Showing posts with label Hardware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hardware. Show all posts

Saturday, June 06, 2020

UBESWITCH



My best purchase ever?

After more than two years, I can finally update our hardware section with my latest Atari ST purchase. Yep, I dumped my old monitor switch box for a Ubeswitch by Urban Jonsson, which I bought off the Exxos Web Store.

It's amazing how fantastic this thing works: plug it in and power on your Atari ST (mine defaulted to high resolution but that can be changed by holding the top button for a couple of seconds). Changing resolution is simple, just tap the same button to send a signal to the ST that you wish to switch resolution - and you can easily flip between colour/mono at any time. I'm using an NEC 1970NXp multisync which works very nicely.

STOP!! You should first check that your monitor is fully compatible and listed here:
Best-Electronics
Atari-Forum Wiki
15khz.net
Wikidot

What a cracking piece of hardware and with an incredible design that makes using it so easy to use. If you have a monitor that can support the ST's awkward 15Khz display demands, then head over to the Exxos web store and get this adapter bought. Fascinating witchcraft and I wish I'd have bought one of these years ago!!


Forgive my handy camera skills! Click it for a bigger view of my Ubeswtich love.

Sunday, February 04, 2018

Ultrasatan



UltraSatan? More like UltraGOD!

When my hard disk decided to kick the bucket I replaced it with an Ultrasatan. It's built like a tank and incredibly versatile and (obviously) silent - the old hard drive sounded like a Vulcan Bomber!! Of course, I could have bought CosmosEx/Gotek route but I'd rather attempt open-heart surgery than risk breaking my Atari ST.

But what about games?? Not to worry, there are runnable disks thanks to Floppy Image Runner by Peter Putnik who has also adapted hundreds of games to load directly off the Ultrasatan. The D-Bug guys have converted loads of games with stunning menus and cheats - I wish they'd continue on as these are amazing.

Yep, I sure love my Ultrasatan which is a superb clump of hardware and one I cannot recommend highly enough. So visit Lotharek's website for more information and lots of other goodies - get yourself one of these beasts!!

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Monitor Switch Box


Okay, it's not exactly a modern option compared to what's available but I love my old monitor switch box. If there's one thing I dislike about the ST (no, it's not the joystick ports) but it's swapping the cables when going from colour to mono. So, this little device works wonders for me but perhaps it's time I looked to upgrade?

However, next on my wish list is a graphics card for my Mega STe. Can anyone help me with that??

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Atari 1040 STf



When eBay proved fruitful

I've bought an Atari ST off eBay which also included an SM125 monitor. However, both are in terrible condition! Very dirty with many battle scars and also what looks like scorch marks near the power unit area. Anyhow, I took the chance and ended up winning the bid for a shocking 99 pence. Yep, less than one pound and that included the monitor as well :-)

Once home, I began the cleaning - which took a long time!! This poor old computer must have suffered fire damage at some point in its life judging by the scorch marks inside. It also appears to have suffered other damage at some time as I saw several repair company stickers inside. Funnily, I needed to hoover around the floppy drive area because of a soot-like sludge that looked like tar. Plus also a thick bunch of spider webs covering all the cables. Quite the toxic state!

Well, after all the hard work, I'm so happy to have this marvellous ST up and running! Plus the SM125 is a fantastic monitor that still looks great. To think of its previous condition with the keyboard grime, burn marks, and all that weird thick sludge is gross. For once, eBay has produced a bargain and I'm glad to have rescued this beautiful old computer.

SysInfo reports it to be a 1040 STF with TOS 1.00 and 1MB RAM ...and all for 99 pence. Woop Woop!


Filthy but even worse inside thanks to a thick sludge and many cobwebs!!

I wish I would have taken a better photograph but the old ST scrubbed up beautifully :-)

Sunday, June 12, 2016

ATARI STM (...continued)


I thought it was about time that I followed up on my previous article concerning my new Atari STM. Well, I have opened it up for a good clean and it powered on perfectly. Sys Info reports: 1mb Ram / TOS 1.2 / GEM 0.13 / AES 1.20 and I have successfully connected up my external floppy disk drive and played many games. Yes, I'm a happy bunny :)

Also, this is such a cool-looking computer and one with a super-compatible gaming specification. I now need to buy myself a pair of midi cables for Midi Maze against my 6-year-old daughter. Yes, I sense so many easy victories ahead!!

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

double DD

Backing up your files can be a pain in the .. neck .. but you would be gutted if you lost any precious data! So here is a simple method to duplicate your Ultrasatan's SD card which is not only effective but takes very little effort. The requirements are a Mac with an SD slot and a basic knowledge of the Terminal program.


