Xebec

I don't think it'll work without an additional circuit due to the fact that Atari's 6502 "SALLY" has a 'halt' pin/function that the standard 6502. The 6510 does not appear to have this HALT Pin either. The exception might be the 'early production Atari 400/800' machines which actually used a regular 6502C and had the circuitry on the board instead of the CPU. https://www.atarimax.com/jindroush.atari.org/achsally.html Description 6502 is the heart of the computer. It's based on MOS Technologies 6502. While the 400/800 models contain a generic 6502 CPU, all of the XL/XE models contain Atari's customized 6502C chip. 6502c has an extra line called HALT. It is controlled by ANTIC which it uses whenever it needs the /jindroush.atari.org/data/address bus. The HALT line must be pulled high for the chip to work. Early 400/800 NTSC computers used a standard 6502 and 4 additional chips to stop the processor when ANTIC needed the busses.

Here is the plain CEC (not CEC-"Expansion") http://finapple.hho.fi/finapple/index.php/2017/06/09/cec-i-china-education-computer-part-1/ There are two models that i am aware of (Apple II clones that is) made by the Shaanxi Province Computer Factory and Huaming Computer Co. – CEC-I – made in beige and red colors – CEC-E – made in beige color, more rare of the two. 6502, 1 mhz, 64k ram (2 x 64kx4), 32KB ROM (seems pretty big), PAL video. Here's a white CEC-I from that same site: http://finapple.hho.fi/finapple/index.php/2017/08/22/cec-i-beigewhite/ Looks like the CEC-E Is CEC-I with additional disk / accessory ports on the back..

I would like one please

Perhaps a silly question - but is the "Floating Gate" in A.R. The City a reference to floating gate transistors? i.e. you're inside the machine now?

ALERT! ALERT! .. What a great game! Thank you for this awesome port!

hahaha excellent picture! I'm pretty sure mine was a Maxtor Some generic SCSI card though later upgraded to a WD FASST-2..

OK - in my test case i'm getting color output and The Last V8 is actually winable now.. so i assume the only difference between ANTIC SWAP and 'FULL PAL' is exactly correct speed (1.77mhz vs 1.79), the ability to pass the PAL check if needed, and that's it? almost all PAL software should be happy and color-correct with that?

Level 42 - look forward to hearing more about this!

Atari 800, 800XL.. BBS Dial-up, then ran a BBS on the Atari 8bit. Continued running the 8bit BBS Express as I got a 520ST then later put the BBS on the 520ST and bought a 1040ST. Unfortunately the only Amiga exposure I had was with a family member who had the 1000 and the only game they had was Rogue.. which didn't show any special capabilities . I'll admit I was actually very initially disappointed with the ST but as I came across Sundog, Dungeon Master, and the Word processing software (and mono monitor) became pleasantly surprised with what the machine could do.. Moved the BBS to PC in 1990, and the ST faded from use shortly thereafter (though i had my ST and 8bit set up and running occasionally until I was busted for running a pirate BBS In 1994 ). .. by the end of 1990 i had a 486dx-25, 4mb ram, 676mb SCSI Drive, a soundblaster, and tseng 4000 chip graphics card.. it was very powerful at the time but it took a few years before proper games came out for it..

Hey folks -- I know a quick way to run some PAL software properly timed on a NTSC Machine is to simply swap the ANTIC chip with a PAL ANTIC. What are the main drawbacks of this? I believe the color palette is a bit off? (is it close or massively off?) what other drawbacks? And what is required for a 'full PAL conversion' ? Thanks.. John

Very interesting on the mods. I will have to look into these for curiosity. and I agree on the higher color mode, the 16 color mode felt limited after starting life with an Atari 800. If I had to guess on the original ST 160x200 pixel/64-256 color mode though it probably has to do with the machine being intended as a business machine, and a desire to run everything under TOS (at least in concept). I really did learn to enjoy the 640x400 70hz mono though.. Good question on the STE.

The Amiga's multitasking OS, flexible colors/graphics resolutions, and 32-bit processor gave the machine plenty of power for business.. but the apps weren't really there.

