Retro thread?

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use it for your shady accounting practices.

ahh.. always have wanted to get one in good shape

There's also a CRT manufacturer in Taiwan--I think they produce arcade monitors or someshit.

Only after you livestream your suicide

...

The Atari cartridge BASIC was a little quirky because it's not Microsoft BASIC and some features especially string handling are very different. For one thing, all string variables have to be dimensioned prior to use, even if it's just to make a command prompt. Plus you can't include prompts with an INPUT statement.

10 input "Type a message: ";a$
20 print a$

vs

10 dim a$(10)
20 print "Type a message: ";
30 input a$
40 print a$

The string handling thing is possibly the single biggest nuisance in converting programs to Atari BASIC and will require some programming gymnastics to work around. Also Atari BASIC is dogshit slow because of how it handles line numbers and branching.

Of course there were third party BASICs and even Microsoft BASIC for the Atari later on, but the 8k cartridge BASIC (included in ROM from the 1200XL onward) was the lowest common denominator and the most widely supported.

...

Gotcha.

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I found this Optiplex GX1 thrown out over a year ago and I have yet to do anything with it. Though I did test the RAM, which Memtest86+ thought was bad, but the test was really slow so I'm not sure.

It's a slot Pentium II of some sort. I have a Quantum Bigfoot drive I'll probably put in it and have some fun getting NT 4.0 to jive with my 2003 server.

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Just boot it up and if it starts acting funny, you'll know there's a RAM issue.

Oh my God this +1

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Make a sleeper build

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disgusting

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u pleb m8

True, I like to know the RAM in my computers is good though. I used Memtest86+ 5.01 and it took forever to load off the floppy. Could the floppy drive need some TLC maybe? I did get it to pass the test with one only stick installed.

What did people use back in the day to test memory?

Not a bad idea, but I don't think it's ATX. It's nice as it is, to be honest, and I don't have any other pre-Pentium III machines.

What's the best Atari 8-bit emulator?

I was using Atari800Win myself; I assumed that's the definitive emulator.

atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=146

So I tried this sine wave thingie on Atari800Win. It gave me an Error 141 message (thank you Atari for not giving actual error messages). Looked it up and it was a cursor out of bounds error.

What I was doing was adjusting the tab position with POKE 85,A in place of the PRINT TAB(A) given here, because [spoiler]there is no TAB function in Atari BASIC[/spoiler]. There's two main ways you can adjust the tab positions; POKEing memory location 85 is the easier of the two (it won't update though until a PRINT statement is executed). Anyway, it apparently does not want to wrap around the screen like in Commodore BASIC, so I adjusted the parameters in the SIN equation (26 by 25 is too big) to fit properly within a 40 column screen and it ran perfectly.

You know, you don't get any more brownie points for using a spreadsheet from the 80s than you do playing a game from the 80s.

I think some fanboys made an improved Atari BASIC or something. I mean, there is a big difference in the tools and programming info available in 2018 versus 1979, when it was written, also fanboys doing it as a passion project is a little different than some guy who may have just been doing it for a paycheck.

FWIW one of the programmers of Atari BASIC was interviewed by some website and he said (paraphrasing) "We could have improved some things and added some more features that would have still fit in the 8k cartridge ROM if we'd been given a couple more weeks to work on it."

Yeahyeah deadlines--we also get that that was a thing.

That crossword puzzle program in BASIC Computer Programs For The Home...ughh, I wouldn't even want to think about trying to convert that for the Atari. Just the thought alone makes my head hurt.

Link?

need

archive.org/details/tibook_ti-basic-computer-programs-for-the-home

Page 247. This is for the TI-99/4A, but it's 90% the same thing. Atari BASIC's string handling makes it hard to convert a lot of stuff.

I'm pretty sure the case shown isn't ATX compliant either.. I had a newer APTIVA model and it still was some kind of AT/ATX abortion.. so I'm pretty sure that case went trough some modifications.

enjoy your GAMING RGB BATTLESTATION botnet

Anyone have a TRS80 coco2 like me? i'm trying to get a reliable way to CSAVE and CLOAD to for cassette saving, i tried to hook it up to my PC for casette saving and loading but it only works sometimes

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You can use disk storage if you get the floppy controller cartridge and an HxC/Gotek; it's way better. As for your cassette problem, it probably depends on the volume and whatnot controls and how they're adjusted.

Just make sure it's not the original FDC controller for the CoCo 1 because it relied on a 12V line that was removed from the CoCo 2 and it won't work.

