MAC-42

The trakball is totally worth getting! Missile Command and Centipede...heck, even Galaxian and Super Breakout play infinitely better for me with that trakball. It's one of the better controllers that have been made for any system. And it's as big as my 7800! The Ultimate SD cartridge is a cart that has a slot for SD cards in it. You just load your SD card with 5200 ROMs and plug it in the cart, then stick the cart in your 5200. The entire library is available to you on one cart with a nice menu. I have one and it's the only cart I use. It's a little spendy, but as I say, it gives you the entire 5200 library in one shot. You can have a look at it over here. Congratulations on your pick-up! She's a great machine. Overlooked by many, but greatly loved by those of us who have been taken over by her giant, star destroyer-like bulk. Hope you enjoy it!

Yeah, this is a game I kind of enjoy, too. A number of the later titles that the Atari group in...Illinois, wasn't it?...made are really pretty decent. Kinda shows that, in the hands of enterprising coders, the 7800 had a lot more flexibility than people think from the early arcade titles. Yup. It's worth the price, with a special caveat. The key thing is finding it when the price is right. I held out for a while and picked up a boxed copy for $25, I think, a few months ago. Seems like Stevaside got a similar deal. It looks to be one of those games that, if you hold off a little, you can find at a decent price.

I should have heeded your warning. I'm extremely sensitive to shrill, high-pitch noise. So, of course, on go the headphones and up went the volume. I can take it, right? How rough can it be? Ugh.... After a time, I realized I was curled up in a ball on the floor of my dining room weeping like my youngest. She walked up to me, shook her head, said something like, "What a wuss," and wandered off. She's only 2. I gave up then. I'm kidding, mostly. It was a good episode that I did listen through. Something I can let my oldest hear for historical purposes. "This is how we used to do it before SD cards and...well, lots of other stuff."

Thanks for the info, folks. Again, this was just a thought experiment. Maybe someone will find this useful someday.

On a whim, I was looking at the pinouts for the 2600 keyboard controller last night. Am I correct in thinking that it can be used as-is with 7800basic? (That is, 7800basic shouldn't need changes to accommodate it.) Looks to me like the keyboard matrix could be implemented with combined controller functions. For instance, keypad button 1 on the player 2 port could be activated using: if joy1up && joy1fire1 then... Just wondered if this was correct.

Yeah, I'm down in Florida. Not exactly just around the corner, sadly. Thanks for the offer, though.

The motherboard is socketed, so there was no need to directly solder chips. I do keep myself grounded. The 4464s are TMS4464-15NL; my original 4416s were TMS4416-15NL. For whatever it's worth, the RAM always checks out on the self-test. I've left that running with the 4464s for ages at a time and never had it report a problem. Guess it depends on how good the self-test RAM checks are.

I actually ran computer with the 4464s plugged in to confirmed that they worked in the unmodified configuration...of course, I didn't run them very long, either. I suppose you may be right that the RAM itself is bad. The RAM chips aren't hot--none of the chips get unduly warm, in fact. I still have the original 4416s; can I plug these back in in the modified configuration and get the system running at 16k? I found the instructions in a post here, yes. I think it was sloopy who posted the one I used, and I confirmed it against other versions floating around online. Should be fine there. I don't have any other XLs, but I did pick up an MMU at the same time as the replacement PIA. Never have used it as all seemed right after replacing the PIA. I can swap it in to see what happens, though. Thanks very much for your thoughts, Rybags.

I picked up my 600XL on eBay some months ago. It wasn't working at the time; I needed to replace the PIA chip to get it functioning again. All seemed well at 16k after that, but I wanted to upgrade it to 64k. Following the instructions I found here, I bent the appropriate pins, soldered wires between them and the appropriate pads on the board...and it worked. Or so I thought. Periodically, after being left on for a while whether I'm using it or not--I use it almost exclusively for programming rather than for gaming--characters would appear on the screen at random locations. Sometimes the screen would have a few of these scattered around, while other times would see the screen covered in gobbledygook. Each time, the computer would freeze and need to be powered down. I undid my work, cleaned it up and redid it, especially around the pads on the board. (I'm modest at best with a soldering iron, and those pads are mighty close together.) Same problem. I've confirmed that the correct pins are bent up and the correct pads are connected up, so I can eliminate that much human error in this mess. I haven't tried reversing the upgrade to see if this improves things. To be frank, I'm not sure that this was in full working order at 16k as I never really used it much in that configuration. Maybe there were more extensive problems than just a bad PIA when the machine arrived. Anyway, I thought I'd post the latest bunch of stuff that appeared on the screen and see what anybody can make of it.

Only the Dreamcast has... Seaman. But I'd get a 2600 myself.

There is an image linked over at the AtariProtos page that I linked to. It's...plain. But it was just a prototype, so you can understand that. Just five buttons, like the arcade controls. Oh, I do like that Kids Controller. (There are images of that over on AtariProtos, too.) Very slick. That 5200 and its associated bits and pieces sure did have style, eh?

