SPACE Newsletter - January 2013

January 2013

NEWSLETTER for January 2013 President’s Corner by Michael Current January 2013 Welcome to the new year! What new Atari gear did Santa leave under your tree last month? What's on your Atari shopping list for 2013? Hopefully I'll have time this month to make more significant headway on the often-stalled SPACE newsletter digitization project. Going back in time, month by month, I've made it back through March 1987 as of this writing. Visit space.atari.org to bring back old memories! Can you believe it's 2013 and SPACE is still here? I bet they couldn't have imagined this in 1982! Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your next SPACE meeting, Friday January 11, 2013.

Beginning balance as of December 1, 2012:

566.05

Receipts for the month of December: Membership renewals Auction sales Dom sales

30.00 32.00 9.00

Total receipts for December:

71.00

Only one expense for December for our SPACE Web-site

10.00

Ending balance as of December 31, 2012

627.05

A nice way to end the year but I am still waiting for the big one, our room rental for 2012 which is $300.00. That will eat up almost half of our current Treasury balance so we really need to keep our membership renewals current and I really encourage all our members to buy the monthly Doms. They have really been good and our members enjoy a good time each month playing the games before and after the meetings. Well that's it for this year so I guess all I have to say is I will see next year. **********************************************

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Secretary's Report By Steve Peck For December 2012

Treasurer's Report by Greg Leitner For December 2012 Just so I don't forget at the end of this article, I want to wish all of our SPACE members a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. What a great Xmas party we had on December 14th. All the food was delicious and I never ate so much as I did this year. The sloppy joes and meat balls were a big hit and top that off with root beer floats for dessert and I for one thought is was by far the best party we have had in many years. Thanks to all our members who contributed to the menu. The auction was fun but once again other then the XE game system that went for $5.00 all the other items went for mostly a dollar and a couple items went for two dollars. All in all we took in $32.00 on the auction and with a couple of membership renewals and a few doms sold we had a very good month to end the year. So here is how the year ended for our Treasury:

The meeting commenced at 7:40 PM with six members present. Everyone was dying to eat, so the meeting was adjourned by 8:00 PM. The Christmas party was a great time. Everyone ate their fill and we had a nice auction. As of this month, we have nine paid-up members. As usual, we had fun with the DOM. Overall, it was a nice get-together. I am looking forward to 2013 and continuing to be your Friendly Neighborhood Secretary of the SPACE Club. Anyway, good meeting. I will return next month with yet another Secretary's Report, the first for the New Year. This is Steve Peck, saying… EXCELSIOR! ********************************************

From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:54 PM Subject: Wake Up from Mystic Bytes Wake Up from Mystic Bytes December 13th, 2012 Another STe prod from Sillyventure has arrived. This time it's 'Wake Up' by Mystic Bytes including work from Klocec, Piesiu, Yerzmyey, !NE7 and Grey. » Download at the Sillyventure 2012 download page http://dhs.nu/files.php?t=partydl&party=Sillyventure%202012

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:51 PM Subject: UFO by Dune and Sector One UFO by Dune and Sector One December 10th, 2012 Finally UFO is released, after years in the debugger, Dune and Sector One has once and for all got it done.

accessible only via SDX drivers (SIDE, MyIDE etc.) to hold the merged configuration part for easy change. The main config should contain USE command (memory configuration), device drivers (such as DEVICE SIO, DEVICE SIDE) and then "MERGE filename.cfg" to attach the device-resident part of the configuration. Additionally, in case the filename contains either a device name, a drive number or a path, the merged config will be loaded using SDX filesystem drivers (such as SPARTA.SYS). This way a file from a different directory/filesystem can be merged (for example MERGE D2:>CONFIG>XTRA.CFG). Note that this requires SDX filesystem driver to be loaded earlier (DEVICE SPARTA). Also beware that the merged files cannot exceed 1KB. If just the filename is given (like in previous SDX versions), the filesystem drivers are not used to get the merged config. In such case the merged file must be located in the same directory as the file that merges. If the file is merged from the default config (CAR:CONFIG.SYS), it should be stored in the root directory of the boot drive.

