Atari8.co.uk website down

[Atari8.co.uk website down]

FJC is working through some updates to the server side and his website, it will be back up soon. You should be able to find Uflash in the forums, if not, someone will probably beat me on posting it. :-)

[Kickstarter for new C64 case]

This would be nice for Raspberry Pi (or other small computer) case if a suitable USB keyboard could be found.

[Home Computer System Font Overview]

Didn't know that lowercase on the C64 is identical to the A8 and likely copied from the A8.

[CLSN Pascal]

Ok, that's pretty cool. Wish I would have know about it in '89...

["Porting" Games to Mobile]

I think the first step would be modifying Atari800 to work with Chrome's Native Client. Some has already do it with Dosbox: http://www.naclbox.com

 

That opens up the A8 to Windows, Linux, OS X, and Chrome OS.

[Atari BBS software]

 

I'm a bit confused as to which BBS software supports what hardware on the Atari 8-bit....

 

I'm toying with the idea of putting together a nice BBS but I'm not really sure where to start as far as software goes. I'd like to use this hardware if possible:

 

-600XL with RAM320XL

-RVerter + iPocket232 emulating a modem

-MyIDE flashed w/ SpartaDOS X

 

I know quite a few packages support the 850... not so sure about RVerter.... or SDX really. I know some BBS software ran under SpartaDOS 3.

 

It seems like a lot of them don't like SDX. I haven't tried to get the MyIDE+Flash to work with SpartaDOS 3, I don't know how that would work.

[BASIC Ten-Liners Contest 2015]

 

Category "PUR":

Program a game in 10 lines (max. 120 characters per logical line, abbreviations are allowed)

 

 

With abbreviations you can enter a line of more than 120 characters into the editor. Would this still qualify as PUR since it was entered into the Basic interpreter?

[HSC12 Round 3: Food Fight]

None of the home versions have the playability of the arcade version. In the arcade, Charley can stay stationary on the food and fire in all directions without moving do to the analog nature of the controller. The watermelon level is so much fun in the arcade since your food doesn't run out. I never like playing the A8 version.

 

I've never liked playing the A8 version, or any home version (including MAME) because of the lack of the analog controller.

["Porting" Games to Mobile]

Licencing will be a problem. As gozar pointed out, the leading emulators and, AFAIK, AltirraOS too, are licenced under GNU GPL, which is a no go on the App Store.

 

For any other platform, when bundling a game with a GPL emulator, the GPL licence would require the source code of that game to be published under GPL as well, and some of our developers might not agree to comply with that.

This would be interesting, but I don't think the GPL would apply to the Atari assets. The Atari assets (like the OS ROM and an .XEX) would be like documents being opened by the GPL app, which would require the documents to also be GPLed. But I'm viewing this as OS X App bundles, where the application is actually a folder with the program and all it's supporting files.

 

Maybe an A8 runtime written from scratch with a BSD licence attached?

["Porting" Games to Mobile]

I've been thinking about this for a couple of months. For Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux, you could probably compile a special version of Atari800 that disables the menus and stuff and uses the defaults you want to run your 8-bit app. You still need an OS ROM, maybe contact Avery about licensing his ROM from Altirra. It would be nice to compile a generic version that uses an ini for configuration, so an A8 developer could just add their program to the folder and launch their program just like it was a native app.

 

If Atari800 was ported to Chrome's Native Client, then launching an Atari program could be as simple as visiting a web page in Chrome and be usable on ChromeOS devices.

 

For iOS it gets tricky. Unless you can get all of the developers of Atari800 to re-license a version of atari800 that is non-GPL, then you wouldn't be able to use it as a base for iOS software. At one time there was a C64 emulator in the App Store with included games (you couldn't add any C64 software to it), so it is possible.

[Cartridge base game, save file to disk without loading DOS first]

Yeah, I hadn't thought of memory issues with dos.sys.

 

That Analog article talks about dumping/loading memory straight to/from sectors using the built in ROM routines, which could do what you want without the memory overhead.

[Gamepad Style Controllers?]

 

I have some 6 button controllers, not original Genesis hardware, but Hyperkin knock offs. The basic button seem to work like the three buttons for a few minutes. Then after some minutes the controller starts acting wacky -- some joystick directions stop working.... Not sure what's going on.

 

Does your computer have a memory upgrade by chance? I have some 3 button knockoffs that won't work in my Rambo'ed 800XL. They work for just a couple of minutes. Plug them into an unmodified computer and they work fine.