 - IDENTIFICATION -

Firstly, eject your SD card from the Ultrasatan and slide its "lock" switch to write-protect it. Insert it into your Mac (if a warning appears then click on the "ignore" button). Load up Terminal.app (within Utilities folder) and type in this command:
diskutil list
This will display information to help identify the SD card - look for the capacity of your card. Mine is 8GB as you can see in the clipping, below. Thus my card is "/dev/disk1"
/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
 #:     TYPE     NAME     SIZE     IDENTIFIER
 0:     *                 8.0 GB   disk1

If you would like to verify this information, type in this command :
diskutil info /dev/disk1
Within the output, you will see a line confirming that this is indeed our SD Card :
Device / Media Name:      SD Card Reader


 - BACK IT UP -

Type this command to backup the SD card (enter your password when prompted)
sudo dd if=/dev/disk1 of=~/Desktop/st-backup.img
Leave it to complete and after a few minutes you should have a file on your desktop called "st-backup". Now eject the card from the Apple Mac and reinsert it into your Ultrasatan - not forgetting to slide off the lock switch! I recommend zipping your newly created backup file and then storing it somewhere safe, like iCloud or Dropbox.


 - RESTORES -

Perhaps you have a spare SD card idly doing nothing? So long as it's the same capacity as the first, we can easily restore our backup file onto this using the command :
sudo dd if=~/Desktop/st-backup.img of=/dev/disk1

 - AND FINALLY -

Of course, there are numerous different methods to secure your data and here is just one. It's the backup method I personally prefer because the dd command is simple and powerful. I hope this is of some use to Mac & Linux users, sorry but I wouldn't know about Windows. Any questions then just gimme a shout and I'll be happy to help.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Atari STM


I've always had a secret longing for the sleek Atari STM computer before it became bloated with an internal PSU and floppy disk drive (STFM). I've just bought one off eBay for a meagre £14 and it's in superb condition too. Needless to say, I now require an external floppy drive and PSU so I cannot wait to get this beast working :-)

Thursday, March 31, 2016

NetUS-Bee



Lotharek has done it again!

I've just received my latest gadget from Lotharek, the NetUSBee. This awesome piece of hardware slots into the ST's expansion port to provide the option for fast ethernet networking and two modern USB ports.

I've connected a USB mouse (worked a treat) but sadly, at the moment, there are no more USB devices to use. I hope this changes soon because the potential is huge. Using a modern mouse is nice but I'm really looking forward to getting the ST connected to my home network. I've already been able to access my FTP file server. Later, I shall attempt to configure STinG and get my Atari ST on the internet using CAB - so wish me luck!

I look forward to future drivers getting more out of this. NetUSBee is a fantastic product and built like a tank.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

lotharek



Thank you Lotharek

Shortly before Christmas, the hard drive inside my Mega STE died. Thankfully, I had only just backed it up the previous day (how lucky am I) but this did give me a big kick up the backside to invest in something better. After all, it was the original 47MB SCSI from 1991 so it was only a matter of time before it went BOOM!! ;-)

Lotharek is selling the Ultrasatan via their web store and I'm currently restoring everything I can. It's quite something to go from a noisy 47MB drive to a fast and silent SD card offering much more space. I must say, Lotharek are quick, as this arrived on Christmas Eve so I'm spending the holidays playing! The possibilities appear limitless because I am no longer struggling with meagre storage. Lotharek's UltraSatan is a brilliant piece of Jookie kit. Buy this!!

Why not use your UltraSatan to game or enjoy a few demos...



One of the most famous shoot 'em ups ever - Xenon II Megablast. This will always be a firm favourite of mine so it was exciting to hear Peter Putnik had doctored it back in January with his magic.

The game now streams 25Khz music directly using the Ultrasatan (sorry STFM guys - this feature requires the audio co-processor hardware of the Atari STe). What a jaw-dropping upgrade!! Such an unbelievably huge size for an ST game and worth it. I certainly hope Peter converts more games in the future!






Drone, an Atari STe demo which I would personally rank as a masterpiece. Stunning audio, artwork and presentation.... all far beyond excellent. It was released back in 2012 by the legendary Dead Hackers and is a whopping 11+MB. It was released for Sommarhack to pay special tribute to the Ultrasatan.

This is one of the best demos I've ever experienced.




Saturday, September 05, 2015

PARCP


PARCP running on my Mac (the Mac is shown on the left side and the Atari ST on the right)


Get your Atari ST talking!!

After all these years, owning an Atari ST is still such an amazing joy - plus I feel like a teenager again!! However, this now means I have the problem of how to get games and other programs running on my ST. After all, it's not like I can pop to the shops or swap disks with friends like we did back in the day. If only I had a time machine...

Anyhow, the internet is stuffed with ST disks but we're still left with the problem of getting these from my Mac (or PC) over onto the ST (whether it's using floppies or a hard drive). Heck, it might be the most awesome 16-bit computer on the planet but it sadly has no ethernet, USB, or WiFi. Argh, how can we get files over to use on my ST?

Well, there are a few options but one of the best is ParCp-USB by Petr Stehlik. This little device plugs into the ST's parallel port and features a Mini USB socket so we can connect any Atari computer to either a Mac or PC with little effort and hassle. The only decision to make is which of your computers you want to act as either a master or slave (I run my ST as the master whilst the Mac acts as the slave). Just watch the video recording I've made for a better idea of how this works...

ParCP-USB is a fantastic product that makes the job of transferring files a doddle and is highly recommended.

Atari computers with only a floppy drive will be too slow. You need a hard drive or something like the Ultrasatan. However, you can easily use a Ram Disk if you have upgraded.