The Obligatory 'Introduce Yourself Thread'...

[Kriegor]

Hello Atari people I'm a guy of the PC generation, born around 1990 and living in Sweden. I've been playing around with trackers (XM/IT) for 6 years or so, playing more acoustic instruments for about 10 years, and had a peek into the whole demoscene thing. A friend happened to put his MegaST2+Megafile20 for sale one day about a month ago and i bought it, mainly i thought i'd try learning tracking with maxYMiser and/or other YM-software. Never having used any Atari (or any computer except for PC:s really) before, i began my journey into this world of old and unfamiliar hardware and software, old and dusty FTP archives, manuals and documents from up to 25 years back, 720kB floppy transfers, troubleshooting hardware struggles, trial-and-error-learning, soldering and tinkering, and all this stuff that most people of my age would find pointless and obsolete. This forum has been a great resource for that and seemed to be a nice place so i signed up to take part in the discussions Cheers!

[Shredder11]

Welcome to the forum, I am sure you will love it here and be a good contributor!

[Benco59]

Hello all members,

I'm French, 47 years old, collecting old micros and consoles (80's and 90's) - so owner of some atari of course (2600, 800xl, ST's, mega ST and a TT)
Nice to see that's forum is still very active

Living in north of France ("ch'ti" near Lille)

[DarkLord]

Greetings Shed Bloke, Kriegor and Benco59! Welcome, welcome...

[marcello]

Hey fellow atarists !
I am marcello from France/Austria, I am a Unix/Linux sysadmin at $WORK, and I decided to install anything who looks like unix on my ST ( Right now I have already Minix 1.5, looking forward to adding FreeMint and Linux to the collection )

I own a 520 STE with Tos 1.6.2, 4 Mb RAM, a Megafile 30, a SH205, an Ethernec adapter ( and two green plants )

I am also active in the emulation / retro scene as a Debian package maintainer for Mame http://mamedev.org/ and Mess. http://www.mess.org/

[DarkLord]

Welcome aboard friend Marcello! Hope you enjoy your visits here - its a great Atari
place to be.

Looks like you need to be signed up on the MINT list. I am, even though I rarely post
there and mostly lurk, I still pick up lots of information.

See you around.

[Desty]

Hey fellow atarists !
I am marcello from France/Austria, I am a Unix/Linux sysadmin at $WORK, and I decided to install anything who looks like unix on my ST ( Right now I have already Minix 1.5, looking forward to adding FreeMint and Linux to the collection )

Hi Marcello, welcome aboard! That's a nice writeup of Minix on the ST you linked to. I'd be interested to hear a comparison of the different *nix options as you try them out...

[marcello]

Hello Desty
Apart from the historical interest ( Minix 1.5 was the base system Linux Torvalds use to develop Linux) I would not recommend using it for any practical work.
I have yet to investigate Mint, I will probably start with the KGMD distribution, which seems to be a perfect fit for a ST. (Requirements are as low as 1 MB of RAM)
Last FreeMint kernel + Xaaes works with an emulated 4MB STE with Hatari, but crashes on real hardware ( not enough RAM)

[crx091081gb]

Hi, been posting a while here but never did the obligatory. I bought my first Atari 520STFM around 1999/2000 for Cubase off some musicians in London, had to carry it back on the train. Loved it for many years, especially after buying a PeST mouse upgrade (that old mouse and its infernal drifting up and to the left was really head doing). Even after 'upgrading' to a PC I never really liked working with MIDI on there as much as I did on the ST, plus the timing was bloody awful by comparison so I stuck with the ST.

ST number one is now retired for parts after getting wet in a flood, still boots but the floppy is dead (just after I'd had it replaced - typical). Got an STE with 4mb off stfreakz on ebay for £100 about a year ago, love it to bits. Recently got hold of Notator Log3/Unitor2 combo which I'm yet to fully get my head round. Looking forward to eventually getting some kind of SD storage so I can ditch floppies and install all the goodies from Tim's Atari MIDI world.

