Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer

[DrZiplok]

IMG_6618.png

Smoke test OK. Waiting on the PLCC32 programming adapter, but in the meantime moving on to free-running tests...

[Oldskool]

Thanks for the picture really helps with checking my board.

[danboid]

Very nice!

It looks like you're on track to be the second person to own a Raven after Anders or has someone else already built one?

How long did it take you to assemble?

[peters]

mxPlay plugins, for anyone that may be interested:
https://github.com/agranlund/atarisound

(there are precompiled binaries in the bin/mxplugins folder)

midi.mxp
Plays Midi files using the bios so should work on any Atari or clone that has Midi support in bios.

opl_isa.mxp
Plays Adlib songs in vgm or vgz format on ISA cards.
So far only tested with a Resound2 OPL3 card but I have a couple of others in the pile of things-to-test whenever I get around to it.

For any Atari that has ISA slots and runs ISA_BIOS or provides a compatible _ISA cookie in some other way.
The ISA_BIOS located in Raven Github *should* work on Hades, Milan and Panther/2 too.
https://github.com/agranlund/raven/tree ... a/isa_bios


An mxplay plugin for Gravis Ultrasound mod playback is next in line on the list.

I just tried mxplay on the Milan. I tried it years ago and it didn't work.

It starts asks for a rsc and rejects 8 modules.

I could add an mp3 to the list but double clicking on it causes a crash.

I don't think it's Milan compatible, dma ?

[DrZiplok]

How long did it take you to assemble?

A couple hours solid, spread over a few evenings. My SMD soldering skills are poor, so I spent a lot of time getting an acceptable result on the buffers next to the 68150 and on the UART. There’s not a lot of fine-pitch SMD parts, fortunately.

[Atarian Computing]

Is there a meaning behind the name, Raven?

The Falcon was Atari's last computer. It was preceded by the prototype Sparrow, which was never released. I imagine that Raven is a nod towards using birds as computer names.

[danboid]

Is there a meaning behind the name, Raven?

The Falcon was Atari's last computer. It was preceded by the prototype Sparrow, which was never released. I imagine that Raven is a nod towards using birds as computer names.

Ah yes! I had totally failed to make the Falcon / bird connection somehow, despite me having been aware of and wanted a Falcon for three decades now.

[viking272]

I'm in the UK and in the future I am interested in doing a build...just to add to the others who have interest in this too.

Real good progress on this project Anders and certainly an exciting machine.

[agranlund]

Whoah!

Raven is the best Atari clone and most impressive DIY, one man computer design I've seen yet. I found out about it earlier today and felt the need to binge read this full thread. I'm tempted to build one but I may sit it out until the next revision - I've only just bought my first Atari computer a few days ago so I should have a proper go with that first. It seems like Anders has put this together in an incredibly short amount of time.

Is there a meaning behind the name, Raven?

Have you tried booting NetBSD/atari or whatever the best Linux m68k distro these days is?

I'm sure I had a few other questions but its well past my bedtime and I'm still in shock at this legendary achievement.

Anders: Could you please update the first post in this thread with a link to the Raven github please? I had to read most of the thread before I found the github link.

Thanks and congrats!

Thank you kindly! I'm having a blast working on the computer.
Good call about linking to Github from the first post. I'm actually not sure how to go about modifying old posts, is there actually any way to do so @exxos ?

Like others pointer out already the name was chosen as a nod to the Atari naming scheme. Raven felt a good match for some kind of scruffy homemade thing from the Nordics :)

[agranlund]

Both. :) Plugins don't know about the extended XBIOS (so they e.g. ignore if the XBIOS works in little endian) and mxPlay is so stupid that it has hardcoded hardware store/restore for Falcon registers: https://github.com/mikrosk/mxplay/blob/ ... routines.S.

I double checked and it is indeed running on the Hades.
None of the standard plugins of course, but the base application with OPL-ISA plugin works fine. The Midi plugin is very similar and I assume it would work on that machine too but this is not verified.

Looks like your code is smarter than you give it credit for, it does check MXP_FLG_USE_DMA before calling those Falcon specific things :)