Xebec

My understanding of Atari 8-bit accelerators is you have 'the high end' which are 65c816 chips and boards running at 14-20 MHz.. Costing something like ~ 200 USD / 170 EU such as the Rapidus. There are also versions of the 65c816 that plug into the 6502 socket directly that would be running at the stock 1.77/1.79 MHz but give you a boost on certain instructions; though it's not a major boost like going from a not fully pipelined processor to fully pipelined (i.e. 386 to 486). But I have not seen any low cost options such as a clock doubled 6502, which while it would be limited by the bus and RAM speed shared with ANTIC, I think would help performance since many 6502 instructions have quite a lot of latency. Is such a thing possible? If you believe there would be no benefit to this approach, please explain.. I see exxos's (impressively low cost) accelerators for the ST that double the clock to 16 MHz on the 68000 and provide useful benefits in many applications and would think the 6502 being primitive and not pipelined would similarly work better at 3.54-3.58 MHz than stock..

Perfect info - thank you! Maybe I will try an old ST 720KB drive in this Percom controller to see how well it works.. I'm somewhat avoiding floppies for now, but using 720KB 3.5" floppies seems like it'd be pretty awesome.. I suppose the only downside is there is no way to accelerate the Percom to be as fast as a US Doubler drive.. Thanks again Redman!

Awesome Redman - thank you! Does the drive cabling have a twist / standard setup like a PC with two floppies then?

Just to check, you're using this specific NodeMCU -- ESP8266 http://www.gearbest.com/transmitters-receivers-module/pp_366523.html?currency=USD&vip=760186&gclid=Cj0KEQiAxeTFBRCGmIq_7rGt_r8BEiQANdPqUj_ULrVD_KOCO4PBb1FbB42SbEoVELyPjSjVtshkkJ0aAvi68P8HAQ&utm_source=linkshare&utm_medium=linkshare&utm_campaign=linkshare&siteID=TnL5HPStwNw-uDIdRdDkbtzg7Re1CRMCUA

So to follow up -- Is there no way to make the 850 Interface reliable at 19200 bps? It looks like it kinda works, but kinda doesn't.. Is there any combo of software and flow control that works at 19200? Are the only 3 choices for connecting to RS232 the 850, the ICD MIO, and CSS Blackbox? Are any of the 'better than 850' options available for purchase today?

I remember not quite understanding as a kid why the ST couldn't emulate the 8-bit at reasonable speed.. I was thinking, it's a 16/32-bit process.. the Atari ST is *clearly* more advanced.. why isn't it working? Now I know much better! . (In many ways the 8bit IS more advanced ). I also have good memories of playing with the XFormer on the ST, in addition to PC Ditto. 20 MB Supra Harddrive made things a lot easier.. Transferring files from the 8bit to the ST was done over modem, and of course ST/PC was easy with either modem or floppy.. Good memories!

Just read about this now and looked through his works, and the forums. My very belated respect / condolences to family and friends.

Fair enough. the Mega STE PSU fan was also annoying.. i ended up replacing with a Noctua .. thanks for info!

Thanks all - I thought they were brown/beige originally, but wanted to double check. I've heard endlessly the mind is really bad at remembering colors. So safe to retrobright once for a couple of hours, or should that be avoided on these cases?

Just FYI - I made a very simple slide-in sleeve case for the Wifi232 modem that can be 3D printed.. Requires < 1 meter length of 3.0mm filament . It leaves space for the USB port, RS232 port, and the button, although it covers the place where you can solder in a power cable. The sketchup file is included if you need to edit. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2486879

OK - Will rescan those. I can do those without damaging anything. My scanner is in a different room from my computers so I'm going to have to move something around to do it right.. Also, I also found another small pile of other artifacts that might be worth a scan: SSI Fall '86 / Winter '87 Catalog Datasoft - Programmers Opportunity "DATASOFT is actively seeking experience programmers".. (probably written after they screwed over Phil Price..) Microprose simulation software mini catalog - appears to be vintage ~ 1986. color. Karateka instructions Fight Night inst. Atari Basic Reference guide for experienced programmers, Rev A by Atari Mindscape catalog, color, circa 86 or later (mentions XE) DOS XL "a Disk Operating system for Atari Computers" by OSS manual, ~ 51 pages. Atariwriter manual (already on AM) Accolade Ace of Aces (already on AM)

Thank you for this! I remember actually running this back in the day to take advantage of a few apps I saw my Dad using at his work... NTSC here.

I am interested in donating to help, and can donate time to validate. I only know very basic electronics but if there's some way I can contribute some time I'd like to. I don't mind testing boring stuff like serial and MIDI for example. I would recommend avoiding kickstarter for fees reasons.. Every $ helps in a campaign like this. On the STE - does the combined chip share one clock input then? vs. separate clock inputs for GLUE and MMU on STFM? I'll say from a USA perspective, STEs are very hard to come by.. From the post, it sounds like the requirements you're proposing are: - Open Source - Fits in ST(fm) case with ST(fm) ports - Low cost and already available RAM options preferred - Uses original ST chips - MMU, GLUE, SHIFTER, DMA, and 68000 - Priority is something that can be built quickly - Through-hole for hobbyists Can you talk a little bit about the power circuitry? Would it be possible to design for use with a simple 5V (i.e. USB, but maybe high amperage) input to make that something easy to source? Also, this adds complexity, but are you set on using standard TOS ROM chips, or would a more modern EEPROM of some kind (or something software flashable) be possible/ideal? (or too much work). Thanks! John

Is the fan at the bottom unique to sparrow or does Falcon have that also?