Really like the warm glow of my old Atari monitor, it is both comforting and easy on the eye. Make music with mainly analogue MIDI synths, current setup is 2 Waldorf Pulses (really nice MIDI implementation, everything CC'd), x0xb0x (lousy MIDI so built my own MIDI to CV box), Jomox XBase09, Roland R8, JV 1080, Juno-60, MT-32, Oberheim Matrix 1000, Lexicon MPX 100 and a PC with Sonar X1 which basically acts as a tape machine and mix down, though I do use the Native Instruments plugins and MaxMSP.

Best Atari made track http://soundcloud.com/crx091081gb/andys-ambient-acid

[nativ]

hi crx, will check out the tune! welcome again!!

[IndianaGoof]

Well, this forum is certain a dream come true...

My name is Craig and I'm originally from the San Francisco bay area. I'm currently 43, single, living in Hollywood. I'm an out-of-work cartoon animation artist currently working on various other job positions to stay afloat while attempting to piece my career back together again, if you know what I mean.

I first got an Atari VCS back in 1982 when I was 14 against the wishes of my mother when my older brother bought one, lost interest and then sold it to me. In 1983 I got an Atari 800XL, which I loved dearly, then later graduated to a 1040 ST in 1987 as my graduation present from my grandparents. I was extremely active online in the BBS community back in the Bay Area and kept both computers and a wide range of software for the longest time, until the 800XL finally gave up working in 1995 (which was devastating for me), and the ST was zapped by lightning seconds before I was rushing to unplug it from the wall during a powerful lightning storm in 1997, which was just crushing.

Since then, I've been hoping to one day get another set of computers to replace my old ones someday whenever I have the money (which is tight right now). I now have a laptop running Windows 7 and all the latest stuff, of course, but even with all the new stuff I love (Kingdom Hearts, for example) it nevertheless just isn't the same. I miss the 80s and I especially miss what Atari used to be.

If you would like to see ongoing samples of some of my storyboard-style quicksketches, please feel free to love at either thevalleyofthejadestars.blogspot.com and at http://dreamersofdreamcityentertainment.blogspot.com/ I haven't been able to update them for a while due to my schedule but at least they're still there! lol.

Looking forward to visiting more. Thanks for having me!

[StickHead]

Hello IndianaGoof, nice to have you here!

Did you ever dabble with your artwork on the ST?

Sorry to hear about the tragic loss of your Ataris You know you can relive your old computers on your Windows 7 machine via emulators, right? I don't know much about the 8-bits, but Steem is an excellent and very easy to set up Atari ST emulator.

You will be pleased to hear that there is still an active BBS for Atari machines run by a member of this forum. More info: http://www.darkforce.org/index2.html

[DarkLord]

Yeah, welcome aboard - watch the for sale section, and keep an eye on Ebay,
you can get another Atari relatively cheap in no time!

[wongck]

There are more sales from Germany & UK, but they are not NTSC versions.

[IndianaGoof]

Thank you very much.

Why yes, as a matter of fact, I did. It was fun learning to draw with a mouse, and I enjoyed playing with the various colours/effects. I have those pictures saved on a disc somewhere. I also purchased animation software that I was going to try using as soon as I could get my hands on a scanner or something, but that was before the ST got shot.

I haven't heard of Steem yet, I'll have to look into that. Thanks again!

[StickHead]

Thank you very much.

Why yes, as a matter of fact, I did. It was fun learning to draw with a mouse, and I enjoyed playing with the various colours/effects. I have those pictures saved on a disc somewhere. I also purchased animation software that I was going to try using as soon as I could get my hands on a scanner or something, but that was before the ST got shot.

I haven't heard of Steem yet, I'll have to look into that. Thanks again!

You are welcome

If you feel like sharing, it would be interesting to see those pictures. There are archivists on here that will add them to their collections and ensure their survival for decades to come, and I'm pretty sure that someone was asking for these kinds of hand drawn pictures not so long ago.

