jaek_3

I don't understand, who's going to release this update and is it official?

Which emulator is the 2600+ using?

Sorry, I wasn't trying to diss Stella (didn't realize it was using it, actually) 😅. What I meant to ask was whether the compatibility of the machine itself can/will eventually be improved via user hacks.

Is it possible it might eventually be hacked like the NES mini? Maybe with a better emulator?

Yes, thank you for that track. I quite like it

This worked! The audio is now listenable! after.mp3 Well if no other problem arises that looks to be about it for this project

It only needs to be done once, thankfully. Now my internal keyboard works every time.

It's a stereo track yes, both stereo and mono sounds like that.

Example distort.mp3

This worked! Jamming to irishwood.sap as we speak. Just one problem, the audio out is EXTREMELY hot (distorted).

Hi Flashjazzcat, thanks for your response. I tried reading that page but I couldn't find any clear instructions as to what I'm supposed to do...

Hello everyone, My TK-II-STEREO has just arrived in the mail. I popped it and a couple POKEYs in my Atari 130XE and... nothing. The computer freezes at the blue boot screen. It will actually boot with a cartridge inserted (like Defender) but the keyboard doesn't work. I've also found that if I short the mono pin to ground to disable stereo the computer actually works as normal (just with really hot audio output). Does anyone know what the problem might be? I also have a U1MB in my machine. I read that I should connect the MO pin on my TK-II stereo to the MO pin of the U1MB, and while the computer will work I don't get stereo audio, the U1MB won't let me toggle it, and the audio output is very hot, exactly the same as when I disable stereo manually.

Update: I now have a fully functional PAL/NTSC switcher! I would have finished it sooner but this Christmas season has been particularly hectic.

I can now confirm that with an NTSC ANTIC, GTIA and 14.31818MHz master clock crystal in place, I'm getting a bright and colorful NTSC picture! Only annoyance is that to get proper colors in either mode I have to readjust the pot on the 130xe motherboard, but I think I can fix that with some resistors. I don't see any reason a full PAL/NTSC switcher shouldn't be possible to make now.

No, it just swaps the ANTIC chip for you automatically. I'm still waiting for parts/investigating implementation methods but if possible I'll make a GTIA/crystal switcher too so I can have full PAL and full NTSC available on the same machine at the flick of a switch.

Update: I've successfully built a PAL/NTSC ANTIC switcher 🙂 Not the most beautiful thing to look at perhaps but it is functional (the chip on top of the GTIA is an unrelated mod)

To clarify I haven't replaced any crystals yet: only the ANTIC and GTIA

The only crystals on my PAL board read 4.433618MHz (for PAL colorburst) and 14.31818MHz (the master crystal, I assume). I guess this means I won't be able to use my Atari 400 crystal after all, and will need to find a 14.31818MHz one instead?

Socket soldered: as you predicted Rybags with an NTSC ANTIC and GTIA installed I get a black and white only picture. I guess all that's left to do is to replace the clock crystal? Is it as simple as replacing the PAL crystal with an NTSC one? My understanding is that PAL Ataris have additional circuitry not present in the NTSC models. Can all that stay in place? The only crystal I can find in my NTSC Atari 400 is 3.579575MHz.

Alright, as soon as my DIP sockets arrive I'll drop in an NTSC GTIA and see what happens.

My monitor is a Sony PVM 1943MD. With the NTSC ANTIC installed it displays "NTSC 4.43". Is that different from PAL 60?

What exactly would one need to do to convert a PAL Atari 130XE to NTSC? I'm investigating the possibility of building some kind of PAL/NTSC switcher like the VIC-II² on the C64. I haven't built a prototype yet but in my testing I've determined an ANTIC switcher could work with a relay to toggle 5v between the PAL and NTSC versions of the chip. I am still unsure how exactly PAL and NTSC Ataris differ in terms of their GTIA chips and clock crystals however.

Hello, I recently got my hands on a PAL Atari 130XE with a bad GTIA chip. I managed to fix it with a simple mod (do NOT use this one, by the way; the wiring picture contradicts the text and even itself and neither configuration works. Refer instead to this diagram). Now it works flawlessly. I was a little annoyed at how slow my favorite cartridge games were playing at PAL speeds, though, so I decided to temporarily desolder the PAL ANTIC chip, solder in a socket, and plug in my NTSC Atari 400's ANTIC chip. I had read that this would change the CPU speed and monitor refresh rate to NTSC levels. It... worked, sort of; the speed and resolution are increased but the colors look washed out and just strange. Below are some screenshots. There's also seems to be some interference in the signal which is difficult to photograph. My monitor seems to think this is an NTSC 4.43 which I suppose makes sense, since this is a PAL machine. Is there any way to fix the colors short of doing a full NTSC conversion? I had wanted to be able to just swap out the ANTIC chip as needed, but if this is the quality of "NTSC mode" I don't think I'll bother.

So I know it's been quite some time since the last post in this thread, but I recently dug out my 810 only to find it doesn't work anymore! Doesn't read or write disks. Can't say I'm really surprised... Anyways, the head will initialize upon powerup and sometimes when it receives commands but apart from that it sits still as a stone.

Hi everyone, so I seem to have accidentally bricked my 800 and Incognito board during an ill-fated attempt to update the BIOS. I used SIO2PC. IBIOS.ROM went through without a hitch, but with ILOADER.ROM it complained of an "invalid file signature", so I searched on the internet and someone said ticking "ignore invalid files" worked for them, and I didn't know what else to do, so I did that. Then IPBI.ROM complained about the file size being too small, so I ticked "ignore small file size". I had a bad feeling about it but I decided to power cycle the machine anyway and unsurprisingly the machine's dead. Idiot! So now from what I gather it seems I need to reflash the little rom chip on the Incognito board, but I don't have the equipment or honestly the expertise to do this... so I was wondering if there's any chance someone here would be willing to do it for me if I sent it in the mail??? This is probably one of my bigger blunders. I knew I should have taken the time to thoroughly read the documentation but I was in a rush to get the cartridge port working and, well, here I am with a bigger problem.