LoTonah

So I just finally got an actual Atari 800 (I have every other 8-bit production model except for the 65XE and non-North American models). So I finally get a chance to try my Monkey Wrench II cart. Anyone got a manual for this thing? LOL Obviously I remember nothing from 25 years ago. Thanks!

It's been a while since I looked at this, I just wanted to let everyone know that I've been dabbling with this again... Mode 4, but everything is done in a 2x2 character grid (so a tank, for instance, is 2 characters wide, and 2 characters high). That gives me 4 colors, and enough detail for everything to look okay. Mock-ups coming soon.

Not many of the requests are all that realistic. Not many people took the thread seriously, which is a shame. Which game would *you* like to see? And which target platform? Apple ][+? Apple //e with double-hires? Apple //GS?

Well, I appreciate it! Too bad it's not a later version of CP/M... I think Gary was still experimenting with some features like kernals and bios modules. I'd love to see the code for Concurrent CP/M or GEM someday Thanks!

I've been typing in more programs lately and I'd love to be able to type in data using the numeric keypad. BETTER YET -- I'd love to be able to remap the keypad... setting up the + - *, etc for hex input. Any ideas? Thanks!

I was just reading thru an old Amiga magazine (dated 1986) that alluded to the idea that Tramiel was still in charge of Commodore's advertising (at least in Canada), even though he was already running Atari. Anyone have any insight into that? I would assume that he still owned some Commodore stock, even after he had left.

After working on Apple ][+'s for a few years, I fell in love with the Atari the first time I saw it. I was 12, it was 1982...I asked Mom & Dad if I could get one for Christmas. My parents weren't rich, but I'd never asked for anything quite like it before. Lo and behold, for Christmas, I got an Atari. Unfortunately it was an Atari 2600, not the 400 I wanted. Turns out the local Atari store was closed when my parents went shopping--and since they really didn't know what I meant by Atari, they went to K-Mart and bought the first Atari they could find. *sigh* Don't get me wrong, I played it to (near) death--still have it about 7 feet from me. But I wanted to program in BASIC! Oh yeah, and play 4 player Asteroids, not 2 player Next year, I decided to try my luck again. Atari, please? Got a Coleco Adam instead. The salesguy told them that it was the hottest machine on the market, and it was all-in-one, and a great bargain. Plus my Aunt and Uncle already owned a Colecovision, and my Mom liked playing Donkey Kong and Venture. Dammit! Except for playing Coleco games, it pretty much sucked as a programming machine. ADAM SmartBASIC had some weird bugs ("mostly" Applesoft compatible!) and the graphics commands were aweful. I wouldn't actually own a different computer until 1988 when I bought my own. An Amiga 500. And about a week later I was given an Atari 600XL...sigh again. Now I own every commercially-made North American Atari computer, minus an original Atari 800 and the TT/Falcon units...and every video console except for a Lynx and Stunt Cycle...but I'm working on it! Take that, Mom!!! (just kidding, I love my parents )

found the problem...had to repair permissions on my hard drive. strange stuff...never had a problem like that before.

I'm running the latest version (3.8.1). My OSX version is 10.4.11 and I have a dual Xeon Mac Pro. For the past few days I've only been getting spinning beach balls when I go to launch it...and then I can't force quit it either, the only way out is to shut down and reboot. Has anyone gone through this lately? What's the fix? -Don

Wow, what an incredible site! Too bad I didn't know about it last week when I was hunting for a STE language disk. I've never tried out ST Works before either...always wanted to see it in action, but I grew up in a small town and I was the only person I knew of that had an ST. Ended up doing most of my word processing in 1st Word and copying it over to PageStream for final output...on my 24 pin Star printer. Good times, though!

Hi there! I've just inherited a 1040STE after not having a single ST model for 10 years (still have multiple XL's and XE's though). I wouldn't mind re-visiting some of my old code, but my HiSoft BASIC Professional disks are missing (which is odd, because I still have most of my other original disks from back then). If anyone really needs proof, I'll take pictures of the manual to show proof of ownership. It's the spiral bound manual from MichTron that has a blue picture of a tree in a lightning storm. I'm also looking for Interstel's Empire. Lost those disks somehow, too...have backups but they seem to have fallen victim to bit-rot. I wouldn't mind learning GFA BASIC after all these years as well...aren't those basically abandonware now? I remember something about ST User magazine giving GFA 2.5 away years ago...anyone have any links to images/manuals? Oh, and one last question: anyone know where I can get the cable to go from an Atari to a NEC Multisync? I have the monochrome and color monitors now, but I don't have a switch. I also have a nice 17" NEC that would replace those nicely! After that we'll talk hard drives Thanks! Don

