The Obligatory 'Introduce Yourself Thread'...

[Ink0]

I all! I hope I'm posting this in the right place, it's been aaaaaaaages since I posted in a forum...

Recently got myself an atari STe because I've been dying to code on something ancient for years. I grew up with an ST, but I didn't have the software / knowhow to program it, nor even friends who knew what it wa, let alone anyone who I had dev disks I could copy. Before my original ST, I had an Amstrad CPC which I had a lot of fun programming basic on.

These days I do C++ game dev, but I pined to turn back the clock and work on the machine I grew up on.

I've upgraded to 4MB RAM, have my Devpac 3 disk sorted & my ultrasatan is on it's way. But where do I even get started on 68000 assembly programming? I've started reading some books online, but being dyslexic, I really wanna just crack on with some well explained tutorials with code examples...

Also, hello! I'm so glad to see the Atari ST community is alive and well!

[FedePede04]

Hi
and Welcome to this forum.
have a look here
first Thread is asm 68000 tutorials.
if you have a problem, please post your problem, and i know there are people here there will help you...

[Ink0]

Hi
and Welcome to this forum.
have a look here
first Thread is asm 68000 tutorials.
if you have a problem, please post your problem, and i know there are people here there will help you...

Thank you! Will definitely check it out!

[FedePede04]

Hi
and Welcome to this forum.
have a look here
first Thread is asm 68000 tutorials.
if you have a problem, please post your problem, and i know there are people here there will help you...

Thank you! Will definitely check it out!

you are welcome.
here is my startup file, it is not the most optimize file, but it is the one i normal use when staring on a new program.
and can be compiled and run from devpac. and btw remember to set the ram under preferences.

ups .. forget to attach my file

START1.zip

[ATARI FAN]

Hello from norway

I started with atari when I went at the vocational school in 1982 where I buy my first atari 2600 game machine. Later in the summer of 1984 I shopped my first commodore 64. Still have it standing in a closet and works well after 33 years. In August 1990 I bought my first Atari ste worked fine for many years. Offered in 2004 to buy 2 pieces atari ste from seller in Norway that has been used in a school.

Inserted Analogic STE TOS Switcher in the one I bought and had to throw motherboard in the trashcan as rom sockets was to wide after analogue STE TOS Switcher which some years later became defective. Purchased new disk drive from best electronics in 2005 when it who stood in my first atari ste was worn out. Also bought from best electronics analogue STE TOS Switcher which some years later became defective, got 4 bombs during startup computer.

In 2009 I bought 2 pieces ultrasatan and later in 2010 an additional atari ste from atarifreakz with dma circuit C398739-001. I use most atari to play games and other things. Also i have deluxe paint that I have used some time and 3D construction kit and other graphics programs.


Note 1 : External Floppy Drive has been exchanged new last year from seller on ebay.
Note 2: The Atari 2600 heavy sixer in picture is shopped from best electronics.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Externes-Flopp ... Sw5TlZiyZH

[Atarieterno]

Welcome to the forum! Here we will comment friendly our experiences with the machines of Mount Fuji.
Greetings from Spain.

[sporniket]

Hello from Paris,

The 1040 STe was my first computer as a Xmas present. Years later I could get the GFA Basic 3.5E with compiler (again as Xmas present or reward for a good scholar year...).

I even wrote a modest memory game as a shareware : Let's Go Memo (googling a little, here is a metadata land page http://www.mobygames.com/game/atari-st/lets-go-memo and someone even captured a video of the gameplay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23NtAuo5ABs )

Fast forward 2009, I felt a little bit nostalgic, and wanted a good looking TrueType font that would look like an Atari ST font (the 8×16 version) at the right size, and created the "Sporniket Nostalgie Sans typeface v9.08" with a Bold variable width and Bold Monospaced variant (go here : http://www.sporniket-studio.com/page/200908022220 ). The weak point of this font is that you must set the size at 25 point, because I wanted to support diacritics without deformed letters, including uppercase diacritics. The kerning may need some improvements. And there is no regular nor italic variant. Anyway the monospaced variant is nice for your terminal

Fast forward 2018, I feel nostalgic again, and just started learning assembly language, for the sake of writing a little game. Using an emulator is my only mean of testing my code, as I have to let go of my gear around 2013.

