HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Organization: Computing Technology Services, Michigan Technological Univ.
Date: Tuesday, 21 Jul 1992 10:27:25 EST
From: Jeff McWilliams <JJMCWILL@MTUS5.BITNET>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: operating systems

Allen Macroware did their BOSS XL, which also reportedly has a very good
machine language monitor in it.  I think Synergy concepts did a chip that
offered some neat RAMDISK support and stuff for owners of upgraded machines.
At one time I  saw the chip in Brad Koda's BEST catalog.  Antic once
mentioned a fairly new one called the Turbo-OS which was supposed to
increase screen I/O and have a monitor that among other things, allowed you
to monitor the IOCB's and stuff, which was really interesting.
Don't know where that one went either.  Then of course there is the OS that
comes with the Turbo816.
All in all, I think there are at least 6 commercial OS systems that you
could plug into your Atari XL/XE.  I believe there are a half dozen
homebrew modifications to the OS as well, for those with access to an
Eprom Burner, or perhaps with some sort of modification to
make the OS a STATIC RAM chip that is writeable.  That would be ideal,
read all your ROMS onto disk, and load in the one you want to use and then
do a coldstart.

Jeff McWilliams
From: Jim_Johnson@abcd.Houghton.MI.US (Jim Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Rambrandt
Date: 30 Jul 92 16:15:31 GMT
Article-I.D.: abcd.Jim_Johnson.061g
Distribution: world
Organization: Amiga BitSwap Central Dispatch

In a message dated Wed 29 Jul 92 14:13, Ac742@yfn.ysu.edu (joe Perkins)
wrote:

 AP> I have some Antic disks that contain the paint program "RAMBRANT",
 AP> as well as some utilities and the SOLID OBJECT MODULE for Rambrant.
 AP> The disks are numbered AP0157a, AP0182, and AP0157b..
 AP> Can anyone tell me if the source code to these programs ever 
 AP> appeared in print (Antic magazine)..and if so, in what issue?
 AP> Better yet, is the author out there listening somewhere?
 AP> I am trying to get this thing to work on my Hard drive..I would like 
 AP> to change the default drive # for disk access..and maybe a few other 
 AP> things that will allow it to search subdirectories and exit to DOS.
 AP> Thanks
 AP> -- 
 AP> ****Joe Perkins
 AP>     Internet:  ac742@yfn.ysu.edu
 AP> ****

The RAMbrant source code was never published.  It was sold through the
Antic Catalog.  BTW, a lot of software uses memory locations required by
SpartaDOS (if that is what is running on your harddrive) and are tough to
patch.  How up are you on your machine language (hex codes as opposed to
assembler)?  If you own a disk editor with hex search capability, you may
be able to track down the CIO calls and change the drive number - still no
guarantee that it will run under your DOS however....

-- Via DLG Pro v0.995

Jim Johnson-
*** Remember, they're only tools - Not a way of life! ***
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: drudetb@infonode.ingr.com (Ted B. Drude)
Subject: Jay Miner - father of which Atari machines/chips ?
Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL.
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 18:29:56 GMT

Here's a trivia question for diehard Atari fans:

Exactly which machines and/or chips was Jay Miner responsible
for engineering while he was at Atari?

I know Jay is widely acknowledged to be the engineering "father" of the
Amiga architecture. But before that he worked at Atari for years.

From various sources that I've heard that he supposedly designed:

- The 2600 VCS - the TIA chip (aka "Stella")

- The Atari 400/800/5200 - the Pokey and Antic chips (maybe others?)

- What else did he design?  (Please quote sources if possible.)

Thanks, 

- Ted Drude (drudetb@infonode.ingr.com)
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Thursday, 30 Jul 1992 23:20:56 CDT
From: Mark Czarnowski <U58578@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject:    Posting

Is my post about the XE Questions etc, still here?  I mean the real one, not t
he post that says qquit in it.  Also, whoever posted the article about the plac
es that still have Atari 8-bit stuff w/ their addresses and phone #'s has also
disappeared from the netnews here.  I have been having a problem posting things
lately on the system here at UIC.  Is it Netnews Usenet that is messed up or is
 it just local here?  Please let me know.  Maybe I'm going crazy!  8}
Mark B. Czarnowski
UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Internet: U58578@uicvm.uic.edu

Go Cubs!!!
From: bruck@BRACHOT.JCT.AC.IL (Itay Chamie1)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: A dumb question!
Date: 28 Jul 92 14:23:18 GMT
X-Unparsable-Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 17:22:47 EET DST

