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Interton Electronic Video Computer VC4000 (Boxed)

October 7th, 2017 1 comment
Interton Electronic Video Computer VC4000

The Interton VC 4000 is originally a rebranded and reshaped Radofin 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System, released in 1976 (making it the second, if not the first, CPU and interchangeable ROM based console).

The machine is powered by a CPU and a GPU, both made by Signetics, an American chip maker bough by Philips in 1975. The APVS/VC4000 seems to be conceived by Philips to promote their Signetics chips, and was probably sold to various little electronics companies.

Claims are that Interton conceived the VC4000 before the APVS, but the release date is still 1978.

Various threads on Internet show different specs for the APVS and the VC4000, but it’s probably a confusion between the CPU speed and RAM and the GPU speed and RAM.

The specs seems to be as is:

  • CPU : Signetics 2650AI : 0,887 Mhtz
  • GPU : Signetics 2636 : 3.58 Mhtz
  • CPU RAM : odd numbers, but as low as 87, 65 or 32 octets
  • GPU RAM : 32ko

The GPU is able to offer a display of 218*200 pixels, with 8 colors, and monochrome sprite(s?).

It’s also in charge of the sound. It seems more able than your regular beeper, but not on par with the Atari 2600 or Videopac. (or, maybe it is but never shows, at the sound is exactly the same on the Arcadia 2001, and it sounds much better, tho still weak compared to other systems).

The input consist of 3 keys : Reset, Select and Start.

Plus two joysticks; they have an analog joystick (free on the APVS family, auto-centered on the VC4000 family) 2 action/fire buttons (which seems to be one button, so they might be internall wired together) and a 12 buttons keypad-like keyboard.

About 50 games have been programmed for the various systems release. Although Interton (or Interton fans?) claim that the Interton VC4000 is superior to the APVS, back in 1980, cart adapters were sold to play APVS carts on Interton VC4000 and vice-versa; furthermore, dump of games showed no difference between most games, the main difference being for some in-gam words changed to English to German, and the mention “Interton VC 4000″ added in few games.

Also, Interton claimed all games to have been programmed in Germany, but looking at the code in the game “Shoot out” bring up this text :

“CHOI ANDREW, HONG KONG, MARCH 31 1981. PROGRAMS BY THE SAME AUTHOR: INVADER, BREAKOUT”

The system was sold from 1976 to 1984; tho there isn’t any definitive date, as those date covers all licenced clones; I have seen the Interton VC4000 in a French video game magazine dated from December 1982; and I own a ITMC MPT-05 clone with a receipt from 1984 inside (tho it might just be some old stock; but the IMTC MPT series of clones seems all to started to sell in 1983).

From what I have found, there are 50 different games released for the system, tho some are available only on one family.

The families are :

1292/1392 APVS (6 uniques games + Hobby Module)
Interton VC4000 (a great winner with 10 unique games plus the biggest list of games overall)
ITMC MPT05 (not enough data)
Voltmace (5 unique games)
Rowtron (2 unique games)

There might be another family two French systems (Karvan Computer and Occitel OC-2000) but there is nothing but pictures to be found about them.

There is also the Hobby Module add-on (for the APVS only), that added the possibility to program games in Signetics BASIC? and more importantly, to record and load programs from a cassette tape.

Specs are even harder to find than for the main system, but this cart seems to add some RAM (tho, it might just be dedicaced to the tape data and not available for the program itself) and some mention an AY 3-8910 sound chip (a classic sound arcade chip found in so many computers of the 80′s and into some consoles like the Vectrex)

One notable feature of the console, aside from the analog joystick, is how to boot any game.

When powering the system, the screen will display raodom stuff; Reset mush be pressed to get a normal screen.

This is due to the weak amount of CPU RAM. Why so few RAM? Back in 1976, only some types of RAM could be adressed directly by the CPU;this RAM was obviously more expensive than other RAM; (it’s one reason why the Fairchild channel F got only 64 octets and the 2600 128 octets).

To get more RAM, one workaround (that got used also in the Colecovision) is to use few RAM to boot up the system, and load one instruction for the CPU to look in the GPU RAM to load data. The GPU RAM being obviously cheaper, allowing to get more of it.

Tho, probably from bad programming, later games carts not only have more ROM, but also up to 256 octets of RAM.

Most games are pretty typical of the era; Videopac/Odyssey² offer about the same kind of games, with a likely evolution from “basic” games to licenced-like games later in the life of the system, with clones of arcade such as Invaders.

