dark willow

Hey Bob. If you still have any gear available, I'd be very happy to take two working 1050s off your hands, and if you have the SIO cables going spare, not a problem, I'll take them too

As said, just bog-standard 30-pin 1mb SIMMs. You can pick them up anytime on Ebay for coppers. They are often sold in sets of 4, which is best. Mixing and matching different brands can give you instability grief. Sorry I can't help with these! Never used the CM monitors. I wouldn't use a megafile. I had a Megafile 30 and it had a rock solid Seagate MFM or RLL drive in it, but it was dead slow, very noisy and offers very limited storage. You best bet is to get a SCSI or IDE adaptor. They come up reasonably often on Ebay, or you can put a wanted post on AtariForum.com. IDE ones means you can add an IDE to CF adaptor to get solid state storage and easy data exchange with a PC if needed. The best adaptors are those by SatanTronic, and the old but excellent ICD series of SCSI adaptors. The old US Robotics external serial modems were the best of their kind, as they are completely standard, so work well on Atari systems, no dedicated software needed, just your comms software of choice. STING is old but good and fine for basic dial up modem commands. Most stationers still sell them, as do Wilkinsons discount stores. My student union shop still does them too. you can buy 1.44mb HD discs and just tape over the sensor hole (the one WITHOUT the tab in it, the other is write protect), then format as a DS-DD 720k and it'll work fine. Plenty of Falcons around at the moment but none at anything near sane prices. Unless you intend to use it as a base for a CT60 I'd say the TT is a (much) better system anyway. Very rare, and often people who get them hold them as they are popular with scene programmers and developers. They are damn fine systems. A lot of those you do see tend to be German, as they were popular there with unis and publishers. The hard drive upgrade and 4mb RAM and both really useful, and need no soldering, which scares the hell out of me too! Also I'd consider forgetting about the CM monitor and getting a ST to VGA adapter (on Ebay for around £15 or so, always available, still made by various people) and a 14" or 15" CRT monitor. This will give you a decent hi-res/mono display which is much more preferable when not gaming (you can get an Atari to SCART adapter for connecting to a TV for games). Anything beyond that on an STe is really not going to repay the effort, as the CPU can't handle anything much more sophisticated anyway. The TT and Falcon both benefit hugely from graphic card upgrades and ethernet/usb, but the STe doesn't have the horsepower to really exploit them. The graphics card would have more power than the computer! The EtherNec upgrade is an NE2000 based ISA Ethernet card that plugs into the cart. port on any of ST/TT/Falc systems. Drivers are available to power it through STING, but you will need to have a static IP for it as STING can't handle DHCP. Another, cheaper and simpler alternative is to set up a serial link and share a connection that way, but dial up is probably easiest. You can get subscription free 0845 dial up access easily.

They call it the "iPad"

As already said, first of all check all your connections, make sure nothing has become dislodged. It is correct that no Atari can boot a HD without a driver of some kind in the root directory of the boot drive or partition. This is in the form of a *.SYS file, the name depends on the driver software you use (ADHI, ICD, HDdriver etc.) If it gets deleted the drive won't be seen by the computer. In that case download ADHI and put it in the AUTO folder on a floppy disk, connect your hard drive and fire it up, and boot from the floppy. This should detect tje drove so you can reinstall the drivers on it, so in future it will boot again straight from your HD. Good luck!

I'm not sure about the monitors that will work with 130XE, but for the STe your best bet for games is the Atari SC series monitors,, they are just plug in and go with the STe and have sound buiilt in too. Avoid the SM series Atari monitors as these are high res (monochrome mode) only, and won't work with games, but are good for "serious" applications. Both come up on Ebay regularly. ViewTek also made a series of greyscale (B&W) low and medium res monitors with speakers, but the resolution was not nearly as good as the SC monitors.

I got an Eiffel from Satantronic, and it was absolutely brilliant, but i don't think he's making them anymore, time constraints and all. I asked last year for a second one and told not possible. However, Fujiman is making them in the States. http://fujiman.no-ip.com/

I'd really want just a new 7800 really, with original design cart slot, two DECENT controllers, AV leads (not rf!), full 2600 compatability (like the real thing) and the truly best games included. I'd also like to see Atari release some multi-game carts of the classic games (not just their own either) both 2600 and 7800. Selling the system base for around $40 - to $50 (with say 15 or 20 games) and multigame carts for around $10 with around 4 or 5 games on them.

