Rybags

Jumper set = disable the computer's internal RAM. Power should go to the second pin from the left of the PBI (when viewed from a normal above, front position). Solder the wire there such that it won't interfere with insertion. A good place to tap the +5V is near the plastic cartridge interlock device. The solder pad is about halfway along just below it, remove the interlock before doing the work. There's a picture somewhere earlier in this thread with it shown.

AFAIK the only other method of running CP/M is on the Indus GT disk drive, so in both cases the Atari itself is just acting as a terminal. In this day and age, it's kinda pointless beyond being a novelty - if there was any value in it I think someone would have bothered to write a PC-side emulator that could run the code and interface with the real Atari via SIO2PC or APE. On that note, some people are still begging for an XEP80 emulator and I think it would be a much more worthwhile project.

That's pretty good especially considering you're losing 10 bytes just to accomodate the Binary header + Run address info.

Used to play 8-Ball Deluxe a bit, more a case of it was the only thing available at times. Always left wanting more though, but for it's time it was pretty good. Can't really name a favourite but there's a good number that I really liked playing: - Cue Ball Wizard. It's got that something extra that 8BD has missing. The video mode is kinda lame (I think it might have been the first to have it), but the game itself is entertaining and amusing. - Space Shuttle. One of the best of the 1980s I reckon. - Cyclone. Used to play this a lot at work lunchtimes as the local pub had it as well as: - Pinbot. There's not a huge amount to do in this game, but it's just atmospheric and unusual. - Getaway: High Speed 2. I was kinda useless at the real thing, so fast. But mastered it into the billions on Visual Pinball. - Terminator 2. One of the best TV/movie tie-in games, and very enjoyable to play. - The Simpsons. Not sure if I've played the real thing, but very good in VPinball. There was also another early-mid 1970s one we played a lot. Can't remember the name but it had multiball and a flat rubber spinner in the middle that deflected the path of the ball.

Metal traders use that shape because a rectangle would be too hard to get out of the mold. A nice taper means that the molten stuff you pour in there is less likely to get air bubbles, and once it cools down a bit, you just turn it over and the ingot comes out easily.

Sounds tempting... might have to eBay mine and grab the newer one once you've got it sorted.

I'd think multi chsets might be the way with that game. It doesn't have a massive amount of onscreen action - IMO it'd be a reasonable candidate for porting to run under VBXE. Use VBXE bitmap to do all the sprites, and the attribute layer to add colour choices to Antic Mode 4.

But what about the disk booting part? And, any sound? Like hold Start and power on, does it give the cassette boot sound?

The smaller fonts in the Memopad demo should indicate if it's working or not. The lines of pixels should be in distinctly seperate locations down the screen rather than flickering on the one location. I'm not sure if I included the special characters, but ones with sloping lines like / \ can help. To get an idea of what I mean, running it in a recent Altirra version might help, since you can turn interlace on and off easily there.

Hard to say if the interlace is working properly there. I did find in testing that the vertical hold on older TVs could affect it to the point where it wouldn't work. But it does work fine on my 1084s from VBXE's RGB.

Check if it attempts to boot a disk - that would at least rule out CPU, Antic and the OS ROM being bad.

Definite interference in pic 2... here's hoping it'll look better running via seperate Chroma/Luma. Can you try some of my Interlace stuff... link in my tagline.

From memory, the monsters just animate in place like in Alternate Reality. So, it's for effect and not really critical to the gameplay, but would of course enhance the overall experience. I think that a brick colour other than grey can only be a good thing.

The motherboard revision will be printed or stamped on the board... easy to find but you'll need to take the shielding off first. Some have two, a "Rev" with nothing after, then a fuller proper one. Supposedly, the previously mentioned fix works... in fact I think my board already had it.

My guess would be how well optimised each emulator is decides performance. If it can do Genesis at a decent speed, then the A8 should be a piece of cake.

Most monitors have crap speakers anyway, so even a cheap PC type speaker setup would be worthwhile. You'd need a 2xRCA to single 3.5mm plug adaptor, they're about 3-4 bucks.

Price looks OK. Do you know what decoder IC it uses? Chances are, it'll work just as well by feeding CSync from Atari into HSync, and just leaving VSync alone. Is there any form of saturation control? One of those wish-list items for such a device was to be able to boost saturation dependant on luma level.

I couldn't find any either. Best bet is to just open up a 7800 pad and duplicate what's being done in there.

I believe 7800 pads connect both buttons to the Pot (paddle) inputs as well as the normal Trig input. Supposedly the 7800 itself supplies a pullup voltage which is weak (2600) or strong (7800 mode) which alters the way they work dependant on the console mode at the time. IIRC, both buttons will return Trig values on the computer but not alter the paddle values (and same case for a 2600 and probably most other computers that use Atari controllers). From memory, the 7800 controllers only differ in that they have resistors between the buttons and paddle inputs. I don't have any schematic, but I guess there should be one somewhere. The problem you'll likely encounter is that practically no standard Atari type joystick will have the wires supplied for the Pot inputs, so you'd need to make up new cables in addition to the added circuitry. Of course, you could just take the cable from a 7800 pad which would make the job somewhat easier.

Oh well, I've taken the plunge. Getting kinda bored with Golf on the mobile phone, so it'll open up some more options.

I've got the possibility to buy a DS. The area of interest for me would be homebrew and emulation. So, how is the emulation for A8 in particular, and other older platforms on the DS?

In theory, Atari Basic itself could be ported to the 5200 although the cost would be in the order of 12-16K of ROM space as the Floating Point would need to be relocated and carried over, and same for some of the Operating System like the S: E: K: handlers. Additional to that, a Basic program could operate from ROM but Basic itself would need reworking so that the variables were still kept in RAM. That in itself would be an interesting, although pretty large programming project. I've been meaning to port a game or two to the 5200 just for practice - don't have the real machine so emulation and getting others to test would be necessary. But, going back to the initial Q... just developing stuff in Assembler on PC-based tools, and running in emulation is the way to go. Many of the tools that work for the A8 computer will be just as relevant to the 5200, but of course the vast majority of high-level languages will probably be a no-go.

RoF IMO is probably the best 3D game on the Atari so far, considering actual "real 3D" looks, and the way in which it contributes to the overall experience. Yoomp, I'd put into more of a "psuedo 3D" category, same for Ballblazer and Last Starfighter. Mercenary/2 should go on the list although it is mostly line-art but still it was kind of groundbreaking for it's time. The Alternate Reality games should also be there although they're 90 Degree turners - it would have been interesting if the game had been developed with the finessed turning ability that the engine supposedly was capable of.

Got link for the S2S? I think Hiass always has at least a minimal VBlank going... need it for timeout purposes.

Looks good... need some icons for the buttons, maybe. I'll have to do something about mine soon... I'm considering just using the default buttons, and rigging it up with pushrods actuated by some old buttons off a remote control.