CharlieChaplin

Try ACP 1.0 by TeBe or ACP 1.1 by MDA (both programs are packed). After a few minutes stripes appear in the picture, then more and more stripes, until the picture looks "somewhat different"... I have one 800XL in my collection where this GTIA warm up happens very fast, while the other four 800XL take quite a long time. Maybe I should test A8 games with APAC pics (Kick Off, Winter Events, Cygnus XI, etc.) with the one computer that warms up very fast and see if it produces some strange effects there ? Or some other picture formats besides Rasta (Gr. 9, 10, 11, e.g. Apac, Apac-2, Paint 256, Pryzm, Escal Paint, HIP, RIP, TIP, etc.)... ACP10.xex ACP11.xex

There are even demos showing effects when GTIA is heating up. (One is a GTIA temperature picture, for PAL Ataris, in degrees Celsius and a must see; unsure how it looks in NTSC) And the nice test program ACP (Atari Control Picture) also shows a nice / not so nice effect, when GTIA is heating up... GTIATEMP.ATR

... waiting for the results (and prizes)...

Now you have to buy the SIDE-3, so you can add it to your pro/con table... Seriously, a very good comparison and I would not mind, if someone also adds the pros and cons for SIDE-3. (Yes, I already know philsans table/overview of new A8 devices.)

So, if I do not know how to setup my own TNFS server then a big pro for Fujinet seems to be gone...?!? In the past I had a Dragon cart, so I know very well how limited the A8's online features (and slow speed) are, nothing I would like to experience again (Dragon cart only did http, no ftp, no https, etc. and most of the time only mobile phone webpages, which are mostly gone nowadays; loading of 1/4 or 1/8 of e.g. cnn-mobile page took several minutes). Want to know the weather ? I use an app on my smartphone which tells me in a second, so nothing I would really use on the A8. Want to browse the internet ? I have such a thing here, named PC (and a smartphone), so nothing I would ever want to do again with the A8. Online gaming? I remember this with Dragon cart. where you rarely found any A8 users online to play with or against. Always want to download and playtest the newest stuff via Wifi on(to) the A8 ? Yeah, this could be a point. But then again, I am collecting the newest stuff for approx. 3 months and then download it to the A8 (either as a 5,25" diskette or as an ATR image). If I want to playtest stuff immediately I am using an emulator, like Atari 800 or Altirra. This seems very usefull to me for A8 programs that get updates very often, since I do not want to download 10, 20, 50 or more (update) versions of one and the same program (e.g. Scorch with approx. 150 updates and bugfixes). Iow it is a matter of taste and personal use-case. Fujinet, AVG/Sub cart, SIDE-3 and SDrive-Max all can load several image formats, if you want .CAR then maybe Fujinet or SDrive-Max isn't for you, if you want Wifi then maybe AVG/Sub cart or SIDE-3 isn't for you, etc. But I think it should also be considered, if your computer is already upgraded in several ways (and you do not need more upgrades) or if your computer is stock and you would like to have some upgrades without too much hassle (no soldering required)... and if you have the money or are curious, why not purchase more than one of these "add-ons" ? If you want to load all (or 99% of) ATR images, then you will sooner or later require a RAM upgrade and then the above mentioned consideration comes into play. Some of the mentioned add-ons also include a RAM upgrade, some do not and this adds to the sum (e.g. Fujinet or SDrive-Max or SIDE-3 + additional RAM upgrade isn't cheaper than AVG/Sub cart which already contain a RAM upgrade).

alternate timeline... alternate universe...alternate reality... In early 1981 Atari acknowledged that MS Basic is better than their own Atari Basic and tried to make it the standard Basic for Atari homecomputers. Microsoft wanted so much money for it, that Atari decided to "simply" buy Microsoft for some million dollars. MS Basic then became the built-in Basic of Atari XL computers. No-one ever heard of Microsoft again, no MS-DOS was made, no MS Windows appeared. After 1981 MS no longer existed... 😜 One small step for Atari, one giant leap for the computer world...

In the mid-80s we had these nice 3D demos... Not to forget Battlezone, Assault Force 3D, Mercenary, Universe, Blaster and others. DEMOS3D.ATR

Found your stuff in the 2023 edition of the Tenliner Contest. Impatient Atarians like me can simply use an emulator at full speed to get faster results... https://bunsen.itch.io/rippled-shaded-plate-by-chris-chiesa

Yep, the 810 as 180k disk drive (SSDD, 40T) in 1979/1980, then a 360k disk drive (DSDD, 40T) in 1983 and a 720k disk drive (DSDD, 80T) in 1986. The format would have always been double density, just more sectors and therefore more space. But for sure such A8 disk drives would have been expensive! An Atari monitor for the A8s would have been nice also...

