Some (Mostly) Free Atari 8-Bit Stuff for Albuquerque Locals

[Sugarland]

11 hours ago, ballyalley said:

Here are pictures of the Atari Lab Interface, Atari CX85 keypad, Atari Trak-Ball controller.

 

 

 

The CX85 has the universal NO and YES keys.. Epic win.  It needs a USB adapter to press ALT-N and ALT-Y respectively for Windows dialogs.

 

 

[ballyalley]

I'm going to hold onto the Digital Vision's Computer Eyes video acquisition system for the Atari.  It looks like a neat piece of hardware, but I've never used it before; has anyone here used it?

 

 

There is more information about it here:

 

http://www.digital-vision-inc.com/productCEAtari.htm

 

Atari hardware is so cool!

 

Adam

[mimo]

On 9/22/2019 at 4:27 PM, ballyalley said:

 

Did anyone start out with the 600XL?  Has anyone tricked-out their 600XL?  If so, then what's in it?

 

Adam

 

My original 600XL was totally pimped out, Ultimate 1meg,Covox, stereo pokey, internal sio2pc, VBXE, AKI.  Should never have sold it

 

[Mclaneinc]

Some great gear there Adam, shame if someone local AND Atari mad does not snap it up....Its obscure stuff (for the UK) but I love the computer eye's, never seen one in the flesh or so clearly...

 

Hope you find you special person for the stuff...

[ballyalley]

I'm probably going to be holding onto Ernie's MIDI Mate, which was released by Hybrid Arts.  I don't know how to create music, nor will I probably ever learn how to create it on Atari 8-bit computer, but this hardware add-on is just mighty impressive to me.

 

 

Ernie told me once that he heard that the mid-1980s MIDI Mate hardware add-on for the Atari 8-bit line of computers was what led to a MIDI interface being included in the Atari ST line.  I've never been able to confirm this idea and I find it now to be perhaps a hypothetical thought.

 

I helped Ernie acquire this MIDI Mate in the mid-1990s.  He had told me that he was looking for one and he either posted an ad or saw an ad for this hardware in the TWAUG (Tyne and Wear Atari User Group) newsletter that I subscribed to (or maybe exchanged newsletters with) in England.  It wasn't until I was sorting through this collection that I saw that Ernie had exchanged several letters with Nir Dary.  I think he got the device from him.  Pretty neat!

 

When I was picking up the collection of Atari hardware, I spotted the MIDI Mate on the top of one of the boxes.  I mentioned to Ernie's wife about how I helped him find it.  She was able to fill me in a little bit more of the story.  Apparently, in the mid-1980s, Ernie had seen a MIDI Mate demonstrated in a music store.  He had been looking for one for quite a few years without any luck.  I guess this hardware device was always rare!

 

The June 1985 issue of Antic has an article called " Play it Again, Atari" by Nat Friedland that covers MIDI software and hardware, including the MIDI Mate:

 

https://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n2/PlayItAgain.html

 

The Antic hosts have talked about playing "Midi Maze" using a MIDI interfaced to an Atari ST.  Has anyone used the MIDI Mate to play that game... or anything else?

 

Adam

[+Allan]

8 hours ago, ballyalley said:

I'm probably going to be holding onto Ernie's MIDI Mate, which was released by Hybrid Arts.  I don't know how to create music, nor will I probably ever learn how to create it on Atari 8-bit computer, but this hardware add-on is just mighty impressive to me.

 

 

Ernie told me once that he heard that the mid-1980s MIDI Mate hardware add-on for the Atari 8-bit line of computers was what led to a MIDI interface being included in the Atari ST line.  I've never been able to confirm this idea and I find it now to be perhaps a hypothetical thought.

 

I helped Ernie acquire this MIDI Mate in the mid-1990s.  He had told me that he was looking for one and he either posted an ad or saw an ad for this hardware in the TWAUG (Tyne and Wear Atari User Group) newsletter that I subscribed to (or maybe exchanged newsletters with) in England.  It wasn't until I was sorting through this collection that I saw that Ernie had exchanged several letters with Nir Dary.  I think he got the device from him.  Pretty neat!

 

When I was picking up the collection of Atari hardware, I spotted the MIDI Mate on the top of one of the boxes.  I mentioned to Ernie's wife about how I helped him find it.  She was able to fill me in a little bit more of the story.  Apparently, in the mid-1980s, Ernie had seen a MIDI Mate demonstrated in a music store.  He had been looking for one for quite a few years without any luck.  I guess this hardware device was always rare!

 

The June 1985 issue of Antic has an article called " Play it Again, Atari" by Nat Friedland that covers MIDI software and hardware, including the MIDI Mate:

 

https://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n2/PlayItAgain.html

 

The Antic hosts have talked about playing "Midi Maze" using a MIDI interfaced to an Atari ST.  Has anyone used the MIDI Mate to play that game... or anything else?

 

Adam

I have three Midi Mates and three Midi Maze carts. It's on my todo list to set up a network.

