AEX

Remember the Jaguar VLM? You put an audio CD in the drive and you would get a Winamp like pattern effect on the screen in tune with your music. Can you get a disk for the PS2 which does something similar (not that Blaze crap that came out last year!)... Perhaps the X-Box or Cube has something available? Thanks Karl

Great topic, The 8-bit had lots of strange and obscure titles, but there are two games that I enjoyed a lot for god knows why! "One Man And His Droid" by Mastertronic is very addictive once you get into it, and although the music is great for the first 5 minutes I think listening to it any longer and you may become a Manchurian Candidate :-) The other is "Sun Star" by CRL - This is a little like Tron light cycles but you need to collect energy and shoot the baddies - pity it was the only CRL game on the 8-bit AFAIK. Karl @ AEX

Good question, Today, my 1040STE has been re-cased so it looks nice and new again! I must confess it isn't used as much today, but it is still connected up and ready for use (I was playing a session of Carrier Command last week in fact!). In the day my Mega ST and me programmed in 68K ASM (Devpac), GFA Basic (excellent version of Basic for Atari machines) and dabbled in STOS. I made a few disk compilations with PD software on them called "Intersteller" which use to be sold through "Wizard PD" in the UK for a time. I produced a magazine using Pagestream (another excellent DTP package on the ST) and output to a 24-Pin Dot Matrix (noisey!), and even played around with MIDI (I started with Music Studio for God's sake!!!) and GFX (Degas Elite) in my spare time. There wasn't a lot my ST wasn't used for :-) I have very fond memories of the machine, and look forward to getting hold of a TT soon... I'd like to get a TTM195 as well and get some use out of Pagestream again - yum yum! Karl

Justin, Great update to a great site - well done, and keep it going! Karl

No particular reason, I was just searching for a thread and came across this one... sorry Mayhem UK - The 7800 version was definately in house at US Gold, see attached (from ACE May 1990). Karl

Tempest, It was in the works, and was being programmed by US Gold in the UK. I have a shot of the programmer (and his name) somewhere. Karl

Gregory, What can I say! Thanks a million for your time. Please PM me with your address so I can send a little something from Ireland to you. I'll credit you for use of these at AEX when they go online (and I get some time to pixel-fix-them so they look brand new!). Karl

Guys, I think we must also take into account that the three "games companies" that most of us grew up with during the 70's, 80's and 90's have now been replaced by multinational bluechips; thus MS and Sony are now the Atari and Sega of today's generation, with Nintendo being the "Apple" of the gaming world. Atari could have survived (longer) if it had brought out the Jaguar earlier and with a better gameplan, but when you only have $50 Million in the bank to support a worldwide videogame system launch, that isn't going to go far. MS had been toying with going into videogaming for years, well before X-Box was even a doodle on a piece of paper. They can go for years selling X-Box no matter how much cash they loose, because its not about the videogames anymore.... MS know what Sony knows (and Nintendo know it too, except they will stay out of that fight and do their own thing, which is good for us) - convergence of the videogames system as we know it today becoming a hybrid entertainment and home "appliance" product. What we are supporting now will determine what hybrid systems we take for granted in our homes in the near future - and of coure Sony want to be there... but so do MS, because PC's won't feed the beast forever... Where am I going with this??? Ah yeah... Atari would have become a casualty anyway, in terms of hardware (videogaming) - but if they had continued in the media business, I think perhaps we would still have had an Atari today - There is no comparison in real terms with the X-Box IMHO (except I don't want one). Karl

Gregory! Fantastic - If you could scan those for me it would be great. If you PM me via AtariAge I can send you FTP details to upload the scans, or I can give you my e-mail address at AEX. Looking for 150dpi scans if possible. I'll organise a little something for your help :-) Best Karl

Hi Gregory, The only other Lynx print ads I have are the following (excluding brochures): 1) Lynx $99 (shows Lynx on a black background 1 Pager) 2) Lynx - Christmas Present (showing a Gameboy as "christmas past") 3) 2 x Lynx Ads showing 4 titles ("Why Lynx") 4) 1 x Lynx Arcade (showing Lynx 1 with all the current titles (DPS)) 5) Lynx $99 Number 2 (Showing Lynx 1 and 15 titles 1 Pager) I will be uploading all these when I update the Lynx area on AEX, but I know there must have been more - including the 2 elusive ones I mentioned before. Thanks all, Karl

Thank You, I hope you get your scanner working! I hope somebody/anybody can just help out, as we are in the middle of upgrading the entire Lynx section for the benefit of the entire Atari fan base (especially the Lynx fans!). If there is anything else which might benefit the Lynx area at AEX, we would appreciate it. Please note, whoever can help, PM me and I can provide FTP access for the scans - we will also send out a little "something" for your help. Best regards all, Karl

Dear Lynx owners! If anybody has either of the 2 Ads below, I would very much appreciate a 300dpi Scan of them for Atari Explorer. You will be fully credited for there use on our website. Alternatively, I will also take any offers if you have spares to sell. Many thanks, Karl www.atari-explorer.com/lynx

Interesting little topic! Before Atari was purchased by Tramiel Technology, Atari UK was "Atari International (UK) Inc". As for Prize Computers, that could have been a holding company set up to register the name Atari UK Ltd for TTL after the sale (?). Ocean was purchased by Infogrames, and I can only assume they registered the name on Infogrames behalf in the UK, as the name change to Atari had already been decided as long ago as 2000. Karl

Guy, many thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. I took another look inside and I noticed the main red wire to the motor of the CD transport has only 2 little internal wires hanging on for dear life! Could this be part of the problem? Cheers, Karl