It was originally shown at (and won) the Numerica Artparty 2009 compo. After the party, the demo have only been seen on a lower quality video recording.

If no file name is given (MERGE without a parameter), SDX config selector is invoked to let you choose from multitple CFG files stored in SPARTA.DOS directory (see the manual for details). Note that in case of OS-compliant boot drive, the config selector is shown regardless of MERGE command.

But now the demo is here, and why are we babbling, go get the demo and feed your STe! » Download UFO for Atari STe http://files.dhs.nu/files_demo/ufo.zip

If a user hold OPTION key during system startup, no files are merged.

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2013 7:18 PM Subject: SpartaDOS X 4.46 with Toolkit (2 Jan. 2013) (2 Jan. 2013) Hello, SpartaDOS X 4.46 with Toolkit is now officially available for download on: http://sdx.atari8.info (or http://spartados.com and http://spartadosx.com). List of changes is available here: http://sdx.atari8.in...46/whatsnew.txt Since the manual will be updated to 4.46 a little bit later, please review the whatsnew.txt file carefully. You may also like to visit SDX upgrade project on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SpartadosX Although still in the early stage, the page contains highlights of the new release and other announcements. DLT team Changes in SpartaDOS X 4.46 (relative to 4.45) ============================================== KERNEL -----* CONFIG's keyword MERGE now allows merging portions of CONFIG.SYS from arbitrary drive/path. Details: The merged config file will be read using SDX device drivers, not OS routines (as before). This allows drives/partitions that are

* Expanded support for standard RAM extensions: internal variables now not only hold the current number of free extended banks, but also the default one. Thanks to that, MEM can now display the information how much ext RAM is there in general (not only, what is free, as before). * Added support for 65C816 high RAM: when 65C816 is detected, the DOS will now do a non-destructive sizing of that memory at reset time and store the following information on that: the starting segment number (such as $01 when the high RAM starts at $010000), and the number of extra segments besides the segment 0 (i.e. besides the 6502 conventional 64k space). Both numbers are 0 when nothing is detected. Again, MEM will now use this information, if applicable. * Added experimental support for an Axlon-type extension on XL/XE computers. The controlling register should be at $CFFF (write-only), and should only be active when PB0=1. Unlike on Atari 800, there is no shadow assumed at $0FC0. The extension is only tested for when the test for a standard type extension returns 0 banks. Up to 127 extra banks (2032 KB) can be detected. When Axlon is detected, only two memory configurations are possible: USE NONE or USE BANKED. USE OSRAM is ignored. * MEMLO somewhat (around ~40 bytes) lowered. * 16kbyte cartridges (Microsoft Basic II, Logo, etc.) will occupy memory from $8000 only when they are active, i.e. when CAR command is invoked. Such cartridges caused a lock in SDX 4.4x or reserved the area upon bootup even when they were inactive (SDX 4.2x). DRIVERS AND RESIDENT PROGRAMS ----------------------------* the serial I/O driver will now always have the lowest possible priority among all the other SIO-like drivers (ramdisks, SIDE/MyIDE drivers and such), regardless of the order of loading.

* directory formatting routines, when writing the final "FREE SECTORS" line to the output buffer, will now zero out the status byte in the directory buffer. This enables programs which read the formatted directory byte by byte to detect the final line of the directory listing before its is completely read out.

* ED will not quit after Esc/Return, if saving the file fails. Also Shift+Delete will set modification flag.

* INDUS.SYS did not work, fixed. Also, in default CONFIG.SYS, the number of drives to scan for the INDUS.SYS has been limited to 4 (D1:-D4:). If you want it to act on higher drives, edit the CAR:CONFIG.SYS and change or remove the parameter digit in DEVICE INDUS line.

* CHKDSK /X display blurp underwent some cosmetic changes. Plus some bugs fixed related to correct distinctions between physical sectors and logical clusters.

* File system drivers modified to return DOS 2.0 "status $03". The effect is that Turbo BASIC XL "BLOAD" command now works. * RAMDISK.SYS fixed to work with Axlon extension (this was broken, apologies). * RAMDISK.SYS has a new switch: /S forces loading the "standard" 6502 RAM driver module even on 65816 machines. The 6502 module is much slower, but has an advantage of occupying much less memory than 65816 mods. * CON64.SYS now works on computers with Axlon extension.

