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nicholas042893

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Posts posted by nicholas042893

  1. Posted · Edited by nicholas042893

    Right, sorry for taking so long to reply but here goes. All replies apply to Dpaint ST:

     

     

    Well I tried a few ideas but I couldn't achieve this. Then again I never had the manual for it so it might be there, just obscured somewhere in the UI. Anyone else know something about this?

     

     

    After you cut a region using paintbrush icon, right click and click "distort". Also note that you can also select lasso mode there by pressing "carve".

     

     

    Just right click on the S (Stencil) button that brings up the menu. Select your the indices you want to mask against and press "colors". I wasn't ever sure what the "foreground" and "fix/free" buttons do so I never bothered with them. Anyway this does what you describe. Not sure what the "ohat only goes so far" remark refers to, what else is missing?

     

    P.S. Well, it might lack in features compared to Paintworks but it sure beats the crap out of it in terms of speed - that thing on the video is sloooow ;).

     

    No problem! Thanks for exploring again.

     

    The distort tool works, and skew is fine, but I do like being able to warp and use perspective changes which is harder to do this way by combining skew and rotations as well as repainting certain object "poses".

     

    And although the stencil feature allows me to mask colors, such as what's in the background, when in combination with using the carve tool to select an object and work with it without selecting the background, it tends to get confused. I haven't figured out what it wants from me. A test of this is creating a solid gray background, masking the gray color, painting a red number two, and then carving out the number two. Sometimes the background is including in the carving making things difficult, and sometimes it omits the background. This may have something to do with the "fix / free" background, I have more experimenting to do. If I can figure out what it wants, I can make this work for replacing slippy colors.

     

    YES, the IIgs is VERY slow without an accelerator!! Just while doing most things lol.

    Don't worry, Paintworks and DeluxePaint and just about any software releases are equally slow on that lethargic 2.8mhz beast lol.

    That is part of the reason I have put mine aside for now and adopted an ST to see what I can do with it. More speed at a low price! ;)

  2. Posted

     

    Care to elaborate on this? Perhaps some other program has the features you're missing.

    Sure! Well, something I use a lot on Paintworks for the IIgs is what they termed as "slippy colors", the ability to select certain colors for the lasso tool to avoid when it "slips around" and selects an object made of all other colors. This is helpful for selecting an oddly shaped object, and fast, to copy/paste, move, flip, remove, etc. Another is stretching, warping, skewing of objects and perspective alterations. Then, there's the masking ability, to select certain colors in the image to be left alone or "fixed" so that work can continue around or even behind them for layering abilities. DeluxePaint versions that I've used have had some ability, like "Fix Background" but that only goes so far. There's a few other things, but those are what I use the most. I looked on YouTube and I found this which actually demonstrates a few things I use in Paintworks all the time. https://youtu.be/KVzSGB4MVcg?t=21m40s

    I tried DEGAS, DeluxePaint, Canvas, Spectrum 512, a few others but I didn't notice any of these features. Any ideas?

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    yea, ok I give him the benifit, but there is no way in hell im giving some random stranger a CC number and all the pertinent info over the phone for them to write it down on a post-it-note, then once the dust settles chuck it in the bin with all the security of crumpling it up.

     

    I actually got fired from a company when I refused to do just that.

     

    and a 50 dollar minimum for paypal is a downside when I want to buy a 5 dollar part, considering paypal charges just about half of my local sales tax

     

    I have never ordered from him cause he has never had anything I have not found elsewere outside of gold plated atari boards, which is mostly horsecrap, since its a digital signal and at the price he charges its not a hard gold plating that will last any longer than HASL or ENIG (ENIG is what the stock controllers use)

     

    same reason I chose lead free HASAL smooth side up on my 2600 / 7800 rapid fire controllers, its not going to last any longer than a chineese soft gold plating and cost a lot less, which is almost 10x less than a hard gold contact

     

    yea I know I am full of shit, which is why I am a IPC certified interconnect designer, and know the difference tween pcb surface finishes and their pro's and cons

     

    just cause its yellow its not the same thing

    If you happen to want to pay with PayPal because you found something you'd like to order from him, his invoices have the total price in two breakdowns. A: charge to credit/debit card directly B: With PayPal fees if order is under $50. (About $2.50 per $40 is what I've paid) Total will be: Item $, PayPal Fees $, Shipping $ = Grand Total $ (send grand total $ as retail for good/service through PayPal to their PayPal address) And that's it! No worries. Fees are just waived over $50....