Gallery:

source: atariage.com

Dragon32/Coco2 Multi-Cartridge with Extensions (Odyssey 2/Vectrex)

September 6th, 2017 3 comments
Dragon32-Coco2 Multi-Cartridge with Extensions (VideoPac-Vectrex)

The Multi-cart by Rolo was designed to to hold a variety of Dragon 32-64/CoCo 2 rom cartridge based programs, which are running directly from the eprom at address range $c000 to $ff00.

The cart holds up to 64 8k-roms. It can play roms with a size of 1k to 16k. You simply select a memory slot from 00 to 63, press RESET on your Dragon, and the program launches.

This enables you, to use your Dragon simply without further hardware setup: no cables, no drives, no extra PSUs, no controller-carts.

The Dragon/CoCo 2 Multi-cartridge now can also be used for other systems.

Currently there are three Extension Cartridges (adapters) available:

  • VECTREX.
  • Odyssey 2/PHILIPS G7000/G7200/G7400.
  • INTERTON ELECTRONIC VC 4000.

A compilation of rom-files for all four systems can be burned on a single eprom (27C4001), adding versatility to the device.

Gallery:

source: archive.worldofdragon.org atariage.com

USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Floppy Emulator: Firmware v3.0.20.1a

August 8th, 2017 No comments

Jean-François DEL NERO (who’s behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently has released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that is compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators.

This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.

The bootloader to convert the Gotek floppy drive in HxC compatible must be purchased on the website HXC 2001 by sending an email to Jean-François DEL NERO. The price of the bootloader is one-off 10 Euro per Gotek that you want to update. Future updates of the software are free and can be made from a USB stick

The HXC Usb (Gotek) firmware supports: + many more….

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.20.1a:

  • Low level I2C & LCD IO redesigned and optimized.
  • Long names are now scrolling on the LCD during floppy emulation.
  • Short name image type identification issue fixed.
  • USB “Hot plug” support fixed in autoboot/”file selector” mode.
  • Fix the config file access error when the file haven’t the archive flag set.

Download: USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.0.20.1a (1319)

source: hxc2001.com

USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Floppy Emulator: Firmware v3.0.19.2a

August 5th, 2017 No comments

Jean-François DEL NERO (who’s behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently has released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that is compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators.

This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.

The bootloader to convert the Gotek floppy drive in HxC compatible must be purchased on the website HXC 2001 by sending an email to Jean-François DEL NERO. The price of the bootloader is one-off 10 Euro per Gotek that you want to update. Future updates of the software are free and can be made from a USB stick

The HXC Usb (Gotek) firmware supports: + many more….

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.19.2a:

  • New buttons behaviour and better debouncing filter. Navigation user-experience should be better now.
  • Disk Eject function : Press both buttons to eject the disk. Working in indexed, autoboot mode, and normal mode.
  • “Eject at power up” option added.
  • Support up to 999 Images in autoboot mode (with the File selector) (Use the new CFG file and selector to use this feature)
  • LCD : Display refresh improvements.
  • New CFG file format : Some new flags and no more slots/disk drive limitation.
  • Some critical parts rewritten in assembly. Huge code speed improvement -> Better HD density reliability. ED density to be tested ;).
  • Code size reduced.
  • Advanced USB mass storage cache implemented to improve read/write reliability.   (Btw : Now when track size can be stored into the SRAM, the emulator will not read forever the data from the stick but use the cached data instead).
  • IMG/ST file write support done.
  • Huge RAW (*.ADF/*.ST/*.IMG) Write performance enhancement (Write 2 tracks at once !)
  • RAW *.IMG files can be used in indexed mode : Name the files DSKA0000.IMG,DSKA0001.IMG,DSKA0002.IMG,…
  • HFE write performance enhancement.
  • “Autoboot.hfe not found” message added.
  • 7 segments display “dots” glitch fixed.
  • 128 & 256 bytes sectors support added in raw mode.
  • FM support : Write to HFE file fixed.
  • FM support : Raw (*.dsk) read/write support.
  • New File format support (WIP) : HFEv3. Can now support copy protected images converted from IPF and others similar formats !  Variable bitrate supported (CopyLock & SpeedLock). Weak/Flakey bits support to be added !
  • Fix IPF support for these games: Jim Power, Z-Out,Xenon 2,Ghosts’n Goblins,Rainbow Islands,B.A.T II  and probably some others !
  • Slot number printed on the second line during slot search with an LCD.
  • XCopy write issue fixed.
  • Sound buzzer output on the “JB” jumper position. You can connect a piezo or a magnetic buzzer (transistor needed for the magnetic version).  The sound output can be disabled or enabled into the selector settings.  (Note : Please remove these old sound mod using directly the step signal, they are producing reliability problems…)
  • Mixed track format/density write support fixed (To be tested!).