LOL .. Great memory and thanks for sharing! The late 80s were awesome for choice. I was on the younger side so my experience was the sadness of watching the Atari software shelves slowly shrink to nothing every time we visited the mall. But tons of good memories actually using the ST (and 8bit) with Dad!

It is unfortunate the ST didn't really launch with demos or similar stuff that were already known to help sell the 8-bit computers before.. I'm assuming in 1985 there was not even a MIDI sequencer software ready for the ST..

Why exactly aren't there more variety in resolution/color options on the ST? Was the ST Shifter chip simply too limited? Would there have been relatively easy changes that would have enabled some customization of resolutions? I know there are overscan techniques, ways of getting more colors per line -- but why not actual fundamental and native different resolutions?

I think the dealer network situation for Atari, lack of early investment, and Tramiel getting distracted with Federated Group basically did the ST in. IMO, Federated destroyed Atari's cash reserves making them less interested in engineering/product work, and the dealer network being leery of Atari/Tramiel made it harder to get the ST's out there in the mass quantities needed. A little more useful advertising and grass roots movements would have helped a lot, and GEM not getting any real investment was also terrible. The Amiga was by far the most powerful home computer of 1985, but the ST had just as much potential for sales because it was already cheap to manufacture and had a clean/responsive GUI out of the box.

I have a monitor, an 800XL, the 850 interface, and Wifi232.. How do I check the weather on my Atari?

Just an odd thought. In the 1990s OEMs were making 'webTVs' -- some combination of slow (but cheap) computer and modem that would allow you to browse the web on TV. What would it have taken to put a small terminal program and a modem together with a 2600 as an upgrade to provide a dirt cheap 'dial/use a BBS' on a TV experience? (cheaper than a low end computer at the time) My thoughts: - Resolution probably too low even for 40 column text - Keyboard via joystick ports - Modem would have to be something build into the cartridge - more RAM Needed even for a very basic terminal program (but probably not a lot of RAM for very basic functionality?) Would there have been another computer/console in the early 80s (pre-NES) more suitable for something like this? 5200 seems like it'd be too expensive..

I'm curious - Not sure if others have seen, but a high school student was recently able to acquire enough parts to actually fab 10 micron chips in his garage: https://hackaday.com/2017/02/25/the-fab-lab-next-door-diy-semiconductors/ If you go to his blog or read elsewhere, he says he can do down to 1 micron but would require some kind of a clean room for this: http://sam.zeloof.xyz/maskless-photolithography-with-dlp-projector/ For reference, the Amiga original chipset chips were 5 micron, and I believe even AGA Lisa was 1.5 micron. The Atari custom chips are surely older than 5 micron.. So does this mean there could be some kind of reasonable cost path to eventually re-fab some of the old chips that are irreplaceable? and would that be cheaper than simple/low end FPGAs set up in a compatible pinout?

Is that the 1280x1024 Sophia or a different setting that happens to scale that way? I'd like to order one of these, and have 1280x1024 monitors now, but also want the ability to connect to 16:9 monitors in the future..

Just here to pay respect to Paul. Encounter was excellent

What kind of things happen if you put this on a 16:9 monitor but have the 5:4 resolution? If you have the 1280x1024 version -- does it just output with borders around? or stretch? does it depend on the monitor? and is there any way to reprogram with your own equipment if you need in the future? And any chance this would work on the Atari 800 original also? I *think* there's room inside the case to push out the GTIA a bit..

How much are these?

I'm trying to have some fun with my staff meetings at work.. and I thought hooking an Atari 8-bit running a game or a demo to one of the wall monitors would be something fun for the group . Unfortunately it looks like they only expose HDMI where I work.. Are there any good / reasonable cost methods for hooking any Atari 8bit up to HDMI? I don't know if the monitors support analog over HDMI so VBXE is probably out..

Electrical Engineering-wise -- how complex/difficult would it be to put a board inbetween an Atari 8bit motherboard and POKEY that intercepts the audio out and makes it available over bluetooth?