EDIT: His name was MatsP and here is the thread: http://atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=23340

[oehansen]

Hello, I'm Ernie, I'm 51 years old and got into computers in 1980, with a commodore PET and later CBM 4032. I began working as a fulltime coder, in 1983 then machine language. Then adjusting the CBM basic and it's OS. I've owned several computers since then, a Commodore 64 when it came out, was the first computer I owned. In 1983, I also worked with CP/M, then CP/M 86. And later CP/M Plus, mostly programming in Cobol and Pascal. We also had a Commodore 9000, the one that had a 6809 built in. In 1986 we did convert to PC computers. And I converted my programming skills to Unix, as we had an Altos Unix computer, working as a network server. We used Informix as our database server at this time. I also got my Commodore 128 around this time, which also had a z80 built in and possibility to run CP/M. I changed working environment, and started working with IBM PS/2's in 1988. Using an IBM R6000 as a server machine, running Unix. I started using X/Windows at this time, and did a part time operator work on an IBM Mainframe. I came across my first PDP-11 in 1988, which had been parked at the time. I tried booting it up , but couldn't get it operating as the key-in startup code was lost. In 1988 I got my first personal PC, a Victor PC. And in 1989, I got my first Atari STe. I did a lot of coding on it, from 1989 until 1992, but early 1993 I got tired of waiting for a Falcon and paused in personal computers after I got rid of my STe. I didn't own a computer again, as I was studying and my work was mainly done on SUN and Irix machines, until 1995, then I got myself an old IBM PC, whith an EGA display. Later I installed Linux, with X on that machine.

I've been running Linux, ever since ... mainly on AMD CPU's.

A few years back, I got myself another Atari STe, as I started getting a little nostalgic. Since then I've got myself 2 versions of an STe, one with the bad DMA, and one with the good one. I've got myself a Commodore 128, with an external 1541 disk drive. And I am still looking to get myself a good CBM 4032 or 8032, to fill up the cellar with. Even thinking of getting myself an Amiga, as I always wanted one back in the early 90's.

[Desty]

Awesome stuff Ernie! It sounds like professional coding in the 80s was a really exciting journey through all these different, eclectic machines, whereas now things are more settled and perhaps not as cool. What are you working on nowadays?

[oehansen]

The last thing I did, was to figure out what the "bad dma" was all about, for the Atari. I got myself a PIC32, which in reality is a 32 bits MIPS processor. Bundled on a arduino card, called a MAX32. I used it to build a USB Thumb drive, that connected to my old Atri STe. At 80MHz, that chip is awesome, but not too expensive to work with. That is my latest work, that I've basically finished. Now, I'm looking at where to put my fingers ... got a few different ideas, but currently am not sure where to take them.

[Cyprian]

Hello Ernie,
let me suggest you something what you would made. It is interface ACSI <-> USB.
Well, we have Usatan but every time when I need to move files from PC to ST I need to swap sd card manually. It would be cool to have direct link between PC and ST.
It seems that you have all needed electronics skills to do that

[oehansen]

Well, basically it's done ... more or less. But to complete it, there are specifications needed. The specifications for the printer interface, is missing ... to be able to implement a printer, that would be needed.

[Cyprian]

The specifications for the printer interface, is missing ... to be able to implement a printer, that would be needed.

do you mean interface Atari Printer <-> USB?
I mean ACSI <-> USB - in order to see from Atari side normal ACSI disk with GEM/BGM partition; and to share data (for this partition) from PC side via USB interface

[oehansen]

The specifications for the printer interface, is missing ... to be able to implement a printer, that would be needed.

do you mean interface Atari Printer <-> USB?
I mean ACSI <-> USB - in order to see from Atari side normal ACSI disk with GEM/BGM partition; and to share data (for this partition) from PC side via USB interface

That is precisely what I did, except the atari still requires an Atari FAT partition. But you can basically use a USB stick (thumb drive). Put an USB stick in, and boot from it, using HD Driver.

But the ACSI, is also a printer interface, and you can also interface to a network with it. To implement those protocols, a specification is needed.

[wongck]

That is precisely what I did, except the atari still requires an Atari FAT partition. But you can basically use a USB stick (thumb drive). Put an USB stick in, and boot from it, using HD Driver.
But the ACSI, is also a printer interface, and you can also interface to a network with it. To implement those protocols, a specification is needed.

great stuff... do you have a webpage detailing this. i know there a thread where you were discussing about it.

[oehansen]

great stuff... do you have a webpage detailing this. i know there a thread where you were discussing about it.

No, I haven't ... I came here, looking for a home for it ... and that didn't land well. Now I stopped the project.