[HN Gopher] Atari 800XL Remake ___________________________________________________________________ Atari 800XL Remake Author : gtirloni Score : 166 points Date : 2023-04-21 12:11 UTC (10 hours ago) (HTM) web link (revive-machines.com) (TXT) w3m dump (revive-machines.com) | nickt wrote: | It's great to see a real SIO port, as well as USB. | | SIO always felt ahead of its time, particularly its ability to | attach multiple devices to the bus. | | Joe Decuir who did chipset design for the VCS and Amiga is well | known for his work on SIO, USB, Fax Modems, ITU modem standards, | Bluetooth. You could say his career has been a serial success! :) | EvanAnderson wrote: | Joe spoke about SIO being used as prior art in a patent troll | case re: USB. I believe it was in one of his VCF talks. | fernly wrote: | Have we hugged to death? "revive-machines.com refused to | connect." | Lolaccount wrote: | Man, I love this ... Atari 800xl was my first machine ... | | Thanks, bookmarked. | snvzz wrote: | I'd be interested if this was open hardware. | | Otherwise, I'm better off with either buying an used Atari 800xl | or with miSTer. | mdswanson wrote: | Readers might also be interested in a MiSTer FPGA-based system to | emulate many hardware devices from your childhood: | https://www.retrorgb.com/mister.html | criddell wrote: | The predecessor to this, the Atari 800, is the computer I wanted | when I was 12. A TI-99/4A is the computer I got. It was still a | wonderful gift that set me up for the rest of my life. | garbagecoder wrote: | That's funny! I wanted an Apple ][ but my dad got me the 800xl. | Looking back, it makes sense. The Atari was about $100 and the | ][ was like $1000 and I was a little kid. I wouldn't buy my | kids a $1000 computer now and that's 2023 dollars! | | But I am so glad I got the Atari. I learned BASIC, assembly, | and Pascal on it. I would type in games from the back of the | magazine. And here I am decades later! | cesaref wrote: | Yes indeed! I remember a store near me having B-17 bomber on | the original 800, with it's synthesised voices and that was a | glimpse into the future. I'll gloss over the ethics of a game | about bombing cities, sold to children, but it was a more | innocent age I guess. | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-17_Bomber_(video_game) | plicerin wrote: | B-17 bomber was an Intellivision exclusive | cesaref wrote: | Well I never knew this. I guess the shop had an Atari 800 | on the table and the game playing on the monitor and I put | them together! | retrocryptid wrote: | My uncle worked for TI, so we were pretty deep in the 99/4 | world. But later in the 80s I saved my pennies and bought a | 600XL and later an 800XL. | | On paper they were pretty similar, but there was definitely a | different "feel" between the 99/4 and Atari 8-bits. Atari went | to great lengths to remind people their 8-bit line were more | than just game consoles, but at the same time I think they had | the most flexible graphics systems and the best games. | criddell wrote: | I had big player-missile graphics envy. | | Every once in a while I find myself on eBay thinking about | buying the system of my childhood dreams. That would be a | TI-99/4A, the speech synthesizer, the peripheral expansion | system (with floppy drive), the memory expansion cart, and a | dot matrix printer. I don't pull the trigger though because I | know it would give me a weekend of fun and then it would sit | gathering dust. | justin66 wrote: | Atari 8-bit was a remarkable computer architecture. This is an | odd target for a nostalgic clone, though. There are still a lot | of used systems available, some lovingly restored by people who | really know what they're doing. | cduzz wrote: | I've got a pile of legacy hardware in the basement that's all | in some way tedious to try to use. | | One of my sons watches "speed running" videos that spend | endless amounts of time discussing how mario jumps here or | there to put a sprite into the wrong slot resulting in a stack | overflow allowing a goomba to set the level counter to a weird | hex value. He loves to play 8 bit games on his chromebook in | dosbox. | | I'd want to leave this thing in his room connected to a cheap | 12in hdmi monitor and a reliable USB power supply to let him | noodle with day and night, rather than his "has too many | distractions" chromebook. | justin66 wrote: | There's at least one fanatic who sells Atari 800XLs (and | other Atari systems) on eBay, and he does things like test, | refurbish, and update with HDMI interfaces, etc. I don't | disrespect what the remake folks are trying to accomplish but | I tend to think dealing with the refurb guy might actually be | a more rewarding experience, with a simpler path towards | getting support