cbmeeks

Looks like the store is still down. :-( I found the temp store and was looking at the carts to make 16k games for the A8. Why only 16k? Where there any 32k-64k game carts? Looking at the pinouts, it looks like there are only 12 address lines (4k). But I see a "~S4 Chip Select--$8000 to $9FFF" and a "~S5 Chip Select--$A000 to $BFFF". So does that really mean you are limited to 16k and you have to bank switch from the two 4k banks? Also, any advice on how a budding amateur electrical engineer could learn how to create my own carts for the Atari? Thanks for any suggestions. cbmeeks

This is soooo cool! I mean, that a person can still make a little money GIVING away a game and SELLING the same game on cartridge. By my calculations, that's over $600 USD (minus expenses of course). Granted, not enough to retire on but not a bad deal for something he probably enjoyed doing. Good job!

Zayesowe! Zloy

The Amiga 1200 gets my vote. Small, great keyboard, and a ton of expansion (external, mind you).

oh yeah....forgot about the artifacting. I'm a Commodore man by nature. LOL

Get a TV with S-Video and the Atari to S-Video cable. You will NOT be sorry. S-Video is 10 million times better than composite and 10 billion times better than RF.

Not quite sure about the hole. I have discovered that mine will not stay running for more than 10 minutes. It locks up. So I need to somehow fix that. I have upload three more pics of it assembled but the lighting is bad. I am going to try and get some natural light this week so that the pics come out much better. I just was tied up the entire day with family chores. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbmeeks/29552...57608150850558/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbmeeks/sets/72157608150850558/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbmeeks/sets/72157608150850558/ More pictures coming soon. Tomorrow, I plan on taking the complete unit outside in the natural light and get some better pics. I also plan on uploading a few to Wikipedia. Comments welcomed. -cbmeeks

Thanks...I will give MADs a try....on the C64 I use Kick Assembler....ever use that one? Well, maybe I can get some coding done now...I just finished installing a new dog kennel....man, family really drains the ole' time around here! lol cbmeeks

I've just started getting used to ATasm. Is MADS really the de facto??

That's interesting. I didn't think that would work but I guess the data output is the same...just bits/bytes. :-) Thanks for that suggestion!

Thanks!

So, what do you guys use to create sprites and chars? Any Windows apps? Thanks

Is it legal/ethical/moral/etc to ask if there are PDF or at least offline versions of the books at Atari Archives? Thanks.

Hehe. Yeah, I can't imagine programming one. However, I still like it better than my TS-1000 keyboard. It's hard to imagine anyone actually using those keyboards but they did. Here is my WinTel keyboard (BEST ON THE PLANET): http://www.cpusolutions.com/mm8004744CPU/I...-WL-MSDTOP3.jpg

hmmm...I looked but I just didn't see how that would keep it from sliding. Anyway, this week I'm going to take a bunch of pics outside without a flash (tends to look really good) and post them on my flickr account. I didn't realize how much I love this little machine. However, I think it crashes after about 10-20 minutes of play. Everything freezes up. Even Memo Pad. Oh well. Now, on to eBay for something new!

In my other thread (http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=132858), I mentioned I was having trouble with a blank screen. Well, the Atari 400 seems to work great now that I've cleaned and reseated everything. However, when I originally opened the case, the internal speaker was just dangling around...not mounted to anything. The wire was plugged in but nothing was holding the speaker. I can not find anywhere that the speaker mounted to? I've looked everywhere. I tried to solder it in place to the metal frame but the solder didn't seem to stick well enough. I guess I could bring out the Gorilla Glue. Any suggestions? Thanks

It works! I cleaned this thing like you wouldn't believe. I will get some pics up soon.

I've used Windex on game carts before. Anyone ever use that? I didn't see any long term problems.

I've got the 400 broken down completely!!! I've cleaned everything. Any suggestions on cleaning the IC contacts for the memory and cpu cards? After I clean that, I'm going to put it all back together and give it a shot. Anyone interested in seeing photos of all of the guts? lol cbmeeks

Thanks. I will try that tomorrow. I think I will take it all apart and clean everything too. Wish me luck!

Just got an Atari 400 off eBay. They guy said "This is a beautiful 400 computer, tested with no problems". Looks great but when I power it on, I get a blank, yellow-green screen and that's it. The signal looks solid...just blank. No beeps on the keyboard, nothing. I tried several carts and they are all black except Space Invaders which shows a really garbled screen. I'm assuming some of my games won't run due to limited memory. But shouldn't I at least get the OS to type on? This is my first 400. My other Atari's are 600/800/130's Thanks

An Atari 400 that doesn't seem to work. :-/

I'm a huge C64 / A8 / Apple IIe fan. I have two development environments setup and only one works. One is my C64 setup with Crimson using VICE and Kick Assembler. I have a batch file that compiles and automatically launches the program into VICE. Great for rapid testing. One button press and it goes from source -> PRG disk image -> VICE autostart. I want to do the same thing for the A8. I have my 130XE connected to my XP machine with a SIO adapter. I'm new to Atari so I really don't know all of the little nuances. I downloaded ATasm and have it so that I can compile to a **.65o file but when I try to run that file in AtariWin800, it usually crashes. Of course, I ONLY have the two samples that come with ATasm. I don't know all of the directives for ATasm yet. So what I am wondering is if someone could point me in the right direction for the following: 1) A SMALL simple asm tutorial that displays "Hello world!" or something with ANY compiler. ATasm, DASM, whatever. (although ATasm seems to be like Kick Assembler) 2) A fast way to deploy the compiled app to either a ATR disk image or something that can easily be launched in both AtariWin800 AND a real Atari 130XE (via APE). I know that's a tall order but there is SO much out there I'm having a hard time finding my way. Between XEX, ATR, BIN, MADS, blah blah blah I am getting confused. I admit, it's much easier to get started with C64 cross platform development. I love both platforms! I want to start small again with both the C64 and A8. Thanks for any suggestions! cbmeeks

Thanks guys!