The Atari & the Tektronix 4014 Vector Graphics Terminal

[potatohead]

(snicker)

 

I think this is an interesting project.

 

Serial graphics display systems have a lot of advantages. Working with retro / micro controller setups is one of them.

 

As for "refrigerator", IMHO it's not all that big of a deal to get an xterm these days. Does the win32 version have this functionality?

 

I've not done a download because my mind share is at max right now. No room! But, I will follow this with interest.

[+Stephen]

Instead of telling how to connect ataris to another refrigerator, please tell us what's up with YOUR version (or rather recompilation) of Atari 800 WinPlus. Jaskier provided the sources (as ya asked for), and nothing happenned till now. I'm even not able to find this thread here on A-age, so maybe it got removed.

 

(or do ya wanna remain weedsmoker?)

 

Thanks!

Refer to RFC 2324. Or would you rather remain a dicksmoker?

UNIXCoffee FTW. Thanks - I just spit water all over my monitor.

 

Keep up the good work UNIX - I use my Atari to telnet several times a month. I am interested in the work you are doing.

 

Stephen Anderson

[UNIXcoffee928]

 

UNIXCoffee FTW.  Thanks - I just spit water all over my monitor.

 

Keep up the good work UNIX - I use my Atari to telnet several times a month.  I am interested in the work you are doing.

 

Stephen Anderson

 

LOL! I have FTW painted on my wall, besides me, in 12" Itallic letters, ... It's a real motivator.

 

 

= )

 

 

Just for the record, my harrowing tale of three months dealing with Visual C++ and Atari800WinPLus v4.0/v4.1/v4.2 Beta can be found here. I am no friend of Micro$oft, yet, I was the only one who even bothered to try to do ANYTHING with the sources.

 

During the course of the time I spent on the project, I documented EVERYTHING that was done, and EVERYTHING that NEEDS TO BE DONE to make the sources compile (as well as provided info on compatibility with various versions of the Atari800 sources). This was not trivial, since each of the Visual Studio versions are very picky with what they will compile from earlier versions of Visual Studio. 

 

It took a lot of time & effort to get the right combination, and make the correct fixes to be able to build the v4.0 sources. Then the 4.1 sources finally turned up, and I was able to build those. During this whole time period I documented my steps, explicitly, in the above thread. I also SPECIFICALLY stated that I had NO INTEREST in being the program's MAINTAINER. I love the executable, but, man, the code is spaghetti held together with duct tape. No offense.

 

I then had a nasty power problem that fried my SCSI LVD adapter to my system drive, & some other system components. At that point, I got so pissed off that I decided to not bother with Windows at all for a while.

 

In any case, anyone with an attention span long enough to read that thread will be provided with EXACTLY what is needed to build the package. While doing so, you will also note that our friend, ThomSW contributed nothing but obnoxious comments from under his bridge. Which is OK, whatever.

 

So, to build most versions of Atari800WinPlus, read the thread, in the above link, it gives a very specific roadmap to do so. ThomSW can feel completely free to change the About Box, build from source & post his resultant .exe, if he wishes to exert any sort of claim to credibility. Not like I care.

 

 

As far as the topic here is concerned, the Tektronix document is becoming a real treasure of information. It describes, in table format, all of the escape codes for the Tektronix 4014, Atari, VT Series Terminals, and Epson printers. It allows a clear cross reference, and provides all DEC/HEX/BIN values, ASCII descriptions, English descriptions, and key-press info, on a system by system basis. I still have a few more days worth of work to do on it, and I also want to add plotter escape codes. Once the document is finished, it will be an excellent basis for controlling a Virtual-Anything via ASCII Escape codes. Cool stuff.

 

So, that's that. 

[kohmah]

Yes, from the looks of it, NASA was one of the biggest buyers of these devices. It seems entirely realistic to presume that most of the CAD work that was done for NASA's Apollo-era spacecraft was done on Tektronix display terminals.

 

When the development of the Space Shuttle began, much of the design-phase shifted to DEC 11/73 & 11/83 systems with Genigraphics graphics subsystems. I used to work on these systems (not at NASA, unfortunately), and they were BADASSED for the time, despite having to use a DECwriter as a console.

 

They could do film resolution images in color, on a raster-based display, using a "puck" for input. A puck was kind of a hybrid of a mouse with a large 2.5 foot graphics tablet. I would imagine that they are still very useful, for creative Tron-like imagery. The output on these systems was very similar in shading quality to the famous Lightcycle scenes in Tron. Very cool system, wish I had one, nowadays, it had a very well-thought-out software suite, that enabled the user to be very productive....

 

Thanks for sharing your memories of the Tektronix hardware! Feel free to stroll down Memory-Lane as much as is possible, since it gives a lot of hints to the original operating environment.