* X.COM experimentally shortened by moving a portion of code to the cart.

* DF: changes similar to the ones made to CHKDSK, internal changes of code which deals with logical and physical sector size calculations. * DATE and TIME syntax is now "DATE [/T|dd-mm-yy]" and "TIME [/T|hh:mm:ss]", respectively. When used with /T parameter, will now only display current date or time and will not prompt for entering new values. When fed with a valid date/time value in the command line, it will set the specified value as current. * PAUSE now optionally accepts a number of seconds to wait, ranged from 0 to 65535. * TYPE /P and MORE should work better when displaying text files containing long lines.

* ENV.SYS now works on computers with Axlon extension. * ATARIDOS.SYS will now mark zero-length files in the directory as occupying 1 sector, not 0 sectors as before. LIBRARY ------* S_NEXT, new symbol to walk through symbol list. * S_ADD now does not add a symbol, if there is not enough memory left to create one.

* ARC will now no longer ask if to overwrite a file when unpacking an archive to NUL: * ARC is now able to fetch files to be archivized from any fileoriented device, not only from regular disks (DSK:) as before. * DELTREE has now more MS-like syntax: DELTREE [/YV] [d:]path. The /V switch enables a "verbose" mode, which allows to watch what files are currently being deleted. * DELTREE now displays complete pathnames of the directories being deleted, and files too, if asked to (see above).

* U_LOAD (and its equivalent located inside X.COM) will now store an absolute path in 'path' ($07a0) to the directory where the executable is residing. Therefore a program will be able to easily retrieve its path upon execution (provided that no other I/O was done in meantime).

* MENU should no longer accept random garbage it finds in the directory buffer, when it fails to load the directory selected.

This seems to fix the problem with MyDUP requiring COMEXE.SYS to be resident: it should not require that anymore.

* LESS now expands TABs rather than converting each one to a single space.

* SLEEP, new symbol to make precise delays.

* BUILDDIR will now correctly mark double sided disks as double sided.

* LESS now automatically detects MS-DOS (CP/M) and Unix line endings and converts the text accordingly on the fly. Therefore, you now may use the command to convert MS-DOS and Unix text files to Atari format, in this manner: LESS FOO.TXT >> BAR.TXT will convert a PC-like text file FOO.TXT into Atari-like BAR.TXT. Only EOL and TAB characters will be converted, but that's enough most of the time.

UTILITIES ---------

TOOLKIT -------

* COPY: when a file being copied has no timestamp, current time and date gets assigned to it.

* SL utility updated, please replace.

* BLDDIR_P, new symbol to build directories overriding the devicereturned PERCOM block.

* MEM /X will now display the total amount of extended RAM in banks and kilobytes, besides the free amount. * MEM /X also displays the amount of 65C816 high RAM, if applicable.

* LESS has a new function: when you press the 'G' key, you'll be prompted for a line number the viewer should jump to.

* STAT, new utility to display detailed information on a directory entry. * FATFS, new driver to read MS-DOS FAT12 and FAT16 formatted media (read only and limited to 32 MB, consider it a demo version ;))

* CPMFS, new driver to read Indus CP/M formatted floppies (read only) * SC utility updated, please replace once upgraded to new SDX version * S_VBXE driver updated for new FX core release (1.26) * RC_GR8 driver updated: added basic terminal functions such as display scrolling. * Eddy updated to version 2.01, with improved support for Indus CP/M and MS-DOS formats. * MKATR, a new utility to create ATR images. * DELDUP made much faster. * CLX updated to version 1.9. * FSTRUCT, when run on an 80-column display, will now display offsets at which segments start.