Alot of times I ask myself the question: How was the Rev A OS written? I mean,
the Atari assembler wasn't out yet, so did they use calculators? And how was
Rev A BASIC created? And how was the Atari Assemler/Editor written?
Were all the Rev A bugs (both in the OS and in BASIC) there just because they
were written in unreliable ways? (not using an assembler?)
                                                                -Itay
--
                           ****************
                           * Itay Chamiel *
           bruck@brachot.jct.ac.il  OR  bruck@147.161.1.1
                           * The Parasite *
                           ****************
        Calling to YOU from Jerusalem, Israel! (a cozy place)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: tgreen@iastate.edu (Todd Greenfield)
Subject: Re: Function Keys
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 17:09:46 GMT

In <Jim_Johnson.05rh@abcd.Houghton.MI.US> Jim_Johnson@abcd.Houghton.MI.US (Jim Johnson) writes:

>In a message dated Mon 20 Jul 92 16:07, Jeff Mcwilliams <jjmcwill@mtus5.bit
>wrote:

> JM> Someone asked for me to post the 1200XL function key upgrade
> JM> modification for XL/XE computers, so here it is.
> Additional notes from Jim Johnson:

[ function key stuff deleted ]

>The suggestion for mounting the switches in a diamond shape is an excellent
>one - it's what I did when I installed my 1200XL function keys on my 320XE
>several years ago; it is much easier to remember which function key moves
>the cursor in which direction.  Also, I would suggest that you NOT mount
>the keys directly on the case.  I mounted them to a small square pill box
>and used velcro to attach this box to the lower right corner of the case. A
>small ribbon cable looped down through the case halves to the keyboard
>decoder chips.  By doing this I could open up the case for repairs without
>having wires connecting me to the case top.

the other way to go with this is to connect to the keyboard
itself, rather than the decoder chips.  All you need to do
is find the corresponding lines on the keyboard circuit board,
which is simple if you have a dmm.  
-- 
Todd Greenfield
tgreen@iastate.edu
From: moon!cyberden!phbill@well.sf.ca.us
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Daisy Dot III
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 92 14:05:16 PDT
Organization: Indescribable Creations

I got a call from David Richardson a day or two ago (he was verifying my 
address) and is going to send me 5 disks worth of ARCed files - unARCed 
size being >9< disks!!! which describes how to add pictures to text files 
and I suppose has examples (he says there are over 100 fonts on these 
disks).  Anyways..  what he says to do is unARC them all, then go into 
DDIII's PP.COM and go thru EVERY SINGLE text file on each disk!!!!  He 
says the docs come out to be about 47 pages.  WHEW!  Welp...  I got some 
disks ready to be mailed out to him so he can mail 'em back with the ARCs 
on 'em...  THis'll be fun! :)

One thing he said tho is there's probably 20 copies of some of the fonts 
because they're used thruout the entire text.  WHY!?  Why wasn't DDIII 
made to be disk-swapable!?  Instead of having each disk w/ a copy of a 
font, just have it on one disk and when the PP.COM file reads from the 
text to change fonts, and it sees that it can't, it should request a disk 
swap!  SIMPLE!  Sure, you'd have to hang around the computer all the 
time, but I have to anyways because the paper I use in my printer likes 
to jam if it's not seen to every once in a while...

Oh well...      one day that'll hopefully be fixed.  

Oh..just as a note David & I got into talking about Graphics 9 dumping 
(which he says this can do) and said he's made plenty of ColrView 
digitized pictures with ComputerEyes...  he also plays with GIFs alot...  
he got an IBM just to look at the GIFs...  how ironic that an 8-bitter 
gets an IBM JUST to help out the 8-bit!  <snicker!>

    "Be seeing you!"
Say|____________9_year_veteran_ ||| __
Hi |PhBill: Bill Kendrick      / | \
if |moon!cyberden!phbill@well.sf.ca.us
in |__________________________________
NJ!|                     July 24, 1992
From: dunham@mpd.tandem.com (Jerry Dunham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Old software
Date: 24 Jul 92 23:49:05 GMT
Reply-To: dunham_jerry@tandem.com (Jerry Dunham)
Organization: Tandem Computers, Inc., Austin, TX

