Retro Gaming and Hardware Videos, focused mainly on Atari computers. My videos are recorded on real hardware from back in the day, which has been restored and upgraded to give the best experience today. I've recently been exploring Atari games from my childhood, and also will also discuss Atari hardware upgrades, repairs and modern accessories.
I have the 7800 GameDrive and it is truly cause for you to sell your Conserto. The cartridge itself has a Megadrive 2 AV input, which supports not only Composite but RGB SCART, 240p. It does this by generating its own video signal and bypasses the 7800's internal. From your accent I take it you live in the UK, so go to retrogamingcablesuk and get yourself a high quality Megadrive 2 SCART cable and a 7800 GameDrive and never worry about low quality video signal ever again on the 7800.
I've got my Christmas '89 7800 Sittin Next to Me. I want the 7800+ just for the Athstetic, I'll wait until after Christmas for a 50% Off "ReNewed" one on Amazon like I did with my GameStation Pro...that was right after Black Friday lol
I notice you insert the floppy when the 1050 is off and then you power it on. NEVER do this! Always power on the drive first, then insert the floppy, close the door and then power up the computer to boot. The way you do it might cause a power up surge in the read/write head, possibly damaging the data on the floppy because o a electro magnetic pulse.
I have installed an Incognito and it works great. Much later I installed the VBXE carrier board (from PCCBWAY) and VBXE into the 800. I had to change the connectors on the carrier board to match the VBXE. (ie the carrier came with male pins and needed a female connector). With PCBWAY assembly, you need to get a minimum run of 5 boards. So if you only want one assembled then you still purchase and get the assembled board plus 4 more blank boards. The only issue with the PCBWAY method is that every level of firmware needed for operation will be up to the user to install. I have done the JED flash on my incognito to 2.0. It's not hard to do... It's hard to get all the information, software, flasher and cables made to be ready to do the JED flash. I was only able to do this by stumbling onto a FJC video with most of the steps and filling in the blanks with days of research on the Atariage forums. What should have been a day took me over a month from beginning to end. I see Incognito-Lite on Candles PCBWAY page and I have some 400s ready for this. All I need are the installation and flashing steps. Unfortunately I'm just a builder, not a microcoder.
That Atari drama is a real shame, the three involved have put out some awesome and really interesting hardware for the Atari 8 bit machines. I too ordered an Incognito for an 800 I just put a mechanical keyboard on. Upgrade devices seem hard to get and go out of stock fast, a Sophia would be the only other device I'd need to make this ultimate except for a SIDE cart which looks like will never be available again. BIG LOSS for the Atari 8 bit community.
Agreed, however take a look at the epilogue from my video. Candle has released projects to PCBWay, and understand he'll receive comission through their sales of assembled or non-assembled units. Not sure how the firmware royalties to FJC will work, however he should get his share also somehow I hope.
I was lucky enough to get a Sophia and Sophia 2 for my 600xl and 800xl. I'm still keen however to get a VBXL also, as I find the pure-digital video of the Sophia is often not faithfull to how the video was intended to look on old TVs (IMHO). The stock video is not bad on the Atari's I have, however could be better.
@@TJAtarian Interesting, I will learn more about the VBXL which is still available. I did see that Candle released his projects except the ones he sold and I hope people start making some of them but the Ultimate 1MB and Incognito are not there. Both of those projects are something else as you know...
You do need more ram to play HD-adapted game, not because of the STCart or GEM drive itself, but because you have GEM loaded. A lot of floppy disk loaded games do not load the Atari opening system to save memory when loading the game. With this configuration, you need to have enough RAM for the operating system in addition to the game itself. In short, it makes things easier to have 2 megs on your Atari
few suggestions, use ST High setting or even VDI mode in Hatari for more real estate, also maybe it would help to use some disc copy utility like Kobold or M>Desk, makes life more easy, also do not forget to assign 4MB RAM to your "virtual" ST.
All sound like great suggestions. I haven't played with Gem properly for ages, so perhaps could make this a little faster / work with less steps unattended. Will feedback when get the chance.
@@TJAtarian BTW, I DLed the ICD image from your link today, same as you use in video, and in the first drive in the root there is a folder Kobold_3.5FR, so you had the Kobold all the time. Well it is a FR version, so maybe have a look for EN version if you dont understand French...
Hi. The one I am using is a 1040STFM, and has the standard 1mb it came with. You never know, I may upgrade it at some point. I'm not aware of the sidecart or gemdos feature needing extra ram, but perhaps I can verify by playing a 1mb only game and see if running from hard drive is a problem or not. Any suggestions what to try?
@keithbeesting I tried those two and they bomb out , so perhaps right that more ram is consumed than normal when playing via Sidecart and gemsos drive. Some more research required, but perhaps will be upgrading my memory in near future.
Both Obsession and Substation requires Atari STe hardware. Also most of Peter Putnik's HD adaptions play great on Atari's Mega STe system which is a 1991 released 16MHz version of the STe.
@@Maraka77i I had tried them both and indeed would not load. When sourcing the ST I have, I went for similar model to one I had back in the 90s. Perhaps I'll add an STE to my collection at some point - never had one!
