Hallo Leute,
hier eine Anfrage von Larry White nach Software oder Unterlagen für eine 80Zeichen Karte namens Ace80... sorry, englisch...
Kann da jemand weiterhelfen oder hat da jemand Infos, die ich an ihn weiterleiten könnte... ?!?

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Among the ATR stuff [I got] was a
DT-80 cartridge. It was coded by Claus Buchholz. It is amazingly good and
fast-responding, at least when used with the ATR. In my opinion, it is much
better than Omniview, and has a much better looking font. Unfortunately, it is
just an 80-column dumb terminal, so it works with no other software that I
know of. It probably can be reworked into a regular screen editor replacement,
but of course that's disassembly and that's work! But I believe that
Claus also did the ACE-80 and ACE-80 XL carts. I can find very little on the web
relating to these. The good news is that DT-80 is just a regular Atari 8K
cart with a 2764 eprom.

Do you know if Claus was a member of ABBUC? And do you know if he released
any of those things into the PD or let them become "freeware"? If you have any
info on those carts, I'd appreciate it. Hopefully, these are not lost
forever to us "diehards". Especially since the XEP-80 really sucks.

Hope you have a great Christmas!

Best-
Larry

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Gruss - Andreas Magenheimer.

Moin Andreas!

Claus Buchholz hat Anfang bis Mitte der 80er einige nette Hardware-Erweiterungen für die 8-Bitter kreiert. Aber Dokus dazu sind schwer zu finden. Habe von ihm nur einiges über die RAM-Erweiterungen.

Gruß

Walter

Guten Tag,

Ich heisse Claus Buchholz und ich habe die DT80 und ACE80 programmen geschrieben. Mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut. Meine Eltern kamen aus Deutschland und ich habe vor lange die Sprache studiert aber ich habe wenige gelegenheiten Deutsch zu benuetzen. Hoffentlich verstanden Sie mich.

Ich habe auch zwei Atari Artikel gescrieben: "The Quarter-Meg Atari" von BYTE und "Transporting Atari Programs to the 5200" von ANALOG. Ich werede Fragen darueber gern antworten.

Es freut mich dass Sie noch viele Interesse ueber Atari haben. Atari war das Beste!

Claus Buchholz

Hey, this is really great !

Claus Buchholz as a member in our forum.

Claus, your articles - especially one in byte magazine - inspired me to enhance my 800XL more than 20 years ago. At those times I did not earn much money and it was a risky challenge to modify the hardware. The DRAMs at that times were at the same price level as the ATARI 800 XL. Huh, incredible, I still feel the chill ...

If you are able to share something of the spirit of those times with us we will definitely appreciate that. And, if you like, tell us something of your life since then.

Many of us are able to read and understand English relatively properly. Therefore you might write in English in this forum.

We are very interested in the hardware and software you invented in the 80s of the last century for the 8 bit machines of ATARI. The US always being at the bleeding edge of technology had a big home computer market at those times. And of course the ATARI users as well were more than a nose tip ahead of us here in Germany. Most of us started in 1985, when Jack Tramiel cut down the prices of ATARI products beginning with his introduction to the ATARI ST on the computer section of the Hannover fair, which is now CeBit.

So most of us are interested in the history and the products done at that times. We are also able to revive some products of those days and make it available again. The ATARI 8 bit is still alive.

Best Regards

Walter

P.S.: If you like to write an article for our magazine this will be more than welcome.

Thanks, Walter, for the warm welcome. I will write in English unless anyone objects. It is nice to see you folks still making good use of the grand old Ataris.

Yes, the DRAMs were expensive. When I prototyped the 256K upgrade, I paid $200 for them! By the time the article was published (9 months later), you could buy them for only $24 in the US. Not my best investment (although BYTE did pay me $400, I think).

How did your upgrade go? Did it work the first time? Did you do the 32K bank version from the article or the later 16K bank version? Did you use the RAMdisk program?

I was only peripherally involved in the Atari scene back then. It was hugely popular. Our local club had over 50 members and the Detroit club (MACE) had hundreds! I also managed to make a living programming Ataris for two years, at least enough for a single guy living with my sister in New York City.

Perhaps, after I dig out my old Atari stuff, I might find enough information for an article. In the mean time, I am happy to answer any questions, in English or auf Deutsch.

Hey Claus,

Nice to read from you again. Yes, DRAMs were incredible high. When I did the 16k banking ram extension for my 800XL the price for the chip set in total was 235 German Mark. The 800XL was 399 one year before and at the time I started soldering projects with it still at 249. This was my first try with using ICs.

The upgrade itself was easy to do and worked instantly after being built in. Later on I made a small series of PCBs to enhance machines of friends and in 88/89 the backup machines. I still have it running in one 800XL in use for testing software for the public domain library.

Oh yes, I remember, the scene was huge and home computers were more than in. Sniff, those were the days ...

But we are still alive and busy here in ABBUC challenging people to develop new hardware and software by offering contests.

In nower days it's no more a business (except some few shops around the world) but an interesting hobby, having fun and relaxing from daily routines.
On the other hand, retro is a big stream developing more and more. Besides representing ATARI 8-bit on regional events also big ones have been tried. And we are using that trend to do intriguing introductions to the new generation. Especially gaming is still a fascination on machines being all over 25 years of age. And a game like Pacman is still arresting the attention of young people.

And more than that...

Coming to questions ...
We as a club are interested to keep as much as possible from those days. What is the availability of DT80 and ACE80. Do you have a source for it and what about the rights? Might it be possible to revive it again and offer it via e.g. ABBUC to the scene?

Hope you'll find the time to undig your ATARI stuff. I think I am a bit in advance since I am on retirement now and can apply more time to it.

