Great Hierophant Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 The Atari 800 has two very important advantages, two cartridge slots and four joystick ports and an OS compatible with older software. It has two major disadvantages, one only 48KB of RAM max, and second no guarantees that a GTIA or the full 48KB of RAM will be inside the machine if you buy one used off Ebay (but it's quite likely). The Atari 800XL has its own advantages. First, it has 64KB of RAM which should be sufficient for any game and almost every other type of application. Second, it has a GTIA and an OS newer games expect. Third, it has BASIC built in. Fourth it has the Parallel Bus Interface. For compatibility's sake while you can temporarily replace the XL's OS with a OS/B in an XL machine, how difficult would it be to get games that require 64KB or an XL OS to run on a plain 800? Is there a way to add two more compatible joystick ports to an XL machine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 I don't think the second cartridge port is much of an advantage in the 800 as there are very few cartridges that take advantage of it. And the OS isn't a big problem, as you can get around that with a Translator disk for XL and XE machines. I also don't feel the two extra controller ports are much of an advantage--how many games actually take advantage of four controller ports on the 8-bit? And then how often will you have four people together to play those four player games? I like the 800 for its tank-like, over-engineered chassis, but I'd take an 800XL or 130XE for normal day-to-day 8-bit use. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great Hierophant Posted February 11, 2004 Author Share Posted February 11, 2004 One game sticks out in my mind, M.U.L.E. I would love nothing more than to play it with three friends, although perhaps their simpler minds would reject its subtle genius. The Atari 400 and 800 are the only ways I know to play it with four controllers, (no unfair advantages!) Unless you would advise me to use the NES port... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 One game sticks out in my mind, M.U.L.E. I would love nothing more than to play it with three friends, although perhaps their simpler minds would reject its subtle genius. Ahh yes, and that's a great reason to have four joystick ports, I love M.U.L.E. What was I thinking! ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schmutzpuppe Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 Is there a way to add two more compatible joystick ports to an XL machine? There is no way as far as I know (XL/XE use PIA Port B for bankswitching/disable rom) but you can use Multijoy 8/16 to connect 8/16 joysticks to your A8. There are some compatible games available (http://www.infos.cz/raster/atari/hw/multigam.htm) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raster/c.p.u. Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 Is there a way to add two more compatible joystick ports to an XL machine? Any fully compatible solution can't exist because the PORTB ($d301) is used for memory switching on XE/XL models(ROM/RAM/SELFTEST/MEMORYBANKS). But here is another possibility: MultiJoy interface for up to 16 (!) joysticks connected to any XE/XL. Modification of software which is using 4 joysticks (PORTA $d300 and PORTB $d301) so that it works with MultiJoy interface is very easy. If you are interesting in MultiJoy interface, you can visit my pages: http://www.infos.cz/raster/atari/english.htm#MULTIJOY http://www.infos.cz/raster/atari/hw/multijoy.htm http://www.infos.cz/raster/atari/hw/multigam.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raster/c.p.u. Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 Oh, Schmutzpuppe outran me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schmutzpuppe Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 Oh, Schmutzpuppe outran me! Yep But here is another possibility: MultiJoy interface for up to 16 (!) joysticks connected to any XE/XL. Modification of software which is using 4 joysticks (PORTA $d300 and PORTB $d301) so that it works with MultiJoy interface is very easy. Right, currently I patched MULE and Dandy for Multijoy use. Unfortunately I didn't own a Multijoy interface (yet) but it seem to run perfect on Atari800Win with Multijoy enabled. I will get my interface soon than I can do final testing. Btw. patching MULE wasn't so easy, it took a day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raster/c.p.u. Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 Right, currently I patched MULE and Dandy for Multijoy use. Well! BTW - I added small modification to MultiJoy routine lately (newly there is three NOP instructions) - please, you use it, ok? Btw. patching MULE wasn't so easy, it took a day It comes to this, that You're clever man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schmutzpuppe Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 BTW - I added small modification to MultiJoy routine lately(newly there is three NOP instructions) - please, you use it, ok? Ups, where to put this nop (and why?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schmutzpuppe Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 Ok, just saw that you updated your page. I will add this nop's. thanks Matthias Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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