Larry

Hi Beetle- Thanks for the added info about the XEX. So a .doc file will will be something like ".cod"? Just kidding -- it makes good sense for the emulator use. But a question -- Is the "widescreen" display on your portable the typical PAL Atari display? Looks like 16X9 or thereabouts. Looks very nice, but it doesn't look like a typical Atari display, although it looks very much like the emulator display. Is it the result of your choice of LCD screens? -Larry

SOT, but I have an interesting(?) "war story" involving the CX-85. In 1984 our manufacturing plant had only one "PC" and it belonged to the Accounting Dept. I worked in Quality Control & Product Engineering, and one of the QC functions was to "lay out" our engine block castings to verify the dimensions. It was totally manual, including writing the dimensions onto log sheets. The Layout Supervisor asked me if it would be possible to "computerize" the data so that it could be analyzed statistically. So I talked our Controller into letting me buy an Atari system for the QC guys. We got an 800XL, Indus Drive, C-Itoh printer/interface, mono monitor, and a CX-X5 for data entry. With the Atari, each time a measurement was taken, the technicians would use the CX-85 to enter the data into a log file using a custom data-entry program that I wrote. At the end of the layout, it would provide a printed report, flagging any dimensional issues. I also wrote several statistical programs to provide histograms, weekly & monthly summaries, reports, etc. All in Atari Basic with few ML routines here and there at slow points. Everyone loved it, including my boss, the QC Manager. And of course, I loved working on that project! After a few more years, we bought new, automated equipment that had far more capabilities, but for quite some time, our little Atari 8-bit had its "moment in the sun." -Larry

Thanks! I was able to BLOAD the file using TBXL, and it seems to work fine on my NTSC system. Using my PC video card capture, these 80-column drivers are very, very clear, albeit the characters still a little unusual. There is another interesting wrinkle, I think -- my Atari display window is "wide-screen" or "free-form" if I set it that way, so I can make the display wider than the normal which to my eyes makes the 4-pixel character set look a little better. (screenshots attached) Yes, XEX same as EXE (or COM). I haven't tried to look at the file yet, but since it it is the same, why the unusual file extension? -Larry

Thought I would take a look at this, and then the fun began... I see it is in XEX format. I know virtually nothing about XEX files other than for the Turbo cassette. Found a few forum references to the XEX and conversion. Found XEX2CAS and successfully converted it to a CAS file (I think!). Tried to load it using APE's cassette handling features, but struck out. Tried to attach that to the emulator and ended up corrupting the emulator and spending close to an hour getting the emulator settings correct again. Read a thread that said that ATRUtil would convert this. I may be missing something simple, but I can't see that ATRUtil will handle an XEX file (or even a CAS file). (?) Sooo... Is there a conversion utility that can convert an XEX file to something that I can manipulate on either a real Atari or the emulator (Atari800Win Plus beta7). Or some info as to the file format of an XEX so that I can convert it manually? Thanks, Larry

130XE (especially the 64 X 4 Dram types) -- readily expandable, most often excellent video (without mods), space-efficient design. The most powerful, overall "best out-of-the-box" Atari 8-bit. 800XL Nice keyboard, separate cartridge port, still pretty expandable, pretty roomy inside, usually socketed chips. 1200XL Nice looking, roomy, socketed, nice (but poorly executed) keyboard -- too bad no PBI/ECI. -Larry

I have some photos on my web. You can watch pictures from Forever, Atariada, Fujiama, and some other. Just go to http://krupkaj.ic.cz Thanks for all the replies, and for all the links of pics, etc. Very interesting! -Larry

Hi Bunsen- Sounds very interesting. Do you know if there are any web pages where they have posted pics from past shows and/or a page from the show itself? -Larry

There are a few US classic gaming shows and classic computer shows, but I think the last Atari-specific show was "World of Atari" 1998 in Las Vega. Do you have a show that you like? -Larry

If a U.S. resident were going to attend an Atari or Atari/gaming show, what one would you choose? I am presuming it would be European, so there would be considerations of the size of the show, language (are some conventions more likely to have a larger percentage of English-speaking folks?), air travel, season/weather, historical/cultural things to see in the general area, etc. I've always wanted to do this, and I'm thinking more seriously about it. -Larry