You're welcome DavidMil! Dumb question - can anyone create an account and publish docs to Atarimania? Should I also post these there? Also the last book I haven't scanned appears to be this one: http://www.atarimania.com/documents/OS_A_Plus.pdf It appears complete, so I think everything is up. I plan to recycle the paper ones (top half) , but will keep the 'originals' permanently. Last chance if any of those paper ones need scanning . (Nostalgia note -- for some reason as a kid I was really fascinated by the synapse home software.. I was always interested in numbers and math, and this software felt really powerful to me). Thanks! John

Interesting.. Just to check - you're calling this pale grey? http://mcurrent.name/atariads/intro800.jpg or https://commodore64crap.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/atari-400-advert.jpg My eyes are calling that brown/slightly yellow, but just want to make sure that these are close to the original color. I assume retrobright should only be used on white color products? Thanks!

PM me if you have any questions. I am not familiar with that printer specifically, but i've built 3 different Prusa/Mendel models over the last 4 years and have upgraded many parts so I'm pretty familiar. To be fair it's very frustrating when they don't like to print, but very rewarding when they do. My biggest tip -- The extruder and hot end are more important than the rest of the printer.. Also consider posting here -- there's probably good people familiar with your specific model - https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/

I don't have a way to measure actual force, but i pushed on them pretty hard in various directions and they're not moving. I also inserted a few cartridges, and everything seems good. My Lode Runner, Star Raiders, Super Breakout, and Spy Hunter all stick through nicely, however the SIDE 2 cartridge I have appears to not stick through as much. It *might* be an optical illusion because the SIDE 2 PCB leads also appear 'longer' or 'taller' than the other cartridges. If someone wants this cartridge tunnel and you're in the USA just PM me an address and i'll throw in it a USPS mailbox. no charge.

Alright, rough and quick 3D print for the cartridge 'tunnel'. Please note this is a homebuilt printer by me, and it hasn't been calibrated yet. I was definitely running this filament a bit hot, and I think I was extruding too much filament which is why you see the bulges on each line. This was also printed fast = more vibration. The good news is, the top lip printed ok, and I put some pressure on it and it feels solid.. no support material needed, and this was printed in PLA, I believe layer height is 0.32 mm. (Can go down to 0.1 reliably once this printer is calibrated). Pulling it off the bed, it looks like I could have used a little support material for the center/bottom part -- but what's left feels solid enough to work. This needed ~ 5 meters of 3.0mm filament to print, so as cheap as ~ 70 cents in plastic, plus probably 0.2kwH of electricity. EDIT: My calipers agree with the dimensions - thanks for posting those. I'm seeing 70.30mm Z and ~ 26.7 x 73.7 on the foot print which is probably my printers' calibration and not the CAD file.

Amdek Color 300 The flicker first made me think I was using an Atari ST...

First - Thanks to those who have posted here on Atariage about the ANTIC chip swap - it works great! I just wanted to report a success at installing a CO21698 PAL ANTIC in my 800XL. The 800XL is stock except for the Newell technologies 256KB upgrade. Using a SIDE 2 cartridge, the "Near" by Agenda demo (a favorite of mine) plays great on my old color tube monitor. This demo crashes half way through on a 'pure' NTSC machine, and flickers long before that. (Again thanks to others here), I know this isn't a complete PAL conversion. The system will use the NTSC color palette, and software that checks the ROM for "is this NTSC or PAL" may complain or not work. I'll be running more demos and software in the future (Last V8 is next...).

Yeah I do have access to a scanner - which is why the "Atariwriter_Using_EMX80FT3" driver book looks better. TIFF, 300 dpi is how I like to scan as well. The OS/A book would require destroying the backing to scan, although a few of the others I can probably redo without hurting the materials too much. Because of that I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to proceed.. Are there any PDFs in particular you (or others would) like rescanned? I have a little bit of time now because I'm inbetween jobs, and audiobooks make scanning less boring.. . But if the materials are good enough for quick reference, then I'd rather not spend more time on them.. Thanks! John

What dimensions should this be overall? outer diameter for the tunnel, and total height?

Just FYI - from the pic - the little ridge at the top may be a little hard to print for consumer printers because it's a flat out 90 degree surface out of nowheres.. If you can feather it up somehow then it shouldn't require any support material.. The rest of it looks pretty easily printable. Even with the ridge it still might print with a good enough fan and proper print speed.. I may try to print later for the fun of it..

Adding "using an Epson printer with Atari basic" Also has a few other pages - Using an Epson printer with Atariwriter, and Examples of "some of the control codes for Atariwriter" I think the only one missing is the OS/A+ book. When I searched I also could not find a DUG/65 manual but that sounds like something that would be out there already.. Using an Epson printer with Atari basic.pdf