DarkLord

Guys, I gotta ask, I thought that you couldn't get higher than stock rez's without the video/bus mod? I mean the CT series is awesome, but didn't think that they do anything for video enhancement....

Thanks for the reply. I'd like to make sure I've got 5v at pin 1on the cartridge port, but for some reason, despite some excellent suggestions from others, I can't figure out how to read my multimeter. It does have "juice" on it, otherwise the LED on the RSVE unit wouldn't light up at all. The unit is pre-made. IIRC, I bought it way back when Toad Computers was still around. Thats a good suggestion on how to have worked up pin16. I wish I had talked to you before I did it the way I did. I don't think I took a long time to remove the pin. I would heat it (30 watt iron), for about 2-3 secs, then ease the leg up a bit, until it hardened again. It took about 3 tries for it to come all the way out. I hope that wasn't too long. I suppose I should go ahead and remove the MB from the bottom case, and inspect it just to make sure no tracks/traces lifted up. None did on the top side. I might have to try removing the RSVE and hooking pin 16 back just to see what happens. I wasn't booting *any* software. This was with the MB stripped down, nothing attached but the floppy drive. The LED lights up just as soon as the Mega powers up. Not software related at all there. Thats why I thought it was odd. I would have thought that it would not light up until one of the remapped baud rates was triggered. But its on from the start with no software in sight. I'm working this weekend (12 hour shifts, nightshift) so I'll take another shot at it on my next day off. Thanks again for the reply/advice, I appreciate it.

Some progress, of a sort. Stripping everything out, down to the MB, with PS and floppy still connected, I can power up the Mega ST and the red LED on the RSVE unit does light up. Which is odd, I think...because the docs say this: "The LED lights up when one of the extended baud rates is selected." Would an extended baud rate be selected from bootup, with no software running at all? At least though, and correct me if I'm wrong, we can assume that the RSVE unit is getting power. BTW, here is the instructions for the wires: +5V RED WIRE to VCC (5 V) on the main board GND BLACK WIRE to GND on the main board TID BROWN WIRE to pin 16 of the MFP TUA GREEN WIRE to pin 7 or pin 10 of the MFP Also it says this: "On the main board, pin 7, pin 10 and pin 16 are connected. The connection between pin 7 and pin 10 has to be preserved, the connection of those 2 pins to pin 16 must be cut. If you cannot find the corresponding connection on the main board, pin 16 may be cut close to the boards surface." I simply unsoldered pin 16 and pulled the leg up out of the socket, then soldered the brown wire to it, which should be the same, right? So if its getting power, and I've got the brown and green wires hooked up right, why does the serial/modem CPX show modem1 greyed out, so that it can't be selected, and it obviously isn't working? I included a pic that shows the MFP chip with mods... Thanks.

Okay, I took the plunge and installed the RSVE kit that I had. Short story - failed. The question is, how much have I failed? Have I turned a less than 6 months old/brand new Mega ST motherboard into a piece of junk?... I'm going to give a few details here in case somebody can point out something obvious I've missed/done wrong. Following the docs on the printed out page that came with the kit, I did the following (there are only 4 wires to be hooked up): black - ground - I soldered this to the pad directly underneath 1 leg of the power supply. red - 5v VCC - I'm not expertly familiar with the Mega STs MB, so I wasn't sure where to go with this. So, reading some pinouts from the Mega STs owners manual, I soldered it to pin 1 of the cartridge port assembly, which is supposed to be 5v. brown - soldered this to pin 16 of the 68901 MFP chip. green - soldered to pin 7 (the docs say you can use 7 or 10) of the 68901 mfp chip. Pin 16 of the MFP chip is to be disconnected from the rest. According to the docs, you can cut a trace on the MB if you can find it, or simply cut the leg itself. I simply heated the leg of pin 16 just enough to pull it up and out, before soldering the brown wire to it. I used the Atari ST Internals book, the Mega ST owners manual, an article in ST Review on the RSVE, and the docs that came with the RSVE kit for my references. For HSModem, I ran SETTER and configured MFP.PRG as best as I could understand it. I did the following: rsve - yes - enabled the RSVE cookie hisp - yes - same as above repl - set the first remap to 300 repl - set the 2nd remap to 38400 repl - 3rd remap - u repl - 4th remap - u repl - 5th reamp - u repl - 6th remap - u dtr - yes - maintains TOS comp. rbl - 512 tbl - 512 saved it To TOS, the modem1 port is now "dead". I mean that the modem/serial CPX has modem1 greyed out like its not found. And of course, nothing will connect with the BBS in this state. I tried. Well, thats about it. Anything stand out to anyone? I guess if no one here can help at this point, I'll just save up my money and send it to Alex Yu at ATY Computers and see if he can figure out how I screwed up (again). Thank goodness I had just replaced the P/S in my Mega STe so it can keep DarkForce running while my Mega ST is down. Thanks everyone.

