SEEKING: Atari Keyboard Interface

[SEEKING: Atari Keyboard Interface]

I have bought and installed two of the KRH interfaces myself, something I've always wanted since I first read about the PC Transkey. My 800XL was already socketed, so installation was pretty easy. My 130XE was modified by its previous owner to include socketed chips, so it was an easy install there too.

 

Here's my main set up:

 

Can't recommend them enough!

[compressed image]

I think you want Diskcomm, creates .DCM files. Links here:

http://www.atari8.com/book/export/html/13

[Who here still has their original 8bit stuff from when they were new?]

Still have my original 800XL upgraded with the ICD Rambo upgrade and my 1050 with the US Doubler. Don't use the 1050, but the XL is my daily driver. Celebrating 30 years this Christmas!

[Flash Cartridges and OSS (Basic XL/XE)]

I guess you know about the 4.42 spx cart upgrade. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/136505-spartados-x-4-42/page-4?do=findComment&comment=1680553

 

I would guess OSS language carts still won't work, there's too much memory conflict.

 

I've looked at it, but am unsure about digging into my cart. Plus, the cart gets to be ridiculous once I have Action! and the R-Time 8 plugged into it. :-)

[Flash Cartridges and OSS (Basic XL/XE)]

Can't an original SpX passthru cart do that? (I just did it.) Would the Ultimate 1 meg upgrade do it?

 

 

Yeah, the original passthrough cart works, but then you're on SDX 4.2 instead of 4.46, losing, most notably, 512 byte sectors.

[Flash Cartridges and OSS (Basic XL/XE)]

I'm still searching for a solution for using SDX and the OSS carts. :-(

[Altirra, Ultimate 1Mb, Side 2, SDX, and config.sys]

Awesome, thanks guys! I knew it had to be something simple. :-)

[Altirra, Ultimate 1Mb, Side 2, SDX, and config.sys]

OK. Send me the hard disk image if possible (as a ZIP file) and I'll take a look.

 

Cool, thanks!

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v6wh2m5f42gyspx/Goz-Altirra.zip

 

(It's the whole set up.)

[Altirra, Ultimate 1Mb, Side 2, SDX, and config.sys]

I think so:

 

 

 

[Printing out game manuals as booklets - how do you do it?]

- Check your printer driver settings and see if there is a booklet printing option.

- For OS X there is a PDF workflow to create a booklet pdf:http://thekeptpromise.com/FreeApps/#CreateBooklet

 

You'll either need a duplex printer or print the odd pages and feed the pages back in and print the even pages.

 

A saddle stapler would be nice to have. :-)

[Altirra, Ultimate 1Mb, Side 2, SDX, and config.sys]

Fdisk:

 

Config.sys:

USE BANKED

DEVICE SPARTA

DEVICE SIO

DEVICE ATARIDOS

DEVICE RTIME8

DEVICE DOSKEY \ALIASES.INI

DEVICE RAMDISK

DEVICE COMEXE

DEVICE \UTIL\S_VBXE

DEVICE \UTIL\CON\CON

[Altirra, Ultimate 1Mb, Side 2, SDX, and config.sys]

In FDISK, make sure the volume containing CONFIG.SYS has the boot flag set. Which drive number is it on?

 

That's what I thought a first, but it doesn't use it when I set the drive to D1: or D3:, both with the boot flag set. It runs through the autoexec.bat file each time though.

 

I know it's just something simple I'm overlooking... :-(

[Altirra, Ultimate 1Mb, Side 2, SDX, and config.sys]

I set up a hard drive under Altirra using the Side 2 and U1Mb option, and it seems to be working well. My problem is that it seems to be ignoring config.sys. Where do I look first?

 

[Introducing Hayesduino]

Hmmm, any thoughts on porting this to the Pi? Then you could get Ethernet, wifi, and SLIP/PPP.

 

(Wish I could program better.... :-)

[What's your favorite text based game?]

Has anyone tried recent text adventures on the Atari? I think the .z3 files should work with the Atari interpreter, I just haven't had a chance to try.

(http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXzcode.html)

[New GUI for the Atari 8-bit]

Something of note here is that the UI process - as designed - doesn't go to sleep waiting for messages, since it has to constantly snapshot the mouse to see if it's in the menu bar, which becomes highlighted without mouse clicks. Once the UI has checked the mouse, it immediately idles. I wondered if the UI could go to sleep completely and be woken by messages from the mouse and keyboard drivers (which buffer everything using queues already anyway), but this would be a little more complex and it seems to work for now with the UI just idling when it's done what it has to do. MrFish and I have ideas for tooltips and such (which are really simple to implement), and the mouse cursor will need to change shape contextually when it's over a text box, for example, so the UI process can't get away with sleeping until something is pressed or it receives a message from an application.

 

 

Would it be more economical (CPU wise) to work like Mac OS with pull down menus instead of drop down windows? Pull down, where it requires a click to pull down the menu vs drop down, like on the ST where the menu drops down when the mouse pointer moves into the menu bar region.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMENx28FueA

[Help with this UnKnown XF551 mod]

The copy protection here is the hardware for the CSS upgrade, not for disks. :-)

 

I don't know of any available upgrade to install the two drives in the XF551 though.

[Help with this UnKnown XF551 mod]

You guys are too quick, I recognized the mod right away. :-)

 

If you read through to the end of that thread, you'll see that I finished the upgrade with a 3.5" mechanism. Works well.

[AspeQt for OS X system requirements?]

Well, shucks.

 

On the plus side, the very same Mac mini running Windows XP seems to run AspeQt adequately. But I was really hoping to have a dedicated Mac-Atari setup.

 

-Joe

 

I ran Ape under VirtualBox on OS X for a while until I got a hold of a cheap laptop running Windows XP.

[What I'd like to see...]

I use my 800XL on IRC all the time. Granted I just telnet to my OS X machine and run irssi. :-(

[BBS setup on internet]

I'm assuming. The manual has the directions for setting up a port for a BBS, I just haven't had a chance to try it yet. :-)

[BBS setup on internet]

It's not a popular path, but a Portmaster 2e will do what you want for up to 30 machines (depending on the model). They go for under $100 on eBay, I use one right now hooked up to my 850 to put my A8 online. Here's an example of one on eBay. Be sure to watch the prices (some of those offerings are insane).

 

Not small, but I can use it with all my vintage computers, along with two vt420 terminals I have. :-)

[ICD Multi I/O Video Port Information]

My Mio has the header for the 80 column card, but if I remember correctly, it's really close to the edge, I don't think that card would fit in the case. But maybe I'm remembering it wrong. :-)

[Interesting find inside one of my 400's]

I had the same find with a 1200XL I purchased over 10 years ago. I never used it, and finally got it out to see what's up. It wouldn't start, so I opened it up to reset the chips and found out it had a Newell 256K upgrade. Very nice.... Wish the previous owner had done the video mod too, but I guess I can't be too choosy, lol!

[SpartaDOS X Original Cartridge Update?]

I'm following this thread with interest, because right now on my 800xl with an IDE+ I cannot use the built in SDX with Action! I use SDX normally, but when I want to use Action! I disable SDX and boot off of SD 3.2 that I put on the IDE plus. Such a kludge.