Current direct images support:

  • *.HFE (RW),*.HFE V3 (RW) (early write support), *.ADF (RW), *.ST (RW), *.IMG (RW).
      Note : HFE files is a multiplatorms floppy image format supporting many systems and disk formats.

Selector software:

  • New Bootblock for the Amiga version : The file selector is now “trackloaded” and start faster.
  • Speed up the sub-directory change/browsing.
  • Can start an image from the slot page with the F7 key.
  • The File selector is now available under Windows and Linux ! : You can now edit the list from a PC !. (Compatible with all SD/USB HxC drives !)  To launch it : HXCFEMNG -disk:[SD/USB drive letter:]  See the selector readme file for more details.  This is a new selection solution for all others machines without native file selector available.
  • Linux/Windows version : You can now import from txt file / export to txt file / auto populate / check / fix and clear your slots configuration.  Very useful for fast populating and compilations duplication ;)
  • Windows version : Fix big size (>8GB) usb stick/sd access issue.
  • populateslots option : autoboot.hfe filtered.

Converter / HxC Software:

  • WIP : HFEv3 Import/export support added. This format support copy protections (variable bitrate protections and soon weakbits protections).

Download: USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.0.19.2a (1480)

source: hxc2001.com

Javatari.js v4.0.1 – Atari 2600 emulator designed for the Web

April 3rd, 2017 No comments

Javatari is a new cross platform Atari 2600 emulator designed for the Web.

It’s great for displaying games running inside webpages. You can launch the emulator and load ROMs with a single link. And now you can play Atari 2600 games with touch controls on your Android/iOS device, even when offline!

New in Version 4.0:

  • Support for mobile iOS and Android devices
  • Finally enjoy Atari 2600 games on your iPhone/iPad!
  • Customizable Touch Controls, with Haptic feedback
  • Install as a WebApp on iOS/Android/Desktop, then run offline!
  • Open files from local storage, iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, web links
  • Higher resolution GUI for high-density displays, Retina displays
  • Menu navigation by keys. Easy GUI switches for most used options

Features:

  • Cross platform HTML5/JS. Runs in any Browser, tested in Chrome/Firefox/Safari
  • Finally enjoy Atari 2600 games on your iPhone/iPad
  • Customizable Touch Controls for mobile devices (iOS, Android)
  • Real Atari 2600 Console panel for a nostalgic feel!
  • Install as a WebApp, then run offline
  • Put Atari 2600 games in webpages easily
  • Show games running with a single link to the Javatari page
  • Drag & Drop system for loading files
  • Savestates support. Export and share Savestate files
  • Fully customizable Joysticks, Joykeys and Touch controllers
  • Adjustable speed, Pause and Frame-by-frame advance
  • Screen Capture and Debug modes
  • Resizable Screen, Full Screen mode
  • Javascript API for loading ROMs and Console control

Download: Javatari.js v4.0.1 (1265)

source: javatari.org

Thanks to my friend for the donation of Atari Software

March 2nd, 2017 No comments
Thanks to my friend for the donation of Atari Software

Thanks to my friend Andry for the donation of Atari Software.

Titles:

  • Ghostbusters (Mastertronic) – Tape
  • Universal Hero (Mastertronic) – Tape
  • Jeff Minter revenge II (Mastertronic) – Tape
  • SideWinder II (Mastertronic) – Tape
  • Despatch Rider (Mastertronic) – Tape
  • Milk Race (Mastertronic) – Tape
  • Henry’s House (Mastertronic) – Tape
  • Attack of the Mutant Camels (Mastertronic) – Tape
  • 180 (Mastertronic) – Tape
  • Suicide Mission (Arcadia) – Tape
  • Star Riders (Atari) – Tape
  • James Bond 007 The Living Daylights (Zeppelin Games) – Tape
  • Chuckie Egg (ANF) – Tape
  • Cavern Commander (Scorpio Games World) – Tape
  • Side Winder (Zeppelin Games) – Tape
  • Qyx (Thermonuclear Soft) – Tape
  • Flip & Flop (Thermonuclear Soft) – Tape
  • The Tail of Beta Lyrae (DataByte) – Tape
  • Elektra Glide (Laser Load) – Tape
  • Desmond’s Dungeon Find the key to riches (Creative Sparks) – Tape
  • Voodoo Castle (Adventure International) – Tape
  • Joy Pong (Lindasoft) – Disk
  • JumpMania (Lindasoft) – Disk
  • Trans Robots sul pianeta del teschio (Lindasoft) – Disk
Categories: Donations, News & Rumors, Today