Just so that no one thinks that Mark and I are mad at each other, hopefully this matter has been cleared up through private messages. Just a mis-communication, that's all. -Don

Hi Mark, Any word on my order? I haven't heard a peep (ie. an acknowledgement that you're working on it). I'd hate to be forgotten in the shuffle! -Lotonah (aka Don Holmberg) Hmm...guess I won't be getting my order, since I haven't heard anything. *sigh* ...disappointing

Hi Mark, Any word on my order? I haven't heard a peep (ie. an acknowledgement that you're working on it). I'd hate to be forgotten in the shuffle! -Lotonah (aka Don Holmberg)

You should have gotten my email by the time you read this. Too bad you've decided to shut it down...but I'm sure you have your reasons. Best of luck in your new endeavors!

Just saw one on eBay (PAL only--sniff!). I always dreamed of owning one when I was a young'un...can anyone tell me if it's been emulated somehow, and where to get it if it has?

Thanks for the tutorial, keep 'em coming!!! Thanks to this, I made a nice display for my wife, with a color-rotated playfield that said her name (she's a sucker for that stuff ). I also added a few new effects tonight, pulled from other tutorials. I'd never thought I'd do an Atari 2600 program. Always a dream of mine (sniff!) -Don

I too liked Family Computing...at the time, I wasn't priviledged enough to own an Atari computer (I asked for an Atari computer, got an Atari 2600...asked again, got a Coleco Adam, 'cause that's what my cousins had). Family Computing was one of the few magazines that dealt with the Adam. But I was also studying the other computers, knowing that SOMEDAY I would own something better. Anyhow, I tried typing in Hit and Miss for you. There's a logic error somewhere, and now I'm too tired to figure it out. So here you go, a .TXT file and two JPG scans. Feel free to figure out where the problem is. BTW, Atari800MacX does syntax checking when bringing in a .LST file so I doubt it's an obvious error. (Rename the .TXT file as .LST and import as an executable in your emulator). Have fun, hopefully it's not too much work for you. -Don HITMISS.TXT

Here's mine: 835 DA 003523...didn't realize how dusty is was until I went to fetch the serial number!

Hi Pseudografx, Good work! I was doing pretty much the same thing on paper...lol I tend to create more work for myself than necessary. I was thinking about stripping out even more of the colors (I didn't think the text box and menu system needed all those different colors when one or two would do the same thing)...but I like what you came up with! How come you went with the larger numbers going vertically on the left-hand side? I figured if I used the smaller font on the left, then I'd get another vertical line of map. Now I just have to find more time to work on this!

I don't know anything about Turbo Basic XL...easy enough to get a cart for an emulator, but what about books/websites/tutorials?

Thanks for the input so far. Just before I read your posts, I was skimming my new copy of De Re Atari and they were mentioning a 4-color character set option (not available from BASIC though). They also mention a background color option, which could help me out. Looking at the screenshots again, I guess I could cut down some of the colors...it's not like the extra colors are being used very effectively anyhow. I'd still prefer to try to do this in BASIC. Call me crazy I'm fine with doing tons of POKEs, so my next issue is: a). Can these ANTIC modes be used in BASIC with POKE commands? b). Can I change the color of text on a horizontal line?

Hi all, Maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew, but I've always wanted to do an Empire-type game for the Atari 8bit. It would hopefully look quite a bit like the C64 version...I think they did a pretty good job look-wise. It's a character-based game, but I'll need to put 6-8 colors on screen at any time. So here's the criteria... 1). Gotta be character-based. 2). Gotta have the ability to display multiple colours. 3). I'd prefer if it worked in CTIA machines as well (not all that important though) 4). I'd like it to be a mode that I can use in BASIC (not an assembly language guy--yet). Can any of you think of what mode/tricks I'd need to use? Thanks! game1.bmp game2.bmp

Hi everyone, Just wondering if Empire was ever made for the Atari 8-bits. I know that the game came out for the C64, but I don't recall ever seeing it on the older Atari's (I played it a lot on the ST, back in the day). Thanks! Don

It's been a good week for me too... Got an Atari calculator to add to the collection Got a copy of De Re Atari...now I'm gonna dabble in assembler ...tomorrow I pick up a book I won on eBay about the history of Commodore. Who said my collection had to be limited to Atari?