Very interresting video. How about you share the contents of your SideCart hd folder with the rest of us SideCart users? Maybe on the Internet Archive?
It crossed my mind to share, as oppsosed to only pointing people in the right direction, however though I'd have thought majority of ST games are pretty much abandonware in terms of copyright, i'm not a lawyer, so hosting/sharing myself a step too far for me. Those who use either should have bought the games, or be comfortable themselves sourcing and using them if not. The files are out there, either as individual downloads from atari.8bitchip.info/ or the links I shared and methods shown here. Perhaps @madigorfkgoogle9349 's suggestitons will reduce the pain on that a little.
The power board has 3 holes for screws to secure it to the large RF shield. Plus a centering pin. If you do not put them in (at least 2) the plugging, unplugging of cables will cause broken solder joints in the long pin connector between the power board and the main board. With all the work done. you may want to re-flow those joints. Plus you probably did not need to re-cap the computer. They are all very high quality, and I have never had any go bad in the 100+ 800's I have fixed. But no harm done in doing it. There are upgrades you can do that will eliminate the jail bars shown on the blue screens. Good videos !
Thanks, I willl be tidying the machine up for sure, as I know I was more focused on getting it working than keeping track of how everything went back together. Working on a broken 800 as first one i've had open was a great way to learn how they are put together.
Be careful screwing those fasteners in. You really should do that by hand and reverse screw until you match the threads, then screw it in gently. Those screw bosses will turn to glass in a minute! (don't ask me how I know...)
Fair comment. You'll notice in earlier videos and i think early stages of this one, everything was being screwed in by hand, but i know i got lazy and used an electric screwdriver to put some of the case screws back in towards the end. I wouldn't reccomend either, but I was quite fatigued at that point, and rushing a little to move forward. I'm feeling suitably penitent ;)
Aha, thank you. I was working on this over an extended period and storing the 800 packed in bubble wrap disassembled meant I lost track of what that part was. I shall return it shortly as I have left the replacement 10k rom card caseless due to what I heard about these originals having thermal issues if cased. Thanks for subscribing. It's great to know people are appreciating my vids, and keeps me going :)
good video, thanks. i've had one of these for a couple months. i like it but need to figure it out more. you got the hard drive option going easily. i turn the feature on but can't seem to copy files to and from it. i'm new to atari system and don't know much yet. tips..??
Hi, and thanks for watching the channel :) . I used a separate USB Adapter that reads/writes to the sd card and you can put your ST files in a roms floppies or hd folder . Folders need to be named like that to be read by the device, then I just take card out of the usb reader and put it in the sidecart and they were picked up straight away. With the latest firmware you're supposed to be able to drop files on it via micro USB cable as it supports mass storage and can therefore be seen directly on a PC, mac or Linux desktop. I found that out just after finishing the video and have not tested yet, but will (been busy with life ) .
I was looking at the SDrive Max, but was put off by the gimmicky touchscreen. So went for for its stablemate, the much cheaper SDrive Mini instead. Its simplicity being its biggest strength. No bigger than a SIO plug, no gimmicks, full ATR & XEX compatibility which pretty much covers almost everything I had. Recommended.
Agree it's a bit of a faff with the SDrive Max and I don't use it often due to the various options I have. I'd guess I'd probably get a mini if I was starting from scratch, but usually now use either Side3, or mount ATRs via PC and RespeqT as generally use Ataris where my PC is. As a good cheap portable solution without bells and whistles, I think your right the mini's a great choice.
Thanks, seems I was wrong, and makes sense then its GTIA as believed a later PAL model. This means the 800xl GTIA tested in it was totally valid, and also gives me chance to double check the 800 GTIA in Lenny my doner XL. Unfortunately, it won't change the matter at hand, though will be nice to know I have a good set of main chips.
@@TJAtarian try swapping the 4050 IC it is just below the right cart slot and is the same on the XL machines. If not that, then check the 2 ICs between the cart slots and the Rom board. Unfortunately at least one of those is unique.
Thanks for watching and taking time to comment. The 4050's the hex buffer right... Will double check, but that's one on list I tried as someone made that point on Atari age.(Full list of work done is near end of video). It's great so many ICs are interchangeable with XLs . No change of the 800s behaviour unfortunately on that one either with known good part and 800 part proved good in XL
@waltciii3 Will try and check those other two soon when get some time back as getting busy now, but sounds like may need an assist from another 800 owner for at least one.
Ok, but I think context is king. This was the mid eighties and only their 3rd or 4th game. Ballblazer, Rescue on Fractalus and Koronis rift are also pretty amazing if you think about it in terms of creating a 1st person perspective in a 3D world to the best ability the hardware could muster. I think developers are spoilt today in terms of what they have to work with!
I wasn't thinking about it at the time, though I used to play a lot of Oblivion and Skyrim, so it must be in my subconscious! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CMRU28741kQ.html
Bravo for tackling this with an original ST mouse! You are a brave man! :D The face you make when the ball randomly bounces off an enemy sums up perfectly how I feel about this game. This game requires a patience and precision that just don't exist within me any more. Great conversion though!
dealing with ribbon cables are a pain. A fiberglass pen might have helped you. I used one to expose the traces on a severed PS1 laser ribbon cable. Then I soldered trace wires to re-connect the two severed pieced only to discover the ribbon snapping in half at another part because it was just too brittle. Good luck.