Hey gang. I've had a request to upload the MODs archive from my BBS. I can understand that its easier to get them here, rather than d/l them at 19.2k from my BBS (another reason why I'm trying to speed up my serial port). Anyways, its about 4 megs total, and I'm not completely sure that they are all MODs (although the vast majority should be). I'm breaking them up into 4 one meg ZIP files for easy download. Enjoy! MOD1.zip MOD2.zip MOD3.zip MOD4.zip

You're talking about the Music archvie from my BBS, right? I reckon I can do that. I'll upload it to its own subject/thread though, so its more appropriate than in this one...

Okay guys, I need some help with something very specific. I'm trying my best to speed up my BBS. I've got a Mega STe. What I'd like to do is use HSmodem and modem 1 to achieve greater speeds, like 38400, 57600 or even if possible, 115,200 over the serial port. The software I'm using only knows modem 1, min speed 300 and max speed 19200. Can this be done? I've read the docs on DRVIN.PRG and MFP.PRG as well as SETTER TOS, but even with the English translations I'm not able to figure out exactly what to set. Apparently remapping is possible, but I'm not sure how to achieve it. In the remapping section of SETTER TOS, how do you enter your speeds? Is it 300 38400? I tried that, only puts 300 in the first line and 38400 in the 2nd line. Does the SERIAL.CPX have to have the speed set to the remapped speed as well? (so if 38400 is remapped to 300 you'd set the SERIAL.CPX to 300?) In the BBS software, it offers min speed, max speed, and starting speed. Normally, I'd set these to 1200, 19200, and 1200... Would all 3 need to be set to 300? Could everything be remapped to the faster modem 2 on the Mega STe? Thanks. PS I believe I've asked similiar questions before, so apoloagies - but I'm looking for more help.

Okay, thanks for the info. Well, Jeff (the Groves' Sysop) and I had exchanged some files, but I've not had much time recently to go through them all. It *appears* that I have a copy of SEE. Give me some time and I'll see if I can get it up and running on my BBS.

I would imagine that the good ftp sites (Belgian for example) would have most of these: Grotesque Scape Gouraud.prg, Yet Another Bytero Glasstro Orion Beta TT Wars Diag TT ADEBUG 3D Shiny and didn't Tony Barker from Australia write some TT specific stuff? I believe that would be on the "Moving Pixels" CD collection. (just checked my copy - he did TT Wars, a 256 color mode paint program, and some coding stuff on the CD) I'll attach TT Wars here. On top of that, wouldn't/shouldn't a lot of STe demos 'n stuff work on the TT as well? ttwars.zip HTHs.

Hmm, some of my fav 8bit games are: (in no particular order) Archon Realm Of Impossibility Ultima 3 Ultima 4 F15 Strike Eagle Silent Service Star Raiders Star Raiders 2 Rescue On Fractulus Star Fleet 1 Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy Zork

I dunno. What stuff can you do on a TT that can't be done on an ST? There are several really good TT only demos out there. It'd be nice to see some of them profiled.

I have added it to my list. However, I do have one question... I have not yet found any BBS running "Space Empire Elite." Anybody know of an Atari BBS that has it going? (Or will any of you sysops install it?) --Josh Hmm, was looking around and almost forgot about The Assassins Grove BBS. Its another reincarnated Atari BBS from the 80's. Its got a good list of games, including "Space Trader Elite"... I'm not sure if thats the one you're talking about or not? Check it out at: http://www.skeleton.org/bbsindex.html I've talked to the Sysop Jeff Mitchell on a couple of occasions. He's a really nice guy, very helpful. Have fun!

I have added it to my list. However, I do have one question... I have not yet found any BBS running "Space Empire Elite." Anybody know of an Atari BBS that has it going? (Or will any of you sysops install it?) --Josh I'll look and see, but don't know for sure. Thanks!

You, and everyone else, are very welcome. Glad I could help.