Atari: - no release of the VCS 5200 - 810 Floppy does DD/180k, standard format for commercial A8 disks = 180k (instead of 90k) - release the VCS 7800 much, much sooner (sooner than the NES) - release the STE much much sooner - release a 16 Bit console, then a 32 Bit console, then a 64 Bit console - for giggles: release a Falcon 040 and later a Jaguar II IBM: - secure their BIOS, sue everyone trying to copy or mimic it! - do NOT allow IBM compatible computers!

... or simply use my upload above, which is not only an installation instruction for Simple Stereo, but also shows and lists the required parts... (find attached some more stuff and information about stereo upgrades). mega-hz_stereo.zip Mega_Zine_stereo.zip

Hmmm, the instructions I have do NOT look like your Simple Stereo V2, but maybe they will still help you a little bit... ?!? (Looks like I am missing the (old) V2 instructions in my collection.) SIMPLESTEREO.zip

While this converter has a very good S-video display for still pictures, DOS, texts and slow games, it has problems with fast action games, e.g. with Archon the players will often appear with stripes or flicker when moving on the board or when battling/fighting each other. A better HDMI converter (in my opinion) is the McBazel ODV converter: https://www.amazon.de/Mcbazel-Composite-S-Video-Adapter-Konverter/dp/B07WYJSSKZ/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=21GE1KESAQELW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Opb3v9cNBv-Ii0jLZQ4972woeNFSADB_n40mlvM6f3rQUK9VgaCu6qOe-XfooroP9qZfwn0NIrWQYLMYWAQ1J3gpeUYinGsEeKRI2LTgvebIDkbo66cj1UefWI09-Xw-BDsRQOWRjx8e8eZzHykwHieOPjFWEOrClW3VWcFfq-dH7EYexuAJI4nuYBlPrmPvD7avP-c9ZNOMtnXRz2McfiKwXjhoxDYF977OdKZQV1M.tNCh_BLPZEvEEiNAo3q5Tpygfngkw6v2IYpzFcpxYm4&dib_tag=se&keywords=mcbazel+odv-composite+rca%2Fs-video%2Fypbpr+zu+hdmi-konverter&qid=1711070520&sprefix=McBazel+ODV+%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1 surely also available at amazon.com for some dollars. It has a very good picture quality (especially S-Video) and works also very good with fast action games. NOTE: One must not connect RCA/CVBS (cinch) and S-Video at the same time! Otherwise S-Video will produce awful dither patterns. Connect S-video only and you get a very good picture. Disclaimer: Tested only with Atari 800XL, PAL and PAL tv (but converter outputs PAL and NTSC)... Found this converter a little cheaper at Alibaba, but atm I cannot find it there anymore.

@Albert: Please pin this topic (instead of the 2023 one)... thank you!

@Albert: This topic can be un-pinned now...

1600XL or 1850XLD and original Atari desktop case, please...

On that XEGS board there is space for even more pcb's...

Careful, we PC users have other meanings for P1, P2, P3 and P4... But its nice to know, that our A8 is equal to a P4 in terms of CPU power. 😁

Well, I read (and understand) it like this: NG created a WIP of Giana Sisters many years ago, but did NOT complete it to this day. Quite sure TeBe did not want to say that NG creates many WIP's for the A8 and none of them were ever completed... Hey Solo, you know that TeBe speaks polish and english is not his mother tongue (nor mine). Maybe you should talk to each other in your own language to avoid such mis-understandings / mis-interpretations ? Or am I completely wrong ?

Well, that's exactly the problem - SIDE 3 without U1MB uses a soft-OS to boot ATR images, thus you cannot use RAM under the OS (since it is already in use by the soft-OS), which means max. 48k RAM (up to $BFFF) for your program...

Atari 800... are you sure it was upgraded to GTIA ? To me it looks like it still has a CTIA ? Maybe you put the CTIA back into the A800 at one point (and forgot about it) ?

Thrust with joystick controls: https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=3237 or Venus Express: https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=5488

Just tested my Tempest Extreem cart. and it seems to work with joystick only. There are no (visible) options to choose a different controller. Tempest Elite however supports Joystick, Paddles, Driving Controller and Trackball. Guess in trackball mode one could also use a mouse, since most trackball games work fine with a mouse. More info about Tempest Elite here: Too bad, that both Tempest Extreem and Tempest Elite are no longer listed at Video61, no clue why (hopefully not because of Atari)...

You mean that homepage: http://ataribasiclistings.mygamesonline.org/ I guess.

I am suing, ermm using SIO2PC and RespeQT. Here is how: On the Atari end, very old SIO2PC from the old DOS PC days, connected to it a converter cable that converts 15 (?) pins to DB9, connected to that a Digitus stick that converts serial to USB, connected to this a USB cable that goes into the USB port of my Windows computer. Simply works. (I also have several newer SIO2PC-USB cables, but it looks like I am too stupid to get them working, so I am using this "simple" solution.) PC harddisk acts as D1:, while real 1050 is setup as D2: and copying is done with Copy 2000 and a Speedy upgraded 1050 drive.