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How many of us have real A8 Machines?


José Pereira

Some A8 Statistics  

314 members have voted

  1. 1. Real A8 Machines

    • I have at lest one one
    • I have more than one (state how many...)
    • I do not have any
    • I intend to buy one (Model?)
    • I will sell mine (please don
  2. 2. New Cartridge Large Size Games

    • I will buy if they are original Games
    • I will buy if they are ports of Arcade Games
    • I will buy if they are all type of new Games
    • I will not buy, just want to have free Emulator downloads
    • I will not buy, just want free files to run on my real Machine
  3. 3. I will pay for new Cart Games

  4. 4. How much money would I pay for each one of this new Large Games (only if you click on Options 1or3 of the previous question)

    • less than $49,95
    • $49,95
    • $59,95
    • $69,95
    • Any price if the Game is the one(s) I always wanted to see on A8
    • Depends if I first saw and like the Gfxs./Playing of the Game

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4 hours ago, Gunstar said:

It's for CP/M compatibility. Here is the thread about it: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/281467-sram-charger-for-indus-gt-interest-poll/#comments

 

4 hours ago, gilsaluki said:

What exactly is this upgrade, SRAM Charger for Indus GT?  I have two I. GTs in my setup.  Never heard of this upgrade.  

I failed to mention that the extra ram also allows buffering for much faster speeds, so even if you don't care about CP/M, if you still like to use floppy drives, you might be interested.

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On 12/15/2010 at 9:26 AM, José Pereira said:

Hi, guys I want that you all could answer to this questions.

Interesting to see some statistic and interest from all around here...

 

P.s.- In the last question, please say what are the Game(s) you would pay (and how much) to see on A8, if you want, if not just say their Names (the most important).

 

 

Thanks to all and your attention.

Greetings.

José Pereira.

The hardware I own is listed in my profile. Generally, I have a few of each 8-bit computer along with a number of peripherals.

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  • 1 month later...

6x 800XL - NTSC, 5.  (Was 6 but scuppered one for parts and the chassis was in poor shape.)  Of the 5 that work, one has a keyboard problem (top row keys, from 7 to the end of the row, do not work. Could be mobo controller chip or chip on the keyboard itself) as well as slight corrosion along  a couple leads in the memory bank. Most extras came with goodies from auctions and a couple better cases for a couple of them.

 

3x 7800 NTSC (one has incomplete composite mod, I need to add resister to equalize column with POKEY games) and I have kits for the other two 7800s

 

2x Indus GT (one works, the other doesn't power on and the PSU shows 12/13/15 volts wavering, with 0 amps output. The amps should read 2, so hopefully it's a bad PSU and not a fried board...)

 

 

1x 1010 recorder (needs belts - mechanics otherwise work, but loading programs jumps to self-test screen after three or so of those refreshing buzzzzzzz ____ buzzzzz load noises, and hitting rew or ff has a little uneven speed so I'm fairly sure there's a belt issue. )

 

I love emulation but there is something about the original experience, even slow tape loading times - who needs to smell the roses when the tape playback noise is more soothing and is harder to be allergic to? :evil:

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I probably answered this years ago, but my update is that I bought a upgraded Atari 400 with AV support and 32K of memory (and some other funky serial cable coming out of it.)   Been great for playing cartridge games on a nice screen with good signal.

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My two main hobbies are cycling and the Atari 8-bit.  I mention this because I have this habit of relentlessly tweaking my setup ,until It is perfect.

My bike is a Noah Ridley Disc 54cm w/40mm carbon wheels ultegra di2 groupset, dual l/r stages power meter, garmin 530 bike computer.

 

It's perfect, I don't tweak it any more.   I say this because some people like collecting gear, I don't.  I hate it.  I just wanted my perfect bike, finally got it.  Now I'm happy.

 

 Similarly, I know a ton of people like collecting Atari, not me.  I compulsively collect it, while I search out my 'perfect Atari', but once I get it perfected, I will be so happy to stop collecting.

 

I thought I had my ultimate Atari back in 2016, which was a 1200XL with VBXE and Rapidus.  Unfortunatley, it also had a u1mb install.


There have been other threads, upon how that is not a working combo and how the blame must be placed on the rapidus, etc....but in this thread I'm just explaining, the lack of it working, ultimately set me back on the path of searching out my ultimate Atari.

 

Here is my current lineup on 8-bit:

 

1. 130XE w/Sophia 

2.  1200XL w/u1mb&VBXE

3.  Atari 800XL w/Antonia 4MB, not used (also flaky)

4.  Coco3, not used

 

Since I have no hardware skills, I sent an Atari 130XE to the shop for a Rapidus&VBXE install...it's been about 1 1/2 months so far, of the 3 months it takes to have the 2 hour install done.

Normal wait time....sucks to not have hardware skills.