In article <1992Jul24.195917.26248@microsoft.com> darekm@microsoft.com (Darek Mihocka) writes:
]In article <1992Jul23.213357.28919@oakhill.sps.mot.com> jeffh@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Jeff Hunsinger-MUX_Tech) writes:
]>Remember when there was a big movement to see if the old games had been
]>released into the public domain (or to get the companies to do so)? Well,
]>my results after contacting numerous companies were:
]>No reply.
]>No way.
]>
]>So... 
]>
]>If you can find it for sale, buy it. If not, copy it.
]>I hope to establish a "clearinghouse" for orphan software RSN...
]>
]>Jeff
]
]Amazing. Not only are you offering to pirate software and telling other
]people to do so, but you're actually offering to do this for people.
]Not for free, I'm sure. How much do you plan to charge people for this?
]Do you plan on sending any of the profits to the original companies
]like Sierra or are you gonna bag all the profits yourself.
]
]Hey, I have another profitable idea for you. Break into warehouses
]and storage lockers and steal the merchandise and re-sell it. Heck,
]go and break into people's home during the day when they're not there.
]After all, they're not using at the moment. They don't need the stuff!
]
]Let's forget the fact that the people will come home and want to use it.
]Let's ignore the possibility that this software may at some time be
]repackaged or brought to market again. Let's forget that somebody still
]owns the rights to that code.
]
]And give me a break. You 8-bit users are all pirates anyway, even though
]only Jeff here will admit it in public. You want me to believe that
]your typical Joe 6 Pack Atari user will be able to _only_ pirate software
]that is no longer in production and refrain from pirating software
]that is. Like your average user will _know_ which software it's "ok" to
]pirate and which it isn't.
]
]BULL****!!!! You are a complete disgrace to the Atari community. I hope
]you not only get sued by every 8-bit software developer past and present
]but that you lose your net privilidges as well. You're also pretty stupid.
]By blatantly offering your piracy services in public, you're opening yourself
]for all sorts of trouble. Moron.
]
]- Darek
]
]
]-- 
]/----------------------------------------------------------------------------\
]| darekm@microsoft            | What the above looked like to Homer Simpson: |
]| Views expressed are my own. | Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
]\----------------------------------------------------------------------------/

So how do you REALLY feel, Darek?

                                         --Jerry Dunham
                                           dunham_jerry@tandem.com
                                           400, 600XL, 800XL, 520ST, Xformer
From: moon!cyberden!phbill@well.sf.ca.us
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: MONROE!
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 16:18:06 PDT
Organization: Indescribable Creations

I've made some REALLY nice pics. of Marylin Monroe.  Do you think it's 
worth uploading to the archive???
(btw: also colorized a few)

How many others out there have ComputerEyes?
How many of you USE yours??

    "Be seeing you!"
Say|____________9_year_veteran_ ||| __
Hi |PhBill: Bill Kendrick      / | \
if |moon!cyberden!phbill@well.sf.ca.us
in |__________________________________
NJ!|                     July 28, 1992
From: Jim_Johnson@abcd.Houghton.MI.US (Jim Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Stuff left for sale
Distribution: world
Date: 30 Jul 92 16:12:35 EST
Organization: Amiga BitSwap Central Dispatch

To the individual in Deutschland who wants the 65XE:

Are you aware that there is a difference between Atari 8bit computers
manufactured for the North American market and the European market?  The
North American machines use NTSC video and an internal clock based on 60Hz
and 120VAC power supplies, and the European machines use PAL video and an
internal clock based on 50Hz and 220VAC power supplies.  
 

-- Via DLG Pro v0.995

Jim Johnson-
*** Remember, they're only tools - Not a way of life! ***
From: Tom_Klok@mindlink.bc.ca (Tom Klok)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Hardware Questions
Date: 25 Jul 92 12:41:22 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

> Jeff McWilliams writes:
> 
> 1)  Does anyone know of a source for a prototyping card, like the apple
>     cards, but with an edge connector containing 25 connecions per side,
>     that will mate with a 50 conductor ribbon cable IDC edgecard connector?

Looking through the catalogs for the some of the local (Vancouver) supply
houses, I don't see anything with 50 conductor card edges.  Lots of 56's,
though.  You could saw/file a 56 down to a 50 without much trouble, although I
wouldn't want to do a large quantity by hand.

> 2)  Does anyone know exactly what the differences are between a standard
>     6502 and Atari's 6502C used in the XL/XE computers?  i.e. exactly
>     what did they change, and therefore what would need to be added
>     to say, a 65C02, to plug wire it into an XL/XE?