 

../

I didn't find programmer manual for tektronix 4051 or 4052 to download but i did find in this forum alink to download for tektronix 4111 i've. With this terminal, that i bought without host which is'nt needed, there is some to sell on ebay, which power on, display color and have a console line interface that can be use to display line without host.

There is a bunch of eproms in back of it and in manual computer display terminal they say that these eproms can be change for an upgrade (roms remplacement procedure Appendix A).

So i suppose that the program manual talk about the internals of these machine, and how to change these eproms rather than for the connection as graphic terminal to an atari, or to emulate an atari with a tektronix terminal connected to a host. But it can be of interrest for the communication processe (? to speed it). In the manual for tektronix cx4111, that have many pages to scan,

they say that it can communicate either with dma 737K baud, coax host connection (IBM) or rs232 38.4K Baud full duplex. I didn't find the dma port back the cx4111, perhaps is it inside.

I've these documents, that i will scan:

TEK operators manual revised JUL 1986 "4111 computer display terminal"

TEK users information supplement cx4111 computer display terminal"

TEK reference guide "4110/4120 series with 3D"

TEK users manual "4696 color graphics printer"

and

TEK users hanbook "an introduction to computer color graphics"

Which best scan format to scan these books ? Can an eprom dump will help you ?

Perhaps you will find interesting things for your tektronix 4052 within that docs to get your atari terminal console game vintage TUBE up and running.

 

The manual say 4096 colors, 16 colors at a time, 1024 x 768 pixels on 19 inch color display screen , 3.25 ms, 60hz non interlaced, programmables keys. I've to dig in to find 4096x4096 mode.

 

Thanks very nice project, all infos, links you give.

[UNIXcoffee928]

You're welcome.

 

This thread is very specific to the Tektronix 4014, and the 4010 Series. You should be able to get the manuals for your 4110 Series device at:

 

http://www.vt100.net/tektronix/

 

 

I appreciate your offer to help with ROM dumps, and everything else, but they wont work with the 4010 Series. Besides, the main goal here is just to be able to fully control a Tektronix 4014 TERMINAL EMULATION WINDOW under xterm, from an Atari EMULATION window.

 

If people want to hook up their physical Atari system to their PC via serial, it'll work just as easily (but will be slower). All of this info applies to a lot of scenarios.

 

We're NOT actually trying to hook an Atari up to a Hardware-based Tektronix Terminal. (Though it could easily be done via an Atari 850 RS-232 Interface, if you actually had the Tektronix vector hardware laying around).

 

Specifically, because hardware Tektronix terminals are usually Expensive, Rare, Big, & Heavy! (...but oh, so cool!).

 

If you do feel like scanning your manuals, send them over to vt100.net, so they can share them with others who may need them.

 

So, yeah, this whole thing is about an Atari Emulator window sending data TO an xterm window IN TEKTRONIX MODE. What this means is you will have a secondary high resolution display window for your Atari (or C64, or any retro system). 

 

It will essentially work in a similar fashion as the PRINTER going to notepad feature, except it will be doing graphics, instead of text, and can be directly integrated into Atari programs, & used just like having a second monitor on hardware. Sort of like the XEP-80, but both displays function simultaneously, and both can display two entirely different screens full of info.

 

The only language that the Tektronx 4014 knows is ASCII Escape Codes. Just like a printer. The only difference is the Tektronix 4014 is a serial device.

 

Unlike raster displays that must constantly be refreshed, the Tek Mode in xterm works just like the vector storage tube in the hardware. Once you write a line, or a dot, or a shaded pattern to it, it STAYS there, until the whole display is intentionally cleared. This makes it ideal for the Atari, since it would require enormous amounts of RAM to display 1024x768+ displays ANY other way.

 

You have to remember, DEC PDP-8 systems were driving this thing. They faced many of the same hurdles as we do, with system resources, yet could do Amazing stuff with the Tek 4014. We will, too!

 

The thing to consider is that your Atari Emulator window is MUCH faster than a hardware Atari. Same applies to the Tek 4014 Emulation Mode in xterm. Same thing applies to the virtual null modem linking the two windows. It will feel like a very natural secondary display, and will be bitchin'. 

[UNIXcoffee928]

OK, it's done. Here is the only Tektronix XY lookup table that you will find anywhere.

 

All co-ordinates up to 1024x1024 are documented, and are now very easily accessible. 

 

You'll find it in the attached file!

Tektronix_4014_Co-ords.txt

Edited November 19, 2009 by UNIXcoffee928

[UNIXcoffee928]

Here is the link to the virtual null modem, com0com, which will allow emulations to connect to one another via a virtual serial connection. This software will allow you to connect your R: device to an xterm window. It will also allow you to do things like: run a bbs in one emulation, while connecting to it via another emulation window, or connect your Atari emulator to an Amiga emulator for terminal sessions, bbs sessions, or file transfers. You should also be able to easily use any PC terminal software to connect to your Atari emulation window.

