CharlieChaplin

Well, there exists an A8FAQ maintained by Michael Current and published every 2 months at comp.sys.atari.8bit It contains a section about paddle programs (I know, because I wrote most of it)... greetings, Andreas.

Well, depends on the DOS - and as you know, there are quite many Atari DOS versions... just some examples: - 90k: DOS 1.0, DOS 2.0s, DOS A+, DOS XL (older versions), DOS 2.5, DOS 3.0, DOS 4.0, MyDOS, Turbo-DOS, Sparta-DOS, Bewe-DOS, Mach-DOS, Super-DOs, Top-DOS, Bibo-DOS, DOS II+D Ver. 4.5, DOS II+D Ver. 6.x, Smart-DOS, Happy-DOS, Warp-Speed-DOS, DOS XE, etc. etc.; -130k: DOS 2.5, Turbo-DOS, Bibo-DOS, Mach-DOs, Top-DOS, MyDOS, Sparta-DOS, Bewe-DOS, Super-DOS, DOS II+D Ver. 4.5, DOS II+D VER. 6.x, DOS 3.0, DOS 4.0, DOS XE, etc. etc. - 180k: DOS 2.0d, DOS XL (newer versions), Turbo-DOS, Bibo-DOs, Super-DOS, Top-DOS, My-DOS, Smart-DOS, Sparta-DOs, Bewe-DOS, DOS II+D Ver. 6.x, DOS XE, DOS 4, Happy-DOS, Warp-Speed-DOS, Mach-DOS, etc. etc. - 360k: Turbo-DOS, Bibo-DOS, Super-DOS, My-DOs, Top-DOS, Sparta-DOS, Bewe-DOS, DOS XE, DOS 4, etc. - 720k: My-DOS, Top DOS (Prof.), Sparta-DOS; DOS 4 ? (at least a patched version of DOS 4)... - 1440k: My-DOS (requires a patch!), TOP-DOS Prof., Sparta-DOS; all other densities, up to 16 Megabyte partitions: MyDOS, Top-DOS Prof., Sparta-DOS; Well, thats enough, isn`t it ?!? greetings, Andreas. P.S.: Please note that there are quite some incompatibilities concerning the disk format (DOS 2.x, DOS 3, DOS 4, Sparta, DOS XE, etc.) and the disk density (used/unused sectors in Medium/Enhanced density for example)...

Well, if you use MyDOS 4.50 or 4.51 then the Ramdisk driver must be named Autorun.Sys. With version 4.53 or newer one can use any filename and the extender .AR0 for the first Autorun, .AR1 for the second, etc. up to .AR9 for the 10th autorun file. By the way, the original Ramboot3 program is very buggy, there are several patches available as well as a completely new Ramdisk driver for MyDOS by Lee Barnes (MyRAMD1.COM and MyRAMD2.COM). Want to know more about the Ramboot bugs ?!? Ok, the Ramdisk driver is *relatively* slow, a faster version has been done by the author of XL2 (John Picken?). Next, in some cases the ramdisk driver (or MyDOS) may format your disk in drive 1, rather than formatting drive 8 / the ramdisk. Since this could not be corrected with only a new ramdisk driver, Lee Barnes made an update of MyDOS (version 4.54 and 4.55) as well as a complete new ramdisk driver. Hmmm, I do not know where these programs are available today. Lee was so kind and sent them to me via e-mail. For some time the programs were also available at Mathy van Nisselroy`s homepage (but I am not sure if they still are)... So, if you are interested in the update of MyDOs and the new Ramdisk driver, simply e-mail me: amp#abbuc*de (where # = @ and * = .) greetings, Andreas. P.S.: For a little bug test, do the following: Take a new/unused disk (or disk image), format it with MyDOS, write MyDOS on disk (configured for no Ramdisk!), copy the Ramdisk driver as an Autorun file or *.ARx on this disk or image. Now boot the new created disk or image and watch MyDOS formatting this disk automatically... Nice Bug, isn`t it ?!? Do the same with DOS 2.5 - and it will not format your disk...

