doctor_x Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 Ex BBS sysop... Love to research disks I find searching for rare stuff, demo screens, loader menus, etc... If you were going to suggest a "rig" I should get to not only be able to buy stuff off of ebay (disks/carts) but also be able to enjoy the wealth of ROMs that are out there and easy to get - what setup would you recommend? Note that while emulators are ok to a point - I absolutely am interested in Atari hardware. Another note: I *REALLY* like the remote keyboard functionality of the XEGS... Have any/many mods been done to this system or nah? Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor_x Posted April 14, 2016 Author Share Posted April 14, 2016 So replying to my own topic.. lol.. In nosing around, it appears that this would likely be a pretty hot setup... Comments? XEGS with extended keyboard cable VBXE for video mod Ultimate 1mb Side2 plus an XF551 for reading disks or possibly a ferret drive or something similar on my pc.... I never once used spartados other than possibly when required by a bbs software or something way back when -- but man it looks bad ass... the "Sparta commander" and "eddy" apps are just freaking amazing looking and I'm chomping at the bit to get back into Atari now.... Let me know if you think anything else is missing from my list.. From what I am seeing if I have Side2, I don't really need and SIO2SD or similar right? Finally - I am WAYYYYYY behind on Atari mods - so I'm certain with some research I will learn everything I need to know... Really just trying to get back into "the community" as well.. doc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted April 14, 2016 Share Posted April 14, 2016 Well, XEGS+VBXE+U1M+SIDE2 makes a nice system. Not sure what a ferret drive is, though. I would also recommend an SIO2PC device: http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=98 The Ultimate SD Cart is super nice. I have WiFi on mine. Link: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/241796-ultimate-cart-sd-multicart-preorders-thread/?hl=%20ultimate%20%20sd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor_x Posted April 15, 2016 Author Share Posted April 15, 2016 Ferret is sort of like kryoplex or catweasel -- its a way to read Atari disks on your pc... from what it appears though ferret project died.. Sounds like some people here are already using kryoplex for the software preservation initiative - so it would probably be wise for me to use what others are... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbking67 Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 (edited) Well for me it the dream setup (from back ion the day) is the 800XL with RAMBO XL (256K), S-Video mod (improving the video output is a must for the 800XL). then a Rtime8, Multi I/O and SpartaDOS X. For a monitor, I'll go dual... Commodore 1702 and an Amber composite screen. Must have a SCSI disk of some kind. For floppies I'll go with a US Doubler modded 1050 (tough call for me because my sentimental favorite is the Indus GT). I had a Star NX10 with my Atari and it was a workhorse for me... I used it for 10 years on three different computers. For modem my last Atari modem was a Hayes V-series 9600 BPS. It rocked. The ultimate joystick for me was the Amiga powerstick. Best I ever had (and I have almost every Wico stick made). Loved the feel and precision. Now this was my ultimate system back in the day and I still own most of it. (some was rebought like the 1702). It's hard to beat the SIO2SD, U1MB, SIDE2, etc. for modern mods, but back in the day this combo rocked. I wish I had a GOOD 80 column solution, but I have an XEP80. My MIO has a monitor port but it does nothing. Oh and having teh Atari through a good audio system makes a big difference... I never had a stereo Atari but for years I used a Marantz Amplifier with small bookshelf speakers with the Atari. Edited April 15, 2016 by bbking67 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ripdubski Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 @flashjazzcat's 1200XL running his new GUI. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 What I have is close but missing stuff * 800XL, Ultimate 1 Meg, IDE Plus 2, VBXE Atarimax flashcarts, SIO2PC cable interface, SIO2SD * 65816 accelerator @ 14 MHz, SIO2BT. Probably more. Things like coprocessor cart like Project Veronika. Things that are proposed but not readily availble such as inbuilt HDMI conversion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 The Ultimate Dream machine would be a 1450XLD stuffed full with all the goodies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 @flashjazzcat's 1200XL running his new GUI. That's what I was going say! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxl Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Atari 130 XE without any plastic surgery, soldering, tattoo or dildo dentures just pure immaculate Atari :-) that would be my dream 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Lotharek's SIO2PC USB is the way to go for sure. That and a 4MB memory upgrade is coming that makes it easy to upgrade if it's a socketed machine, you have no soldering to worry about. I don't know that much about the XEGS though I imagine it being similar to the XE so maybe it's socketed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 A new/more powerful and backward compatible Antic chip designed by Joe Decuir to take advantage of the 65816. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 I already have my dream setup. Atari 800XL (stock) TurboFreezer 2011 panos brand IDE+ 2.0 Sio2USB Abbuc-Raf version Atari 1050 Simply excellent setup, and very portable. I can grab another, hook my stuff up, and I continue working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Well, as others mentioned, I already have my dream setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panther Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Atari 800 with Incognito and Turbo Freezer, working in perfect harmony... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmitry Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Back in the day I wanted specs as 16-bit, 80 column, 512k ram, a hard drive, 2400bps modem, double the number of player/missile Today, I have side2 for my hd, vbxe in an 800xl for 80col/vega out (with help of sync doubler)..128k in a stock 130xe, a rapidus uninstalled in a box... No longer care about 2400bps, but do have connectivity in sio2pc... So I don't have the dream in one machine....yet And what happened to my additional p/m.... And now I want at least 4 times as many.