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OldAtarian

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Posts posted by OldAtarian

  1. Posted

    I'd imagine that if only 1,000 or so were ever made you'd be holding something of extreme rarity, so the sky isn't quite the limit but I wouldn't be surprised if you exceeded $1,500 at auction.

     

    The last one I saw on ebay was 5 years ago and that went for $850-ish back then. I can easily see $1500 now.

  2. Posted

    How much of the company did the Tramiels and their friends control (shareholder wise)?

     

    According to press coverage of the time:

     

    "Atari Chairman Jack Tramiel and his family now hold 42 percent of Atari stock".

     

    "Atari shareholders will own 60 percent of the merged company".

     

     

    Wasn't Atari Corp. supposed to be getting into PC games before the whole JTS thing?

     

    Yes, Atari Interactive (not to be confused with the division of Hasbro under the same name, nor the current Atari Interactive which are three separate entities that happen to have wound up with the same names). You can read more about it at the entry on Wikipedia I created for them.

     

     

    AtariSoft actually started under Warner and I'm fairly sure they did PC games fairly early on.

     

    Supposedly it didn't last long into the Tramiel era though.

     

    This wasn't AtariSoft, Atari Interactive was a new division started in late '95 and announced in early '96 to move Jaguar era titles to the PC. It lasted about a month after the formal announcement before being disbanded for the merger talks. I believe they only got Tempest 2000 and one other title out the door. Interplay wound up picking up the Tempest 2000 DOS publishing rights, so you have two variations on packaging.

     

    Look at this version for the Nuon

     

  3. Posted

    I don't understand telling him NOT to buy an ST and only STe. Sure, the RAM is easier to expand with STe, but if you get 1MB on an older machine (1040ST), you can run pretty much everything, unless I'm mistaken?

     

    If you want to run floppies, or floppy images 1MB is probably fine. If you want to use HD patched software (I'm assuming he has an interest since he mentions WHDload) you probably want more than 1MB. Having more memory also allows you to softload different TOS versions.

     

    I've run TOS 3.06 from floppy on my 1040STFM and it runs fine.

  4. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    Hi all,

    I`ve never had an Atari ST, It was always Commodores when I was a kid & in the last couple of years my interest in the old computers has prompted me to get an Amiga A1200, as well as a C64, Spectrum and recently a Atari 800xl.

    I have the Amiga packed away now & the recent Atari purchase has got me interested in maybe trying an ST.

    So How easy is it with modern techniques to build up a software collection on the ST ?

    On the Amiga I have an internal hard drive, 8mb ram expansion with WHDLoad installed, also a PCMCIA CF Reader to transfer and re-make ADF disk images.

    What are the equivalent methods on the ST ?

    Many thanks !

     

    Advice on buying ST? Don't.

     

    Get an STe instead. Given you have an Amiga, Atari 8-bit, etc. you may not be missing much with just an ST.

     

    Why an STe? Not much was written to support the features of the STe so why not just get an ST? Even a 520 will run almost everything out there. I used a 520 ST (separate floppy drive) and then a 1040STFM right up until the Falcon030 was released. I never bothered with an STe until a few months ago.

  5. Posted

    Well, still more testing and did I have this thing wrong. It loads with many OS and multiple memory configurations.

     

    But what it doesn't like is APE. This is one of the very few programs that I've run across that refused to run with APE active.

     

    Live and learn...

     

    Maybe it thinks you're trying to hack the source code. There were a lot of programs that refused to run if you had a custom OS installed like the Omnimon or things like that. That's one of the reasons you needed the Translator for some early software. Part of the protection was to check certain memory locations and if the expected values weren't found there the protection assumed you were a pirate with an Omnimon and refused to load into memory.

  6. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    I should have continued trying different machines.

     

    It is compatible with stock XL's and XE's using either the XL/XE OS or Omnimon or Omniview 800 OS's (and probably others, too). It comes up with the following after loading:

     

    21022 BYTES FREE

    ATARI 800 BASIC V1.0

    © 1981 MICROSOFT

     

    It evidently is picky about memory expansions. Sorry to answer my own post, but there's the answer. And it does RESET properly.

     

    -Larry

     

    I think it's better to use cartridge versions of programming languages to prevent accidental erasing of the language itself in case of buggy programs. ROM software is like having a protected OS installed that prevents user applications from over-writing the OS but even better since viruses/spyware can still ruin OSes whereas not if they are in ROM. Perhaps, you should forward this to Microsoft.

     

    That's what those little stickers that go over the notches are for. ;)

  7. Posted

    And the BBC Micro probably has the best implementation of basic of any 8 bit home computer in the world. I wish I could find one in the US.

     

    I think the nearest you'll get to an NTSC one is Supergirl ;) :-

     

    http://www.starringthecomputer.com/feature.php?f=396

     

    There was a small run of the first units made for North America but it was recalled and they were all converted to UK units when they didn't sell. Somebody out there somewhere has one or knows someone who has one. It's just a matter of networking the right vintage computer sites to find that person. Shipping from the UK is astronomical and I would only resort to that as a last resort.

  8. Posted

    In the Retro Gamer #80, and here on Atari Age's Trivia section, I've seen it mentioned that the 5200 is pretty much a 400 with no keyboard and a different set of controllers. If that is true, what makes the difference in their ability to play certain cartridges. For instance, the 5200 can run a color Choplifter cartridge, while the 400 cannot (while a 64k 800XL can). I imagine it has something to do in how the machines read the cartridges, but what exactly is the difference?

