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That same article goes on to state: As of February 2022, Benioff had an estimated net worth of US$8.31 billion according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. So, I'd say he's done very well for himself, wealth-wise anyway. He's came a long way from his humble Atari 8-bit beginnings!

I'm not sure why the flash_nuke program seemed to cause issues with the re-flashing of the A8PicoCart firmware afterwards, but I did find out that the original problem I was using it to try and diagnose wasn't with my Pico clone or my soldering. The problem appears to be just a little sloppy play in the PCB/cartridge slot on the 600XL I was using to check it out. I have to have it entered just right for it to pickup the cartridge properly. If I don't, it will typically just not pick it up at all and will boot straight into BASIC, but occasionally the computer will lockup. Hopefully, getting it installed in the case I've had printed and is on the way will help with that. Anyway, it looks like, other than not being a 100% perfect fit for this particular cartridge slot, my A8PicoCart is fine.

Yes, you can. The Gotek is just a drive emulator. The disk image is read, or written to, right off of the USB drive plugged into the Gotek just like it would be from a floppy. There's no reading into memory.

Yeah, something about that flash_nuke didn't quite work with mine. I made up all of my A8PicoCarts and the one I kept for myself isn't wanting to work for some reason. I was trying to narrow the problem down to the Pico clone or the PCB or my soldering job. These came at a perfect time to help me. The blink firmware flashed perfectly and worked, so my Pico clone appears to be good. The problem came in when I tried the flash_nuke. It appeared to work properly, unmounting itself after flashing, but upon reconnecting the Pico clone and trying to flash with the A8PicoCart firmware, it wouldn't flash. The copy would only make it over to about 57% and then it would hang and eventually fail. If I just went straight from the blink firmware to the A8PicoCart firmware without nuking in between, it seemed to work just fine. Has anyone else tried these and ran into something similar?

I guess I could kind of see the point, but it wouldn't be worth it for me. If I need to update files on an SD card, I just take the card out, take it to my PC and do whatever I need with it. No big deal for me. Of course, I'm not like a lot of users that have 8-bits spread all over the house, own 12 Ultimate Carts, 9 AVG carts and 6 FujiNets. My needs are much simpler.

Yes, your post, and other previous posts have helped considerably. I'm watching future development very closely.

For me, when the "upgrade" replaces pretty much everything inside the original device that made it what it was, and basically turns the original device into a dumb terminal for accessing a new and different computer, a Raspberry Pi in this case, running emulation software, then the upgrade is no longer an upgrade. It's a replacement, and the classic device is completely wasted. Now, I'm not certain that this is the case with the PiStorm, which is why I said that I'm interested in finding out more and watching the future development. If this is the case with the PiStorm, then I really fail to see the point. It would be no different than opening a SNES case, installing a RPi 3b+, running RetroPi on it while somehow interfacing the original controller ports into it and calling it an upgrade. Is it really an upgrade at that point? I mean, what is left of the original device that's actually still doing anything? If that's what's going on, I already have an excellent emulator setup using Hatari on my modern gaming rig. I mean, if that's what others want to do, fine, whatever floats their boat, but it wouldn't be for me. To me it would just be a waste of a good old retro computer that would be better off running on its own. Again, I'm not saying this is the case with PiStorm, and I definitely plan on reading through the Github and other related sites to learn more. I'm all for retro emulation and do quite a bit of it myself. I just don't want to sacrifice a classic old system to do it. I look forward to learning much more about PiStorm and it's Atari ST implementation.

Yes, Gavin is one of the best! He had some personal issues come up and had to step away from the Atari scene for a while. Let's hope he gets to come back some day soon, in one form or another. If not, I know we all wish him well and I thank him for the many excellent products he sold me over the past few years.

Not just CIB, but with extras too. That's an excellent deal, especially in today's market. Congratulations!

I was wondering the same thing. I really don't care for glorified emulators that try to pass themselves off as upgrades, if that's truly what this is. If that's the case, it really isn't a whole lot different than this emulator: The main difference being that Rastari never really tried to pass itself off as more than what it is. Still, I'm very interested in watching this develop. It's not like I'm opposed to emulators and haven't used them for years.

At this time, I have no need for a second FN, and I certainly have no issues with anything Gavin made when he was running Vintage Computer Center, but this new, Professional Fuji Net '23 is darned sweet! You can rest assured that, if I ever have a need or desire for a second one, this will be the one I'll get. Awesome job, as usual!