Yep, I even know the programmer (Mirko Sobe) and met him several times at various Atari meetings here in Germany. The BOSS-X is a nice sort of desktop or GUI, alas everything is written in Turbo-Basic XL (no chance for a cart. version of BOSS-X). Nevertheless, Mirko uses his GUI on a 16MB harddisk under MyDOS 4.5x ... greetings, Andreas. P.S.: There is a german manual on the BOSS disk. Afaik, Mirko also tried to do an english version of BOSS (not sure if it is still available)...

Well, Dynakillers by GMG (Slovakia) is already available as a cartridge at Video 61 (Lance Ringquist)... Hmm, I forgot to mention some applications (some of them require a DOS, no problem for a cart...): - Fampy 6.1 (a MOD or better MD8 player); - Inertia 4.5 (a MOD player); - Megaplayer 1.6 ( a sound player); - Megaplayer 2.0 (a snd player and gfx viewer); - Visage 2.7 ( a gfx viewer); - Analogs text-Editor T:Edit (by BBK); and some more applications which I use quite often... -Andreas.

Well, I guess you drive your harddisk with SpartaDOs - don`t you ?!? alas, most if not all programs by Jeff Potter (Apacview, Jview, Colorview, ILBMread, Degasread, etc.) use the RAM under the OS, so with the disk versions of Sparta, they will not work... Maybe you can give Bewe-DOS a try. Just copy the file XBW130.DOS to your harddisk and make it bootable. Then load any RGB converter (like apacview or Jview) with that (sparta compatible) DOS, this should work... -Andreas.

Well, you also forgot the german DOS versions: - Bibo-DOS (by Compyshop, max. DSDD / 360k; supports 320k memory); - Turbo-DOS (by Reitershan, max. DSDD / 360k; supports 320k memory); - X-DOS (updated version of DOS II+D by Stefan Dorndorf, max. DSDD / 360k; supports up to 1 MB; now DOS 2.5 ED or MyDOS ED comp.); - DOS-XF (pre-version of Turbo-DOS, DSDD and 320k memory); and a few others. Thus I selected "other", since I use Turbo-DOs most often... greetings, Andreas.

Yes agreed !! You can convert / port any AMC game to any other computer or console you wish. Some of the AMC games are already ports (Tales, Bilbo, etc.)... You don`t have to ask me for this. The only limitation is for the A8 - if you port any of the games to A8 cart. format please be so kind and give me a copy of it (meaning: give me one complete cart per game)... thats all. greetings, Andreas Magenheimer.

Well, I would like to see the following games on cart: - Alternate Reality - Bard`s Tale - Elite - Herbert 1+2 - Tales of Dragons and Cavemen - Bilbo - 3d-Pac - Conan (by datasoft) - Winter Challenge / Winter Olympiad 1988 (disk/ tape by Tynesoft) - Winter Events (by Anco) - The Brundles (by KE-Soft) - Taipei ( a great Shanghai/Mahjong clone by PPP) - Kenny Dalglish Soccer Manager (by Zeppelin Games) - the "other" soccer manager (World Soccer?) by Zeppelin Games; - Mirax Force by tynesoft - Henry`s House by mastertronic - Mouse Trap (the comic-like game) by micro-Value / tynesoft - Fort Apocalypse - should be available as an XL/XE cart !! - Kangaroo (originally by SUN if I remember correctly) should also be available as an XL/XE cart!! - Demon Attack - as an XL/XE cart !! - Space Harrier - asap... - Super mario 3 asap... - a good conversion of Sonix... Enough for now. If you need the AMC games as .COM files (except for Herbert 1+2), let me know... greetings, Andreas Magenheimer. P.S.: Yes - I am a cart collector (but only A8 carts)...

