Jinroh

Thankyou for discussing the idea of doing some VBXE programs. However, as expected, my associates have elected not to be involved with marketing VBXE. This is due to the small number of people out there with modified Atari 8-Bit systems. I am still open to making some Fast Basic sample programs with assembly routines that manipulate VBXE graphics. I need to look to see if someone already programmed something. 

Will this HDD interface work with a MegaSTE computer? I assume yes, and I am much obliged to hear more. I am still thinking about buying one, but not yet. Thanks. :O)

Yes it works with a MegaSTE computer,
 
If I remember well, @Jinroh has a MegaSTE, he can provide you with real experience feedback with Mega models,
 
 

Yes, this simple addon is the solution for the power source compatibility problem.
 
As well, anyone with the minimal needed tools can add this USB cable,
in order to use any 5 volts power source 🙂
(current delivered units have this power cable)
 

Congratulations on another great release guys! 😄
 

Very cool @masteries, did you integrate a USB cable for +5V power into the design? 😄 That is the handy revision.
 

hi everyone,
 
Animal Keeper is now available for the Atari 7800 game system!
 we have a new game to announce for the atari 7800. Animal Keeper, its a very fun and addicting action game.
Animal Keeper is now available. currently we are taking orders via e-mail only at, video61@atarisales.com, or video61atarisales@gmail.com
when inquiring about Animal Keeper or any other item from video 61, please let us know if you live in the u.s.a., or another country due to shipping.
at this time we are only accepting payment via paypal, or checks or money orders. to mail in a check or money order, please go here for instructions,
http://www.atarisales.com/ordering.html
price will be $39.95, shipping free if you live in the u.s.a.
Animal Keeper is not listed on our web site yet. we are constantly busy and will get it listed A.S.A.P.
thanks again everyone, without you, we would never be able to bring new stuff to the atari community!
 
Posted July 26
lance
www.atarisales.com

Cool!  Gotta get this!

Very exciting I was not expecting this. Of course I emailed already for my order. I saw one of the WiP videos of the 7800 version and have been intrigued ever since!

I am glad we were finally able to put this game out. We had some issues compiling with the latest version of 7800 Basic. It affected some minor stuff like the temp of the music.
This version is different from the 8-bit/5200 in that it has more texture patterns, color schemes, types of animals. Uses a different Fruit for each level. There is an intermission screen between each level with a short musical tune.
I finally got around to making Animal Keeper in 2019 for the 8-bit and 5200, after about a two-year delay. It was suggested that I make this game by members that other Atari forum, who wanted ZooKeeper to be ported to the Atari 8-bit. I was backing away from making exact clones. Made changes to the graphic layout to take advantage GTIA/Antic graphics. That is why it has a brick background, changing color schemes for each level. I change the animals, added a few more, and even more for the Atari 7800 version. So we did make this game more unique and of our own design.

If you are interested in poking around the X68000Z you can apply for a free beta test Hacker's Edition Unit.
HACKER'S EDITION recruitment (zuiki.co.jp)
They will be selecting some of the applicant later in a few weeks. A lot of you are talented developers that may like this! 😄

Yes, I suppose we will find out in October. 😄 Would be ideal to be a PC for sure. 
Either way if it is open I am sure people would enjoy to play with it, not so much for me, but hope other companies are watching. 😉

I am not a super fan of Japanese PCs (they are not Atari 😄) but thought this was the cool announcement, given it is some love to retro PCs.
A Mini Sharp X68000. Looks like it'll include a keyboard and mouse as well. No concrete details until October 8th, but pretty neat, had some good arcade ports.
Now someone needs to give the Falcon this kind of treatment, so I can actually get one. 😛
 

I remember actually seeing something like this in development, but I think there was some complication.
I imagine this could be done easy enough with an X86 compatible CPU and an FPGA to emulate the 3DFX chipset though. I imagine that is something that will be happening soon enough though. 😄 Would be fun if Microsoft themselves bankrolled that, and it came installed with a legit Win9x build.
We need a readily available TOS system too. The Firebee is great, but who can get one? 😢 Some company with lots of money needs to get on either developing it further or making a new one. Jeff Bezos loves the ST line. He needs to put his money where his mouth is. 😛

If you are interested in poking around the X68000Z you can apply for a free beta test Hacker's Edition Unit.
HACKER'S EDITION recruitment (zuiki.co.jp)
They will be selecting some of the applicant later in a few weeks. A lot of you are talented developers that may like this! 😄

Found at my local flea market here in the Bay Area, CA
I also believe the label under it says “Jungle Hunt”

https://youtu.be/mUcD4PIin14
This is the latest Work in Progress I have done for Jungle Quest. I have added collision detection, character dying, collecting enough Gems to open up an exit to go to another level.

Very cool. 😄

I am the same way, I never got a datasette drive with my A8 back to the time. I have a few 1050 Drives, but never did get a datasette drive. I will have to try and get one someday. 😄

I would use a Atari 1010 cassette drive for my aging cassettes, but my own original 1010 drive needs reconditioning. I also use a 1010 Evolved SD drive I bought from Video 61, but that's it. 

Not me, but that would have been a nice idea.  My first computer was a VIC-20 with tape deck, but it couldn't do sound like that.  When I got an Atari computer, it came with a disk drive...no tape. 

Who else has/does used/use their Atari's program recorder to listen to audio tapes while typing in those lengthy game programs from magazines and books?
 

Yep.  If you are planning to type in a program from those old magazines, like I'm doing now, and you going to be using Atari BASIC, type:
POKE 54018,52 and press [RETURN].  Now insert your favorite music tape and press PLAY.  Now you don't have to sit in silence while typing in those listings.  To stop the tape change 52 to 56.
I've got a 90 minute mix tape I made recently and it has helped with the process for me.  I forgot what all I put on that tape.  It has been a neat little discovery.

Yes, it is designed to help authors and can be used as a tool for story telling.
 

https://github.com/PJM-NCC-70511/Text-Adventure-Game-System-Atari-FastBasic
This is my next Fast Basic Sample that is my text adventure game system with two programs, an editor and a player. The program has been ported back to the Atari 8-bit and compiled with Fast Basic. It was originally written in BasicXE, ported to IBM-PC MS DOS. I lost the BasicXE Sources many years ago, but had the QBasic Source that is not far from Fast Basic. There were some differences I needed to work around and save memory. Like the string storage of using 256 characters for each string variables. That works against the requirements of this program and consumes the needed memory. Therefore, I wrote a custom memory storage ML routine that transfers text data to fixed memory locations. If I need just to store names, just designate 16 bytes per each character or name. There are opening and closing paragraphs that introduce the game and closes the game. The editor has a string field editor that lets you insert and edit text.. The game data is similar to common databases, where you have text and numeric fields to store all the information. In this case, the data is stored in arrays. You need to go into the editor to set the memory configuration for both the editor and player. You can set the memory Parameters for a 48K, 52K, 64K, or 128K computers. Smaller memory amounts will only let you have less stuff inside the game.
Right now, there  are no plans to get this work on a cartridge. Fast Basic has an 8K limit currently, and the programs compile to 24K each. Bank switching is almost impossible to figure out with compiled program code.
I apoligize for lack of commenting and not using more descriptive variable names. After all, it was originally derived from an Atari 8-bit source code with limited memory available. 
 
 
 

Hey Hey! Happy to see you here!