CharlieChaplin

Personally I think that the Atari UK tape of Thunderfox is harder to find than the XE cartridge. But since only a few Atarians (still) load games from tape, the price for the cart. version is much higher. Too high in my eyes, got the Thunderfox cart. in the 90s and paid no more than 20$ or 30DM back then. Paid the same price for Summer Games, Karateka, Crystal Castles, Mario Bros, Choplifter, etc. (but I was so stupid to give the XE cart. version of Choplifter away and nowadays it is not easy to find it complete for less than 100$, ouch). But maybe in 10 / 20 / 30 years some (or many?) of the A8 programs will be available again much cheaper, when "our" generation has passed away (or is 70+ years old) and the next generation is not that interested in Atari...?

you may also take a look at this (old) topic: Commodore and Atari flippie disks One of the inventors of the multi-format disks replied there in post #33.

Not to forget Yahtzee! We need unlimited lives for Yahtzee... ;-)

Hmmm, he is from Germany, so maybe he is watching some german (Wernher von Braun) V2 rocket movie ? If I interpret things correctly, V2 was the same as A4 (Aggregat 4)...

Not good when playing sounds, samples, etc. with Poke 559,0 / screen off... :-( What about the 2X Pro - does it have audio passthru even when there is no video signal?

[ooops, brown connector offset by 1 pin already mentioned.]

Found this one: Dungeon Character Roller, but I guess it is not the one you are searching.

Compared to the RetroTink 2X-Pro, they added +145 USD for Scart and remote control, ouch. Now the price comes close to a Framemeister, which was simply too expensive for me. Besides, which RetroTink gives good/best results for the A8 (PAL or NTSC), the 2X Mini, the 2X Classic or the 2X Pro ?!? Or are they all good/very good for the A8 via composite/S-Video ?

Yes, Homesoft already did it. Search for Berks Four or simply download disk 447: http://www.mushca.com/f/atari/index.php?idx=9

When I choose 16-16-0 for Preset, then DC Offset default value is -8 (changed the preset to other values and then back again just to make sure that DC Offset always defaults to -8 and yes, it does). For PDM playback I am using Xuel's PDM player on the AVG cart.

Well, if I remember correctly the "resampling window" (where you use 2048) is only in effect when converting to 4Bit PCM or PWM, it should have no effect with 8bit PDM ?!? But maybe I am wrong here. So you are using this setup/config. for Fuji Convert: - Preset: 16-16-0 - DC Offset ??? (ranges from +7 to -8, no clue what value is good here) - Coarse Levels: 16 ? - Fine Levels: 16 or 14 ? - Bump: 0 - Non-Linear Pulse: 5/7 - Linear Pulse: 4/6 - Mono, 44khz (stereo 22khz produces too much noise in my opinion) - IDE player (FJC or Xuel) I tried DC Offset with a) -7, b) zero and c) +7 but did not notice any difference. (But I am hard hearing / hearing impaired, maybe that is why.) And errmm, since version 0.3.x I always use auto gain, in older versions of Fuji Convert I first converted the songs to WAV format and turned up the volume quite a lot. This is no longer nescessary with auto-gain, so why do you suggest NOT to use auto-gain? Find attached MI by E for IDE player (AVG or SIDE), a) converted with Fuji Convert 0.2.x, no auto-gain, b) with version 0.3.4, auto-gain, DC Offset = -7 and 16 fine levels, c) with version 0.3.4, auto-gain, DC Offset = 0 and 15 fine levels and d) with version 0.3.4, auto-gain, DC Offset= +7 and 14 fine levels. To me there seems to be quite a difference regarding sound quality of a) vs. b), c) and d), but there seems to be no (or very little difference) between versions b), c) or d), so DC Offset and Fine Levels did not matter that much there it seems...?!? All conversions are for PAL machines, since I only own PAL Ataris. MI by E mono version 02 no auto gain.zip MI by E version 034 pdm14 mono.zip MI by E version 034 pdm15 mono.zip MI by E version 034 pdm16 mono.zip

Well, I would guess it is the OS of the XEGS (XL-OS Rev. 4). When I owned an XEGS (PAL) for maybe a year, I also noticed strange behaviour with various A8 programs (demos, games, tools, yes, even unprotected PD stuff), that worked fine on my 800XL computer (with XL-OS Rev. 2) but showed garbage or jumped to Missile Command (or did other strange things) with the XEGS. I simply gave the XEGS away then... Nowadays there are "better" solutions, e.g. install an upgrade (U1MB, Antonia, etc.) that lets you choose different OS versions -or- replace the OS with a selfmade 4-in-1 OS, a 32-in-1 OS or simply an XL-OS Rev. 2. (Afair, mega-hz once uploaded a patched XL-OS Rev. 2 for the XEGS that was 32k in size and included the OS and Atari Basic Rev. C, but no Missile Command and should run fine with all programs that work with XL-OS Rev. 2; this OS revision 2 of course assumes that a keyboard is always there and does not notice if there is no keyboard connected.)

Hardcore version = yellowman version, 1 shot kills player; he will still finish the game! You forgot the CharlieChaplin version => baby soother / baby pacifier version, 1 fart (shot) kills all enemies! One baby cry and the end bosses run (fly) away... Otherwise I will never make it through the game... (amateur and novice are already too difficult for me).

