Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer

[Tbs123456]

So what would it take to make this a fully compatible atari st/tt/falcon/tos/emutos computer?

This is so cool to actually come up with your own computer and people are building it. Hats off to you @agranlund !

[Steve]

It'll never be fully compatible.. this is why Agranlund has made an ST emulator that runs transparently. It'll be compatible with clean coded GEM apps, but nothing that uses hardware / chipset exploits. It's like a Milan in that respect.

But let's face it, it's not like Atari could have maintained compatibility forever. If Atari brought out an 060 machine it would have had the same caveats.

[Atarian Computing]

So what would it take to make this a fully compatible atari st/tt/falcon/tos/emutos computer?

This is so cool to actually come up with your own computer and people are building it. Hats off to you @agranlund !

Here's my take on the Raven, and I'm super excited about it.

I am 100% confident that the Raven can be the best Atari clone ever simply because @agranlund's superhero hardware skills are matched, if not exceeded, by his software skills.

I mean, this guy just took the TF534 and made it work on the ST. Then he repeated that with the TF536 which runs absolutely rock solid on my STacy. Let's not forget MAPROM, which makes it super fast. There is also ScummVM-Lite.

I've had a Milan 060, and compatibility was hit-and-miss. Software support was brief. We had a Milan version of MagiC and drivers for some PCI and ISA cards, but we were left on our own otherwise. Uwe was fantastic at hardware support, I must say.

I remember another product I got without really any proper software support. That was the Eclipse PCI adapter for the Falcon. I mean, yeah, there were guys working hard on it (thanks, Johan Klockars), but Titan Designs did nothing, really.

My point is that as long as Anders is motivated, I feel he is capable of making this an amazing Atari clone. We also see the legacy clones (Milan, Hades) benefitting from some of the development here.

Josh.

[sporniket]

I'm toying with some case badge options. The idea is to 3D print it with the base in one colour and then switch to black filament when printing the text.

With or without the Atari logo?

Just a personnal feeling, it took me quite some time to understand that the "ogo" was in fact "060". (So I read "Rave no go" for a few minutes)

[mikro]

Well said @Atarian Computing!

And indeed, it's funny how often we were treated like sh*t as customers and we were still all thankful anyway and the Atari companies (or should I write "companies") were just taking advantage of it.

I guess it wasn't that different in Amiga world either.

[Steve]

Since a few forum members (and perhaps many more in the future) might be building their own Raven, perhaps it might warrant it's own sub-forum, like the various H5 builds have? It'd be nice to have all Raven specific information in one place.

[stephen_usher]

We must all remember that these new machines/boards are hobbyist projects and the people involved are doing it for fun and hence won't have the energy long-term to "support" it. I know that this is the case with my projects, which is why I open source them so they can have a life of their own if others find them useful.

I've been following this project and it's awesome. Not the sort of thing I'm interested in but it is awesome. Just don't put any pressure on @agranlund to make it anything other than his fun project.

[Steve]

Just don't put any pressure on agranlund to make it anything other than his fun project.

Indeed! I agree. This is also why I think that with enough people building a Raven, it may develop it's own ecosystem. Which is why a sub-forum may be a good idea. There are many talented people who can do a lot with a Raven.

[Icky]

I think if people start their own Raven build blogs in the members blogs space if we get a quorum of them we'll move to a Raven sub area under the 16/32 bit area.

[Atarian Computing]

Just don't put any pressure on @agranlund to make it anything other than his fun project.

100%. Goes without saying. By support, I certainly meant that Anders does what he loves, and we cheer him on from the sidelines. In fact, I hope I am able to support him in some way to help out the community.