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atarifanboi

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About atarifanboi

  • Birthday 10/22/1965

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    UK

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  1. Well, this clearly shows all you wish to do is flame. Since I returned to the Atari scene I have worked with numerous people to beta test hardware so that other people can be sure their upgrades will work, and written numerous how to documents and regularly help people with their ST issues. I do this purely for the joy of helping others, and the enjoyment I get from modding. Instead of taking the time to explain in detail why you think it's a crap solution, you simply just state it is, with no facts to back up what you are saying. If you had spent as long as I have poring over the FGMC schematics and photographs of the PCB you would understand that it is wired identically to the FGMC, except on the inside of the machine, and time was taken to replicate the FGMC operation without the need for an external cartridge. By your logic, if you plugged another cartridge into the FGMC passthrough, it could short some of them out. How exactly? If you look at the original PCB, you can see that all bar the CEO/CEI are pick offs from the lines running from one end of the cartridge to the other. The CEO/CEI lines pass through pins 10 & 11 on the cartridge, which is what happens with the RTC mod. This mod is exactly the same circuit as for FGMC. In fact all of the prototyping was done at the cartridge port, which if you'd read the documentation you would see. You'd also see that alternatives were tried and did not work. This solution worked in all the machines tested. And as for compatibility, it is fully compatible with the FGMC software and works happily with my clock ACCs. This work is not just mine, at least 4 people have had input into it. I have stated the caveats, it's up to people to make their own decisions. As for decisions, don't bother replying to this, because I've decided I won't respond, ever again. This will be my last post here, because I have better things to do, like actually support the ST scene, rather than trawling round forums looking for opportunities to flame people with vitriolic, unhelpful posts. All that time you spent flaming, you could have put some real technical background into it, and potentially helped to make it a better mod. You chose not to. Shame on you. Bye for good everyone.
  2. Walter, One final post to try and help you out here. Exxos has provided me with a particularly awkward cartridge to test, called the Ultimate Ripper. It's awkward because it requires you to boot your ST, turn a switch to on that is on the side of the cartridge, reset the ST, then press F1, and the menu then loads after a period of about 30 seconds during which the ST screen goes crazy! Quite a testing cartridge. My STE has the clock module installed using option 2 in the installation guide, so pin 31 of the ROM port is snipped and connections pass through the clock chip as per the original ForgetMeClock II the design is based on. The cartridge worked fine with no issues. I will try and test some other cartridges, but I have a limited budget in terms of cash and time. Caveats? Yes there are. As I also tested on 2 other machines, a 520 STFM with an option 1 clock install, and a vanilla 1040STF with no clock, and it didn't work on either, the caveat would have to be that a cartridge MUST work with your system first. If it does, the option 2 install should be fine. If it doesn't, and you install the clock module, then you can't blame the clock for something that didn't work before. As I've said before, testing all cartridges, with all variants of ST/STE is nigh on impossible, since you have multiple TOS variants, multiple memory variants, blitter/non blitter and so on. I can say, on my 4096 STE, with an option 2 install of the RTC clock module, the cartridge port IS NOT disabled.
  3. I don't blame you for leaving Chris, but I know that what you're doing is fantastic, I know where your store is, and I know that your products are top notch. You don't need to listen to flamers and neither do I.
  4. Walter, apologies, you seem to have been neglected with certain folks flaming on here. Please read the documentation, you have 2 installation options, neither of which should affect the cartridge port. When I prototyped this, I based it on the Forgetmeclock 2, and prototyped it on a breadboard plugged into the cartridge port. It is designed to mimic the original clock cartridge with internal connections. It is beta though, so you must bear that in mind. Chris designed the PCB based on my designs. Please read all the documentation and you should get the full picture. Regards Jon
