Bee

Depending on your level of experience.... Back in the day you could use a hole punch to put a notch in the opposite side of the disk and flip it over and write on both sides. It was controversial then as it is now - LOL This obviously is for after you have it working fully. Thank you

I can list the CAR: contents. If I use Copy I get an error too many channels open error. Any Ideas? Thank you

I'm looking for a case. If you have a dead XE GS and are in the US, please let me know. Thx

So I have a preference for the 130XE, the Cart pointing out the back is just cleaner for me. Of the Computers I have the 130XEs' are the ones having problems and are known to be the worst built mainboards. The 800XL is a Tank, mine is still working 41 years later, is it the best choice for an upgrade? Last is my newest Atari and I think the cleanest look even with an upward Cart port the XE Game System. I'm looking for other peoples thoughts here. Thank you

The Rabbit Hole deepens, in a good way. I was looking for a 1020 plotter I have in storage. I found in a corner behind it my fathers 800XL, 2 1050 floppy drives, and a 822 printer. All of his floppy disks too.

I'm sorry for your loss. It is an unpleasant experience that in time everyone in someway experiences. My Grandmother was very explicit that she would have to go someday to make room for the younger people in the world. It is a tough step in growing. It is also difficult to realize there is more growing up to do even at this age.

I have a Side2 with the files from FJCs site installed from a file dated August. SIDE/SIDE2 Loader and SDX ROMs (August 2019) It works somewhat better with my 130XE over my EXGS. Are there any cliff notes anyone can share on getting the extensions to play nice and allow a dir in basic of the carts D3: drive? Always locks up when I run the extensions from D3: Are these notes relevant to this problem? https://atariage.com/forums/topic/295737-whatever-happened-to-scopy/page/2/#comments How do I tag the people involved into a thread or should I just PM them to the Thread? I'm moving forward but every few steps forward there is one back. Thx

I'm wondering is anyone remembers John the operator of Port Royal BBS. My understanding is it was one of the fist Atari BBSs' John used to hold meetups for the participants and I went to one in the San Fernando Valley. Any information is appreciated. Thx

OK - New update, with some advice from FJC I have the side 2 Cart running on a 130EX with the OSS carts. However I'm seeing lockups in Basic XE. I will take that up in an existing thread elsewhere. The main point is I have the Side2 working the way I need it to for now. Onward and upward! Thx

I will test out Gita - Thank you for that input, this is very helpful. Where we are at - I ordered a new 130XE Mainboard for Andy - I feel I can get Andy up and running pretty easily but want to stuff his case with a new board for now. I prefer the 130XE over the other designs as a workstation. That said I have "Muke" this is the EXGS and it is solid and very clean with a PS2 adaptor. Muke was one of Andys' friends. Andy was an Artist and if I can find the right disk in Ataripaint I have pictures of all of these characters. The Last is my original Atari 800XL "B*" it runs as good as the day it came out of the box with one minor upgrade. An original Transkey. I feel I'm gaining ground. Thx

And we go full Circle now - I work with people trying it import SVGs to design software. Often it will not work. This is because it is not a real SVG but a bitmap in a SVG wrapper. I'm fine with the processing taking place off CPU, just that I can get the text content. However I'm seeing the limitations that might be a problem in just file size alone. I'm looking at a Pi Zero W as helper CPU for my A8 anyway. Thx

This brings up a fun issue I'm learning about. I'm US based,So NTSC. I have always been aware of PAL but now I find the Atari 8 Bit is truly a world wide stage. For instance a enhance floppy drive in the US but bought form a source in Egypt. Why all this NTSC/PAL banter? Knowing where you are located is likely relevant. I'm unsure if the Artifacts are relevant to the Video standard. Anyone with dual experience want to chime in please? Kogden are you NTSC or PAL? Thx

This video is perfect! - It drives me further to jump to a Sophia Rev. C Thank You -FJC

I just backspaced out of a post i jus wrote on this and now have rewritten - darn it. I did more investigation and found Ester has had the Extended port replaced. Testing with a know working keyboard Ester still will not see the Start key. I found damage to the replaced extended port and a slight bend in the bottom shield, I think at some point a prior owner stepped on Ester. I'm now thinking of breaking down the chips form this board as a donor for a 1088XL build, possibly trying to use the memory on Andy. The other possibility is 8bit signage in Basic.