 

http://com0com.sourceforge.net/

 

 

Once the virtual null modem is in activated & properly configured, you should be able to open an xterm window in Tektronix Mode, and send ASCII graphics data control codes  directly to the Tek window from the Atari (or anything else). Just use the ASCII control codes that I posted, earlier in this thread, with the co-ordinate chart that I posted yesterday, and you will have a working Hi-Res Tektronix Terminal attached to your emulator. 

 

That's all you need to get started. Next, I'm going to work on some software that lets you do interesting stuff with the Tek window, without having to worry about fidgety codes... probably something that just uses joystick & button input to plot lines.

 

Once I have that sorted out, I think that I'll put together a port of Nukewar that works with the vector window... should translate nicely, based on the game metaphor. No promises on Nukewar II, yet, though, it's still in an early planning stage, and may never happen. I'm picturing something along the lines of a very simplified Defcon for the PC, since it uses the Wargames-like world vector display to begin with. Nukewar, itself is fairly static, and is turn-based, so it should adapt to the Tektronix in a good way.

 

There's a cassette copy of the original  Nukewar in the attachment, you can CLOAD it into your emulator.

 

Any porting ideas are welcome.

Nukewar.zip

[UNIXcoffee928]

Here's the BASIC listing of NUKEWAR, so that you don't have to muck around with cassette images: NUKEWAR.TXT  

[UNIXcoffee928]

LOL

[ThomSW]

Instead of telling how to connect ataris to another refrigerator, please tell us what's up with YOUR version (or rather recompilation) of Atari 800 WinPlus. Jaskier provided the sources (as ya asked for), and nothing happenned till now. I'm even not able to find this thread here on A-age, so maybe it got removed.

 

(or do ya wanna remain weedsmoker?)

 

Thanks!

Refer to RFC 2324. Or would you rather remain a dicksmoker?

 

That's not your problem whom I remain...

 

Now...

 

Where's new PLus?

[UNIXcoffee928]

Instead of telling how to connect ataris to another refrigerator, please tell us what's up with YOUR version (or rather recompilation) of Atari 800 WinPlus. Jaskier provided the sources (as ya asked for), and nothing happenned till now. I'm even not able to find this thread here on A-age, so maybe it got removed.

 

(or do ya wanna remain weedsmoker?)

 

Thanks!

Refer to RFC 2324. Or would you rather remain a dicksmoker?

 

That's not your problem whom I remain...

 

Now...

 

Where's new PLus?

TMI, dude! I'll show great restraint & be an exemplary citizen of the community by not quoting a famous three-lettered, one word retort popularized by Ted Theodore Logan. How's that for a Plus?

 

 

= )

[JoSch]

I wholeheartedly agree with you.

 

Here's a very nice vector ttf font, that's based on the Atari 1020 plotter font. It will give you the perfect Wargames look. I've also attached a DEC VT220 font that is very accurate to the original.

 

The combo of these two fonts will give you a very authentic look & feel, for all of your retro type needs. They are both quite nice to use in your favorite text editor, as well, since they are monospaced, and everything will line up properly in your code. For a real treat, look at 6502 assembly code with the 1020 font!

 

Enjoy!

Who made the 1020 emu font?

[UNIXcoffee928]

Who made the 1020 emu font?

I made it.

[JoSch]

I made it.

Can we use it for RespeQt?

[UNIXcoffee928]

 

Can we use it for RespeQt?

Thank you for taking the time to ask. This font took me a long time to create, and it was completely made, one character at a time, by eye, & by hand, one pixel at a time, as a labor of love for Retrocomputing. Yes, you may use it. A mention of my user-name in the Help-->About box, for the font, would be a nice thing to do.

 

My favorite color schemes, with this font, are a black background with either a green, a yellow, or a cyan foreground. These colors also look very good together, to separate different types of information on one single screen.

 

Enjoy!

[JoSch]

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to ask. This font took me a long time to create, and it was completely made, one character at a time, by eye, & by hand, one pixel at a time, as a labor of love for Retrocomputing. Yes, you may use it. A mention of my user-name in the Help-->About box, for the font, would be a nice thing to do.

 

My favorite color schemes, with this font, are a black background with either a green, a yellow, or a cyan foreground. These colors also look very good together, to separate different types of information on one single screen.

 

Enjoy!

 

Thank you very much. It's needless to say, that I plaster your username all over RespeQt

 

BTW: I used the font in the 1020 emulation and it looks like in the attached PDF.

1020text2.pdf

Edited April 27, 2017 by JoSch