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Today...none! Really. Back in the 80s the A8 was a great experience.... programmingwise. But all about video and audio looked incomplete. While the 400/800 in the late 70s had been outstanding pieces of great Computerhardware, the XL series suffered by "trivial" issues. Just like no colours in hires. They even forgot the chroma line in the XL... No 80 columns when it was standard in almost every computer in the mid 80s. And, well, POKEY and the missing "HiFi" circuit , to connect the A8 to some amplifier... The XE series looked like a hoax in several aspects, as the Freddy chip seemed to bring improvements to the A8 just like "fastmem" in the Amiga. But the CPU still gots halted , even if the memory of the CPU and ANTIC wasn't shared. Even sold in the late 80s it still got no 80 columns... And so on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Today: my 1450XL with a completed PDD top piece and Simius's New 4MB RAM expansion and 80 column display... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panther Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Today...none! Really. Back in the 80s the A8 was a great experience.... programmingwise. But all about video and audio looked incomplete. While the 400/800 in the late 70s had been outstanding pieces of great Computerhardware, the XL series suffered by "trivial" issues. Just like no colours in hires. They even forgot the chroma line in the XL... No 80 columns when it was standard in almost every computer in the mid 80s. And, well, POKEY and the missing "HiFi" circuit , to connect the A8 to some amplifier... The XE series looked like a hoax in several aspects, as the Freddy chip seemed to bring improvements to the A8 just like "fastmem" in the Amiga. But the CPU still gots halted , even if the memory of the CPU and ANTIC wasn't shared. Even sold in the late 80s it still got no 80 columns... And so on... And compared to my Core i7-5930K processor and GeForce GTX 980 Ti video card, the Atari 8-bits seem like worthless garbage. Okay, I have to ask, why are you here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 (edited) It took a while, but I already have my dream setup. * The first thing I wanted for my Atari was a disk drive. I got a 1050 Top Drive only to discover that it was not exactly what I wanted the mass storage to be. When I learned about the existence of hard disks, I immediately knew that I wanted one. It was a very expensive thing, I was not able to afford an Atari hard drive, so (long story short) around 1994 I convinced Simius to build one. He did it and I wrote the firmware for it (the PBI ROM driver, that is). It was the earliest version of the thing you may now know as IDE+2.0. In those times hard drive vendors sometimes added very detailed manuals to the stuff they were selling. I got hold of such a detailed manual of some Western Digital disk, they were kind enough to include literally all the information needed to build an AT-BUS host adapter for it and to write a driver. * The second thing I wanted for my Atari was a memory expansion. This was the consequence of getting a disk drive: it was a pain to copy double density disks using only 1 disk drive and 64k RAM. So soon after the warranty had expired, I gave my Atari to some people who were able to expand the RAM. I got a 256k (64+192) RAMBO-like expansion, and used it for quite a long time, even in the times when software started to require 320k. Now I have three Ataris, one 320k, one U1MB, one 4 MB, if not one, then the other ought to be enough * The third thing I wanted for my Atari from the earliest times was an 80-column display. I wanted that, because I was writing many texts and did much text processing in general (in The First XLEnt Wordprocessor - that program was so good that it was only The Last Word 2.x - and later releases - that was superior enough to make me abandon the First XLEnt). I was always jealous of this feature of the Amstrads (but not enough to get an Amstrad, apart from anything else, they were relatively expensive). When Electron released a first version of his VBXE, it was noone else than yours truly who convinced him to implement some form of 80-column text mode in the board. It was early enough, there yet was some place in the FPGA, so he has developed the beautiful VBXE 80-column text mode which I like very much. If I am not mistaken, out of all the new modes implemented in the FX core, this one is used most often. * The fourth thing I wanted for my Atari was an accelerator. The Atari served for me well until mid 90s as the first computer (I also had a Falcon, but it was not until some 1996 when I began to seriously switch from 8-bit to the Falcon as the primary, everyday machine), for some tasks it was a bit too slow. Around 1995 I have learned about the 65C816, so in December 1995 (by accident, I have the postal receipt to this day) I purchased the Sweet-16 board from the FTe (speak of luck, I had no idea, that they had financial problems and are soon to disappear) along with some other stuff. That was an experiment, but, after getting some acquaintance with it, I liked the new processor. It was still 64k and 1,77 MHz, though, and I knew that the CPU is able to address 16 MB and run up to (IIRC) 10 or 14 MHz. Now two of my three computers contain the 65C816, one having 4 MB RAM at 1,77 MHz, the other one - 30 MB and the CPU operating at 20 MHz. So, I am now a satisfied user, and a part of this satisfaction is that I was sometimes also less or more (rather less than more, but still) engaged in creating the hardware I wanted to be available. Sorry for the long post, I could not resist Edited April 15, 2016 by drac030 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 I have all the dream A8 machines I could ever want, and they take up so little room too! Thanks to Altirra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 And compared to my Core i7-5930K processor and GeForce GTX 980 Ti video card, the Atari 8-bits seem like worthless garbage. Okay, I have to ask, why are you here? To see what can be pulled out of those stock machine and their limits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panther Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 Nobody was saying your ideal machine had to be modified. Which stock systems and drives do you prefer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
576XE Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 Our charset-kbdkey engine is still painful for any 256signs-keyers. YES! VBXE does it, but I think that Atari can does it too itself... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor_x Posted April 19, 2016 Author Share Posted April 19, 2016 emulators are cool.... grey plastic is cooler (to me!) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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