Andy is a Rev 3 board - From what I've seen in researching notoriously the 6th chip in the first bank goes on these. I bought one of these - https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=232 Wondering if I should socket or just piggy back this on the 6502.

More facts on Ester, I suspect a problem with the cartridge port at the board. I was thinking I would open up Ester and find a world of fur balls maybe. This was true of other systems back in the day. To my surprise Ester was exceedingly clean and found the CPU socketed. I have tried lifting and reseating the 6502. Same results. I may try reheating the solder joints at the cartridge joints and the CPU socket. Any other thoughts before I do? Rev 5 Mainboard -

More information on Ester. Left in test mode Ester launched all tests on it's own. If I put some carts in crooked they might work. I've never opened Ester but it looks like my next step. Ester looks to pass all tests but still has key issues. I will swap the keyboard from Andy to gain some more control.

This is the tale of 3 Atari 130XEs. My father passed away last year just before Christmas. In his things were several computers, but he and I spent the most time with the Atari 8 Bit computers. To connect with that I have gotten back into using my Atari collection. This is about 3 of the 5 I'm running. My personal 130XE now named after a friend I used to program on the Atari with, "Andy". Andy has a bad Bad Bank 1 Memory and fails to boot goes directly to testing and fails the Ram test. My second 130XE is my Fathers' Called "DAD" and it boots and runs well but had a bad Q key. I have swapped the keyboard out from Andy to DAD. DAD is not a 100% functional 130XE , checks out on all tests. Andy is in bad shape but can be fixed. The 3rd 130XE is called "Ester" she was Andys' girlfriend. Ester is where I need help. Ester was acquired in a bulk purchase of Atari equipment 10 years + back. Ester will boot to Basic. Ester will boot form a Sdrive-Max. Ester will not react to the Option key. Typing DOS goes to testing but will not start as it will not see the Start key. If I try the Cartridge I get Random characters or a black scree or a partial load that hangs before getting to Sparta Dos Prompt. In Basic all the keyboard seems to work sans the Help/Start/Option keys. Ester is less than Digital in performance. Cashing at a state of Maybe often? Anyone have any thoughts here? BTW they are all NTSC if it makes a difference. Thx

I found this while looking up how to add the ROMs(files) to the Side2 cart. I see it includes a list of all of the suppliers of popular choices in this forum. Including Gavin. Please correct me if you want to be called Chopper Commander. Thx

So first Happy Holidays to everyone. Gavin? Chopper Commander? I'm not sure how to refer to you properly, sorry. I'm not trying to start a fight but you have stepped into my lane. My Wife would say - "Ho Dear" Clearly you are marketing. You are free to do so, however you said "better". I want you to qualify that. Are you offering something to me for review? From visiting your site your prices are higher than the vendor I have originally pointed to. There are several products marketed and available here, for instance: I'm working on getting a few of these, they look very clean, have great user comments and should work well for my needs on any systems I leave at 64k. I helped launch the 3D home printing market. Visiting your site you don't identify who's filament you are using or what printer you are using or what the resolution your prints are made at. I run a custom made prosummer FDM with all linear rail bearings using both direct drive and bowden driven e3d water cooled heads in a 12 x12 x22inch volume with a max resolution in the neighborhood of 90 microns max resolution. It's impractical under 100 microns until you jump to resin printing. I use several brands of Filament but I keep going back to ProtoPasta the Empire Strikes Black. Polymaker is a good go to Filament for other tasks for me. Please show us how your products are better. Compel me to help market your products. I have no Social Media presents or desire to participate. I found what I found with Google independent of this forum. Your products did not show up. So at the time they were not considered. I invite you to create your own thread, something like " 5 Reasons my Sdrive-Max is better" link to it from this thread and I promise I will read it. If it's compelling I will try your products. Currently my next purchase is from ALSP. My point is you can have your own thread. If it's relevant it will get traffic. I'm sorry I'm unimpressed with " buy my MObetta' " with no substance. I ask others to not derail the original intent of this thread, either create your own post or if you want to agree with this set of statements just tag it by liking it. Let's not have a debate of the best forum etiquette beyond this. Thx