Okay, I've done some scans... Sorry for the poor quality. I've only got an old Umax Astra 1200s scanner. Seems fitting to use the scanner that works with my Atari's though. The only thing I could not scan was the map. Its both longer and wider than my scanner. I tried, it would have took piecing together 4 pics or so. I messed around with it under the GIMP, but could not get it to come out looking right. So I included a map I found off the Internet. Hope this is okay for everyone. "REFG" is the reference guide. "COMP" is the Compendium. "MISC" covers the rest... box scans, map, etc,... Thanks... Okay, here we go again. For some reason I can't upload the entire file. I'll try breaking it up.... U6_MISC.zip U6REFG_1.zip U6REFG_2.zip U6_COMP1.zip U6_COMP2.zip U6_COMP3.zip U6_COMP4.zip U6_COMP5.zip

Okay, for those who need it, here is just the file in question, "GAME.PRG" that I grabbed from a working U6 install on my Falcon. Thanks, and sorry if that caused any problems. U6_GAME.zip

Oddly enough, this one also seems to have errors, but in a different physical location. You can make .ST images inside of Steem, or use other programs like MSATOST for conversion, etc. As far as these three MSA's - I think we have a winner! I imaged them back to floppies and installed them on STacy's HD here, and they seem work fine! Woohoo! Whew, great! Just let me add to the "odd" side of this though... MSA would only make images from disk 1+2 of the first U6 boxed set, but not disk 3. It also would make images from disks 2+3 on the 2nd U6 boxed set, but not disk 1. SO...if I hadn't had 2 diff. copies, I couldn't have gotten all 3 disks with MSA. I guess we can put it off to media degeneration? I mean, its been a while since those floppy disks have even seen the light of day... BTW, if those floppy disks had copy protection onboard, would Pasti or MSA have worked with them? I was just wondering... Thanks.

Umm, I guess I'm showing my naive side, but what produces ST images? I've got MSA...I'll upload the 3 disks after MSA gets done with it. Is that okay, I hope? Let me know how they turn out... U6_MSA.zip

It seems indeed to be a hard error, not a protection (but I didn't made any detailed checks). Just one sector. May be trying to image the disk once again could also help. Many times sectors are borderline, then it might be read ok other time. Okay, as it turns out, I've got -> 2 <- complete boxed copies of Ultima 6. I've still got the receipt - I purchased the 2nd copy from another Atari user way back when. I've redoing the installer disk from the 2nd copy with Pasti and uploading it here. Let me know if it has the same errors. A size comparison between GAME.PRG on both installer disks from both copies shows the same size on each floppy. u6_inst.zip Let me know if this one is okay guys!

Hmm, thats not good. I don't remember having any problems installing this game. Note that I've only installed it twice - once to an ST, and once to my Falcon. After that, I burnt it to CD so I wouldn't have to fool with the floppies any more. Yes, I just grabbed several files at random from the installer disk and was able to copy them to my Falcons' hard drive. Including GAME.PRG... They must be compressed though. Look at this: HD (installed) copy on my Falcon: GAME.PRG - 257.196 bytes Floppy (installer) disk: GAME.PRG - 137844 bytes Or did you have something else in mind?

I don't remember it ever asking to insert floppy disk x, or anything like that. It was always a question asked by one of the characters in the game. I believe its Lord British at first. The answers are in the manual, so be sure and copy the list that Tempest was nice enough to post. Gosh yeah, Ultima 4 set new standards for RPGs. Like you, I spent literally days and weeks playing it. Loved every minute of it. Yeah, looks like the easiest (but certainly not the best!) way for whoever ported it was just to grab and use the EGA screens. Man, they may be 16 colors, but the sure don't come anywhere near looking as good as ST 16 color screens do.... Its okay, as far as the in game tile sets, objects, creatures, etc, but I always really notice it when it comes to your characters faces. Still a great game though!

Don't know that the initial problem was but your attachments got though and finally, so did mine. Sorry I didn't see your post before I posted mine... I've always been a big Ultima fan, from when I first played UIII Exodus on my trusty 'ole 800XL, right up through U7, which I play under Linux. I think U5 is my personal favorite - I think its just got an awesome story line to it. Ultima 6 has a lot going for it. Hard disk installation is always a big plus, and the fact that its compatible with the Falcon is great too. I'd give my right arm though, if they would have used the 256 color PC VGA graphics for the Falcon, or at least redrawn the original EGA screens to take advantage of the ST. Most places in the game are still acceptable, its just really noticeable in places like facial portraits (character faces). I still love it though. PS Just for sheer experimentation, I tried copying the graphics sets from the PC version onto the U6 install on my Falcon. I knew it was an extremely long shot that something like that would work, and I was right, It just crashes out.

And finally number 3... U6_INST.zip

Number 2.... U6_DD2.zip

Again.... U6_DD1.zip