LoTonah

So basically the CP/M operating system could only handle basic calculation functions and word processing? More then likely it could handle data functions as well. What I am curious about is if it could handle input/output control functions. I know it didn't have graphics capabilities as we know them today, but back in school we did have the Commodore Pet and CBM machines. These were text based machines as well, but some models could do rudimentary graphics works. Yeah, that was the Kaypro 16 which is seemingly difficult to find. It is also nearly 10 pounds heavier than a Kaypro II. I have come across the Kaypro 10 a couple of times, but usually the issue is a failed hard drive. So I am not sure if there a suitable replacement for these. Or what would be better is if a hard drive could be added to the Kaypro II. The Kaypro II seems to be the most common machine and it could be easily had for less than $50. I don't anticipate doing massive work with it, but if I could use it for input/output control, I might be worth it to pick one up. But therein lies another problem...finding software for it. I looked all over on-line and really can't find too much in regards to CP/M. If I know of a good source to check out to see what is available in CP/M and if I like what I see then I will pick a Kaypro up. Thanx, Geo If you are still looking for CP/M disk images, join the Yahoo! CP/M group. I don't know the procedure for making them into actual disks, but I'm sure that someone there can instruct you, or maybe sell you some. They helped me when I was looking for Apple Z80 Turbo Pascal disks.

Well, it would make an excellent text editor or word processor if you had access to Wordstar. I also learned how to program Turbo Pascal in CP/M, and there are several excellent 8-bit C language implementations. Not great for games, although you'd be amazed of the quality and depth of character-based graphic games. Oh, and if you love text adventures, I think almost every major Infocom and Scott Adams adventure games were made for the Kaypro. I'm pretty sure the Kaypro 2 does not have expansion slots, so I doubt there were any MIDI cards or any other expansion cards for that matter. I do know that it was designed to do simple beeps, but using advanced programming techniques, you might be able to even do simple speech synthesis. Who knows, maybe you'll become one of the few masters left of an old computer platform. And I think the world needs more people like that.

As far as I remember, System 5 didn't ship at the same time that the GS did, meaning that all people had for the first little while was a fancier Apple //e. I love both the ST and the GS, and it seems like they had some similar problems... initially buggy OS's, late and incomplete programming environments, and a lack of follow-through on promised hardware and software upgrades from both companies. I was thinking the other day... what would have happened if they had decided to go with the Apple //x project and the Mac had been shelved? Would the Apple // still be a dominant force in the marketplace, extended and evolved?

I love this idea, Curt. I'd definitely buy one

I like them, especially the second listing. It's too bad that I couldn't see the rest of the article, because although the code is nice and compact, it's hard to learn anything from it. Still, it's nice

As for the other setups, in case you are thinking of still doing those: I'd go with the Commodore 128D. The detached keyboard, double the video RAM and built-in 1571 drive make it the best bet. I would splurge on a Commodore 1084 monitor, with two cables--an RGB cable and a normal C64 video cable. That way you can do both C64, C128, C128 80 column, and CP/M modes. There are plenty of hard drive and SSD solutions, plus quite a few memory expansion options that allow several Megabytes in total. There are even replacement chipsets--I have one that gives you BASIC 8 on ROM, but I've been too chicken to install it. If you want a decked out Apple, I'd go with the GS, or a //e that has been upgraded with a GS motherboard. You don't have to go that way, but I have both a GS and a //e and the GS gets a lot more love. If you insist on a //e, go with the Platinum edition. The numeric keypad is helpful. Plus it has the latest chipsets, so fewer bugs/more features. Get a hard drive, for certain... I have a Focus 40 internal hard drive and it works great. Accellerator cards, VGA cards and memory expansion cards are other ways to trick 'em out. Hope that helps

Wow, that's looking pretty sweet! Too bad this wasn't 25 years ago, I'm sure it'd be the top-selling word processor

Personally, I'm loving the cut & paste feature. I've been a big fan of Virtual ][ for that reason (an Apple //e emulator), and I'm psyched that the Atari has it now. Except for programs that use ATASCII, my programming efforts will go a lot faster now! Anyone know of a OSX editor that has a virtual keyboard that can embed ATASCII characters, or something to that effect?

lol There are too many "firsts"! First arcade game ever played: Night Driver (1977, bowling alley in Terrace B.C. Canada. I was 7 years old!) 2600: Frogger. Asteroids and Combat were the pack-in games. 5200: Dig-Dug. I think Pac-Man was the freebee. 7800: Robotron. Pole-Position came with the system. Jaguar: Cannon Fodder. Can't remember the free game. Atari 600XL: Space Invaders (on cassette!). Came with Star Raiders. I think I have about 8 Star Raider carts now LOL

I love buying from B&C, they are my favorite. If I ever win the lotto I'll be cleaning them out lol Having said that, I wish San Jose Computers and Toad Computers were still around. I miss having a good selection of dealers.

I'd love an Apple // forum as well! It seems like the other forums online are fading. I find it strange that the Atari has a larger programming presence on the net. Don't get me wrong, Atari is my favorite machine, but I also love the Apple.

I took a look at that... maybe I'm missing something. I have the following systems that I'd like to hook up to an LCD: - Atari 800XL - Atari 1040STe - C128D - Amiga 2000HD So the Amiga is easy: RGB input. Where would I get the other cables I would need?

Tapper's looking good, I hope you don't loose enthusiasm and let it drop. Love the fact that you're going with the original Tapper, not Root Beer Tapper

Wow, I haven't seen that particular project before. Looks extremely well done! How close are we to Christmas again?

