atari800-users — Atari800 users

Re: [Atari800-users] colors

[Kay S. <ke...@sa...>]

Thanks. I'll try this.

-K

On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 6:42 AM Cliff Hatch via Atari800-users <
ata...@li...> wrote:

> I don't have any experience of Atari800MacX, but I get good colour
> reproduction with Atari800 on Linux using the default video settings:
>
> COLOURS_NTSC_SATURATION=0
> COLOURS_NTSC_CONTRAST=0
> COLOURS_NTSC_BRIGHTNESS=0
> COLOURS_NTSC_GAMMA=2.35
> COLOURS_NTSC_HUE=0
> COLOURS_NTSC_GTIA_DELAY=26.8
> COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=
> COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE_LOADED=0
> COLOURS_NTSC_ADJUST_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=0
>
> I tried changing to your saturation, contrast, brightness and gamma
> settings.  This had a small effect only - the display still looked good.
>
> However, loading the Real.act palette gave me very distorted colours,
> similar to those you have seen.
>
> I don't know the history of the external palettes.  The only one that
> gives me reasonable results is XFormer.act, but even it is not great - a
> little too bright.  Strangely, the one called default.act produces similar
> distortion to Real.act (so I guess there must be a default internal palette
> that is different to the external one).
>
> The best settings I can find are the above defaults, with no external
> palette loaded.
>
> Best Regards
>
> Cliff
> On 14/10/2020 16:33, Kay Savetz wrote:
>
> Because the way the settings work on the two systems are completely
> different. I don't know how to make them the same.
>
> I've figured out that I can set COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE to Real.act,
> which is a start. But the colors still don't match, and the terminology
> between the linux config file and the Mac preferences is different enough
> that I don't know what to change. (e.g. Saturation, Contrast vs. Black
> Level, Intensity.)
>
> On linux:
>
> COLOURS_NTSC_SATURATION=0.26
> COLOURS_NTSC_CONTRAST=0.72
> COLOURS_NTSC_BRIGHTNESS=-0.16
> COLOURS_NTSC_GAMMA=2
> COLOURS_NTSC_HUE=0
> COLOURS_NTSC_GTIA_DELAY=26.8
> COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=Real.act
> COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE_LOADED=1
> COLOURS_NTSC_ADJUST_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=1
>
> On Mac:
>
> [image: Screenshot 2020-10-14 at 8.07.19 AM.jpg]
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 12:09 AM Miro Kropáček <mir...@gm...>
> wrote:
>
>> Are you sure you are using the same palette and/or NTSC/PAL settings?
>>
>> On Wed, 14 Oct 2020 at 06:12, Kay Savetz <ke...@sa...> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Atari800 people,
>>>
>>> Today I made a little program on Atari800MacX, then copied it to
>>> @Atari8bitBot on Twitter, which uses atari800 on linux. I noticed that the
>>> colors are very different. Frankly, I like the Mac colors better (and I
>>> think they are more accurate to my real Atari.)
>>>
>>> Atari800MacX has many color palette options. I use Real.act, which I
>>> think is the default.
>>>
>>> Can someone suggest settings for the Linux atari800.cfg to make the
>>> colors better?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Kay
>>>
>>> [image: Screenshot 2020-10-13 at 8.59.22 PM.jpg]
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Atari800-users mailing list
>>> Ata...@li...
>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> http://mikro.atari.org
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Atari800-users mailing list
>> Ata...@li...
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Atari800-users mailing lis...@li...https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Atari800-users mailing list
> Ata...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>

Re: [Atari800-users] colors

[Cliff H. <ha...@bt...>]

I don't have any experience of Atari800MacX, but I get good colour 
reproduction with Atari800 on Linux using the default video settings:

COLOURS_NTSC_SATURATION=0
COLOURS_NTSC_CONTRAST=0
COLOURS_NTSC_BRIGHTNESS=0
COLOURS_NTSC_GAMMA=2.35
COLOURS_NTSC_HUE=0
COLOURS_NTSC_GTIA_DELAY=26.8
COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=
COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE_LOADED=0
COLOURS_NTSC_ADJUST_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=0

I tried changing to your saturation, contrast, brightness and gamma 
settings.  This had a small effect only - the display still looked good.

