seastalker

Osgeld - Really? That's uncalled for. I work about 80 hours a week, doing my best to keep up with the offers so far, ALL WHILE still recuperating from the past year's losses from natural disasters as best I can. My history here is respect for EVERYONE. I stated in the first post "PM me anytime!" and to date I have not ONE message from you, nor do we share forum history I'm aware of, so don't act like a 14 year old on a forum of grown ups who were around when Atari was the best thing around. You obviously would be trouble to trade or sell with, so many thanks for the advanced warning and self-banning. I also thank you for the inspiration- I am going to accommodate every OTHER offer as best as I can in your tribute. So there, I still see the good in you. Now see it in yourself and behave from now on.

Hi everyone, I got inspired by a recent discovery. I'm a recent big fan of you-tube's "The 8-Bit Guy" channel. [Maybe he's on this forum? If so, hi.] It's not only a great channel, but recently he also opens his donations on camera for unboxing videos. His most recent video HERE has a particularly interesting part at the time: 3:15 to 5:02- a prototype of a brand new Apple II case that accepts a standard ATX motherboard. I know, the XEL is Mini-ITX, and also would be deemed blasphemy by most to cross pollinate a brand new Atari with a brand new Apple II case regardless of compatibility. Imagine if someone like this manufacturer could design a brand new case for the XEL Mini-ITX board with a mechanical keyboard? Hell yeah, sign me up!! We can print Atari character stickers for the keys if need be. If an 800xl design won't fit, I'd even take a 1200 inspired design.

Thank you for the clarification on the Eclair and MIst comparisons! Also, I am grateful for the new form factor A8 projects and they are well worth doing. I hope inspires others to run with it for OTHER projects. Enjoying my MIst FPGA computer and with a limited budget for WHICH new toys to get, the features I'm looking for would have to justify redundancy. A C64 Reloaded / Speccy Next type of A8 project would be that justification for me. No aging capacitors to worry about, Svideo and audio out port to replace RF and channel selector, low power consumption to replace an aging brick, dual POKEY support, and #1 or course: styled to fit an 800xl case/keyboard. IF I didn't have a Mist, this would greatly tempt me. It looks wonderful and I'm thrilled others can get interested in FPGAs. I will be looking out for the later MIst core updates, and support any FPGA chip replacement projects. Big thanks for this project!!

great point!! the gear is stored in FL usa at the moment. Any locals can PM or meet up if local enough

I have for sale or trade: Texas Instruments TI99 NEW IN BOX!!! Atari 400 (cleaned, tested and working) Dot Matrix printers (ASK! Panasonic KX-P1123, Apple II GS, Star) IBM PS/1 with Win 3.1 and games. IBM Model M Keyboards/terminals Apple II GS "Woz Edition" complete with printer and booklets Commodore 64 C model (cleaned, tested and working) Commodore 64 Breadbin 2x (tested and working - cleaning in progress) Commodore 64 (Spare Breadbin cases and keyboards) Commodore Floppy drives both working and soon to be working Black and White TVs Casio Portable TVs Several CRT monitors Nintendo NES (1985 original with two controllers and games) Nintendo Gameboy (1989, cleaned, tested and working) with games Nintendo Wii (cleaned, tested and working) with games SEEKING: upgraded 800xl, Modern A8 upgrades (Lotharek, XEL, Eclair, Sophia, flashcarts, an 800xl USB keyboard), Commodore 64 upgrades (Turbo Chameleon, 1541 Ult, new C64c or Amiga cases), Keyrah, spare chips (especially NOS), IBM 5100/5150, Zipstick joysticks, Atari Falcon, Atari 600xl, Amiga 1200, ZX Spectrum NEXT , Roland MT-32 - or tell me what you have! PM me anytime!

Just got an XEGS as a surprise gift!! Start of the thread has "how to" install links for the A8 line but do the 65/130 XE install instructions differ for a GS?

Has anyone done a comparison of the Eclair project with other FPGA solutions like MIst or MIster? I heard the core developer is the same on both. I'm excited for all new Atari projects and products but have several original Atari 8-bits, and a MIst. I may create a USB 800xl since none of the new projects fit natively in an A8. I am in no discord with the developers' design intent- that's just what I like. What are member's opinions on this... Would an Eclair be worth it to a MIst owner or seem redundant? Would you prefer an XEL if you were to spend on new project hardware?

Well said- I also agree that having a new board in 2017 for the Atari line is amazing! HUGE thanks to Michael for this. Of course I don't expect anyone to be obligated to create one, but thought I'd check in to see if there are any active projects developing for converting the board to fit an original case? Just my own wish to have this fantastic new tech usable with my 800xl keyboard. In a pinch, I suppose a Keyrah device to make my case a USB plug in for the XEL would be pretty close.

Leech- you are my new best friend. If I ever meet you, I think a frothy beer at the tavern is in order. Speaking of Doom- want to really be freaked out? You could put a different music cd in the tray once the game was loaded. It will skip around like crazy when the program searches for cues but try wonderfully inappropriate music like ANY of Pendereski's atonal music. Carla Bley's "Escalator Over The Hill" combined with Doom/Quake games is the stuff that nightmares have nightmares of.

