Memory upgrade for XEGS - is there one available?

[BIGHMW]

OK, so I downloaded Bomb Jack for Atari 8-bit and wanted to play this great sleeper of an arcade classic from 1985 and put her on my XEGS SD card and loaded it to my Ultimate Cart, only to get a message saying "Memory too low!". I run a stock 64K XEGS and wondered what memory upgrades are available that are specifically made for her.

 

Also I would love to see someone come out with internals that allow both PAL and NTSC programs and convert them to work on an NTSC monitor (or in my case my 39" Insignia TV). I figured they have region-free DVD and Blu-Ray players that do both PAL and NTSC and convert those, so why not for Atari units??? I would love to see and play @Thelen's brilliant Yar's Strike in its original PAL version (with the red shield as opposed to that ugly green one on NTSC), on North American TVs like mine.

 

Thanks,

 

Ray Jackson

Edited October 18, 2021 by BIGHMW

[TGB1718]

Region locked DVD/Blu-Ray are no different in terms of the encoding on the disks, the region locking

is just firmware code in the player that blocks playing of anything that is not for that region.

 

I used the have a Samsung DVD player and by entering certain keystrokes on the remote would

unlock the region and allow playing of any DVD's

 

With our 8 bit's, they are much earlier technology and the differences are down to the frame rate

of each system (PAL/NTSC) which affects screen size/colours/speed, some games will only run

on PAL or NTSC which is down to how they were coded.

 

I believe some people have modded their 8 bit's to be PAL-NTSC by putting PAL chips in their systems,

don't think it's quite as simple as that, but I'm sure someone will be able to tell you what's needed 

[BIGHMW]

3 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

With our 8 bit's, they are much earlier technology and the differences are down to the frame rate

of each system (PAL/NTSC) which affects screen size/colours/speed, some games will only run

on PAL or NTSC which is down to how they were coded.

 

I believe some people have modded their 8 bit's to be PAL-NTSC by putting PAL chips in their systems,

don't think it's quite as simple as that, but I'm sure someone will be able to tell you what's needed 

Frame rate wise, which PAL version would be closest to NTSC, PAL50 or PAL60?

[gilsaluki]

I upgraded my XEGS to 128K, easy. Search the site for details/pics.

[flashjazzcat]

Discussion about easy 128K XEGS upgrade starts here:

Alternatively, fit U1MB in it.

 

For full PAL conversion, you need a PAL ANTIC, GTIA, colourburst crystal, 74LS74, and a few passives. All the vias are already on the board.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well, the disk version of Bomb Jack requires 320k RAM, thus a 128k upgrade is not enough.

 

But, in the Abbuc software contest we currently have a great Bomb Jack version named "Gacek" which runs on 64k Ataris. It was made by shanti, who already programmed two other A8 hits (The last squadron, Bosconian). So, if you wait a little longer you can simply play Bombjack, errm, Gacek on your 64k XEGS.

 

Some Bomb Jack versions for the A8:

- Bomb Jack

- Little Devil

- Bomb Fusion

- Bomb Squad

- Gun Powder Charlie

- Gacek (Abbuc mag. 146)

For me the top 3 is: 1) Gacek, 2) Bomb Jack/Jake, 3) Gun Powder Charlie

 

[+MrFish]

If you can find the cartridge version of Bomb Jake, it plays on a 64K system; but they're as rare as hen's teeth...

 

[+CharlieChaplin]

I don't have hen's teeth - but I do own a Bomb Jake cartridge. ?

[BIGHMW]

Anywhere else (besides ABBUC in which is a members only thing) I can get the download of Gacek as well as most other ABBUC software entrants???

[+MrFish]

35 minutes ago, CharlieChaplin said:

But, in the Abbuc software contest we currently have a great Bomb Jack version named "Gacek" which runs on 64k Ataris. It was made by shanti, who already programmed two other A8 hits (The last squadron, Bosconian). So, if you wait a little longer you can simply play Bombjack, errm, Gacek on your 64k XEGS.