if it's needed. | angry_moose wrote: | Have there been any attempts to truly revive 8-bit hardware? | | Every one I've seen (including this one) are some form of | emulation, either FPGA or software. | | It's great, but I've always wanted a brand-new faithful | recreation of something like an 800 or C64. | m000 wrote: | An implementation with chips similar to the originals would | probably cost an order of magnitude more. Which would mean the | venture would not be financially viable. | | Some of the challenges that would balloon the costs: | | - Source ancient-tech components. | | - Guarantee rights to reproduce the original board design. | | - Make sure that everything works the same as the original, | down to the tiniest quirk. | | - Interface the ancient components with modern output ports. | | - Do everything correct the first time (updates are not | possible), or face hordes of angry customers. | | - Do everything in a short timespan, or face hordes of angry | crowdfunding supporters/customers. | codezero wrote: | Ben Eater has a nice 8 bit kit that uses real chips, he also | has a great video series. https://eater.net/8bit/ | fredoralive wrote: | A true replica would probably involve spending a large amount | of money on fabbing custom or otherwise out of production | silicon. | sixothree wrote: | Most of the replicas have that issue when it comes to PLAs. | They sometimes use FPGAs for those particular chips. | reaperducer wrote: | You can buy new boards, cases, and components to make most of a | C-64. | | I think there are just two chips that have to be replaced with | drop-in FPGAs: the SID, and I think the CIAs. | | Unlike today's machines, 8-bits were usually made with mostly | off-the-shelf parts. | justin66 wrote: | > It's great, but I've always wanted a brand-new faithful | recreation of something like an 800 or C64. | | I'm fairly sure a full array of replacement parts are available | for the C64, from the keycaps all the way down to the PCB. You | could build a new one for yourself, theoretically (except for | the 6502, etc.). I think one of the Commander X16 guys (not the | balding white guy, the vaguely European guy) has done something | like this. | diydsp wrote: | Fpgas can be undistinguishable from the original logic. There's | nothing magic abt those digital guts except slower, hotter | chips. You can build a c64 100% now from new parts! Only the | SID's analog items have to be emulated. | justin66 wrote: | > Fpgas can be undistinguishable from the original logic. | | In my experience when you try to get this point across to the | nostalgic, you're tilting at windmills. | retrocryptid wrote: | The problem with you kids is you clearly didn't get enough | paint chips in your diet. That's probably why you tolerate | python. | bluGill wrote: | In that era many games depended on obscure things that the | logic did by chance. | Keyframe wrote: | Check out C64 reloaded (mk2) and ReAmiga. | Nokinside wrote: | When I see picture of an old computer, I remember how it smelled. | Very nostalgic feeling. | evo_9 wrote: | For my 55th Birthday last summer, I pulled my original Atari 800 | out of storage and played Star Raiders and MULE non-stop for a | weekend. Great fun. The most challenging part of getting the 800 | running was finding an old enough TV that I could connect the | game box too. | | I also couldn't get my 810 disk drive working, so I found a copy | of MULE on eBay burned on a ROM, so that was a nice find. | | Great old machine, I think I'll buy one of these, the addition of | HDMI and USB alone are worth it. Plus it'll be fun to write a | game on that thing, something I dabbled in as a kid and was my | start as a programmer so so long ago now. | michaelcampbell wrote: | I have such good memories of both of those games, and the first | Archon with the overpowered unicorn. | (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32pAGs9AiCo) | | Oh, also Behind Jaggi Lines and BallBlazer. (One or both of | those they renamed somewhere between beta and production, but I | had, let's say, "not quite commercial" versions of them.) | CWuestefeld wrote: | BallBlazer was excellent. I could never figure out what was | the point of Jaggi Lines (actually Rescue at Fractalus, I | believe). | randombits0 wrote: | BallBlazer/Blaster was an unreleased LucasFilms game, if I | remember correctly. It was leaked and so wildly pirated | that they didn't bother releasing it. | bobbyrullo wrote: | Archon might be my favorite game of all time...But what's | this with the overpowered unicorn? Was it way more powerful | than the dark side equivalent (basilisk?)