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Incognito - Now's your chance!


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It appears Lotharek is taking preorders for a small batch of Incognito boards. 

 

https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=276 this version has the FJC firmware already flashed and part of the added price goes direct to Jon. I would recommend this version as the functionality is much improved and a far superior experience.

 

https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=275 this version is the original firmware by Candle, slightly cheaper but not as functional. 

 

Sadly not the incognito II but I know there have been a lot of people lamenting the fact these have not been available.

Edited by orpheuswaking
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wow twice the price when SHIPPED etc...  Correct me if I'm wrong but when I ordered mine it was closer to $72.00 united states dollars...shipped

but hey if you want one bad enough, it's better than something on ebay with no support and no real warranty of any kind.

I sure hope it will have the better quality traces. Some of this stuff is coming extremely thin and fragile for a premium price.

 

I can't stress how nice it is, I'd ditch every XE for 800's with Incognitos

Edited by _The Doctor__
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15 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

wow 3 times the price too when shipped etc...  Correct me if I'm wrong but when I ordered mine it was closer to $52.00 united states dollars...

but hey if you want one bad enough, it's better than something on ebay with no support and no real warranty of any kind.

I sure hope it will have the better quality traces. Some of this stuff is coming extremely thin and fragile for a premium price.

 

I can't stress how nice it is, I'd ditch every XE for 800's with Incognitos

I'm correcting you... The original preorder in 2012/2013 was $90.00 US, after the number of buyers increased they actually sold for $70.00 US plus shipping. Subsequent runs (there have been 3) sold for $90.00 US all by Candle. This is the first run by Lotharek. It's also sold in two versions $93 for the original version or $118 for a version preflashed with FJC firmware - Lotharek is also paying both candle and FJC per piece sold. The shipping may have defaulted to UPS which is crazy expensive but you can pick a much cheaper option. 

 

So no you didn't get yours for $52 and it's not three times the price. It's also FAR cheaper and easier than waiting for one to come up on ebay, the last one I am aware of sold for over $250.00 

 

I posted this link here because I've seen post after post of people asking for one, I've even been offered $400 for the one I have. 

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14 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

I've thrown far too much hobby money at stuff in the last few months

You and me both.  I never have gotten around to picking up an 800 because the Incognito was unavailable.  It looks like I am going to have to correct that now.  I should probably wait until early next year though or at least until I sell off the extra 800XL and AWC XL keyboard that I seem to have acquired.

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Yes with shipping it was closer to 70 (72.00actualy) dollars give or take. Thanks for the rundown. so i guess twice the price is a better estimate. You might have waited for me to edit my post... I was searching for a tai kwan leap video and didn't see my typo... but I did fix it and then got a notice on my phone that there was a response...

 

I did however state my support of the incognito...

 

How about you quote the corrected post instead of whatever one that was sitting in the buffer for your response?

I guess I should correct it to say twice the price... I'll do it now...

 

shipping is way more than it used to be! I'm sure you'll be able to verify that...

 

Every 800 should have an incognito except for museum pieces..

 

I keep typing and instead of an... hard to do on a phone...

Edited by _The Doctor__
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26 minutes ago, chad5200 said:

I have an 800XL with an Ultimate 1 MB in it that is my main Atari 8-bit.

 

Can someone tell me what the difference is between an 800 with Incognito and an 800XL with U1MB?

 

The ability to run 800 and XL/XE software. <=-

Hard drive in the form of cf card... Kyle22 and I both used spinning cf disks <=-                (kyle22 still has his and does)

4 slots for OS separate for Colleen and XL/XE mode <=-

64k of FLASH for future GUI

2 slots for BASIC/CARTRIDGE <=-

built in configurable PBI CF card storage (works as PBI in XL/XE mode, and through SDX driver in Colleen mode) <=-

built in FAT32 loader (SIDE) with both ATR and XEX file handling (though FJC has probably improved on this yet again as we type)

SpartaDosX

onboard RTC

1MB Axlon compatible memory expansion for Colleen mode <=-

64k/320k/576/1088k total memory available in XL/XE mode

up to 52k of memory in Colleen mode (configurable) <=-

-=> missing are the configurable control pins for add ons like stereo pokey and antix (which isn't out)

I marked things that I feel stand out.

It's everything the other machines are and more in the venerable 800.

Just two things on it need to be updated (one of which was fixed but lost)

pretty bullet proof all things considered.

Edited by _The Doctor__
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46 minutes ago, SS said:

I should probably wait until early next year though

Well based on what Lotharek said on FB about a "small batch" being made, maybe I should just buy the Incognito now and worry about getting an 800 to fit around it at some later point.

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I commented on Lotharek's FB post and he replied that orders will be taken through August, and should be available after 10/1. So he's taking orders for 3 weeks, a month for production, and then shipping. That works for me! I'll be ordering next Friday.

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38 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

I commented on Lotharek's FB post and he replied that orders will be taken through August, and should be available after 10/1. So he's taking orders for 3 weeks, a month for production, and then shipping. That works for me! I'll be ordering next Friday.

now that's useful information... If you are in the USA let us know the total price of the product plus the conversion fee, exchange rate, shipping and insurance et al. You know... the grand total you get using pay pal..

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2 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

now that's useful information... If you are in the USA let us know the total price of the product plus the conversion fee, exchange rate, shipping and insurance et al. You know... the grand total you get using pay pal..

Depends what shipping you want, there are about 8 options 

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simply put, how much to get it here insured with all fees included. It's not wise to have it sent without insurance in this instance.

Not looking to have it over-nighted or some crazy thing.

 

Looks like I have to re register... or find a stupid piece of paper that has my info...

Edited by _The Doctor__
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2 hours ago, chad5200 said:

I have an 800XL with an Ultimate 1 MB in it that is my main Atari 8-bit.