 

Once I get that 130XE back, I will decide if it is my ultimate Atari or not, but I have a feeling it will be my placeholder allowing me to send the 1200XL into the shop, to have the u1mb removed, and rapidus re-installed.  I like the 1200XL look. 

 

Now, if something like the Mega65 came out for Atari 8-bit, then I might just drop other ideas and go for that.  I almost wish I was a commodore guy, that machine is awesome in my view.

 

OK, the poll was about software.  This year I bought a repro Mac/65 cart.  I will buy software on rare occasion, but I never did that much back in the day (no pirating either, I just had a very lean collection of software)….I'm definitely not a collector of carts, but if something is totally cool like the Last Word, then I would make a purchase.

 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Mark2008 said:

Now, if something like the Mega65 came out for Atari 8-bit, then I might just drop other ideas and go for that.  I almost wish I was a commodore guy, that machine is awesome in my view.

You should probably look at this https://ataribits.weebly.com/1088xld.html it might be of interest.

 

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2 hours ago, Mr Robot said:

You should probably look at this https://ataribits.weebly.com/1088xld.html it might be of interest.

 

Thanks.  

 

I know everyone has their own preference, for me the headline on the Mega65 describes the appeal "THE 21ST CENTURY REALIZATION OF THE C65 HERITAGE: A COMPLETE 8-BIT COMPUTER RUNNING AROUND 40X FASTER THAN A C64 WHILE BEING HIGHLY COMPATIBLE"

 

Only a pity that says C65 and not Atari 800, ha!

 

The 1088 doesn't aim to be faster than the original Atari 800. I am not criticizing at all, it's great for the target audience, they love it!    For me, in having a 130XE upgraded with Rapidus/VBXE, I'm aiming to have a computer based on the original 8-bit heritage, but I desire it to be faster and have more video capability.  Sure the 1088xld could also be upgraded in that fashion.

 

The hobby for me is dinking around with code anyway. Just a pity when I first started to dink around with the 65c816, I find my Atari is borked....oh well, it'll be sorted eventually.

 

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4 hours ago, Mark2008 said:

4.  Coco3, not used

The Coco3 is an interesting machine and surprisingly capable, it even has an 80 column mode and certain operating systems can run simultaneous multi users. Personally I think it was tainted with the same brush that painted the Coco2 in the eyes of the consumer (which was an OK machine, but lacking software) and as such sales were low.

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19 minutes ago, Mark2008 said:

 

I know everyone has their own preference, for me the headline on the Mega65 describes the appeal "THE 21ST CENTURY REALIZATION OF THE C65 HERITAGE: A COMPLETE 8-BIT COMPUTER RUNNING AROUND 40X FASTER THAN A C64 WHILE BEING HIGHLY COMPATIBLE"

 

 

 

If you want a FPGA-based Atari with the possibility to run much faster than the original, take a look at EclaireXL: 

 

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19 minutes ago, Mazzspeed said:

The Coco3 is an interesting machine and surprisingly capable, it even has an 80 column mode and certain operating systems can run simultaneous multi users. Personally I think it was tainted with the same brush that painted the Coco2 in the eyes of the consumer (which was an OK machine, but lacking software) and as such sales were low.

There exists a 6809 adapter board for use in the Atari 8-bits.  Also, @flashjazzcat spoke with a author of the liber09 OS for some tips on multi-tasking in his GUI OS.  Sorry I don't have better links, posting quickly while finishing up work, but a quick search here should turn up all the details.

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1 minute ago, Dinadan67 said:

If you want a FPGA-based Atari with the possibility to run much faster than the original, take a look at EclaireXL: 

 

Yes - a beautiful machine.  Switchable PAL/NTSC on the fly, as well as various turbo modes, 2,4,8,16,32X.  Supports real peripherals (disk drives, joysticks, etc.), as well as USB keyboard and USB gamepads.

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50 minutes ago, Stephen said:

There exists a 6809 adapter board for use in the Atari 8-bits.  Also, @flashjazzcat spoke with a author of the liber09 OS for some tips on multi-tasking in his GUI OS.  Sorry I don't have better links, posting quickly while finishing up work, but a quick search here should turn up all the details.

Oh, I'll have a look for that, sounds like very interesting reading.

 

If I could find a Coco3 for a good price, I'd grab one. They're a very interesting 8bit machine.

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50 minutes ago, Stephen said:

Yes - a beautiful machine.  Switchable PAL/NTSC on the fly, as well as various turbo modes, 2,4,8,16,32X.  Supports real peripherals (disk drives, joysticks, etc.), as well as USB keyboard and USB gamepads.

Like the Ultimate 64. The turbo modes are good, until you realize that they speed up everything, not just the graphics. What that means is they speed up the controls and any games become totally unplayable!

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10 hours ago, Stephen said:

Also, @flashjazzcat spoke with a author of the liber09 OS for some tips on multi-tasking in his GUI OS.  Sorry I don't have better links, posting quickly while finishing up work, but a quick search here should turn up all the details.