? Did they release | another 8-bit version or something? | karmakaze wrote: | The unicorn was the fastest. The Basilisk was fast but not | quite as, and could withstand more hits. (Or maybe I'm | mixing it up with the bigger Serpent thing which was slow | but very powerful?) | | The best is finding a unicorn on a dark square and | attacking it with a 'pawn' and charging it all zigzag-like. | A lucky club swing could kill the unicorn, result in a | real-world punch, and temporarily end a friendship. Stakes | were high in that game. | dlevine wrote: | I'm a bit younger than you, but I was visiting my mom a few | weeks back, and found my old NES in some boxes she had saved | for me (along with a few of the better games). Thanks to the | composite connector, I managed to plug it into a modern HDTV | and it worked just fine. My old copy of Zelda somehow even had | a working save battery. | | My mom made an offhand comment like "someone isn't sleeping | much tonight." | | The new games are more complex and realistic, but there is | still plenty of joy in those old systems and games, especially | for those of us who grew up with them. | lizknope wrote: | Are you a galactic cook or a garbage scow captain? | inoop wrote: | Maybe also take a look at the Mister project if you haven't | already. Same idea of using FPGA to reproduce old hardware but | broad support for many home computers, game consoles, and | arcade boards | evo_9 wrote: | Interesting, thanks for mentioning this. | | Pretty cool | idea/project:https://www.theverge.com/22323002/mister-fpga- | project-retro-... | glonq wrote: | The only problem with MULE is that the theme song gets stuck in | your head for a week! | mdswanson wrote: | It just got stuck in my head for a week at the mere mention | of the game. | fuster wrote: | My first computer! Lots of fond memories. Loading programs from a | cassette in particular sticks in my head. | retrocryptid wrote: | This sorta reminds me... whenever I have a bit of free time and | I'm tired of commenting on HN, I daydream about what the next | generation of Atari or Commodore 8-bit machines would be like | (not STs or Amigas, but something still mostly 8 bit.) | | I was thinking you might get a windowing system where each window | held a "Virtual 800XL" so you could run multiple apps | simultaneously, and an OS that shared peripheral access to real | devices. Definitely a faster SIO port. Maybe something like | FujiNet to communicate between virtual XLs (and other, real XLs.) | If I made such a beast today, it would definitely have a built-in | SD Card reader. Maybe a built-in trac-ball and no mouse buttons | since you could use the select and start buttons. | alexisread wrote: | You mean like the super xe? | https://forums.atariage.com/topic/287546-super-xe-game-machi... | Scoped in 1988 with Ricoh. | | Add a gui and you have an interesting machine | https://youtu.be/T14dL9MeMHE | | However, in the light of the 16bit ascendence I can see why | this was canned. | retrocryptid wrote: | Very cool! | fentonc wrote: | I built this! It's amazing! It's a 16-core Z80 running at 140 | MHz: http://www.chrisfenton.com/the-zedripper-part-1/ | retrocryptid wrote: | This is absolutely crazy! (And that's the best compliment I | know.) | | You could have spent your time studying for the CISSP exam, | but instead you did something that made the world a more | beautiful place. | butterisgood wrote: | That's. Insane! I love it! | lonelygirl15a wrote: | Or one of the Foenix systems, like: | | https://c256foenix.com/16bits-new-retro-computers/?v=7516fd4... | unwind wrote: | The Commander X16 [1]? | | [1]: https://www.commanderx16.com/ | retrocryptid wrote: | Yeah. That's pretty cool. I lived in Dallas for half my life | and am surprised I never ran into the 8-bit guy at 1st | Saturday or various users group meetings. I think we're about | the same age. Love his channel, didn't know he was doing | this. Thx for the pointer. | kabdib wrote: | You might have wound up with something a lot like the Apple II | GS. | | (At least one Atari engineer I know worked on the IIGS. | Personally I thought it was crazy to work on 16-bit machines | when 32-bit architectures like the 68000 were just coming into | the marketplace). | retrocryptid wrote: | Yes and no. The 6502 die size was tiny compared to most 16 | bit and all 32 bit cpus. It was ALWAYS going to be cheaper. | For quite some time (maybe even still) WDC had a great | business selling 6502 family cores matched with semi-custom | IO on the same die as device controllers. | | But the IIgs was a crazy machine. My mom brought one home for | a couple months when the school district she worked at | adopted them. It was surprisingly usable, though the screen | resolution was a bit low. | kabdib wrote: | Fun fact: The Macintosh II (68020) had two 6502 processors | on its motherboard, somewhere in the I/O system. Originally | intended to do some