Muzz73

Oh, man... I can totally sympathize with you on the disk speed! I bought an EPYX FastLoad cartridge for my 64C back in the day. Although the speed difference was VERY noticeable most of the time, stock Apple ][ and A8 machines still spun donuts around it.

My dad got ours gently/briefly used, but it was the Heavy Sixer w/Combat, two joysticks and two sets of paddles. The guy also threw in Missile Command and Asteroids. Those were the days...

I've found that most other joysticks are superior to the CX-40 out of the box, but the key reason I use CX-40's: the fact that you can get all of the internal parts to rebuild them, NOS from Best and B&C. Best even has improved handles and PCB's that make the CX-40 MUCH better than when it was brand new, back in the day. The feel of the CX-40 is completely different if you rebuild one using the improved components. In short, I love the CX-40 after it's been tweaked really hard. Bone stock, it's a spongy mess. Just my opinion, folks...

I started with Commodore and stuck with them for many years. I got into Atari later and now love them every bit as much as the old Commodore machines. I use Atari machines more, as a matter of fact... I liked pointing out to people on both sides that the machines are more alike than they are different and equal, in most respects...

I also thought Atlantis was pretty cool, until I saw it on the Intellivision. That version spoiled me for life. I always loved Chopper Command, Ms. Pac-Man and Star Raiders. All of those still impress me that they run in 128 bytes of RAM!

Man, I'd love to mess with that GUI when it becomes available! One question, though... would you be able to use the STM1 (or any ST mouse, for that matter) by just plugging it in, or will it require some rewiring ot the A8's joystick port?

Beautiful. All of it. Except that hideous Dell PC... make sure you get rid of that first! LOL

That... is... awesome!!!

It can be either A: or B:, depending on how you hook it up. Being that I have an ST with an internal FDD, the one in the monitor will always be drive B: for me. I guess I will just get a proper PSU for my SF314 and go with that. I thought it'd be cool to try and put the mechanism into the PS3000, but things are working fine for me right now and I don't want to mess that up.

I have never tried getting into the case before... it could be quite a production. Funny thing about the PS3000... there were supposedly only about 1,000 of them made and distributed through out the U.S. and Canada. This is the 2nd one I've owned and I got both of them for free. I gave the other one to a friend who is a serious Atari collector in France and he was VERY happy to get it. I see it as a white elephant... people told me for years that they'd love to have it, but no one ever wanted to trade me anything for it and if anyone ever did, they were not willing to pay for shipping (it's VERY heavy for its size). I was afraid to put too much wear-and-tear on it, because it was an odd duck, so it sat in my mini storage for years, getting dusty. I needed a color monitor for my ST setup, so I took it out recently and started using it again. Nice monitor, I just have no need for a single-sided drive at this point and was looking into my options.

I don't really want to hack this thing up, being that it's my only ST color monitor, so I was just wondering if it was something that could be done fairly easily. The only reference I've found online involves hacking and soldering.

A friend and I have half-way joked about Windows recompiling itself in the background, while you're not looking, so as to intentionally run like crap. Once it realizes that your machine is running too well, it "fixes" everything for you. As I said, it was just a joke, but it sure would explain a few things...

If you don't mind using a grayish keyboard from the beige model, this guy has them brand new (old stock): http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-Vintage-TI-99-4A-Computer-ALPHA-NUMERIC-KEYBOARD-Package-Texas-Instruments-/221314596982 I think that's your best bet right now. You might even be able to move your black keycaps onto it, but I'm not sure.

This guy has a used keyboard, if you don't mind moving your keycaps over. Untested, though... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Replacement-Keyboard-Assembly-Circuit-For-Texas-Instruments-Computer-TI-99-4A-/151132136568?pt=US_Vintage_Computing_Parts_Accessories&hash=item23302d6478 Good luck in your search!

Yes, I read too much into it. I do that, sometimes. Sorry about that! I voted!

I also make the comparison to old cars. There's an inherent simplicity that cannot be matched by an emulator or virtual machine and, as stated by Mr. Jules Winnfield, "Character goes a long way". It is from an age when 16 colors made for a decent picture, 64K of RAM was enough for anybody and 1MHz could run anything they could throw at you. In this day and age, you're lucky to even see your system boot up with thousands of times that much power. A few years ago, my uncle asked me why there's an 800XL (or sometimes an ST) at my desk instead of a more modern machine. I gave him the following three examples: 1) I turn it on and it boots instantly. 2) Unlike any modern computer that I have used, the Atari does what I want it to do when I tell it to do it and doesn't give me any lip. Delete file. "Are you sure you wish to delete this file?" Yes. "The file is locked." Unlock file. Delete file. "You don't have permission." Reset permissions. Delete file. "Are you sure you wish to delete this file?" YES. Empty Trash. "Are you sure you wish to empty the trash?" >>YES<<. 3) My 800XL is 30 years old and hasn't let me down, yet. Besides all of this, I have two Windows PCs and a MacPro at my workstation, five days a week, troubleshooting. If I came home and had to look at either Windows or Mac OSX, I'd be tempted to throw the machine out the window and then jump out after it!

I didn't vote, because I don't flat out agree with the verbage of either option, but I will say this - as someone who has played the 2600 version of the game, I thought it sucked. Badly. Was it the worst Atari 2600 game, ever? I doubt it... has anyone here ever played Sorcerer for the 2600? P.U...

That's awesome! Thanks for the info!

OK, I've been thinking of putting a Stereo Pokey board in one of my A8's for some time now. Here is my question... Is it just a few demos that use it, or is there actually a visual composer that willl take advantage of that second Pokey, allowing for 8-voice, stereo compositions? It doesn't seem that it'd be worth it to me, just for playing demos, but I love chiptunes, so I thought I'd look into it and see if what type of software support there might be for it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

OK, I'll chime in... I'm not Canadian and IT WASN'T ME!!! LOL Also... I loves me some Intellivision games, too! Hey, I think I've got it... it was Colonel Mustard, in the parlor with a PayPal account!

Hmm... that looks just like the internal ACSI on the Mega. I'm going to dig and see if the pinouts are the same. That would be great! Thanks for the pics!

Yeah, I looked into that one and it still uses the MegaBus slot and requires his TOS 2.06 upgrade (won't work with the one that I already have), but his devices can be daisy-chained, so that may be my best option. Thanks for the info! I'll probably go that route.

I believe so... it's a set of pins (two rows) in the back-left corner. Check out Lotharek's site: http://www.lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=93

I have already lost my MegaBus slot to a TOS 2.06 upgrade and didn't really want to start tearing things out if I didn't have to, so I was hoping that the internal ACSI port might have yielded some results. I was thinking of an IDE or CF interface of some sort (I have some new, 3GB CF microdrives sitting around), but it seems like they all use the MegaBus slot. Granted, it's a lot easier that way than most alternatives, but I just wanted to see what else was out there and if I had missed anything. Thanks, all!

Haha! Mine was missing the brushed aluminum (Isn't that what that is?) just below there, with the clear strip intact. Ah, those were the days...