However, loading the Real.act palette gave me very distorted colours, 
similar to those you have seen.

I don't know the history of the external palettes.  The only one that 
gives me reasonable results is XFormer.act, but even it is not great - a 
little too bright.  Strangely, the one called default.act produces 
similar distortion to Real.act (so I guess there must be a default 
internal palette that is different to the external one).

The best settings I can find are the above defaults, with no external 
palette loaded.

Best Regards

Cliff

On 14/10/2020 16:33, Kay Savetz wrote:
> Because the way the settings work on the two systems are completely 
> different. I don't know how to make them the same.
>
> I've figured out that I can set COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE to 
> Real.act, which is a start. But the colors still don't match, and the 
> terminology between the linux config file and the Mac preferences is 
> different enough that I don't know what to change. (e.g. Saturation, 
> Contrast vs. Black Level, Intensity.)
>
> On linux:
>
> COLOURS_NTSC_SATURATION=0.26
> COLOURS_NTSC_CONTRAST=0.72
> COLOURS_NTSC_BRIGHTNESS=-0.16
> COLOURS_NTSC_GAMMA=2
> COLOURS_NTSC_HUE=0
> COLOURS_NTSC_GTIA_DELAY=26.8
> COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=Real.act
> COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE_LOADED=1
> COLOURS_NTSC_ADJUST_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=1
>
> On Mac:
>
> Screenshot 2020-10-14 at 8.07.19 AM.jpg
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 12:09 AM Miro Kropáček 
> <mir...@gm... <mailto:mir...@gm...>> wrote:
>
>     Are you sure you are using the same palette and/or NTSC/PAL settings?
>
>     On Wed, 14 Oct 2020 at 06:12, Kay Savetz <ke...@sa...
>     <mailto:ke...@sa...>> wrote:
>
>         Hi Atari800 people,
>
>         Today I made a little program on Atari800MacX, then copied it
>         to @Atari8bitBot on Twitter, which uses atari800 on linux. I
>         noticed that the colors are very different. Frankly, I
>         like the Mac colors better (and I think they are more accurate
>         to my real Atari.)
>
>         Atari800MacX has many color palette options. I use Real.act,
>         which I think is the default.
>
>         Can someone suggest settings for the Linux atari800.cfg to
>         make the colors better?
>
>         Thanks
>         Kay
>
>         Screenshot 2020-10-13 at 8.59.22 PM.jpg
>
>
>         _______________________________________________
>         Atari800-users mailing list
>         Ata...@li...
>         <mailto:Ata...@li...>
>         https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>
>
>
>     -- 
>     http://mikro.atari.org
>
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     Atari800-users mailing list
>     Ata...@li...
>     <mailto:Ata...@li...>
>     https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Atari800-users mailing list
> Ata...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users

Re: [Atari800-users] colors

[Kay S. <ke...@sa...>]

Because the way the settings work on the two systems are completely
different. I don't know how to make them the same.

I've figured out that I can set COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE to Real.act,
which is a start. But the colors still don't match, and the terminology
between the linux config file and the Mac preferences is different enough
that I don't know what to change. (e.g. Saturation, Contrast vs. Black
Level, Intensity.)

On linux:

COLOURS_NTSC_SATURATION=0.26
COLOURS_NTSC_CONTRAST=0.72
COLOURS_NTSC_BRIGHTNESS=-0.16
COLOURS_NTSC_GAMMA=2
COLOURS_NTSC_HUE=0
COLOURS_NTSC_GTIA_DELAY=26.8
COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=Real.act
COLOURS_NTSC_EXTERNAL_PALETTE_LOADED=1
COLOURS_NTSC_ADJUST_EXTERNAL_PALETTE=1

On Mac:

[image: Screenshot 2020-10-14 at 8.07.19 AM.jpg]




On Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 12:09 AM Miro Kropáček <mir...@gm...>
wrote:

> Are you sure you are using the same palette and/or NTSC/PAL settings?
>
> On Wed, 14 Oct 2020 at 06:12, Kay Savetz <ke...@sa...> wrote:
>
>> Hi Atari800 people,
>>
>> Today I made a little program on Atari800MacX, then copied it to
>> @Atari8bitBot on Twitter, which uses atari800 on linux. I noticed that the
>> colors are very different. Frankly, I like the Mac colors better (and I
>> think they are more accurate to my real Atari.)
>>
>> Atari800MacX has many color palette options. I use Real.act, which I
>> think is the default.
>>
>> Can someone suggest settings for the Linux atari800.cfg to make the
>> colors better?
>>
>> Thanks
>> Kay
>>
>> [image: Screenshot 2020-10-13 at 8.59.22 PM.jpg]
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Atari800-users mailing list
>> Ata...@li...
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>>
>
>
> --
> http://mikro.atari.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Atari800-users mailing list
> Ata...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>

Re: [Atari800-users] colors

[Miro K. <mir...@gm...>]

Are you sure you are using the same palette and/or NTSC/PAL settings?

On Wed, 14 Oct 2020 at 06:12, Kay Savetz <ke...@sa...> wrote:

> Hi Atari800 people,
>
> Today I made a little program on Atari800MacX, then copied it to
> @Atari8bitBot on Twitter, which uses atari800 on linux. I noticed that the
> colors are very different. Frankly, I like the Mac colors better (and I
> think they are more accurate to my real Atari.)
>
> Atari800MacX has many color palette options. I use Real.act, which I think
> is the default.
>
> Can someone suggest settings for the Linux atari800.cfg to make the colors
> better?
>
> Thanks
> Kay
>
> [image: Screenshot 2020-10-13 at 8.59.22 PM.jpg]
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Atari800-users mailing list
> Ata...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>


-- 
http://mikro.atari.org

[Atari800-users] colors

[Kay S. <ke...@sa...>]

Hi Atari800 people,

Today I made a little program on Atari800MacX, then copied it to
@Atari8bitBot on Twitter, which uses atari800 on linux. I noticed that the
colors are very different. Frankly, I like the Mac colors better (and I
think they are more accurate to my real Atari.)

Atari800MacX has many color palette options. I use Real.act, which I think
is the default.

Can someone suggest settings for the Linux atari800.cfg to make the colors
better?

Thanks
Kay

[image: Screenshot 2020-10-13 at 8.59.22 PM.jpg]

Re: [Atari800-users] Scriptable typing?

[Bill K. <nb...@so...>]

On Mon, Sep 21, 2020 at 08:39:44AM +0200, Petr Stehlík wrote:
> On Ne, 2020-09-20 at 22:08 -0700, Kay Savetz wrote:
> > > os.system('xdotool search --class atari type --delay 200 \'LOAD
> > "D:PROG\r\'')
> > 
> > Documentation for the bot is now at https://atari8bitbot.com
> > 
> > The next technical challenge will be adding audio output from the
> > Atari800 emulator using pulseaudio into ffmpeg. I have no idea how to
> > do that.
> 
> Cannot Atari800 save its sound output to a WAV or MP3 already?

They way Atari8BitBot is working is to launch Atari800, wait a
few seconds (to give the OS, DOS, and TurboBASIC XL a chance to boot,
for example), and then start recording for a few seconds.

Kay recently updated it to allow the user (composing the tweet that
contains the program) to specify to the bot how long to wait, and how
long to record.  For example, if the program starts quickly, and you
want to capture the beginning of a drawing being made, for example,
you can have it record immediately.  If there's a lot of setup ahead
of time, you can ask it to wait a while, so the beginning of the
video isn't boring. :)

So we'd need to figure out how to grab the correct chunk of the
audio output from Atari800, and clip the beginning off, based on
how many seconds we wait before FFmpeg starts recording, and then
merge the video (MP4 or somesuch) and audio (WAV or MP3) into a new
video.

Not impossible, but since FFmpeg can already record from an audio
source, and Atari800 is already sending audio to a 'device',
it would be simplest to simply do it that way.

Linux audio is confusing and ever-changing, so the exact way to
do this hasn't been figured out yet. ;)  If anyone here has a clue,
we'd appreciate the hint!  (As would BBCMicroBot, I think, too!)

No reason to showcase ONLY the ANTIC & GTIA, and ignore the POKEY! ;)

-bill!

Re: [Atari800-users] Scriptable typing?

