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Everything posted by potatohead
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Guess he has to tell us which monitor he has? Both Apple and SGI used sync on green. Could be an early Mac display that will still do 15Khz, in which case he would need the little circuit I put here.
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the best to worst basic interpreters
potatohead replied to xxx's topic in Classic Computing Discussion
I really liked the Radio Shack ones. Model 100 = awesome, and I had the folding one which I can't remember off hand. It had 2K RAM and a respectable BASIC. When I was in manufacturing, I programmed a bunch of layout math into the folding one and used the crap out of it every week. For a while, I had the use of a Model 100. It has a bitmap display, which surprised me, and is a killer feature. I programmed more math into that and some graphics. Too bad I didn't get one for myself, but the little folding one was enough as I didn't need any graphics. Scored a Model 100 recently for a 20 spot. It's a really neat machine, and I hope to have some time to explore writing some assembly language for it. I think it can do a lot more graphically than we've typically seen, but so far... It's fun for notes and as a terminal. Have done both of those, along with some programs. People like to futz with it, and pretty much everyone says, "4 AA batteries, and it runs how long?" LOL Anyway, I see this BASIC list very differently. Would deffo not put Applesoft as far down as it is, and wouldn't put it at the top either. BBC Basic by a mile there. It's a crazy list! Hey OP, what was your criteria? Curious friends want to know -
The sync is there, but so is the signal. Also, just wiring them together may damage either the monitor and or computer too. Direct coupling may create a circuit path and deliver current where neither device expects it. All that said, doing that may work, depending on the sync levels and how well the display would reject the composite signal coming along for the ride. Sync being on the green pin means anything other than sync combined wit it is likely going to show up on the display, IMHO. If there is a sync only source on the computer, a resistor and capacitor may decouple it from DC current and or set the sync level to an appropriate one for the display. That is basically what the circuit above does. The transistor is in there to combine separate sync.
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Some of that has to do with the CRT in the TV. Frankly, many ordinary consumer grade sets will display a monochrome, composite signal better than you think when equipped with a better CRT. The PVM I have does it easily, over composite or S-video. And when it's monochrome, it works in the 600 lines range. That's still 2/3 what the little amber screen will do. That one exceeds 800. That's basically what a PVM is. Now, most of those offer better, wider bandwidth circuits too. But, since the 90's, most TV circuits are more than good enough. Swapping out a CRT is a PITA though. I've done it multiple times in the past, and actually the first time was as a kid! Wanted a full frame display for my Atari to see all the overscan action. The new tube was a bit smaller, but had basically half the pitch of the one in the set. The difference was clear, and that one could display 80 columns! Was a Zenith that I did a full realignment on. And that's the other thing true after the 90's. Circuits stayed aligned far better than they did before. Older era TV's would degrade fairly rapidly. Component values changing, etc... An afternoon spent redoing everything would result in a great picture for another year or maybe two. Used to do that, using my Atari for signals and patterns, for date money. LOL.
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I'm glad it was still online. Recall seeing it years ago. The nice thing about that circuit is it is passive. Runs on the signal itself and does not require external power. Handy dandy.
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It's one of those pro grade CRT displays. A BVM is a broadcast grade one. They will work at 15Khz, offer a range of inputs and typically have great circuits and geometry. The better ones offer fine pitch CRT tubes, and that's true of the one I got. It's basically an XVGA grade CRT running in an NTSC / PAL monitor. The fine pitch means being able to display monochrome up to somewhere around 600 lines without the fringing seen on more coarse pitch CRT's typically used for consumer grade watching. The one I have has separate sync, RGB input. Basically can hook a CC3 or GS right up to it and go. It's either the 1342 or 1344Q, and I have to look at the back to be sure. Both are the same, except one has component input YCb,Cr, and the other has digital TTL, like CGA type, and I've got the digital TTL one. At some point, I want an older DOS PC, so this display is basically ready to go there. In terms of signals, if it's standard definition, this display will display it. Got it before the CRT craze for a song. It's a few hundred to score now. That blew up quick! If you get lucky and or want to get one of these, they are great! If you are going to spend for one, get the fine pitch tubes. Often, the same display will be branded normally, or say something to the effect of "fine pitch" or "super", and those are the ones with great CRT tubes in them. Or... not. The standard pitch displays are still awesome.
