Muzz73

I voted 400/800 line in the poll before actually reading your post. Oops... Since you are only planning on one, I think the 800XL is your best bet. Minimal tweaking, runs just about everything and more robust than the XE line (though the XE's look pretty slick).

That 16K module was brought in by someone in our user group, but I do have a Commodore 8K, an aftermarket 16K (Cardco, I think?) and a 32K PCB that Eslapion over on Denial built. Gosh, I haven't logged in to the Denial forum in over a year... I need to snap to it! What are you looking for specifically, aside from the parts you listed above?

Nice! While I haven't done any component level restoration or preventative maintenance, myself (I always tell people that my soldering ability is akin to giving a Stradivarius to an orangutan), I had Ray Carlsen go through all of my VIC-20's and replace any weak/defective parts while I did up the case. I went out of my way to get the ugliest, yellowest, most horribly sunburned VIC-20 I could find from our user group cache, broke it down to individual pieces and got to work. I pulled the decal with the serial number and all of the rotting, black rubber feet off of the bottom, masked off the badges on the top of the case (I didn't want to damage them by bending them while prying them off) and scrubbed it squeaky clean in the kitchen sink. After it air dried, I took a can of red spray paint (the kind that is designed to stick to plastic patio furniture without primer) and went to it - inside, outside, through the vents... I then reapplied the decal on the bottom and put new feet on while the paint was still tacky, for extra hold (I used clear silicone feet instead of black rubber, for better longevity). After the paint dried, I put a spare 64C keyboard in it (it looked nicer with the red case than chocolate brown did) and voila! Here are a couple of (years old) pictures of my son and I with it at a user group meeting. Since my son doesn't want to put wear & tear on his nice, PET key VIC-20 system with all matching peripherals, we use this one as our daily driver VIC. I am thinking of putting the peanut butter colored function keys on it, just so something remains classic VIC about it, but I'm pretty happy with it the way it is.

The REX 100/102 is a small flash RAM unit that fits into the Option ROM socket behind the little hatch on the under side of the TRS-80 Model 100/102. It has 1MB flash RAM. If I understand it correctly, it has 256K reserved for the DOS functions needed to address the other 768K as a drive. Check it out here: http://www.club100.org/index.html 768K is minuscule by today's standards, but it should be fine for an 8-bit machine. It's still more than two DSDD 5.25" floppy disks and being that the file size for the Model 100/102 is so small, it should be decent storage for portability's sake. They also have units called "NADSBoxes" that attach to one of the ports on the back and have much more storage, but I'd rather have a smaller unit, tucked up inside (I'm picky that way).

I've had a couple Tweety Boards in my time and yes, they were phenomenally easy to install - solderless! The board had some double-faced tape on the under side and you piggy-backed it onto the YM. Apart from being cheap and easy enough for a baboon to install, the board really had no redeeming qualities, IMHO... all it did was take a sub-par sound chip and split the channels out. It was fun to mess around with, though.

I was thinking of experimenting with random number generation in BASIC and intended to use my microcassette recorder for bulk storage on the 102. I am now thinking of investing in one of those REX storage units, instead. I'd still need a cassette cable to pipe everything out to my PC's sound system (for backup), but I guess I could try the one from my CoCo 2... I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to fry anything! Thanks!

Hahahahaha!!! These are great!

I wrote the above post when I was trying to get a Model 100 off of ebay, but got sniped (3 times in the same week). A week and a half ago, a nice guy gave me a Model 102 for free and I'm pretty stoked... it runs like a top and I take it with me just about everywhere! I still need a cassette cable, though. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

Get both of them, put the 800 away until you can get your hands on an Incognito (if ever) and use the 800XL as your "daily beater". Just an idea.

I have three black & silver units, myself (my son has one as well). It doesn't hurt to have a few for parts, especially if you're saving them from being recycled/thrown out. I may have to to pick up a few more off of fleabay, if the price is right...

Ultimas 5 & 6, darn it!

Does anyone out there know if they are the same as for other models? As I understand it, the Model I and the Model III used the same cable, but what about the Model 100? And does anybody know where I can get one? Thanks!