If you had coded it, then it surely (and surely+) would not run on U1MB computers. Both XE carts however (Hong Kong type and Taiwan type cart.) did run fine on my U1MB equipped 800XL computers before I sold them to Nir Dary. If you mean the original/unreleased A8 Battlezone version or Homesofts 5200 conversion, this might be true (I never tested this with U1MB).

Offtopic: Fandal told me, that the Atari lawyers explicitly listed which titles he should remove from his webpage. But I do not remember the list anymore. Just like you, I found Basketball, Asteroids, Star Raiders, Star Raiders II, Centipede, Millipede and other Atari titles on his page, so I have to ask him again which titles he was asked/forced to remove. (Besides, if I remember correctly, Atari sold the rights for Battlezone to Rebellion Entertainment ?!? And Activision also made Battlezone versions available for e.g. the PC)

Hmmm, maybe check the OS of your 600XL computer, some of them do have XL-OS Rev. 1 and there are indeed some A8 programs that do not run at all with this OS version. (A friend of mine had a 600XL with 1064 and several programs from Poland did not work with it due to XL-OS Rev. 1.)

Atari lawyers once contacted Fandal and wanted him a) to change the URL of his webpage from atari.fandal.cz into something else not using atari (his webpage was unavailable then for a while and then he used and still uses a8.fandal.cz) and b) to remove some titles where Atari is the copyright holder. So that is why you will not find several Atari titles on his webpage. Edit: replaced "most/all titles" with "some titles"

But the 576NUC+ case is missing the pastel buttons 🤣

Well, I would suggest to 1) either use different file extensions for mono / stereo (but nothing else), e.g. *.PDM = mono and *.PDS = stereo or alternatively 2) use a header that tells the player all required information, i.e. not only mono/stereo, but also linear and non-linear values, DC Offset, Coarse Levels, Fine Levels, Bump settings, etc. Guess the different file extension (PDM/PDS) is the simplest thing to change in the available players by FJC and Xuel, whereas implementing the header (and then appropriate playback) requires much more work...?!? Of course one could also use different file extensions for PCM (simply *.PCM), PWM (*.PWM) and Covox (e.g. *.COV and since that sounds/looks like Covid, maybe *.CVX) then...?!? If one prefers a header, then the authors of the players (FJC and Xuel) should co-operate and reach an agreement regarding what numbers, values and other information should be used in that header and how the sound should be played back then (and the header should be fully documented then)...

Well, I do not know why, but Dean Wittman's program never worked for me and I could not copy a single program with it onto diskette. In the meanwhile I have tested, recorded onto CD-RW and tried to copy 821 tapes. For a simple tape to disk copy I have mostly used Copy C/D 54k by M.Thiel which works on 64k XL/XE computers under DOS 2.5. This program will only copy tapes with standard block lengths (128 / 132 Bytes) and does not work with the non-standard ones by Novagen, English Software and others... The attached disk image contains CD-Copy, boot it with or without Basic, when the green menu appears move the cursor with a joystick or keyboard (cursor-keys), select CDCOPY.COM and press START or fire button to load it. Insert a new disk (if you forgot to format it, CDCOPY can do this for you) and press A to read the data from tape and later D to save the data onto diskette. CDCOPY.zip

Hmmm, Atari has plans for Atari hotels... thinking... Maybe Atari should make plans for Atari retirement homes - a place where all retired people live *and* play old Atari games.

Ah, thanks! Think now I got it.

Hmmm, I am using the following settings: As you can see, it isn't possible to type in 16/14/0 in PDM Setting "Preset", one can only choose between four given presets here, which are 16/16/0, 16/8/0, 8/8/0 and 16/14/1. Or where do you type it in? I am also unsure what value I should use in DC Offset, one can choose values between +7 and -8, the default seems to be -7 and I choose that one and zero for testing purposes. The frequency is automatically set to 44khz when I choose IDE player and mono and it is also automatically set to 22khz when I choose IDE player and stereo - so there is no need to set it manually in the frequency menu it seems (in the picture it shows 33khz under frequency on the left side, but it shows 44khz on the right side).

No need to dump the tape again and again. Here is Scram as a (PC) .CAS version, recorded side A (16k version) and side B (24k/32k version). And I also did several disk images of it: One image contains only the (Basic) data and uses DOS 2 format (and as said, only the Data, there is no DOS on that image). The other image is a bootable disk created with CasDis (boot it with Basic enabled). CasDis looks like a bootdisk, but I know it stores its information (of up to 8 tape parts) somewhere, it's just not DOS 2 compatible. If you want to have the program on a DOS 2.x disk, either download the version above (post #8) or use my data versions and copy them onto a DOS 2.0, DOS 2.5, DOS2XL, MyDOS, uDOS, LiteDOS, etc. diskette and make it bootable. Do not forget then to change CLOAD or RUN"C:" into e.g. RUN"D:SCRAM.PTx" (where x is 1, 2 or 3 depending on the part you want to load)... Scram_16k_and_32k_CAS.zip Scram_Boot.zip Scram_Data.zip

Atari and Atari Fuji logo - TIP animations... The (very simple) rotating Atari Fuji logo also shows the rainbow colours. ATARI_128k.zip Atari_Jaguar_64k.zip ATLOGO_rotating_64k.zip