I agree. Like you, I have a lot of classic computers from many manufacturers, and I'm pretty familiar with almost every computer brand brought to market in North America during the 8-bit/16-bit generations. The Apple //GS is definitely one of my favorite machines, mine has 4Mb memory, TV overlay card, SCSI controller card, 40Mb Focus drive, and a few other enhancements. No accelerator, either. Using the Pointless font software (allowing TrueType fonts on the GS), I'd put it up against an ST running GDOS any day. GDOS+ or Warp9 might push things in the Atari's favor, but then again there's no equivalent on the GS There is nothing wrong with the speed of OS6 on the GS, I used to show it to people when OS8 for the Mac was just coming out to show them what they'd been missing. Back to the points in the original post: 1). Atari needed to cost-reduce their systems more often than they did. Same with their floppy drives. Then they would have held off the C64 better. Only Atari (pre-Tramiel) had the resources to take on a company with their own chip foundry (Commodore), but they refused to be that competitive. 2). I love my Atari ST, but yeah... it would have been cool to have a 65816 XL with better graphics, more RAM, etc. I certainly would have bought one! Gotta love these could-have/should-have arguements

I think I would have liked to have more video memory. Being able to use a higher-res with a few more colors would have really opened things up. Actually, most of the things that I wish for on the Atari involve more memory... and being able to use it/allocate it better. It would have been nice to say, move all of your code into a second bank-switched block of 64Kb (if you had 128Kb, that is). It would have also been helpful if Atari BASIC was added to over the years, instead of just bug-fixed. I know that third-party BASICs do what I want, but it would have been better if Atari were the ones behind it, support would have been better. Atari Assembler should have been practically given away, it was too expensive (one of the main reasons I didn't get it until much, much later). I'm a huge fan of cursor control keys, as well... too bad you couldn't just plug in a better keyboard. I loved the idea of two cartridge ports, too. It's a shame that they weren't really used. The lid made it impossible for the second cartridge port to be used as an expansion port (would it have been possible otherwise? Not sure). A CP/M cartridge would have made me a happy camper when I was in high-school (Turbo Pascal programming in CP/M on an Apple //e w/Z80 card). 80 columns would have been great for that. I wasn't terribly jealous of the Commodore 64 (yes, I have several of them in my collection). I was more jealous of the C128 with the CP/M modes, and C128 BASIC. GEOS was a great product, too. I wasn't really jealous of the Apple 2 (although I used them all the time back then). It wasn't until the GS came out that Apple was truly superior.

I would DEFINITELY be interested. Not so much in the monitor or the Wico stick, but the rest sounds great. And I'm in Kelowna, B.C., so I doubt I'm far from you. Maybe close enough to come get it personally!

I own both, and love them both for different reasons. I do prefer the Atari units in many ways, in both the 8 and 16 bit computers. Here's what I currently have in my collection (and I'm only listing Atari and Commodore products, not anything else) - All Atari videogame consoles, including all PONG models, except Stunt Cycle. I have every VCS model available in North America. - Atari 400 - Atari 800 - Atari 1200XL - Atari 600XL - Atari 800XL - Atari 130XE - Atari XEGM - Atari 520ST - Atari 1040STfm wishlist: Atari PC, Atari Portfolio, Mega ST, Falcon, TT030. I'm not going to bother getting a 65XE 'cause it's practically the same machine as the 130XE... plus I'm running out of room haha - VIC-20 - C64 - C64c - C64SX - C128D - Amiga 500 - Amiga 2000 - Amiga 2500HD wishlist: Amiga 600, Amiga 1200, KIM-1 (would settle for a reproduction) Collecting is a serious hobby for me (my wife tolerates it though 'cause I'm so damn lovable haha). I still program on them, and I've been writing articles on programming for a few websites lately (focusing on BASICs for the Atari 8-bits, C64, Apple 2, and BlitzMax on the PC, Mac and Linux). Keeps me young (I think).

I'd love to see someone put these up as a torrent somewhere. I'm upset I missed out!

Holy crap, I didn't know you were sick. Best of luck, Curt... get well damn soon

Any update on this? It was looking really promising!

How much would shipping be to the following Canadian ZIP code: V1Y 5Z9 Oh, and how would you like payment if this works out? Paypal? Thanks!

For me, it was a new computer store in my hometown of Cranbrook, British Columbia named Taurus Computers. It was running Asteroids, and they had multiple joysticks hooked up to it. After playing it on the Atari VCS, this version looked amazing to me, plus it was multiplayer! I asked my parents for an Atari 400 for Christmas... didn't get it, they bought me a Coleco Adam instead ('cause it's what my cousins were getting and my parents are lemmings lol love 'em though). I spent a lot of time in that store... they had a classroom in the back with a few dozen Atari 400's in it. They'd let me sit in there for hours and type in magazine listings and goof around on them. I didn't get my first Atari 8 bit until about '88, when I got a 600XL for $10. By then I already had an Amiga 500 though, so it was just a hobby computer for me, not my main machine. I did buy quite a few accessories and games for it though!

Gee what ever happened to Darek anyway? Last time I heard anything from him he was calling me a 'fucking scumbag pirate' in c.s.a.8. :D Steve Everyone I know who has met him feels the same way. I could also say the same for Leonard Tramiel. Wow, I thought I was alone in thinking Mihocka was a tool. He stayed at my place one time in Vancouver (at my roommate's request) while he was in town for a Vantari meet. Never had a ruder houseguest. The meeting was cool though, I miss Vantari (I ran their BBS for a few years, until I moved out of Vancouver).

http://www.retrobits.net/atari/monkey.shtml Thanks, that's awesome!