  7. Posted · Edited by nicholas042893

    Two copies of Paintworks on ebay UK at the moment (not my auctions I hasten to add), not sure what the postage will cost your side of the pond, but with our currently collapsing currency it will be quite a bit cheaper than usual :)

     

    Haha actually ours is really weak at the moment. 1 USD = .76 p :\ Nevertheless I checked eBay and I saw the copy for 18 USD / 14 GBP...! Fine with me! However, do you think it would work on my NTSC machine?

     

    Just remembered, the machine can do PAL/NTSC but it's my TV that will be the issue. :\

  8. Posted · Edited by nicholas042893

    I'm thinking of getting a C64, but I've never owned one. Is there a FAQ or beginner's guide anywhere?

     

    Specifically, I'd like to know:

     

    Is there a trusted source for purchasing hardware/software/accessories, like Best Computing for the Atari?

     

    What are the popular add-on/upgrades, modern or otherwise? I'm thinking most of storage solutions (CF/SD readers) but also video upgrades or accelerators.

     

    Thanks!

     

    A trusted source for buying what you need all in one stop? Hard to say from here in the US. There's international trading/selling like Amibay, but the C64 was so popular here in N.A. that using a PAL unit is more trouble than it's worth to start out with. I've used eBay for general and usually easy to find things like mice, modems, drives, etc. I always make sure that if the item condition says "new" or "used" never "--" because there is an eBay guarantee that if the item does not arrive in the condition listed you can get your money back ( all NEW and USED items are to be guaranteed working condition according to policy, so avoid sellers who list something as "used" and then write "sold untested, i dunno if it actually works but not my problem" because they are difficult to deal with when something isn't right) Commodore stuff is too plentiful and cheap to take chances like that. You'd still get your money back if an item arrives broken or not working, and it's easy, but the seller won't usually like it if they're not the type to take responsibility for what they're selling.

     

    www.oldsoftware.com is a source for some things Commodore like hardware and software, but generally sold out on a lot and not good for finding modern updgrades.

     

    Just some tips,

     

    When you buy your C64 make sure the power supply looks good, or get a new, replacement for it. ( like this http://en.retrogamesupply.com/collections/commodore/products/power-supply-for-commodore-64 )

    The original power supplies ARE flaky as all get out and not easily repairable because of the way they're made. They're awful and some of them are worse than others, but generally you should be okay, but if your system ever stops working properly the power supply is usually the first thing to cause any trouble I've learned!! Really I thought my C64c was dead until I changed power supplies and found out the reason BASIC wasn't loading up was just bad power that had been working for a long time til now.

     

    And I've always liked the C64c model for its aesthetics but functionally there won't be a difference.

     

    You can easily just hook it up to a TV with an RF adapter, but the composite cable was always the better way to avoid snowy pictures and get better sound with your CRT TV or monitor with this input, like the Commodore monitors.

    (cable like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-Commodore-Video-A-V-Cable-Composite-Video-Audio-VIC-20-C-64-5pin-/232022758200?hash=item3605a25338:m:mFvB1Am8mNNQj9zgxv7mcNQ)

     

    Otherwise, there are ways of using video converter boxes just to take the RF or composite and output VGA, etc. for modern monitors if a TV isn't your style. Searching this topic will give you tons of results. This won't necessarily improve resolution or anything crazy, but hooking your C64 up to an HDTV with analog composite cables or RF will likely lead to fuzzy graphics and bad color and even bad sound without a converter. RF output has been a horrible experience for me on HDTVs...

     

    As for drives, now that it's 2016, it's best to go with something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/C64c-Style-SD2IEC-Commodore-1541-Disk-Drive-Emulator-SD-Card-Reader-C64-C128-VIC-/330917399751?hash=item4d0c36ccc7:g:-~AAAOSw6btXR5dM

    That will allow you to use floppy disk images like you would in emulation, but on your C64. I hate to say it because I'm hardcore floppy disk lover, this is the easiest, fastest, ultimately cheapest way to access software these days.

    If you want to use real disks, I suggest avoiding the 1541 drive, but they are plentiful and rather cheap. They just aren't the best quality and usually need realignments often, are slow, heavy and run hot. I suggest using an Epyx Fast Load cartridge with it. These are easy to find on eBay lately for around $25, more or less and will usually improve load times on most software quite well from my experience of years without it and then with!

