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Everything posted by yorgle
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I see that .BIN's are posted in various spots for various homebrew games that also show up in the AtariAge store (Medieval Mayhem comes to mind). Is it generally frowned upon to burn such .BIN's to an eprom or my Krokodile cart? I probably would end up buying a cart version anyway if I really like the game, but also would like to try them out on real hardware before buying. I know I could just go ahead and do it and no one would know, but I really do respect the work that goes into these games and so if it's a bad thing, just say so.
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They're standard DE9 (DB9) connectors that you can buy at Radio Shack, ebay or just about any electronics supplier. Just google DB9 connector and you'll find oodles of em.
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Are the standard Atari joystick cables missing all the required pins to be suitable? Not sure. If they have all nine wires, then yes, but all of the joystick cables I've seen have only six lines. The joysticks and paddles together use up all nine lines. Besides, as I said, I'm cheap and made this out of stuff I had laying around.
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Here is a diagram of how I wired things. Note that the pins are drawn looking at the back side of the DE9's (the side you solder the wires to). It's pretty much just a straight pin-to-pin hookup. I tested it out with various games including Adventure, Joust and Medieval Mayhem and every controller worked as it should. diagram.bmp
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No need to switch anything, you can just leave the paddles and joysticks plugged in all the time. The joystick and paddle don't share any pins that interfere with each other. As far as building it, it's a lot simpler than you'd think. I'm a cheapscape so I just used parts I had laying around. Here's what I did: I used an old DB25 printer cable since it had 18 lines (9 for each set of connectors) and 6 DE9 connectors (4 male and 2 female). Connect a set of 9 wires to each of the female DE9 connectors. At the box end, connect the joystick lines of each set of 9 wires to a male DE9 connector. Connect the paddle lines (pins 5, 7 and 9) of each set of 9 lines to another male DE9 connector. At this point, everything will work except the paddle triggers. To get those to work, you need to solder jumpers between pins 3, 4 and 8 of each paddle DE9 to the same pins on the corresponding joystick DE9. That's all there is to it. Mount it all in a cheap Radio Shack project box and never change controllers again. PS I realize the above description is probably hopelessly confusing so I'll try to post a diagram soon.
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Tired of swapping joysticks and paddles at the back of my six switch, I finally decided to do something about it. I'm sure this has been done before, but here's my finished product. While I was at it, I used an extra long cable so it serves as a cable extender as well. Now I can leave both joysticks and four paddles plugged in at all times. The DE9 connectors don't fit very snug in the console so I've got to figure something out to hold them in tighter.
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Atari 800XL Keyboard to PC..decoder?
yorgle replied to retrogamer1990's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Yeah, I forgot about this "low budget approach" It will work for the 600/800xl keyboards, but not 1200xl's. -
Atari 800XL Keyboard to PC..decoder?
yorgle replied to retrogamer1990's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
thanks for that. so what exactly do I need to do to get it to interface? I am pretty good with computers, but I am not so good with old computers and their interfaces! First, you need to map out the keyboard matrix. If you look at the keyboard connector, you'll see it's a row of 27 pins, each of which connects to a trace that winds its way around the keyboard connecting to keyswitch pins along the way. When a keyswitch is pressed, it forms a connection between two of the connector pins. For example, pressing the SPACE key connects pins 2 and 21 (assuming I counted correctly). Do this for each key and you can map out the entire keyboard matrix, e.g., SPACE = 2, 21; A = 4, 18; and so on. Next, you need to purchase the encoder from Hagstrom Electronics and hook it up. That's just a matter of soldering on some lines from the keyboard to the encoder. After that, it's just a matter of using the software to set up the right key combinations on your pc and your pc will think it's a regular pc keyboard. Good luck with your project. -
Atari 800XL Keyboard to PC..decoder?
yorgle replied to retrogamer1990's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Good idea, but that would mean he'd have to fit an 800xl mobo into the 2600 case along with the pc. Doubt there is that much room, plus you have to boot two computers just to use it. Since all he's going for is the keyboard itself, the encoder route is the easiest. -
Atari 800XL Keyboard to PC..decoder?
yorgle replied to retrogamer1990's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
I use a Hagstrom Electronics encoder to connect my 1200xl keyboard to my pc and it works great. In fact, I'm typing this right now on my vintage Atari. You'll need to locate a diagram showing the 800xl keyboard matrix and then it's just a matter of connecting the matrix lines to the encoder board. The Hagstrom unit comes with the pc software you'll need to remap the keys. One problem you'll have with the 800xl keyboard is doesn't have enough keys to do all the really useful pc functions. -
How to remove yellowing from an old Atari case
yorgle replied to mimo's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
I noticed yesterday that this process was even highlighted on hackaday.com. -
I love the new title screen! Very professional looking. I plan to spend tonight reading through the manual so that I can try out some of the program's features. Thanks again for all your efforts here.
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I summoned up the courage to try it. From the ATARI rainbow screen, plugged in a BASIC cart, the screen went black or three seconds then viola! READY. Pulled the cart out, again the screen went black for three seconds and guess what- back to the ATARI rainbow screen! I didn't even have to press RESET. Cool.
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http://www.cyberroach.com/analog/an10/atari1200xl.htm According to this article, one of the new features of the 1200xl was the ability to swap cartridges without manually turning off the computer. Is this true? No, I don't want to try it and find out. Maybe someone here knows for sure.
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There is a different PCB for each density of EPROM. When you purchase one of their PCB's, you select what size EPROM you will use with it. --Selgus Not quite - the PCB for each size is identical, but the PLD has a different fusemap for each size. I figured that's what he meant. Thanks for clarifying, though.
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Thanks. Off to the store I go...
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Are the 2600 bankswitch pcb's in the AtariAge store the same for 8/16/32K eproms? Or is there a separate pcb for each size eprom?
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Things you were jealous for in other 8-bit computers
yorgle replied to wood_jl's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
I grew up poking out music and silly text adventure games on my brother's c=64, and have only recently discovered atari 8bits. (Although we did have a 2600). One thing I can say for sure I WOULD have been jealous of, is the documentation that commodore provided. The programming manual that came in the box was at least an inch thick. Compared to the crap that Atari shipped with the xl computers, it's little wonder that they weren't taken more seriously. But to be fair, if I had seen a 1200xl back in the day, I would have been jealous of the Atari for it's looks alone! Even back then, I thought the 64 looked like a toy. -
1200XL PBI EXTENDER BOARD PRODUCTION RUN: ORDER HERE!
yorgle replied to MEtalGuy66's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Got mine (bare board) today and it looks great ... except the postal service broke it. It's cracked along the row of holes for the 2nd cart connector near the pbi terminals. Not your fault, obviously. Should I try to bend it back or will that just crack it further? -
How about adding the ability to fire missiles at the pig with a randomly moving obstacle (a haywagon, perhaps) floating between you and the pig that could block shots.
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Great! Now we can move on; just gotta debug the expanded RAM routines, test the macro processor, fix various other issues, alter the config file format, implement the add-ins, and write a keymap editor... Better get on with it! I don't know whether to say "thank you" or "seek help" You certainly have put your heart into this project. I, for one, certainly appreciate all the work you've done and am looking forward to the finished version. Rest assured, it will actually get used at least for some small projects here at my office.