Hello !! Maybe you guys do not know, but when Armin Stuermer (chief of AMC-Verlag) died at Feb. 5th 1998, I got all the rights of the AMC programs. Thus I am the copyright holder of Jinks (the AMC version), as well as of Herbert 1+2. Anyway - you are allowed to create cart versions of any AMC game IF YOU GIVE ME A COPY OF THAT/THESE CART/S... Thats all I ask for. You may even sell the carts at any price you want, but as said before I would like to get a copy !! Furthermore I would like (!) to see no hacker/cracker intros in the cart versions ("cracked by ..."). thats fair - isn`t it ?!? greetings from Germany, Andreas Magenheimer.

Well, I guess it is the version from AMC-Verlag, Germany... You can read the story behind it here at atari-age forum... The game has 4 levels (each with 4 colors plus dithering), a title screen and a title music. I am not sure if Lance used the easy title screen (without a title picture intro) or the enhanced title screen (with title picture intro)... Lets wait and see... After you have finished the four levels, the game gets harder and faster - but no new levels appear. afaik, the game also has an interlude (I don`t like it), where one can "choose" which level to play next... Anyway, the game was originally programmed around 1984-1986 (allthough the copyright says 1991 - that was when AMC Verlag got the rights for their own and unreleased game back!) and in my eyes it is quite boring, allthough I am the copyright holder of all AMC programs... -Andreas.

Well, it took me many months to find out how Neo-Tracker and its installer works. But now, Neo-Tracker loads off of my floppy drive and fully uses my 576k RAM. I will tell you how to do it: - The manual says the tracker and the installer work with Sparta DOS X (untetsted, I don`t have one!), My-DOs 4.5x (yes!!) and any DOS that has a memlo under $2000 and does not use RAM under OS ROM (nope! did not work with DOS 2.5, Turbo DOS, etc. etc.)... Usage: First coldstart your computer (meaning: power-off, then on again) and load the Installer without Basic (hold down Option!) under MyDOS 4.5x. You have to use Option "L" Binary load, since any kind of Autorun.SYS or *.ARx does not work (I do not know why). I used MyDOS 4.55 with a Ramdisk driver as *.AR0 (first Autorun) and an Ultraspeed driver as *.AR1 (second Autorun). Then I load the Installer or Neo-Tracker with the Binary load option L. When the menu of the instller appears, you can change and alter several things. First you can choose where to load the songs/samples/patterns from - just press RETURN if Drive 1 is ok for you. Next comes the hardest and most difficult part: the extra rambanks. The installer and neo-tracker require a minimum of 128k RAM. Make sure that all the shown rambanks are correct and fit with your computer. If the installer shows wrong / non-existing rambanks (or just garbage), quit the program without saving anything (that would be garbage then)... Make a coldstart (empty your RAM and extra RAM!) and try to load the installer again. Hopefully it now shows the correct rambanks. You can use SPACEbar to de/select the rambanks (i.e. if you have 576k and want to use 320k only for the neo-tracker). If you are satisfied with your selections, press RETURN. The most difficult part is done now. Next comes the I/O toggle, press SPACEbar to toggle it on or off (I recommend off). LAst comes the toggle for Pokey (4Bit) or Covox (8Bit) playback. Use SPACEbar to toggle - but use Covox only if you really have the Covox sound enhancement (otherwise the Neotracker will not work)... Now you are done...almost. Press Reurn again and the program will ask you to save NEO.COM. Simply confirm with "Y" and when done press ESC key and confirm with "Y" to quit the installer. A quite difficult process, but worth it... Now, whatever happens (maybe you get back to DOS/DUP, maybe not), you have to coldstart your atari again. When done, boot without Basic and use Binary load option "L" to load the neo-tracker under MyDOS. It should start loading and after 1-2 seconds present a title-screen (if not, the program has crashed). At the end of loading the program needs some seconds to depack, so wait... Finally neo-tracker will present a nice menu-screen. If you have any neo-sounds on disk, use TAB to set the cursor on the Track menu, then press CTRL-L to display a directory of *.NEO sounds. Choose one and press RETURN to load it. When loaded press Return to listen to it, press Spacebar to quit to the menu. You can also load/import MOD sounds, just use TAB to set the cursor to the Track menu and press CTRL-R to import a MOD sound (if you have any on Atari disks). To Save the MOD sound as NEO sound, set the cursor on the track menu and press CTRL-S to display a dir. again, then type in a filename (no extender) and press SHIFT-Return to save the file... Enough said, Neo-tracker has a built-in helpscreen, just press the HELP key to see all avilable keyboard commands or read the english instructions if you have them. If you still have difficulties or just want a copy with english instructions and some sounds, e-mail me: amp#abbuc*de greetings, Andreas. P.S.: I have already contacted the author (Epi / Adrian Matoga) and told him about the various bugs and problems. Let`s wait and see if he releases another version or update...