Outrun New Year Music Demo for the Atari ST by Peter Jørgensen

February 27th, 2017 No comments

Outrun New Year Music Demo for the Atari ST by Peter Jørgensen

The music has been converted by Peter Jørgensen aka. fedepede04 aka bionic nerd, using a special version of Project Ymer, that can exported its tracker scores to YMT files.

It’s a Pure YM2149 Sound, no Samples, no Sid, Synth Wave, or Phaser sounds.

Download: Outrun New Year Music Demo (978)

source: bitmania.de

Categories: Atari, News & Rumors, Today

Thanks to my friend for donation a few things for Atari

February 26th, 2017 No comments
Thanks to my friend for donation a few things for Atari

Thanks to my friend Andry for donation a few things for Atari

Here the list:

  • Modem Supra Corporation 300 AT
  • Berliner Cilinder Video Digitizer Atari 520 ST
  • Composite Video Switcher (Color/Mono)
  • A unknown Interface with 3 x Potentiometers+ 2 x DIN IN/OUT + Cartridge Expansion Port (they have used the cartridge case of the Commodore 64 but the connector is Atari).
  • A unknown Harddisk Interface for Atari.
  • Two unknown cables with Floppy Drive Connections.

Gallery:

Thanks to my friend for donation of some Software on Tape.

December 17th, 2016 2 comments
Thanks to my friend Andry for donation of some Cassette Tapes

Thanks to my friend Andry for donation of some Software on Tape.

Titles:

ORIC-1 48k Software:

  • Star Fighter / Durell Software
  • Oric Munch / TanSoft
  • Kilburn Encounter / TanSoft
  • Super Advanced Breakout / TanSoft
  • Super Advanced Breakout / Oric Software
  • Defence Force / TanSoft
  • Rat Splat / TanSoft
  • Ultima Zone / TanSoft
  • Oric Flight / Oric Software
  • Teach Yourself Basic / Oric Software
  • Oric MultiGames 1 / Oric Software
  • House of the Death / TanSoft
  • Zodiac / TanSoft
  • Chess / TanSoft
  • Nowotnik Puzzle / TanSoft
  • Zargons Revenge / TanSoft

DRAGON 32K Software:

  • Golf / PSS
  • Ultimate Adventure / Microdeal Software
  • Flipper / Microdeal Software
  • Ultimate Adventure 4 / Microdeal Software
  • Intergalactic Force / Microdeal Software
  • Katerpillar Attack / Microdeal Software
  • Morbid Mansion / Blably Computer Games
  • Transylvanian Tower / Richard Shepherd Software

Read more…

Categories: Donations, News & Rumors, Today

Atari Ultimate 1MB Firmware Update to the latest version

September 7th, 2016 No comments
Atari Ultimate 1MB Firmware Update to the latest version

Fortunately a year ago i have also updated the CPLD code (Xilinx) of the Ultimate 1MB to version v2, needed for this update!

Gallery:

source: atariage.com

SNDH Atari ST YM2149 Archive v4.6 released.

August 17th, 2016 No comments

SNDH archive v4.6 released - 345 new/updated SNDH files (437 subtunes) – (total 9893 tunes)

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 v4.6 (1340)

source: sndh.atari.org

Categories: Atari, News & Rumors, Today

Atari Dos: SpartaDOS X v4.48

July 27th, 2016 1 comment

SpartaDOS X (or SpartaDOS 4.0) is a disk operating system for the Atari 8-bit family of computers, that closely resembles MS-DOS. It was developed and sold by ICD, Inc. in 1987-93.

Ten years later SpartaDOS X considered abandonware has been picked up by its enthusiasts, and developed further. These unofficial revisions, incorporating many of the utilities written since 1992, cleaning many identified problems and including numerous improvements.

Highlights:

  • Improved compatibility of 1 MB RAMBO and 576k Compy Shop RAM extensions with the internal BASIC on XL/XE.
  • CAR.COM: added support for the Weronika cartridge: to run the dedicated programs, use CAR /F filename.ext;
  • INIDOS.SYS should now work for SIDE2.
  • Fixed a major bug in the S_VBXE driver, which caused occasional hang ups after the Reset key was pressed.
  • CON.SYS: 80-column mode can now survive a warm reset.
  • CHKFAT.COM: new command line tool to verify FAT file systems compatibility with our FATFS driver
  • New program: MD5 hash tool
  • SC now version 1.0.0

Please read the release notes (the whatsnew.txt file) for full information.

