1 Nov
2001
1 Nov
'01
10:13 a.m.
The console was intended to be the Atari using a Bit3
font ala the ATR's
ADM3a Atari terminal emulator software. The ATR didn't need an atari, it
could use a serial terminal, but I've never hooked one to my ATR's to find
out. There was a special cable to use the SIO jacks on the ATR connected
to a serial dumb terminal. Otherwise you had to use the only other serial
port on the thing and lose the ability to run a modem.
I've always wanted one of the ATR's but haven't come across
one at all. That's pretty interesting though. Most of my Atari 8bit
time is spent on the 800 and it's decidedly more stock than yours,
the main enhancements being the two Indus GT drives, the Happy 810,
and a Bit-3 Full-view 80 video card. I used to hang a 1050 interface
or a 1030 modem off of it occasionally as well.
The 1050 was an even better drive than the 810.
Quieter, just as
bulletproof, and faster because of onboard data separator etc. It also
used a modified MFM scheme to store more data while still using 128byte
sectors called 'Enhanced Density'. ED was a 26spt scheme no one really
liked much.
There is the reason I never really got into using the 1050
that much. I only picked one up much later. People I knew didn't
like them at all either. Since the Indus GT's are DD and have never
given me any trouble I stuck with them. Both are certainly better
than the 810's 90k cap, but there's a big difference between the
1050's 127k ED and the GT's 180k DD. Plus, without 3rd party
enhancements the 1050 had the same slow data transfer rate as the
810. The Happy upgrade nearly tripled the rate. I'm not sure what
the data transfer rate of the GT's were using DOS XL with syncromesh
turned on.
I ran a modified Carina II bbs system off that ramdisk
for years. All the
modules in ram made it alot faster. Data went to hard disk.
That's cool...I didn't run my own BBS until later when I put
it on an XT using QuickBBS. A friend of mine ran a board off of a
PCjr using FIDO and the single floppy drive and a 300bps modem.
Needless to say, it was pretty much for messages only.
CSS (Computer Software Services) is now known as New
Life Electronics
(http://www.nleaudio.com). Bob has allways made hifi stuff. A catalogue,
information, docs, source, and other such is on the site. To this day Bob
is STILL an Atari hacker. Something of a god he is to me.
Looks like he's not updated the site in a while. It's good
to know he's still out there though. It seems all of these
communities have a couple of people that have been elevated to
near-god status.
Jeff
--
Home of the TRS-80 Model 2000 FAQ File
http://www.cchaven.com
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757