Big jump scare for me was in "Forbidden Forest" when the Demogorgon would pop on screen if you couldn't get him with an arrow through the trees in time as he re-spawned. The skeleton was freaky too. Other ones- The Lurking Horror, and Wishbringer- thinking about getting eaten by a grue still haunts me... anyone get the chills first time fighting the legendary Devourer in Alternate Reality - The Dungeon?

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Is anyone actively planning to adjust Michael's design plans to clone one that fits any original XL cases? Looking at the new C64 Reloaded board inspired stereo Pokey and fast region switching. Rather than adjusting the board's finalized functionality, I was dreaming out loud of a cartridge solution or other expansion. I may sound a little "out there" at times.

Since the board is really getting close to being ready, when the designs are released, I thought I'd take the temperature on any interest in drop in xl replacement boards. I also ask if anyone knows of the latest news of skilled individuals who plan to create one? I'd love to see it happen. Huge bonus would be if one board fit the 600, 800, and others. Dual Pokey would be amazing as would a NTSC/PAL switch with a GTIA/ANTIC cartridge (hey, I can dream...)

Yeah, I figured. Interesting note on the color ram; it will be nice to hear more about the functionality of the extra ram. Will games load faster maybe? Other than stereo SID, I don't recall the C64 having a lot of upgrades like there are with all the Atari 8 bit (stereo pokey, Ult 1MB, RGB, faster cpu, bigger video...)

Yes, I thank you all the same for your easy 3 step method, even if I failed at it. I hope to adjust the NTSC timing, but must find the time to mess with the board more. It has a different issue (maybe power switch) that needs addressing first. I've heard of DVDO but most products look to be HDMI based. Which product of theirs do you suggest for Atari hardware?

I am quite excited about both projects. There is also a MK3 FPGA based board from Individual Computers coming up- only speculating on features, but perhaps it will have built in Turbo Chameleon features like Gideon's 1541 Ultimate built in. A BIG question about the MK2. I see it comes with 128 kb of RAM instead of 64. Would this also make this partly a Commodore 128? It would be missing RGB and some keyboard keys, but would this run 128 software? 40/80 columns? If so it seems odd that the feature list would gloss over the 128 RAM feature so quickly.

Actually, yes, a Rev C Hong Kong Fully socketed 800xl exactly. I got rid of my rf adapter and 2-3 selector switch before any problem. I also think I may need to turn my NTSC color timer to possibly fix it. I got a UAV board as well which may supersede things but I am open to any ideas that may fix or where I learn from.

just tried the swap and still not fixed. Thanks for the new idea. I may need to pass this project to someone with a scope

ATTACHED: first test with Rev C Basic chip. Characters were flickering and second vertical row missing. 2nd one is a video afterwards where I swapped the socket out and put in a different one (Rev a or B likely). Does this tell us more? Rev B Video (maybe shot upside down) - Copy.mp4

The CPU and MMU do run a bit warm. Unfortunately I don't have a replacement MMU to test with. Going thru spare chips now..

@Rybags: Was able to run your program with chip installed now and got your screenshot but with MANY characters flickering rapidly and (from the left side of screen) the whole 2nd vertical row was blank. Screenshot can be taken if helpful. Swapped PIA and problem persists. So I am on to re-socketing next - couldn't hurt.

I'm curious most specifically because I have lots of Commodore 64 chips and 1541 floppy drives laying around and wonder what ICs can be salvaged for a 800xl. Perhaps obviously not say the big guys like SID or VIC, but what about some of the smaller chips? Any existing list/database would be fun to compare Atari systems as well as other computers. if a rare pricey chip on ebay could be found more commonly in another system that would be useful like (hypothetically) if a MMU was also found in an Apple IIe. Though it would be amazing to conceptualize a stereo/quad rig board of POKEY AND SID singing in harmony, I'll save that for another discussion day.

looking into a basic cart now... always good to have as a backup. Will experiment more with the attachment too. Seems I at LEAST have a ram issue to address. If I cant work it out I suppose one of the available memory upgrades would be better than replacement chips.

Again, I can't load when basic is present, but I did try again with DOS. Best I could do was use the respecQT program to boot an executable and I pointed to your file and got a screen with some of the characters blinking. What does this program do or let us now know? Thanks.

Using RespeQT I was able to load Frogger and Football, but not Forbidden Forrest. This only works if I do NOT hold option like normally required, AND I must remove any Basic IC. With it installed, the 800xl boots and freezes at the normal blue screen but no sound nor "ready" prompt. If I hold option before booting it goes to black. Does this sound like a socket issue or is the no need for holding option plus it wanting to boot the self test more indicative of ram issues? I'm going to look for a ram test program that can pinpoint WHICH ICs are problematic. Thanks so far to everyone- I feel so close to the finish line... EDIT: Self Test memory only shows 40 consecutive memory green squares. Hmmm... if 8 (kb?) are bad that means at least two chips fail... thinking 8 chips = 6kb per chip? Going to start swapping and retetsing

Very good idea! I may swap it out all the same if ram testing fails. I'm swapping out ram chips. I heard one YT video repair say if it goes right to self test it is probably a bad ram chip(s). Wish I had a working board to test as process of elimination would be easier.