 

Can someone tell me what the difference is between an 800 with Incognito and an 800XL with U1MB?

 

Basically, an 800 with Incognito, is the same as an 800XL with U1MB + SIDE2 cartridge.  With the obvious benefits of the 800 - takes twice the desk space, weighs more, but has 4 joystick ports.

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3 hours ago, chad5200 said:

I have an 800XL with an Ultimate 1 MB in it that is my main Atari 8-bit.

 

Can someone tell me what the difference is between an 800 with Incognito and an 800XL with U1MB?

 

I have x2 identical 800XL + Ultimate/1MB (including manufacturing site and MoBo/Keyboard revisions, fully socketed), as well as one mint 800 / Incognito.

 

The architecture of the upgrades is quite different... being the 800 the more cohesive and integrated.

 

Incognito hosts a very similar (almost identical) structured and programmable RAM and ROM space as Ultimate-1MB, with the benefit of supporting native Colleen mode, with up to 52 KB linear RAM space, 10KB OS rom-slots, and 1024 AXLON-banked (16KB) extended memory, also recognized by SDX and other applications, such as SynCalc, etc.)

 

In addition to this, the Hard-Drive (solid state) resource resides internal ON Incognito, presented as a PBI device, thus eliminating ALL cartridge-ports contention (e.g. you do not need to plug anything on LEFT-cart port, nor RIGHT-cart port). Therefore, once you close the 800's top-lid, the machine looks exactly as factory-spec, and does not look as dumb-ass as my 800XLs with a cart. sticking out of the middle, which gets in the way of my 19" LCD/video-processor combo, as I like it standing near-flush with respect the machine's top surface (even rotation gets obstructed by the protruding cart on my 800XLs).

 

In addition to the above, there are operational differences between both implementations. Incognito removes ALL RAM and ROM (every-bit) of the 800, and replaces it with its integrated, higher-density RAM residing ONLY on personality slot, thus leaving three, large slots free for future use, and also improving machine's reliability, quite a bit, and reducing power consumption, overall (I have measured as low as 7.9 watts, net of external power-supply brick). 

 

Because of the architecture of the 800, replacing (for instance) the clock-battery on-board Incognito is, simply put, a breeze: remove the top-cover of the 800, and there is the battery, immediately accesible. Also, installation and removal of Incognito (damaged SST flash-chip, bricked ROM needing external flashing, emergencies, etc.) is also a breeze on the 800, requiring almost no work... Any of these two steps require a significant removal of screws and parts on my 800 XLs, and it takes time (especially if, like me, you still preserve your shields in place).

 

Other operational differences are, for instance, in the way Cartridges and SIDE's HD storage is accessed. On Ultimate 1MB, you MUST turn-off "HD access" on BIOS prior to booting any cart, whereas in Incognito, you don't have to do anything special. As an example, I just flashed Altirra Extended Basic on my 1Mbit AtariMax cart, plugged it in on LEFT-cart port, powered up the 800, landed on BIOS and mounted a DOS .ATR as D1:, and voila! ATX-Basic booted off the flashable cart, while STILL reading from Incognito's internal HD. That ease and flexibility is non-existent on my Ultimates, because you have Cart-port contention, unless you plug the cart on the PBI bus of the XL (?), but then you have PBI bus contention, which is also not a problem on Incognito's PBI bus).

 

Furthermore, you can suppress SDX (completely) on Incognito, and boot an external load of SDX (from either a SIDE/SIDE2 cart or an 8Mbit AtariMax cart, which I have as backup), and you will STILL have access to Incognito's internal PBI HD drive !!!

 

Ultimate-1MB on the other hand, has electrical contacts for HW add-ons, also providing low-level (BIOS) integration with these add-ons via PlugIns (which are also flashable). Incognito does not provide this functionality, for example. Ultimate also provides a XEGS-mode that I do not recall exists on Incognito (IIRC).

 

Also, the .ATR switch button on Incognito can be installed on a remote location, and hidden away from plain-sight, whereas on Ultimate, it is installed on the body of SIDE/2 cart, itself. Easy to access, as well... but everything sticking out as sore-thump...

 

Performance / throughput wise, I have measure basically the same speed on both setups (e.g. HD-speed) and you will not notice any difference there.

 

All-in-all, BOTH upgrades are almost mandatory if you own XL and 800/Colleen platforms (I have them both). Now, in my opinion, it is the 800 / Incognito the real system, the real machine riding on a more cohesive and upgrade-oriented platform (much more than my 800 XLs).


Cheers!

Edited by Faicuai
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10 minutes ago, Kyle22 said:

Please: Someone fix the BUG in the CPLD code about the memory protection bug. Let us FIND joy ports 2&3, or 3&4, depending on how you see them.

Also, what exactly is it that prevents Avery's video player from running smoothly?

 

CPLD code most likely be fixed on the latest batch... Wonder where the files are, though... Joystick ports 3&4 on XL mode probably depend on the CPLD load. 

 

As for Avery;s player, never seen anything different between my Ultimates or Incognito's (have two Incognitos, no diferente between them all...) 

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Just heard about the Incognito.  I have an 800XL.  If I understood correctly, the Incognito combines the U1MB and the Side 2.  So, is there any point to him doing a version for the 800XL or am I missing something?   

 

Of course, still sad that it looks like the Side 3 is in extended limbo.

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I don't think you'll get joysticks 3 and four in xl mode because the XL/XE use the location those used.  $D301 is the byte vacated when these ports were deleted.  Memory upgrades use it for addressing for that reason, it was a reserved byte with nothing left to do.  So trying to use the ports in XL/XE mode would interfere with internal basic, self test, ram under the OS, and any ram above 64k.  Basically the whole XL/XE thing.

 

** TNM **

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