[Petr S. <pst...@so...>]

On Ne, 2020-09-20 at 22:08 -0700, Kay Savetz wrote:
> > os.system('xdotool search --class atari type --delay 200 \'LOAD
> "D:PROG\r\'')
> 
> Documentation for the bot is now at https://atari8bitbot.com
> 
> The next technical challenge will be adding audio output from the
> Atari800 emulator using pulseaudio into ffmpeg. I have no idea how to
> do that.

Cannot Atari800 save its sound output to a WAV or MP3 already?

Petr

Re: [Atari800-users] Scriptable typing?

[Kay S. <ke...@sa...>]

>
>
>   DISPLAY=:1 xdotool search --class atari key B --delay 100 key Y --delay
> 100 key E --delay 100 key Return


Thanks, Daniel. This was super helpful, and I got Logo working in the bot
with your help.

I ended up with this, simple but effective:

os.system('xdotool search --class atari type --delay 200 \'LOAD
"D:PROG\r\'')

Documentation for the bot is now at https://atari8bitbot.com

The next technical challenge will be adding audio output from the Atari800
emulator using pulseaudio into ffmpeg. I have no idea how to do that.

-K

[Atari800-users] Linux: gamepad support using AntiMicroX

[Petr S. <pst...@so...>]

Hi there,

if you're missing a possibility of mapping say F6, F7, F8 keys to
buttons on your gamepad in Atari800 - the AntiMicroX utility could
help:

https://github.com/AntiMicroX/antimicrox

Petr

Re: [Atari800-users] Scriptable typing?

[Daniel S. <dse...@gm...>]

Hi!

On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 05:14:36PM -0700, Kevin Savetz wrote:
> Hi gang.
> 
> Bill Kendrick and I created a Twitter bot that uses atari800 behind the
> scenes. Send a tweet of basic code to it, it runs the code and sends back a
> 5 second video of it running.
> 
> https://twitter.com/Atari8BitBot/with_replies

That's great... now I miss having a twitter account :-P
 
> For the next thing I want to do, well, I can’t do it unless there was way
> to force the emulator to “type” into the Atari. Like: wait 10 seconds after
> boot, the type some stuff. Wait a few more seconds, type more.
> 
> Is that feature a possibility?

I just tried (on Linux) using "xdotool":

- Started a virtual X session (headless):

  Xvfb :1 -screen 0 640x480x24

- Started the emulator, using the new session and disabling OpenGL
  acceleration:

  SDL_VIDEODRIVER=x11 SDL_VIDEO_GL_DRIVER= DISPLAY=:1 atari800 -fullscreen -basic -nosound -no-vsync

- Send a key to the running (invisible) emulator:

  DISPLAY=:1 xdotool search --class atari key B --delay 100 key Y --delay 100 key E --delay 100 key Return

- Grab a screenshot from the emulator:

  xwd -display :1 -root > sc1.xwd && convert sc1.xwd sc1.png

Success!

Killing the Xvfb kills the emulator, and you can also send key "ctrl+F9" to
exit.

Have Fun!


    Daniel.

Re: [Atari800-users] Scriptable typing?

[Bill K. <nb...@so...>]

On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 08:03:22PM -0500, Troy Ayers wrote:
> I don't know about that, but can you make use of a 3rd party tool,
> like autohotkey?

Yesterday via TXT msg, I told Kay there's _probably_ some X11 thing
that'll help with this (since X's been around for decades and has
everything plus the kitchen sink), and I finally just looked
and stumbled upon "xdotool", which is probably useful! :)

Manpage over at Ubuntu:

  http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man1/xdotool.1.html


For the curious out there, we're using Atari800 under Xvfb, and then
pointing FFmpeg at the virtual framebuffer to capture a few seconds of
video, which Kay's script uploads to twitter.

BBCMicroBot was Kay's inspiration for this bot.  (Kay also helped
put together the Atari 8-bit random screenshot posting bot on Twitter),
and I actually ended up cribbing some of the Xvfb+FFmpeg stuff from an
as-of-yet unimplemented Commodore 64 bot that's meant to do the same thing
as these bots.  Plus tons of experimenting and Googling and cursing at
my laptop. :)

I was going to use my own hand-made script (in PHP!) for converting
ASCII to ATASCII.  It supports escaping ATASCII kind of similar to
what you'd see in a non-ATASCII print-out in type-in program in old
magazines or computer books, e.g., PRINT "{CLR}{HEART}{DIAMOND}", and
I used it when I wrote my game "Invienes Verba".  It uses a small TBXL
"AUTORUN.BAS" that invokes the BASIC "ENTER" command to load the
converted-to-ATASCII program listing, which also gets a "RUN" command
tacked on at the very end, of course.

