The Obligatory 'Introduce Yourself Thread'...

[Cyprian]

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.

it seems that I wasn't enough precise I mean interface with ACSI connector from one side (that you can plug into ATARI), and USB connector from other side (but not for USB Stick, but that you can plug directly into PC).
If you have such a hardware please share it, there are a lot of enthusiast programmers that can write proper drivers.

[wongck]

[smilie=greencolorz4_pdt_01.gif] 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.

Oh, that's a pity then. You should carry on with your hobby regardless what others say. It's your hobby, no one can change that.

[rebb]

Just founded this thread, so here we go:

Started with computers in mid 80's with MTX512 (Memotech) computer, but my friend had an C64 so spent lot of time there instead of home
Got an Amiga in xmas 1990 and got started with demoscene as swapper. Later on got interested in making music, but still kept being Amiga only till 2000, when i finally gave up and got my first pc computer. That did not last for long though, as i was working in Apple service center those days.

Several pc/mac computers later, my group mate asked me if i was interested to do an Atari track someday. And as it was quite difficult to find working one from Finland, he just send me his own Atari STe. Tune made second at Assembly 2011 oldskool compo, and i fell in love with Atari computer

Now waiting my satandisk to arrive, and hoping to prepare some stuff to Assembly 2012. It's been great year discovering Atari oddities and meeting very helpful and nice new people at various Atari/demoscene events/irc channels/forums etc.

[vizfizz]

Hello Everyone.

My name is Brian and I'm 45 years old. I live in Los Angeles. I just recently picked up an Atari Falcon 030 and want to reintegrate into the Atari community. 27 years ago (1985) I picked up my first 520ST after graduating high school. In my sophomore year, I upgraded to a 1040. As a commercial art and broadcast design student, I wanted a machine of my own to do desktop publishing and 3D computer animation with. Back then I couldn't afford a Mac and PCs were just inadequate for graphics unless you really splurged and got a Targa board. Talk about expensive. The Amiga was a possibility, but I started school in 85 and the Amiga was slow on being delivered, it was more expensive by nearly a grand, and there seemed to be a lot of problems with it. In hind site, the Amiga actually turned out to be the better "3D animation" machine than the ST, but my 1040 did well enough to get me through school and I used it to create art for my senior art show. I mainly used Antic's "Cyber" family of products.

Fast forward a couple of decades. Today I work in the film industry doing previsualization. I work mainly on Macs and PCs with Autodesk software. (Interestingly enough CAD 3D is actually the grandfather of 3D studio Max....but I regress). I'm in the midst of a transition in my work and I'm actually working for Autodesk designing software for animation production based off my experience. This actually leaves me with a little more time than when I was working for the larger VFX studies like ILM. Feeling the nostalgic pull of retro computing, I decided to explore my roots and purchase a machine that I was curious about back in the early 90's ... the Falcon 030.

I have a stock Falcon with 4MBs but it has been upgraded with a 500mb IDE hard drive. The original owner had MagicC installed but I'm considering upgrading it to MiNT. My goal with the Falcon is to play a few old school games, maybe get into a little music composition, soak in the overall Atari nostalgia, and try to dig up any paint tools and 3D tools I missed out on after switching over to Macs. Maybe if I'm feeling adventurous, see what I can make with those old tools today.

I have some questions for the community:

1. I have to upgrade the Falcon's NVRAM. There's lots of threads out there... which is the best?
2. Suggestions for upgrade storage options? What works best? Compact Flash drives? HxC floppy emulator? Use the Falcon's SCSI port?
3. Which paint packages would you suggest I look into? I'd like something that really takes advantage of the Falcon's color palette.
4. How about 3D? We never seemed to get anything other than CAD3D did we? I see some potential ray tracers out there...which work?
5. What upgrades would you do to a stock Falcon? Finding a CT60/63 seems impossible...
6. What the best method to transfer software to the machine from a PC or Mac?

Thanks!

Here's my website if anyone is interested.

http://www.brianpohl.com

[nativ]

Hi Vizfuzz ( Brian )


4. How about 3D? We never seemed to get anything other than CAD3D did we? I see some potential ray tracers out there...which work?

Xenomorph
Raystart
Chronos
The 3 above are( were ) available here \/ some more information can be found also there!
http://sales1632.myzen.co.uk/acatalog/1 ... re_11.html

Neon 3D - fully featured http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xToPZioN1AU / http://www.os2ezine.com/v1n7/neon.html
http://eureka2.12.pagesperso-orange.fr/ Eureka
POV Ray

on the ST only -GFA Raytrace

there's a few things to look into regards 3D and maybe some more!


