Do you think there is anything left to "discover" about the 8bits?

[Rybags]

OK, appproaching 7 hours and nothing. What I'm thinking is I might do a box surrounding the computer and just point a heater at it so I can leave the AC alone.

[Roydea6]

[Rybags]

I've made a little tent structure with towel over small sofa table and got the heater blowing in it so now it's near enough to 30 ambient for almost 30 minutes - and making conditions inside here less comfortable at that.

 

But still nothing. I'll give this setup maybe another half hour then pull it, then leave the computer running it overnight and see what happens in the morning. By then with the AC off from maybe 2-10AM it'll probably get into the mid to high 20s again anyway.

 

Edited December 20, 2012 by Rybags

[candle]

i just hope you have spare keyboard and case Gary...

[Rybags]

Got 3 130XEs, this is the only modded one and worst physical appearance. One of the other 2 looks virtually new, probably because it's currently non functional since early in its life.

 

It's only getting to about 33 Degrees in there, it would seem the heat for the most part is going to the remainder of the room.

 

No success it would seem, I think I'll give it 10 minutes more then put it back on the desk.

 

Maybe this computer is impervious to the technique - it's the same machine I had powered on for almost 6 months constant a few years ago.

[Rybags]

I've got some spare thermisters around here somewhere... I wonder, would they work if we hooked up to an unused Pot line on Pokey?

[jvas]

May I say, that this "feature" is not very comfortable to be used in "real life" ?

[Rybags]

Possibly a layer of silicone glue on top of GTIA could insulate it to the point of this becoming self-supporting without annoying climatic requirements.

 

Added advantage is that such a modification is removed in seconds without damaging anything.

[pavros]

Well, I don't know but perhaps not all machines are able to run into DGF. Rybags, please give it a try with hair dryer so that we will know if your machine is. I've tried it on 3 machines (manufactured in various periods of time) and effect was almost the same. During summer when I had real 29 C in the room I needed nothing but to wait 30 minutes to gain DGF. In other seasons it was like 2-4 hours, so I started to use hair dryer. Anyway the machines were always on a table without any covers.

[Rybags]

I don't own a hair dryer... I'll leave this running and see if it improves tomorrow.

 

After that I'll try XEGS since it's easiest to operate the thing with the top off. If I can find my heat gun I'll use that for a couple of minutes to help the process.

[+wood_jl]

Hi, Rybags. Please explain (briefly): What is the heat for? Thx.

[+Stephen]

It seems that excessive heat introduces a delay in one or more internal signals, which allows for these new graphics modes.

[atari8warez]

Woow!, and I thought computers needed cooling... live and learn . Ok I have a new idea, what kind of a new operation mode can I get if I immersed my 800XL in the bathtub while it's still running, hmmm probably a new kind of sound that I have never heard from an Atari.... how about a water heater mode... nah! i don't think so......

[Synthpopalooza]

Question: With heated GTIA, would the possible effect mentioned in the following post be possible (160 pixel res at Graphics 10):

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/190384-graphics-1210-and-110-altirra-vs-real-atari/#entry2419407

[Rybags]

I think this effect is different to the fabled "GTIA mode shift" - supposedly we get a single 320 rez pixel shift here which allows making a 160 mode with perceived higher resolution.

 

The AC turned off so it got pretty warm in here for a few hours but it seems nothing of help. Possibly the program could be modified to also display a "Best" percentage so that if the effect starts to come on tap you don't miss it.

[pavros]

There are two different ways for shifting GTIA9 and GTIA10 half of pixel. One is shifting CSYNC - same as I use for this DGI 320 - but you need to cause shifting every scan line (not every second one as for DGI). Second method is to shift only data (or actually the way how GTIA joins two 2bit chunks into one 4bit). This has been discovered many years ago and mentioned somewhere on this forum, but I can't find it now. I will prepare separate demo for both methods for G9 and G10.

[Grevle]

There will always be new games to discover, Hopefully there will be more Arcade Conversions for Atari 8-Bit.

 

Pacman Arcade final for Atari is a good example, very nice conversion, I hope we will se Conversions like Scramble and Phoenix and Moon Cresta for the Atari.

And a proper Space Invader version (or maybe someone can hack Deluxe Invaders and add the player shooting sound that is not there).

 

As far as i know Moon Cresta is being worked on.

 

And also new game ideas and new ports from other systems will emerge.

[+Philsan]

There will always be new games to discover, Hopefully there will be more Arcade Conversions for Atari 8-Bit.

Pacman Arcade final for Atari is a good example, very nice conversion, I hope we will se Conversions like Scramble and Phoenix and Moon Cresta for the Atari.

And a proper Space Invader version (or maybe someone can hack Deluxe Invaders and add the player shooting sound that is not there).

Phoenix

[pavros]

I've put updated demo disk image, mads sources as well as detailed description on temperature-dependent GTIA delay in this thread:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/209927-delayed-gtia-functions-detailed-description/

[Tin_Lunchbox]

It is absolutely insane to overheat a GTIA chip to make a new graphics mode. I fear for the GTIA's survival. However it is accurate that the pictures posted by Bryan here http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/136706-internal-antic-and-gtia-schematics/page__st__100#entry1677517 show a very impressive result.

[ChrisChiesa]

Late to the party by about ten years, but "better late than never."

All this talk about heating up chips to change behavior reminds me of the final fate of my orginal 800.  I spent the summer of 1987 in an apartment without air conditioning, during which we had a three-week heat wave where the temperature never went below 90 degrees F (32.2... degrees C; sorry, I'm American...).  During and after that period, my 800 still worked just fine except when running Atariwriter Plus.  When I ran that one program, every time I pressed a key, the left half of the screen would scroll rapidly upward with a burst of high-speed repeats of the keystroke-confirming "beep."   Since this was happening at the very start of the program, with a completely empty document, what scrolled upward onto (and off) the screen was "garbage" data (probably code, but who knows) from beyond where the program should have been looking.  I took the machine to a repair shop, but they weren't able to reproduce the problem, probably because their offices were air-conditioned.   I ended up getting my first XL, because I needed to be able to run AW+...  The weird thing was that that was the only program affected, as far as I was ever able to determine.