  5. I'd suggest that perhaps before you decide to run down the work of others, you really ought to fully read the documentation that has been done, which fully explains the ins and outs of the clock module. This circuit was based on hours of studying images of the Forget Me Clock 2 and replicating that circuit in modern form as an internal unit. Because of the way the module works, by only reading the clock during boot or when setting, and the fact that the module replicates an existing design, it is highly unlikely that the design will affect the cartridge port operation. Of course having access to every single cartridge ever made for the ST is not possible so this always will be a consideration, but multiple people have put many hours into this, and the considered opinion that the cartridge port operation should be unaffected. In fact, since it is soldered in position, it is likely to be more reliable than the original, and a lot less intrusive. Chris clearly states its beta, so I'm not sure why you're choosing to flame him. If more people made contributions to the scene, rather than flaming those who do, we'd have a far richer ST scene.
  6. I've been considering this recently, and I'll probably donate my collection to here: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/
  7. For me, the acceleration thread is interesting, as I have an STE with a 32Mhz booster from exxos, and testing has proved interesting, you can see comparisons here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1127753703981519&set=gm.10154597711334214&type=3&theater It would be interesting to see where this could go, and if there is the feasability of getting it to a price point that people would consider reasonable, as at present, my ST's and Amiga are a hobby, and i am not prepared to pay large amounts for this sort of thing, especially as you are likely to hit a point where speed of processor becomes irrelevant, because the software is unuseable at the speed the processor is running at. I'd rather see a simpler device, at a better price point, with a lower level of boost. Personal opinion folks, please don't get all fighty like it got earlier in the thread!!
  8. So, the real time clock sprang to the forefront, with a lot of discussions on facebook. The article can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/133161394213/10154705155434214/?comment_id=10154751007259214&notif_t=like&notif_id=1477824094177944 And my musings and experimentation notes are here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8c04HGf1tP3WlRBS3RiZ3BfQUE
  9. There is a bit of discussion about Vampire going on in one of the ST facebook groups I frequent, and the whole booster subject is of interest to me as I have one of these fitted: http://www.exxoshost.co.uk/atari/last/V1STE/index.htm It's still a fairly standard 68K, but in all of my discussions with the creator of this booster, although the ROM and CPU will run at 32Mhz, the bus still runs at 8Mhz, so whilst I can understand the performance boost of the Vampire, I would question how it would improve access to existing architecture that's in place, unless of course it's adding those additional ports, and all the ST is doing is providing power and keyboard/mouse etc. For 3d based games, I'm seeing about a 25% boost in framerate. I haven't tested much in the way of 2d games. In terms of GEM, I'm seeing at least a 200% boost, and in some areas a 300% plus boost.
  10. More a totally rational want than irrational, but I'd love to get my hands on an Atari Falcon. Prices seem to vary from stupidly expensive, to insane though, so I doubt it will ever happen.
  11. If I recall, and I might be remembering wrong, the SIO plug on Lothareks site (http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=85) used to say that they needed trimming to make a good fit, as they were slightly too big as standard. Now it just says you need to do some cutting. That may be the cause of them being too tight.
  12. AFAIK I am currently either the only person, or at least one of an extremely small number of people, who have installed this upgrade successfully. If you follow the instructions by exxos, and also review the guides by myself and nukebloodaxe, which there are links for at the bottom of exxos' guide, then it is possible to install successfully, but it is time consuming (Patience is a must) and requires good soldering skills. http://www.exxoshost.co.uk/atari/last/V1STE/index.htm Killing your STE is most definitely a possibility. As is losing about 4-5 hours of your free time! Of the small number of games I've tested very briefly (Lack of time is a killer atm), which are all 3d games, there is a significant and noticeable boost in speed. I don't know if that will be the same for 2d games. As soon as I have the time I will be making some comparison videos.
  13. I guess the other angle to this,is that more people are collecting and trying to repair and keep old kit running, and now that getting new caps is so easy, they are an easy target, given that they are one of the most likely components to fail due to old age.
  14. It's not just about caps leaking, that is a factor, but they deteriorate over age, and either leak, or fail to function as originally intended. It's a relatively cheap and easy thing to do too, especially if you're handy with a soldering iron. I've watched Ben Heckendorn do a few repairs on old equipment, and cap replacement always comes up as a good point to start.
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