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I like CRT's too. Yeah, I have a CC3 myself. With composite, and 80 column, the better the CRT circuits are, the WORSE the CC3 display actually is! For a long time, I ran my CC3 on a Zenith 80's era TV, and that one didn't have the advanced filtering newer sets do. It worked pretty well. Black on green is pretty brutal, given how the CC3 outputs video in the first place, but on the other hand, how it outputs video makes for spiffy 8 bit / pixel graphics on an NTSC set too, so... What I do with mine, when running composite, is chain in a little monochrome Amber screen. Works great, but being sharp, again that black on green is brutal. I usually change it to something without color, white on black, black on white, or put one of the greys in there. For programming, this works! Not all software offers the options though. I got a nice PVM to game and compute on sometimes. It does odd things with both a CC3 and my Apple 2. Fortunately, 80 column on the Apple is just monochrome, so it's no big deal. Atari and C64 offer up better signals, and a non-composite option. Those look pretty great, as does anything with phase change color signals. To sum up, the circuits got better than the old machines video to a fault! My PVM will take a CC3 signal directly due to it having an option for composite sync and separate. I can just press an input button to switch between composite and RGB, and it all just works. I don't have anything to test this circuit with, but what's shown above has the current limiting needed to be pretty harmless. Bet it works.
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Seems like you could build this circuit and be good to go: https://www.epanorama.net/circuits/sync_r.html Here's the datasheet for the transistor specified: https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/149/BC547-190204.pdf
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It isn't as bad as it was for our parents. We are all old enough now to have shown people the ropes. I did. My Apple, and maybe Atari setup will be a little playground for my grand kids here soon. One is almost 5 and wants to do stuff. The MECC programs for the Apple are great for that kind of thing. Why not? I tried paddle games this year. Not quite there, but they can do touch and use a mouse! Weird. For us, it was Atari and misc consoles. That is what I had. My kids saw Apples in school. Where I lived, they kept them running for primary school into the 00's. Oregon Trail, typing, vocab, numbers... A whole bunch of people used earlier PC"s too. Anyone who has done that on say a 386 will have little trouble with an Apple. And there are the cards! It has been a pretty great time to be into Apple 8 and GS machines. It was a bigger PITA a while back, and I stayed with my Atari and CoCo3 for programming fun, and I really did not share that with many people. And that is a factor too. This stuff gets warm and cold. Like I have a CFFA 3000 card. Those are done, and for a while, it was a little rough to get good disk emulation. In fact, for the first couple years, I used floppy drives for that reason. Now, there are a handful of devices, sound cards got cloned, the basic cards are cheap, and there are spiffy things for HDMI, speeding the machine up. It all kind of works like PC's did. I like that part personally. Others do too. Like any hobby, there is the initial getting in, and then the ongoing fun. Pretty much all the discussed machines work that way, and some are cheap to get into, like a VIC 20 and multi cart. On Atari, one could score XL, or XE machine, some carts, BASIC, Star Raiders, whatever. Get or make controllers. Then maybe cassette. Maybe not, right? Until FujiNet, the next move was either a disk drive, or SIO emulator. With FujiNet, that's the next move I would make, and I have an 800XL, no disk right now. Perfect. But that gets someone online, fetching stuff from servers, playing games with others, using the IRATA PLATO system... Or get SIO disk emulation. Fetch software from the internet. From here there are mods and kits to build on the system. Maybe get a killer CRT. Over time, someone will spend a few hundred dollars. On Apple, one can score a Plus, //e, C, or GS. Buy or make a joystick. Then audio load a lot of software using a phone, or computer, whatever from the Apple Game Server. The C has everything one needs built in. From there, get a disk drive and card, or disk emulation, and or card. Fetch software from the Internet! From here there are cards and mods to build the system. FastChip or other accelerator. (Includes RAM expansion) Sound card, original or new one made today. Serial card for comms. Video card for VGA, HDMI. Other things. Maybe get a killer CRT. Over time a person will spend a few hundred dollars, and more than they would on an Atari or C64, but not too much more, given some thought. I like to add something every so often when a great device becomes available. Honestly, unless someone is just going to load up a multi cart and play games, this is how things go, and it is a fun ride along the way. Or... Get one of those FPGA devices, or emulate. And, if they emulate at all prior to getting the real deal, they will know a lot. And unless they are doing it in a vacuum, they will be chatting others up having a good time not unlike how it all goes with say, classic cars. People can get in on something for a song sometimes. More often, they will spend some, maybe get in for a coupla hundred and then take it a bite at a time from there.