So, Vector is dead !! Kill the author also... and erase all copies of Numen, so that no-one speaks about that ever again. On the other hand, since the author is alive and Numen is widely available, we never give up hope... -Andreas.

Well, what about Broderbund`s Arcade Machine ?!? The Brundles (Level) Editor, Sogon, Tobot 2, Cultivation, Polar Pierre, Mr. Robot, The Wall (Breakout Clone), Brik Bat (Breakout Clone), Bomber Jack, Think & Work (Socoban Clone), Unicum (Breakout Clone), and many, many more... -Andreas.

Well, AR has more than just one copy protection: 1) disc - copy protection: As said before, some sectors of the disk 1, side A are not formatted for copy protection reasons. (Besides: AR, The City has 4 disksides, only side 1 is protected this way; The dungeon has 5 disksides: 1A, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B - there is no diskside 1B; only diskside 1A is protected this way);... The copy program which is found on one diskside of the AR disks will not copy the copy-protected side 1A of course (nor any other sector copier can do that)... 2) floppy - loading routines: The two games include special floppy loading routines, which prevent the game from a) loading with high or ultraspeed and b) loading from harddisk or cart or any other non-floppy hardware... (this has to do with timing issues, I guess)... 3) Save protection: Whenever you save the game to disk, there is a 12,5% possibility, that the program checks the copy protection (mentioned at point 1). If no copy protection is found, two FBI agents will appear informing you about an illegal copy and saving your current status as DEAD !! Of course you will not notice this "dead status" when saving, but you will notice it later, when reloading... (and this protection has nothing to do with protection number 4)... 4) Difficulty protection: Not really a copy protection, but whenever you save your current status, one of your characteristics will be lowered or even zeroed (even, if the program found the original copy protection). This protection was put in, to keep the game at a "high" difficulty level and to prevent the player from making hundreds of saves and thus solve the game within a few minutes... however, there are several hacker and patcher programs available, that will alter this... thats all I know about copy protections of AR. Most if not all data of the game is coded and one needs to decode it properly to make any changes to it. So far, even the available pirate copies did not alter or remove all copy protections. Some pirates forgot about point 3, no-one ever changed point 2, etc. etc. greetings, Andreas magenheimer.

Hello again, I almost forgot - send your programs to: [email protected] or to: [email protected] or visit the ABBUC homepage (www.abbuc.de - also available in english language!) to get more information... greetings, Andreas Magenheimer.

