Urchlay

They're not standalone programs... AIRATTAC.ASM and BASEHUN.ASM are the sources for the BASIC USR routines used by AIRATTAC.BAS and BASEHUN.BAS. Neither one would do anything useful if you made a .xex file out of it... the BASIC programs include the object code in DATA statements. Something maybe interesting: ROMMAG1.ATR has "DOS 2.75" on it, which looks like a modified 2.5. Anyone know what (if anything) is different from 2.5, other than the version number?

Back when I used real floppies, I used to have a floppy-copier that used the extended RAM so I could do single-pass copies with one drive. Not sure whether it could use the full 256K or just the 128K that would be found in a 130XE also.

Most likely it's not working in Turbo BASIC because of timing problems (Turbo being faster than Atari BASIC). Try increasing the delay in line 7040 from 10 to 30 or so... David_P is right though: it'd be better to write a VBI routine to handle the keypads, for anything like an interactive game.

Depending on what you consider "cheap", there's the Stelladaptor, which is USB and very plug & play. It supports Atari 8-bit/2600 joysticks and paddles on any modern PC (Linux, Windows, Mac) with no special software or drivers. I've got one and I love it... but I paid $50 for mine (not really "cheap" but IMO worth it; back then I had more money than free time). I bought my Stelladaptor right here from this very web site Check the "Store" link at the top right of this page to see if there are any left in stock. The parallel port option is cheaper (assuming you've got a source for the parts; you could always cut up an old printer cable), and only supports joysticks (not paddles), and needs OS drivers and/or special support in software (but most of them do work with the more popular Atari-related emulators, in most OSes)... but I've seen plans for hooking up 8 joysticks to one parallel port (the Stelladaptors only support one stick each, or one pair of paddles). Edit: I just noticed you said "game port", not USB... so far as I know there's no standard way to connect an Atari stick to a PC game port, though you could probably do it by hacking up an old Gravis or a cheap knockoff (wire the Atari directions to the D-pad and the button to one of the Gravis buttons). You'd need the actual guts of the Gravis, not just the cord, since the Gravis has digital inputs and pretends to be an analog device as far as the PC is concerned. There probably isn't room to squeeze an Atari-style D-sub connector into the Gravis case, but maybe... or maybe cut the male end off a 9-pin extension cable and drill a little hole in the Gravis case, you'd end up with a still-functional Gravis with a an Atari-compatible "tail" sticking out of it. Another (kind of bad) idea would be to get the Stelladaptor, then go to Radio Shack and get a "Universal USB to Gameport Adaptor", if you can still find one. Unfortunately the adaptors sell for close to $20... and I won't guarantee it'll work (I bought one, found it worked only in 2-button mode for the controller I really wanted to use it with, and put it on a shelf somewhere... of course 2-button mode would have been fine for Atari controllers). Sorry, I've gone into rambling mode, somehow I think this reply could have been much shorter...

If it's like the 8-bit Atari, software *can* control when the polling starts, but usually doesn't: the default VBI handler in the OS ROM does it, and (on 8-bit) you'd have to disable or replace the ROM routine... I've got no idea whether this is really the case on the 5200 (it has an OS, but I don't know everything it does), and if so, whether most games use the OS or their own pot scanning routines... If you google a bit, you can find a disassembly of the 5200 OS (called 5200BIOS.TXT) that might help answer the question. I do know the 5200 has shadows of the POKEY pot addresses, which leads me to believe the OS does pot scanning by default...

I was thinking the 2600 driving controller would be perfect for Tempest... and allow joystick control as a sub-optimal fallback for people who don't have driving controllers. A true trakball is also a good option (not one that appears to be a digital joystick though). As far as the size, a disk version could easily be 32K. A bankswitching cart could come later... or not, depending on interest (actually I suspect interest would be high). Basically I'm offering to do the 8-bit version for you, once you've got the 5200 version finalized (or almost so). Assuming you're using an assembler with conditional assembly support, my stuff would be a bunch of "if defined ATARI8" sections of code. The only work required on your part would be to send me the source and wait a while... I'll even make arrangements for distributing the disks, if you want. I *really* want to make this happen...