I think for the foreseeable future (certianlyl the next 5 years or so) the 2600 and the NES will be the dominant homebrew systems, since there is a still a sizeable user base of people to produce *for* and since so many people grew up with these systems. THis is especially true of the NES hardware which was (and still is) cloned/copied so heavily in Asia, and I expect we will be seeing many more hombrew titled for the NES come from that part of the world in years to come. I think a good point is made about homebrew beign possibly less likely move up the technological chain to systems like Xbox/PS2/PSP because of the time demands for making such complex games. However that some games for the Jaguar have been developed may be the precursor to us being wrong on that, though I'd be *very* suprised if the amount of work produced is comparable to that of the 2600.

As soemone who looked at coding for the 2600 once and had the life scared out of me, I admire anyone who does so. Well said.

The TT is a good web system. I've used it online with good results (not with a gfx card as of yet though). Of the standard Atari systems it is certinally the best (ie no accelerators), though of the modified systems the CT60 is the best on grounds of rendering speed for web pages, let alone the other things. The standard Falcon doesn't match up to well to the TT. When I got my first Falcon I was suprised at just how much slower it actually was, and the 14mb restriction is a real pain. It's a shame because between them they would have made an excellent base system. Imagine an original Atari machine back in 1993 with the multiple serial ports, TT RAM, bus and CPU speed, fast RAM, VME slot, case and keyboard of the TT with the DSP and Videl and enchanced audio chips of the Falcon? And a redesigned mouse would have been good. Why it wasn't done I'll never know, Atari already had all the technology from the TT there, waiting to be put to good use once again.

That's a great deal you won yourself, the TT is a supurb system, IMHO the best Atari built. With some TT RAM and a fast modern SCSI drive they are very nimble beasts indeed. Not a gamers machine though, that'd be a waste.

Thanks. Will give it another try and let you know how it goes

I can't get it going at all, I know both the NVOA and the ATI card work physcially, but I can't get NVDI to recognise it. I have all the auto folder files for it in place but the video signal still goes through te TT's native video system

Less than 50 for sure, think I'm the only person who actually uses my Atari as a workhorse. My PC is way better for games, pretty graphics but not nearly reliable enough for real work, it's a great toy though:)

I have a NOVA with ATI Mach64 2mb ISA card for the TT030, alas I've had a headache gettting it working (any driver info for getting it going with NVDI5/MagiC 6.2 appreciated!) , but it would make life much more pleasent display wise, especially if you use art programs of the web where it's pretty indispencible. if you see any of the VME cards (Galaxy, NOVA, CrazyDots etc.) then jump on it as they are as rare as hens teeth. Alas on Ebay they tend to go for ASTRONOMICAL amounts though. :( All the above will give you the basic SVGA resolutions, some are better than others but all do 640x480 TC, 800x600 and 1024x768 in at least 256col. as a minimum. The Galaxy is very rare and the drivers are not the best, but it is the most powerful card (something like 16mb graphics memory) by a long shot. The EtherNet support for it never made it. Keep an eye on Ebay.de as this is where most come up.

Gemulator is fairly old now, and was orginally written at a time when HD use was not widespread in the Atari world. Id' reccomend tackling the drive using Aranym, which is much more sophisticated. See http://aranym.sourceforge.net/ Also you may well be able to read the data off the drive directly from your PC, what OS are you using at the PC end? Often MS DOS can read Atari drives OK provided you used FAT partitions on the disk (most common)

I never got a Falcon at the time they came out, as they were way out of my price range, and at the time beign a kid was more interested in games than anything, and most games were still for the ST/e rather than the new system. As for the face of GEM, the big thing is it is pretty much rock solid on later machines, that's the biggest thing, and also, very quick to boot. I think Atari didn't put as much work into updating the desktop over time as they could have. When TOS first came out it was way ahead of it's time, but by the time of tos 2.x and 3.x the desktop was looking old fashioned comapred to things like NeoDesk 4 and Magxdesk, though I think it was worth bearing min mind that TOS/GEM is ROM based and at the time memory was VERY expensive so a better desktop would have taken up more space and thus pushed up the cost of the machine quite a bit.