     

    The 1541-II drive is an improvement in many regards and I suggest this, but it will be in the style of the C64c rather than the original C64 case. Make sure it comes with its power supply.

    The 1571 was my favorite drive.

    While using real disks, there is this: http://store.go4retro.com/zoomfloppy/The Zoom Floppy will let you download disk images and make physical disks for use in your C64! Just stock up on blank DS/DD disks, as the Commodore drives cann't format and use high density disks!

     

    It's not usually worth buying authentic disks unless you're collecting them for their boxes or just the disks or if the software is impossible to find in disk image format for emulation/"burning" a real floppy with.

     

    Tape drives are easy to find and hold up well, but the tapes are rare now and you can save things to blank ones, but they're slow and it's best to use a tape drive emulator if you must, like this:

    I suggest avoiding tapes until you come across something that you can't find any other way.

     

    You'll also want a joystick (there are so many...it's overwhelming. Look for something you'll enjoy, if you're used to game pads, get a game pad. My distaste for the Wico bat joystick lies in its stiffness, while I have always loved The bug since it sits in the hand and joystick is done by fingers, but we all have our own preferences)

     

    In addition to that, there are so many expansions, like ethernet cards http://store.go4retro.com/64nic/

     

    All you have to do is just Google your idea for what you want, and usually there's something to be found. There's weird old hardware, too like the Computer Eyes image capture device or scanners that attach to your dot matrix printer head...etc.

     

    Personally, I think a great, stable start in C64 these days is a C64/C64c, replacement power supply, SD2IEC disk drive emulator, a small CRT tv or monitor with video converter box, and a joystick or two.

     

     

    As for new releases in games and such, there IS such a thing!!!! You can usually buy disk images of new games and write floppies/run them in the drive emulator.

     

    This is an example of a place to get some new C64 hardware/software, just beware of making sure the game is NTSC and not PAL when you buy it since they're not in N.A. http://www.protovision-online.de/index.php?language=en

    And there are others like that, just keep searching for what you want. Homebrew on the C64 is very active!

     

    I think that's about it for a good start.

     

    *I should add, accelerators aren't necessary and won't do much for you for the C64 if you find one. Nothing on the C64 is usually slow unless the disk drive is slow! That's where you run in to problems...and learn to avoid the 1541 haha.

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    I have never gotten to try the ST version, but Paintworks (published by Activision) on my IIgs is one of my favorite to work with. (The IIgs version I use is Paintworks Gold, which came out a few years after the Atari version. Not sure of feature differences between IIgs and Atari releases) If you can find a copy of that, that's an option for trying out too.

     

    I love it for its easy to use masking, layering and lasso features especially, so I plan to give the ST version a try when I finally find a copy I can use.

    • Like 1

  11. Posted · Edited by nicholas042893

    Could be your disk drives head is out of alignment (either in Windows or on ST). When you say original TOS, do you mean TOS 1.0? That is the only one I'm not sure will read a PC disk, given the other 'features' it has :)

     

    The other problem could be that you are using DSHD (Double sided high density - roughly 1.4mb of storage) in your PC when the ST only takes DSDD (double sided double density roughly 720k in total iirc), without hardware mods. If you only have high density disks, you will need to tape over the hole opposite the write protect hole on the disk and then force Windows to format it double density, its been a while since I used Win 2k, I know in XP the option to do this got removed from the format box, but it may still be there on 2k (Windows 98 it definitely is). HD disks formatted like this can be ropey so buyer beware.

    The drive in the ST is a non-original modified PC drive I just got from AtariFreakz, that could have something to do with that. I've used the tape over method for a long time and always had good luck on my IIgs anyway, and the disk I tried was formatted in Win2k as a DD disk (it still had the drop down menu for it luckily!) All the disks I've made for my ST so far on that computer using the Floppy Image program have been great. I will definitely try again when I get home though, see if I find anything that I did out of whack! :D

     

    As for TOS, it's the first version in ROM I think. 1985.

  12. Posted · Edited by nicholas042893

    Can't help with the zip2st, but why can't your ST read DOS disks, surely they all can (make sure it's formatted on the PC though, as the other way round only TOS 1.04 and up will format a 'proper' MSDOS disk)? Alternatively use Fastcopy or Kobold to format a 'proper' DOS disk on the ST.

    Thanks for your reply! I'll try again tonight! It might just be me. I just know I tried accessing files on a disk that I formatted in Windows 2000 in my Atari ST and it gave me a read error for the disk. I'll give it another go. I just thought since I have the original TOS it may just not have been accepting of the disk format other than it's own.