The new SpartaDOS X 4.48 runs on the following hardware platforms:

  • intSDX128 and intSDX128 “flash”
  • IDE Plus 2.0 interface (*)
  • Maxflash 1Mb
  • Maxflash 8Mb (*)
  • Maxflash MyIDE+Flash
  • MyIDE II RAM
  • MyIDE II ROM
  • SIC! Cartridge 256k (*)
  • SIC! Cartridge 128k
  • SIDE HDD cartridge (*)
  • SIDE2 HDD cartridge (*)
  • SuperCart cartridge (*)
  • Ultimate1MB (*) (**)
  • Turbo Freezer 2005 (*) (***)
  • Altirra and Atari800 emulators

(*) – includes MAN on-line help
(**) – also use with Incognito board and Turbo Freezer 2011
(***) – use with Freezer ROM only

Dowload: SpartaDOS X 4.48 with Toolkit (1504)

source: sdx.atari8.info wikipedia

Categories: Atari, News & Rumors, Today

New Firmware v1.4 availible for Atari XL/XE Sys-Check V2 cartridge

July 18th, 2016 No comments

Below the post of the author on Atariage Forum.

A new firmware and flashtool is availible for Sys-Check V2 series.

The new flashtool now supports both Sys-Check PCBs equipped with a SST39SF010A flash chip (V2.1 and V2.2). When you start the flashtool, it will ask you which version you have. To be absolutely sure, the flashtool shows a simplified graphic view of both versions. I think, everybody can handle it :)

Of course the flashtool (and all other documents) are written in german and english.

Also there´s a new firmware V1.4 out. This firmware can be used with ALL Sys-Check versions – also with the old V2.0 (without flash). Owners of the V2.0 must burn the 16 KB firmware image into a 27128 EPROM. All other please use the flashtool to update their Sys-Check.

V1.4 has this minor changes:

  • Sys-Check can be used with the U1MB expansion.
  • The new version first checks the whole memory (to be more exact… the first 48 KByte) and then displays the defective bits (if there are any…)
  • When bad memory within the first 48 KB is found, the upper 16 KB will not be tested.
  • If memory is fine, OS-ROM will be tested as before.
  • If both tests are fine, then pressing START after this will set Sys-Check into endless loop test mode. Memory and OS-ROM are tested infinite – until any error occurs.
  • During memory tests the background will be coloured red if defective bits were detected.

Download: Sys-Check Firmware & Tools v2.2 (1201)

source: atariage.com

USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Floppy Emulator: Firmware v3.0.8.2a

June 6th, 2016 No comments

Jean-François DEL NERO (who’s behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently has released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that is compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators.

This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.

The bootloader to convert the Gotek floppy drive in HxC compatible must be purchased on the website HXC 2001 by sending an email to Jean-François DEL NERO. The price of the bootloader is one-off 10 Euro per Gotek that you want to update. Future updates of the software are free and can be made from a USB stick

The HXC Usb (Gotek) firmware supports:

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.8.2a

  • HD floppy disk format issue corrected : write buffer size corrected.

Download: USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.0.8.2a (1318)

source: hxc2001.com

USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Floppy Emulator: Firmware v3.0.8.1a

May 31st, 2016 No comments

Jean-François DEL NERO (who’s behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently has released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that is compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators.

This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.

The bootloader to convert the Gotek floppy drive in HxC compatible must be purchased on the website HXC 2001 by sending an email to Jean-François DEL NERO. The price of the bootloader is one-off 10 Euro per Gotek that you want to update. Future updates of the software are free and can be made from a USB stick

The HXC Usb (Gotek) firmware supports:

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.8.1a

  • Last selected image save issue corrected.

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.8.0a

  • “Autoboot”/ File selector mode :
    • Fast backward/forward mode : Keep the button pressed to speed up the image change.
    • Press both buttons in the same time to jump the autoboot/file selector image.
  • Indexed mode :
    • Fast backward/forward mode : Keep the button pressed to speed up the image change.
    • Press both buttons in the same time to jump the DSKA0000 image.
  • Up to 1000 indexed images (DSKA0000-DSKA0999).

Download: USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.0.8.1a (1170)

source: hxc2001.com