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Oh I don't know about that. These days, setting an Apple up isn't terribly difficult. One gets a drive emulator, and a lot of the good stuff is packaged up, ready to go! Total Replay is a labor of love that really does present a great retro experience in an easy way. For many, it's connect all the bits together, make sure the package is on the card, turn the machine on, and select from the menu, go! https://archive.org/details/TotalReplay I've put kids and other adults on mine, and they had a blast! It's a different kind of games machine. Somewhat like the Beeb, or Spectrum. Bitmap games. DOS. Now make no mistake, I keep a VCS and an Atari 8 bit or two for those frame locked experiences. People, who experience that today, notice! Low latency and all that. But, in the scope of gaming, a whole lot happened on the Apple. And Apples were used to develop for other machines due to being "a real 8 bit computer", in the sense of having a high density text display, fast storage and flexible, simple hardware that made building interfaces fairly easy. RPG type games are excellent on Apple computers. And some arcade ports are amazing! Try both the DOS and Apple 2 ports of ROBOTRON, for example. Killer! There is a lot out there. We all have our faves. For me, it's been interesting. I played a ton of Atari and kind of stalled. Went back to the Apple and it's a whole new round of fun, and I've enjoyed the machines for the last decade or so now. People, who get into this, are gonna start somewhere. As was said by several, myself included, it really depends on what sparks their interest really. Whatever that is gets them going. If they are into it at all, they will want to check the era out and when they do, others will need to help out some. Maybe that happens on real machines. I think probably not, unless they are super serious. But, having one real machine can be the anchor for making the FPGA projects, for example, or emulation as another example, relevant. It's all getting simpler across the board. An Atari, with FujiNet is looking sweet! Apples have their game server, audio connection which just isn't all that hard, and many different storage devices people can drop files onto and go. I have not kept up with the C64 options, but I do see similar devices for that one that look pretty easy too. Frankly, if someone is interested, I'm game. Let's hook it up and do some stuff, learn some stuff, play some games, whatever. If we want this hobby to endure at all, that's what it will take. In any case, the Apple is totally a competent gaming machine. All of these computers have a sweet spot. For some, it's pretty big, others smallish. But, they all nail a couple things and it's the differences from there which made the era so damn much fun in the first place.
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Classic computing goals for 2021
potatohead replied to Keatah's topic in Classic Computing Discussion
I'm going to play through Nox Archaist. It's been a fun ride so far. Finish a Miniature Golf game I'm working on for the Apple computers. Install the 6309 and 512K RAM upgrade I got for my CoCo3. Then I don't know. Might sell it. Adjust the yoke on my PVM. Screen is a bit rotated. I've just not wanted to break it open just yet. Recap a bunch of stuff and either fix, or toss my other PVM. That one has a tinted tube, but all colors are present. Hoping it's just old components, but could be the tube. Looks at 800XL in box. Maybe get a FujiNet. Get one of those wi-fi adapters that we can use to put old machines online and maybe explore PLATO. Thomas has done a ton of great work and I've not been able to check it out. Misc hardware projects that plug into an Apple. -
Maybe they don't believe there is an audience, or that the perception of their machine would be impacted.
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Excellent! Another Apple back in service!
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I have a 2012 Mac Book Pro. Frankly, I love that computer whether it is running Windows or Mac OS. But, it got a coffee spill event, took out the keyboard. So, I ordered (very questionably legal) parts from Asia, took a day, rebuilt it. Back in business! A week later, family knocked water on it, aaaaand yeah. Took out the keyboard. Not doing that surgery again, so now it is a backup, software build machine, with a USB keyboard. Way too delicate. And that repair was tough! Not something people want to, or maybe can do. I was very seriously challenged! Crazy tech, small, things glued together, screws with odd pitches and heads...
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Apple II CRPG Nox Archaist has officially been released!
potatohead replied to 6502_workshop's topic in Apple II Computers
And we ended up seeing it all as this stuff got disassembled and analyzed. There is a similar pro dev vs school culture today. Different tools and systems, but similar dynamics. You can bask in being a member of a fun club though. Assembly game project completed! With accolades. Whatever you may have gotten in school worked! Cheers- 45 replies
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Apple II CRPG Nox Archaist has officially been released!
