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Whoops, I did it again. I have a problem, Dragon 32 inbound

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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Whoops, I did it again. I have a problem, Dragon 32 inbound

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Well, I decided 'What the hell, it's just 3 wires' and I did the 64K upgrade.

Here's the decoder mod:

PXL_20220828_103103222.jpg
PXL_20220828_103103222.jpg (420.45 KiB) Viewed 1581 times

She boots fine at 32K and still runs SDCX and games just fine, so that's good, I just need to find a way to test the extra RAM now.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Whoops, I did it again. I have a problem, Dragon 32 inbound

Post by rubber_jonnie »

The Dragon is now working pretty well with no crashes, so I tried a few games out:

PXL_20220901_085420554.jpg
PXL_20220901_085420554.jpg (249.5 KiB) Viewed 1570 times
PXL_20220901_083813327.jpg
PXL_20220901_083813327.jpg (243.12 KiB) Viewed 1570 times
PXL_20220901_083800132.jpg
PXL_20220901_083800132.jpg (256.03 KiB) Viewed 1570 times

And yes, that is a Donkey Kong clone, in fact all of the games above are from a 'Cuthbert' compilation.

I'd forgotten just how green the games were!!

Having replaced the RAM, the analogue to digital joystick adapter is working perfectly too:

PXL_20220901_091456037.jpg
PXL_20220901_091456037.jpg (257.56 KiB) Viewed 1568 times

Which is good news, because it wasn't working before :)
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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stephen_usher
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Re: Whoops, I did it again. I have a problem, Dragon 32 inbound

Post by stephen_usher »

:dualthumbup: :cheer: :yay2:
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Whoops, I did it again. I have a problem, Dragon 32 inbound

Post by rubber_jonnie »

And, the keyboard is starting to improve :)

It uses a pair of leaf springs under tension that come together when the plunger is pressed. By holding the plunger down, I've been able to adjust the tenston a little, and that, plus some Electrolube and a bit of activity is definitely improving things.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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stephen_usher
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Re: Whoops, I did it again. I have a problem, Dragon 32 inbound

Post by stephen_usher »

Yeah, the keys will probably need a bit of working. A couple of the Memotech keys needed re-treating after a few days, all the rest were fine.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
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Re: Whoops, I did it again. I have a problem, Dragon 32 inbound

Post by rubber_jonnie »

stephen_usher wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 1:39 pm Yeah, the keys will probably need a bit of working. A couple of the Memotech keys needed re-treating after a few days, all the rest were fine.
I remember my BBC B, it took a lot of working, and at least a couple of switches I soaked in Electrolube for a couple of days. Patience is definitely required.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
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Posts: 15184
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:40 pm
Location: Essex
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Re: Whoops, I did it again. I have a problem, Dragon 32 inbound

Post by rubber_jonnie »

OK, so it's been a while since I posted anything on this, but I had a replacement keyboard arrive yesterday that works perfectly :)

IMG20251211134559.jpg
IMG20251211134559.jpg (361.74 KiB) Viewed 592 times

The only thing I had to do was swap the keycaps over as the originals were a bit nicer. The flip side of this is the spare keycaps will work on the naked Atari 800 keyboard, so happy about that.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
User avatar
stephen_usher
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Posts: 7498
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Oxford, UK.
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Re: Whoops, I did it again. I have a problem, Dragon 32 inbound

Post by stephen_usher »

:dualthumbup:
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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