Thanks Gunstar, The Physical PSU is fine, but the screen comes up showing the arrow pointing to the PSU socket, as if I hadn't got it plugged in. Strange thing is, the laser head moves a fraction, so some power is getting through somewhere. I think I'll buy this replacement part and give it a go - sure if it doesn't work at least I have a spare CD Laser/Transport for my other unit. As for the sale of this unit, I'll let you know if I decide to do that - you can have first dibs on it. Karl

Guys, One of my Jag CD players seems to be dead. It's lifeless. Update! I took her apart an hour ago, just to see if anything obvious was wrong (or burnt!), and it all seemed fine. Gave it a good dusting, and.... We got something! The screen came up showing the Jag CD and an arrow pointing to the PSU socket - but the PSU is fine, and the Laser head moves, but the motor doesn't spin. Help! I had a look through Linkovitchs' CD repair guide (excellent work), and maybe that is worth a go, but if anybody has any other ideas, I would welcome your suggestions and comments before I buy a replacement part. BTW, I found a place locally in Ireland selling the CDM 12.1 Transport/laser unit at http://www.donberg.ie/descript/2/21241g.htm and they ship internationally. Cheers, Karl

Lars, I'm sorry to hear you feel that way about our Forums (specifically the Atari Jaguar Forum in this case). The name is actually "Historically Speaking Atari", but the "TAEX" name seems to have stuck! I think "all" the forums contribute something, and each have their pros and cons. I don't like our forums being "tainted" as a place "just full of flame wars", which is not accurate - but if you have a problem, please get in touch with one of the moderators, we'd be happy to look into any issue you have. In the meantime, I'll continue to keep an eye out for you here Karl @ AEX

Hi Tempest, If you can list the mags you found (or PM me) I'd love to buy some for preservation purposes. Many thanks, Karl

Guys, I had a problem getting on today, but I had seen the maintenance screen - but its working fine from Ireland! Karl

The ST was always (and still is) slated for the choice of sound chip used. Apart from the long list of possible financial and logistical reasons for Atari to decide on the Yamaha 2149, it wasn't the worst chip in the world, and in 1985, it was still miles more advanced than anything the PC had at the time :wink: But, in its defence, if you take a look around the web these days, some of the sound still being produced on the ST is amazing compared to the standard plinks and plonks some software companies produced for it - but overall the sound chip wasn't the most important aspect of the entire system. The ST had "everything" in one box, and the sound chip was one part of this. Granted, and without debate, the Amiga audio system was fantastic, and although it took another 4 years for Atari to address the sound system in the ST with the STE model, the Atari was still a capable machine and had the added benefit of having MIDI built in - Nobody knows exactly if this was made part of the ST to combat the poor sound system selected for the ST initially (ie, use MIDI equipment to hook up superior sound systems etc), or was it a clever hardware design to add the feature for commercial reasons - eitherway, it helped Atari and not Commodore to be known as the "musicians choice" - kinda ironic don't you think Karl

Hi guys, We uncovered some RBP (ST Codename "Rock Bottom Price!) Internal documents, and the ST was initially going to have the AMY chip, which was a revolutionary upgrade to the Pokey chip (seen in a few demo 65XEM's), but unfortunately it didn't happen and the ST was being built for the 1985 January CES, so the 6 month deadline to complete the system just didn't give engineers enough time to implement it. Anyway, as most of the original AMY engineers had now left Atari, they were having a difficult enough time trying to understand the new chip, and although it could have been possible in the long term, Atari simply didn't have the luxury of time - I'm sure a few more wish-list items didn't make the final cut on the original ST design spec, but it was an amazing feat to build the ST in the time alloted - and yet a very capable system was born to the world. The YM-2149 was ready and available, used in many computers and arcade machines, and could be mass produced on demand for the new Atari with the addition that this chip also drove the Atari ST Parallel port (in conjunction with the Multi Function Peripheral (MFP) 68901). But, in its defence - there are some great sounds produced when used right! Check out this article: http://www.atari-explorer.com/articles-ST-music.html Karl

Hi Tempest, Moniterm made the first, then Atari badged it as the TTM194 Then, a Philips model named the TTM195. Lovely to use on a TT I have heard - would love to see it in operation... They must weigh a tonne! Karl

Lais, Depends on how you interperate the word "fix" I guess... Not that the SM124 required a technical "fix", but a "supply" one. The SM144, although slightly duller in operation than the 124, was the best of the bunch in my opinion (and 14" to boot). I think it came down to suppliers in the end, and how long Atari would support the Monochrome only monitor, and thus, the ST range as a whole. Not sure all the 14X's had a moulded Atari logo, the 144 did for sure, but some units, including some (early?) 44's, did not (I've seen one without, just the silver product label). I think you'll find a number of different versions of these units depending on the dates of manufacture (chassis and tube). The PTM144 is also a nice Mono unit, which was a TT based 14" mono - not sure of the OEM though. Karl

Mitch, I would hazard a guess and say this was a locally badged monitor by Atari Australia. It has no offical model designation. Some times standard monitors from Atari were unavailable for one reason or another, and during one year in particular (1991?) there was a nearly a crisis when SM124's were just nowhere to be found. This led to Atari releasing all sorts of fixes such as the 144, 146, 147 while they tried to get a single supplier - such was the lack of supply, it led to local Atari offices to find their own supplies. As the monitor above is a colour one, I would say it was possibly for a PC - odd that the Fuji is on the right of the Atari script, which I haven't seen before. Karl