Ebay has a lot of CoCos and they're cheap as dirt because not many people want them.

>Automobile Comparisons
>Freezer Inventory
Those are some thrilling programs in there.

ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Original-Commodore-128-Computer-In-Original-Box/163256790901?hash=item2602dcef75:g:SwcAAOSw9LlbmHBW

Good deal or not? It's a bit yellowed.

ebay.com/itm/Excellent-Working-Vintage-Atari-800-Home-Computer-System-Lot-Games-Joysticks/382565468120?hash=item5912adc7d8:g:Oh0AAOSw3mNbnSSH

How can it be "working" if they haven't been able to connect it to a TV?

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>I plugged it in and the light came on.
Working.

You know that the power LED on those things is powered directly off the PSU; it will work regardless of whether the computer itself is or isn't functional.

Be extremely careful about C64 video cables you find on Ebay. Often they're meant for some other doodad and can blow up your SID if connected wrong.

If you have a cable of unknown origin, test it with a multimeter first.

How good are these CRTs? Are they 15khz, 640x480, or on-par with the great CRT monitors?

There's a lot of things that can kill an SID, including:

>hot plugging cables
>accidentally connecting the audio to the video input on a TV/monitor
>using the Audio In connector (why is that thing even on there?)
>connecting it to a stereo amp

I hear through the grapevine that the Audio In line was intended for factory testing, but IDK.

*wheeze*

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>X? X.
Stop using this obnoxious reddit OP format.

CoCo 1-2s only have shitty RF. By the way, is it even still possible to connect this to a new TV? I don't think they accept analog signals anymore.

I haven't heard of one that doesn't, although in the off chance it won't accept analog, you can just use an old VCR to connect it to the composite out. Also fuck RF switchboxes, just use a direct RCA -> coax connection--the picture quality will be way better.

Serious question. Why use real hardware at all when emulation is this good nowadays?

Look at this ancient garbage

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Emulation is like decaf coffee and electronic cigarettes.

What? No it's not. The author quit updating or maintaining it years ago.

What are the diffs between Atari BASIC and M$ BASIC?

1. You can't have prompts with an INPUT statement.
2. String arrays/variables are way fucking different in how they work
3. There is no TAB function
4. Expressions or variables can be used with GOSUB/GOTO
5. All arrays must be dimensioned prior to use
6. You can have up to 122 character per program line instead of 80
7. There is no DEF FN

Play with the levels some more.
Do an
AUDIO ON
then
CLOAD

AUDIO ON lets you listen to the audio coming in to the coco. If your getting IO errors you most likely have the levels to high. Try looking at the wav files you are making in an audio editor to make sure you are not clipping.

There are composite mods you can do to take the the composite video right off the VDG. My fav coco is the 2b. Has real lowercase.

There was an adapter to allow the use of standard audio cassette recorders with Commodore machines, so you could also save files on a PC.

1. You can't have prompts with an INPUT statement.
2. String arrays/variables are way fucking different in how they work
3. There is no TAB function
4. Expressions or variables can be used with GOSUB/GOTO
5. All arrays must be dimensioned prior to use
6. You can have up to 122 characters per program line instead of 80
7. There is no DEF FN
8. You can abbreviate PRINT as ? same as Microsoft BASIC, but it will still show as a ? when the program is LISTed

>Also Atari BASIC is dogshit slow because of how it handles line numbers and branching.

It calculates line numbers as floating point instead of integers, and the method it uses to look up line numbers is less efficient than how it works in MS BASIC. This means that branching and loops especially are way slower.

What's a better emu? I also thought Atari800Win was the best option but that was quite a few years ago and I haven't tried any 8-bit Atari stuff since then.

Source? As far as I know they are old stock.

Altirra is the best choice nowadays--like someone else said, Atari800Win stopped being updated years ago.

In Atari BASIC, it's a good idea to shoehorn as many program statements onto a single line as you can because the fewer program lines, the faster it will execute (this also applies to MS BASIC, but Atari BASIC is so slow in processing line numbers that it makes for a big difference).

Trust me, that's the authentic fucking 80s home microcomputer experience. is right, fuck with the volume.

If it were a real cassette recorder you would also need to fuck with the tracking with one of those little fucking screwdrivers.

Fuck. I'm glad I sampled my tapes. The ORIC-1 actually fucking works well when connected to a CD player, ironically enough.

Every time I get nostalgic I bust out that thing and cure it quite rapidly in a few minutes when
?FILE ERROR - LOAD ABORTED
READY
LIST
21845 UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU