Anybody using Atari 8-bit for anything productive?

[atariksi]

I'm working on a project for a local factory which reads the status/quantities/priorities of pending orders from their inventory system, and uses an Atari 600XL to parse and display the information on large-screen TVs on the production floor. The display will be controlled by a simple BASIC program, running in graphics mode 1 or 2, which will read the report file from a virtual disk drive via SIO2PC and format it for the TV. I'm building a mockup with static text first; if the customer likes the way it looks, I'll build the complete system.

...

 

I think there was some cable systems running TV guide channel using Atari and Amigas. I remember once I saw a reboot take place while watching TV guide channel because of guru-meditation from Amiga OS.

[Mr.Amiga500]

I've been trying to think of things I can use my 800XL for. I have plenty of games, of course, but I also want to find some other uses for it - uses that are at least (semi) practical. I've got Amigas and other computers that can do everything the 800XL can do (and far better), but the 800XL is the only computer connected to my TV in my living room and I thought I might as well try to do something useful with it. (and the 800XL has a reasonably short boot time)

...

That's not a true statement that Amigas and other computers can do everything 800XL can do far better. Just from the top of my head, Ataris have faster joystick ports (far faster) than Amiga and other PC (going by standard joystick ports), Ataris boot faster than Amiga and PC (via cartridges or even disk based), and many programs on Atari don't exist on Amiga.

 

I use Ataris, amigas, and PCs for useful stuff; games usually are played on Atari for fast set up time.

 

This isn't an Atari vs. Amiga thread, so please don't turn it into one. When I say "I've got Amigas and other computers that can do everything the 800XL can do (and far better)", I mean for useful things I want to do - such as viewing/creating graphics (jpg, png, gif), listening to/sampling/creating music (mp3, aiff, wav), viewing/printing/creating PDF documents and creating relational databases with custom GUIs. It is undeniable that the Amiga is far better than the Atari 8-bit for doing these - higher resolutions, more colours, better sound, faster, etc. (and a modern PC is likewise better than Amiga for many of those). I really don't care about the speed of a joystick port. My main point is that I'm looking for things to do in addition to the things I do on the Amiga. (...because I love the 800XL, it's small, connected to my TV and boots reasonably fast)

 

Yes, Ataris do boot faster than Amigas and PCs when using cartridges - and that is a major advantage and one of the reasons I'm looking for things to do with my Atari. Unfortunately, I don't have anything useful on cartridge. I'm using an SDrive - which is amazingly fast compared to a 1050, but when loading programs, it's certainly not fast enough to beat the boot time of an Amiga.

 

Here's a test I just did:

 

Boot Amiga 500, run FinalWriter 97: 36 seconds (CF, 33Mhz 020, 16 colour WB, lots of junk in WBStartup)

Boot Atari 800XL, run The Last Word: 60 seconds (SDrive)

Boot PC/Win 2000, run Word 2000: 214 seconds (Ultra SCSI HD, 1GHz, 1Gb)

 

 

Once again, I don't want to get into a whole Amiga vs. Atari vs. PC nightmare. I'm just looking for useful things to do with my 800XL.

[FastRobPlus]

Here's a test I just did:

 

Boot Amiga 500, run FinalWriter 97: 36 seconds (CF, 33Mhz 020, 16 colour WB, lots of junk in WBStartup)

Boot Atari 800XL, run The Last Word: 60 seconds (SDrive)

Boot PC/Win 2000, run Word 2000: 214 seconds (Ultra SCSI HD, 1GHz, 1Gb)

 

 

Once again, I don't want to get into a whole Amiga vs. Atari vs. PC nightmare. I'm just looking for useful things to do with my 800XL.

 

Atari XL and Amigas actually boot faster when in close proximity to one another (sone sort of Jay Miner subdimensional transport enhancment layer apparently) so you may want to move them apart and retest.

