ryanr256 Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 I was organizing my carts and I came across this. All I have is the cart, no box, manual, etc.. I have no idea how/when/where I acquired it. I couldn't get it to work in my 800XL but I think it may have a flaky cartridge port. Or, maybe I just need to clean the contacts. I searched the forums and found the two posts which were informational, but does anyone have any more info or hints on want needs to be done to get it functional? -Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caterpiggle Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Are you Bob Woolley ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanr256 Posted December 31, 2012 Author Share Posted December 31, 2012 Are you Bob Woolley ? Um, no, I'm not.-Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caterpiggle Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Sound like it is for display in old "Ads" on the public TV such as show or expo. You don't have any 8 bits Atari computer to test ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/146490-spectraview-1-and-2-info/page__fromsearch__1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanr256 Posted January 1, 2013 Author Share Posted January 1, 2013 Sound like it is for display in old "Ads" on the public TV such as show or expo. You don't have any 8 bits Atari computer to test ? Yes, it is a application/program that allows cable TV operators to have customized pages. I have a modified 800XL (Newell 256K, SuperVideo, Ramrod XL) and the cart doesn't work on it. http://www.atariage....__fromsearch__1 Thanks for the link. I saw that post earlier and was wondering if anyone had discovered more about the cart since those posts. I played with it a little this evening. The 800XL locks up with a black screen when I boot with the cart. According to the info in the 2009 post the SpectraView II should work with an unmodified 800XL. I don't have a stock 800XL to test with. Could it be the 256K Newell upgrade is conflicting? Don't know. Could it not be compatible wuth the Omnimon enhancement I have in my XL? Don't know. I don't have an easy way to take my XL back to stock to test. I may see if I can pick up another 800XL somewhere. -Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanr256 Posted January 1, 2013 Author Share Posted January 1, 2013 (edited) It works! Here's what happened: I was using my trusty 800XL and was getting nowhere. I decided to try the newly acquired 1200XL just to see what would happen. Plug the cart in and boot. Same results as the 800XL. I noticed with the 800XL that if I hit reset after booting I would get a very, very brief screen that said "Disk operation in progress. Please wait......." That told me something was working. With that in mind, I pressed RESET on the 1200XL. Same brief message and back to black screen. I then just started pressing the keys across the top of the 1200XL. Nothing until I pressed the "BREAK" key. A menu! Hey! But, the L2 LED was lit indicating the keyboard is disabled and nothing worked. But, I had a menu! I shut down the 1200XL and booted the 800XL. Sure enough I can get the menu. And the keyboard works! I took pics of the screens. No pic for option 4 or 5 because I didn't have a disk drive attached. The cart boots into what is called "Run Mode" and looks for the configured files on the disk. If nothing is configured, it just sits there, doing, well, nothing. Pressing BREAK interrupts Run Mode and puts you into Command Mode. On the 800XL the BREAK key is part of the keyboard whereas on the 1200XL it's up with the START, OPTION, etc. keys. That's why I was able to accidently hit it on the 1200XL but nowhere near it on the 800XL. Here is the main Command Mode screen: This is the screen for Option 1 - Revise Date and Time: Option 2 - Edit a Page Option 3 - Edit the Scheduler I was unable to get pics of Option 4 and Option 5 because I did not have a drive attached. -Bob Edited January 1, 2013 by ryanr256 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Could you make a ROM Dump of this using a cart copier? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanr256 Posted January 1, 2013 Author Share Posted January 1, 2013 Could you make a ROM Dump of this using a cart copier? I could, I guess. But I don't have any ROM dumping hardware. I do have a Super Pill. Maybe I can use that? I wonder if the cart works on an 800. Hmmmm............................ -Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Also, If you can boot a dos disk you could save the memory from $8000 - $BFFF (32768 - 49151) using DOS's DUP.sys... Thanks, Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey Z Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Also, If you can boot a dos disk you could save the memory from $8000 - $BFFF (32768 - 49151) using DOS's DUP.sys... Thanks, Jay according to other posts, it sounds like this was a bank switched cart, so it probably isn't that simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanr256 Posted January 1, 2013 Author Share Posted January 1, 2013 according to other posts, it sounds like this was a bank switched cart, so it probably isn't that simple. That's probably true. I formatted a blank disk and put Atari DOS 2.5 on it. The cart had no issues saving and retrieving the page information from the disk. I created a couple of test pages and saved them. I do have to admit that my first attempt at saving/retrieving resulted in multiple "disk error" messages until I figured out I didn't have enough space on my scratch disk. Once I used a fresh disk everything functioned perfectly. -Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 This is a bank switch cart. It uses the same cart board as BASIC-XL. I used to work with them back in the day. It would be GREAT if we could get a ROM dump of this! Carefully open the cart, and read each of the two chips in a programmer device. They should be 2764's in there, 8K each. The light on the 1200XL came on because, IIRC, the cart uses extended RAM. -Kyle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fres Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 Just once I wish that whilst re-organizing my carts I would come upon some random piece that no one has ever heard of. Just once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeB1355 Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 I found a manual for Spectraview II cartridge -- no cartridge though. I'm sure whomever has the cart would like the manual to go with it! Offers for it? (Cash trade or trade Commodore loot) Here are some pics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeB1355 Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 on ebay for anyone that wants it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/142009280096? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 on ebay for anyone that wants it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/142009280096? Can you scan it before it's sold? just in case someone here doesn't win it??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Here's my interview with the founder of Compu-Cable Systems: ANTIC Interview 255 - Dale Lemke, Compu-Cable Systems 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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