Stephen

Not true. I may be one of "the haters", but I have not, and will not put other people down if they are enjoying the system. Just because I'm a Mopar guy, doesn't mean I can't appreciate Fords and Chevys ya know. I'm actually finding the hacking here incredibly interesting and fun to watch.

Never heard of Infinity. Did the software get released or demoed (outside this event) even? Sounded like a really cool package, especially for $50, 1/3rd the price of the $150 Mac software. Odd though - I never ran across a 4MHz Mac.

Gee - strange. I seem to recall a few of us, maybe a few dozen actually, commenting on the design of that stick. All the way back to when they showed face pictures of it, on a fake table, with fake gears and springs everywhere. We were told to stop being so negative, and it would obviously be OK.

I have donated more money to several Atari projects (think fjc and SDX team for starters) than I ever paid for legit software back in the day. Then, along come people like a certain un-named slang for penis declaring we are all pirates, and it's cart only. Guess who made zero from me and will only ever make zero. Most all software that is free I'll also pay for. I get wanting to make some money on hardware. I don't want to know what I have spent on Atari related hardware in the past 5 years (and I don't mean the piece of shit VCS). It's definitely in the 4 digit range. But screaming about nasty pirates and being called a thief sure as hell puts a bad taste in my mouth and determines where my next purchase will or will not be.

Please don't send #142 and bonus again. You have already shipped me a replacement. I guess 143 is still on the way. I got a gift for my wife Diane via Etsy. I ordered it on November 18th. It was shipped on the 30th of November. We just got it in the mail yesterday!

I'm beyond unhappy with the USPS right now. I still don't have anything post issue #141.

That's just it. Anything that writes directly to the screen, is broken software when it comes to alternate devices. The OS provides the way to write to the screen, device independent. The only way you can have a driver acting as an overlay, is to hook in to the handler table, and have your code write to the E: (updated) handler. If software is written "properly", it will write to any other device we put on the machine without additional coding (minus the initial "driver". But, since most stuff does not do this - hence my comment about "whatever works in Sparta DOS X already, using the 64 and 80 column drivers" will work with any existing 80 column device, that which doesn't shows lack of support and any new device complicates this by also being non compatible. This doesn't really apply to games. this is text based software which why we are talking 80 column text. I guess character graphics driven stuff would work the same way - just not bitmap.

Now I don't feel so bad.

As well as an 80 column driver. Any software that doesn't work with these drivers will not work with a new device that doesn't use standard E or S drivers for their output. This puts us right back to my initial argument. We have hardware in many forms that does 80 columns with little to no software support for it. Any new device that doesn't work with standard E: device will further fragment the market meaning less software being made. Any any new device that does work with E: device is competing with or doing the same as we already have in many forms (which is mostly unused).

Do tell more!

11

I can't imagine that difference not being heard on a tin can & string setup!

That 50Hz test sounds just awful - it's not even remotely close to the 100Hz version, let alone what 200Hz playback can sound like.

Why is it SO common in most of these forums, for certain people to just expect a new groundbreaking bit of magic to be uncovered, making a 30 or 40 year old system perform like it was half the age? Jaguar forum every few months, someone expects "some untapped potential" to really "push the system to the limits" and make it perform like a Playstation or an N64. Hey - I know the 7800 has been out since 1984, but maybe by some wizardry, a game will just appear and show the machine was really as powerful as a SNES. It's bizarre and quite frankly, very annoying. I get it, people discover some new stuff over time and there are certainly impressive games / demos coming out for older systems. But man - there is no magic pill that will change a Model T into a modern Turbocharged Porsche.

It will work in any Atari 8-bit using GTIA, including the 5200 console.

There needs to be a "special" medal for players like me. The "loser cannot get > 3 points medal

I'll try to keep it simple for you. Boogie Nights, a smart ass character with a lousy attitude attitude attempts to show what someone did wrong in the pool. He does the dive and flops hard. Pretty much like your arrival here.

Oh man - I can't view Atari on 16:9 screens, everything is stretched SOOOOOOOO wide. Hopefully my stockpile of 4:3 monitors will not die anytime soon. I have 3 CRTs that can do RGB, a CRT VGA monitor, and 3 4:3 LCD screens (two 17" Samsung panels and a 19" Dell).

There was some truly amazing stuff being done in the 70s which makes me question why do we "only" have what we do now. For something even more impressive than the Xerox stuff, search out the "Applicon Design Assistant". Multiple layered PCB / CAD system, with most user input done using a light pen. The thing could do handwriting and gesture recognition among other things.

CPU - it's sad. This is a man child. 40 years old perhaps, but the "intelligence" of a 5 year old kid. I can't make fun of him and sleep at night.

VBXE2 Sorry - couldn't help myself.

Very fond memories of the 1030! The first time I ever saw a BBS was back in 1987, my friend Joe Cochran had a 1200XL and a 1030. I think at the time his brother had a 286. Soon after, I saved up my money and got an XM301. Still have it

Sorry to go a little off-topic (and sorry again if this is a dumb question), but since we're discussing the blitter. Let's say I'm in a graphics mode (320*200) with an image covering the entire screen, and I use the blitter to move an object on the screen. Am I responsible for saving and restoring the image "behind" what is being blitted or does the blitter do this automatically? I've currently only used your S_VBXE.SYS driver in text mode, but am wanting to do a bit more graphical stuff.

You might want to ask a moderator to remove that image of your shipping label. It's generally not the best idea to go sharing your address and phone number, even when not in text format.

Let me show you what you did wrong: https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/1976cd59-01f3-4ca2-aa1a-aa092c2ec18d