Urchlay

Yah, I know just enough to know there are lots of things that can go wrong. Nonstandard cart works in standard machines, standard carts work in nonstandard machines... but the weirdness in the cart and the weirdness in the 600XL happen to interact in a way that's noticeable. Sadly, I am my own local tech. I can just about follow a set of directions... I can troubleshoot simple things, but I don't even know where to start with this. Well, I do know where to start with the cart (replace the ROM with an EPROM, and/or get another Millipede cart, see what it does), but not the 600XL. I can usually fix the ones that don't work at all, but this is much more subtle.

You mean Martin72's problem, not mine? 'Cause in my case, if the game's using the extra RAM, it wouldn't keep playing (with minor graphics glitches), it would die... With the internal memory upgrade, you actually remove the original pair of 16Kx4 chips and replace them with 64Kx4s. So they're "all or nothing", you won't encounter a failure condition where the new/extra RAM disappears but the old remains... I suppose a cold solder joint could intermittently cause part of the address space to not be decoded correctly, but I've left it in self-test before and let it run for a couple of hours, never saw a red block appear. Also, disk software that requires 48K or 64K never fails... for that matter, I've done a bit of tinkering with BASIC on this machine. If the upper RAM disappeared while in standard GR.0, the display would go haywire (since the display list and screen RAM are located just below $A000). This hasn't ever happened... I'd assume a bad solder joint wouldn't only cause problems with one cart, and in fact the same version of Millipede plays fine when loaded from disk. (Actually it's not *exactly* the same: it needed 3 or 4 STA's that write to the cart address space switched to LDA's, to keep it from self-destructing when loaded into RAM. I doubt these are the source of my problem, though: Pac-Man contains similar self-destruct code, but my Pac-Man cart works fine). Ouch! So it did something like enable the Missile Command ROM? I'd never even thought of that as a source of incompatibility for the XEGS, it'd probably drive me insane too...

We both have internal 64K upgrades... I did mine with a pair of 64Kx4 RAM chips from an old ISA video card. Wait, the same thing happens with both carts (brown and grey Donkey Kong Jr), or just the grey one? When the problem with the Millipede cart first came up, someone suggested it might be a bad capacitor inside the cart... and someone else suggested it might be that the replacement RAM chips have different timing than the originals (too bad I never tried Millipede on the 600XL before upgrading it). I packed up everything I own and moved not long after that, and the 600XL was in storage until 2 weeks ago... and now I can't find the Millipede cart. When/if I do find it again, I was going to see if I could either replace the cap inside the cart, or swap ROMs with a working cart (assuming the ROMs are socketed in the grey carts like they were in the brown ones). Also I've got 6 more 64Kx4 RAMs if I can find them, was going to try swapping those into the 600XL... though I doubt it'll change anything: all 8 chips came from the same ISA super VGA card, they should be identical. Also everything else I've tried works great on that 600XL, including a BASIC XL cart (if something were wrong with the cart port, I'd expect a bankswitching cart to fail). Another thing I might try: burn an EPROM of the Millipede code and see if that works in the cart. Do you (or anyone) know whether the grey Atari carts are socketed?

Press Escape, then shift and the Clear key (the shifted version of the less-than symbol). It'll print kind of an inverse video bent arrow that points up and to the left. If you don't press Escape first, it'll clear the screen when you type it. You could also print CHR$(125) in a BASIC program.

What exactly happens with the grey cart in the 600XL? Black screen, or the game plays with garbage on the screen, or what? I've got a 64K upgraded 600XL and a grey Millipede cart... the cart works fine on my XEGS and 800, but not on the 64K 600XL. I get extra pixels on the screen, the same color as the mushrooms. The game is actually playable (the extra pixels don't seem to trigger collision detection). All my other carts work fine on the 600XL... and Millipede plays fine when loaded from disk. So, like you, I think something weird is going on inside the cartridge.