Hello folks, ABBUC has decided to do another software contest 2004. To avoid many confusions and mis-understandings, we have written down many more detailed rules than last year. The good news at first: Abbuc does not get the copyright for the contest programs, it gets only the right to release them on the Abbuc magazine (and therefore the authors can do whatever they want with their programs after the contest)... Now on with the rules - and don`t be shocked, many of them are self-explanatory: Rules for the ABBUC-Software Contest 2004: 1) General Rules: - Deadline: 01.August.2004 ! (=> Unconventional); - Prices: 1. place: 500 Euro + 250 Euro Bonus; 2. place: 250 Euro + 100 Euro Bonus; 3. place: 200 Euro + 75 Euro Bonus; 4. place: 150 Euro + 50 Euro Bonus; 5. place: 100 Euro + 50 Euro Bonus; 6. place: 75 Euro; 7. place: 50 Euro; - Rights: - ABBUC gets the right of a premiere- release on its magazine! - Quality Check:- Sorin Pascu (Contest leader!); - Wolfgang Burger (ABBUC chief!); - ABBUC members (at the Unconventional & ABBUC hp.); - Presentation: - author needn't be there/present at the Contest; - presentation at the Unconventional and ABBUC homepage, decisions and places/prices at ABBUC-JHV 2004; 2) Program Types & Size: - Program Types: a) Games(s), b) Application(s) (also Tools, Utilities, ...) c) Operating-Systems (DOS, Computer-OS); => no Demos !! => no pre-versions, no Alpha/Beta Versions, etc. !! - Compatibility: - must be minimum XL/XE compatible! (800XL, 800XE, 65XE, 130XE); => the support of extra hardware is allowed but this extra hardware mustn't be (!) a requirement to load and/or run the program properly; - RAM Size: - 0 to 128kbytes ! (min. 64k or max. 128k Ataris!); - Ramdisk (if any): - if so, must be 130XE compatible, standard E3,E7,EB,EF banks!; => must not use sep. Antic access ! for all XE and XL upgrades!; - Disk Size: - no minimum or maximum length ! (<=>1 diskside!); 3) Loading & Languages: - Disk Format: a 5,25" Atari disk or an ATR-image that contains: - a) Disk-File(s) or b) Boot-Disk(s) => no PC-Disks, CD's, Tapes or E-Mails with pure Atari files !! - Disk Density: a) Single (90k), b) Enhanced (130k); - Program load: - if Bootdisk: Auto-Boot with/without Basic !; - if Disk-File: a) DOS 2.x Autorun, b) Gamedos boot; - Language: a) inside program: english or german; b) description/doc.: also english or german; - Pgm. Language: - theoretically any programming language you know/have/like ! => but all programs (*) must be compiled or prepared in such a way, that they will run fine without the used programming language !! (* with the exception of Atari Basic & Turbo Basic XL listings); that was it so far. Many rules are self-explanatory, but for some rules you must keep in mind that Abbuc has 400 members and not all of them do have DD drives, harddisks, big ramdisks, etc. greetings from ABBUC - Andreas. Magenheimer.

Well, currently two systems are hooked up: 1) Atari 800XL with 576k RAM, 1 external joypad and 2 internal OS (XL-Os and 800 OS, switchable), Atari 1050 with Speedy upgrade, directly connected via SCART to a Stereo-TV (thats my test Atari!)... 2) Atari 800XL with 64k RAM 1 external joypad and 1 XL-OS, Atari 1050 with Speedy upgrade connected via SIO2PC to an old PC running MS-DOS and via SCART to a small mono TV (thats my plug and play Atari)... in the closet are: 2 XF551 drives (5,25" both 360k max.) with Hyper-XF-OS, 1 XEGS with 64k and Keyboard, 1 Lightgun, 1 ST-Mouse, 1 pair of paddle controllers, 1 My-IDE cart+IDE harddisk, another Atari 800XL with 64k and original XL-OS and some more uncool stuff. I SOLD quite a lot of my Atari stuff (that I did not use) in the last 3 years, e.g. 2 msc-ide interfaces, 3 XE`s (65XE, 800XE and 130XE) all upgraded to 128k RAM, 3 XF drives with 3,5" floppies (max. 720k each), 1 XEP80 card, 1 XE adapter to convert Cart-port+ECI into XL parallel bus, and many many more stuff (hardware and software)... I am (almost) happy with the setup I have now. Only the XL that is connected via SIO2PC to the PC should be upgraded to 320k RAM and 2 OS (XL-OS and 800 OS switchable), but thats it. I don`t miss any A8 harddisks or 3,5" drives (SIO2PC does that job much better)... greetings, Andreas Magenheimer.