[Mr.Amiga500]

Atari XL and Amigas actually boot faster when in close proximity to one another (sone sort of Jay Miner subdimensional transport enhancment layer apparently) so you may want to move them apart and retest.

 

Ha! I wasn't aware of the "Jay Miner subdimensional transport enhancment layer" (...is it documented in the technical manual?).

 

The Amiga is upstairs and the Atari is downstairs in the living room. So... you're saying I could get even faster boot times when I move them together? That's worth a try, I guess.

[atariksi]

I've been trying to think of things I can use my 800XL for. I have plenty of games, of course, but I also want to find some other uses for it - uses that are at least (semi) practical. I've got Amigas and other computers that can do everything the 800XL can do (and far better), but the 800XL is the only computer connected to my TV in my living room and I thought I might as well try to do something useful with it. (and the 800XL has a reasonably short boot time)

...

That's not a true statement that Amigas and other computers can do everything 800XL can do far better. Just from the top of my head, Ataris have faster joystick ports (far faster) than Amiga and other PC (going by standard joystick ports), Ataris boot faster than Amiga and PC (via cartridges or even disk based), and many programs on Atari don't exist on Amiga.

 

I use Ataris, amigas, and PCs for useful stuff; games usually are played on Atari for fast set up time.

 

This isn't an Atari vs. Amiga thread, so please don't turn it into one. When I say "I've got Amigas and other computers that can do everything the 800XL can do (and far better)", I mean for useful things I want to do...

I am not turning into a vs. thread but you did say "everything". And "useful" to you would be a subjective thing which was not specified. It's definitely useful to me to communicate through the joystick port as fast as possible and having a BASIC in cartridge is useful to me and being able to start coding almost instantly in BASIC or ASM is useful to me.

 

Here's a test I just did:

 

Boot Amiga 500, run FinalWriter 97: 36 seconds (CF, 33Mhz 020, 16 colour WB, lots of junk in WBStartup)

Boot Atari 800XL, run The Last Word: 60 seconds (SDrive)

Boot PC/Win 2000, run Word 2000: 214 seconds (Ultra SCSI HD, 1GHz, 1Gb)

 

 

Once again, I don't want to get into a whole Amiga vs. Atari vs. PC nightmare. I'm just looking for useful things to do with my 800XL.

 

Okay, I can load up any Atari file (not cartridge) in about 4 seconds or less. Most Amigas grind the disk drive for a while before getting to Workbench or loading the application and the applications are usually bigger (taking longer to load/seek) whereas A8 files are small and are either boot disks or can be loaded from some quick menu system.

[Roydea6]

I generate a new monthly Calendar with a basic program.

Print it to paper, for my Refridgerator door.

 

With the emulator same calendar gets captured to a 'PNG' file. Convert and color with PC Paint then make it my wallpaper.

 

 

calendar.TXT

Edited December 10, 2009 by rdea6

[Mr.Amiga500]

It's definitely useful to me to communicate through the joystick port as fast as possible and having a BASIC in cartridge is useful to me and being able to start coding almost instantly in BASIC or ASM is useful to me.

 

How so? What does a fast joystick port do that's useful to you? (not trying to be hostile here - just wondering what that could be.) What kind of BASIC programs do you write?

 

Okay, I can load up any Atari file (not cartridge) in about 4 seconds or less. Most Amigas grind the disk drive for a while before getting to Workbench or loading the application and the applications are usually bigger (taking longer to load/seek) whereas A8 files are small and are either boot disks or can be loaded from some quick menu system.

 

As I said, I certainly appreciate fast boots and fast loads. If I can find fast loading useful Atari stuff, I'll be very happy. As for Amigas "grinding the disk drive for a while", when I boot I see WB screen in 6 seconds and everything is fully loaded in 15. (and it has no disk drive to grind - it's CF and SD)

[+bob1200xl]

I have done a densitometer (for film negatives) and driven servos off the joystick ports using BASIC. I don't think that the application matters - the Atari is much easier to be close to than any of the high-powered systems of today. If I were to run my heating system (or, more likely, monitor it), I would use an Atari. Model trains - yep. (there are commercial systems, I know)

 

 

Bob

 

 

It's definitely useful to me to communicate through the joystick port as fast as possible and having a BASIC in cartridge is useful to me and being able to start coding almost instantly in BASIC or ASM is useful to me.