1: Can I, easily, connect it to my homenetwork? Yes, but you will need an ethernet card unless you don't mind being restricted in the speed of network access and going through the serial port. Ethernet cards are reasonably easy to obtain for falcon, easiest to get hold of is the Ethernec device which uses the ROM port. 2: Can I, easily, connect it to the Internet through my ADSL? Yes, with conditions. I'm tryign to get my TT to work on cable broadband at the moment and so have just found out the hurdles involved. If your ISP uses DHCP dynamic addressing then you will need a router that can act as a DHCP server, issuing static IP addresses to the systems on the LAN, as there are currently no stable DHCP software handlers for the Atari, bar a mint program which aparently isn't fully done yet. Hvan't got it sorted yet, but I've been reccomended to get a linksys router more than once, so I'd say it's the best bet. Be ready for a lot of fiddling around to get it all working. IRC, Email, Usenet and FTP are all have excellent software support on the Atari (reccomend AIRC, MyMail, Newsie and aFTP) but web browsers are a bet more tricky. Highwire is shaping up well but still has some shortcomings. CAB isn't updated and Adamas won't work with STING/STIK. If you use both HW and CAB then between them you have a fairly good system though. Big drawback is rendering speed of JPG files. A stock falcon just isn't up to it as none of the browsers take advantage of the DSP to spread the load. To get the benefit of the fast connection you will need an accelerator. If you have a CT60 then you should be OK, one of the 32mhz overclock devices won't make much difference. 3: Are there any good sites with Falcon games and utilities? Loads.

Depends on waht your wanting to do: For games: 1040STfm - simple, compatible, cheap. For programming: TT030 - Powerful, fast, lots of SCSI storage, desktop design. For replacing a PC as day to day system: TT030 CaTTamaran boosted and gfx card, or boosted Falcon. Mostly games, with odd serious job: MegaST 4 with a hard disk. Falcon and TT both cost a lot more, and have very few games available. However they are both significantly more advanced, the TT having the edge on raw power and out and out speed, the Falcon having more flexible display resolutions and much better audio system. Both cost a lot more than an ST, and much more again if you want to get the most from them in terms of upgrades and commerical software packages. Stock ST's go for around GBP20 to 30 on Ebay, a TT will go for around 130 to 190, and a Falcon for around 150 to 250. Mega ST's are harder to find, but expec tot pay around 50 or so. Boosted Falcons and TT's are as easy to find as unicorns with prices to match.

As for developing games, you don't really need a dedicated machine just for that, any console can be developed for, as most have been hacked, from the PSP down to the 2600, better to stick to what's already there rather than reinvent the wheel IMHO.

NES / FamiCom clones are still being built today, and are all the rage in SE Asia. Their realtivly simple design, and the large software library makes them very popular with the makers as they are cheap to produce (no need for design, just replicate what's already there) and the buyers, ainly parents for their kids, extremely low cost thanks to the 10-in-1 pirate cartridges and child-unfriendly games (ie no fast cars, gratutious violence or hard core sex, kids hate it, but the parents love it...) Another clone machine now popular is the PSone, and the Sega Saturn (which was/is very very popular in Asia, just never caught on in Europe or the US). Making a brand new old machine, if you know what I mean (using older electronic to make a new platform) I don't think is a paticularly good idea from a commercial point of view, patrialyl for the availabiloity concerns already made, but most because of the game library issue. THink how mnay games that consoles have behind them, often hundreds, and those that don't were the ones that failed. A sensible oslutioni for a low cost console is though a low cost solution reusing older technoploigy, i.e. a NES or 2600 on a chip, as used in the 10-in-one TV sticks but as a console, ie. add mains power connection, a cartridge slot and control pads. You could maket such a system for a retail price of around £35 or so if you were dealing in volume and you already have the games library of the orignal machine behind you. Some manufaturers of the original consoles now allow development of new games for them without needing to be licensed by the company (this is the case for new titles for Atari's consoles, for example) so if a deal such as this could be reached for new development, a royalty system could be neogitated for use of the old software games and OS, and of case/control pad design if you wanted to keep the look of the original machine. I think there would be more viability in taking that route, as the price of games is so high on new machines, as well as the consoles themselves. After all the NES clones are still doing extremely well, as is the old PSone.

