Most liked posts in thread: What's new Pussycat too?

Check out what I bought...my alternative to other upgrades, 1088XEL or steel keyboard (for now). I almost got my robot arm, but I'll get that soon enough...I just decided to get something a bit more useful for now. No more "old-school" cases for external upgrade bare boards, even though I'm pretty damn good at making them, now I can design exactly what I want instead of using generic boxes or cases from other hardware.It should be here in a week or two. Ender 3 3D printer. I asked on AA for a good 3D printer for under $300, this was suggested by 2 or 3 people, then I almost bought one on Amazon for $250, until someone gave me a link to one on Woot (an Amazon discount store) for $179!

 

I guess my EARLY 12 days of Christmas started yesterday and continues today! I received the SSI Field of Fire game and my Fujinet! This Fujinet seems a remarkable piece of equipment that I know very little about and need to read up on it all!

I see that beyond Wi-Fi capabilities and who knows what else, it also has an SD card slot and a mini USB port on it. It plugs into the SIO and has a SIO pass-thru port, which is cool, and pretty much necessary for many people I guess, though since my 800 has a second SIO port now, it's not as necessary for me, but I can still use it to continue to use my original SIO port as a dead-end peripheral port if I ever need it.

I got my Fujinet from The Brewing Academy, who pretty much sells it piece-meal with options for the bare board and extras like a 3D printed case and Jtag header + power switch for burning experimental code and the extra ability to turn the Fujinet off when I don't want it on, instead of having to unplug it.

They offer a choice of 800, XL or XE style and colored cases, and I got the 800 style case since I'll be using it strictly with the 800 since the way I have my 1200XL setup I can't have PBI or SIO peripherals that stick up in the back, they have to lay flat. It's also the reason why I'm using the Turbo Freezer with the 800 as it can fit in my new 800 PBI port and the 800 is tall enough, that even with the new monitor stand I made for it, it still fits underneath.



I have so many new things I've yet to learn to use I feel like I'm back a tech college learning something new from each class! I still haven't learned most of how to use the Incognito, and the Turbo Freezer, and the Fujinet, and Pokeymax + Covox, and the 3D printer and a bunch of strategy games and productivity software I still haven't gotten around to learning either! I'm just glad that this time of year, for about another two months, is very slow as far as business work goes, so I have lots of free time (which will now be completely filled with learning all this stuff!). I did leave off Sophia 2 and learning it's new graphic modes, but that's because mine is dead and I had to return it. It will be a while before I get a replacement because Simius (who made it) says he has to receive and diagnose the Sophia 2 before he sends me another one, so that's round trip to Poland and back! Which really SUCKS!

 

All three of my war games arrived over the last few days. All were brand-new old stock, but two were listed as "damaged." But really only Field of Fire had some serious damage to the box, being torn in several places, and the original shrink-wrap, while still mostly on it was torn up where the box was damaged. So in it's case I just removed the shrink-wrap which had price and 'Family Computing' game-of-the-year stickers on it, which weren't original and hid the lovely art work, so that was fine. All I could do with the box was just carefully bring the torn areas back together again and tape it up the best I could. The contents inside are fine.




Crusade in Europe came still shrink wrapped and in mint condition, and Decision in the Desert, pretty much the same, and the damage was that the box had sort of "caved in" a bit because the original shrink wrap was shrunk too much, so over time it pulled the box inward. But no creasing or other damage was done to it.

So I slit only the tops of the shrink wrap on both to access the goodies inside, all in perfect condition, except that the glue on the disk labels on both had long since dried up and the labels had fallen off, but still in good condition, so I'll have to glue them back on is all. As to the "crushed box" my solution was to use some sheets of Styrofoam I had laying around for crafts or packing and cut them to size and slip them in the box so they pushed the box out again to where is should be and all is good now, both sitting on my shelves in good order with shrink-wrap intact except slit open at the top, to continue protecting the boxes.

The disk labels will be re-glued and put back in the boxes for safe keeping after I either copy them with my Happy 1050, or if not successful, I'll just write floppies from ATR's off the net to use. Manuals will remain out and carefully used until I know the games well (I don't like reading PDF manuals on a screen next to me if I don't have too).



I now have a total of 6 war games in my collection; SSI's Carrier Force in the big box format and Field of Fire and Wargame Construction Set in the smaller box format. Microprose's D.I.D. and C.I.E in the smaller thin cardboard format. Lastly Avalon Hill's Legionnaire in big box format. I guess it's time to dust my shelves, judging by the picture!