kind of I/O acceleration, they were | never used by MacOS. I heard they just ran Mandlebrot- | generation test code. | rjsw wrote: | The IIfx, Quadra 900 & Quadra 950 each have two 6502 | processors. They offload ADB processing (keyboard and | mouse), the floppy disk and serial ports. MacOS uses all | of them, NetBSD can use ADB offload. | nickt wrote: | I dunno. The 6502 looks pretty large with this version. | | https://monster6502.com/ | retrocryptid wrote: | I'm sure there's a die-shrink coming soon | CWuestefeld wrote: | OP mentions "USB socket for connecting external memory, such as | programs" | | I wonder if that means that there will be some internal interface | for USB-based storage like a flash drive to be seen by the | computer as a floppy disk? | | There really needs to be some way to get images of ancient disks | mounted through modern hardware, since 40-year-old floppies are | going to be very iffy, and it's pretty tough to source new floppy | disks to re-write to. | sixothree wrote: | I might be misunderstanding the question and treating you like | you are dumb. If so I'm sorry. | | That has been the drive for pretty much all vintage computers | lately - emulating floppy or hard drives allowing them to load | and save disk images. I would assume and hope this USB | interface is similar. | | Here are a few examples: | | https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/ | | https://scsi.blue/ | CWuestefeld wrote: | Yeah, I think we're in agreement. It's just that the OP | doesn't specifically mention this, and I think it's relevant. | phkahler wrote: | So can it actually connect to an original floppy drive and read | my disks? That would be super fun! Protector II here I come! | Solfeggietto! | naikrovek wrote: | These days, lots of businesses seem to be based on Nostalgia as a | Service, almost. | | Maybe it's not a new idea. I don't know. | whartung wrote: | One thing I've learned hanging out on vintage computer | communities is that you can not use your lenses to understand | the motivations of the folks who practice the hobby. | | Commercial nostalgia has been around since classic cars, Happy | Days, and 50's diners. | | I do know that, on the whole, this stuff is not for me, and | that's fine. But I still like to hang out and reminisce about | the time of my youth and the foundations of computing as I | experienced them. That said, I have a Model 100 that I can't | part with. | | A friend of mine has a small collection of vintage Macs. He has | a very nice specimen of the G4 Cube that I dabbled with one | day. It's a beautiful piece of hardware. But, oh my word, is | that box slow. It is glacial. I don't know how good it was in | the day, I have to assume it was competitive, which means | everything we did back then was glacial, we just couldn't | appreciate it. | | But it's a nice piece of sorta kinetic sculpture, and it brings | him joy, so who's to question that. | | Hang out on vintage forums with folks with their racks of PDPs, | assortments of beige, 90's PCs, old Apples. Trying to bring | Windows 98 to life to play a game, connecting a pair of modems | to call each other, rebuilding a power supply on some garage | filling Data General Nova, etc. Just eclectic collectors. No | different from Hummel figurines. | irdc wrote: | I'm thinking it's a generational thing: people who grew up with | machines such as the Atari are now of the age where they'd like | to re-experience part of their youth. | hn8305823 wrote: | Just like the resurgence of the Shelby GT500 in 2007. | | If you were 12 in 1969 and dreamed of owning/driving one, in | 2007 you were 50 with $$$ and nostalgia. | bigbillheck wrote: | Maybe it's just that you've aged yourself into the target | markets for that kind of thing. | skeeter2020 wrote: | The 8-bit computing renaissance has been going on for quite | some time. I think it's a combination of 1. the age & | experience of the original audience, 2. tech changes that make | it much easier to design, build and supply retro-inspired | computers and 3. the appeal of a stand-alone "computer" where | an individual can hold the entire design in their head without | massive abstractions. There's a lot of sad, negative, stupid | things in the world today but the state of the NEW 8-bit scene | is amazing. If you're a purist for original 8-bit gear it is | not as great. | eschneider wrote: | They were also a LOT of fun to program as you could really | learn every bit of the architecture. Being able to do | edit/compile on a modern box and download to something like | the Atari makes it a lot nicer than native development was in | the day. (IIRC, back in the day, some folks would cross | compile on DEC boxes for similar reasons.) | | I'd probably do a lot more 8-bit