Well, it is great to see SH being released on cartridge. But I do hope that the disk version will be available as well... Maybe a good project for the ABBUC software contest 2004 (or 2005)... see: www.abbuc.de (german, english and other languages). If you take part in this contest you can win a big price and still do not lose the copyright... but only disk-versions will count, since abbuc wants to release the contest programs on their magazine... anyway, can`t wait to get that cartridge... greets, Andreas magenheimer.

Hello Mux, I am happy to hear, you will do a boot and a file-version. By the way: Why not join the ABBUC software contest 2004 ?!? The Deadline is August 1st, 2004 and you have the chance to win a good price (money!). Maybe you do not know - ABBUC only wants the right to release the game on their magazine (400 members) and the author keeps the copyright ! Well, in 2003 we/ABBUC had only some Basic listings (games that looked like 20 year old Basic ltype-in listings), so if your game would have been available then, you would have won the 1st price (500 Euro cash). I don`t know how hard the competition will be next year. but from my point of view you still have a good chance to make the 1st place... greetings, Andreas Magenheimer.

Hello Heaven, I have 3 file-disks filled with packers (2 disks just for the collection - these are very old packers) for the XL/XE. The most important disk contains Super Packer, Flashpack, DJ14-Packer, DJ56-Packer, Fast-Packer, Code-Cruncher 3.0, Power-Packer, SFDN-Packer and a few more. The best packer on this disk is the DJ-Packer, but the Code-Cruncher 3.0 is also very good (they do not have the total=30kbytes limit and they do not mind init adresses!). As some kind of bootdisks I have the Magnus Cruncher 5.0 (it is a file, but when loading the linker, it tries to re-load from sector 4), the Code Cruncher 2.x (also a file, also re-loads from sector 4), The APC-Packer (requires 320k RAM, Newell/TOMS compatible not Compyshop!) and the APC-Archiver (also requires 320k RAM). As mentioned before these packers are all written for the XL/XE computer not for the 5200 VCS. If you are interested in some of these packers, just send an e-mail to: [email protected] greetings, Andreas Magenheimer.

Hello mux, will you release the game in boot-disk or file format ?!? Well, I prefer (and vote for) file-format. so anyone can load the game from his favourite DOS or Gamedos... greetings and happy coding - andreas magenheimer.

Thanxx Mux ! I am pretty sure I will use these schematics for my ABBUC article. Now I hope to see the schematics for that polish SID-XL project (via the cart. port). Besides, have you guys any software (msx-demos, etc.) written yet ?!? I would like to mention any available software or even place any available software on the magazine where the article appears... anyway, greetings and thanks - Andreas Magenheimer.

Well, pics are nice - but: are there any schematics, plans or handmade drawings for the SID upgrade(s) available yet ?!? Would like to use them for an article series in ABBUC magazine - sound upgrades for Atari XL/XE: 1) second Pokey for stereo-sound, 2) Covox-upgrade for 8bit digisample record/playback, 3) Midi-interface(s) and 4) SID upgrade(s). The first 3 articles are already written and they also mention available software for these upgrades and/or enhancements... Maybe someone can help me with the SID upgrade (especially with schematics, since this upgrade is relatively new and no schematics have been available yet)... greetings, Andreas Magenheimer.

Well, I have already downloaded the full version. Think I got the playable demo-version some years ago. Besides: the full version has 60 levels, how many levels had the demo version ?!? Since I am no good in "thinking" games, I already got stuck in the 3rd level - but nevertheless the game (gfx, msx) is very nice !! greets - Andreas Magenheimer.