 

Nice, that's something I have to get too, @Vyper68 . But atm, I don't really need to erase any eproms, I have new ones of sevreal 27XX(x) series that work with my R.D. XL/XE eprom burner. I'll be using it for the first time soon to burn some eproms for OS's and Basic for a couple XL's I'm redoing.

I don't know if I have and Scot in me, I know I'm mostly Welsh from my Father's side and a bit of English and German from my mother's side. There may be some Scot mixed in there as well, I've never had one of those gene tests done yet. But I LOVE shortbread biscuits! I have some large shortbread tins around here now that I use for electronic bits and bobs. Large size, of course! I'll go through a tin like this in about a week! That's a slightly larger footprint than a sheet of A4 paper. I have three others just like it from Christmas. I only by the top dollar ones that come in tins, no plastic wrap or cardboard brand Shortbread for this boy!

 

I bought it from The Brewing Academy in the US and for some reason it went through customs without any charges or additional fees. Not complaining though, but it was probably the only time it will happen this year.

 

Here is what I had to say about Fujinet in another thread:
https://atari-owner.com/club/threads/im-going-to-build-a-wefax-interface.472/page-4#post-3916

The home page, where it all begins:
https://fujinet.online/

More info and documentation and links to more documention like a quick start guide, user and programmer manuals, and instructions/schematics to build your own::
https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-platformio/wiki

Good videos and info at this dealer that sell Fujinet 1.0.
https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com/fujinet

Another place for details in chart form and descriptions. Another dealer (where I bought mine) that sells Funinet 1.0.
https://thebrewingacademy.com/colle...cts/fujinet-a-swiss-army-knife-for-your-atari

 

So the FujiNet has a MicroSD card slot where you can load .atr .atx and .xex files. It also has WiFi and Bluetooth to connect to the internet where it can access a file servers that hold all the files you want. It can be used to access BBS’es and printers..

Here is the website link
https://fujinet.online/


Matt got there first

 

Quiet thankfully Allan, no neighbours for the weekend (so far), did nip out to get some mechanical scales for the wife, it seems you can't wash them as the old ones were a bit grubby so I washed them and the buggers just seized up. Way too much traffic on the roads, took forever to go 4 miles...

Just sat here waiting for the only TV worth watching, Line of Duty to come on....12 mins to go...

And lastly, dunno why but I've turned in to a walking methane stink bomb, its an egg smell that is rank as hell, blooming awful but dead handy today as the people at Agos were not social distancing behind me, 2 secs later there was no one behind me bar what looked like a green fog The folks legged it after my present..

Must have eaten an Oric???

 

@Matt, Glad to see you have business ready and waiting, sort those hands out asap. Keep well and safe me old mate..

@Bazz, shame about bevs lot but it was a correct choice and in this day and age its good to see common sense being used rather than the old 'I do what I like' stuff. Never has 'better safe than sorry' been more true.

@Allan, enjoy the old trip to Yorkshire, been up there a few times due to work (head office in Barnsley) in the past, never saw sunshine though...Lovely place though..

 

The Atari 8 bits first Wanking Machine is on the way!!

 

Thanks mate,
The display processor is a Texas Instruments TMS9929A which is the PAL version of the TMS9918 which is in a few computers like the TI-99/4A, MTX512, Colecovision, Einstein. 16 Colours, 32 Single colour sprites ( max 5 on a row ) On a MSX the is 16KB dedicated RAM on top of the 64KB for the Z80 to access. It was a prescient decision in 1983 given today’s modern graphics cards with dedicated ram on the card for the GPU to access.
The sound is from the 40 Pin version of the AY chip, the 8910. So if you have heard a Speccy 128 or Amstrad CPC you have an idea of the sound.
I will try and knock up a video next week to show it running

 

My brother has / had a PC Engine, used to borrow it just to play Gunhead....Some solid shooters on it..

 

So good I bought a key for Magic Engine all those years ago

 

All I can tell you is, I like brown sauce with my chips..

 

Another peek at some of my Atari 800 peripherals. The mouse and Fujinet device are complete, the disk drive and keypad are not, needing only print and/or badging. And I still need to do some touch-up with a fine paint brush to the plastic trim around the keypads of the CX85, masking tape only helps so much, with detail this fine needed.

I also need to figure out and create new badging for the 800 and 810 name plates. The plan is 'ATARI' with the outline font '800/810', like the originals, but a blue 'ATARI' and '800/810' white on a grey background. Though on the 800 the name and number will be slightly smaller than originally, with an italicized (black print) 'Personal Computer' underneath on the badge, like IBM 'ATARI' PC mock-up that inspired me.