work in my spare time, but | bare metal embedded systems scratch similar itches for me | and, well, folks will pay for that sorta thing. :) | jasoneckert wrote: | If Nostalgia as a Service is a thing, this project could be | considered an edge appliance for it... | drivingmenuts wrote: | oh, how I miss that form factor. | cstross wrote: | On a related theme, here's the Spectrum Next, Issue 2: | | https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spectrumnext/zx-spectru... | | (Delayed about two years due to supply chain problems -- their | FPGA was back-ordered for over a year -- but due to ship in 3-6 | months' time: the ultimate Sinclair Spectrum revival.) | DrNosferatu wrote: | Let's not forget the MSXVR: | | https://msxvr.com/en/tienda/msxvr-computer/ | | (even if not FPGA-based, still pretty cool) | blame-troi wrote: | I've got one of the first run. It's back in the box, I was | always more of a Tandy guy. The RC2014 is also more my speed. | CPM. | fortran77 wrote: | From the description: | | > Our engineers write code only in C and HDL languages. | | Hooray! No Rust in this box. | retrocryptid wrote: | Or python. So there's a chance the code will still compile in | two years. | vhhn wrote: | Fun story. | | My first computer too. Got it from my uncle without any manuals, | we spend a whole afternoon writing down a code of a game from a | magazine letter by letter. We thought we will just press the | "Start" functional key on the right side. To our surprise, sadly, | absolutely nothing happened! After few more hours, my dad came | home and it took him few guesses to finally type "RUN" in the | console... | c0nsumer wrote: | Not to take away from this thread, but here's a fun project I did | a few years ago to make a SD based external floppy emulator for | Ataris like the 800XL: | https://nuxx.net/wiki_archive/A/SDrive_NUXX | | I reused an existing OSS project and sold some kits and nice | enclosures and stuff to make it more than a DIY PCB-based | project. Was fun and a nice learning experience, and it also gave | me a reason to start poking around with the old Atari hardware | that I grew up with. | garbagecoder wrote: | This was my first computer. Not the first one in my house, but | the first one that was mine. | alvarlaigna wrote: | [dead] | eschneider wrote: | Ooooh, this is nice. I may have to see about getting one of these | when/if my Atari 400 gives up the ghost. I still have a few games | I like playing on it. :) | christkv wrote: | M.U.L.E for the money. | huslage wrote: | M.U.L.E. is still one of the best games ever. I played that | to death. | eschneider wrote: | M.U.L.E.'s great, but in my case it's Zaxxon (believe it or | not, on cassette :) and a cart version of Joust. | the_af wrote: | The C64 tape version of Zaxxon was the "good one", right? I | loved that game. | | Believe it or not, I never played M.U.L.E. I know | everything about the creator and the game, and why it's a | landmark, but I never encountered it back in the day! | bluGill wrote: | I keep hoping for one of the open source clones to become | playable, but they never seem to get that far. Someday I'll | have to contribute myself I guess. | tempodox wrote: | The 800XL was my first Atari, before the ST. It was quite | hackable, and within a few months I didn't need a disassembler | any more. I could read the 6502 instructions directly out of a | hex dump and could write them in hex, without an assembler (6502 | has so few instructions, you can memorize them all). Fun times. | Math functions in the ROM were all operating on BCD -- there was | no FPU, of course. | hn8305823 wrote: | I always liked the original Atari 800 case design. I felt it was | intentionally designed to not look like a boring computer, but | _something_ else. | jghn wrote: | Then there was the Atari 400 with that awful membrane keyboard | :( | ihatepython wrote: | It was awful, but it was still better than the 2016 Macbook | keyboard. | retrocryptid wrote: | I would disagree. With an Atari 400, you knew you could | upgrade to a real keyboard by buying an 800. But with | modern mac laptops, your only option for a real keyboard is | an external one, but you have to also carry a usb-c to | usb-a adapter around to connect it. And it's hard to use as | a laptop with an external keyboard hanging off it. | | I still prefer the Atari 400 membrane keyboard to the | chicklet keys on modern macs. | eschneider wrote: | You could upgrade the atari 400 to a 'real' keyboard, | though not a great one. It would just replace the | membrane keyboard. | | And as much as I'm not a fan of the chicklet keyboards, | they're 100x better than the atari 400 membrane keyboard. | No. Contest. | ihatepython wrote: | Just for the record, I agree with you. I'm not sure if I | worded