Welcome! nativ

Ashley

[vizfizz]

Hi Ashley,

Well I've heard of POV Ray and the GFA ray tracer demo... but Xenomorph, Raystart, Neon and Eureka are new. I'll have to check into those. Would you happen to have any other information on these packages?

How about paint software that really taps the Falcon's capabilities?

[nativ]

Hi,


I've added a link or two above about the 3d stuff!

Rainbow 2 ~ http://www.rainbowpainter.com/about/rai ... media.html ( also MAC and PC version 3 )

Apex Media

Chagall - an article about using Chagall http://www.myatari.co.uk/issues/jan2003/tshirts.htm

Vision ~ http://jlusetti.free.fr/

Photoline ~ http://69.90.163.150/~atari276/viewtopi ... 92&t=23553

Calumus ~ http://www.rtbot.net/Calamus_(DTP) - I think there are some drawing tools available

Various painters including Escape paint!
http://dhs.nu/files.php?t=pixelpainter

Escape or Vison would be my recommendations Pixel work, Chagall and Rainbow for more arty stuff and Apex for animating, photoline is more image processing! But it's free so check it out!

Cheers

[vizfizz]

Thanks for your help. Still can't seem to pin down NeoN anywhere. It looks like the company went out of business. The paint package options look pretty good. I'd love to see a screen cap of the NeoN interface. If its the most advanced (fully featured) package, then that's the one I'd like to check out.

[wongck]

Hi Vizfizz
Welcome to AF. Saw some of your work on your web site... WOW must have been fun involving in all those neat movies.
You may want to visit AF wiki for some of the answers.

[dml]

Hi everyone.

Doug here. I was pretty active (apps, demos, hardware) on the Atari platform in the 90's - and then went offworld for a hefty span... But I dusted off my old machines recently and getting back into it. Hoping to do some new stuff too, for fun of course.

[DarkLord]

Welcome Vizfizz and Doug!

You'll love this place - its the awesomeST.

[dml]

DarkLord - Thanks! definitely nice to see all these familiar topics again. Wish I had returned sooner.

Vizfizz - I'm fairly sure there was a demo of Neon released on one of the ST mag cover disks. I'm sure it would be some effort to dig up the right one but it might be worth looking there if you're just after limited access. Locating the full package however - dunno.

I built/released several versions of POVRay for 68000 -> 68040 - probably around V3.1. I may still have them. (It's likely that I'll try to re-port recent source rather than using the old one though).

[vizfizz]

DML - I'm interested in any 3D software for the ST/Falcon line. I want to check out what I missed, plus I'd really like to work on an artistic series of new Atari images constructed on retro hardware and post the process on my blog. I'd like to do as much of that on real hardware and software as possible. (Though I may cheat and render on accelerated emulators). It seems like NeoN is the most feature equipped 3D package...but finding it has been a challenge. I'm also under the impression that NeoN is dongle protected which introduces an additional hurdle. I'm not opposed to paying for that dongle and even the software if its reasonably priced.

Also interested in POV Ray if you can help out there. Have you used or played with any of the others listed above? I've also heard about a program called Chronos. Eureka might be good too.

I know I may be asking for a headache trying to do 3D on systems this old, but you know.. why not? Lots of professions do experimental work with old gear... no reason why a 3D artist can't do the same.

Hello Wongck!

Brian

[dml]

vizfizz - I do vaguely remember Xenomorph 3D - it was also released as a demo. However I really only spent time with DKB, QRT and POVRay raytracers on the Ataris. I did experiment a bit with GFA Raytrace but it didn't grow on me. I'm still trying to unearth the original images a few of us made on ST with POVRay...

I'll put up a link to the ST builds of POVRay and post them in here somewhere soon.

TBH I wanted to start on a 3D package after I finished Apex Media but it didn't happen. Work started on Apex3 and then we moved into Jaguar development, but that didn't go so well! Maybe the 3D package would have been a better idea

[vizfizz]

Hey Doug,

I appreciate the help. I put a request thread in the graphics section as well, in case folks don't look in here.

What's DKB and QRT?

Yah.. it seemed that the Atari didn't attract as many 3D animation packages as the Amiga did...but oh well. It won't stop me from trying to do a couple of retro art pieces. Surely one of the Atari packages must have managed to keep up for a little while....

[nativ]

Hello dml

dml TBH I wanted to start on a 3D package after I finished Apex Media but it didn't happen. Work started on Apex3 and then we moved into Jaguar development, but that didn't go so well! Maybe the 3D package would have been a better idea [/quote]

Never too late

Was there supposed to be Apex STe aswell? actually do you still have the source / rights for Apex? maybe an update or an ability to use the GEM load modules like escape! anyways look forward to seeing what you come up with!


vizzfuzz you could always check out what the demoscene has done by the way of 3D on the Falcon

http://www.pouet.net/prodlist.php?platf ... e=1&order=

I vaguely recall finding a download for neon a few years back, I haven't got access to my archive at current to check it out though! soon...

