10 ms·

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

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
      Way cool. Hey, if you’re still into HAM, did you see the article on here a couple weeks ago about commodities firms petitioning to encroach on the spectrum to execute trades a couple milliseconds faster? There’s an FCC public-comment form. Don’t have the link handy.
      - ddingus 3y ago
        I did see that and need to comment. That spectrum needs to stay with the HAMs. Fact is when bad things happen, our investment in those people pays off. I say they can rent spectrum from someone. It's not like the people who are doing those kinds of volume need yet another free gift. And mooching off amateur spectrum is exactly that. Life has taken me away from radio for a while now, but I could jump back in anytime. It's great tech.

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
    Way cool. Hey, if you’re still into HAM, did you see the article on here a couple weeks ago about commodities firms petitioning to encroach on the spectrum to execute trades a couple milliseconds faster? There’s an FCC public-comment form. Don’t have the link handy.
    - ddingus 3y ago
      I did see that and need to comment. That spectrum needs to stay with the HAMs. Fact is when bad things happen, our investment in those people pays off. I say they can rent spectrum from someone. It's not like the people who are doing those kinds of volume need yet another free gift. And mooching off amateur spectrum is exactly that. Life has taken me away from radio for a while now, but I could jump back in anytime. It's great tech.