AspeQt is a cross-platform, free and open source Atari 8-bit serial peripheral emulator. The name is an acronym for Atari serial peripheral emulator for Qt, Qt being the cross-platform application development framework used by AspeQt.

AspeQt emulates various Atari 8-bit peripherals like disk drives and printers via an SIO-2-PC cable. If you are familiar with software like Sio2Pc, APE, Atari810, AtariSIO etc., you probably won’t have any problems getting used to AspeQt.

Even though AspeQt is not fully mature yet, it is easy to use and, despite its shortcomings, has many features that you may find useful, the highlights being:

• 8 disk drive emulation.
• Up to 6x SIO speed.
• Support for ATR, XFD, PRO and ATX (preliminary) disk images.
• Mount folders as emulated disks.
• Disk image explorer.
• Directly boot Atari executables.
• Text only printer emulation with PC print, save, and ATASCII font support.
• Cassette image playback.
• Multilingual GUI (English, Polish, Turkish and Russian)
• AspeQt client module (AspeCl) for Atari, downloads information from the host to the Atari. Time/Date is an example with more functionality to come in the future.

Changelog:

• MainWindow of AspeQt is now fixed and can not be re-sized manually. Minimum screen resolution required is 800×600 for a proper fit on the display. Use of 1024×768 is recommended.
• Tooltips are added to display extended mounted image information.
• Added option to display/suppress message log window, setting is saved in registry/session file.
• Increased the supported drive numbers from 8 to 15 for SDX compatibility.
• Added option to display/suppress additional drives, setting is saved in registry/session file.
• Fixed SDX incompatibility of Folder Images.
• Added browsing capability for Folder Images. This release only allows read-only support with drag and drop file copying from the Folder Image. Multiple Folder Images can be mounted.

Download:

• AspeQt v0.8.5 (Windows) (1217)
• AspeQt v0.8.5 Manual (English/German) (1571)

source: aspeqt.sourceforge.net

I have gathered all photos of some phases of the work that i have done on the Atari 1200XL.

Below the descriptions:

• SIO 5v Enabled (you have to short-circuit the resistor R63 to get the 5v on the SIO of the Atari 1200XL)
• Repairing Keyboard (i have stretched the springs of a few keys for make the right pressure. The work must be completed using the liquid graphite where the contacts are more ruined)

Autopsy:

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from AtariMuseum homepage:

In 1982 Atari’s Home Computer Division (HCD) introduced the new replacement computer to its aging Atari 400/800 line. The new computer brought to Atari’s home computers line a high-tech and sleek low profile modern look. The case design and the “XL Look” were created by Regan Cheng of Atari’s Industrial Design group. The all new design took the 7 separate boards that made up the Atari 800 (Main, Power, CPU, OS and 3 16K Memory boards) and integrated them into a single motherboard with 64K of memory. The system also brought with it probably “THE” best keyboard for any Atari system.    

The system featured many new internal and external enhancements. Some of the obvious ones were the new Function keys and built-in HELP key that programmers could incorporate their usage into future programs. The tangle of wires from the system were now out of the back making for a clean and uncluttered arrangement. The cartridge port and controller jacks were now on the left side of the system. The new OS was designed for a new era of SIO “Plug n Play” devices to automatically load their device drivers and even on-board applications right into the 1200XL memory, also an International Character Set and built-in Diagnostic features were now part of the system. Other OS enhancements were included as well.    

However the downside was that many programs by both 3rd party companies and even Atari itself were incompatible with this new OS in the machine. The loss of 2 of the 4 original controller jacks from the earlier Atari 400/800 systems didn’t seem like much of a big deal to the 1200XL engineers, however the end users did seem to mind. The system was supposed to have a better video display output signal, however to most end users, the system appeared to have a fuzzier display then the Atari 800. The true sticking point for consumers:  No expansion whatsoever.   While the idea of a “Closed Box” design seemed like a good idea to Atari’s Marketing Department, the consumer felt exactly the opposite.

Atari’s whole design philosophy for their home computer line was that these would be Consumer Oriented, not Hobbyist Oriented Systems. Therefore that meant buffering the user from the actual electronics and chips within the machines. This design was very well executed on the Atari 800 with its easy to remove top cover and its various OS and Memory modules fitted into easy to install packages. The SIO connector also gave users a universal, easy to handle and understand expansion system. Atari felt it could take this philosophy to the extreme with the 1200XL and completely cut the users off from ANY internal access. Even the simplest of users still wanted to tinker and expand their systems and the 1200XL just didn’t give them the flexibility found in Apple ][e’s, C64s or Atari’s original 800 line of computers. The collective shortcomings of the 1200XL unfortunately overshadowed its many new enhancements. Atari’s new prodigy became its “Edsil” The introduction of the new 1200XL actually increased sales of the Atari 800. Users began to buy 800′s in fear that they would be stuck with a closed and incompatible system.