Ack, I lent my Sams Photofax schematics on the XL/XE's to a friend last year,
and I still haven't seen them back. :(

Do you have a copy of the Hardware Manual?  If so, turn to the schematic of the
old (rev A) CPU board with the true 6502.  Note these two TTL parts:

    Z301  - 74LS02 quad nor gate
    Z302  - 7474   dual D-type flipflop with preset and clear

I'm not exactly sure how this stuff works.  Digging around with a scope would
tell the full story.  But it looks like Antic generates clk0 and -halt.  These
are massaged by the TTL parts into clk0 for the CPU, as well as clk1, clk2 and
r/-w for the rest of the system.  This stuff is basically glue to allow Antic
to take over the bus cleanly during Antic's DMA.  The CPU-generated clk1 and
clk2 aren't connected, since they would contain wierd burps whenever Antic went
after the bus.

Since I'm without XL/XE schematics, I don't have anything on the 6502C.  But
from memory, this clock stuff is what was moved to the 6502C chip.

I'd guess that those two chips are all that is needed parts-wise to get a
R65C02 into an XL/XE.  The problem is... you won't find everything you need on
the CPU socket, so a simple daughtercard won't work.  You'll have to cut a few
traces on the motherboard and run lines to the daughtercard.

I took the easy route out on my 400.  I found someone with a rev A CPU board in
his 800 who didn't care about CPU upgrades and swapped cards with him.  Then I
stuck in a 3 MHz R65C02 (same price as the 2 MHz part, still ran at 1.79.)  But
after a bit of playing, I went back to the trusty XL... I preferred Sparta 3.2,
and I hated the 400's keyboard. :)

--
Tom Klok                     MIND LINK! Support team member - Vancouver BC
a344@mindlink.bc.ca          What, me hurry?  -- Alfred E. Von Neuman
From: poehland%phvax.dnet@SMITHKLINE.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: PSAN
Date: 28 Jul 92 00:05:03 GMT

The word I have is that PSAN folded last year.
The last issue of PSAN I'm aware of came out around March 1991.  The cover was
a riot.  It featured Saddam Hussein wearing a duncecap, & camels with bullseyes
painted on their humps in the background.
Sometime in the fall of 1991 I sent Jim Chapman a postcard inquiring about PSAN
& requesting a sample issue.  I never received a response.
Several sources mentioned it was a severe case of burnout.
A few months ago I heard a rumor PSAN was going to start up again this Fall.
We'll see.......

     - BEN POEHLAND
       The Alchemist

******************************************************************************
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: mfolivo@sactoh0.sac.ca.us (Mark Newton-John)
Subject: Atari DOS 2.0D
Keywords: Atari DOS for the 815 drive
Organization: Sacramento Public Access Unix
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 06:31:07 GMT

In <1992Jul24.145841.12784@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current) writes:

>Do you HAVE DOS 2.0D?  I've never heard of anyone who had seen it.  Maybe
>you have an 815 Drive to go with it?

Well, no. I did let a 815 drive slip through my fingers about 10
years ago...

But I DO have the Atari 2.0 double density DOS. It's really the
same as 2.0S except that it uses DD sectors, so if you were looking
at a directory, the sector counts would look funny.

I forgot where I got it... Probably another user in Sacramento,
when I was more active in the local user's group.


-- 
#############################################################
# Scaramento Public Access UNIX     sactoh0.SAC.CA.US       #  
#  (916) 649-0161, 722-6516 & 722-5068    E-Mail & USENET   #
################## default .signature file ##################
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: bbs@neb (BBS System)
Subject: Re: Dos 3
Organization: Nebula BBS - Salt Lake City Utah, USA
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 16:07:03 GMT

Have you ever tried to use Dos 2.5 programs with your Dos 3.0 disk
booted up? Try it out sometime..
-----
Posted by BBS User: James King
From: mbarnes@finally.East.Sun.COM ( Intelligence Natl Sales Manager Washington DC)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: p handler
Date: 22 Jul 1992 12:42:22 -0400
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc., Vienna, VA.
NNTP-Posting-Host: finally.east.sun.com
Summary: Megafont
	 XLent Software


There is a program that the magazines used to use to print out there listings, MegaFont.
XLEnt Software has had many different release of MegaFont for the PC, 8bit and ST.  The
program allowed text to be printed out with virtually any charater set that can be created
with an 8X8 matrix.  The program included a font uploaded that uploaded character sets
into the C.Itoh 8510 and Epson FX 80.  The program also would print text files as
graphics.  

The program was part of XLEnt Software's Printware series which had a desktop publishing   
package called Typesetter, a toolkit for Printshop called Printshop Companion, Page
Designer, and a package called Rubber Stamp that was designed to create lables and 
other small printouts.