my response correctly. | | I also think the keyboard on the Speak & Spell is better | than the 2016 Macbook keyboard. | retrocryptid wrote: | There's a nostalgia hit! SNS: SPELL | MRGHHSHFG. Me: what? SNS: SPELL | FHJFRJEBRBDN. Me: what ARE you saying!? | | Bit of trivia: my uncle was the executive at TI that | green-lit the Speak-N-Spell. I was a tad bit older than | the target market, but got invited to be in one of the | early focus groups they used to gage reaction to it. I | thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread and | saved my pennies to buy a speech synthesizer for my 99/4 | after seeing it. | | But yes, it had a worse keyboard than even the original | 99/4. | hn8305823 wrote: | I would say it was the worst membrane keyboard of all time | but the Sinclair ZX was definitely worse. | xp84 wrote: | Even as a 5-year-old when they let me use it in Kindergarten, | I knew that keyboard was garbage :D | neilv wrote: | I think the Atari 800 looks a bit like an IBM Selectric II | typewriter, made to be more sleek, like a spaceship. | | https://www.vintage-calculators.nl/P1010274s.jpg | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atari-800-Computer-FL.jpg | rob74 wrote: | Now that you mention it, it does look like a typewriter! | Typewriters had a lid in the same spot so you could access | the mechanics if something got stuck. And in the space where | the type levers (or type ball) would be in a typewriter, the | Atari 800 had its cartridge and expansion slots... | aNoob7000 wrote: | Here's a remake of the Commodore 64. With more advanced features. | | https://www.commanderx16.com/ | the_af wrote: | If you are looking for a "retroremake" of the C64 that's | actually an ARM chip running inside a functional C64 breadbin | case, with working keyboard, I recommend TheC64 [1] (full size | version, not the Mini which is just a game console). | | You can program in basic and assembly language with it, plus it | has HDMI output so no additional cables or adapters required to | connect it to an LCD. | | Internally it's running a modified version of VICE. | | [1] https://retrogames.biz/products/thec64/ | christkv wrote: | If you are looking for a C64 remake there is https://mega65.org | Findecanor wrote: | The Mega65 is actually a realisation of an unreleased model | that only made it to prototype stage back in the day, but | yes, it is backwards-compatible with the C64. | skeeter2020 wrote: | It's more inspired by the zeitgeist of the C64, but definitely | not a remake. | woodrowbarlow wrote: | the Atari 800XL looks closer to the ultimate 64: | | https://ultimate64.com/ | | an FPGA mainboard that can cycle-exact emulate the 6510, plus | various disk drives, printers, cartridges, etc., with modern | I/O and storage. | Aloha wrote: | It's not - because it cant run C64 software (outside of basic) | unmodified, the internal memory map and graphics hardware are | very different | aNoob7000 wrote: | You are correct, but I wonder if any new hardware is going to | be able to mimic the old completely. | retrocryptid wrote: | Somewhere I saw a project where someone made a new | motherboard for a 99/4A so it would fit in a mini-itx case | and tweaked the ROM so you could add an external PS/2 | keyboard. After buying the board, you bought an original | 99/4, yanked the chips out and used them to populate the | new board. | | I don't know if that really counts as "new hardware" but it | was an interesting idea and was supposedly very compatible. | | Or maybe I dreamed that. | nickt wrote: | The Mega 65 gets pretty close, they say "highly | compatible". | | https://mega65.org/ | 300bps wrote: | It's actually pretty easy to port C64 software - both | Assembly and BASIC. It uses the exact same BASIC and same | processor family as the Commodore 64, NES, Apple II and many | others. | | Memory map, graphics and sound are the biggest challenges in | porting because those are different. But code to translate | between these will get better and better. Lots of ports from | other systems already. | glonq wrote: | Super cool. I had a 130xe as a teen, but I moved around a lot | since then and travelled light so unfortunately it's in a | landfill somewhere now :( | | I was always slightly envious of the c64 for getting more/better | games, but cherished my atari for some of the great titles that | were unique to that platform. | | I also credit my atari for getting me online at a blazing fast | 300bps to some great local BBS's. | gbourne wrote: | The first program I ever wrote was on an Atari 800XL - in BASIC. | It played the theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. | sanity31415 wrote: | My parents got me an Atari 800XL for my 8th birthday in 1985. It | came with a very terse list of Basic