Best regards.

[MrPixel]

hello, from lodi

think fresh prince but replace Philly with stockton and Bel-air with lodi

i grew up idolizing the 90's hip hop scene, started out on windows 98 and eventually got an XP, where i learned (and am still learning as of now) basic. i am teaching atari basic at program and adore old technology and movies. Alien, the War of the worlds (1950), i love them all. i also am a sucker for old video games, especially atari 2600. i am a star wars nerd and consider star trek to be, while inferior in many ways, a decent successor. i never understood the show's popularity but i will admit to liking the nes games. i LOVE ghostbusters and think Gozer and Zuul are AWESOME. Walter peck was a dick, but he had a point. Empire strikes back, the return of the jedi, star wars at its best (screw the "special editions".

my philosophy is this: mistakes make us better and desks bolted to the floor and forced lectures, bring us down. you program your own way, students are not robots and school is not an assembly line. I advocate Open source software and also endorse the GNU public license. if you download a software program, you retain the rights and should not be folded into some shitty "you will defend us" bullshit that takes away your rights. Viacom and its followers have done that already. if i want shitty programming, I'll work for EA.

If you like Pascal, program in Pascal. Basic? program in BASIC. do not assume that i am a "noob" (which i find extremely offensive and derogatory) just because i am a beginner, me or anyone else. Judgment is for God alone.

24 year old Christian. Born and Raised

Favorite NFL team: 49ers

Favorite series: Avatar the last airbender

Favorite rapper: subjective, liked eminem, now moving on to Masta Ace, but i respect the architects of rap.

Pet peeve: Lazy video game design. the NES had great games, but good cover art do not a good game make. Raid 2020, Rambo, Predator, freaking TMNT (not 2 or 3, they rocked and i finally beat it, cheats were used, but i beat it. that and contra). how bad were they. T2 for nes made me want to boil the cart in lava, rip open the nes and deface it by writing Sega over Nintendo, then get a Sega master system.

Worst use of a beloved Series: 2. the Last Airbender and Scary movie. some movies should not be parodied.

sorry for the long list.

[wobbler]

Hello from Perthshire
Soon to be 46, so of the Jurassic Era
Grew up in east end of Glasgow with the old 48k spectrum.
Sourced games from the old Barras, swapping games like turbo esprit for garbage like Airwolf.
Ended up as a 12 year old working on stalls such as one down the lane and then in Pearsons Market.
As times moved on we did ST menu disks and I ended up falling in love with the ST.
Zippy, we have met, you may remember Jamie and Rab, I was the kid who worked with them.

I ended up for my sins working for Microsoft, although now not in the IT field.

[1024MAK]

Hello Moana

Welcome to our wonderful forum. I hope you have a great time.

Mark

[AllanMurray]

Hi there,
My names Allan (you probably couldn't guess). I believe my family had a 2600 when I was younger. Just got an ST (I think) from a charity shop. I don't physically have it yet (I will be collecting it soon)

I am an absolute beginner. I din't have any cables,software or hardware yet. I really look forwars to gaming on it, trying to make music with it and having fun with it in general. I imagine that I'll be asking for help a lot.

Nice to meet you all.

[607]

Cool, I hope you'll have fun.

[DarkLord]

Hi there,
My names Allan (you probably couldn't guess). I believe my family had a 2600 when I was younger. Just got an ST (I think) from a charity shop. I don't physically have it yet (I will be collecting it soon)

I am an absolute beginner. I din't have any cables,software or hardware yet. I really look forwars to gaming on it, trying to make music with it and having fun with it in general. I imagine that I'll be asking for help a lot.

Nice to meet you all.

Welcome aboard! If you have problems or questions, just post them here or over at AtariAge. People will jump in and help.

[LardoBoffin]

Hello all!