[fredforty8]

Hi, I'm Freddy. Living east of NYC... quite a bit east!
I've used my Atari computers exclusively for all my MIDI sequencing needs since 1990, using Dr. T's music software (KCS / Omega). Never saw a reason to change!
I've been content using floppies for far too long, and like another recent new member to this forum (Vizfizz) one of the reasons I came here is looking for better storage options. I was pleasantly surprised to find several possibilities from the threads and the Wiki.
I gotta say that I'm awed by many of the members here, I mean, I have some soldering skills, but I'm just blown away by the hardware mods documented on some of the threads. You folks may inspire me to actually open up one of my machines and add RAM or upgrade the TOS... or maybe even something more radical!

[vizfizz]

Nativ,

Let me know if you find Neon or Inshape. That looks like it might have promise.

Brian

[dml]

nativ - there was an ST/e version being built, yes. In fact it was the first version. The idea was to let you build truecolour images from layer patches and to render out the changes incrementally using Photochrome. However it was put on the shelf when the Falcon version was started - the Falcon one being a bit more animation oriented. I also wanted to use the DSP a lot more for multiframe image processing but we had to get V1 of the product out before too much time went by.

Sourcecode for Falcon version - yes. For early ST/e version... good question - I had completely forgotten it existed. I'll make a point of trying to find it. Chances are it was backed up onto floppy though, and most of those are now unreadable.

[BlankVector]

I'll put up a link to the ST builds of POVRay and post them in here somewhere soon.

FYI, I built POV-Ray 3.6.1 for MiNT last year.

[calimero]

nativ - there was an ST/e version being built, yes. In fact it was the first version. The idea was to let you build truecolour images from layer patches and to render out the changes incrementally using Photochrome. However it was put on the shelf when the Falcon version was started - the Falcon one being a bit more animation oriented. I also wanted to use the DSP a lot more for multiframe image processing but we had to get V1 of the product out before too much time went by.

Sourcecode for Falcon version - yes. For early ST/e version... good question - I had completely forgotten it existed. I'll make a point of trying to find it. Chances are it was backed up onto floppy though, and most of those are now unreadable.

@dml

Doug, you were Black Scorpion Software right?

you also wrote BadMood - superfast Doom (WAD) engine right? (and you also wrote PhotoChrome??)

nice to hear from you! we exchange couple of emails back then regarding BadMood...

[dml]

Yes I was one of the BSS bunch, and take the blame for those things you mention. There were a few other guys but I'm only in touch with a couple of them now.

BadMood - I don't know if anything happened with this after I stopped contributing. I think a basic game core would have been possible to 'fill in' beside the drawing stuff by somebody with the time. Using freely available Doom editors would have opened up level design for that even if the game behaved differently with the thingies stuffed in the map (i.e. not really a Doom port but some other idea - why clone Doom when you can do something unknown?)...

I'm currently looking at ST/e & Falcon again with intent to do something fun. I don't know what it will be yet, but I'll be getting into it as soon as I finish fixing these old Atari machines!

BTW it was a forum member called Frank B who got me to register - we work at the same place and we were both doing ST demo-sceney stuff around the same time/same place in the old days.

[calimero]

Yes I was one of the BSS bunch, and take the blame for those things you mention. There were a few other guys but I'm only in touch with a couple of them now.

you did amazing things on falcon! THANK YOU!

BadMood - I don't know if anything happened with this after I stopped contributing. I think a basic game core would have been possible to 'fill in' beside the drawing stuff by somebody with the time. Using freely available Doom editors would have opened up level design for that even if the game behaved differently with the thingies stuffed in the map (i.e. not really a Doom port but some other idea - why clone Doom when you can do something unknown?)...

well nothing
I know for your idea and start to draw some texture for future game (check attachement)

I'm currently looking at ST/e & Falcon again with intent to do something fun. I don't know what it will be yet, but I'll be getting into it as soon as I finish fixing these old Atari machines!

BTW it was a forum member called Frank B who got me to register - we work at the same place and we were both doing ST demo-sceney stuff around the same time/same place in the old days.

Frank B is like live Atari Compendium! I am very glad that you are now on this forum!

[dml]

BlankVector - thanks for the link, will definitely check them out.

[vizfizz]

DML

Well if you want to explore the idea of doing a 3D application, let me know. I'm not a programmer, but I would be happy to help out from a user's perspective. I do a lot of UX design and I've got years of experience doing 3D.

Brian