XLEnt Software is still around.  Their number is (703) 569-8881.  

Xref: sparky comp.sys.atari.8bit:3966 comp.sys.atari.st:11874
From: mfolivo@sactoh0.sac.ca.us (Mark Newton-John)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Atari 1029 printer
Keywords: Yes, 1029.
Date: 30 Jul 92 09:08:55 GMT
Organization: Sacramento Public Access Unix

(Cross posted to .st, maybe someone remembers)

I saw this at B&C Computervisions in Santa Clara, an Atari 1029
printer. It's a dot matrix printer, it looks like a C. Itoh
Prowriter (?) clone.

Does anyone know anything about this printer?

As I recall, Atari never offered the 1029 in the US, I never saw it
in any literature, or saw it at Federated.

Was this an unreleased prototype, or a printer for the European
market?

The 8 bit printers that I know that were released were the;
820 40 column dot matrix
822 40 column thermal, with plotting
825 80 column parallel
1020 color plotter
1025 80 column SIO
XDM121 daisy wheel

-- 
#############################################################
# Scaramento Public Access UNIX     sactoh0.SAC.CA.US       #  
#  (916) 649-0161, 722-6516 & 722-5068    E-Mail & USENET   #
################## default .signature file ##################
From: Jim_Johnson@abcd.Houghton.MI.US (Jim Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Old Software
Distribution: world
Date: 28 Jul 92 11:56:46 EST
Organization: Amiga BitSwap Central Dispatch

The reason I sold all my Atari 8bit stuff almost a year ago was that the
excitement was gone.  I had moved a few hundred miles from an active user
group (SPACE - St. Paul - and I've seen the trails of several of my
co-members floating through here).  There apparently was NO one locally
involved with the 8bits (now there appears to be a couple Michigan Tech
students).  I could not obtain any decent new software (I'm not into games
which is what most of the privately developed stuff appeared to be).  And
finally, it was a major pain continually transfering data and text files
between MS-DOS and SpartaDOS.
     So I sold my stuff and bought a portable DOS machine which I use in my
consulting business.  In some ways I have more power, but in many ways I
have much less.

At any rate, the 8bit is now an orphan.  Rather than pirate the old
software, what I would suggest is group(s) approach copyright holders and
see if they will sell their rights to the group - cheap.  The publishers
obviously aren't getting anything in sales - so maybe they will let it go. 
In some cases it will probably be tough trying to find out who owns the
copyrights. There's my
two cents (BTW, my DOS machine can produce a cent symbol - but it turns out
to be the Atari EOL character - hardly useful here, right?)

-- Via DLG Pro v0.995

Jim Johnson-
*** Remember, they're only tools - Not a way of life! ***
From: DUNHAM_JERRY@TANDEM.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Atari Arcade Game Artwork for sale
Date: 29 Jul 92 20:30:00 GMT

------------   ORIGINAL ATTACHMENT   --------
SENT 07-29-92 FROM WILLIAMS_DEBBY @AUSTIN

                  Atari Arcade Game Artwork for sale
 Hi,
   My brother-in-law worked at Atari for a time and got a piece of artwork
from one of their pinball/arcade games for me. I have no room to hang it
anymore but it would look great in a game room, den, or study. It is a
painting on reflective glass with bright colors of blues, yellows, oranges
etc. of a man and woman on a futuristic motorcycle with the wording
"Spaceriders" across the top. It is almost Peter Maxish. Dimensions
are 28"w x 24" h. It would look great in a kids room too.  Asking $30.
                                  Thanks,
                                      Debby
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
From: fontana@cis.ohio-state.edu (Mark Fontana)
Subject: Skipping levels in Miner 2049er
Originator: fontana@iguana.cis.ohio-state.edu
Organization: The Ohio State University, Department of Computer and Information Science
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 20:14:46 GMT


A few days ago, someone mentioned that you can skip levels in Miner 2049er
by typing Big Five's phone number.  I'd never heard of this before, so I
loaded up the game and started messing with it, but couldn't get it to work.

Could someone please explain precisely when and what I'm supposed to type?


Mark
From: Rick_Michael_Cortese@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Posting
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 92 08:07:08 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

I still can see the original via Portal, if you can't see it, it may be your
system has a ban on anything commercial. Talk to the adminstrator & see if
he (or she) will move it to a private mail box or something.
BTW: I have no $$$$ interest in any of the firms I mentioned.