse. 1200 was recapped and lightly accelerated; it seems like this is the right long term Amiga setup for me. Roland MT-100 (big brother of MT-32) 2 x 2600 + 1 x 7800 + tons of carts (= keep I think). Anyway, suggestions/thoughts on what you would keep or pare down? Why? Bonus -- Are there modern replacement Atari PSUs for the 8bits I should look into? Thanks / Sorry for long email..

Wow - this is a gold mine of info! The whitepaper on 'efficient C code for 8-bit microcontrollers' is quite handy for a lot of things (Arduino included). Thanks all! On CC65 - One of the links above states "CC65 doesn't presently support Atari-specific features such as graphics and sound." I assume this means to access said specific features you'd be writing those functions in assembler? For example, the music playing routine for a game, or if you're using NTSC artifacting to add colors to a display (ala Ultima)? (or having two resolutions so you can splash a few additional colors say at the bottom of the screen vs. the 'main display' at the top?) I assume Lightspeed C (with appropriate documentation) would have all of these capabilities built in, without resorting to full assembler code ?

I'm open for recommendations on a specific C - I will be able to watch the tutorial videos above this evening / start looking into the languages a little more then.

I'm considering a variant on something like Ultima - so some ability to move a good portion of the screen with custom tiles, without taking 5 seconds to update the screen . (+ play music in the background and sounds when actions happen).

Excellent - thanks jvas!

Hi folks! I'm a seriously unskilled programmer, and had a few basic questions about programming on the Atari 8-bit.. First is - when you're writing a game with background music that plays continuously while the game is running -- how often do you have to update POKEY to change tunes? is it literally every time you want to change a note? or can you send a series of instructions and come back later? Is there some good place to read about this? Second - C is what I used to write in years ago.. any real 'gotchas' writing applications or programs for the atari 800 in 'C' today? any reason to throw 'C' in the trash and go with a different language? (I'm assuming that certain 'advanced' routines may require some custom assembly code inserted of course).. Finally - what are some good sources/books to read up on this kind of stuff - including code examples of the atari doing graphics, sound, and processing of logic at the same time? (in any language).. Thanks John

For some reason the silly loading song and also the short tune from the 'intro' made before release are stuck in my head these past few days.. Any recommendations for other POKEY tunes that are similarly sticky so I can at least get a new soundtrack? (Maybe something new coming with Revision 2017 in a week ?)

There appears to have been a "Devious Design Docs" set of disks, similar to Sewer Doc Disks.. Does anyone have a source on where to get these to check them out / anyone have any commentary on how good/not so good they were? I remember discovering the Sewer Docs disks later in the ST's life (For me at least), and there were sometimes interesting articles scattered throughout.. Thanks

Most of his videos are pretty good; not everyone knows the Atari 8-bit as well as we do . This is now also one of his older videos - he's gotten a bit better over time. English is not his native language also. In this video he does get the Jay Miner part correctly; similarities to the Amiga, etc. the A8 picture quality does need some mods to look best. Maybe I'm a fanboy of his channel - but his video seems OK?

That would be awesome - I saw TOS up and running on the Jaguar.. Although I suspect the registers for the Jaguar custom chips would interfere with accessing ST hardware (YM2149, Glue, Shifter) ?

EmuTOS is up and running pretty nicely on Vampire'd Amigas now, and performance isn't really that far off of the FireBee, despite 100% 68K/020/etc compatibility.. The Vampire stand alone that's being worked on would probably fit the bill for a next-gen Atari system.. The economics are there for FPGAs - Moore's Law is still working for them, and the CPU horsepower there can overcome a lot of things.. Although not having really played with 'next gen TOS's' I guess EmuTOS is probably not what would constitute "next gen"..

Don't have Facebook nor an ATW800 - would love to read about people using them though..

Hey folks, Many years ago I passed up on buying Battlesphere on the original run because I was going back to college and the $90 was out of my budget.. I read through all of the forums about there being one production run and that there will never be another production run .. I believe in supporting the homebrew community as appropriate -- is there any way to legitimately buy the ROM for Battlesphere to play on a software emulator? I love both of the original Star Raiders (I think 2 is often underrated), and always wanted to try Battlesphere.. Thanks John