Instead, though, Kay utilized an ASCII -> TurboBASIC XL tokenizer that
someone else wrote (more recently), and it has worked well!
(Although, if it dies due to syntax errors, the twitter bot doesn't
actually get as far as running Atari800 to take a screenshot.)

Oh, and we currently use Franny to drop the BASIC program onto a
template disk image that has a DOS and TurboBASIC XL as an autorun,
which gets thrown at Atari800.  (There are probably newer, fancier
tools out there for this, but Franny works sufficiently.)

Fun times!  Back to day job and school zoom meetings...

-bill!

> 
> -Troy
> 
> On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 7:16 PM Kevin Savetz <ke...@sa...> wrote:
> >
> > Hi gang.
> >
> > Bill Kendrick and I created a Twitter bot that uses atari800 behind the scenes. Send a tweet of basic code to it, it runs the code and sends back a 5 second video of it running.
> >
> > https://twitter.com/Atari8BitBot/with_replies
> >
> > For the next thing I want to do, well, I can’t do it unless there was way to force the emulator to “type” into the Atari. Like: wait 10 seconds after boot, the type some stuff. Wait a few more seconds, type more.
> >
> > Is that feature a possibility?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Kay Savetz
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Atari800-users mailing list
> > Ata...@li...
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Atari800-users mailing list
> Ata...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
> 

-- 
-bill!
Sent from my computer

Re: [Atari800-users] Scriptable typing?

[Troy A. <hol...@gm...>]

I don't know about that, but can you make use of a 3rd party tool,
like autohotkey?

-Troy

On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 7:16 PM Kevin Savetz <ke...@sa...> wrote:
>
> Hi gang.
>
> Bill Kendrick and I created a Twitter bot that uses atari800 behind the scenes. Send a tweet of basic code to it, it runs the code and sends back a 5 second video of it running.
>
> https://twitter.com/Atari8BitBot/with_replies
>
> For the next thing I want to do, well, I can’t do it unless there was way to force the emulator to “type” into the Atari. Like: wait 10 seconds after boot, the type some stuff. Wait a few more seconds, type more.
>
> Is that feature a possibility?
>
> Thanks,
> Kay Savetz
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Atari800-users mailing list
> Ata...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users

[Atari800-users] Scriptable typing?

[Kevin S. <ke...@sa...>]

Hi gang.

Bill Kendrick and I created a Twitter bot that uses atari800 behind the
scenes. Send a tweet of basic code to it, it runs the code and sends back a
5 second video of it running.

https://twitter.com/Atari8BitBot/with_replies

For the next thing I want to do, well, I can’t do it unless there was way
to force the emulator to “type” into the Atari. Like: wait 10 seconds after
boot, the type some stuff. Wait a few more seconds, type more.

Is that feature a possibility?

Thanks,
Kay Savetz

Re: [Atari800-users] Atari800-users Digest, Vol 105, Issue 6

[Chris C. <chr...@gm...>]

On Fri, Aug 28, 2020 at 11:08 AM <
ata...@li...> wrote:

> [...]
>
> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Building Atari800 (Chris Chiesa)
>    2. Re: Building Atari800 (Miro Krop??ek)
>    3. Re: Building Atari800 (B Watson)
>

I'm not clogging up the list with another copy of everything you guys
wrote, but thank you!  Your advice will indeed be helpful.  Now off to find
a compiler... ;-)

I'm still waiting for anyone who knows anything about building for Android,
though.  I'm surprised the build instructions aren't more thorough, for
people like myself who, although experienced professional C/C++
programmers, haven't done much of that on Windows, specifically, nor much
"system building" or tool installation on *nix / Linux...  Well, I'll keep
track of my own progress and perhaps write an additional "newbie"
document.  ;-)

Thanks again, and in advance.