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 5:47 PM Subject: Sillyventure catch-up Sillyventure catch-up December 19th, 2012 With the craziness of productions arriving from Sillyventure, we've missed to mention a few them. First up is a neat new music demo from Aggression featuring recent and new tunes by !Cube. The demo works on ST to Falcon 060 and is called 'Meet !Cube'. Music, code and font by !Cube himself and other graphics by Samurai. Then we have a big STe demo by Cerebral Vortex called 'C++ Is Forbidden' with a lot of good graphics, catchy tunes and many effects. The demo goes on for a while with code/graphics by Orion_ and Templeton, the soundtracks are composed by Xyce. Finally Paradize are back with a new game for the Falcon called 'Color Runner'. It's a puzzle game with colourful graphics and is mostly a one-man production by Cooper. » Get all of them at the Sillyventure 2012 download page http://dhs.nu/files.php?t=partydl&party=Sillyventure%202012

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] michael@mcurrent.name Subject: Silly Venture 2k12 - results

_____ _____| |

ATARI 2600 DEMO COMPO //________________//___________//__________//

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 02 798 pt Liquid Candy ............. sweden

333 pt

Drip .....................

Ed Fries

//________________//___________//__________// \/

ATARI XL/XE POKEY MUSIC COMPO

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 01 591 pt Back To The Scene ........ poland 02 05 588 pt Quickshot ................ germany/poland 03 09 541 pt Tiger's Dream ............ poland 04 08 537 pt Ten Past Midnight ........ poland 05 07 504 pt Sn3 ...................... poland 06 04 494 pt Indie .................... poland 07 03 424 pt CHain Factory ............ poland 08 02 353 pt Bijatyka ................. poland 09 06 324 pt Siekiery ................. poland

author Wieczor 505 & Michu Wieczor stRing Pinokio stRing Wieczor sOnar sOnar

\/ ATARI XL/XE GFX COMPO //________________//___________//__________//

ADD-ONS -------

SILLY VENTURE 2012 ____ _____ __ COMPO RESULTS. ___\ /___ <<-------------------------->> >>*.R.*.E.*.S.*.U.*.L.*.T.*.S.*<<

02 USA

author

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 05 757 pt Papa Jack ................ poland 02 08 748 pt Kurs Na Planete Skarbow .. poland 03 12 744 pt My Bad Day ............... poland 04 14 681 pt Flame Follow Me .......... poland 05 02 500 pt Crococar ................. poland 06 01 490 pt CatMan ................... poland 07 09 485 pt Ajek Grajek .............. poland 08 04 440 pt Krolik ................... poland 09 10 415 pt Mandylion ................ poland 10 13 414 pt Myszur 13 ................ poland 11 06 392 pt Pikus .................... poland 12 03 362 pt Feuto .................... poland 13 11 326 pt Planet 108 ............... poland 14 07 308 pt Prisoner ................. poland

Piesiu Ooz Ripek Odyn1ec Rocky Rocky sOnar Rocky HJB Urborg Rocky Rocky Gorgh Caco

//________________//___________//__________// \/

ATARI XL/XE 16kb INTRO COMPO

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 05 701 pt RGBA ..................... germany 02 01 651 pt High Tide ................ poland 03 04 606 pt Press Play On Tape ....... poland 04 02 571 pt Old School ............... poland 05 06 555 pt Arigato .................. germany 06 03 498 pt Pixel .................... XXL/Vidol/Mr.Beep poland //________________//___________//__________// \/

Noice

author

ATARI XL/XE DEMO COMPO

author JAC! LaResistance Agenda Lamers Squo Quo

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 02 813 pt Boogie Nights ............ poland 02 01 534 pt Unshaped ................ poland

Lamers

04 04 175 pt Atari SexTape ............ finland 05 (behind the competition): UFO ....... france

MEC

//________________//___________//__________//

author

//________________//___________//__________// \/

ATARI ST/STE YM2149 MUSIC COMPO

pos id points title author country --------------------------------------01 07 484 pt Mutative ................. 505 & Michu germany/poland 02 02 451 pt Wake Up! ................. Yerzmyey poland 03 04 381 pt Decisive Factor .......... !Cube finland 04 01 349 pt Approaching The Endzeit .. Lotek Style germany 05 06 340 pt SillyRide ................ Tao germany 06 03 244 pt Bzdet .................... Pinokio poland 07 05 162 pt Murder & Inquire ......... Hylst france

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 04 690 pt Fujiyama ................. poland 02 02 646 pt Giants Are Coming ........ poland 03 05 582 pt Genius ................... france 04 08 533 pt Egypt .................... germany 05 03 529 pt I'll Suck You Dry Too! ... finland 06 07 456 pt Salvation ................ germany 07 01 387 pt No Extra Crime ........... france 08 06 332 pt Zajace ................... poland

ATARI ST/STE 4kb INTRO COMPO

Samurai Bracket Samurai Hylst Hospes

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 01 568 pt Skit ..................... germany

author Live!