 

Allan

 

[ballyalley]

I picked up about another 14 boxes of Atari items from this Atari collection that belonged to my friend.  Some of the items now match-up with other items from the first parts of the collection.  For now, I'm going to try to figure out what items go with what before I part with all of this stuff.  I hope to work this out over the next few weeks/months.  Many of the boxes are Atari magazines or Atari-related magazines.  Since all of these boxes were stored in a barn, they are REALLY dusty and there is some water damage on the paper (thus, it's MUSTY).  There are tons of original disks, but I have high doubts that they'll work.

 

When I begin going through this collection next week, I'll start posting pictures of neat items like the double-disk Atari Percom drive, the analog controller for Flight Simulator II and lots of other unusual and probably rare items.

 

Adam

[+orpheuswaking]

Let me know if you find a Sublogic FSII disk binder in there 

[ballyalley]

13 minutes ago, orpheuswaking said:

Let me know if you find a Sublogic FSII disk binder in there 

 

Is the "disk binder" the box?  Can you point me to a picture of it?

[+orpheuswaking]

6 hours ago, ballyalley said:

 

Is the "disk binder" the box?  Can you point me to a picture of it?

It's a ring binder that the scenery disks can be stored in. It's blue and has sublogic stamped on the bottom right. Very few pictures exist of it

[doctor_x]

were these people into pirating/warez? if there are any "warez" disks with downloads on them I would be very interested to see them catalogged and posted here... Mainly interested in rare/obscure utility type programs.. especially anything that deals with telecom...

[ballyalley]

2 hours ago, doctor_x said:

were these people into pirating/warez? if there are any "warez" disks with downloads on them I would be very interested to see them catalogged and posted here... Mainly interested in rare/obscure utility type programs.. especially anything that deals with telecom...

 

There are some pirated disks, but there are also some other software.  Mainly, Ernie and I split the Atari collection that belonged to the local Atari user group.  This was in the late 90s.  Maybe around 1999.  Ernie kept his half of the collection.  I gave away a truck load of Atari ST stuff in the Spring, I think, of 2000 to a local fellow.  I sold or gave away most of my Atari 8-bit collection in the early 2000s, but I held onto non-variable, but useful hardware and software for myself.

 

I spent about three hours today going through the collection with a vacuum (I wore a dust mask which is now blackish.brown).  I putt items into other boxes that aren't falling apart.  My hopes for disks aren't that high (mainly due to the dust), but there is plenty of probably unarchived original manuals.  There is also Atari ST books, software and documentation in the collection.

 

One thing that surprised me were two CP/M magazines that were probably bought for use with the ATR-8000.

 

I'll update this thread as I continue to dig through the collection.

 

Adam

[RICK H]

ADAM,

MY NAME IS RICK FROM ALBUQUERQUE. I WAS DOING A SEARCH FOR AN ATARI USER GROUP IN ABQ AND SAW THIS POST. I RECENTLY TOOK MY ATARI COLLECTION OUT OF BOXES I HAD STORED AND WAS UPGRADING MY 600XL AND 800XL. I AM AN ELECTRONICS TECH AND HAVE HAD ATARI'S SINCE 1984. I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO MEET UP WITH YOU TO "SHOOT THE BREEZE". I HAVE ONLY BEEN ABLE TO SHOW MY 11 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER SOME ATARI EXPERIENCE. I CAN SHOW YOU SOME OF THE PROJECTS I HAVE BUILT SUCH AS AN EPROM BURNER, MODEM, 1050 DRIVE PCB THAT TURNS IT INTO DOUBLE DENSITY, VOICE SYNTHESIZER, VIDEO OUT FOR XL'S, ETC. I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO SEE THE COLLECTION YOU HAVE AND HELP YOU OUT WITH IT. I CAN REPAIR ANYTHING.

   I HAVE EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE OF HARDWARE AND HAVE A BIG SOFTWARE COLLECTION. I CAN HELP OTHERS WITH UPGRADES ETC. 

I'D REALLY LIKE TO JOIN A USER GROUP IF THERE IS STILL ONE IN ABQ. IS ABQ ATARI COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS "AACE" STILL AROUND?

I'M NEW TO ATARI AGE...

HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU, BY EMAIL? I CAN GIVE YOU MY NUMBER....

PLEASE GET BACK TO ME SO I CAN TALK WITH YOU.

RICK

Edited November 18, 2019 by RICK H

[mimo]

I think your caps lock is broken @RICK H

[RICK H]

I STARTED THAT IN THE 1980'S USING ATARI BASIC. IT'S EASIER TO READ, AND TYPE.

[ballyalley]

6 hours ago, RICK H said:

MY NAME IS RICK FROM ALBUQUERQUE.

 

Well... finally, a local person.  Hooray!  Rick, I'll send you a message via AtariAge with some personal contact information for me.

 

The local Atari group, AACE, disbanded in the mid-to-the late 90s.  This Atari collection comes from Ernie, who was a member of it from the 80s until the end of the user group.  Maybe you knew him?

 

Oh, and as "mimo" pointed out, all-caps is pretty old-school and is usually considered shouting.  Many people on these forums started out with Atari systems but now use modern keyboards that can shift from upper to lowercase quite easily.  Here are two good excuses to use all upper-case:

 

1) You're so glad to hear about a local Atari user that you actually ARE shouting.
2) You are somehow typing your postings using an Atari 800 keyboard, which would be awesome!