Chris

Re: [Atari800-users] Building Atari800

[B W. <ya...@gm...>]

On 8/28/20, Miro Kropá
ek <mir...@gm...> wrote:
>>
> It seems that they indeed removed SDL 1.2 reference from their web. However
> the (still updated) development branch is still available. Just clone the
> repository:

If you'd rather avoid messing with mercurial, the SDL-1.2 source
is available as a regular tarball here:

https://slackware.uk/slackware/slackware64-14.2/source/l/sdl/

...if that helps any.

Re: [Atari800-users] Building Atari800

[Miro K. <mir...@gm...>]

Hi Chris,

On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 at 02:31, Chris Chiesa <chr...@gm...> wrote:

> 1) On Windows, I want to build the SDL version for maximum
> features/functionality.  The build instructions say to extract a file from
> the SDL 1.2 source code, and give the URL for libsdl.org.  When I go
> there, though, only SDL 2.0 appears to be available.  Where would I get 1.2
> source code, in this day and age?  Or would 2.0 work too?  I'm on 32-bit XP
> Pro SP3, at the moment, if that matters.
>
It seems that they indeed removed SDL 1.2 reference from their web. However
the (still updated) development branch is still available. Just clone the
repository:

hg clone http://hg.libsdl.org/SDL

and switch into "SDL-1.2" branch with command:

hg update SDL-1.2

However, as you might have guessed by now, you need to build it by
yourself. On Linux it is easier, all distros offer SDL 1.2 packages so
there isn't this issue.

Atari800 hasn't been ported to SDL2 yet. :-(

-- 
http://mikro.atari.org

[Atari800-users] Building Atari800

[Chris C. <chr...@gm...>]

I finally got annoyed enough with website security protocol incompatibility
to solve the problem, and tracked down the Atari800 project at GIthub.
I've downloaded the v4.2.0 for Windows -- and the source code, to see if I
can add/fix a few things ;-) -- and now I have a couple of questions about
the latter.

1) On Windows, I want to build the SDL version for maximum
features/functionality.  The build instructions say to extract a file from
the SDL 1.2 source code, and give the URL for libsdl.org.  When I go there,
though, only SDL 2.0 appears to be available.  Where would I get 1.2 source
code, in this day and age?  Or would 2.0 work too?  I'm on 32-bit XP Pro
SP3, at the moment, if that matters.

2) A bugfix or two mention Colleen, the Android version of Atari800.  The
build instructions in the source package don't discuss that at all,
though.  How do I go about building that version?

Thanks in advance.

Chris

Re: [Atari800-users] Atari800-users Digest, Vol 105, Issue 4

[Chris C. <chr...@gm...>]

>
> Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2020 23:20:57 +0530
> From: Hemil Ruparel <hem...@gm...>
> To: ata...@li...
> Subject: Re: [Atari800-users] Introducing myself
>
> I know this sounds silly. But I have never used any 8 bit computer before.
> I got the emulator up and running. When it booted (damn! that was fast), it
> asked me to pick up a cartridge. I chose the first option. 8KB cartridge. I
> was greeted with this screen. But I don't know how to navigate around and
> do something useful. Any suggestions?
>

Welcome, Hemil!   I am of an even older vintage than Bill Kendrick; I
taught myself BASIC from a book in 1977 and got my first taste of other
people's Atari computers in 1981, and my own first Atari 800 in the summer
of 1982.  So I've been in love with the Atari 8-bit line for almost 40
years now.  I "met" Bill and many others online in the early days of the
Internet, specifically on Usenet before there was any such thing as "the
Web."  Heck, before there were GUIs, color, fonts, italics, images, ...
:-)

I am reading this in Digest form so can't see your screenshot, but Bill
says you're at the BASIC prompt.  If you're interested in writing BASIC
programs, be advised that Atari BASIC departs somewhat from the "standard"
in a few areas: Atari-specific functions for graphics, sound, and device
I/O, and a "different" way of handling character strings.  The Atari BASIC
Reference Manual is available online; my favorite in a quick Google search
is this one:

http://www.atarimania.com/documents/Atari-Basic-Reference-Manual-Rev-C.pdf

"Rev C" just means that it's the most recent update in a series of them
that improve on the original (1977 ?) release by fixing bugs and adding
support for new graphics modes that came with a newer version of the
graphics chip.  If Graphics 9, 10, or 11 don't work right, just change the
emulator's video settings from "CTIA" to "GTIA"... ;-)   Actually, you
should be able to find ROMs for all versions of BASIC, if you find there's
something specific that only a particular rev offers.