In my little back room at our house, I have my 5200 and 7800 out and in use on my old CRT. I play with the Intellivision there, too, because of the keypad on the controller; haven't found an agreeable way to emulate that. (Same with the 5200 joystick.) On my desk, I have my Aquarius and my 600XL attached to an LCD; I mostly use these as computers rather than game machines. For everything else, I set up an old PC with Maximus Arcade as a frontend and connected it through the CRT. With extension cables on the USB gamepads, I can play all the games from Nintendo's systems from the comfort of my little couch. (Over time, I plan to add more console emulation there, but will leave the Ataris and Inty alone.) I also run MAME through that PC, naturally, and play the heck out of arcade games there. (I'll be spending the next several months softening up my wife to let my father and me build a MAME cabinet next year.) There just isn't any more room for more consoles in my room. We have a Genesis, but it's mostly for my daughter and so sits out on the main TV. Other than that, I can have no more. Money is also a concern, of course. I have three kids; gone are the days of liberally shotgunning money into this sort of stuff, alas. One day, I really want a Vectrex and will have one. I'd like a TG16, but will probably defer it. Life just doesn't allow for that right now. So, hardware it is for the important stuff, and emulation for the rest. I may prefer it all to be on the real thing in principle, but life has a way of making you more practical than that. And, as Keatah reminds us, emulation has come a long way since I discovered it back in the mid-to-late-'90s.

Sorry I haven't replied sooner. Seems I lost track of this. I happened to get a pair of them with a 2600 I picked up on the Evil Bay. They weren't even part of the listing, which was an uncommonly nice thing to happen with an Evil Bay purchase! But you can get the cables themselves over there; there's a seller out of Titusville, FL that usually sells them. Might be other sellers, too.

I've heard of it before, and just remembered where that was. Over on AtariProtos, reference is made to this controller concept. According to AP, Asteroids was going to be CX-5201 and was to be included with the 5200. Then someone realized that the 5200 joystick really wasn't well-suited to this particular game. (I've tried the proto ROM out on my 5200...and then never tried it again. And I like the 5200 joystick!) Of course, neither game nor controller ever shipped.

I have a keyboard for a VIC-20 which is missing its 4 key. Looks like it snapped off. It's been a while since I pulled it from the computer, but I think the rest of the keyboard works. If anybody can do anything with it, you can have it for the shipping cost.

Yeah, I have my suspicions that cyberbullying laws and companies probably don't mix as such. If that were the case, then Steve Ballmer, God bless him, would probably have a case against a good quarter of internet users, eh? I kid, but think of all the abuse heaped on the agents of any given software company out there. And as far as I know, no one is subscribing Pete/Steve/Whomever Else to pr0n email lists or threatening families or anything like that. This seems to be a pretty strict lampooning of what seems to me to be a silly business practice. You've really developed this software and you're not going to try to make whatever money you'll make on it...because you're personally affronted? Okay...but that's not a good way to run a business.

Another solution, which I use, is an extension cable. You can swap out controllers all day long and do no damage to the joystick ports that way.

Crikey! It's like walking up to the helm of the starship Enterprise. That's fantastic!

I've done most of what Paul wants to do and for the exact same reasons. (One day I'll get into a video upgrade, but I'm in no rush.) I love my XEGS...except for that keyboard! (Yeah, I love it for those big pastel buttons and those angles. Anybody wanna make something of it? ) And it is really big on my desk. A fully-outfitted 600XL is much more suited to my needs. Oftentimes the higher-priced XEGS units that I see on eBay are the new-old-stock boxed units that B&C are selling, unless I'm mistaken. I don't recall seeing anyone else sell anything like that on a regular basis.

I've been running on an XEGS for about a year, but I picked up a nonfunctional 600XL on the Evil Bay a little while back. Brought it back to life--needed a new PIA chip as the old one was gumming the works up completely--and decided to brave the internal 64k upgrade. (My skills with solder require me to be brave. Heh.) After a small mistake, I got her up and running on 64k yesterday. Now I intend to part with the XEGS. I'm only allowed one example of an old machine at a time, y'see, and my wife sees all A8s as the same as all A8s. So I'll lose out on the Late '80s pastel buttons and the angled design I lusted after since I was young, but I'll get a super-compact computer with a fair keyboard. Good enough. I never had an Atari computer when I was little. But, boy, did I want one! I would see them in the stores and long quietly for one. And, yes, I really did fall in love with the XEGS. But, I had an Aquarius computer when I was a kid. And that was good enough for my parents. Never did get the XEGS because my parents had just bought me a 7800 and thought I didn't need another game system. What did they know from computers?

Thanks for sharing this Atarius. This example actually provides answers to one or two questions I'd been trying to form. Great work!

Talk as much as you like, Peter. These are exceptionally useful videos and tools you have here. Thanks very much!

Perry, this is fantastic. I've been trying to interest my elder daughter in learning to program--she's almost 8. She's vaguely interested but doesn't ever really settle into it. Has the mind for it but not the focus. Maybe your daughter's accomplishment will kindle her interest. That and the ponies, eh? . Great stuff!