Xebec

Small nostalgia post. In 4th Grade (~ 1985?), I got in serious trouble with a teacher one time for typing up a few small papers that we were asked to "write". Of course, the teacher was focused on making sure I knew how to do cursive properly, and as a kid who knew everything I thought (and told her) that writing was "primitive", and asked why I can't just use my Atari to do papers. She took my Atariwriter written and (Some kind of Epson dot matrix) printed papers and threw them in the trash and got very red in the face with me . So as it took several more years before schools became accepting of computer technology, my Atari 8-bit never quite got used as part of my academic career.. But I really did love using AtariWriter.. P.S. I haven't used Cursive.. in well over 20 years, but I sure love my Atari.

OP -- To be fair - the 2600 was the big breakthrough -- custom sound and graphics chips -- on top of a CPU, at the same time everyone else was releasing "just CPU" systems. However, The 800 is a very solid advancement of this, and brings some new technologies that were quite inspired: - SIO, early form of USB (12V power over the cable, daisy chaining, smart devices that can identify themselves and load firmware) - Proper expansion busses - 3 or more Custom chips instead of 2 (hey, there's a lot of hardware in the A8), depending on how you count - Fully FCC shielding compliant (Hello Apple II) - Many excellent engineered Atari peripherals Beyond those, a lot of it was iteration : more colors, more sprites, (much much) better sound, etc. add on ram, keyboard, and more joystick ports.. It's worth noting though the 800 is only 24 months newer.. They actually added quite a lot in that time to make it a more powerful system. The 800 could definitely reproduce arcade games and other games much better than the 2600.

These were made / put together in 1985? That's really nice.. I wish I had come across a menu disk maker like this back in the day!

Very nice! Is there a specific color of paint that matches the original front piece? And do you have a version of the bezel that is factory original you can also post so we can print those? Thanks for doing this work!

Can you expand on the GTIA luma only mode? how would that get to 4096 colors? And why would 2 256-color GTIAs add up to 512 colors and not something higher if the output is combined? Thanks!

The Q&As are actually a lot of fun - I'd just like to echo I also have enjoyed ordering from Brad and Best! and ditto on Google search. Also, he has pretty much any Atari part you can ever think of - so if you don't see it on the website, email him and he probably has it.. I wish he had a PDF of his physical catalog..

That's Awesome! Great work NRV! I don't know why but this super excites me

I think i've read Midimaze on the 8bit can network with the ST via midi? or only other 8bits?

Agreed completely! Even my mother was interested in the Atari 8-bit after seeing Alley Cat!

I was hoping to get the 128KB working just to have a plain 128KB 8-bit .. But yeah, the U1MB is possible.. Next purchase though is reserved for 1 or 2 Incognito boards .. The original 800 is a beautiful beast

I spent some time trying to do that.. and can't get the second set of RAM to work.. so it went back in the box.. and out came my 256KB 800XL PAL and U1MB 800XL NTSC instead

I can't speak to the C64 version but there was also a PC-88 (Z80 cpu) version that looks like the A8 One.. (in addition to the PC version).

Alley Cat definitely had ports.. PC CGA version is puke as expected..

I'm going to suggest M.U.L.E. because only on the Atari 800 can you play with 4 joysticks.. Are there any other ports supporting this?

XE keyboard mylar fails .. are another joy of XE Ownership. And I've encountered the Trace problem, and have a 130XE that will forever be a 64KB 130XE because of it..

I did ask Lotharek - answer is : "for sure it will use the same case as side2/ slightly modified/ -so dimensions stay teh same" So get those cartridge extensions (1200XL) and small screwdrivers (800) ready!

Very info link and info - thank you! -- I'll have to fool around with some of this software on the 8bit - I was curious mainly for academic reasons, but I spent a lot of time messing around with VisiCalc, and the various Synapse software products as a kid because I was fascinated with numbers.. I do believe my Dad used some of this software for home finance back in the day.. I *may* have recovered a few of those files - so now it looks like there may be a way I can send him an Excel file Thanks again!

I was playing Risk with family last night - using our android and iphones while the board was projected on the TV, and it occured to me that one of my favorite games on the ST was just simply the game of Risk. The ST had high enough resolution graphics, and enough colors and speed to make the game quite fun against a number of computer controlled opponents, and I know I kept playing Risk throughout my time owning the ST (and even again a few years ago after I got the Mega STE). Did this make anyone else's list of personal favorites?

Dumb question - are these shells all equal to the 'left cartridge Star Raiders' size or something different? Just curious

Just curious - what would happen to a PAL machine if you raised it's clock from 1.77 to 1.79 MHz? Would the screen even draw properly or would it fail because of timing to 'race the beam' ? Would the color palette shift?

Just curious - any strange behavior with your 1.5A charger? I have used 3 different 2A power adapters, and it seems like the screen color was a little off using them, or the Atari took ~ 15 seconds for the screen color to become normal when using the USB charger.. (from cold) - but no such problem with the Atari power adapters. I had similar behavior on both a 130XE and 800XL. The cleanest source I had was a USB Battery rated for 2.1A output.

I would disagree - if Exxos can make and sell a 16 MHz 68000 upgrade for the ST for $65, which is 1/3rd the price of a Rapdius.. why can't something like that be made using a simpler 6502 at twice the speed? The 6502 has probably less than half the pins to worry about.. The 16 MHz ST upgrade uses the same 8 MHz bus, provides a useful speedup of 30-40%, and there's even a 32 MHz (still on the 8 MHz bus) that doubles the speed in many cases. A $65 accelerator that makes SpartaDOS X, Fractalus, and the GUI a little more snappy is a lot different of a proposition than the $200+ Rapidus.. The 16 MHz ST upgrade uses the same 8 MHz bus, provides a useful speedup of 40%, and there's even a 32 MHz (still on the 8 MHz bus) that doubles the speed in many cases.

The author really needs to add more of the "add a game" or other options i think.. I know he can only do so many, but some of the higher pledges are already running out which isn't going to help.. I've asked in the other thread if this is getting attention elsewhere like English Amiga Board ..

Is this getting attention on non Atari forums? like English Amiga board or others where there may be a lot of Atari users?

Hi folks! The SIDE 2 is an epic cartridge, but it's a little bit big fully assembled -- The plastic X/Y dimensions are too large for the 1200XL tunnel without the cartridge extension, and the 'Z' height doesn't allow it to close under the Atari 800's lid. Is there any chance the SIDE3 might fit in either/both of these? I'm looking forward to ordering one anyway, but had to ask John