Expanding my Atari 800

[55five66six]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm wondering what other upgrades I can do to my Atari 800 to boost performance or do things it wasn't originally meant to do. Seems like every day that I hear about something new to do to my A800, that I'd like to know everything and anything that I can do to it to modify it.

 

I know about the incognito and the VBXE, but what other things are there out there that I don't know about which would be compatible with the original A800?

 

SG

[TXG/MNX]

Boost performance ?

 

Just show us you can squeeze the max out of this machine now on 1.79Mhz 6502 assembler... :-) There are people who still impress me what they can achieve these days...

[Magic Knight]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm wondering what other upgrades I can do to my Atari 800 to boost performance or do things it wasn't originally meant to do. Seems like every day that I hear about something new to do to my A800, that I'd like to know everything and anything that I can do to it to modify it.

 

I know about the incognito and the VBXE, but what other things are there out there that I don't know about which would be compatible with the original A800?

 

SG

 

If you take the clocking crystal from a PAL Unit and put it in place of your existing ntsc one then you will get a speed increase that is noticable....

[Wally1]

Magic Knight,

 

can you tell us more about the clocking crystal mod?

 

thanks

[55five66six]

It's not necessarily about increasing speed(Although the Clocking Crystal mod sounds intersting).

 

For example, on some sites I've seen things like Stereo POKEYs. They sound absolutely beautiful on games like Yoomp!

 

I know this will work with the 800XL and 130XE, but does this also work with the 800? Things like this. Just modifications that

would be cool and fun to do while I'm already in the area. I know many with an XE and XL have a lot of options, but what about us with an original A800?

[mimo]

well, yoomp! requires 64k, but yes the stereo pokey mod will work on an 800.

Best upgrade and bang per Buck is without doubt the incognito upgrade. fit this first, then add PAL ANTIC chip and stereo pokey.

[Magic Knight]

Magic Knight,

 

can you tell us more about the clocking crystal mod?

 

thanks

 

See picture attahced (crystal marked in red) - take this out of your NTSC 800 and take the crystal from either a 400 or 800 and the speed will increase. (clock rate goes up affecting faster music and also gameplay)

 

Useless on these aspects, but i expect number crunching may be benficial rather than not.

 

Did this by mistake when i was converting my 800 from Ntsc to PAL and left this out on my remaining unit - was funny to see/hear zybex play fast but wasnt too practicle for games. A selctor switch mod can easily be done if this proves to be a shortcut solution to someones speed issues!

 

[55five66six]

Ahh, OK.. Maybe I don't want to do that. :-)

 

Still want music to be the same speed.

 

well, yoomp! requires 64k, but yes the stereo pokey mod will work on an 800.
Best upgrade and bang per Buck is without doubt the incognito upgrade. fit this first, then add PAL ANTIC chip and stereo pokey.

 

What's the beneift of the PAL ANTIC chip?

[Wally1]

Magic Knight,

 

you said 'take a crystal from a 400 or 800'

 

Do you mean a PAL computer, of course?

 

thanks

 

 

and cant you just buy the crystal separately?

Edited September 2, 2013 by Wally1

[mimo]

Ahh, OK.. Maybe I don't want to do that. :-)

 

Still want music to be the same speed.

 

 

What's the beneift of the PAL ANTIC chip?

dropzone works and all the great pal only demos such as numen can actually run.

only downside is slightly slower game play on some games (which can be a bonus!)

[Magic Knight]

IIRC better now- it's the other way around, 60Hz NTSC crystals into 50hz PAL models speed things up,

 

I remember that the Crystal thing was the last transplant I did when modded my intended PAL unit, and was a good reminder that this wasn't quite done,

 

The crystals at one point were at Best in the US but I haven't checked of late, the timing on these is an odd frequency and weren't common to the usual oem spec.

 

 

In short I think it's tricky to find the exact timing but if your playing around then a crystal close to the intended frequency should yield fun results.

[adam242]

well, yoomp! requires 64k, but yes the stereo pokey mod will work on an 800.

Best upgrade and bang per Buck is without doubt the incognito upgrade. fit this first, then add PAL ANTIC chip and stereo pokey.

 

I'm two-thirds of the way there on my 800, and I'd like to add the stereo as well. Will Lotharek's (or someone else's) board fit, or do I need to piggyback it? Are there any photos of a stereo POKEY installed in an 800 around?

[Tin_Lunchbox]

For example, on some sites I've seen things like Stereo POKEYs. They sound absolutely beautiful on games like Yoomp!

 

Just imagining stuff right now, and not making exotic requests on our hardworking retro-development community, but moving the percussion track (or just the snare drum) on Yoomp! to the 400/800's internal speaker would be mindblowing!

 

Edit: oops, that is if Yoomp! runs at all on 400/800.

Edited September 4, 2013 by Tin_Lunchbox

[skr]

 

I'm two-thirds of the way there on my 800, and I'd like to add the stereo as well. Will Lotharek's (or someone else's) board fit, or do I need to piggyback it? Are there any photos of a stereo POKEY installed in an 800 around?

 

I´m going to do that too. Should work, you only have to figure out where the CPU and GTIA are located. Take a look at the installation instructions: http://lotharek.pl/zasoby/produkty/45/pliki/simple_stereo.pdf

[mimo]

 

Just imagining stuff right now, and not making exotic requests on our hardworking retro-development community, but moving the percussion track (or just the snare drum) on Yoomp! to the 400/800's internal speaker would be mindblowing!

 

Edit: oops, that is if Yoomp! runs at all on 400/800.

nope