jaybird3rd

More Amico discussion, less animated bacon GIFs, please. This thread is getting difficult to read.

I agree; one post would be better than separate sale threads for each item. I've merged these sale threads together.

Thank you! I've just placed an order for my first batch. Very happy to finally see box protectors for the Aquarius!

I split off the recent posts about 7800 board differences, and merged them into the thread that you linked to, since they are indeed off-topic here.

You should now have the ability to edit the first post.

That looks like the standard PCB that Atari used in several of their 16K cartridges (8K per ROM). When this board is installed in the original 400/800 cartridge shells, the components face the metal back plate, so if you were to plug it in as a bare board, the chips should face either the back side of the computer or the bottom, depending on the system.

How did you reach that conclusion?

Done!

I think it's time for "m-crew" to take a break from this thread.

Are those really 12 separate buttons, or are they just one keypad matrix?

I'd like to know, too! I'm still committed to buying a batch of them when they become available.

You're right, now that I think about it some more, Imagic was more creative with their conversions. I tend to prefer the 2600 versions of their games which also appeared on the Intellivision (Atlantis being the main exception), but at least the Intellivision versions were different. Imagic's Intellivision exclusives were mostly fantastic.

The Intellivision version of Atlantis is definitely my favorite. Dennis Koble's version for the 2600 was the original, but by comparison, it—and the Atari 800 conversion, which is virtually identical—feels like a promising but strangely unfinished game. With the Intellivision version, Pat Ransil perfected Atlantis through the addition of several new features (night mode, the cross-hair sight, etc.), which really fleshed out the game and made it feel more "complete." Most of the Atari 2600 conversions that Activision and Imagic released for the Intellivision were direct translations, and in retrospect many of them feel a bit lazy. In my opinion, Atlantis is a perfect example of how to convert a game to the Intellivision in a way which preserves the gameplay while expanding it in a way that takes full advantage of what the Intellivision could do. If there is to be a version of Atlantis released for the Amico, I certainly hope that they use the Intellivision version as their starting point—and I agree, it would lend itself very nicely to a co-op mode.

I understand, and I agree that the discussion has been a little too cyclical recently, but it was just getting to be a bit much. (Not so much your post, but the post(s) you were quoting.)

Let's try to refrain from making comments about other thread participants, complaining about the discussions, and littering the thread with obnoxious pictures, please.

^ Very interesting, thank you! Even though it's a rough estimate, it's good to see how the Aquarius compares to its contemporaries; it actually fares better than I thought it would.

I don't think it's the cassette specifically that's doing it. Here's how the 16K module works: there are eight RAM chips of 2KB each inside the module, but the module makes it appear to the Aquarius as if they are a single 16K "window" of memory. This is made possible by a few other chips in the module which perform two main jobs: address decoding, and chip selection. When the Aquarius refers to a specific memory location within that 16K "window," whether it wants to read data from it or write data into it, the address decoder specifies which one of the eight RAM chips corresponds to that particular location. Only one RAM chip must be active at a time, so the chip select logic sends the necessary signals to enable that particular RAM chip, and to disable all the others. When the Aquarius moves on to another location, the process is repeated: the corresponding chip is enabled, and all the others are disabled. In effect, the module is "swapping in" RAM chips as needed, turning them on and off super-rapidly to make it appear as if they are all available to the Aquarius, all the time. This process is completely invisible to the Aquarius; it all happens automatically inside the module. If any part of the module were to fail, it could cause the data in memory to become corrupted in unpredictable ways. For example, in the process of loading a program from tape, the Aquarius might fill up the first four RAM chips in the module, one at a time. Suppose that the chip select logic were to fail in such a way that causes RAM chips #1 and #3 to be momentarily enabled at the same time. In that case, the new data being saved into chip #3 might also partially overwrite the data that had been previously saved into chip #1, causing the corresponding part of the program to appear "garbled" when you attempt to run it. This is unlikely, but it is possible, even if the individual RAM chips are working perfectly. Hopefully this makes sense! In any case, I don't think you have to worry about the RAM modules being damaged through normal use; that wouldn't happen unless there were some sort of electrical problem with the Aquarius itself.

"SN Error" is a syntax error. When I got errors of this kind after loading a program from tape, it was usually because a flaw in the tape resulted in a garbled or scrambled program instruction. If the tape loads and runs properly with the 32K RAM module, the program might somehow be getting scrambled after it has been loaded into RAM. Line number 2 is pretty early in the program, so perhaps when data is loaded into one of the RAM chips higher up in the memory map, something in the cartridge is somehow causing previously-loaded data in one of the lower RAM chips to be damaged. That might also explain why the module also appears to be passing the diagnostic test: as I recall, that particular test is linear, testing each RAM chip in isolation.

That's a possibility. Bad RAM, bad logic chip(s), a touchy wire on the internal ribbon cable, or a dirty contact in the cartridge slot ... there are several things that could go wrong.

Hmmm ... I'd be curious to know if it still passes the tests after being plugged in for an extended period. (Not that you have to try it, of course.)

Excellent! There must have been some intermittent failure in your 16K module. The Mini Expander Diagnostic utility in the Aquaricart could probably pinpoint the problem; it puts the RAM to a more exhaustive test than the simple memory scan that BASIC does on startup.

Hmmm ... did you try it in the "Memory" or "Program" slot? If it doesn't seem to work in either one, try it in the Aquarius console without the Mini Expander. If that doesn't work, it could just need a cleaning, or it could have some other problem. The 16K RAM Module is a fragile design. I seem to recall mentioning this elsewhere recently, but it contains eight surface-mounted 2K SRAM chips plus some chip select logic, sandwiched between two boards that are connected with a ribbon cable. Lots to go wrong, especially after all these years. My new 32K RAM Module uses a single SRAM and two other chips on a single board, so it's much more reliable.

Very cool! Happy exploring! By the way, here's my high score on Aquarius TRON Deadly Discs ...

The only "official" Aquarius disk drive was the Quick Disk System, released in very limited quantities, which used double-sided 2.8" media (100K total per disk). Here is more information on the Quick Disk, and here are some pictures (courtesy of Martin v.d. Steenoven) of one of the few remaining Aquarius Quick Disk drives in existence. The Quick Disk System interfaced with the Aquarius through a cartridge port adapter, which also added a few disk commands to BASIC. There was also a similar third-party interface designed for the Commodore 1541 disk drive, with its own disk commands. Both of these modified versions of BASIC are available in the Aquaricart collection.

I think Aquarius BASIC is pretty respectable as far as 1980s BASIC interpreters go. It's still orders of magnitude slower than assembly language, of course, but it's considerably faster than TI BASIC (and as someone who first learned programming on my beloved TI 99/4A, I should know). Since it's Microsoft BASIC, it also makes it easier to adapt BASIC programs written for other computers. I've heard people say that Aquarius BASIC is so stripped down that it lacks FOR-NEXT loops and other such nonsense, but this isn't true; all the necessary features are there. Aquarius Extended BASIC does add a few niceties: the ability to edit previously-entered lines of code, various line-drawing and circle-drawing commands, relocating the cursor, defining subroutines, a rudimentary menuing system, etc. That said, you can still do a lot with plain Aquarius BASIC (and maybe some inline assembly code), especially if you have a memory module. However, you do NOT want to have to do a lot of typing on that rubber keyboard. A while back, I started a thread on Aquarius BASIC programming, and there I described an alternative workflow which allows you to edit code on a modern PC with your favorite text editor and then "quick type" it into the Virtual Aquarius emulator for testing. To transfer the program to a stock Aquarius, you'll have to go through the cassette interface, but there are ways to do that also, as I describe here.