     

     

    There's some memory locations that are used differently and some subroutines in the OS that are different but not much else really. I used to have a bunch of floppies long ago with 5200 games on them that I ran on my 800. Apparently, it wasn't all that hard for someone with even a rudimentary knowledge of programming on the Atari to make the necessary changes to get the games to run on the 800.

  9. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    Now it is official.

     

    Arcade Retro Gaming decided to support the ATARI 2600 on their Multiple Classic Computer. :thumbsup:

     

    This enables the MCC user to play classic ATARI, C64 and AMIGA games cycle exact.

     

    No incorrect reaction time behavior as most software based emulation in PC and other modern gaming consoles show today.

    This is as close as you can get to the original with newest innovative technology.

     

    Please check out the following link:

     

     

    www.ArcadeRetroGaming.com

     

    The Retro Gaming Experts !

     

    How do you like it ?

     

    If I can't plug my 2600 carts into it, why do I need it? Until someone releases a fully 2600 compatible system with a cart slot the 2600 remains dead. And $220? I can get both a real 2600 and a real C64 for less than that and be able to use all the peripherals and use a wider range of software for both systems. Not a very good value for the money to me.

  13. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    It won't work. The problem with noobs is not that the info isn't available, it's that they're too lazy to search for it. It's just SO much easier to ask the same question that's been asked and answered hundreds of times before, even if the same question and and answer are still on page 1 of whatever forum they're posting in.

    True enough, it may not stop the questions, but if it even helps one person get a better understanding of how to spot Heavy Sixer material, than it was all worth it. :)

     

    But...now we have more competition for heavy's when they come up for sale if more people know how to spot them. :x

    But you are forgetting about people looking for these at yard sales just to put them up on Ebay. Believe it or not there are just as many if not more people looking to find stuff to sell, than to buy. So in the end it all equals out. :)

     

    Yeah but all those people will be buying them with the intent of charging a fortune for them and prices will go up. We'll start seeing heavy consoles with no games or controllers starting at $250. Once a few people start doing that, everyone else who has one will start doing it, too. The days of $20-$50 heavy's will come to an end quick.

  14. Posted

    It won't work. The problem with noobs is not that the info isn't available, it's that they're too lazy to search for it. It's just SO much easier to ask the same question that's been asked and answered hundreds of times before, even if the same question and and answer are still on page 1 of whatever forum they're posting in.

    True enough, it may not stop the questions, but if it even helps one person get a better understanding of how to spot Heavy Sixer material, than it was all worth it. :)

     

    But...now we have more competition for heavy's when they come up for sale if more people know how to spot them. :x

  15. Posted

    AY... *pukes*

     

    BBC uses that chip too and its 6502 at 2 MHz (double ORIC's) supposedly doesn't suffer any DMA penalties so maybe it'd be a better experimentation foundation for that sound chip.

     

     

    Possibly the best lead for getting some docs - found at the ORIC Wiki article: http://www.oric.org

     

    Found another site: http://www.48katmos.freeuk.com/

     

    And the BBC Micro probably has the best implementation of basic of any 8 bit home computer in the world. I wish I could find one in the US.

  16. Posted

    Here is three of them:

    Atari Word Processor

    Microsoft Basic I

    Visicalc

     

     

    Atari Wordprocessor-Micosoft basic 1.0-Visicalc.zip

     

    If you find Microsoft basic II, I would like to have an atr of it also.

     

    Holmes has MS BASIC II, .atr and ROM

     

    It never was very popular. It has string arrays, but the syntax is different than

    Atari BASIC, and so, without documentation would be hard to use.

    If you are programming and don't like Atari BASIC, probably BASIC XL, BASIC XE,

    and TurboBASIC would be better. All three are compatible, pretty much, with

    Atari BASIC.

     

     

    The advantage of MS Basic, though, is that it was pretty universal across platforms. If you were a multi platform developer you wanted MS Basic and not any of the Atari Basic variants because it would be easier to port since most of the popular computers had a version of MS Basic. It was a little trickier translating your Atari Basic programs to Apple or IBM.

  17. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    What kind of list of cancelled/unreleased games doesn't have Duke Nukem Forever on it?

     

    Add to that list Shenmue II for the North American Dreamcast (I had to buy the UK version and a bootloader to play it) and also Half Life for the Dreamcast and the list starts to fill out a little better.

     

    There were so many games that looked awesome in reviews that should have been on that list. I give the list a fail.

  19. Posted

    What exactly does the dip-switch do one this cart?

     

     

    I'm not sure what the dip switches do exactly. I've played around with them a little but still can't tell what they're for.

     

     

    OMG you just erased whatever was on it!!! j/k :P

  20. Posted · Edited by OldAtarian

    I got a Fantom SCSI DVD RAM drive a while back with the intent to use it with one of my old Macs, but since rediscovering the ST and my relatively recent acquisition of a 1040STe, I am wondering if the Atari will see this as a standard SCSI hard drive or will something more be required to make it work?

     

    I have both an AdSCSI and Link2 to interface.

  23. Posted

    I got this "as is, untested" on a $25.00 "buy it now".. It's a turbo XT (9.54mhz) with built in dual 720k floppys in the side.. The photo on the upper left is the actual machine Im buying.. the rest are just pics from the web that show it better..

     

    post-8775-128599761743_thumb.jpg

     

    If it works, I may consider using it for a while just for the "freak out" factor..

     

    If it doesnt work and cant be fixed cheaply, Im gonna gut it, replace the mono LCD with a color backlit one, replace the keyboard with a 1200XL one, and stick a 600XL motherboard (with HIAS 512k upgrade), CSS blackbox/floppyboard and probably a SCSI hardisk or solid state drive in it...

     

    How will battery power be handled?

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