Yes, you need to have a drive fitted with jumpers, as there were some minor differences in the configuration for PC and Atari drives that they set. A lot of newer drives don't have them (saves money for the manufacturer), and so won't work in the Atari. Sony DSDD drives work well, I find.

You can't make an ST work exactly like a falcon, but most things are possible, given enough effort, and determination. Some of the upgrades I mention below are for the STe, and i'm not sure if it can be done on normal ST, as the CPU is not socketed, and a lot of things require that (The PAK/30 most importantly). However, there may well be a way around if you are determined enough and don't mind soldering and fiddly hardware work, and have some idea of how to go about it. CPU: It is possible to upgrade the 68000 8Mhz to a 68030 with a clock speed of around 45Mhz, which is a lot faster than a standard Falcon. RAM: it's possible to add TT RAM to the ST, which would allow you to have more RAM than the standard Falcon max of 14mb. Theroetcially you an have up to 256mb, though I havn't seen cards allowing that, the largest one I've seen is for 64mb TT RAM. I'm not sure wether or not ST RAM can be expanded beyond the 4mb, though with the TT RAM you wouldn't really have the need to. TOS: AFAIK you can't run TOS 4.x on the ST, but you can have upto TOS 3.06, or just use MagiC or MiNT. VIDEO: Panther/ET4000 upgrade will give you VGA graphic modes upto 1024x768 256 colour and a 640x480 Truecolor mode. Better than a standard Falcon. IDE: There are a couple of options for adding IDE abilities to the ST, but because most drivers were made for SCSI products, you are better off sticking with a SCSI adapter. This would allow you to use large capacity HD's, CD-ROM, CD-RW. A device called Link97 (no longer made but brilliant idea) plugged into the ACSI port and provided an external 25 pin SCSI socket (for Scanners, external drives etc) ready to go. Simple and effective. DSP: There is no way to add a DSP to the ST as far as I am aware. HD Floppy: It's possible to replace the floppy controller chip on the ST with a 16Mhz unit that allows HD floppy drive support. How to do it: Most of hte upgrades come as part of the PAK/30 upgrade which replaces the CPU with a 68030, gives use of TT RAM and TOS upgrade to 3.06. It is however designed I believe for the STe range, hwoever, as I said, it may be possible to work around that. Adding SCSI or IDE support is fairly straightforward and there are several options. The AdSCSI board is easy to fit, simple and reliable, and needs no soldering. There are a cople of kits for upgrading the disk drive controller to 16mhz chip. afaik they are all much of a muchness really. Theoretically solder free, in reality I have no idea, but I suspect not. End Result: You can make an STe (and probabaly an ST) much more high powered. However it is not a Falcon, but more of a TT. The biggest advantage of the Falcon is it's DSP, and that cannot be replicated on an ST, however in terms of raw power, you can make the system cosniderably better than a stock falcon. It all depends on what you want. You still will not be able to run Falcon specific software, but you will find things work hell of a lot faster, and programs that demand lots of RAM or a 68030 CPU will work. It's worth it if you do data intensive work, converting, compiling etc. (bascially, anything a TT does well) For graphics and sound work, it's not. The best software for graphics work is Falcon only and if you want to do that kind of work you would be better off getting a stock falcon, and getting the new CT63 upgrade, which woudl give you the extra memory and speed, but you'd also have the DSP and comptability you wouldn't get from upgrading the ST.

Battlezone was great in it's orginal form, i think any remake would have to keep the same style as otherwise it just become yet another 3D war sim thingy... and they are all kinda samey now.

Rescue on Fractalus was the first game I ever got as kid alogn with an 800XL. it was brilliant in it's time,a remake for the jag, done properly, would have been great.