Atari 1200XL Video:

source: atarimuseum.com

ST-Paint is a Drawing program that lets you make Atari St picture on Windows based PC.

ST-Paint is still in a beta phase and it’s made by Peter Jørgensen same author of the program Ym2149 Tracker.

Note from the author:

• Windows mode (not complete)
• Clipboard : Remember the last 15 clip.
• Color Replacer : Use to replace a color somewhere in the graphic.
• Poly Line: Load/save Neochrome picture / Load Degas Under/Overscan Picture*
• Some other functions have been change, like the undo buffer in the polygon function, (now while drawing a polyg, and undo you will remove the last point, when finish the polyg and undo, you will remove the hole polygon.

Download:

• ST-Paint Beta (27/12/2012) (886)

source: fedepede04.dk

Autopsy:

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from Wikipedia homepage:

The Einstein was released in the United Kingdom in the summer of 1984, and 5,000 were exported back to Taipei later that year. A Tatung monitor (monochrome or colour) and dot matrix printer were also available as options, plus external disc drives and an 80 column display card. It was also capable of emulating the Spectrum 48k with the “Speculator” addon.

More expensive than most of its rivals, and lacking an obvious niche market other than technically-advanced home programmers, the Einstein was commercially unsuccessful. A later, revised version, called the Tatung Einstein 256 suffered a similar fate.

The machine was physically large, with an option for one or two built-in three-inch floppy disk drives manufactured by Hitachi. At the time, most home computers used ordinary tape recorders for storage. Another unusual feature of the Einstein was that on start-up the computer entered a simple machine code monitor, called MOS (Machine Operating System). A variety of software could then be loaded from disk, including a CP/M-compatible operating system called Xtal DOS (pronounced ‘Crystal DOS’, created by Crystal Computers in Torquay), and a BASIC interpreter (Xtal BASIC). Thanks to the reliability of the machine, and ample memory, the machine proved useful by many software houses to use for programming, and then porting the code to the machines they were made for, Spectrum 48k, Amstrad CPC, Commodore C64, this later stopped when the PC and Atari ST would emerge as the development systems of choice.

source: wikipedia

The Sv2k12 is a Demo Party dedicated to all Atari fans – from Atari 2600 up to the Jaguar, right thrugh to the newest Falcon clones.

Download:

• Silly Venture 2k12 Party Results. (823)
• sv2k12 Party Stuff (SpartaDOS X) (856)
• sv2k12 Party Stuff (Atari DOS) (870)

source: atari.org.pl

Liquid Candy is a new cool demo for Atari VCS/2600 by Noice released at the Silly Venture 2012.

Run the .bin file in your VCS-emulator of choice (for example Stella), or use a Harmony or other cart to run it on the real thing!

Release info:

• Name: Liquid Candy
• Platform: Atari VCS/2600 PAL, 16kb ROM
• Release Date: 2012-12-08
• Code: Shadow/Noice
• Music: Ilmarque/Trilobit

Download: Liquid Candy by Noice (1065)

source: youtube.com

ASAP is a player of 8-bit Atari music for modern computers and mobile devices. It emulates the POKEY sound chip and the 6502 processor.

The project was initially based on the routines from the Atari800 emulator, but the current version has a completely new original emulation core.

Changelog ASAP 3.1.3 (2012-12-04):

• foobar2000 plugin plays files inside ATR disk images.
• VLC and AIMP 3 plugins support RMT and FC in addition to SAP.
• Audacious plugin can edit AUTHOR, NAME and year, upgraded to Audacious 3.3.
• GStreamer plugin handles TIME, AUTHOR, NAME, DATE and seek, compiled for Windows.
• Fixed JAD file for the Java midlet.
• Created RPMs for VLC and GStreamer.
• Experimental Windows 8 port.

Download: ASAP v3.1.3 (929)

source: asap.sourceforge.net

Autopsy:

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from MyOldComputers.com:

The year was 1978. Atari was at the top of the video gamming world with its 2600 VCS game console. Atari management looked around and saw a new and potentially lucrative market just beginning to take shape. This market was the Home Computer Market. They saw a market with relatively few major competitors and Atari was in a great position to market a computer of their own. They, after all, were a trusted household name, everyone owned an Atari or knew someone who did!

