113 replies to this topic

[rdemming]

Creature XL, on Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:13 AM, said:

Does anybody have ever read something similar about the POKEY-engineer?

Doug has his own website were he also talks a little about the Pokey. Unfortunately he only talks about the development, not about what he thinks about how the Pokey is used. Pokey was partly based on the TIA audio which was not designed by him.
In an interview he talks a little about the Pokey but he also mentions plans for the GTIA chip but he isn't sure if that was ever produced. So it seems he didn't follow the 8-bit machine after it was finished.

Nowadays he seems more famous for the game "Star Raiders" and "Solaris" and not many people know he designed the Pokey

Robert

[sack-c0s]

To be fair we're talking Star raiders and not some generic rushed-to-market-to-cash-in arcade port, or cheap arcade knockoff. It's kind of predictable that this would eclipse most other 8-bit achievements. I'm guessing the only way he could've swept that under the carpet would be if he'd gone on to code Elite instead of Braben & Bell

[carmel_andrews]

The question is, would anyone want to put a SID chip into an A8, Like i believe Bryan once said to me about using non Atari hardware in A8 hardware upgrades,i believe he pointed out to me that sticking say an amiga chipset namely paula/agnes and denise into an A8 doesn't make it an A8 anymore

What would be interesting would be something like an Adapted 'quad pokey' from atari coin op that could be adapted for the A8 (i think some of the standard pokey things were taken out, since the coin op version doesn't need them)

Another interesting possibility is something like a rejigged 'AMIE/AMY' chip, apparently most of the working chips/designs etc were either destroyed or sold of when the company atari corp contracted to design the ST version (sight and sound) went backrupt some years ago...Apparently AMY/AMIE was a lot better then the Likes of Pokey/SID so far as audio generation is concerned

[analmux]

Albert, on Sun Oct 9, 2011 3:26 PM, said:

Any further comments by emkay or oky2000 that are not on topic are going to get deleted immediately.

..Al

By the way, just my humble opinion about this: It's a bit unfair / unequal treatment if emkay gets treated the same way as oky2000. Oky is a lot more rude in a direct fashion. Just look at his history:

http://www.atariage....14#entry1542014

And this is just one of his first posts.

[flashjazzcat]

analmux, on Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:53 AM, said:

http://www.atariage....14#entry1542014

And this is just one of his first posts.

Charming man...

[yell0w_lantern]

analmux, on Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:53 AM, said:

Albert, on Sun Oct 9, 2011 3:26 PM, said:

Any further comments by emkay or oky2000 that are not on topic are going to get deleted immediately.

..Al

By the way, just my humble opinion about this: It's a bit unfair / unequal treatment if emkay gets treated the same way as oky2000. Oky is a lot more rude in a direct fashion. Just look at his history:

http://www.atariage....14#entry1542014

And this is just one of his first posts.

I bet they're really the same guy and he's doing this just to mess with our heads, man!

[frogstar_robot]

carmel_andrews, on Wed Oct 12, 2011 7:20 AM, said:

The question is, would anyone want to put a SID chip into an A8, Like i believe Bryan once said to me about using non Atari hardware in A8 hardware upgrades,i believe he pointed out to me that sticking say an amiga chipset namely paula/agnes and denise into an A8 doesn't make it an A8 anymore

Because some people are like The Professor : "I'm the professor. I can hook anything up to anything!"
http://www.tv.com/sh...tes-354-706383/

[emkay]

frogstar_robot, on Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:10 PM, said:

carmel_andrews, on Wed Oct 12, 2011 7:20 AM, said:

The question is, would anyone want to put a SID chip into an A8, Like i believe Bryan once said to me about using non Atari hardware in A8 hardware upgrades,i believe he pointed out to me that sticking say an amiga chipset namely paula/agnes and denise into an A8 doesn't make it an A8 anymore

Because some people are like The Professor : "I'm the professor. I can hook anything up to anything!"
http://www.tv.com/sh...tes-354-706383/

Different ideology. If just someone wants to have the "proof of it can be done", or someone wants to "change reality rules for a better own life".
The A8 is what we had back in the 80s. SID is not a part of it. But any "original" extension is. Just like RAM expansions, 80 coloumns cards, math Coprocessors.
If you say "hey" the Atari isn't dead, and you say SID can find place in it and the VBXE, you may feel free to do so. But you have to put the extension "Atari + SID + VBXE" together then.

[candle]

is there any date, that after this extensions are not "original"?
its a bit unfair to distinguish between extensions that are being made today and these from the past, and say that the first ones are not atarish enough, and should be treated separatly
if i would care about such opinions i wouldn't do a thing for atari, and reading such opinions doesn't make me feell any better

i'm dissapointed

first sid chip that was clocked asynchronously was built inside atari in early 90' by one of my friends, that makes this almost 20 years of history - still too new? well... what can i say - preferably nothing, and just let that thread alone

[Rybags]

Every new hardware addon becomes another item that people need to add to their knowledge base re using or programming for.

So, it makes some feel threatened that their grasp of the overall hardware picture becomes an even smaller fish in a bigger pond.

[emkay]

Rybags, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:03 AM, said:

Every new hardware addon becomes another item that people need to add to their knowledge base re using or programming for.

So, it makes some feel threatened that their grasp of the overall hardware picture becomes an even smaller fish in a bigger pond.