     

    It is very simple. Call zip2st with your ZIP file and it will generate an .st file with the contents of the ZIP file. Take note that the resulting disk does not autoboot files from any operating system as a required bootsector will not be part of the zip.

     

    Thanks for your reply too! However, I'm confused. You say to call zip2st with the zip file. Is that the command like: " zip2st.sh example.zip" ? I'm not sure where to execute that command though or when I can do that. Are there any instructions? It just feels like there's something I need to know that everyone else already knows when they use zip2st, meanwhile I just learned what a shell script is yesterday!

  13. Posted

    Hello everyone!

     

    There are files for Multi TOS booter that I want to use, but they came as files, not in an ST image. My ST can't read DOS disks with it's TOS version, so I am looking to make the files go into an ST file for me to create a disk from to use in my ST!

     

    I have found very little information on zip2st that's a part of the Hatari package. I have downloaded Hatari for PC and Mac, and cannot find a single file with that name in it. I really can't seem to identify any scripts to run at all.

     

    Is there anyone who could please explain what I'm missing. All I want to do is use the zip2st utility to make a zip folder into an .st file!

     

    Thanks for your help.

     

    - Taylor

  18. Posted

    When I left my high school in 2011, there were some IIgs systems still in one of the art room lofts that weren't being used. I managed to get permission to clear out a closet of Apple II stuff just by asking a teacher who asked the principal, and I found disks of stuff dated as late as 2002. There was also this sad little IBM PS/2 sitting on a desk by a window in a corner of the room, and I always wanted to take home with me, but I never did. Our middle school math classes also kept Apple IIe systems for their graphing and math programs now that I think about it.

    Anyway, you could probably contact school technology department administrators and see if anyone can help you out. Usually this kind of stuff that missed auctions just hangs around undocumented and they don't mind just giving it up. I might just do that in case those Apple II computer are still in that loft...

    • Like 2

  19. Posted

    Cool! The GS version did/does exist. Here was someone wanting to get rid of theirs back in 2010 http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?21150-FS-FT-Apple-IIGS-Computer-Eyes

     

    I think mine was a ComputerEyes/2 if I remember correctly. I still have it, but no computer to put it into. I remember scanning stuff from my VCR and being able to manually convert it to double hires color using DazzleDraw or something.

     

    That's awesome! You might need to pick up a computer just to use it ;) Don't let it go to waste!

  20. Posted · Edited by nicholas042893

    Just remember the Scribe used the thermal wax ribbons, so you may have to hunt those down! I'm not sure of what the combination would be, but I'm very certain you can hold down a few buttons as you turn the printer on to have it print a self test page. Most printers will have that, the ImageWriter had one testes if I remember right, but it's been a long time. That's about all the information I can offer.

    Good luck!

  21. Posted

    Old thread but not everything is answered.

     

    The Atari ST joystick ports are handled by the keyboard processor. This means that there is no support for light guns/pens (the keyboards processor does not know about the screen counter). Also there are no analogue inputs so paddles and the Atari touch tablet do not work on an ST. The third party touch tablets that work with the ST work differently. For example the Wacom and Tabby graphics tablet connect to the serial port.

     

    But the STE/Falcon have the enhanced joystick port. These support analogue input and also a light gun/pen. Thus with the right adapter paddles can be connected and the Atari light gun/pen too. Back in the time I experimented with the Atari light gun on an STE. It worked but the accuracy was not great.

     

    Robert

    Thanks for the link to the Tabby! I also found Wacom drivers for the Atari ST, but so far I can't find any documentation pointing to which models to be on the lookout for. You don't happen to know where I would find that, do you?

     

    Taylor

  24. Posted

    I use my IIgs mainly for creating art. With various programs and peripherals, the visual and aural art on my IIgs just comes out so much better than any attempt I've made on newer computers even with the evolution of Photoshop and digital sound and video manipulation. (I also love my Atari ST for the same, and also when I need CAD and other design heavy tasks.) I speak 16 bit better maybe haha.

    I'm looking forward to getting a Transwarp clone soon, and now I'm on a hunt for a ComputerEyes GS card since I've found evidence they existed. ;) I also want to hunt some adapters down so I can use my actual IIgs hardware in digital gallery displays.

    My IIe is great for productivity and games of course, and I use it frequently.

    I actually just had to take a break this week because the only 3.5 drive I have left for my IIgs breathed its last breath.

    • Like 1
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