 

One last thing.  In the next couple of weeks I'll be writing an article or two for Pro(c) magazine.  One article will be about what happens to Atari collections when someone dies.  It happens all of the time and I've not seen anyone talk about it.  A nice tie-in with the magazine would be if Atari collections can bring two local people together.
 

Adam

[+Allan]

Welcome to Atariage, Rick. There are a lot of great people and Atari 8-bit resources here.

 

I would love to see some pictures of your software and hardware. Especially your hardware projects.

 

Allan

 

[ballyalley]

Just now, Allan said:

There are a lot of great people and Atari 8-bit resources here.

 

I would love to see some pictures of your software and hardware. Especially your hardware projects.

 

 

This reminds me, Allan, I need to go through the collection to check with you to know what hasn't been archived.  I really dug into the collection in the last week or two with two friends and the collection is huge.  I'll send more details this week.

 

Oh, and Rick, Allan is right.  AtariAge is great.  So is Atarimania.com.  You'll find people here quite knowledgeable about pretty much anything that is Atari-related.

 

Rick, if you haven't listened to the Antic podcast then give it a try.  Start with the earliest episodes and work your way up.  There is a backlog of hundreds of episodes and interviews.  Don't let that intimidate you.

 

I get together a couple of times a month with some fellow Atari fans with whom I'm friends.  When AACE was laid to rest, there were just a few 8-bitters left in the club.  Most folks had gone the ST route and even those people were mostly using PCs by the end of the user group.  With four local Atari fans in one place, that makes this area a hotbed of Atari users.  Well, maybe it does...?

 

Adam

[+Allan]

14 minutes ago, ballyalley said:

 

This reminds me, Allan, I need to go through the collection to check with you to know what hasn't been archived.  I really dug into the collection in the last week or two with two friends and the collection is huge.  I'll send more details this week.

 

Adam

Sounds good. In the meantime I've been working on a TOP-SECRET Atari 8-bit project for the community. I am past the halfway point. I hope to finish by Thanksgiving.

 

Allan

 

[RICK H]

Thanks Adam and Allen for your welcoming comments. I'll try to post some photos of my hardware projects soon, and Adam, I will try to email you later today so we can get in touch and talk.

Thanks again,

RICK

 

P.S. I already started listening to the first Antic podcast while eating lunch.

Edited November 18, 2019 by RICK H

[RICK H]

HEY ALLAN,

Here are some photos of my homemade modem I built, along with just a partial schematic I had drawn up before I made it. It worked great back in the day of landlines. i called bbs's and downloaded stuff before anyone I know.

I had blast working on my hardware projects. 

Rick

Edited November 19, 2019 by RICK H

[ballyalley]

I ended up calling and talking with Rick for awhile this evening.  It was really cool to talk to someone local who not only knows "Atari" but also knows the lingo of the 8-bit line.

 

Rick has a 600XL with some issues.  Here is a picture of a 800XL motherboard in my collection that has some unknown (probably non-working) memory upgrade, I guess.  It's also missing a chip or two, as can be seen here:

 

 

Maybe this 800XL board has parts that he can use for his 600XL.  There's all sorts of neat stuff in each of our collections that hopefully we'll be able to go sort through over the coming weeks.

 

Man, it sure is neat talking to someone in my city about Atari.  I haven't met anyone who knows the Atari 8-bit computers in this town since the mid-1990s.

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

6 minutes ago, RICK H said:

Here are some photos of my homemade modem I built, along with just a partial schematic I had drawn up before I made it. It worked great back in the day of landlines. i called bbs's and downloaded stuff before anyone I know.

 

I presume that this was a 300-baud modem.  Is that right?

 

Rick told me the software for his homebrew modem was, at first, a type-in program.  With that program, he downloaded A-Modem.  I've heard of this program, but it's pretty-much impossible to do a search on a program with that vague name.  Was this program PD?

 

The Internet, with its forums, is mostly more than an adequate "replacement" for the local BBS scene, although it's a shame that it's much more difficult now to meet local people who share the same hobby.  Sure, that's partially because (let's admit) the Atari computers aren't exactly as popular as they were in the 1980s-- but even if they were, then we never really know where a person is located.  When I "talk" to someone in a forum, I might be chatting with someone across town or across the world.

 

Adam

[RICK H]

The modem was capable up to 1200 baud I think, maybe 2400. the amodem 7.22 is a basic program that is available for download from www.atarimagazines.com/v3n3/amodem.html which also describes the program. The download is at the bottom.

The pal chip that I need is a 20 pin with the number CO61618. I can't make out from the photo if it has that number on the 800XL. It's right below the cart slot.

 

Rick

Edited November 19, 2019 by RICK H

[RICK H]

Here's a photo of the EPROM burner I made that plugs into the joystick ports and uses a modified version of the EPROG assembly program I had to rewrite to work with it from ANTIC DEC 1985.

Another fun project.

 

Rick