.
A8 is A8 .... is what was there in the 80s. There is no other cause. Also, a bigger pond means a different pond though.

[sack-c0s]

so... 128K of RAM max then?

[flashjazzcat]

emkay, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:11 AM, said:

A8 is A8 .... is what was there in the 80s. There is no other cause. Also, a bigger pond means a different pond though.

Why the 80s? Where is this magical "cut-off" point which Candle also enquires about? Are upgrades automatically invalid if they were conceived or produced after the point at which the machine was no longer manufactured, or what? Talking of reality - it's being manipulated retroactively here, since we're placing retrospective constraints on what might have been produced back in the day. So if RGB adapters which provided a built-in 80 column mode or greater bit depth had been profuse in the 80s, that would have been OK? Are are we decreeing that such technology was an impossibility back then?

If SpartaDOS X had been new on the scene a couple of years ago, I can just imagine people complaining that it's hardly fair to call it the most advanced 8-bit DOS when it's delivered on a large bank-switched cartridge (now up to 512KB, and back then 64KB). And then there's the issue of real-time clocks and such like: R-Time 8 was the first, but why must every new design adhere to that standard? RT8 is just some design ICD happened to come up with which used an RTC chip which was presumably easy to get hold of at the time. It's understandable that they then coded up SpartaDOS to work with it. The chip isn't so easy to obtain now, however, so why wait years for an RT8 to come up on eBay and pay a premium for it - surely it's better to get a different driver and use some other hardware (not that RT8s aren't cool to have, just like any other "original" equipment).

128KB max indeed. There comes a point when purism equates to having one's head in the sand. The only "pure" A8 is one as it came out of the box, with nothing plugged into it. The point being that among enthusiasts, there was probably little that was "pure" even back in the day.

I've already said I'm wary of stuff which changes the fundamental character of the machine, but I think those playing a VBXE game or looking at a hardware 80 column display are well aware of the fact they're not using the machine's native capabilities.

[emkay]

sack-c0s, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:26 AM, said:

so... 128K of RAM max then?

320K

[Stephen]

emkay, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:28 AM, said:

sack-c0s, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:26 AM, said:

so... 128K of RAM max then?

320K

Why - the 300 baud BBSes from which I downloaded the "Scott Peterson" 320K mod in 1987 also had the 576K and 1088K expansions. DRAM based of course, single PIA.

[emkay]

Stephen, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:35 AM, said:

emkay, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:28 AM, said:

sack-c0s, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:26 AM, said:

so... 128K of RAM max then?

320K

Why - the 300 baud BBSes from which I downloaded the "Scott Peterson" 320K mod in 1987 also had the 576K and 1088K expansions. DRAM based of course, single PIA.

256K expansions were available in the "1st" timespan til 86, when Atari named the A8 discontinued 1st.

[flashjazzcat]

emkay, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:51 AM, said:

256K expansions were available in the "1st" timespan til 86, when Atari named the A8 discontinued 1st.

Well, that's one of my questions answered at least. So SpartaDOS X is an invalid upgrade!

[emkay]

flashjazzcat, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:45 AM, said:

emkay, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:51 AM, said:

256K expansions were available in the "1st" timespan til 86, when Atari named the A8 discontinued 1st.

Well, that's one of my questions answered at least. So SpartaDOS X is an invalid upgrade!

Is SpartaDOS X a hardware expansion?

[sack-c0s]

emkay, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:51 AM, said:

Stephen, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:35 AM, said:

emkay, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:28 AM, said:

sack-c0s, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:26 AM, said:

so... 128K of RAM max then?

320K

Why - the 300 baud BBSes from which I downloaded the "Scott Peterson" 320K mod in 1987 also had the 576K and 1088K expansions. DRAM based of course, single PIA.

256K expansions were available in the "1st" timespan til 86, when Atari named the A8 discontinued 1st.

Ahh okay - I thought they were an early 90s development for some reason...

[St(r)yker]

[AtariNerd]

Sounds very clean. Might be the new support circuitry not introducing as much noise, it sounds more like one of the stand-alone SID chip music players. Very nice.

[Bryan]

sack-c0s, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:18 PM, said:

Ahh okay - I thought they were an early 90s development for some reason...

I know this is an old post but since the 800 had memory slots, bank-switched memory cards appeared pretty early on and people found uses for them. Otherwise, I doubt memory upgrades for the XL would have been as popular as they were.

[CharlieChaplin]

St®yker, on Fri Oct 7, 2011 8:29 AM, said:

http://www.atari.org...pic.php?id=9322

Well,

what`s the estimated price for such a SID-cartridge ?!?

And err, how about a Covox-cartridge...?!?

-Andreas Koch.

[drac030]

emkay, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:48 AM, said:

flashjazzcat, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:45 AM, said:

emkay, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:51 AM, said:

256K expansions were available in the "1st" timespan til 86, when Atari named the A8 discontinued 1st.

Well, that's one of my questions answered at least. So SpartaDOS X is an invalid upgrade!

Is SpartaDOS X a hardware expansion?

It requires a cartridge - so, it is a question of the sort, if a program on a cartridge is a hardware or a software.

[Larry]

St®yker, on Tue Nov 8, 2011 12:50 PM, said:

Sounds very nice. Can the SID music files be ported directly, or do they require some type of "tweaking" (pre-processing) to play on the A8 version. If they need to be "tweaked," can the processing be automated?

-Larry