Man, I'd love one of those. What do they usually run (cost wise)?

The best way to archive old Atari floppy disks is to put them into the floppy drive and make copies, one at a time, onto new 5.25" disks... Ha ha... I know, you said you wanted to use modern media, but I just had to throw this out there!

I have only a vague idea what might have happened with the release of the 7800 or what went on between the three aforementioned companies. I was just going by some of what Leonard said at CommVEx in July (the video is posted online). He did seem to have trouble remembering some of the stuff that went on 30 years ago during Q&A, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were some errors. I also might have misunderstood some of it. He focused primarily on Commodore stuff, as that was the theme of the gathering. It would have been great to hear more. If only he had more time...

I was at CommVEx this past summer and saw Leonard Tramiel while he was there, answering questions. The 7800 was one of the questions that came up. He said that in 1984-85, there was a three-way pissing match between Commodore, Atari and Amiga; because of all of the changing of hands between the three companies, they were all suing each other to get things settled. While this was going on, it caused delays in the release of some products, like the 7800. As far as the NES is concerned, he said that Nintendo had approached them about marketing the NES as a new Atari system is the U.S., but Atari was focusing a lot of their time and resources into developing the ST as quickly as possible, so they declined for that reason.

They all have their charms... I think the gameplay/overall flow of the games are best on the Apple ][ versions. While the C=64 versions are generally nicer looking and have less annoying sound effects, the loading speed on the drive is disgraceful. Even with an EPYX FastLoad, it's not nearly as fast as the original Apple ][, though it is tolerable. I haven't played the A8 versions just yet, but they seem to be the happy medium from what I have observed. Does anyone know how many of the Ultima games for the Apple ][ supported the Mockingboard? I know that Ultima V supported dual boards in slots 4 & 5, for a 12-voice, quadrophonic soundtrack, but I only knew one guy in high school that had a Mockingboard, so we never got to try two.

Very nice!

Isn't there a 4GB limit on FAT32 partitions?

Yes, I can't wait to have my Incognito installed. I am a doofus when it comes to soldering, so I am waiting for a friend of mine to do it. Waiting... and waiting... :/

I'm sorry for the sporadic posts. My internet service at home is terrible and I can often only connect for a few minutes before losing carrier. It sucks, so I have to post quickly. OK, I have four single density DOS 2.5 floppies that I got from B&C, none of which work in either drive, on either computer with any of the five SIO cables that I have. When I turn the computer on with the drive empty, it gives me BOOT ERROR in slow mode. When I put an Atari DOS master disk in and turn the computer on, I get BOOT ERROR in rapid mode. I haven't cleaned the heads on either drive, yet, but am hoping to have that done soon. If cleaning the drive heads doesn't help, should I consider that My Atari DOS disks may just be blank?

OK, the latest news is... both drives give the repeated BOOT ERROR when plugged in and no disks in them at all. I've tried every combination of 800, 800XL, 810, 1050 and five separate SIO cables. Ugh!

Agreed. Star Raiders is still the best spaceship combat game I've ever played, classic or contemporary. No matter how spiffy the graphics are or how advanced the gameplay might be on modern machines, people still stop and watch when I play Star Raiders on the old 800. It was WAY ahead of its time and it's still pretty impressive to me that it runs on a 1.7x MHz machine with 16K RAM. You'd be hard-pressed to find a modern game running half as well on thousands of times as much memory and processing power. OK, I'm down off of the soapbox... I don't need to keep ranting about SR. It speaks for itself! As I mentioned in another string, a used 1200XL was my first A8 and I was hooked! Even with the screwy picture of the 1200XL, I loved the graphics... still do!

I was using some single density Atari DOS 2.5 disks I got from B&C (new) and two different 50w PSU's that I got from Best (also new). I'll try disassembling and cleaning the drives in a few days (I have an out-of-town wedding to attend this weekend). Thanks for all of the help! I'll post an update soon.

Yes, I had them set to different ID #'s when they were daisy-chained, but had both set to drive #1 when they were hooked up individually. Ugh. I'll try my other cables, too.