So December of 1978 Atari introduced the 400 and 800 series computers. The actual computers were not delivered until late 1979 due to production problems. The 400 was a scaled down version of the Atari 800. Introduced as an entry level computer based on the same MOSTEK 6502A processor running at 1.70 MHz with 16K of user RAM built in. It had a membrane style keyboard (not very touch type friendly) with 62 touch sensitive keys and 4 special keys to the right of the keyboard.

It stood out amongst the other computer offerings of the day with its graphics and sound capabilities. It was capable of producing 128 colors on the screen using the CTIA video processor and up to 256 colors with the upgraded GTIA video processor chip used on later versions of the computer. The 400 was first amongst the early computers to be able to display 4 programmable screen objects simultaneously called ‘Player-missiles’ (also known as ‘Sprites’ on Commodore computers). This was at a time when the most computers produced only monochrome displays or very primitive 8 color screens. The graphics were handled by a custom chip called the “ANTIC” (CTIA/GTIA). This chip was designed to work as a sort of co-processor to take the work load away from the main processor to display graphics and color on the screen.

The team that developed the custom chips inside the 400 and 800 was headed by Jay Miner who later, after leaving Atari, headed the teams who developed the custom chips that surrounded the Motorola MC68000 processor that powered arguably the most advanced computer of its time, The Amiga 1000!

source: myoldcomputers.com

Autopsy:

This is a gift from my brother for my birthday.

from Wikipedia:

Congo Bongo (J: Tip Top (ティップタップ Tippu Tappu?)) is an isometric platform arcade game released by Sega in 1983. Strong evidence from analysis of the game’s ROM claim that Ikegami Tsushinki also did development work on Congo Bongo.

The game has come to be seen as Sega’s answer to the highly successful Donkey Kong game that was released two years prior. The player takes the role of a red-nosed safari hunter who tries to catch an ape named “Bongo”. The hunter seeks Bongo to exact revenge for an apparent practical joke in which Bongo set fire to the hunter’s tent, giving him a literal “hotfoot”. Game was named by Pete Gorrie who was the CFO at that time.

source: wikipedia

SNDH archive v4.0 released. 121 SNDH-files added or updated!

Ever since the birth of the Atari ST, different chip music formats have had different ways to use them. If you are coding a chip music player for the Atari ST you would have to use dozens and dozens of special ways to replay music.

But in the mid 90′s, BDC of Aura crew became tired of this inelegant system and decided to fix the issue once and for all. He then created the ‘SNDH’ file format. SNDH is actually the original songfile and replaycode with a header bolted on top of the music and replayer. The header has a unified calling interface no matter what type of chip music is hidden beneath it, and it has extended datas about the music.

Download: SNDH Atari ST YM2149 Archive v4.0 (1318)

source: sndh.atari.org

Peter Jørgensen has released a new Beta version of his YM-2149 Tracker for M$ Windows. The sound chip YM-2149 is used in Atari ST/E/Falcon series.

New Function in Beta 14.00:

• Mixer control.
• Stereo.
• Simple reverb.
• Startup directory.

Beta 14.00 – note from the author:

The Ym2149 version 14.0 Beta is probably the most important update that I have released. I have change how the program handle the sound thread and that have improve the stability of the program very much.

Sometime when changing device / export to wav /sampling frequency, etc. the program would hang, but that should be gone now.
I have rewritten the Ym2149 emulations, so it should be closer to that of a real Ym2149 chip. I have also made a mixer window, where you can change stereo/ mono mode, reverb, and output volume of the channels. plus a lot more. I have also remove a numbers of smaller errors.

Download: Ym2149 V14.00 Beta full packed (with Ym files) (1433)

source: bitmania.de

Autopsy:

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from MyOldComputers.com:

The year was 1978. Atari was at the top of the video gamming world with its 2600 VCS game console. Atari management looked around and saw a new and potentially lucrative market just beginning to take shape. This market was the Home Computer Market. They saw a market with relatively few major competitors and Atari was in a great position to market a computer of their own. They, after all, were a trusted household name, everyone owned an Atari or knew someone who did!

So December of 1978 Atari introduced the 400 and 800 series computers. The actual computers were not delivered until late 1979 due to production problems. The 400 was a scaled down version of the Atari 800. Introduced as an entry level computer based on the same MOSTEK 6502A processor running at 1.70 MHz with 16K of user RAM built in. It had a membrane style keyboard (not very touch type friendly) with 62 touch sensitive keys and 4 special keys to the right of the keyboard.

