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What do you DO with your Atari?


Mr Robot

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As most of you know, I run a BBS on my 800 Incognito. It has a 65c802 CPU in it. That's all the upgrades it has (right now). I would like to start tinkering around with replacing chunks of 6502 code with more efficient 802/816 code. I use TLW if I need to type something. The Mitsumi keyboard is better than anything on a laptop, and most PC type keyboards.

 

I occasionally load up a game when a new one is released, Sometimes I will sit and play games for a while. It is fun to find ways to talk to new hardware devices that were made years later than the Atari.

 

There are many reasons why I do this Atari stuff. I think it all boils down to:

 

I LIKE DOING IT THIS WAY, and IT WORKS FOR ME (you wouldn't understand), and BECAUSE I CAN!

 

:)

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I very much enjoy the nostalgia of interacting with my Atari 8-bit systems as I did back in the 70s and 80s. As such, my systems are mostly stock so I can relive the experience. It has been really fun learning about software and hardware I never did back in the day. I am not opposed to mods but it is not the most important thing for me.

 

I also really enjoy coding. Writing code that is close to the metal is very rewarding. I have been keeping a blog called Atari Projects documenting small projects I have completed in the last year and making the posts a how-to for others to follow along.

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Hello everyone. Glad to meet you. I have always enjoyed writing programs on the Atari in both Basic and Assembly language. The Atari 65xe was my very first personal computer I bought in November of 1986. Although I am also a die hard Commodore 64 fanatic, I still have a deep passion for my systems, such as the Atari 65xe, 800XL, Atari XE, and my Atari 600XL (although the keyboard is currently broken).

 

I'm also learning more about the hardware and just recently started teaching myself electronics with an Arduino board.

 

I'm also in search online for learning more about the hardware of the Atari 65XE. I found a few magazines, PDF, and some information online to add to my website, but I'm still in dire need to get more knowledge out about this machine. My plans are to possibly build a mod in the future.

 

I also own an Atari SD drive and hope to do a review of that soon on the website. Please let me know your feedback and how I can improve. Thank you!

 

Finally, I was amazed to find out that this domain name was available and had to jump on it right away.

 

https://www.atari65xe.com

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What I actually do with my Atari is programming BOSS-X, so I can start the few Games I play via double-click instead of swapping disks.

 

The second thing I do is still discovering capabilities of the Atari machines - after 28 years of owning one I am not nearly half aware of what I can do just with Turbo-BASIC.

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Most of what I do is archive disks, manuals, boxes and cassettes. Some of it technically does not involve Atari's but it is Atari related. I play the occasional game and will use non-game software but my time is mostly devoted to archiving. Everything I archive is posted on Atarimania.com or Archive.org under Allan52.

 

Allan

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I recently bought a 600XL as an impulse buy for only $60. Essentially I want to use it as a gaming console, as I collect for a hobby (I also have an Atari 7800 and 5200, as well as 2 NES's, an SNES, a Sega Genesis, and a Colecovision). My 5200 is currently a paperweight, so I figured I might as well have a backup console as an alternative. Not to mention there's plenty of arcade games for the 8-bit line that never made it to the 5200, like Donkey Kong, Mr. Do!, and Crystal Castles.

 

I also eventually want to write my own programs and mess around with BASIC just for fun, but I don't have the tools to save my programs yet. I'm looking to MacGyver some accessories together if it's at all possible, but I'd imagine it'd be quite difficult.

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I recently bought a 600XL as an impulse buy for only $60. Essentially I want to use it as a gaming console, as I collect for a hobby (I also have an Atari 7800 and 5200, as well as 2 NES's, an SNES, a Sega Genesis, and a Colecovision). My 5200 is currently a paperweight, so I figured I might as well have a backup console as an alternative. Not to mention there's plenty of arcade games for the 8-bit line that never made it to the 5200, like Donkey Kong, Mr. Do!, and Crystal Castles.

 

I also eventually want to write my own programs and mess around with BASIC just for fun, but I don't have the tools to save my programs yet. I'm looking to MacGyver some accessories together if it's at all possible, but I'd imagine it'd be quite difficult.

It is not difficult or expensive to have disk access. SIO2PC FTDI cable is really cheap. Search here for it. RespeQt software is great, and available here as well. It works on many different systems. I run it on WinXP 32, and it will do divisor zero (fastest speed possible) disk I/O all day without an error. I did a full backup of all the mounted hard disk partitions (IIRC, about 7 or 8). It took a long time (even at full speed), but it didn't error out.

 

There are vendors that sell ready made ones, or you can buy an FTDI cable from eBay and solder an SIO plug on the other end. It really is that easy.

 

Here is the one I use: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/270145-diy-sio2usb/page-2?do=findComment&comment=3869409

 

Buy one ready made here: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=108

 

For RespeQt software look here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/285890-respeqt-43-beta/

 

Hope this helps.

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