I have been thinking a LOT about a new name plate and designation for the 800, like instead of 'personal computer' adding another designation like 'Scientific edition' or 'Research & Development edition' or 'R&D custom' or additional letters at the end like with XL/XE, like 'CS' for 'custom scientific' or 'RD' or 'XS' for 'extended line scientific' and a bunch more since it is a custom enhanced computer that will be used for research and development and psuedo-scientific projects. but right now have settled on 'Atari 800 personal computer.' What do you guys think?

That is light and shadow on the disk drive, I couldn't seem to find an angle to lose it as I did with the other devices even with the flash. It appears to be due to the mirror desk top I have. The drive face plate and the keypad's face plate are the same color grey, again, it's the lighting



The keypad will have the Atari Fuji badge and insignia like the mouse, where the original yellow Atari name and insignia were. I dubbed the mouse CX35, since it is analog like CX30 paddles, even though most controllers for the 800 were designated CX2x*.

I wonder why the CX20 driving controller isn't a 30 something and the touch-tablet is a 77 since both are analog? Then you have one trackball as CX22 and one as CX80...seems little rhyme or reason for designations sometimes...and why the hell did Atari never release an analog joystick for the 8-bit line since it is capable? I know the 5200's controller was a flop, but a simple self-centering fix was all that was needed. I imagine games like Star Raiders and ROF would have been great with analog control, among many others.

Atari controller designation list:

CX20-(analog) driving controller
CX21-(digital) video touch tablet (Star Raiders keypad for 2600)
CX22-(grey code/digital) track ball
CX23-(digital)kids keyboard controller
CX24-(digital)7800 proline joystick
CX30-(analog)paddles
CX40-(digital)standard joystick
CX42-(digital)remote control joystick
CX50-(digital)2600 "programmer" keypad(s)
CX52-(analog)5200 joystick
CX75-(?)light pen
CX77-(analog)Touch Tablet
CX78-(digital)7800 joypad
CX80-(grey code/digital)deluxe track-ball
CX85-(digital)keypad
XXXX-(digital) Track&Field controller
XXXX-(N/A)-Atarilab Interface

Did I miss anything?

The 800 and 410 still need to be re-assembled.

 

I've also made labels for my ABBUC Turbo Freezer, that will be more or less permanently connected to my 800's custom PBI port, but I'm leaving it transparent, like an ice cube, as it fits the name and it will be mostly hidden behind the 800 anyway, but also still goes well with the white and grey.

I still have to make a case for the Turbo Freezer PBI interface board, which will also house the controller ports from my 800's dual-PIA upgrade and extra 4 ports. Ribbon cables come out through the venting underneath the 800, hidden, and attach to the ports mounted in the same case, under the Turbo Freezer interface board. The case will be printed with white PLA plastic.

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but the labels I am making for cases and keyboard keycaps (only the function keys and side keys like RETURN/SHIFT/CONTROL, etc-basically all the non-white keys on the 800 and CX80) are done with a Brother label maker hand-held thermo-printer. I have both white and clear label rolls. It's a cheaper one with only one font, but a different styles, widths and sizes of lettering. And as mentioned and shown before, the main Qwerty keyboard and keypad number keys are done with custom vinyl decals I purchased on-line from Germany.

 

Merry Christmas guys. It’s been an up and down year for all of us. I was heartbroken when I heard about @M.D.Baker loosing his puppies.

I was pleased I managed to sort @AlexDrito a Dragon. I just finished building my lower case board and new power board for my other Dragon. So 6809s have been the focus the last few months.
I finally fitted a U1MB to my 65XE and picked up a SIDE3 and @Klyde helped my finally get a working Cumana disk interface for my Oric so I can enjoy the wonder that is Sedoric

I picked up a Wii U so now I have every Nintendo console from SNES to Switch. I still want get a Saturn and Dreamcast but that’s for next year

So I haven’t done too bad even if my health has not been so good.

 

Very nice looking machine! Too bad V-Tech only sold kids electronic toys in the states...I guess there was just too much competition for them to try selling it here with Apple, Commodore, Atari, Tandy, Texas Instruments all fighting for market share and of course any other companies didn't last long at all up against those top 5. And only four of them lasted into the mid-80's with Texas Instruments bowing out, and Atari and Tandy just barely holding on, but all 4 that lasted through the 80's had 8-bit machines around until the early 90's. With Apple and Atari having the oldest 8-bit lines, both well over a decade, even still produced for some part of the world long after Commodore and Tandy.

Total Failures in the US market: Coleco Adam, Mattel Aquarius, Time/Sinclair, Tano Dragon, and many others lasting a year or two, or less. A couple in and out in mere months! I read not long ago that even a version of the BBC micro had a short lived release.

