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

Sorry to hear, Paul, yer out of love with the old micros.

I love em just as much as before and have begun a flirtatious relationship with a little Beeb or Acorn Elk which Richie knows a little about but is keeping it quiet from my missus.... just in case fur/keys fly

The Beeb was probably the most powerful 8bit machine and when it was put to the test, it did indeed shine through with some excellent results - it was just so stereotyped as being education and scientific only which was really only part of the story - I must post up some of the great arcade conversions as some are 99.9% matches for the real deal.

 

I'm a big fan of the BBC range. Even went as far as having an Archimedes back in the day!

The MMC is a nice solution and gives you access to some really good titles. The Beeb had some pretty good arcade conversions to its name. A lovely versatile and expandable machine indeed and built like a tank

As for that CUB monitor Andy, brilliant find! I'll give you £10.50 and a packet of polo mints for it if you ever decide to sell...

 

Taste?

You don't have to take drugs at a gig...

Re drugs, it always made me laugh when you booted a USA game in Mame and were greeted with "Winners don't use drugs" for the US government re it's sports stars etc, only to find out that most of them DID...

 

THE ATARI CONNECTION...

Hey, fellas, just acquired this rather lovely old Atari 8bit classic mag in very neat condition for a fiver, from the winter of 82/83.

Just scanned in a few pages to give you a mere "taster".

Might make a new thread from this buy at some point as there are some great articles within which cover a lot of user APX software and I for one didn't sample more than 2-3 progs over the years (Eastern Front, GTIA Demo and Lone Raider? Not sure about the last one), and there's clearly....1000s.

Any road, enough rambling and more posting, Baz:







Bootiful, just bootiful, lads.

What you played on your Atari today?

Mags like this just make you want to BREAKOUT yer whole collection and get blasting!

 

Brilliant find Andy, I love an old magazine. Especially the adverts.
Need to sort mine out at some point but that's a project for another day!

Also spotted your Atari 800XL mouse mat, very cool. I'm hoping to visit the shop that makes them when I'm down in Wales and buy a few bits.

 

Cheers, Al, me too - just love trawling through and seeing what gems are within these old reads... and the latest thing to come crashing through the doors here?

RETURN OF THE ELK!

A poorly one, me mate Mog says, not had chance to look at her, so she could well be heading Rich's way, once I get a mo:

 

It's a coo little machine. Sort of reminds me of the 600XL.

 

Ah, here we go.... definitely much smaller the Elk here versus the Model B:



The Elk's about half the size of it's elder brother.

The 600XL vs the 800XL a nearer match for the two siblings?

 

Ah well, worth a try... the system locks up after about 5-8mins being switched on







and anything on screen freezes and on resetting you get this...



My gut feeling is a component overheating..?

If you leave the machine for another 10-15 mins then it boots up fine again and you can use it once more... for another 5-8mins until it freezes...again.

Over to you, Richie, mate.

Elk and PSU parcel in the post next week.

Cheers, buddy.

 

A small squirt of vinegar to neutralise the corrosion won't hurt, then a good wipe with 99% isopropanol alcohol to clean off the residue. It's probably bad ram, when it's on have a feel for extremely warm chips, ie burning hot. The fact that it can boot and work, if somewhat briefly, says that the actual CPU and surrounding logic seems fine.

Internal corrosion is never good, it can eat traces or VIA's as I believe they are called these days(?).

Richie is your man here, good luck..

Just had a zoomed look, nice that it's standard 4164's, ie still available and quite common even now. So if it is one or more of them, then it's a 15 min fix. The worst work is the desoldering of the old ones. Odd though, Texas one's are not known for failure, but it's a 40+ year old machine, anything is game now.

 

Cheers, Paul.

As you say, let's hope it's an easier fix in the range of things that can go wrong and not something tough to find like the Elk ULA faulty or some dry/cracked solder joint somewhere obscure...

It's just gone out the door to Richie... at the same time an Oric-1 arrived back from the great man... like a bleedin turnstyle here some days.

Celtic winning 4-1 so someone will be happy on here! Have a good weekend, guys.

 

Doubt it's the array, but let's hope Richie finds the gremlin..

 

Ended up 4-2 for Celtic, but it was a funny one with Brendan Rodgers being back. I miss big Ange

Still, Rangers got beat 1-0 so a good first day all in. Plus Norwich won as well and Pompey managed not to lose lol

 

Hull fans won't be happy with the 96th min Norwich winner, Al

Ooop to Sun'land tomorrow so wish us luck vs Tractor Boys!

 

No luck today either - we wuz robbed!

Tractor Boys weren;t suppose to turn up and lead 2nil when the home team fully expected to take the 3pts with their new notable signings incl a certain Jobe Bellingham (missed an open goal 1st half!)

Never mind, 10 men Mackems did battle back to make it 1-2 and then hit the Ipswich post... in the 103min (we're gonna see a lot of stoopid goal/incident extra timings this season as refs have been told to make up a load of added time in order to give the sensation that the games now have "three halves"). Whatever next, square centre cirles?