It stood out amongst the other computer offerings of the day with its graphics and sound capabilities. It was capable of producing 128 colors on the screen using the CTIA video processor and up to 256 colors with the upgraded GTIA video processor chip used on later versions of the computer. The 400 was first amongst the early computers to be able to display 4 programmable screen objects simultaneously called ‘Player-missiles’ (also known as ‘Sprites’ on Commodore computers). This was at a time when the most computers produced only monochrome displays or very primitive 8 color screens. The graphics were handled by a custom chip called the “ANTIC” (CTIA/GTIA). This chip was designed to work as a sort of co-processor to take the work load away from the main processor to display graphics and color on the screen.

The team that developed the custom chips inside the 400 and 800 was headed by Jay Miner who later, after leaving Atari, headed the teams who developed the custom chips that surrounded the Motorola MC68000 processor that powered arguably the most advanced computer of its time, The Amiga 1000!

source: myoldcomputers.com

SNDH archive v3.4 released. 73 SNDH-files added or updated!

Ever since the birth of the Atari ST, different chip music formats have had different ways to use them. If you are coding a chip music player for the Atari ST you would have to use dozens and dozens of special ways to replay music.

But in the mid 90′s, BDC of Aura crew became tired of this inelegant system and decided to fix the issue once and for all. He then created the ‘SNDH’ file format. SNDH is actually the original songfile and replaycode with a header bolted on top of the music and replayer. The header has a unified calling interface no matter what type of chip music is hidden beneath it, and it has extended datas about the music.

download: SNDH Atari ST YM2149 Archive v3.4 (1604)

source: sndh.atari.org

Autopsy:

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from Wikipedia:

The Atari ST is a home computer released by Atari Corporation in June 1985. It was commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The “ST” officially stands for “Sixteen/Thirty-two”,[2] which referred to the Motorola 68000′s 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals. Due to its graphical user inferface, it was known as the “Jackintosh”, a reference to Jack Tramiel.

The Atari ST was part of the 16/32 bit generation of home computers, based on the Motorola 68000 CPU noted for 128 kB of RAM or more, a graphical user interface, and 3½” microfloppy disks as storage. It was similar to the Apple Macintosh and its simple design allowed the ST to precede the Commodore Amiga’s commercial release by almost two months. The Atari ST was also the first personal computer to come with a bit-mapped color GUI, using a version of Digital Research’s GEM released that February.

The ST was primarily a competitor to the Apple Macintosh and the Commodore Amiga systems. Where the Amiga had a graphics accelerator and wavetable synthesis, the ST had a simple frame buffer and a 3 voice synthesizer chip but with a CPU faster clocked, and had a high-resolution monochrome display mode, ideal for business and CAD. In some markets, particularly Germany, the machine gained a strong foothold as a small business machine for CAD and Desktop publishing work. The Atari ST also enjoyed some market popularity in Canada.

The ST was also the first home computer with integrated MIDI support. Thanks to its built-in MIDI, it enjoyed success for running music-sequencer software and as a controller of musical instruments among amateurs and professionals alike, being used in concert by bands and performers such as Jean Michel Jarre, Madonna, Eurythmics, Tangerine Dream, Fatboy Slim, and 1990s UK dance act 808 State, as well as naming German digital hardcore band Atari Teenage Riot.

The ST was later superseded by the Atari STE, Atari TT, Atari MEGA STE and Falcon computers.

In late 1989, Atari released the 520STE and 1040STE (also written STE), enhanced version of the ST with improvements to the multimedia hardware and operating system. It featured an increased color palette of 4096 colors from the ST’s 512 (though the maximum displayable palette of these without programming tricks was still limited to 16 in the lowest 320×200 resolution, and even fewer in higher resolutions), Genlock support, and a graphics co-processor chip called Blitter, which could quickly move large blocks of data (most particularly, graphics sprites) around in RAM. It also included a new 2-channels digital sound chip that could play 8-bit stereo samples in hardware at up to 50 kHz.

Two enhanced joystick ports (EJP) were added (two normal joysticks could be plugged into each port with an adaptor), with the new connectors placed in more easily-accessed locations on the side of the case. The enhanced joystick ports were re-used in Atari’s Jaguar console, and are compatible. RAM was now much more simply upgradable via SIMMs. Despite all of this, it still ran at 8 MHz.

Atari STe: More Or Less Zero by Dead Hackers Society on real Hardware.

source: wikipedia