[Orders for Sys-Check II (PCB w/ parts only) accepted]

Hi,

 

 

Didn´t you get my email with the link to the building instructions? Sometimes U.S. mail services classifies my GMX.DE email address as spam

 

In the attachment you will find the building instructions.

 

Best regards, Juergen

 

Building instructions Sys-Check II English.pdf

 

 

No worries, that PDF is exactly what I needed. The only email I have with build instructions links to http://www.van-radecke.de/SysCheck/Building, which doesn't exist.

[Orders for Sys-Check II (PCB w/ parts only) accepted]

This is going to be a really stupid questions... But... Which side do I solder the components to?

[Cartridge base game, save file to disk without loading DOS first]

A cartridge can boot up DOS, so you could just use DOS 2.5 or MyDOS dos.sys (dup.sys not needed).

 

Analog issue 17 has an article on using disks without DOS by calling the built in ROM routines.

[Apple II Clone in an Atari 1200XL Case]

I wonder if they would work with a 130XE or 800XL motherboard?

[Project Veronica]

PM sent.

[New GUI for the Atari 8-bit]

Tried it out on:

• 1200XL with U1M
• Stock 130XE
• 800XL with Rambo 256K

No problems at all, I was easily able to hit the process limit and let it run. The 1200XL froze up once, but I couldn't reproduce it.

 

One minor gui refinement, I miss the menu item flashing three times upon clicking. I usually wasn't sure if I actually selected the menu item, but once I realized there were only two items that did anything, that helped (the other menu items are just a big tease :-).

 

A little psychedelic if you're not on svideo :-) (I know there is nothing you can do about artifacting, I just thought it was funny.)

 

[What Is Your Main/Favorite Atari 8-bit Computer Display Used and Why?]

A 1702 here.

 

I had a question about your about whether the video is modded or not. I said yes because I added the Chroma to my 800XL so I could do SVideo, is that not counted as modded?

[Action! Source Code]

Hmmm, crashes atari800 3.0.0 when you try to compile.

PROC MAIN()
 PRINTE("HELLO WORLD")
RETURN

Not that you should lose any sleep over it, you're doing amazing work!

[Bit3 Full View 80 (Under The Hood)]

I'd like to see some 80 col software, starting with a vt100 terminal. :-)

[BlackBox emulation in Atari800]

I compiled Atari800 3.1.0 on my Pi since it seems like the 3.0.0 version won't show the speed (I'm assuming because of OpenGL or something because my new compiled version doesn't have OpenGL working...).

 

Any, stock speed of 700MHz atari800 runs at 100%. I loaded up Drop Zone and the Last Word and it stayed at 100%. Hitting F12 the speed in Drop Zone went to 130%. Over clocked to 1000MHz and Drop Zone went to 230%. The only time I noticed a drop in speed was in IceT. It still felt responsive, but at the stock speed atari800's speed dropped to 60%. Weird since I didn't see that drop in The Last Word.

[Action! Source Code]

 

>Is there any chance that you can relieve us of this accursed OSS cart format, altogether?

The binary will be available in multiple output formats, including the OSS formats so people can update their carts.

16k plain ROM is fairly straight, once the source is relocatable.

Of course it comes at the expense of 8k less RAM for code & source. That's why OSS came with that special design for their productivity cars.

>Is there any hope that you could convert this thing into something that could be used with SIO2PC?

Similar to the 16k Plain ROM. Of course loading from disk always comes with the risk that a bug also trashes ACTION! itself.

On idea that I have is to have a version that uses the RAM under the XL OS optionally as "backup".

>wanted to take advantage of the Action! 80 column functionality

If there anything special in ACTION! itself, apart from the fact it uses the E: handler?

 

 

What about using extended memory? I would think most of us that want to use it have more than 64K in our Ataris.

 

And what about extended memory for code space and compiling?

 

Enough questions from me, what you've done is incredible!

[BlackBox emulation in Atari800]

It seems to be full speed. Today I tried to load an image in APE for it and wondered why it didn't mount... (I'm using the same 1701 monitor I use with my real A8s.)

 

I'll try it with the speed indicator turned on and let you know.

[XE/XL BUS extender discussion]

You know what I see when I look at this? The long awaited sequel to the 1090XL. If you go back through the archives, there are discussions of what a 1090XL device should look like.

 

 

(Just don't use the height of the 1090XL, I'd like something I can set my monitor on...)