Any road, this post isn't to complain about how hard done by the home team were this afternoon, no, it's to thank Richie for some nice goodies he sent me which arr'd Sat PM:



Thank you very much, Richie - as well as a fixed Oric-1 keyboard and me SCART and PSU bits back, Richie very kindly sent me an Elk/Beeb jossie and some PC CD/DVD roms to play with.

Much appreciated, my mate.

Elk has now gone in the opposite direction and some suitable "prize surprises" will be coming your way in the near future.

 

Bev will pounce if she catches you buying this old tat

 

Quick screen test of the C64C, fellas:

Thar she blows:



Bit of a further issue with the keyboard in that the INST/DEL key sticks and doesn't rise up...

Problem being NO SPRING underneath!!



Never mind - I'll add that to the order from https://www.retroleum.co.uk/contact

I can't grumble for a tenner, fellas, can I?

Can anyone tell me anything about this "spare" PSU supplied - one of the two Commodore bricks. The standard one powers up the 64 but this one doesn't and when I look on the DIN lead pins, there are far fewer...only 4 pins rather than the 7pins on the standard.



The PSU's model no. is (seemingly) exactly the same as the other one which works, ie. T40/E



Perhaps it's for another model, ie. C16, Plus 4?

Anyone got any better ideas - I'm sure you will have as I know next to nothing about C64/Commodore power units.

Cheers in advance, guys.

 

Two new Atari ROMs came to join the Baz Cave today, guys - I got them reasonable, about £30 for the pair. The guy wanted another £20 for the leads and manual and I very nearly got them (the AtariLab Light experiment cart is pretty damn useless without the probe) but I just couldn't stretch to spending £50 on my hobby so I'll just hope a cheaper option appears in the future... FAT CHANCE Just checked AtariGuy online and he does em at about $6 for the probe...plus a whacking $20 postage to the UK for two tiny little leads with probes on the end... the postal companies, as we all know too damn well, are just taking the piss these days.

Anyway, I always wanted Bug Hunt and now I've got it, plus another AtariLab cart to add to the collection, guys:

 

Some very nice pick-ups lately Andy, kudos to you sir!

 

Cheers, Al.

I don't spend anything on my retro micro hobby for months and then suddenly I buy 4-5 nice items, but that's the way it goes, eh, buddy? Anyhow, got me mam's hubby's/my step-dad's funeral tomorrow so think of us guys 11.30am in morning and say a little prayer for one of the bravest guys I think I've ever met - he fought and fought and fought on in Scarboro hospital, even though it was a battle he couldn't turn around, so was his love for me mam, his son & family and his zest for life... RIP Tiger Lyon, you will never be forgotten, fella. No flowers, btw, just placing this rather dear to his heart flag on his coffin:

 

I'll say a prayer and light a wee candle Andy. God bless.

 

Better to compare the Acorn & BBC in size too what was to be the original Atari line up of the 600XL & 1200XL as far as footprints are concerned. But the 600XL didn't come out until the 800XL did after the failure of the 1200XL. Which is probably a good thing for the 600XL, otherwise it might have not had a PBI either and no external expansion for it!

 

Ah, absolutely super to hear from you, Matt.
Glad you've had a really good summer (not weather-wise - bit like us, way too much of the wet stuff but never mind), business wise and you've been able to get hold of a great-sounding newer PC than your last model - a bit like me, I still have a PC running Win XP!
That Atari VCS looks the dog's bolly's too so I for one am looking forward to seeing some more shots of your latest, greatest set-up and all the best for now, fella - the forum's missed you big time, my man.

 

Too bad it's not the temperature probe that you need Andy, I have extras of it, but only the two sending and receiving light "probes." But these AtariLab probes are simple devices and I was planning on making some more myself. As well as expanding beyond the few Atari made available, utilizing different types of sensors, like motion detection and whatever other crazy shit I can think up that I could plug into the AtariLab Interface and program some BASIC code to make use of it. All in the name or research and development towards use on my robot that I still have plans for, if the world is around long enough, in a state were I am still living my current life anyway.

The bottom line for you Andy, is you just might find a Christmas gift package in a few months that includes some homebrew probes/sensors for your AtariLab Interface.

 

Hey, I told the world we were missing you, Matt, and how right was I???!!!

Many, many, many thanks for your generous brilliant offer and you can bet your bottom dollar you'll be getting more than a measly single Yaarkshire tea bag this year, come hell, Putin, Indians on the moon, or high water!

Take care, Matt and may you continue to shine light (oooh, my probe pun getting an airing there!), where it is needed in areas of gloom in this madly fecked up world of ours right now.

Al's got the right idea too - when you next go shopping Stateside, Al, will you get me and Paul some nice Atari goodies too by dropping in on this MyAtari fella, as well as maybe taking a tea with Matt in his RV -



https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...ndservice&_oac=1&_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l2562