Well, it's cheap & easy to burn as many copies of the CD as you like... one for daily use, one that stays in a jewel case on the shelf, and one to go in your hermetically sealed vault deep within the bowels of the Earth Of course you can copy tapes, but you add a little more noise for every generation of copy. Also, tapes and floppy disks wear out from use, because the media physically comes in contact with the head in the drive. Every time you play a tape or disk, you're scraping off a small amount of the media. CDs are read by a laser, no physical contact (except at the hub), so they're less likely to wear out from normal use... also tapes have internal moving parts (reels) that can wear out from use (a CD doesn't have moving parts, though it *is* a moving part). Although burned CDs rely on chemical compounds that can and do break down over time. Pressed CDs (commercially mastered) don't have this problem... theoretically they'll last forever if you handle them carefully (in practice, they get delaminated due to the plastic coating or adhesive wearing out, but it takes a long time, and theoretically they could be repaired if this does happen). Also... old floppy and tape drives can be finicky beasts, requiring lots of maintenance, and parts are getting hard to come by. New CD-ROM drives are so cheap they're practically free.

Nah, he's talking about using a real 410/1010 with one of those "fake cassette" CD adaptors, like people use in cars that don't have a built-in CD player. The FSK decoding would be done by the 410/1010, it wouldn't need anything extra. Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MiniDisc-Discma...r/dp/B00005T39Y At least, that's what I *think* he's talking about, maybe I'm confused

Sure, you could do that... the data on an Atari cassette is just stored as audio, so you could burn an audio CD of it (it sounds like ear-piercing screeches). One problem: the Atari normally has the ability to stop and start the tape player. Using a CD/tape adaptor, there'd be no way for the Atari to tell the CD player to pause... some software wouldn't work without you figuring out when the pauses should happen and manually pausing the player. If you're a hardware hacker, you could connect the SIO Motor Control pin to a relay or something that pauses the player... Another thing you could do: use wav2cas to make a .CAS image of your tape software (or download .CAS images from atarimania.com), then use cas2wav to turn it back into audio and record the audio onto a new cassette. This "regenerates" the signal on the tape, and you can burn the .CAS files to CD or whatever for archiving. Using a cassette will avoid the stop/start problem, but tapes with separate data/voice tracks aren't (currently) supported by the .CAS format, so it won't work for e.g. "Intro to BASIC" or "States & Captitals". Most games won't have this problem, though.

Yeah, I know... but the 5200 Tempest would be more like 8-bit Tempest would have been, had it been done back in the day... whereas the new 8-bit version has a very "modern" look/feel/sound to it. Why shouldn't there be "Tempest Classic" and "Tempest Xtreem" to choose from?

If you're going to scan it, why not turn it into a PDF or something and put it on the web? Somewhere I still have a cassette full of music composer songs from way back when...

I wrote mine for a project where I needed to include Atari 6502 code in a program written to run on Linux... gcc doesn't have incbin. Haven't heard back from the original poster, dunno whether he found it useful or not.

I wish I'd been reading the 5200 forum lately, didn't even know this project existed... The other day I started disassembling/commenting the 5200 Tempest proto, planning to port it to the Atari 8-bit computers, and possibly turn it into a finished game. It looks like the 2nd part is already being done better than I could possibly do it (you guys have the original programmer, cool!)... I did manage to successfully turn the 5200 ROM into an 8-bit binary load file, and it actually loads and runs on an 800XL. Even better, I can ORG it to a different address than $8000 and it works (means I got all the code & data sections separated correctly). I haven't changed the input routines, so it's still trying to read the 5200 keypad, so I can't actually start a game yet, but the title screen displays correctly and I can around in the level select with a paddle. I probably will go ahead and make the input changes, but the rest of my project is obviously redundant... Any chance your team is planning to port your finished game to the 8-bit? I'd be interested in doing it... and Tempest for the 800XL would be just as much a Holy Grail as Tempest for the 5200. Any interest?

This is sort-of on topic... I know there are several MIDI adaptors for the Atari 8-bit, but as far as I can tell, they're MIDI output: you run tracker software on the Atari, which spits out MIDI notes (events) over the SIO port (or maybe the joystick port), and the sound is played by an external device like a MIDI keyboard or drum machine. Did anyone ever do the opposite? I think it'd be cool to play a MIDI keyboard or guitar, and send the notes to an Atari, and have the Atari synthesize the tones using the POKEY... How cool would that be? As far as I know, such a thing doesn't exist... but I hope I'm wrong. Somebody tell me I'm wrong...?

