General Stuff(tm)

[stephen_usher]

The FujiNet arrived this morning, so I've had a quick play and I'm out later and I don't have the time to do much today.

Thanks to @rubber_jonnie I have an SD image of Stuff(tm) to get me started. Of course, the first thing I tried to load said "This requires a 130XE". :-)

Anyway, all good.

Now I'm starting to think that I may need to buy and install a memory upgrade... Down the rabbit hole we go.

[rubber_jonnie]

The FujiNet arrived this morning, so I've had a quick play and I'm out later and I don't have the time to do much today.

Thanks to @rubber_jonnie I have an SD image of Stuff(tm) to get me started. Of course, the first thing I tried to load said "This requires a 130XE". :-)

Anyway, all good.

Now I'm starting to think that I may need to buy and install a memory upgrade... Down the rabbit hole we go.

Lol, that's just bad luck, there is way less 130XE stuff on there than there is 800/XL/65XE Stuff(tm)...

If you are going to upgrade the RAM there are few options, these are my favourites.

Rambo - really quite cheap on eBay and adds 256KB of RAM.
Ultimate 1MB. IMHO the best upgrade. Adds up to 1MB of RAM, configurable as pretty much any of the original RAM upgrades for the XL, Rambo included. More expensive for sure, but very capable. Can be found here: RetroLemon

Of course the U1MB also plays well with the SIDE3 and also if you want to improve video output there are lots of options, such as Sophia, Spectre,UAV and my personal favourite, VBXE for XL.

My 65XE and one of my 800XLs have U1MB, VBXL/XE and PokeyMax with stereo output, all going to an ST style 13 pin DIN socket that uses a 1088XEL style SCART cable to send crisp video and stereo sound to the outside world.

That is a lot of money to upgrade the machine though, so Rambo may be the way forwards. Mine cost under £30.

Hope you have fun with it, there are some great games for the A8's.

[stephen_usher]

Looks like no-one is selling the Rambo XL anywhere at the moment.

The U1M is a bit expensive and big isn't it?

In the first instance, I think a good quality S-Video cable is in order.

[rubber_jonnie]

Looks like no-one is selling the Rambo XL anywhere at the moment.

The U1M is a bit expensive and big isn't it?

In the first instance, I think a good quality S-Video cable is in order.

Yes, the U1MB is a bit expensive, and TBH in order to install you really need to lose the top shield. I couldn't find the Rambo either. A decent video cable does make the difference for sure. I use SVideo with my 800, which is otherwise unmodded, and it gives a nice image.

[olivier.jan]

Upgrading memory on the 800Xl can be done easily also with an AVG Cart or SUB Car (and extra PBI cable). This is doesn’t require any internal modifications, just plug the cart, the cable and enable the extra ram in the menu. Obviously, you can’t use any other PBI device or cart when using it, but not a big deal as it also replaces any cart ..

[stephen_usher]

Today was the first chance to play with the 800XL + FujiNet.

I'd *SO* forgotten about the rectangular pixels on the 8-bits. It was really their defining visual feature.

Now, to my surprise there are quite a few recent ports of Spectrum games. Not only Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy but also "Highway Encounter", which look just the same as the Spectrum ones but with "better" music. Some of the demos sound just like AY tracks.

This is all pretty impressive given that the architecture is effectively from 1979.

[stephen_usher]

Not much done today other than the 7 pin DIN plugs arrived from Amazon, so I made up a new PSU for the 800XL using an old 5V 2A wall wart which I bought from Maplin years ago but never used.

Played games, tried and failed to find a version of Galaxian which would load and not crash and a non-infinite lives version of Spindizzy which would even load. Even the tape version had a corrupted load screen.

On the whole I am still surprised how capable the Atari 8 bits are for a machine effectively designed in 1978 and released in '79.

[rubber_jonnie]

Not much done today other than the 7 pin DIN plugs arrived from Amazon, so I made up a new PSU for the 800XL using an old 5V 2A wall wart which I bought from Maplin years ago but never used.

Played games, tried and failed to find a version of Galaxian which would load and not crash and a non-infinite lives version of Spindizzy which would even load. Even the tape version had a corrupted load screen.

On the whole I am still surprised how capable the Atari 8 bits are for a machine effectively designed in 1978 and released in '79.

There is definitely a working version of Galaxian in what I gave you, I know 100% it works on my 800 which is usually in XL mode thanks to my Incognito.

For machines from the late 70's they really are quite spectacular. I know the XLs came later, but they are essentially the same as the 400/800 that came before, just improved hardware overall.

BTW if you've never played M.U.L.E before, load it up just for the music and attract screen.

[stephen_usher]

Most of the Galaxian images fail with "ERROR- xxx AT LINE 0" (forgotten the number). This also happens with all the versions on the FujiNet servers.

I found one which starts but then the sprites start corrupting and eventually it crashes.

I'll have a look at M.U.L.E. when I next get an opportunity, which won't be until Tuesday at the earliest.

[rubber_jonnie]

Most of the Galaxian images fail with "ERROR- xxx AT LINE 0" (forgotten the number). This also happens with all the versions on the FujiNet servers.

I found one which starts but then the sprites start corrupting and eventually it crashes.

I'll have a look at M.U.L.E. when I next get an opportunity, which won't be until Tuesday at the earliest.

Is this from the Picocart or the Fujinet? I know most if not all of the stuff I sent over should work fine, it does on my own machines.