 

Some lovely stuff there, Matt, particularly your new high quality amp - that's a great bit of kit.

I got some varied 'odds and sods' but they're smashing gifts all the same and I'm very grateful for them:



As you can see, there's a new Tom Tom SATNAV (I've previously only ever owned 2nd hand ones so they've always been way out of date mapping-wise!) and I received plenty of booze and man cave paraphernelia. This will be the new Baz project in 2022 - turning me garage into a decent Bazza mancave BAR! It will need boarding out, thoroughly clearing out and the damp spots tackling but where's there's a will, there's a way - as Matt has so ably demonstrated of late. I also got a new hedgehog drinking bowl AND Bev renewed my subscription to the Sidmouth Donkey Rescue home so me and Ashley will remain supportive pals for another year at the very least.

Merry Chrimbo once more and a Happy, healthy New Year in advance, lads.

Any pics of what you got when Santa totally spoiled YOU?!

 

I received that wonderful card from Andy yesterday, along with some nice print memorabilia that is Dreamcast oriented. A very nice Christmas gift that fits the season for me, since as you all know, I repaired and upgraded my Dreamcast a month or two ago. Thankyou Andy and Merry Christmas to all!
(I'll post pics tomorrow)

I also received a few goodies from ABBUC, including a couple of ABBUC magazines and one of their annual or bi-yearly extra publications. I haven't had much time to do the usual surfing of the Atari sites, so I'm a bit behind on the latest goodies to come out for the Atari 8-bit, but I see that one of the new games with the ABBUC magazine disk is DOOM for the good old A8! I haven't had a chance to check it out, or any other new game releases, but the screen shots for A8 DOOM look very impressive!

I've been working on a couple things here and there for my hobbies, but have been spending a lot of time (out of work at the moment) cleaning up and doing badly needed chores around the homestead. Today I was the designated Christmas light fixer, and spent a few hours replacing fuses and bulbs on our Xmas tree lights, which was a pain. Tomorrow I'll be cleaning house getting ready for Christmas day and family that will be visiting for the holidays. So it will most likely be January before I get significant free time to return to my hobbies, along with doing home repairs that are far overdue,

Lots of vehicle and business related projects and repairs to do as well. I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but about a year and a half ago I bought a Nissan Sentra for a few hundred dollars. It needs lots of work, and it had been sitting for a year, but I finally found time to work on it and I have it running again. Now I have to power wash and detail it to make it respectable looking again. But I finally have an economy vehicle of my own for running errands and my Suburban and Blazer can now be for business use only, except for emergencies, which is nice with everything being so expensive these days.

That's all for now, I hope to hang and contribute more in the coming weeks.

Merry Christmas!

Matt

 

I'm in a hurry, gotta get some food and some good wine for the upcoming XMas celebrations... but I'd like to wish everyone here in AOC the best Season Holidays. It is truly a privilege to be counted on this little, special community.

 

Good to see you on here Tim, keep safe, it's gonna be mighty cold over there..

 

I would do these mods and dashboard to my classic Xbox, but between my Dreamcast for emulation and modern dashboard with browser and all the latest frills, and my Atari VCS 800 with it's modern dash and emulation, Antarcade, streaming, etc, plus the PC side with Steam, it would be redundant twice over. But I love what you've done with yours. I'll continue to use my Xbox classic for playing titles that aren't compatible with my Xbox 360's emulation.

I'll take photos of my upgraded Dreamcast and it's new bells and whistles and dashboard if I find the time. Too busy, as usual working the business by day and fixing the revolving door of equipment breakdowns evenings and weekends.

I just spent the entire weekend swapping the entire engine out of one lawn tractor to another. I purchased a used lawn tractor a couple weeks ago and on Friday the transmission went out on it. Well, I purchased it to replace the other lawn tractor with a broken motor, but it has a good transmission! Still one step forward and two back with all the projects I need to do, which have nothing to do with my hobby projects, unfortunately, which continue to collect dust.

I have managed to squeeze in a few minor hobby projects in the last month, I'll show and tell soon. It's all to do with audio/video though, not vintage consoles or computers. I have also added to my audio/video collection and will show those items soon as well. Maybe later this week after I catch up on my work schedule.

Keep the flame burning fellows, I shall return!

Matt

 

While not new to me, I have a new sound system to go with my 800's stereo Pokey upgrade in my Bose Wave radio I pulled out of storage and cleaned up today.I was forced to move my Flip-n-File's to another shelf to make room for the Bose radio, but the spot seems to be made for it.