I'd very much like to read that conversation myself.

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9 hours ago, Mazzspeed said:

Like the Ultimate 64. The turbo modes are good, until you realize that they speed up everything, not just the graphics. What that means is they speed up the controls and any games become totally unplayable!

The VBI frequency is still the same, so any games tied to that still work fine. There is also a mode that only accelerates during the vertical blank period, since there are often time critical raster effects during the display period.

Anyway this is why its selectable and 1x is as tied as closely to original times as possible.

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55 minutes ago, foft said:

The VBI frequency is still the same, so any games tied to that still work fine. There is also a mode that only accelerates during the vertical blank period, since there are often time critical raster effects during the display period.

Anyway this is why its selectable and 1x is as tied as closely to original times as possible.

When it comes to 8bit machines, turbo modes are impressive as proof of concept - But my experience is that they're rarely practical and usually create more problems than they resolve.

 

I've never really felt limited by the outright performance of my 8bit machines. Improvements to DOS, memory capacity and disk access/mass storage are all very useful upgrades, but faster CPU's usually just break everything. Even on my Amiga 500, adding a 32bit 68030 @ 40Mhz resulted in slow downs every time a game or demo hit the custom chipset directly due to the limitation of it's 16bit bus and the need to introduce wait states to maintain sync running WHDLoad. Swap the exact same CF HDD and OS install/games along with the exact same accelerator to the A1200 with it's 32bit bus and everything flies not a problem in the world.

 

However I think the ability to recreate real hardware in FPGA is fantastic, and an awesome way for us to keep our old machines alive without emulation.

Edited by Mazzspeed
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I have a 400 with 48K upgrade and upgraded component video out cable.

I have an 800XL with just a newer keyboard and socketed chipset for easier upgrading.

 

I recently bought them both in 2020.  The 400 from a facebook listing here in KC and the 800 from a well known Atari refurb site everyone here knows. 

 

I bought these machines because these are the machines I had growing up. Got the 400 for Christmas '79 and my older brother got the 800XL for Christmas '83, which effectively  made it mine too, and it did eventually become mine when he left for the Army in 85.  Both of these machines were sort of lost to the sands of time after I left home after high school. I sort of discovered emulators around 2003, and have played around with them from time to time,  but the desire for my old hardware just grew and grew.  Recently moved back to my hometown of KC after being in Hawaii for 27 years and decided it was time to make it happen.  

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6 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

I'd very much like to read that conversation myself.

Am I making up false memories again?  Maybe it wasn't about multi-tasking, but I swear there was a lot of conversation about windowing, various methods for rectangle based redraws, determining "dirty" areas for the drawing, and it ramped up when the 6809 board was being worked on.

 

Sorry if I'm wrong on all this - it certainly wouldn't be the first time.

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5 hours ago, Mazzspeed said:

When it comes to 8bit machines, turbo modes are impressive as proof of concept - But my experience is that they're rarely practical and usually create more problems than they resolve.

 

I've never really felt limited by the outright performance of my 8bit machines. Improvements to DOS, memory capacity and disk access/mass storage are all very useful upgrades, but faster CPU's usually just break everything. Even on my Amiga 500, adding a 32bit 68030 @ 40Mhz resulted in slow downs every time a game or demo hit the custom chipset directly due to the limitation of it's 16bit bus and the need to introduce wait states to maintain sync running WHDLoad. Swap the exact same CF HDD and OS install/games along with the exact same accelerator to the A1200 with it's 32bit bus and everything flies not a problem in the world.

 

However I think the ability to recreate real hardware in FPGA is fantastic, and an awesome way for us to keep our old machines alive without emulation.

I have to say that I'm excited for the Turbo mode in Ultimate 64. Not so much for speeding up old software (although some games do benefit greatly), but for new software development. It opens up a lot of new possibilities. And since it is switchable, it creates no additional problems. 

 

And by the way, A1200 bus is 32-bit in theory only, as Chip RAM access still requires 2 cycles just like OCS/ECS. AGA is not the greatest design...

Edited by Mrarkus
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Since it's fun listing the machines, here's mine:

 

PAL 800, Incognito

NTSC 800, Incognito, Sophia 2

NTSC 800, stock

NTSC 800xl, UAV, Sophia, U1Mb, SimplyStereo

NTSC 800xl, stock

PAL 130XE, Sophia 2, U1Mb, soon PokeyMax Quad

NTSC 65XE, UAV, U1Mb

 

In addition to many C64s, C128s, Amiga 500, 1200, 3000, and Atari ST and Mega ST...

Oh, and ZX81, Spectrum ZX, Spectrum QL, Amstrad 664, Tandy 100, Tandy 102, Tandy CoCo 3, Tandy 1000HX, and a VERY long list of pocket BASIC computers and old calculators...

 

 

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