We had The Eidolon on the Spectrum as a kid... and we never got the bloody thing to load, not even once. I used to read the manual a lot though, wonderful world-building, and the little diagrams of the monsters... awesome artwork. Edit: And looking up a PDF of it just now, how did I never pick up on the barely-hidden double meaning of "Dr. Agon".?
I well remember the pain of waiting 10 minutes or so for a tape to load, to encounter some kind of error. Some tapes just went bad, but for a few I remember the joy when I found winding the tape past the 'leader' before starting often made them load due to some kind of timing issue. Think I recall the same 'trick' working on some spectum games. Great we have modern ways to load on old hardware and emulators now.
@@TJAtarian I've actually been able to replicate the "good" times; I got a Spectrum Next and a tape player, and had a bit of fun trying to get a game to load off tape, eventually finding just the right tone and volume :D But yeah, I reckon after work today I'm finally going to given The Eidolon a try; I reckon almost 4 decades is probably quite enough delay. :D
@@TJAtarian The solution to many of these problems, on the C64 dataset, was to turn the azimuth screw 1/4 of a turn forwards or backwards and most games would eventually load.
From what I remember of The Eidolon, you had to select the same colour fireballs as the dragon from your machine to fire at them otherwise they wouldn't die. It's been a few years since I played it though, 1987 to be exact.
I I had this on the c64, I definitely remember the music and gameplay. I seem to remember the backstory having something to do with your old uncle or grandfather inventing some kind of dimensional transport. I assume it's the same team that made Rescue on Fractalus.
I see ROF shared at least one programmer with The Eidolon - Kellner, Charlie . From what I see on this site, these were the only games he was involved with on Atari : dadgum.com/giantlist/
I loved Lucasfilm games back in the '80s, so I bought The Eidolon sight-unseen. Unfortunately I only had a 48k 800 and The Eidolon required 64k. I ended up trading it with a friend who had a 64k Atari, but I don't remember what I got out of the deal.
Agreed, I know I'm just delaying the inevitable, that it needs a more permanent fix, but works for now and may help someone else perhaps. No doubt FJC would do a quality mod, I'm a close follower of his work, though I prefer to take on what I can myself....one for later.
Thanks to Wrathchild on Atariage for spotting I am incorrectly referring to the SIO2PC USB as SIO2USB. I have corrected video contents for that section and noted this in the description, though unfortunately cannot edit the video now. The reseller links are correct, so hopefully this will be realised and not cause anyone too much confusion.
Just wanted to mention here, I added a poll on www.youtube.com/@TJGames-Atari/community . You can let me know what kind of content you'd like me to produce next. Thanks, really appreciate the discussion / engagement on my channel. :)
It's great how many choices of mass storage solutions there are for Atari enthusiasts today. I've updated video description and included some links to others.
Thanks so much for the positive appraisal of the SIDE3 user interface - I really appreciate it. It's exactly as you say: if the user spends as little time as possible in the loader and more time simply running software, that's the primary objective accomplished. :)
Game got very dull having the same boss fight (just a swarm really) at the end of each level. More variety there would have been such a massive improvement, along with cool power ups. There actually IS a power up available. The absolute bollox is that it's not obvious looking at all and destructable - in a game that pretty much requires you to have joystick autofire on.. At 5:41 you hit an enemy that resembled an inverted Space Invaders shield turning it into some purple ladder looking thing. Yes, that's the powerup. Blink and you miss it. If memory serves it grants you higher speed and autofire for a while? Ah, I forget. Young me probably loaded up the tape more for the opening screen and music than the game :) Playing with the function keys to change the starfield L/R direction.
Always found the flattest of the 'control envelopes' (what the instructions called them) worked best for me. Playing it so much back then I found myself memorising quite a lot of where the static cubes would appear - which was a huge help. The bouncing balls though were a complete pita.. There was one of the courses I never did complete - the US track maybe? Hella frustrating game but looked great and I loved the music.
Yes thanks, that loads the game and avoids the menu. Silly the things you forget when you haven't taken a device out the drawer in a while. Seems if you reset after booting into the menu, the entry turns blue by default which is why this worked the second time.
The problem with FujiNet so far was, it used the UDP protocol. And UDP is unreliable and very prone to network failures. Fortunately, very recetly both server software and FN firmware were improved to use TCP. After update, networking should be much more reliable.
Hi, and thanks for your comment. That's interesting - I wasn't aware. I did have some additional footage where I updated my Fujinet to the latest firmware, and noted only minor changes to the user interface, and inclusion of game lobby access from the main menu. I opted not to include this content, as to be honest I didn't note any major differences in the general userbility or experience. Noting TNFS supports both UDP and TCP, I wonder if the resources I was connecting to have all been updated to support TCP? I do plan to spend more time on the Fujinet and stay updated with further developments, however for the casual 8 bit gamer, not sure if this the best device for starting out - more for long term enthusiasts perhaps.