 

7 minutes ago, BIGHMW said:

Anywhere else (besides ABBUC in which is a members only thing) I can get the download of Gacek as well as most other ABBUC software entrants???

 

@CharlieChaplin just posted, 28 minutes ago, that if you wait a little bit longer... do you really think he meant you'd only have to wait 28 minutes?

 

[BIGHMW]

3 minutes ago, MrFish said:

 

 

@CharlieChaplin just posted, 28 minutes ago, that if you wait a little bit longer... do you really think he meant you'd only have to wait 28 minutes?

 

I can wait a bit longer, no rush, just as long as we (eventually) get it for the whole world to play.

[BIGHMW]

So many great games like Gacek are why I own both a 5200 (a.k.a. "Big Sexy", had mine since 1983) and an XEGS as well, and while there are about 20 games on my 5200, mostly homebrews, that are not (yet) available for 8-bit users, there are TONS of great games we will never see for Big Sexy due to her having only 16K of RAM, I'm glad I got both a 65XE (in November last year) and an XEGS (in December last year taking delivery on her Xmas Eve).

Edited October 18, 2021 by BIGHMW

[+MrFish]

11 minutes ago, BIGHMW said:

I can wait a bit longer, no rush, just as long as we (eventually) get it for the whole world to play.

If you're not familiar, ABBUC contest games are not released until after the contest is over; and it's entirely up to the game developers when they want to release them after that point. Most games are released within a week or two of the contest end.

 

[Edit]

Until then, you can drool on this video: Gacek - Preview

 

[+CharlieChaplin]

26 minutes ago, BIGHMW said:

Anywhere else (besides ABBUC in which is a members only thing) I can get the download of Gacek as well as most other ABBUC software entrants???

 

You can become an AA subscriber easily and you can also become an Abbuc member easily. In both cases you have to pay some money.

 

With the money you pay for Abbuc, you become a member and get a 5,25" disk-magazine 4 times a year, a paper-supplement 4 times a year,  a gift (every year or every two years?), free download of the whole PD-library, free download of all available schematics, books/PDF's and other things. Abbuc also uses the money to finance new hardware (e.g. Turbo Freezer, The!Cart, Mega-Speedy, etc.), a software contest every year, a hardware contest every year and lots of other stuff. But as you say, its a members only thing - that's what you pay money for...

 

The Abbuc software contest is not over yet, so you cannot download the software (Gacek is an entry of that contest) anywhere else at the moment.

 

[BIGHMW]

4 hours ago, CharlieChaplin said:

 

You can become an AA subscriber easily and you can also become an Abbuc member easily. In both cases you have to pay some money.

 

With the money you pay for Abbuc, you become a member and get a 5,25" disk-magazine 4 times a year, a paper-supplement 4 times a year,  a gift (every year or every two years?), free download of the whole PD-library, free download of all available schematics, books/PDF's and other things. Abbuc also uses the money to finance new hardware (e.g. Turbo Freezer, The!Cart, Mega-Speedy, etc.), a software contest every year, a hardware contest every year and lots of other stuff. But as you say, its a members only thing - that's what you pay money for...

 

The Abbuc software contest is not over yet, so you cannot download the software (Gacek is an entry of that contest) anywhere else at the moment.

 

That's a very impressive array of perks, how much is an annual membership, I'm always looking for new titles for both my XEGS and my 5200. Any intentions (later on) to make any entries (past and present) available for the 5200 since the only 2 major differences between the two units are the OS and the controllers and their control scheme???

[manterola]

Regarding PAL system, I guess it should be easier and probably cheaper to get an whole PAL 800xl or 600xl.

If you prefer an XE system, myatari (B&c computer vision? located in California) sells PAL 130xe (128kb) new for less than $200 (shipping included I guess 150+30 or so). Really recommended. 

Then you need a monitor or hdmi/svga video converter that supports PAL. 

I have a couple of PAL Atari computers and they are great to play PAL original games and demos.