Goochman

Chaz, I would agree with you 100% except the 5200 sticks........Atari did everything right with the 5200 (you dont want cart slot compatibilty to take away from the 'computers' but making easy translations to the new console) by improving upon the 2600 was right on. But those controllers............. The best thing about the 5200 IMHO was I could play better versions of Dig Dug, Centipede and got a few other new titles the 800 would've never seen

I loved the feel of the 500XJ but couldnt play games as well with it. The feel wasnt as good as the original Atari sticks esp when rapid movements were required. Felt good in the hand though.

The 5200 sticks ruin the system otherwise it would kill the CV - With the sticks and library the CV wins. Those 5200 sticks caused some games never to be released due to their quirkyness - ala Asteroids CV is fun if you give it a chance!

If you can control the car in Checkered Flag then there is a graphical issue with it, otherwise it looks/plays like crap no matter if its on an Emu or real Jag

I bet it works on any version of TOS above 1.0 - Anyhow, you could prob get 3 from them also which does work with 1.2 which I used with my Mega ST2.

Check around here but I think you'll have better luck with 2600 programming on your PC than 8bit - I dont know of any way to hook up an 800 to a 2600 for what you're looking to do sorry

Gunstart - Looks like they're still selling their Neodesk product so I would HIGHLY recommend you support these guys and buy it from them since they put out a great product and helped the ST community alot during the old TOS days - Its up to version 4 now.

Neodesk 3 I think required a HD - earlier versions didnt but 3.0 had so much in it I dont believe you could do it from a diskette I have 3.0 somewhere but I think it required a key to activate which Im sure I've lost

I found Miner 2049er II for the 2600 for $1 at an old electronics shop 2 years ago Its not for sale I think they did a pretty good job with the Miner series for the 2600 considering the limitations of the machine and cart size.

Duh, yeah I got it, thanks - though Im no pro with PCBs so I guess Ill have to wait

Neodesk was the best desktop for the original series TOS machines - 3.0 was great though a HD was recommended to use it.

Ok can someone help me with this site: http://atarihacks.cjb.net/ I downloaded the ET4000.zip file and the docs are in German(I think ) - I dont see any mention of a new video card or anything -

Ok Im confused about something - What kind of 'slot' does the Mega ST have? I thought it was a VME slot but the Galaxy card maker says the Mega ST doesnt have a VME slot only the Mega STE??? What gives?

The Mega series came with a VME slot which can be used for the graphics card - no luck putting that baby in an ST - Also, At a certain TOS level larger displays were supported (there were some trick programs that made the desktop really large and scrolled the window on a monochrome screen), so I think it is possible to get a nicer display to utilize for the productivity ST software - Games wont use it at all unless you like 'word games' in your word processor Thanks for the links.

you have any URL's to these sites?

Id love to get a new graphics card for my Mega ST but when I looked into it nothing seemed to be available - Id rather use a standard RGB monitor for the ST vs the original ST ones. I have a cartridge based ethernet card for my Mega ST2 - It only supported FTP on my home network since most of the networking software is designed for newer versions of TOS Any info you can share on Mega ST graphics cards appreciated.

I enjoyed HD also - Star Glider was awesome with the speech and music Falcon was also good - I spent plenty of time fly the 'friendly' skies back then.

The mylar Atari used for the XE keyboards was 'cheap' to be nice One day it will go and you need to get a replacement mylar.

Some ST formatters pushed the limits of the ST disk sixe to almost 880K (though highly unreliable) - If the disk is over 880K then Im not sure whats on it - I wasnt able to get any of the convertors to work with the extended format disks

or get a dual deck VCR or find someway to pause while you switch tapes - it should be obvious the game wasnt restarted (put the time on the screen) Thats it

Someone created U3 for the Color Gameboy - I played in on an emu - here it is: http://gonow.to/sven Pretty faithful - I didnt finish the 2nd quest though

I first saw U2 on an Apple - My friend couldnt stop raving about it - I recieved a 'pirate' copy of U2 for the Atari and popped it in - Funny thing though, the disks were mislabled so I was playing the 'planets' vs the regular lands so I couldnt get health/etc and died very quickly (Try making a player disk from the galactic disk and you'll know ) - Anyhow, I decided to buy it new and never looked back. U3 was 'ok' but I finished it so quickly I was bummed - U4 however was a different story - that was my favorite. I played U5 on my ST before moving to the PC for 6/7/8/9. Nothing beats the originals on the Apple/Atari IMHO!

Yup - Usually Origin would push the limits with the last installment of a series in prepertation for the next generation (U3 multiparty, U6 interactions, etc...) It was a shame that U9 seemed to have alot going for it and showed what coul've been The video bugs were the worst (most of th eplot bugs were fixed), but even today the video stuff crashes the game Back to Atari 8bit stuff though - I've seen the 'frontpage' of U5 for the 8bit - did anything ever get farther along than that?

Checkout my new avatar - Anyone been in this tight squeeze before Id love to run though U1 -> U7 again, if I only had the time now that I did back then

Oh you had a question Hmmmm..........Maybe a true 'Feedback' mechanism would be better - let the true gamers vote on the game to give a more rounded response? Kinda like the Amazon rating system?