Larry

Is it part of the design intent that the Eclaire XL will accept other (MIST) cores? Or is this a stand-alone? I'm thinking of getting a MIST for it's versatility, but if the Elaire will be able to provide similar functionality, I'll wait. Thanks, Larry

My original 130XE from about 1984 (?) is still going, although the keyboard failed. The only one I lost is one I killed, myself. The boards are not great, but better than many I've seen. I sure that Atari never envisioned us going inside and replacing everything but "the kitchen sink" when they designed it. And for all the bad rap that Jack gets, he was competing with the C64, and if he hadn't stepped in and cut costs, we likely would not be discussing this here today. So for one, I'm grateful to Jack T., and while I wish he had done some things differently, I don't lose sight of the good he did. -Larry

Here is a slightly better (I think) PDF of the Percom article from AC. I took my original mag and scanned it this AM. -Larry Percom Primer from Atari Classics 03-95.pdf

Hi Bob! Your XL7 accelerator is a great item. 7.16 makes the Atari very "snappy." In fact, even with the XL14, I typically ran it at 7.16. And while that XL7 board shape could only fit in the 1200xl, the XL14 fit in all the XL's IIRC. Perhaps someone else could take the baton now and make the next leg of the journey? -Larry Edit: Do you still have the CPLD code? Or could the existing programmed ones could be read?

Thanks, Jon. Searching at AA under "Pbi emulation" you said the same thing in 2013. Hey, you're consistent!

Hi Jon- Noticed this about the Side2 and your alt firmware. Does your firmware now allow MyDos (etc.) to actually use the XL/XE rom PBI, -or- is this a use of "soft drivers" when used with Dos other than SDX? I'm asking because it isn't quite clear to me, and (I think) I remember you indicating previously that actual use of the PBI is not possible except with SDX. (IIRC) (I don't remember the "why" it was not possible.) And if you have now figured out a way to do it, that's great! Thanks! -Larry

Interesting, and yes, that sounds like the original label. If you try it with expanded memory, see what size ramdisk you get, if any. I'll look through my original Omniview docs a bit later. I have several originals plus some ads from CDY. -Larry

Did that Omniview chip have the original label on it? The original CDY logo was distinctive. 24 pins? So if for xl/xe, should be 28? Don't have any chips nearby at the moment... So yes, if it is 24 that is wierd. And afaik, there was no Omniview originally sold that was labeled "xl/xe." There was xl and another one for xe and yet another one for "256". -Larry

I did test part of this many years ago using my AT-88, which supported DD. I'm not sure about your model number, but I believe it may be single density only. (?) So that means the most you should get is 128 X 18 X 80 (tracks) X 2 (sides) = 360K, if it handles a two-sided drive. If it is DD, then it should be 720K using 3-1/2" 720K drives using MyDos (or SDX). And dead-slow in DD since there is no USpd for Percoms. It's been a really long time since I did this. As far as the Fat-12, I can only say that I used my Percom with my ATR 8000 & CP/M (which has some very different disk formats), but I did not use the Percom controller, since the ATR 8000 handles that. But how would you even do it? Is your manual different than the regular AT-88 manual? It is manual #050-1290-001? I would think a manual specifically for the AT-88 S1PD might be slightly different. (?) Here is a link that might be helpful: https://www.atarimax.com/freenet/freenet_material/5.8-BitComputersSupportArea/7.TechnicalResourceCenter/showarticle.php?48 There was also a good article by Ben Poehland in Atari Classics about the Percoms. And last... be very careful as the Percom has 110V inside (U.S.) and it can shock you in a heartbeat if you touch the wrong things! -Larry

I have a related question -- Are there any USB<--> SIO devices that work with a Mac without running some type of converter? And will they work at greater than 3X? Just curious. -Larry

Haven't looked at Respeqt in quite awhile. Can it now write to as PC folder? -Larry

I'm considering buying a 3D printer to make small parts, and a useful project would be a cover for the outside pcb for the MegaSpeedy. I wonder if anyone has created a 3D file for an add-on cover only? I know there was some discussion about it some months ago, including on ABBUC. I'm not thinking about an entire front bezel -- just a small add-on cover for the control/display which could be printed or painted to closely match the 1050 brown bezel. I would certainly like a simplified approach since I have zero experience with CAD, so I was thinking about "building it" with TinkerCad. Anyone used it, or have any opinions? On the surface , seems like it would be very useful. -Larry