You sure it's not pronounced so it rhymes with "schlemiel"?

More realism when using an emulator? It'd be the keyboard version of the Stelladaptor...

If you run Linux or one of the BSDs, you can log in to the PC from the Atari and run textmode web browsers, IRC clients, email, etc... If you normally run Windows, you can use software like VMWare or Qemu to run Linux on your Windows machine (think of it as running a PC emulator on your PC), or maybe you can find Windows versions of the Linux programs and run them from within APE somehow (not sure, can APE give you a C:> prompt?)

Hm, that looks like it could work. Probably not cheap to get them to do a custom version with the A8 keyboard matrix though (their site says "ask for a quote" for custom stuff). I guess it'd be possible to use the standard unit and do a lot of rats' nest wiring to match the A8 matrix to the standard one on the $69 version...

I wrote one not long ago in C... here's the source. Public domain code, use how you like. blob2c_20080226.zip

I've got: - 256K RAM upgrade by Steve Tucker (he didn't use the Rambo kit, but it's compatible with it) - Internal MyIDE - 32-in-1 OS - SIO power fix - Clearpic (not Supervideo, but similar) - Internal SIO2PC I don't see how the video mod could possibly affect the cartridge port... and the powered SIO fix is just replacing one resistor with a piece of wire. If you don't have any SIO-powered devices hooked up, no current flows through the wire or resistor, so I don't see how that can matter either... but obviously *something* is going on.

The only one of those carts I own is Millipede, and it doesn't work on my (heavily modded) 1200XL. I just get a black screen, though. Same cart works fine on my 800 or 800XL, but runs with graphics glitches on my 64K modded 600XL (all other carts work fine on the 600XL though). Running the same game from disk works fine on all of the above... Oddly, BASIC XL doesn't work on my 1200XL either (messed up screen display, lockups). One of these days I really need to get a stock 1200XL and see what happens...

So corrent me if I'm wrong... the Nir Dary mod (replacing the ANTIC) makes your Atari generate a video signal with PAL timing (50Hz), but with NTSC color encoding...? I'm in the US and I've got a fairly new TV that can't handle PAL input (picture rolls, there's no v-hold adjustment to fix it), so an XL with PAL ANTIC wouldn't work either, right? It's infuriating to me that PAL-capable TVs are almost impossible to come by in the US... I have a DVD player that can play imported PAL DVDs, but no TV to watch them on unless I want to use my Commodore 1702 monitor (13" screen is just too small for movies IMO) Actually... the C=1702 can display the signal from a PAL Atari without rolling, but in black & white. I assume it'd be able to display the picture from a US Atari with a PAL ANTIC in color...?

There's also Dandy, which (I read somewhere) was the original game that Gauntlet was an expanded version of. I think the name Dandy actually came from Dungeons and Dragons: D&D = DandD = Dandy...

Here's an idea that may or may not be practical: On the Windows machine, run an Atari emulator (Atari800Winplus, probably). Set the emulator up so the serial port on the PC is used for the R: device (not sure which emulator(s) support this though)... On both the emulator and the real Atari, run the original Diskcomm program (the one that transfers disk across the serial port, not the one that expands .DCM files) Now on the emulator, load an .ATR image as D2:, and on the Atari, insert a blank floppy... and tell Diskcomm to send (on the PC) and receive (on the Atari). About the atr2disk thing: I think that's a program that runs on the Atari, reads a .ATR file from an Atari disk, and writes the contents to another disk... the thing you were asking about (writing Atari disks directly on the PC's 5 1/4" drive) is possible, with some limitations. I don't remember the name of the software, but I do remember it was only possible to write double-density images (not useful if all you have is an unexpanded 1050). Back about 10 years ago, I got it to work exactly once...

I remember back in the day, my friend and I got hold of some no-name bulk diskettes for super-cheap, and they didn't come with dust jackets... I took an Opus disk jacket, cut it at the seams, folded it out flat, and ran off a couple hundred copies on my high school's Xerox (was free, back then)... then we spent a few hours with scissors and tape, cutting and folding the copies into dust jackets. We ended up with "ghetto" looking floppy disk collections, but surprisingly most of those no-name disks are still readable today.