Yes, I've already offered on the AtariAge Forum to put ACE80 into the public domain, once I find it. I'll have to set up my old Atari disk system (hoping my floppies are still good) and make an SIO2PC cable before I can upload it. ABBUC is welcome to it.

The only Atari I've run lately is the 800XL with Star Raiders, just to show it to my kids, and to see it on a big screen for the first time!

Hey, this is what I'm goin' to do tomorrow!

Since Oct, 2006 there was no chance to get my hands on real ATARI hardware. Since then we were moving 2 times and in 2007 I spent nearly 10 months with a job abroad.

But now, after undigging a lot of stuff from moving boxes during the last weeks, I made it to periphals and today to the core box: my 800XL workhorse system.

And, for the first time, I will connect it to a big screen and home cinema surround sound system to have the full blast with it.

My wife will be sent to friends for coffee and my sons and me, we will blast off all the aliens trying to take over our solar system.

BTW, have you ever heard the great sound from games written by Chris Paul Murray (e.g. Henry's House)? If not, try it !

Coming to floppies. I hope all my floppies survived the last moves. In 2006 I tested from different boxes old originals as well as home made disks. And most of them - especially the originals, mostly copy protected - worked well. When from time to time one dies normally it is a cheap one baught in a superstore.

Wish you luck with your disks.

Let us know soon the high scores ...

Gx

Walter

Man, drop-dead gorgeous !!!

Screen and sound quality are super superb. We tried carts

- Pac Man (of course)
- Joust (favorite of my youngest son)
- The Last Starfighter (one of my favorites)
- Centipede

Unfortunately, I couldn't identify the box were my cart collection might be in. Will find it next days - definetily - since I need SpartaDOS X to setup my system.

Because of bad weather my wife stayed at home and was amazed about Pac Man. She still loves it ...

And the crazy grey guy playing it ...

Mit viel Hilfe von Anderen, ich habe die originalen ACE80 Files gepostet:
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.ph ... 9666&st=50
Darf ich sie heir auch posten? Wie mache ich das?

Danke.
Claus

Danke Claus für deine Mühe!

@Andreas: Wäre das nicht etwas für die Seite?

Hallo,

Prima das immer mal was ausgegraben wird. Ich habe die Version mit dem OSS Modul (black) ausprobiert aber leider klappt nur der Startbildschirm. Danach sieht es etwas wirr auf dem Bildschirm aus. Gibt es schon einen Nachbau der funktioniert ?

Gruß,
Steffen

PacMan hat geschrieben:Ich habe die Version mit dem OSS Modul (black) ausprobiert aber leider klappt nur der Startbildschirm. Danach sieht es etwas wirr auf dem Bildschirm aus. Gibt es schon einen Nachbau der funktioniert ?

Welche Version haben Sie probiert? Auf welchem Model Atari? Haben Sie ein EPROM selbst programiert? Mit welchem File?

Die Files sind original, und sollen gut funktioneiren. Ich helfe gern.

Claus

Hi Claus,

I use the ACE80xl.epr file and remove the header (6 bytes). My burner have problems with 2764 so i burn one 27128 eprom. Then i put it in the Action cartridge and use it with my 800XL. Only the start screen with ACE logo works.

Greetings,
Steffen

PacMan hat geschrieben:I use the ACE80xl.epr file and remove the header (6 bytes). My burner have problems with 2764 so i burn one 27128 eprom. Then i put it in the Action cartridge and use it with my 800XL. Only the start screen with ACE logo works.

How many EPROM sockets does your OSS Action cartridge have, 1 or 2? How many smaller chips does it have, 2 or 3?

I have an OSS cartridge with 2 EPROM sockets and 3 smaller chips. It is made for 2764 EPROMs, and pin 26 of the socket is not connected. If you put a 27128 into the socket, then its A13 pin will not be connected and it could fail.

If you must use a 27128, then you must connect pin 26 to Vcc. An easy way to do that is to connect pins 26 and 27 together. Remove the EPROM from the socket and apply solder to the back of the cartridge board between pins 26 and 27. Put the EPROM back into the socket and try it again.

Viel Glück!

Hi Claus,

Thank you for your answer. I try it with Action (1 soket, 3 smaller chips, 2xLS02, LS74) and BasicXL (2 soket, 3 smaller chips, F02, HCT175, LS00). And i connect pin 26 to Vcc on both versions with the same result.
I think the ACE cartridge use other circuit logic or the ACE80XL.EPR file is not correct. I have only the OSS cartridge circuit logic.

Greetings,
Steffen

FYI: The ace80xl.epr (on disk 2) works fine with the TurboFreezer cartridge emulation!

I stripped the first 6 bytes (COM header) of the file, programmed it into bank 48 of the TurboFreezer flash rom and then selected this bank number and "OSS" mode in the Cartridge Emulation menu.

So far I just ran a simple test: booted DOS2.5, entered DUP and went back to BASIC - everything in nice 80 column mode!

@ClausB: thank you a lot for releasing it!

so long,

Hias

Hi Claus,

It works ! The problem is my modified 800XL.
Thank you for your excellent work !

Greetings,
Steffen

Bitte schön.

I would like to post the ACE-80 files in a second location on the Internet. Can I do that on this site? I am not an ABBUC member and I do not see a way to post them here. Can someone please help? Danke.

ClausB hat geschrieben:Bitte schön.

I would like to post the ACE-80 files in a second location on the Internet. Can I do that on this site? I am not an ABBUC member and I do not see a way to post them here. Can someone please help? Danke.

At this time it is not possible to post files. But you can email the files to the webmaster (internet@abbuc.de). He can upload it to the download section.
Another opportunity is to rerelease the files on our Mag-Disk. Maybe together with a few words from you in the paper mag