Hi Robin- You seem to have a printer that is quite capable, and has stamina to do quite a few projects. Could you share with us which one you bought? If doing it again, would you purchase the same brand? -Larry

I've got to admit that I find myself getting more and more interested in these projects. Especially if there is some hope of getting an Atari-similar keyboard for either/both. PC keyboards are great for a PC (especially since many/most operations are done with a mouse). But IMO an Atari needs an Atari keyboard. Hope the WASD idea works out. Wireless would be awesome, but maybe too much to hope for, and probably only even possible on the Eclaire XL. (?) A good smooth mouse for Eclaire? -Larry

Did you get your pictures posted? I don't see any link, and just your thumbnail. Interested in your keyboard. Is it more like an Atari keyboard, or just a PC/Windows keyboard? Wireless? Larry

Oops! Albert, not Alfred. Sorry about that!

I have a serious suggestion for Alfred that I think might be helpful. When you IGNORE a topic, make that topic totally disappear to that viewer. That way all the complainers can still complain, while others sick of the repetition, etc. can avoid the "red flag" that irritates them. If that somehow is technically not feasible, obliterate the title rather than simply putting an "Ignore" marker on it. -Larry

There are probably several ways, but I know that you can put one on a 1 Mb Atarimax cart easily using the programming features/ATR created by Mr-Atari. It is probably buried here at AA and also at the Atarimax website, probably under the 1 Mb images section. Also, I made one using an OSS Supercart by programming a 2764 or 27128. -Larry

Well, Atari_Ace got these straightened out! He found that somehow the files were mislabeled, and there was a DCM inside of an ATR. (?) And once he got that separated, Altirra accepted the DCM. I then did much the same thing, and watched as Altirra instantly opened the archive. So all is well, and I owe a big thanks to Atari_Ace and of course, to Phaeron whose Altirra ultimately made this pretty easy! -Larry

I ended up with two bad DCM's out of 57. Originally there were three bad, but I tried one again and it expanded properly. The other two were still bad -- "Bad bytes in this file." Altirra won't open it, and neither will APE nor Imagic. Haven't tried Jindroush's utility yet, but will. Just for grins... does anyone have any earlier versions of Disk Communicator -- 1.x or 2.x ? -Larry

PM sent...

Yes, things like Disk Communicator, Scrunch, Shrink, etc. had a main purpose of allowing a disk to be sent via modem as a file. The compression was very mild and mainly removing empty sectors to cut down on the transmission time/cost. I did double-check two of the defective DCM files and they both have their directories visible at the normal location. I remember that some DCM's were then Arc'd which cut down the size tremendously. I took one of the bad DCM's and Zipped it and it cut the size nearly in half. The DCM was of a DD 180K disk that was nearly full. I may have to dig out Ernest Schreurs' format description of DISKCOMM. Some nice utilities there, if you don't have them already. Right now, I'm getting about 25% defective DCM's. Not bad sectors, just "compression" errors, I'd say. They have probably been there since the day they were created. http://home.planet.nl/~ernest/atarixle.html @lemiel and @1050- Thanks, I'll try those suggestions. -Larry

Well, to answer this myself... Since these are game DCM's and I can see the intact directory sectors, probably the most expedient thing to do is to re-create the DCM archive from other sources. Since most of these are commonly available, I should only lose one or two .EXE game files. (These files were still called .EXE when these were created in the '80's.) Maybe as an academic exercise it would be interesting to see if the archive can be salvaged, but not worth spending a lot of time on. -Larry

While trying to un-DISKCOMM some very old 720K disks this morning, I've found that a couple of the DCM files have bad bytes in them. Does anyone know if there is any way to salvage any of the files in the DCM? If I look at the archive using a disk editor, I can see that the disk directory is intact. These DCM's were written using an XF551 probably close to 30 years ago -- I should have done this a long time ago! Anyone know anything about this? -Larry

Glad you had it and found it. I'm having trouble un-DISCOMMing my disks using Imagic! Whew! Pressure's off! And yes, that's the version that I remember -Larry