Atari Reentry FAQ ish .. My opinions = Who is this for? "I have an old Atari and I want to fire it up and rescue my old disks. I’m looking at the technology that has changed and it’s making me dizzy trying to wrap my head around it.” What I am not - paid for any part of this opinion or directly involved with any vendor here. To just fire up the Atari - Lots has changed. There are many solutions and I will share what I have learned. Path of least resistance. Tap N play - DriveS - Max - Arduino Uno with a touch screen. Make it: https://atari8bit.net/everything-sdrive-max/ Buy it: https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/atari-800-xl-xe-xel-xld/products/atari-sdrive-max This one comes with a printed case and connector, USB cable, SD card, and Stylus - I will at some point wire it internally to the SIO port. You use the stylus to load files of disks into drive slots. Dump the Power Supply and use a Phone Charger: https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/atari-800-xl-xe-xel-xld/products/atari-xl-xe-replacement-power-via-usb Get a Power Strip with USB: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VM5DJS7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I went with this as it has 10A usb Power Supply Fire it up! Once you have the Old Atari booting form the SDrive-Max, you can add a Floppy Drive in line and save files to the SDrive-Max. What’s next - World of options, for me I have the following that were plugged into a dual cartridge port of my 130XE. Sparta Dos X, RTime 8, Basic XE. I have an Action! Cart too. All this and more can be had in the Side2 Cartridge. I also had a ICD MIO 1 MB - it afforded ma a HD, and Ramdrives with all of my content in one place. The Side2 is a plug into the Cartridge port solution providing a HD via Hot Plugable CF memory, Sparta Dos X, A Real Time Clock, and more. Spartados has undergone a lot of development since I used it on the 80’s. This is the fastest, easiest upgrade to my Atari 8 Bit computers. I will mention I got the FJC firmware and suggest it. Also I think I ordered on Thursday and had it on Monday with Express shipping. I can’t speak highly enough for this vendor. https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=245 Part 2 - SIO2PC is a USB to Serial link that uses a PC as the virtual disks. If you want to back up old disks this is a good way to get the files over to the PC and leverage the Hardware on the PC. There are 2 major vendors, I knew I was going with the Side2 from Lotharek so it was a no brainer and the Rev2 is the cleanest piece of kit out there. In addition to sharing the PC as virtual drives with Atari he provides Program to hook the floppy rive directly on the PC and backup the floppy disks. I will check out the other vendor in the near future, the software provided by the other vendor requires a pricey purchase in addition to the hardware, the freeware version penalizes the user from what I have read to get you to upgrade. There are strong proponents for both camps. Eventually I’ll own it all. Baby steps. I’m trying to guide you thought the forest I stumbled into and find others are as well. https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=157 My goal is to see if the Atari 8 Bit can be a secure platform for some basic data storage, secure because once the data platform is developed it will not have any connection to the outside world. For whatever reason you are on the path of getting a 40 year old platform running. I was looking for the most Bang for my Buck. "But I heard of product X and it has Y feature.” There are many other choices out there this is the most powerful collection I could find to give me flexibility. I have a bunch of Atari Hardware, I decided to focus on 5 Machines. My original Arati 800XL with a Circa 90’s Transkey PS2 keyboard adopter on it, no other upgrades. 3 130XEs 1 that is firing up reliably but the Q key is non functional, I will sort that ASAP. A 100% as new Atari XE Game System. I have no Memory upgrades at this point. I have a working Indust GT floppy drive and it checks out 100%. What I’m leaving off the table, my original 400,800,600XL,1200XL, Mega 2 ST. So let's concentrate on the 130XE, the XEGS and 800XL can become 130XE compliant with a memory upgrade. Many of the tools and utilities I use need the memory of the 130XE. Let’s talk displays for a moment. My original set up as a kid was a 9 inch color display on the main 40 column coming from my CPU and a side Green Screen with an XEP80 80 Column to my right. I intend to go back to that. All doable - XEP80 is still available as NOS from Best Electronics. There are a few different current video upgrades available. I think it is important to point out that there are differing solutions and depending on where you live and what you want to look at influences what the choices are. First is just a upgrade to the quality of composite video output. Depending on your TV you may not have composite as an option. On one of mine it has a connection but it simply can’t sync so a $11 USD Composite to HDMI converter got me something to look at on that TV. Next the most popular I’d say is the VBEX, this is a RGB output choice and seems to be hooked to Component input. It is more popular due to it adding some new capability and works for many users world wide. The other but less popular Sophia Rev. C because it gives you a video display out as DVI but this is still the same feature set of you Atari 8Bit outside the new connection, the DVI can be easily adapted to HDMI and I have lots of that so this is my direction. It is available in Wide Format or 3:4 aspect ration and is a fixed programed core. I’m interested in my original experience so I’m going choose the 3:4 at 1280 x 1024. The next space to consider is the popular Transkey 2 PS2 Keyboard upgrades allowing you to ditch the Atari keyboard for a newer PS2 standard. This would allow me to use the 5 Machines I have outlined after I stabilize them with generic peripherals - I will probably upgrade 2 for HDMI connection. There is one more upgrade to mention. The Ultimate 1MB upgrade will probably get installed on my EXGS as it works in concert with the Side2 cart and gives you flexible choices once again to use that 1mb in many ways. https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=246 Beyond fixing / upgrading / resucing Old Hardware there is another dimension - New Ataris hand made, Atari Bespoke. The 1088XL and 1088XLD. This is Nirvana and why I’m trying to learn if the Atari still has a place in my tool set. If all the above works out I will end up with a 1088XLD. This in now way represents the only choice or path. I highly suggest the missing manual in this thread it helped get my feet on the ground again. Please feel free to reach out if I can be of help. Note - I’m dyslexic, I could not read books as a child, I could read the computer screen, computers have improved my life. They don’t fix the dyslexia, if I have spelling mistakes here, I own them. Enjoy flipping bits 8 bit bytes at a time. Long Live Atari 8 Bit Computers!

