6 ms·

Wow. Time to bring my 130xe out of storage and see if it boots...

ddingus 3y ago
Get a FujiNET for it. I bought one of these. About $60. The FujiNET is amazing. It works via the standard SIO subsystem provided by the Atari system OS ROM. Device independent I/O. D: DISK P: PRINTER ETC... Now has N: for network. This device makes Atari Basic Internet capable. People have written 10 line programs to do all sorts of Internet tasks. Multi player online games are possible and have been done. There are app servers hosting disk images. I got mine, connected it to my home wi-fi and was playing Zork over the internet in about 5 minutes. It has an SD card slot for local storage and the onboard CPU has all sorts of capabilities aimed at making the Internet useful to existing Atari software and permit easy new development. That device is a lot of fun and replaces having a disk drive and some sort of modem or serial interface to work online.
- TMWNN 3y ago
  As a Commodore person, FujiNet (and thus SIO) is one of the things that I envy about Atari. <https://np.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/10cktls/the_fujinet_wifi_for_the_atari_400800/j4n31l5/?context=3 https://np.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/10cktls...>
  - rbanffy 3y ago
    I’ve seen equivalents for the C64 and Apple II.
    - TMWNN 3y ago
      I'm not sure how far along the Apple II version is, but that's not surprising given its ability to autoboot from a card. As I discuss in the linked thread, FujiNet for the C64 is not and cannot be the equivalent because of lack of SIO or something akin to it.
      - KerrAvon 3y ago
        Haven’t watched this yet, but it should be enlightening https://fujinet.online/2023/06/28/fujinet-and-meatloaf-at-vcfsw-2023/ https://fujinet.online/2023/06/28/fujinet-and-meatloaf-at-vc...
      - rbanffy 3y ago
        At least the disk interface is a serial one, and the 1541/1571 drives are smart devices much like the Atari ones. The disk interface is not as "general" as SIO, but it seems they are functionally very similar. Unless I understand it very wrong, in the base C64 OS, you run an "ls" by opening the floppy device and asking the drive to read it.
        TMWNN 3y ago
        Again, please read the linked thread. I explain the difference between SIO and Commodore's approach and why the latter doesn't allow what the former does, specifically autobooting and throughput.
        rbanffy 3y ago
        I understand SIO is better and Fujinet can do things on the Atari that are not possible on the C64, and can’t pretend to be a printer or modem because the 64 only used the disk port for disks. OTOH, while autobooting or running unmodified software is not an option, nothing prevents the modification of existing software to run with the Fujinet’s extra features. The very basic stuff, the ability to load software off a disk image, is there.
        linker3000 3y ago
        The 64's serial (IEC) port uses device numbering to support daisy-chained disk drives, printers and other devices. https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Device_number https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Device_number. Fujinet on the C64 supports modem comms - the implementation is based on the Meatloaf project: https://meatloaf.cc/ https://meatloaf.cc/
  - ddingus 3y ago
    There is a version of the FujiNET in progress for your C64 or 128, etc... :) I am getting one for my Apple, and want to get a C128 sometime in the near future. Was all Atari for a long time, and then a while back, I bumped into an Apple //e and realized just how much fun all these machines are! The C128 is next. And, in short order, we could all write programs that talk to one another over the Internet via FujiNET devices. Good times ahead. And yeah, SIO is pretty cool. Atari got that right. The one thing I envy about the C64 and friends is full 320 pixel color resolution. The Ataris are 160 pixel. And I am not talking about size. Both machines can deliver 320 pixels, but Atari machines can only specify a difference in lumanance between pixels at that resolution. In the last 10 years, that difference has proven itself with some damn cool demoscene productions on C64 and friends. Plus, the 128 has a real 80 column display. My Apple has that too, and I really miss it on the Atari. Anyhow... have fun.
- ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
  Cool, thanks for the reference! In the early '90s I wanted to get some drawings I did with the Atari Touch Tablet into my Windows computers. So I looked at the specs for the BMP format and learned enough 6502 assembly language to do the conversion on the Atari. Then I hooked the Atari modem and a Windows computer up to phone jacks in my parents' house, fired up TinyBBS (if I remember correctly) on the Windows computer, and uploaded all the graphics from the Atari over the household phone lines. Felt pretty clever after that.
  - ddingus 3y ago
    You were! People moved data in many ways didn't they? Print it out. I moved some code and data that way. Just type it in again. Some people made cables and toggled lines in the controller ports. Audio. Who knows what else?
    - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
      Ha, the controller-ports comment reminded me of a project I built that used the Atari's joystick port to sample audio. You could increase the A/D sampling rate of the joystick port to 8kHz, so with a simple transistor circuit you could plug an audio jack into something and sample it (with the program I typed in from whatever magazine it was, probably Antic). Of course with only 32ish K available, you weren't sampling much. I think I probably still have the first one I captured: "White Horse" by Laid Back. Now there's a timestamp. BTW, one of the drawings I converted from the Atari wound up in the documentation for a multi-million-dollar manufacturing system sold by Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in the '90s.
      - ddingus 3y ago
        That's great stuff!! I had my HAM transmitter connected to those controller ports. Was a great resource, especially in the older machines that had 4 ports.
        ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
NKosmatos 3y ago
I did exactly the same this summer with my Atari 65XE and it still works after more than 3 decades!!!

