Atari 8-Bit Computers

[RealLarry]

Aha! If I remeber correctly the core had external ROM files in it's early stage but burned them inernally later. If there is an existing boot.rom (the OS) this file becomes the "OS to load at startup". This way you can still use "a special OS" (like QMEG) by placing the ROM file as boot.rom in ATARI800/
Maybe your boot.rom is rather old/incompatible/buggy/wrong, so rename, delete or move it out of area and retry.

That did it! Finally. Thanks for all your help.

Aaah, yesss! Glad I could help.

[8bitAndy]

I'm using the Atari 5200 core, which I think is based on the Atari 800 core.

Some games like Montezuma's Revenge ask me for the 16K Cart Type, One chip or Two chips

Is there a naming scheme or preference I can save so the core does not need to ask me this question each time I load the cart?

[TLPD-AVW]

I'm using the Atari 5200 core, which I think is based on the Atari 800 core.

Some games like Montezuma's Revenge ask me for the 16K Cart Type, One chip or Two chips

Is there a naming scheme or preference I can save so the core does not need to ask me this question each time I load the cart?

Try to search for a 5200 romset in .car format. Those files should set up cartridge type automatically.

[8bitAndy]

I'm using the Atari 5200 core, which I think is based on the Atari 800 core.

Some games like Montezuma's Revenge ask me for the 16K Cart Type, One chip or Two chips

Is there a naming scheme or preference I can save so the core does not need to ask me this question each time I load the cart?

Try to search for a 5200 romset in .car format. Those files should set up cartridge type automatically.

That works, thanks.

[SirScotty]

Got a question.... Long time die-hard A8 user since very early 80s (couple years before 1200XL came out). The 400/800 pretty much had a stock max RAM of 48K. Yes, I know 52K was available as well, as well as the larger 1MB, 320K etc, etc, etc... But for the most part 48K was standard. 64K was not really heard of till the 1200XL and 800XL came out. In the config area, 64K is the lowest you can go. Is this really 48K when using OSA/B? I have looked all over and can not find anything. Thanks in advance.

[MrMister1985]

Hi, has anyone been able to get Encounter to load, as ive only been able to get it to load the title screen for the game then it freezes when pressing start. Is their certain settings needed for this game to load correctly please or is this just a issue with the core at this time?

Thanx

[akeley]

Try the version from https://a8.fandal.cz/ and run it with OS-B / 64kb / hold F8 after F10 reset

There's also an atx version which works as well.

And, Happy 50th Birthday, Atari!

[MrMister1985]

Try the version from https://a8.fandal.cz/ and run it with OS-B / 64kb / hold F8 after F10 reset

There's also an atx version which works as well.

And, Happy 50th Birthday, Atari!

Great thanx Akeley!

Blimey 50 years Atari now i feel old!

[killersquirel]

Has anyone been able to get Crypts of Terror to work on the core?

[akeley]

Has anyone been able to get Crypts of Terror to work on the core?

Works ok with .atr from Gamebase.

[killersquirel]

Has anyone been able to get Crypts of Terror to work on the core?

Works ok with .atr from Gamebase.

I just downloaded the 2021 Gamebase and the only Crypts of Terror game I see is in xex format. What are your settings when running the game? I just get a black screen on every copy that I have found.

[akeley]

Settings are default: XL+Basic / 64K, F10 to reset. The file is in Gamebase "Atari 800 v13". Seems hard to find otherwise...sent you a PM.

[Lencio]

I tried to run this two demos on Atari 800 core, but not works.
Alley Dogs stop in minute 6 (320k compy) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTHxkxdoRgU)
Rewind demo simply not work. (1MB required) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s2vqN1jWgU)
Any ideas? I try all configurations, and combinations.

Thanks!!

[Chilli_Vibes]

Here is a link to some of those demos

https://demozoo.org/platforms/16/

Got to say, some superb stuff, there. Really pushing what these old Atari 8-bit machines can do. If I get any working on my Mister, I will post back.

[circletheory]

Glad to see this core get an update -- Certainly one of my favorite cores! I would love to see me being able to hook up my floppy drive to it one day. : ) Thanks to all the developers of this core!

[Shuffle7]

Sorry how do you load (atr files) on this ?
ive tried various menthods got nowhere?
Thanks in advance!

[thera34]

Sorry how do you load (atr files) on this ?
ive tried various menthods got nowhere?
Thanks in advance!

Have a look here : viewtopic.php?t=88 . I am not in front of MiSTer to confirm it unfortunately, but hope it helps

Code: Select all

Atari 800: files ATR, ATX, and CAR
ATR file-
1) load ATR from OSD
2) hit F10 to reset and load game

[Shuffle7]

Thank you thera34 - and the link you provided is very helpful.

[eobet]

My fault. I loaded the .ATR and I forget press F10. sorry . all works like a charm now.

Have a look here : viewtopic.php?t=88 . I am not in front of MiSTer to confirm it unfortunately, but hope it helps

Code: Select all

Atari 800: files ATR, ATX, and CAR
ATR file-
1) load ATR from OSD
2) hit F10 to reset and load game

So this tripped me up as well. I do remember having to hold down the OPTION key back when I owned this computer, but just having to hit a "random" (F10) key on the keyboard once in order to reboot and have it load, I don't get at all.

Why doesn't the OSD for this core have an option to reboot and load so you don' t have to go to a forum to understand why it isn't working?

[akeley]

Why doesn't the OSD for this core have an option to reboot and load so you don' t have to go to a forum to understand why it isn't working?

It's written up in the wiki:

Disks
A800: After mounting the disk, press F10 to boot. Some games don't like the Basic ROM. Keep F8(Option) pressed while pressing F10 to skip the Basic.