ATARI ST/STE 96kb INTRO COMPO

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 02 649 pt Muda ..................... france 02 01 437 pt Fading Twilight .......... RNO finland

author Live!

//________________//___________//__________// \/

ATARI ST/STE DEMO COMPO

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 02 526 pt C++ is Forbidden ......... Vortex france 02 03 373 pt Wake Up .................. poland 03 01 368 pt Chasey ................... germany

author Cerebral Mystic Bytes Checkpoint

Yerzmyey 505 V0yager Nativ Michu Lotek Style

ATARI FALCON GFX COMPO

ATARI FALCON 96kb INTRO COMPO

author Piesiu Bear HJB

pos id points title author country --------------------------------------------------------------------------01 01 324 pt The Only Survivor ........ Extream & MSB Finland/Poland //________________//___________//__________// \/

ATARI FALCON DEMO COMPO

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 01 351 pt 2X1287 ................... Germany 02 02 263 pt Modulation 4 preview ..... Checkpoint Greece/Germany

author Paradox

//________________//___________//__________// \/

//________________//___________//__________//

Ukko

author

//________________//___________//__________//

Piesiu

author

//________________//___________//__________// \/

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 06 386 pt Inside A Game ............ poland 02 01 283 pt Gumbreaker ............... germany 02 02 283 pt Behind a Slime Gate ...... poland 03 03 236 pt GiANT Beatz .............. england 04 05 217 pt Sandmonster .............. poland 05 04 205 pt Business Is War .......... germany

Piesiu

ATARI ST/STE GFX COMPO

Dune

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 03 651 pt One Man And His Falcon ... poland 02 01 429 pt Wierd .................... sweden 03 02 286 pt Cherubin ................. poland

//________________//___________//__________// \/

ATARI FALCON MUSIC COMPO

ISO

COMBINED GAME COMPO

pos id points title country --------------------------------------01 07 492 pt Beats Of Rage ............ (F030) france 02 01 444 pt Elansar demo ............. (Jag) france 03 04 345 pt Pong ..................... (xl/xe) poland 04 06 340 pt Pani Basia z Klatki B .... (xl/xe) poland 05 03 328 pt Calamanis ................ (xl/xe) poland 06 02 305 pt Color Runner ............. (F030) france 07 05 277 pt JawBreaker ............... (xl/xe) poland //________________//___________//__________// \/

WILD COMPO

author Dune Orion_ Jhusak Gonzo TDC Paradize Grzybson

pos id points title author country --------------------------------------01 01 353 pt Meet !Cube ............... Aggression finland 02 02 259 pt Loose End MP3 ............ Nativ england counting the votes by Grzybson, Skudi & Gosia (warm thx!).

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:43 PM Subject: Muda by Live! from Sillyventure 2012 Muda by Live! from Sillyventure 2012 December 9th, 2012 Ok boys, things are starting to show up from Sillyventure. First up is a very good 96k intro from Live! called 'Muda'. It's for STe machines and features code and graphics by Ukko, code by Tomy and music by Tomchi. » Download at the Sillyventure 2012 download page http://dhs.nu/files.php?t=partydl&party=Sillyventure%202012

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:44 PM Subject: Modulation 4 preview

scratch in 68030 assembly and should work on any Falcon with 4MB or more. 2012-12-15: Game updated to v1.1 Bug fixed: - 2 enemies had one attack that didn't generate hit points - the joystick is now working - the jump movement is not taken into account when the player respawn (he was leaving the screen, and the game freezed) New features: - the border should be black instead of white (not verified) - Better IA for the enemies: enemies walk to the player if they're too far - inner game timer accelerated to have a more nervous game - a new animation which gives a better arcade look to the game (I let you discover it) » Download at the Sillyventure 2012 download page http://dhs.nu/files.php?t=partydl&party=Sillyventure%202012

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:46 PM Subject: Checkpoint releases Chasey Checkpoint releases Chasey December 9th, 2012 Atari party, Checkpoint release. It sort of goes hand-in-hand.