Most of the other home computers of the time (like the Apple) use Microsoft BASIC, which IIRC always adds a space when there's a semicolon in a PRINT statement... the Atari's BASIC doesn't do that, so probably you should edit the line where you removed the semicolon, and add ;" "; (semicolon, quote, space, quote, semicolon) to get the Atari to behave more like an Apple. The BASIC revision (A, B, C) doesn't matter: The language didn't change between the different versions, they just fixed bugs. If you're using revision A there's a small chance of BASIC crashing for no apparent reason, if you're using B there's a much larger chance, and if you're using C it should never crash for no reason (you can still crash it by e.g. POKE to the wrong place, but that'd be your fault, not BASIC's) Alternatively, you could run the programs in Atari Microsoft BASIC (available as disk [image] or cartridge). Most likely they'd run correctly as listed in the book. I've actually never heard of the Micro-Adventure book series... if they're books full of type-in programs, would you consider posting your typed-in versions here (on an ATR image or single SAVEd BASIC files), once you've got them debugged?

AFAIK, all programs [*] that use the Rtime8 do so via the Z: device driver... so you ought to be able to use whatever chip you want, provided you write a Z: handler for it that does the same stuff (presents the same API) as the Rtime8 one does. [*] All programs except the Z: driver itself!

Hmmm, do all XEGS keyboards have contact points for Start/Select/etc keys? And do they actually work, if you short them? Seems like adding buttons for the console keys would be a good mod for the XEGS keyboard... I might have to disassemble mine and see if it's possible.

What else was he supposed to do? Atari never made us a monitor for the 8-bits...

Hmm. With software, you can map the keys how you want... so what'd be the ideal key layout for using an Atari as a PC keyboard? You'd want to be able to send every keystroke the PC keyboard can... I suppose you'd use the console keys, one for Alt, and one for a modifier (e.g. pressing Select + numbers sends F-keys, Select + brackets sends curly braces). The 1200XL's F-keys should map to the PC's F1 through F4... the Atari Break key should map to the PC Pause/Break... if running on a 1200XL, the LEDs could be indicators for caps/scroll lock... Something like Select + left/right/up/down (aka + * - =) could be Home/End/PageUp/PageDown. The CX-85 keys could be either arrows or numbers, with some key mapped as Numlock. The joystick could be used as a simulated PC mouse, or send arrow keys + return. The coolest way to interface it would be to use an SIO2PC-like device that connects to the PC's PS/2 keyboard port (or to a PS/2 => USB adaptor), and just have the Atari speak PC keyboard protocol (which is serial, similar to RS232, but using 0 and +5V). You wouldn't even need a driver on the PC side, and it'd work with any OS (even in the BIOS menu). I'm not a hardware designer really, not entirely sure what'd be necessary... AFAIK the only reason an SIO2PC needs a max232 or 1489 chip is to convert from the Atari's 0/5V logic levels to the RS232 positive & negative voltages... does this mean you just need a cable with an SIO plug on one end and a PS/2 mini-DIN on the other end? I'd say the Atari key layout should be kept (e.g. shift-2 for double-quote)... Hm, it wouldn't be hard to write the Atari code for this, if I knew what'd be needed for the hardware interface. Anyone know?

Easyvideo 1.0 (or 2008)? I wish I'd known about this before doing a clearpic mod on my 1200XL... Eventually I got it working, but it took 2-3 days of soldering, sweating, and cursing. BTW, the reason my clearpic was so difficult to do was that I found out (after I started) that my 1200XL motherboard didn't match the description in the clearpic article. Apparently there are at least 2 1200XL motherboard revisions with slightly different video. I can't remember specifics now, but it seems like the directions said to replace a cap with a resistor... but on my board there was no part at the marked location. A couple of other parts were different from what was expected, too... So we should try to find out whether your new mod is universal, or only applies to one or the other revision... and how to tell the difference between the two revs.

You're the Bandit Boulderdash guy? I owe you one... I know a girl who's a huge Boulderdash fan. Last christmas, I gave her a CD with an emulator and all the boulderdash variants I could find, including the Bandits ones. Her eyes lit up like, well, a christmas tree... said it was the best gift she's ever gotten.

