RAPIDUS vs 1 MEG Ultimate Question

[Alessiman]

This might sound like a dumb question

 

But if i purchase the RAPIDUS it will include a 1 Meg Upgrade?  

 

I'm looking to pimp my 800XL and thinking of adding the RAPIDUS to my Sophia and SDrive Max

 

TIA

[+Stephen]

No - and please don't combine a Rapidus with the Ultimate 1MB upgrade.  They are known to be incompatible due to Rapidus design flaw.

[Alessiman]

43 minutes ago, Stephen said:

No - and please don't combine a Rapidus with the Ultimate 1MB upgrade.  They are known to be incompatible due to Rapidus design flaw.

So what if you get if want extra memory and acceleration?

[bfollowell]

There are quite a few other devices, new, old, and homebrew, that can offer increased memory, just not all of the other features of the U1MB.

 

 

 

[+bob1200xl]

5 hours ago, Alessiman said:

So what if you get if want extra memory and acceleration?

What kind of memory expansion are you looking for? The 65816 used in accelerators has linear memory up to 16MB. Non-linear (bank-switched) memory has XE modes and Rambo modes.

[Mark2008]

I think if you are pairing Rapidus, Sophia, and SDRive max, that you have a plan that probably will work.  But let us know, of course.

The parts to avoid are:  u1mb, side 2 cartridge, or VBXE.

 

VBXE, I say because Lotharek warns against it now "RAPIDUS UPGRADE may be very problematic with ULTIMATE 1MB upgrade or VBXE."

 

I've had multiple rapidus machines (1200xl and 800xl and two 130xe).  The 1200xl, I removed the rapidus, but otherwise its a beautiful machine.

And I have one 130xe with rapidus still, and the rapidus functionality does work.  

One of the tests I use now, is also can the machine "reset" properly or does it randomly cold boot.  This machine does work.

As long as no side 2 is plugged in.

 

In some ways it feels like a miracle to have one that works, but that machine does have vbxe output, and the VBXE output, is almost acceptable at times, but then starts up with snow traveling up the screen at other times.

 

That was initially blamed on the cable.   So I bought another cable.  Then multiple power supplies. Then a power conditioner.  Then multiple upscalers.

And of course, the problem has been all along within the Atari - if you have the electronics experience to fix these things yourself, then no worries.

 

But, its just not really the case that you can go to a dealer and expect a working Atari in return.  That's very hit and miss.

 

p.s. as for traditional banked memory, I have a turbo freezer, that works.  (so external options like turbo freezer or sys-check) and I use in my case a 130xe, which is 128k stock.   Other choices would be wizztronics 256k, or one of the many 512k sram upgrades)

Anyway, I also own a Sophia Atari, and it works great.  I think your particular plan is solid, those parts should work together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 3, 2021 by Mark2008

[Alessiman]

17 hours ago, bob1200xl said:

What kind of memory expansion are you looking for? The 65816 used in accelerators has linear memory up to 16MB. Non-linear (bank-switched) memory has XE modes and Rambo modes.

 

Whatever is most compatible with recent software released like games, demos etc.  I would imagine many of these would need more memory that stock and/or acceleration 

[+Stephen]

6 hours ago, Mark2008 said:

The parts to avoid are:  u1mb, side 2 cartridge, or VBXE.

 

VBXE, I say because Lotharek warns against it now "RAPIDUS UPGRADE may be very problematic with ULTIMATE 1MB upgrade or VBXE."

 

That's bullshit though.  VBXE has been out over a decade, and U1MB a long ass time.  Both of those upgrades coexist with everything else.  Rapidus is the turd in the punch bowl here.

[mimo]

What software is out there for rapidus? Is it even worth installing one?

[bfollowell]

2 hours ago, mimo said:

What software is out there for rapidus? Is it even worth installing one?

 

I had the same question when I was considering one. The main thing I always saw everyone running in Rapidus videos was showing how smoothly LucasArts' Eidolon runs. That and a ton of demos, which never held the slightest bit of interest for me. Most everything else, most games that I saw, ran so extremely fast, that there was no possible way that any normal human being could play anything. Also, I read of the many, many compatibility issues with the U1MB and/or the VBXE, and both of those, the U1MB especially, were far more important upgrades for me. For me, it looked like, except for the rare few, you had to pick which upgrade you wanted, U1MB or Rapidus, because, in most cases, you couldn't have both. For me, the U1MB wins every single time.

 

[mimo]

That's what I thought. 

The usual chicken and egg. Potentially great enhancement but needs something worth while that uses it to make it worth while buying.

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

2 hours ago, mimo said:

That's what I thought. 

The usual chicken and egg. Potentially great enhancement but needs something worth while that uses it to make it worth while buying.

I'd be willing to pick one up and use it just for the sake of seeing how certain games and demos behave with it in place, but on two conditions:

• It coexists without conflict with any other upgrade I'm likely to install (which means U1MB)
• It's able to automatically throttle itself to a user-selectable level so that it's more useful than a PC XT's Turbo button

But, yeah, since I'm not doing anything that's computationally-intensive on the A8 where more speed == better (such as compiling my own software), it's a very niche product.  Living without seeing Rescue on Fractalus render faster is not a difficult thing to do

[pixelmischief]

For me, it's about upgrade ecosystems.  I have a Antonia/Sophia/IDE Plus machine.  I also have a U1MB/VBXE/SIDE3 machine.  Never the two shall meet.

Edited April 4, 2021 by pixelmischief

[+CharlieChaplin]

12 hours ago, mimo said:

What software is out there for rapidus? Is it even worth installing one?

 

Hmmm, I do not have Rapidus and afaik there is not much out there, found the firmware, two demos and some tools on Drac030's webpage:

 

Firmware, 3D starfield, rotozoomer

Let's Emu

CP/Emu

 

[flashjazzcat]

2 hours ago, pixelmischief said:

Never the two shall meet.

Are you sure?

 

[pixelmischief]

On 4/4/2021 at 4:09 PM, flashjazzcat said:

Are you sure?

 

What black magic is this you are casting here!

[flashjazzcat]

8 hours ago, pixelmischief said:

What black magic is this you are casting here!

Just the new v.4.00 plugins. The thing has been redesigned a bit since this photo was taken, collapsing all the Sophia functionality down to six settings.

[Mark loves Stella]

On 4/4/2021 at 3:15 AM, mimo said:

What software is out there for rapidus? Is it even worth installing one?

I have an 800xl with VBXE, Rapidus, Simple Stereo, SIDE3 installed. Drac030 has released a really cool Speccy emulator. It requires VBXE, Rapidus, Simple Stereo to be installed in order to be fully functional. That was reason enough for me to install all three upgrades. We didn't have Speccy in the states. So, I missed out on that scene until now. Now my 800xl runs most the the ZX 48k library. 

http://drac030.krap.pl/en-zx-pliki.php

 

He also wrote a CPM emulator that will require at least the Rapidus and VBXE installed. 

http://drac030.krap.pl/en-cpm-pliki.php