 

How so? What does a fast joystick port do that's useful to you? (not trying to be hostile here - just wondering what that could be.) What kind of BASIC programs do you write?

 

Okay, I can load up any Atari file (not cartridge) in about 4 seconds or less. Most Amigas grind the disk drive for a while before getting to Workbench or loading the application and the applications are usually bigger (taking longer to load/seek) whereas A8 files are small and are either boot disks or can be loaded from some quick menu system.

 

As I said, I certainly appreciate fast boots and fast loads. If I can find fast loading useful Atari stuff, I'll be very happy. As for Amigas "grinding the disk drive for a while", when I boot I see WB screen in 6 seconds and everything is fully loaded in 15. (and it has no disk drive to grind - it's CF and SD)

[ClausB]

I use Ataris to remind myself how much fun computers used to be. After a workday of fighting Windows, it's relaxing to battle some Zylons.

Edited December 11, 2009 by ClausB

[atariksi]

It's definitely useful to me to communicate through the joystick port as fast as possible and having a BASIC in cartridge is useful to me and being able to start coding almost instantly in BASIC or ASM is useful to me.

 

How so? What does a fast joystick port do that's useful to you? (not trying to be hostile here - just wondering what that could be.) What kind of BASIC programs do you write?

...

In general, a joystick port that's faster is better regardless of whether some application finds it useful or not. Just like USB 1.0 works fine so what's the point of USB 2.0? I use joystick ports and SIO as a PC interface link so have been transferring audio/video/images/code/etc. BASIC is good for writing simple fast programs like "? 56*3.41" and used it in taxes to sum of stuff where you can see the running sum. I mean a calculator would boot up faster than A8 but usually you can't see previous lines of work. Also, as mentioned by others people can use it to control hardware with simple POKE 54016/54018/etc.

 

Okay, I can load up any Atari file (not cartridge) in about 4 seconds or less. Most Amigas grind the disk drive for a while before getting to Workbench or loading the application and the applications are usually bigger (taking longer to load/seek) whereas A8 files are small and are either boot disks or can be loaded from some quick menu system.

 

As I said, I certainly appreciate fast boots and fast loads. If I can find fast loading useful Atari stuff, I'll be very happy. As for Amigas "grinding the disk drive for a while", when I boot I see WB screen in 6 seconds and everything is fully loaded in 15. (and it has no disk drive to grind - it's CF and SD)

 

Well, I said "most amigas grind the disk drive" since majority of Amigas like A1000/A500 don't have an easy way to put in CF cards. And even then, A8 would boot faster. Just loaded Star League baseball @26Kilobytes in less than 4 seconds from time I pressed ON switch.

 

There are other reasons where A8 has edge over Amiga like in cycle-exact IRQ timers.

[Mr.Amiga500]

I use Ataris to remind myself how much fun computers used to be. After a workday of fighting Windows, it's relaxing to battle some Zylons.

 

I know exactly what you mean.

 

To use a Star Wars example, using an old computer is like having an interesting chat with R2D2. Using a modern computer is like being tortured in the Death Star.

[Syfo-Dyas]

My intention is to use Black Magic, Atari Drum Machine, and Theta Music Composer for my musick.

 

As fate would have it, Atari Drum Machine has been the only thing I've been able to get to work thus far, as Black Magic seems to stop responding when I select anything from the menu system, and Theta Music Composer boots to a black screen.

 

This is all using the Max Flash cart of course, so I'm considering moving on to the SIO2SD and see how that pans out.