potatohead replied to 6502_workshop's topic in Apple II Computers
Thanks for that! Self modify today is voodoo. Back when I was learning assembly, almost of that was on a 6809. On that CPU, it is as possible as it is a 6502, but generally not necessary. A friend and I were working on basics, pixel plotters, blitters, and doing that on 6502 came up as a way to do things quickly. There was a whole, "should it?" discussion mixed in with how to debug, or "what happens when it goes badly" one. After a time, we settled on, better just get it right. And the many lectures from others, mainly educators, as this was happening on the school lab machines, were all bad, don't do it, etc... but, looking at finished programs we could run and what was happening and how quickly did not jive. They had to have done it. Clearly, you had reached that point of code zen where it was no longer a question, just the way forward. Cool beans! I will catch the shows. Should be a good time. Thanks again.- 45 replies
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Seriously! I made one from some article in a magazine, maybe Creative Computing. It seemed super exciting, but using it kind of sucked. These were a fail too, but I wanted one too. When I finally got one, someone had made an simple script to decode the text properly. Was fun for a day. Scanning stuff worked. And it was fun to push it with increasingly shitty barcodes. Managed to hand draw a couple too. Meh otherwise. Re: Print Buffers Where I grew up those things were a success! Saw them in action at schools, some business and working professionals had em. Seemed common to me. Re: Mechanical keyboard for Atari 400 I should have kept mine! Got one, did it and loved working on the computer. One of the best upgrades ever! Maybe they were a fail generally though. I did not see another one for a long time. Re: C64 REU Yes. I knew a guy who had one. We also nodded his disk drive and did a few other things to his C64 system. That REU was a pretty great idea and it got very little support. Didn't see another one of those for a while either. At the time, I thought the Atari XL series machines could benefit from a similar device plugged into the expansion bus. Maybe had the REU hit sooner? Maybe it was doomed anyway, but earlier would have been better.
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Apple II CRPG Nox Archaist has officially been released!
potatohead replied to 6502_workshop's topic in Apple II Computers
I don't, but I am sure the Kansasfest people, Retrocomputing Round Table, amd friends would want to have another conversation. You have had some in the past, which is how I came to follow your project. But hey! It is done. Now it's time to talk about what seeing people enjoy means and the future, assuming you have one in mind. It is OK if you don't, and you do not need me to say that either. Just want to be clear it's no pressure and all that good human stuff. For me personally, a tech breakdown would be awesome. The font renderer was mentioned, for example. Deffo interested, and its quick! How you wove the story together? Tools you had to make to make other tools that helped you build the game? Painful tradeoffs? There had to be some of those, lol. Discoveries? Along the way, did you have an epiphany, or discover something about the 6502, or Apple that was notable, or maybe was that thing that helped you know it was gonna happen, all come together? How did you choose your tool chain? I love that kind of stuff.- 45 replies
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Apple II CRPG Nox Archaist has officially been released!
potatohead replied to 6502_workshop's topic in Apple II Computers
How much fun was that? Seriously. Have you done a postmortem type write up or talk yet? You should. Plenty of people, myself included, would enjoy your take on things now that you have released and can bask in the glow of it all being done. You know, I was thinking this morning... For me, the best is just kind of open world and discovery. As one has fun, what needs to happen becomes known. Makes the time go by.- 45 replies
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Apple II CRPG Nox Archaist has officially been released!
potatohead replied to 6502_workshop's topic in Apple II Computers
Totally! Had a nice, long play last night. Will need to continue on emulation at times though. No worries on that. Frankly, it brings a more favorable arrow key arrangement to the experience. That always has tripped me up and I never seem to get past it. But, there was no way I was going to have my first experience be on anything but original hardware. I am definitely going to show this off a time or two. Man, many of us used to spend hours on these kinds of games! From what I can tell the depth is there. Good. I can park this on my laptop and chip away at it in modern life. Thanks again for this nice labor of love. I do have a GS so it can all happen again one day when that project runs to completion. 8 bit Apple gaming is my fave though. So glad this one happened first.- 45 replies
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Apple II CRPG Nox Archaist has officially been released!
potatohead replied to 6502_workshop's topic in Apple II Computers
The spiffy game font looks better, but I can read the simple Apple font quicker. Had a couple of hours to play, so I went for speed. No big. Nice to have the option frankly. There was real love put into this game and it shows! I had a good time exploring the little town and building my party, whomping on the baddies, poking around... Great pixel art. I have always loved these kinds of games and the Apple has just enough color to make them shine! One can do anything in 6 colors and a dither. ANYTHING, lol. That all got put to good use, from what I have seen so far. I am running the hard disk image on a CFFA 3000 card. It is my first time playing one of these with something other than floppy disks. It's great! The game is a gem at the stock 8 bit 1Mhz. After the introductory portion, which is very well done and helpful, I chose to play it at the GS like 2.5Mhz. It is just a bit more snappy. Just to be clear though: A lot of work went into this game, and it's performance on a stock Apple 8 bit computer shows off that work well. If you like ULTIMA style games, this one is new, plays well, looks like it has depth and plenty of hours of entertainment in it. Highly recommended!- 45 replies
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Apple II CRPG Nox Archaist has officially been released!
potatohead replied to 6502_workshop's topic in Apple II Computers
- 45 replies
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Apple II CRPG Nox Archaist has officially been released!
potatohead replied to 6502_workshop's topic in Apple II Computers
I just bought a digital download. Great work!- 45 replies