commands along with a few | program listings from which I learned how to program. | | Stuck with Atari over the years, through an 520STfm, and even a | Falcon 030 - before eventually switching to a PC running Linux in | the late 90s while a student. | | Last year I went on eBay and bought one of these (I have no idea | where the original one ended up), was so much fun. | wintogreen74 wrote: | When I think about what clueless Atari execs did to the machine | and company, driven by ignorance and greed, it makes me really | mad. It was such a good machine and they were desperate to not | let any 3rd party make money, hence software, for it they | essentially killed the company (amongst other bone-headed | mistakes). | snvzz wrote: | You think Atari execs were bad? Don't even get me started | with Commodore. | dberg wrote: | dude, same! Got mine in 1985 (i was 9, not 8) and it was THE | machine that got me hooked on computers. BASIC coding, playing | Missile Command, so classic. | CWuestefeld wrote: | I got my 800 when I was 16, so I'm a bit older than you. I, | too, had a 520ST. I later added a daughterboard bringing it up | to a full 1MB RAM, and also make a little mod to expose a | composite video connector on the back panel. | | I never met anybody who had a Falcon, though. Very cool. | randombits0 wrote: | The Magic Sack by David Small made your ST a Mac! | | PC-Ditto (a NEC V20 chip on a daughter card soldered to the | 68000!) made your ST a PC! | | Awesome hacker box, those STs. | BubbleRings wrote: | I think you mean 1M of RAM, not 1G. | CWuestefeld wrote: | Indeed. Corrected, while it still lets me. | bitL wrote: | What would be the benefit of these old clones beside learning to | create hardware? RPi4 can probably replace them all with | emulators. I'd rather see old games resurrected by improving | graphics through stable diffusion and increasing refresh rates. | zabzonk wrote: | i bought one of these ultra cheap when currys (dreadful uk | electrics store) decided it didn't want to inventory or sell them | any more - must have been mid-80s? yay, star raiders! very nice | 8-bit computer. | retrocryptid wrote: | I bought an 800xl explicitly to get star raiders (probably | around the same time, I remember it was reasonably | inexpensive.) I kept expecting my C64 to have something just as | good, and though elite was good, it wasn't star raiders good. | | So... at least for me... Star Raiders was the Atari 8-bit | Killer App. (And weirdly, I came to like SynCalc a bit later.) | mikerg87 wrote: | hopefully it will get something similar to fujinet built in or at | least be able to support it | | https://fujinet.online/ | dillera wrote: | If it accurately emulates the SIO port and timings, FujiNet | will just work on it. There is no need for something | similar.... | Keyframe wrote: | Nice, but so far it's only future tense text and rendered images. | Let's see it when it's out! | phendrenad2 wrote: | This is awesome, and I'd love to see more of it. Seems like Amiga | and Atari get all of the love (because the company is defunct), | but I still hold out hope that someone will make a recreated | Macintosh II or something. | st3ve445678 wrote: | I would love to see a complete modern pc wrapped in a retro | styled keyboard like this. With usb-c power and video output you | could just plug it into a monitor with one cable. | the_third_wave wrote: | Get a full-sized keyboard - a model M would work fine here - | and a laptop with a broken screen plus some assorted bits and | pieces. Fit the motherboard from the laptop in the keyboard | after making the required openings in the keyboard enclosure. | Hook up the power supply and a monitor and voila, a keyboard | PC. | mydriasis wrote: | Raspberry Pi 400 might be a good halfway point for you! | st3ve445678 wrote: | Yeah, I actually have one. Pretty cool little machine, but | too slow, ugly and no ssd built in. | agloe_dreams wrote: | I know it's not fully a modern computer, but that sounds like a | Pi 400 to me. | retrocryptid wrote: | Can confirm. Using a PI400 as my SDR rig. It does have a | little of the old C64/994/800 feel to it. But the keyboard is | pretty crappy. | wintogreen74 wrote: | the keyboard is loads better than the Atari 400 keyboard | though! | retrocryptid wrote: | Well, yes. That's definitely true. And I've been thinking | about hacking a repurchased klacky-key keyboard into my | PI400. It shouldn't be TOO hard. | cmiles74 wrote: | It's quite a bit bigger than an Atari 800XL, but I jammed a | whole PC in an old Mac SE case. | | https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmods/comments/11zqznn/jammed_new_... | donpdonp wrote: | you might enjoy https://cyberdeck.cafe/ ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-04-21 23:00 UTC)