Nice-looking icons. A couple of thoughts... It might be nice if the icons were done in 64x64, using the color palette from one of the Atari emulators. They can always be scaled down and/or converted to the 16-color windows palette later. You could offer zip files of the large, hi-color ones or the small 16-color ones (which would be automatically generated from the full size/color ones. I'd probably use a perl script, but any language would do). What's really needed is a database of games, with md5 or whatever kind of checksums, and a script/program that reads all your emulator files and automatically assigns the icons based on the checksums. Not being a windows programmer (or even user), I don't know what you'd use for this (presumably icon assignments are stored in the windows registry, but then vista has done away with the registry or something). The database would need all the variants of each game floating around out there on the net (xex/atr/rom file versions, plus the various cracked copies). Out of curiosity... how are you making these? Drawing them by hand, or taking screenshots of an emulator and copying a 32x32 area out, then doing palette conversions and rounded corners?

Texas Instruments? (Did they make monitors?)

Ugh. Who wants to pay long distance charges to call a BBS? Maybe there's a way to allow both telnet and real modems? Is there any A8 BBS software that supports multiple lines, so you could e.g. use an 850 (4 serial ports), with a modem on one port and a terminal server box (or PC + SIO2PC) on one or more of the other ports? Metalguy is right, if you limit yourself to modem users only, you won't get much traffic.

Debatable. Until IBM came out with the AT keyboard in the late 1980s, pretty much all computers and terminals had the control key next to the A key. To my way of thinking, the modern PC and Mac keyboards have capslock where control should be (but I remap them in software, so no problem). Actually the key layout you'll get used to pretty quick... but the XE and XEGS keyboards have almost no tactile feedback (they have a spongy feel, like typing on overcooked noodles). If you're going to do a lot of typing on an Atari, I recommend getting an 800, 1200XL, or 800XL (in order of best keyboard feel). Of course "best keyboard" is a completely subjective thing, others will disagree, and there's no right or wrong...

The annoying thing is, most people selling Atari tape drives don't know that either, so they don't test them properly... Odds are any 410 you buy won't work, unless it's from a seller who really knows what they're doing. The 410's drive belt goes around a tiny pulley, and if the drive sits unused for a few years, the belt develops a kink at that pulley. You can replace the belt (search this forum for "410 drive belt" for details), but any random 1010 probably has a better chance of working as-is, and an XC11 or XC12 might be a safer bet (just because they're newer).

I don't know what kind of cable you have. If your cable has separate chroma, luma, and composite outputs, then you can use it. If it doesn't (if it has only chroma and luma), you'll have to rewire it so the chroma on the monitor end connects to the composite on the Atari end. If none of this makes any sense at all, I suggest you get someone else to do the mod and wire up the cable... I don't mean to sound rude, but you'd stand a good chance of breaking something.

Could you explain this for idiots please Normally, for s-video, you connect the Atari's chroma output to the monitor's chroma input, and the Atari's luma output to the monitor's luma input. He's saying, connect the luma normally, and connect the Atari's composite output to the monitor's chroma input (you do this by making a custom cable). Make sense now?

Ugh. If I'd known it would start such a $#!+storm, I'd never have suggested torrents... As far as the potential virus thing goes... what is it, a DOS keygen for an ancient piece of software? Probably should just remove it. Likely it wouldn't be useful to anyone in 2008 even if it weren't infected.

I was one of the people who loathed typing in programs... Anything longer than a page or so, or anything all in hex or DATA statements, I wouldn't even try. I missed out on some good stuff due to that, but it wasn't a total loss: it meant I had more time to spend working on my own programs. Also, later on when I had a modem, found a couple BBSes that had a lot of the type-ins for download. Back then I always wondered why magazines couldn't print the programs in machine-readable form, and sell a device like a barcode reader to read them with. I guess it would have been a short-lived thing, obsoleted when the mags started offering floppy disks with all the programs on them.

Mine was an Atari 400, xmas morning, either 1980 or 81. It wasn't really a computer yet though, didn't come with BASIC or any other language, or any storage. Can't remember how long I had to wait before Dad sprung for the BASIC cart and 410. At least I got to play Pac-man and Star Raiders while I waited

If I were making the torrent, I'd use the zip files, exactly as downloaded from langesite. That way, people who have already downloaded them can help seed the torrent right away, instead of waiting for their torrent client to (re)download the same files packed in a different format.

So... the torrent is still up? Am trying to seed, but no peers are downloading from me.

Hm, what about Hard Hat Willy?