Nice job- Could you post a larger picture of the open 1200XL so as to better see the wiring details? -Larry

I'm not sure if this will address your concerns or not, but... there is a wealth of info on the internet about this subject. As mentioned, virtually all mfgs. of flash devices use "wear leveling" to help preserve data integrity. And like most things in life, not all flash memory is created equal. Stick with highly-rated device makers such as SanDisk and Toshiba. If you can, purchase "industrial-rated" devices, although this is getting harder to do as the distinction between "industrial" and "consumer" blurs. Some industrial-rated devices are rated to up to 2,000,000 write cycles. Their algorithms are proprietary, but you can guess that higher-rated devices have more agressive re-mapping and many more spare cells/blocks. Since flash devices are getting incredibly cheap, you can also do your own "wear leveling" by moving your MyIDE partitions within the device. Of course, it is just good practice to back up your flash (or any other) hard drive -- I sector copy mine at least once a month to an APE drive on my PC and/or a completely separate USB hard drive used only for backups. But I've been using flash drives for several years and never lost a thing due to bad flash memory. -Larry

Very true, but did the project die?

That's a good point, but I look at this as an experiment. Once I socket Antic and GTIA, I can find out to what degree these are internally compatible. I certainly don't expect the "patient" to die, but I'll ask for volunteers... -Larry

Hi- Thanks. Which emulator are you using? -Larry

Did the micro USB project die out or go on hiatus or maybe morph into something else? I got one of the USB carts, but never got any device to work with it. Haven't heard anything about it for a long, long time. -Larry

OK -- in researching this topic, I run across PAL-I and PAL-B which have slightly different characteristics. Is this significant to the Atari, or are they essentially all alike? So far, looks like to do a full conversion, I need to replace GTIA, ANTIC, two oscillators, and the OS Rom. (I just love desoldering those 40-pin IC's, but I'm a lot better at it than I used to be.) To do a partial conversion, something less. Looks like an interesting project. -Larry

Hi Rybags- Why? -- I may have several PAL machines on my hands, and I would want them to function in the NTSC environment. Any ideas on the conversion details -- maybe "plug and pray?" -Larry

I've seen several threads that discuss getting PAL software to run on an NTSC machine, but is it possible to *convert* a PAL machine to NTSC so that it is fully operational? Or-- does anyone in NTSC-land have a PAL machine, and what kinds of issues do they have with software, monitors, etc. Has anyone been down this road before... -Larry

FWIW- I have one of these upgrades from Rick, and it works great. I've only had it for a few days, but it is rock-solid, and a very nice, very professional-looking upgrade. It's a shame that Atari didn't make more of these boards. -Larry

Does anyone know if any of the PC ColecoVision emulators support a joystick or other external controllers for basic object movements? Using a keyboard in place of a joystick to play action games has always been a real turn-off for me. Presumably the emulators for the PSP use the built-in joypad? Thanks, Larry

Hi Mathy (and anyone who is interested in the details of the Enigma rotors)- This is the best description that I have found of the rotor details, including an example that you can trace through. http://homepages.tesco.net/~andycarlson/en...ing_enigma.html -Larry

Looks very useful. Which download should one select for English to get the "FNF?" Thanks, Larry

If I don't need to edit the images then command: copy a.rom/b+b.romb/b+c.rom/b+d.rom/b new4x.rom has always worked. Hi Steve- Is that a Windows "command?" -Larry

Hi Michael- Thanks! I found several, and of these the HDD Free Version looks like it will do the job nicely. It is easy to use the Clipboard on this version to paste in new files/segments -- just what I was looking for. -Larry

I'd like to make up some images of 4 individual Atari OS's to put into 27512's. Of course, these can be burned one increment at a time, moving up the addresses in the eprom. But it would be easier, I think, to use some type of a PC program-text editor that would allow "cut and paste" operations to make up new (4X) images. Anyone have any suggestions/favorites for one that... a) hopefully is stand-alone, and b) is Windows based? Thanks, Larry