Get a FujiNET for it. I bought one of these. About $60. The FujiNET is amazing. It works via the standard SIO subsystem provided by the Atari system OS ROM. Device independent I/O. D: DISK P: PRINTER ETC... Now has N: for network. This device makes Atari Basic Internet capable. People have written 10 line programs to do all sorts of Internet tasks. Multi player online games are possible and have been done. There are app servers hosting disk images. I got mine, connected it to my home wi-fi and was playing Zork over the internet in about 5 minutes. It has an SD card slot for local storage and the onboard CPU has all sorts of capabilities aimed at making the Internet useful to existing Atari software and permit easy new development. That device is a lot of fun and replaces having a disk drive and some sort of modem or serial interface to work online.

TMWNN 3y ago
As a Commodore person, FujiNet (and thus SIO) is one of the things that I envy about Atari. <https://np.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/10cktls/the_fujinet_wifi_for_the_atari_400800/j4n31l5/?context=3 https://np.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/10cktls...>
- rbanffy 3y ago
  I’ve seen equivalents for the C64 and Apple II.
  - TMWNN 3y ago
    I'm not sure how far along the Apple II version is, but that's not surprising given its ability to autoboot from a card. As I discuss in the linked thread, FujiNet for the C64 is not and cannot be the equivalent because of lack of SIO or something akin to it.
    - KerrAvon 3y ago
      Haven’t watched this yet, but it should be enlightening https://fujinet.online/2023/06/28/fujinet-and-meatloaf-at-vcfsw-2023/ https://fujinet.online/2023/06/28/fujinet-and-meatloaf-at-vc...
    - rbanffy 3y ago
      At least the disk interface is a serial one, and the 1541/1571 drives are smart devices much like the Atari ones. The disk interface is not as "general" as SIO, but it seems they are functionally very similar. Unless I understand it very wrong, in the base C64 OS, you run an "ls" by opening the floppy device and asking the drive to read it.
      - TMWNN 3y ago
        Again, please read the linked thread. I explain the difference between SIO and Commodore's approach and why the latter doesn't allow what the former does, specifically autobooting and throughput.
        rbanffy 3y ago
        I understand SIO is better and Fujinet can do things on the Atari that are not possible on the C64, and can’t pretend to be a printer or modem because the 64 only used the disk port for disks. OTOH, while autobooting or running unmodified software is not an option, nothing prevents the modification of existing software to run with the Fujinet’s extra features. The very basic stuff, the ability to load software off a disk image, is there.
        linker3000 3y ago
        The 64's serial (IEC) port uses device numbering to support daisy-chained disk drives, printers and other devices. https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Device_number https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Device_number. Fujinet on the C64 supports modem comms - the implementation is based on the Meatloaf project: https://meatloaf.cc/ https://meatloaf.cc/
- ddingus 3y ago
  There is a version of the FujiNET in progress for your C64 or 128, etc... :) I am getting one for my Apple, and want to get a C128 sometime in the near future. Was all Atari for a long time, and then a while back, I bumped into an Apple //e and realized just how much fun all these machines are! The C128 is next. And, in short order, we could all write programs that talk to one another over the Internet via FujiNET devices. Good times ahead. And yeah, SIO is pretty cool. Atari got that right. The one thing I envy about the C64 and friends is full 320 pixel color resolution. The Ataris are 160 pixel. And I am not talking about size. Both machines can deliver 320 pixels, but Atari machines can only specify a difference in lumanance between pixels at that resolution. In the last 10 years, that difference has proven itself with some damn cool demoscene productions on C64 and friends. Plus, the 128 has a real 80 column display. My Apple has that too, and I really miss it on the Atari. Anyhow... have fun.
ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
Cool, thanks for the reference! In the early '90s I wanted to get some drawings I did with the Atari Touch Tablet into my Windows computers. So I looked at the specs for the BMP format and learned enough 6502 assembly language to do the conversion on the Atari. Then I hooked the Atari modem and a Windows computer up to phone jacks in my parents' house, fired up TinyBBS (if I remember correctly) on the Windows computer, and uploaded all the graphics from the Atari over the household phone lines. Felt pretty clever after that.
- ddingus 3y ago
  You were! People moved data in many ways didn't they? Print it out. I moved some code and data that way. Just type it in again. Some people made cables and toggled lines in the controller ports. Audio. Who knows what else?
  - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
    Ha, the controller-ports comment reminded me of a project I built that used the Atari's joystick port to sample audio. You could increase the A/D sampling rate of the joystick port to 8kHz, so with a simple transistor circuit you could plug an audio jack into something and sample it (with the program I typed in from whatever magazine it was, probably Antic). Of course with only 32ish K available, you weren't sampling much. I think I probably still have the first one I captured: "White Horse" by Laid Back. Now there's a timestamp. BTW, one of the drawings I converted from the Atari wound up in the documentation for a multi-million-dollar manufacturing system sold by Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in the '90s.
    - ddingus 3y ago
      That's great stuff!! I had my HAM transmitter connected to those controller ports. Was a great resource, especially in the older machines that had 4 ports.
      - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago

NKosmatos 3y ago

I did exactly the same this summer with my Atari 65XE and it still works after more than 3 decades!!!