As a complete aside Lardo Boffin is not my real name (hard to believe I know) - somebody at work put my name into an online Hobbit name generator and I quite liked it!

I just got my first Atari - a friend donated his old 520 STFM that he found in his parents attic recently.

Sadly it doesn’t work but I will get that sorted. When I switch it on nothing happens and no lights come on. It was boxed and stored working but that was in the early 90’s. I have tried a different cable / plug and checked the fuse on the PSU.

I took the case off to have a look for ROMs etc. that have jumped socket but gave up when faced with the RF shielding. It looks like it goes under the back of the PSU and therefore the PSU will have to come out to remove it. I don’t do 240V so will get an expert to look at it. I’m at the recapping ZX81 / Spectrum level of repairs which is to say I can pick up a soldering iron by the cool end!

I’m really looking forward to getting this sorted when cash permits and maybe enjoying a bit of gaming - Eye of the Beholder looks good and maybe Elite if I get a RAM upgrade fitted. Most of my other computers are 8 bitters like Sinclair and Acorn with an Apple IIe thrown in so I can play Bards Tale.

[1024MAK]

Hello Phil / Lardo

Welcome to Atari-Forum

Yes, the PSU has to come out before you continue the battle with the metal screening shield. Remove the metal cover that is on top of it. It then comes out as a module (the metal bit as well as the PCB all comes out as one unit) so as long as you don't touch any of the mains side components, you're be fine. The metal plate it is mounted on means most of the underside of the PCB is covered.

Mark

[LardoBoffin]

Hello Phil / Lardo

Welcome to Atari-Forum

Yes, the PSU has to come out before you continue the battle with the metal screening shield. Remove the metal cover that is on top of it. It then comes out as a module (the metal bit as well as the PCB all comes out as one unit) so as long as you don't touch any of the mains side components, you're be fine. The metal plate it is mounted on means most of the underside of the PCB is covered.

Mark

Thanks Mark. I have however bottled it and will send it off to be fixed. If it was a random one off eBay I would probably give it a go but as it was a mate’s I will do it properly.

[LardoBoffin]

So, noob question - which is the best RAM upgrade for the 520STFM? I see that Frontier Elite needs 1MB of RAM and that is a good enough reason to splash out on one.
This one looks good but I really have no idea!

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Atari-520- ... %7Ciid%3A1

[RoadRunner]

Hi to all

Let me introduce myself

I have owned Atari consoles and computes since the early 1980s VCS,600XL,800XL,65XE,520STFM,520STE and Jaguar but have been off the scene(so to speak)for going on 20 years do to work,life,bringing kids up, etc.etc.etc.
Anyway i did a bit of coding on the Jag about 16 years ago and had 2 full development alpine boards but I sold 1 of the units back in 2010 as i was funding one of my other hobbies of restoring classic Arcade and Fruit machines from the 80s and 90s. plus some PCB design projects
I Still have 1 Jag dev system and 1 Jag with a CD rom drive, sadly all my ST hardware packed up and was discarded over the years but i have all my old ST programs magazines and disks from the 90s and have run one or two of using the various ST emulators but its not the same a having a real Atari ST in front of you so i decided to bag myself and ST and have today just picked up a 1040ste for £60(Ebay) and have got my eye on some other stuff.
On a side note repairing of Arcade boards should put me in stead getting back into this hobby as knowing what hardware actually does makes coding 20 times easier and along with all the resources on the net now i am really looking forward to coding the Ataris again but much improved this time round along with actual computer repairs as the hardware is very similar in the way it all works.

Did quite a bit of STOS coding back in the day

Last note i will be looking to acquire both 8 bit computer and VCS system in the future.



anyway ramble over and its nice to be back on the Atari and get to know fellow Atari users


Cheers

Alan

[dhedberg]

Welcome back to the Atari-world Alan! With your skills you'll be able to contribute in all sorts of ways!

[Rustynutt]

Great story Alan, you sure bring a lot on your plate with you!
So many hard core peeps here, incredible!

[RoadRunner]

Thanks for the welcome(s)

now its time to have a look round the site and catch up