Modulation 4 preview December 9th, 2012 A new ACE Tracker music demo is in the works by 505 and friends. The plan was to release it at Sillyventure 2012, but didn't quite make it in final form.

Here's a release from Sillyventure 2012 that is a bit different: A music demo with realtime decoding of streaming audio at 15 kHz on plain ST. Checkpoint claims it's the fastest Huffman/IDCT routines on 68000.

So we're treated with a preview of the forthcoming Modulation 4 for the Falcon. Coded by ggn, graphics by Nytrik and music of course by 505. » Download at the Sillyventure 2012 download page http://dhs.nu/files.php?t=partydl&party=Sillyventure%202012

Apart from the streaming audio there are also intros and endtros with nice new chipziks by Checkpoints newest member Mr.Coke. New graphics and code (!) by returning member Modmate. Of course not to forget Defjam and lsl on code and 505 contributed with a chiptrack. » Download at the Sillyventure 2012 download page http://dhs.nu/files.php?t=partydl&party=Sillyventure%202012

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:51 PM Subject: Live! releases second intro from Sillyventure Live! releases second intro from Sillyventure December 11th, 2012 As if the Muda 96k intro wasn't enough, Live! also released a nice 4k intro for the STe called 'Skit'. Code by Tomy, music by Dma-Sc and textures/design by Ukko. (and yes, we did tell them what the title mean in swedish!) » Download at the Sillyventure 2012 download page http://dhs.nu/files.php?t=partydl&party=Sillyventure%202012

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:52 PM Subject: Falcon game released by Dune

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2013 7:24 PM Subject: atari++ 1.70 released atari++ 1.70 released Hi folks, a new release of Atari++, the portable atari emulator for Linux and windows has been released on http://www.xl-project.com/ - as usual, you find there the Linux sources and a compiled version for 32-bit Windows. There are so many changes this time that it's hard to start, most of them address defects in the emulation core and not so much in the user interface. There were quite some changes I would love to add, but my vacation is about to end in a couple of days and I was wrapping up to get this release out. So what's new this time: (long list):

Falcon game released by Dune December 12th, 2012 Thadoss of Dune released a brand new beat'em up game called 'Beats of Rage' for the Falcon at Sillyventure 2012. It plays similar to Double Dragon, but with much smoother gameplay, bigger sprites and 8-channel audio. Spread over nine levels you'll meet up with thirteen enemies. The game is written from

- Priority engine for the "fifth player" generated by missles was redesigned and should now reproduce all possible cases, including the priority conflicts correctly. - Color mixing of the fifth player on top of GTIA modes C0 and 40 should now work correctly.

