Commodore Loadstar 81

multas gratias!

It seems that that website has been taken over by the Vectrex Regeneration iOS app. And my Veccy just crapped out this week. (I get sound like normal, but no graphics other than a 1-cm bright white horizontal line in the center of the screen!) So… anyone know how to fix one of these things? I'm terrified to open it up, even just to look at the caps and ICs.

I appreciate the advice. I'm mostly just trying to talk myself into letting the STfm go rather than just keeping both. :Þ

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Gearing up to move to another state, I decided that it was finally time to divest myself of my retro collection and just get by with emulation in the future. At least for 4th generation machines and older (with the singular exception of the Philips CD-i; I'm not aware of any good CD-i emulators out there). I no longer own any Commodore computers, or Apple computers, or Tandy computers, or Timex Sinclair computers, or IBM computers. All of my 1st/2nd gen consoles are gone except for my Odyssey 2, and that one's just a matter of time, I'm sure. The only 3rd gen console I'm keeping is my Atari 7800, because it's awesome. But I couldn't just get rid of everything. I've kept an old 486 that I dearly love, and I've also decided that I'll keep one 8-bit computer (an Atari 130XE) and one 16-bit computer, which was always going to be an ST (on account of the ST not being such a pain in the ass like the Amiga). But I can't quite decide whether to keep my STe or my STfm. Leaning towards the STe, of course, but I'm wondering if anyone has a good argument for going with the STfm instead. I've always been a "wide net" retro collector in the past, and now that it seems like I'm finally paring down to just Atari stuff in the main, I'm wondering if anyone more expert in the platform can offer any advice. Sell me/tell me: which ST is the real keeper?

Ditto here!

Thanks much!

I just found one on ebay, so thanks for the tip. Next rarest console I have is the Emerson Arcadia. Does anyone still make a multi-cart for that system? (As if there were games other than Cat Trax worth playing on it...)

My cart just arrived today! Worked perfectly; Pac-Man on the ChF is amazing! So, let's see, now that I have a multi-cart for the oldest video game system, the next ones to look for are multi or flash carts for the Atari 2600, Mgnavox Odyssey 2, and Bally Astrocade. Hrm. Anyone know where I can find an Astrocade multicart?

Payment sent.

Cool. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Damn, I just found out about this. When's the next run of carts planned for?

I've just recently acquired a 1040STfm. It's my first ST, and I'm given to understand that it will run the majority of ST games, except for those few games specifically made to take advantage of the superior hardware in an STe/Mega/Falcon. If I want to be able to access the largest possible library of games, what would you recommend for a second ST? My gut tells me to wait until I can find a Falcon, but are there many games that will not run on either a regular ST or a Falcon and must run on an STe? Or is the Falcon mostly backwards-compatible with STe-specific software? I haven't been able to find an answer to this question anywhere online.

Sorry for the thread-necromancy, but I'd like an answer to slx's last question. I'm experiencing the same issue with my lately-acquired 800's "System Reset", "Option", and "Select" keys (but not "Start", curiously enough).

Sweet. Thanks.

Update (since, apparently, I can't edit the post): After mashing the start button a while, I finally got the keyboard test to run, and, indeed, it seems that my start button is worn out to the point where it almost doesn't work (maybe one press in fifty connects). So I'll revise my last question: how do I go about fixing one of the function keys on an XE machine? EDIT: Aaaaand it's okay again. I opened up the keyboard to examine the mylar, and sure enough, the contacts and traces under the start and option keys were a little dirty. I buffed them with a q-tip and now they're right as rain. And if this fix doesn't stick, I can always get a new mylar from Best Electronics. It's all groovy now. -- So, yeah, just the one question: is there any reason in the world to keep a 5200 around if one despises those analog joysticks and has a 130XE?

Oh, and one thing more (which has me a little nervous). I just tried to run the self test program, and while it goes to the self test screen when I hold "option" and power up, I can't get any of the tests to work -- the computer doesn't seem to recognize when I hit the "start" button. Any troubleshooting advice? Do I have a bad start key?

Anyway... To address my main question, now that I have a 130XE, can I basically ditch my 5200 (and all its attendant joystick woes)? Or are there any must-play games that came out on the 5200 but not on the 8-bit platform?

Thanks very much! Is there a list or FAQ out there that mentions which games are incompatible on the XL/XE without the translator disk? Uh, while I appreciate that such a setup would probably give me the best compatibility, I prefer to work with what I find "in the wild" (as collectors sometimes phrase it). Also, the XE machines look really freaking cool.

So after looking around for a good long while, I finally came across an Atari 8-bit machine at a Goodwill today. It's a 130XE, which is great, but I do have a few questions about compatibility. - How well does 400/800 software run on an XE? I've heard that it requires some kind of compatibility disk that loads the old 400/800 OS first. - To what extent can an 8-bit computer replace an Atari 5200? Are there "conversions" of 5200 games out there made for the 8-bit? (I remember hearing rumors about a multi-cart that has them, called something like the "5200 Blast" or some such.) If they exist, I'd assume that most of the games are converted to work with digital input from a standard CX-40 joystick, but are there games (like Centipede etc.) that would use the trackball too? - Possibly a silly question, but does the XEGS's light gun work on other XE computers?

This my first post to Atari Age. I'm a longtime retro gamer (all vintage systems and computers, not just Atari), but I've only very recently gotten away from emulation and seriously into collecting genuine hardware again. Anyway... I acquired my first 5200 console a few weeks ago, and the joysticks were predictably horrible (badly tarnished Revision 7 flex circuits inside). I've replaced the circuits with Revision 9's and painted the contacts under the buttons with silver conductive paint, so now they at least work, but I'm not hopeful that they'll continue to work for all that long. Thus began the hunt for some Wico Command Controls. Just today, I've won an ebay auction for two joysticks and one y-cable. (I know that the Wico keypads are super-rare, so I'm pretty much stuck using the first-party Atari joysticks and their horrible keypads for the time being. At least until I get a Trak Ball, but I don't really have any games that need one yet, so that's waiting on the back-burner.) Of course, if I want to play any two-player games, I'm going to need another y-cable. So, I've come here to ask: with ebay and Amazon turning up bupkis, is there anywhere else online to look for a Wico joystick y-cable? Or am I stuck having to make one myself (which I could only do if I had instructions in English rather than Engineerese, since I can't read a circuit diagram to save my life)?