Note also that a few cool features of the Atari (16-bit sound;
Player-Missile graphics; disk sector I/O; ....) aren't supported by BASIC
commands or statements, but must be performed by PEEK-ing-and-POKE-ing
memory locations.  For that you'll also want the books "De Re Atari" and
"Mapping The Atari" (you want the later edition that covers the XL (and
later) models) .  Maybe the Atari OS Manual (not sure of the exact title;
Bill--?).  Even the assembly source code is available out there.  Other
books cover the "internals"/source code of BASIC and DOS (Disk Operating
System, which you might not have hit upon yet)...

Other BASIC packages with different capabilities are also available for the
Atari 8-bit; Frost BASIC, Turbo BASIC, and Microsoft BASIC are what first
spring to my mind, and I'm sure there must be others that either I'm
forgetting or have never heard about.  Bill probably knows more.

If you don't like BASIC, there are other languages available: Pascal, C,
and of course assembly... and a few Atari-specific languages such as
Action! (the exclamation point is part of the name) and others whose names
I forget.

Chris Chiesa

PS - Hi Bill!  Great to see you "still at it."  Drop me a line sometime. :-)

Re: [Atari800-users] Introducing myself

[Jorge V. W. <jv...@ne...>]

that's the BASIC interpreter. you're supposed to start writing BASIC 
code there. either in direct mode or a program, with line numbers

try this

10 for i=1 to 10:print "hello": next I

run


try

poke 710,0


gr.0


setcolor 2,5,7


etc...


El 03/08/2020 a las 13:50, Hemil Ruparel escribió:
> I know this sounds silly. But I have never used any 8 bit computer 
> before. I got the emulator up and running. When it booted (damn! that 
> was fast), it asked me to pick up a cartridge. I chose the first 
> option. 8KB cartridge. I was greeted with this screen. But I don't 
> know how to navigate around and do something useful. Any suggestions?
> atari.png
>
> On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 3:11 PM Hemil Ruparel 
> <hem...@gm... <mailto:hem...@gm...>> wrote:
>
>     Actually, I am making an app for my dad's business. In the
>     process, I realised i dont like it very much. Looking for alternatives
>
>     On Sun 2 Aug, 2020, 11:22 PM Bill Kendrick, <nb...@so...
>     <mailto:nb...@so...>> wrote:
>
>         On Sun, Aug 02, 2020 at 03:01:11PM +0530, Hemil Ruparel wrote:
>         > Hey guys! I am Hemil Ruparel. I am a CS student.
>
>         Welcome! :)
>
>         A frighteningly long time ago (~25 years!) when I was first a
>         CS student in the mid-to-late 1990s, emulators were new
>         (I actually helped with PC Xformer's documentation),
>         and I was using my Atari 1200XL regularly for programming.
>         I even did at least one paper for a class (hardware, I think?)
>         where the Atari was the topic.
>
>         Nice to see a new generation interested in the venerable
>         Atari 8-bits!
>
>         -- 
>         -bill!
>         Sent from my computer
>
>
>
>
>         _______________________________________________
>         Atari800-users mailing list
>         Ata...@li...
>         <mailto:Ata...@li...>
>         https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>         <https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Atari800-users mailing list
> Ata...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users

Re: [Atari800-users] Introducing myself

[Hemil R. <hem...@gm...>]

I know this sounds silly. But I have never used any 8 bit computer before.
I got the emulator up and running. When it booted (damn! that was fast), it
asked me to pick up a cartridge. I chose the first option. 8KB cartridge. I
was greeted with this screen. But I don't know how to navigate around and
do something useful. Any suggestions?
[image: atari.png]

On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 3:11 PM Hemil Ruparel <hem...@gm...>
wrote:

> Actually, I am making an app for my dad's business. In the process, I
> realised i dont like it very much. Looking for alternatives
>
> On Sun 2 Aug, 2020, 11:22 PM Bill Kendrick, <nb...@so...> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Aug 02, 2020 at 03:01:11PM +0530, Hemil Ruparel wrote:
>> > Hey guys! I am Hemil Ruparel. I am a CS student.
>>
>> Welcome! :)
>>
>> A frighteningly long time ago (~25 years!) when I was first a
>> CS student in the mid-to-late 1990s, emulators were new
>> (I actually helped with PC Xformer's documentation),
>> and I was using my Atari 1200XL regularly for programming.
>> I even did at least one paper for a class (hardware, I think?)
>> where the Atari was the topic.
>>
>> Nice to see a new generation interested in the venerable
>> Atari 8-bits!
>>
>> --
>> -bill!
>> Sent from my computer
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Atari800-users mailing list
>> Ata...@li...
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>>
>

Re: [Atari800-users] Introducing myself

[Hemil R. <hem...@gm...>]

Actually, I am making an app for my dad's business. In the process, I
realised i dont like it very much. Looking for alternatives

On Sun 2 Aug, 2020, 11:22 PM Bill Kendrick, <nb...@so...> wrote:

> On Sun, Aug 02, 2020 at 03:01:11PM +0530, Hemil Ruparel wrote:
> > Hey guys! I am Hemil Ruparel. I am a CS student.
>
> Welcome! :)
>
> A frighteningly long time ago (~25 years!) when I was first a
> CS student in the mid-to-late 1990s, emulators were new
> (I actually helped with PC Xformer's documentation),
> and I was using my Atari 1200XL regularly for programming.
> I even did at least one paper for a class (hardware, I think?)
> where the Atari was the topic.
>
> Nice to see a new generation interested in the venerable
> Atari 8-bits!
>
> --
> -bill!
> Sent from my computer
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Atari800-users mailing list
> Ata...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>

Re: [Atari800-users] Introducing myself

[Hemil R. <hem...@gm...>]

Well I met a person named Sean Charles on LinkedIn. He said he had to work
to get his first atari 400 i think?. I googled that. I wanted to see how it
would have been to program then.

Full disclosure: I dont know assembly.

On Sun 2 Aug, 2020, 11:22 PM Bill Kendrick, <nb...@so...> wrote:

> On Sun, Aug 02, 2020 at 03:01:11PM +0530, Hemil Ruparel wrote:
> > Hey guys! I am Hemil Ruparel. I am a CS student.
>
> Welcome! :)
>
> A frighteningly long time ago (~25 years!) when I was first a
> CS student in the mid-to-late 1990s, emulators were new
> (I actually helped with PC Xformer's documentation),
> and I was using my Atari 1200XL regularly for programming.
> I even did at least one paper for a class (hardware, I think?)
> where the Atari was the topic.
>
> Nice to see a new generation interested in the venerable
> Atari 8-bits!
>
> --
> -bill!
> Sent from my computer
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Atari800-users mailing list
> Ata...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>

Re: [Atari800-users] Joystick usage on Atari800 for Firebee

[Miro K. <mir...@gm...>]

It's still on my TODO list but you know, summer time isn't exactly very
motivating to spend on programming. ;-)

On Sun, 2 Aug 2020 at 16:42, Edward S. Baiz Jr. <edb...@co...>
wrote:

>
>
> Just wondering if there was an upgrade for the Atari800 emulator (Firebee
> version) that has the actual joystick usage fixed?
>
> Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for
> Windows 10
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Atari800-users mailing list
> Ata...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/atari800-users
>


-- 
http://mikro.atari.org

Re: [Atari800-users] Introducing myself

[Bill K. <nb...@so...>]

On Sun, Aug 02, 2020 at 03:01:11PM +0530, Hemil Ruparel wrote:
> Hey guys! I am Hemil Ruparel. I am a CS student.

Welcome! :)

A frighteningly long time ago (~25 years!) when I was first a
CS student in the mid-to-late 1990s, emulators were new
(I actually helped with PC Xformer's documentation),
and I was using my Atari 1200XL regularly for programming.
I even did at least one paper for a class (hardware, I think?)
where the Atari was the topic.

Nice to see a new generation interested in the venerable
Atari 8-bits!

-- 
-bill!
Sent from my computer

[Atari800-users] Joystick usage on Atari800 for Firebee

[Edward S. B. Jr. <edb...@co...>]

Just wondering if there was an upgrade for the Atari800 emulator (Firebee version) that has the actual joystick usage fixed?
Sent from Mail for Windows 10