I wonder if I can set this up as a script - https://online.pdfconvertertools.com/wim/static/wi/main.html?tp=wi&v=40.8&gnum=15&cid=8594&kw=pdf to text converter&gclid=CjwKCAiAi4fwBRBxEiwAEO8_HkHJCdQdGULpuMon9j0z_Y8A2YmvImqECtVRnqJLq-EbflYyua5dFhoCA2MQAvD_BwE&clickid=77624039990&cachecode=Q2icH4pzxMbJhYrvnvAQqg==&fcid=8404 and then dump it into a shared directory over SIO2PC with a check for file size and part it out if it's too big. Thanks for the idea.

So the one thing I would like to be able to do is view PDFs on my A8. Is there such a program? When searching for this i get 2 results, a million PDfs about A8's or Empty. Has this been done, am I looking for something that has not been made? Thank you

Ok all is well in the world of Atari 8 Bit for me The Side 2 Carts arrived and it's internal TD on is spot on. I'm still trying to figure my way around in it but it is defiantly the best update for me to brige 20 years of changes. I have a stock 130XE needs a Q key fixed but otherwise in good shape. It's a Side2 Cart with a 16gb CF FJC firmware. I'm trying toi figure out how to get BasicXE and Action on it. I'm going to do a write up on getting from my old kit to my current setup once I get this working I can start coding a DB. Thanks for all the help

So I stumbled on to Sparta Dos 3.2 works with the Y2K TDline. I have a Side2 Cart showing up tomorrow. More later.