That said, OSD Reboot/Reload option could be useful, though this still won't solve the "hold Option" scenario, unless you add another OSD function for that.

I think there's also an issue where the core unmounts the disk between consecutive loading attempts, which can be very confusing when you're trying to find out which loading way works - though I'm not 100% sure this is true and would need to test further.

As to why this hasn't been sorted yet, well, I guess it's just another of these little things that might get done when somebody mentions them and devs have spare time to put the fix in.

[Chris23235]

So this tripped me up as well. I do remember having to hold down the OPTION key back when I owned this computer, but just having to hit a "random" (F10) key on the keyboard once in order to reboot and have it load, I don't get at all.

Why doesn't the OSD for this core have an option to reboot and load so you don' t have to go to a forum to understand why it isn't working?

F10 is not a random key in the core. The RESET Key on the Atari is mapped to F9 on your keyboard, F10 performs a cold reset (power cycle). OPTION is mapped to F8 and SELECT is mapped to F7, START is mapped to F6 and HELP is mapped to F5.
What you do when selecting an ATR image from the OSD is attaching it to the drive. It is not useful to attach and reboot automatically, because this would make disk swapping impossible.

In general, it is not necessary to got to a "forum to understand why it isn't working", every core on the MiSTer comes with a Readme file which you can also find on the Github page of the core. If a core for the MiSTer is based on an existing core (like this one) there is usually a link on the Github to the original core that often has plenty of documentation.
That Atari 800 core has a wonderful manual written by the author of the core and it can be found here:
http://www.64kib.com/redmine/attachment ... Manual.pdf

As with the original machine it is helpful to read the manual with the FPGA core. This reduces the need to "go to a forum to understand why it isn't working".

I think there's also an issue where the core unmounts the disk between consecutive loading attempts, which can be very confusing when you're trying to find out which loading way works - though I'm not 100% sure this is true and would need to test further.

From my experience, whenever I think the disk got deattached from the machine it was me pressing F9 instead of F10. Just as with the orignal machine some discs didn't work when doing a soft reset (button), they needed the machine to be switched off and on in order to boot.

[RealLarry]

...or in short: RTFM!
SCNR

[Malor]

Why doesn't the OSD for this core have an option to reboot and load so you don' t have to go to a forum to understand why it isn't working?

I agree with your overall sentiment, but I will comment that 8-bit computers were wildly divergent from one another. Modern UI standards didn't exist yet, so many of them had extra keys or other UI elements that don't make any sense, either in the context of other machines at the time, or in the context of modern PCs. Particularly with the custom keys, mapping those onto a PC keyboard can be difficult. Several early computers, for instance, had a "Help" key. What key on a PC keyboard should that be? It's not obvious to me, at least.

You're in a unique position in that you're a newcomer to the core and presumably to the system itself, so taking some notes on what you didn't understand, and writing up a little explanation for what you figured out to fix the various issues, would probably be great to add to the readme. That doesn't help you at all, but it might help people following in your footsteps.

[eobet]

Just because these machines are 40+ years old, doesn't mean the UX have to be the same age.

(I'm a former interface designer, so inconsistencies is something I notice. First time a core has tripped me up this severely, and this was the machine I grew up with. There's other details like the Amstrad core not displaying which disk image is loaded, but in general, the UX is very good in MiSTer, so things like this stand out, hence why I pointed it out. Just because it happens to have been implemented this way at one time, doesn't mean it can't improve. Unfortunately, I'm not a coder so all I can do is report what I see.)

[Malor]

You're in an excellent position to document what's confusing. It's much more obvious to you than to any of the devs. It may not directly lead to fixes, but putting your notes and solutions into the readme.md file would probably be workable. I'm not the maintainer for this core, but if I were, I'd be very happy to get some solution writeups from an intelligent but confused user.

[pgimeno]

Keep in mind that cores are written by many different developers who possibly haven't checked the other developers' cores, so consistency is not something to expect; however, some developers may be happy to hear feedback from users and make the necessary changes to improve consistency.

[moebiusrising]

This is a bit of a meaty question, but since working with Altirra I've been blown away by the sheer amount of support it has for hardware upgrades, (in my case U1mb, SIDE-3, Fujinet, VBXE and MIDImate). What's the protocol insofar as feature requests with maintainers? We've already seen the RAM upgrades support (compy, rambo, etc) and certainly the above-mentioned functionality would take this core next-level, but also understanding this would be extensive work.

With that in mind and fully understanding this on a maintainer's free time, has there been attempts in the past to make this 'paid time' via crowdfunded bounties if enough interest was generated? Surely that would fast track any features we'd love to see on the core.

[FPGA64]

Paid bounties usually result in poor code that just about handles what is required to claim the bounty. Thankfully Mister doesnt have paid bounties. You support the Author via their patreon if you want to.

[RealLarry]

Paid bounties usually result in poor code that just about handles what is required to claim the bounty. Thankfully Mister doesnt have paid bounties. You support the Author via their patreon if you want to.

You are somewhat correct, but the problem here to support (the Atari800 Core) via Patreon is that I'm already a Patreon to Sorgelig (and others too) since years. Sorgelig thankfully did the port of Atari800 from MiST to MiSTer and mentioned to my Github issues, that he can't further develop this core due to his cluelessness of the 8-Bit Atari Hardware and we'd to do that by ourself or to find another Dev for this Core.

[MrMister1985]

Hi guys, has anyone managed to get Cyborg Warriors to load ok? it loads to the main title screen then the game starts and the picture is all scrambled and flickering. Also if anyone has got it to load what is the correct settings in the core please? cheers