I would think you should be able to do the internal RAM upgrade for about $10, assuming you were comfortable opening your machine and soldering a couple of wires. If not, you'd need to find someone to do it for you. Since it sounds like this is outside of your comfort zone, you would probably be better off spending the extra $20 to get the external plug-in RAM upgrade.

While technically true, this statement is still not 100% accurate. Your statement makes it sound like the SDrive-Max uses SD cards and the FujiNet doesn't, but that isn't true. The both use SD cards, but only the FujiNet can access files stored on a computer wirelessly, or can access files across the Internet. In basic form, they are both disk/cassette drive emulators. The FujiNet just does much more as far as emulating other devices such as modems, printers, etc.

It sounds very interesting. I'll have to research further and watch for updates. Thanks!

I would tend to agree. Without knowing whether or not it works, they're potentially paying a lot to ship a giant paper weight. Building a power supply for it doesn't seem like it would be too hard. It'll be coming up with a compatible connector.

You can get cable/connection info here:

Yeah, I mean, in this day and age, most software has been patched to work with different versions of TOS and/or hard drives, but that wasn't the case back in the day.

I would think that there has to be a way. Otherwise, how would HD system owners have loaded games like Dungeon Master and others that auto loaded at boot?

OK, unless I miscounted, that's all of my supplies accounted for. For those that asked for a kit, hopefully I'll be able to get those out this afternoon or tomorrow after work, depending on when I receive payment. For those that asked for an assembled cart, I should be able to get them soldered up, boxed, and ready to go this weekend, and shipped out after work on Monday or Tuesday. Thanks to everyone!

Wow! That didn't take long! I'm officially down to one full kit left. It looks like I'll be doing a little bit of soldering this weekend.

I didn't think to mention that the shipping is U.S. based. I could look into shipping internationally if someone wanted, but the prices would change accordingly to whatever shipping method we decided upon.

I received the supplies I ordered to make one of Robin's (electrotrains) A8-PicoCarts. There were minimum orders involved, so I have more boards and supplies than I really need for mine, and I've sold three others, so I'll be glad to sell the remaining six for not much more than cost plus shipping if anyone is interested. If anyone is interested in buying the parts and building their own, I'll be glad to sell the parts. Otherwise, I'll be glad to assemble a complete caseless cart and you can use it that way or could provide your own case. I just ordered a case for mine through Craftcloud for $20. The prices for the individual components are: Pico Clone board $3 PCB $4 Switch $2 Whole thing $9 total, you assemble it yourself. The price for an assembled cart is $15 Priority Shipping, small flat-rate box $11 So, $20 for everything you need to assemble your own, or $26 for an assembled, ready to use cart. PM if you're interested in purchasing one or more. For those unfamiliar with the project, it's just a cool little project and makes for a fairly cheap multi-cart. If you have or want an AVGCart, an UltimateCart, or a Side2 or Side3, this isn't going to replace one of those. It's just a cool little project designed by electrotrains, of UnoCart and UltimateCart fame, that I wanted to build for cheap and would give me a cheap extra cart to have beside my UltimateCart and my Side3. It consists of a PCB a Raspberry Pi Pico clone board and a momentary microswitch. If you want to learn more, you can check out the thread or look at the GitHub page. For those familiar with the project, this is the original PCB as published, not the redesigned PCB that has the Pico clone upside down so that you can't plug it into USB at the same time that it's plugged into your Atari. Doing so would damage your Atari and void its warranty! Please keep this in mind when considering. https://github.com/robinhedwards/A8PicoCart

Yeah, I guess the particular ones I received either don't have LEDs or they're just not working. I've flashed two of them and nothing has lit or flashed on either of them.

OK, crisis averted. Once I had a valid copy of the firmware, my Pico clones flashed without issue, then unmounted and remounted as A8-PICOCART. Interestingly enough, there is no LED flashing at any point in the process, but it worked and I'm not overly concerned with whether or not there are LEDs or if they work or not. Thanks again to everyone that offered suggestions and helped me work through my issue!

It looks like you were posting this as I was posting my reply. Yes, it looks like I had a bad download that was really just a bunch of html. I'll give it another try with the good file when I get home from work this afternoon, but I'm fairly certain we've found the issue. I always seem to have issues downloading files from Github for some reason. As far as the LED flashing, I've not seen an LED flash on one of mine yet. I'll see how they react when I try a good firmware file tonight and they really flash. Thanks again to everyone!