- Timing of the GTIA "strange mode" where PF0 to PF3 are used for a HIRES generated playfield was made more precise. - Color lookup for GTIA modes C0 and 40 on top of non-HIRES ANTIC modes was fixed. - Player-playfield color mixing for GTIA mode 80 was fixed. - Experimental support for on-line player and missile resizing was added. - ANTIC display generation was re-designed yet again and was rewritten. - ANTIC DLI and NMI timing was made a lot more precise and should now work to the cycle. - ANTIC VSCROLL support should now work to the cycle. - ANTIC DMA cycle allocation should now be finally correct for all modes. - Added emulation for ANTIC forgetting the sync signal if the last line on the screen is HIRES. - Added emulation of carrying the DLI and VSCROLL information across vertical blanks from the last displayed scan-line. - The jump on vertical blank ANTIC instruction did not generate a DLI on each line if DLI was enabled. Fixed - The rather ugly re-generation of ANTIC modelines for character-based modes was removed. This simplified the design, but might impact the emulation quality in some corner cases. A new ANTIC design would be required to fix this. More careful timing in display build-up should make this unnecessary anyhow. - DMA border computation is now much more canonical and cleaned up. - Since a lot of the internal timing should now work "on the cycle", there is no longer a need to configure some of the ANTIC variables, thus parts of the ANTIC preferences have been removed. - CPU emulation includes now parts of the unstable opcode family xB (opcodes whose lower nibble is B). - The CPU emulation includes now the emulation of most (if not all) 6502 bugs: Forgetting conflicting NMIs, IRQs and BRKs (!). - Wait-cycle allocation was partially wrong and created conflicts between memory-refresh cycle allocation and WSYNC requests. This was fixed. - As a side effect, the special "double WSYNC" check was no longer necessary and was removed. The emulation is correct anyhow. - Some CPU preferences were removed because the emulation is considered to be precise anyhow. - PIA DDR register reads were not emulated correctly. - PIA emulation includes now flank-detection on CA2 and CB2 plus interrupt generation, and thus should be complete. - POKEY 9 and 17 bit random generators are now emulated precisely, and the generated "random" numbers should be now identical to those on the real hardware. - POKEY two-tone mode should now be emulated correctly, including the cycle timing for the linked channels. - Some race conditions for the serial control mode should now be emulated correctly. - POKEY direct serial input should now work fine with the SIO emulation, though direct serial output does not yet work. - Handling of the POKEY keyboard generation was wrong and should now work correctly. - The SIO patch resets now also the audio registers and the IRQ control of POKEY to work around some software bugs. - Os++ did not check properly for the RESET bit in the Antic NMI register and could have triggered false resets under some race conditions. - The legacy return value for the write-byte bus access was removed as it was no longer required since a long time. As always, you can reach me here or better by mail at thor <at> math <dot> tu-berlin <dot> de. Greetings and a Happy New Year, Thomas

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:45 PM Subject: Atari ST 96k intro for Fading Twilight DVD Atari ST 96k intro for Fading Twilight DVD December 9th, 2012 Rave Network Overscan and .tSCc. released a nice 96k intro for the ST at Sillyventure. It's a promo-intro for the soon to arrive Fading Twilight DVD edition with code by Britelite, graphics by Bracket and music by Lotek Style. » Download at the Sillyventure 2012 download page http://dhs.nu/files.php?t=partydl&party=Sillyventure%202012

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 1:34 PM Subject: Altirra 2.20 released Fromphaeron DateSun, 06 Jan 2013 19:15:11 -0600 Finally got around to releasing version 2.20 of my emulator, Altirra. Link to download and full changelist: http://www.virtualdub.org/altirra.html Some highlights: a.. Hardware support: MyIDE II and Ultimate1MB emulation added; fixes for SIDE, SIC!, and flash memory emulation. b.. Debugger: Many changes and improvements, including better support for accessing extended/hidden memory and additional aids for debugging PBI, IDE, and CIO code. c.. UI: Display code rewritten to support higher quality status overlays, some UI-less menu commands are now available in full screen mode, keyboard shortcuts are now configurable, shift-hover gives help for BASIC and DOS error codes, and copy text now works when emulation is stopped. d.. Disk: You can now pre-format new disk images for DOS 2 and mount a host directory as a virtual disk image. Also fixed several DOS filesystem handling bugs in the disk explorer. e.. IDE: VHD images are now supported. f.. Fixes for a couple of emulation issues in POKEY and ANTIC. g.. Major rewrite of the built-in OS kernels for better compatibility. As usual, thanks to everyone that's been trying it out and providing feedback.

******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] michael@mcurrent.name Subject: 2x1287 Falcon demo by Paradox 2x1287 Falcon demo by Paradox December 30th, 2012 Paradox released their Sillyventure Falcon demo '2x1287' today. It's a celebration of the Atari Falcon turning twenty years old. Yes, twenty, it's scary. You'll be treated with a great module remix of many classic Falcon demos during the show. Paradox recommends RGB/TV for watching. » Download at the Sillyventure 2012 download page http://dhs.nu/files.php?t=partydl&party=Sillyventure%202012

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