How to generate a square root table
Well that headline looks weird. I mean. You click √ on your calculator. Or you type Math.sqrt() or something similar. But what if you’re writing code on ancient low spec systems and there’s just no way you can take the time to actually calculate the square root? And even generating a lookup table somewhere else and importing it into the system is a pain due to storage space requirements.
Atari · English · Math · Retro · Uncategorized
3 minutes
The Atari Mega ST keyboard - finally exposed
When people talk about the Atari ST range of computers, most mean the common form factor of the times where the computer and keyboard were all one unit. This was true for most of Atari’s machines - but for a few exceptions. The Mega ST, the Mega STE and the TT went for a more “business look”, which apparently meant separation of computer and keyboard. The Mega ST computer has a fantastic “pizza box” style, while the Mega STE and TT share a common … something else.
Atari · English · Retro · Uncategorized
5 minutes
Update 2021-07-14: Ben of The Overlanders commented on my Facebook post that there was yet another optimization possible on the depack-routine. I have edited the source listing below. This weekend yet another instance of the very popular Atari ST retro computer happening Sommarhack took place. Due to Covid-19, this year as well as last have been online-only events though. I decided to participate in one of the competitions, the 256 byte intro.
Atari · English · Retro · Uncategorized
7 minutes
I’ve added yet a new little description to Projects - a circuit and modification to “nudge” wakestates on Atari STs without needing to power cycle.
Atari · English · Retro · Uncategorized
1 minute
Back in the day, those of us who did advanced video tricks on the Atari (opening borders, hardware scrolling on hw without hardware scroll) knew that there were differences between systems, and sometimes on the same system. After some trial and error you built in some compensation which made things work “always” on all systems. Today we know that a lot of this comes from the fact that the GLUE and the CPU, while both running at 8MHz, can be offset from one another 0-3 cycles (since the master clock everything’s divided from is 32MHz).
Atari · English · Retro · Uncategorized
3 minutes
I’ve done an extended writeup of a little project I’ve been working on and off on for the last few months. Extending the video modes of an old Atari ST in new and interesting ways. Going from 4 colors to 16 might not sound much with today’s tech, but for us oldies this is pretty fascinating ;)
Atari · Code · English · Retro · Uncategorized
1 minute
update 20-07-20: Since a few weeks back I no longer use any macOS systems, being Linux only nowadays. Because of that I feel that I can no longer keep this service running, due to not being able to verify that things are working or being able to quickly correct them when they’re not. Hopefully the Hatari project can in time setup automatic CI pipelines for macOS too. For a few years now I’ve helped out the excellent Hatari Atari 16/32 bit emulator project with macOS builds.
Atari · Development · English · Retro · Uncategorized
1 minute
The tale of high density Atari mystery
The Atari ST, like other computers at the time, had Dual Density disk drives with 720KB of storage. DD for short. Since High Density (1.44MB) appeared shortly after, Atari used such drives in the more top of the lines models Mega STE and TT. Additionally, us enthusiasts and hardware hackers added HD capability to the regular ST and STE range since it was neat to store twice the amount of data on suitable disks (and it worked pretty well cutting a hole in DD disks tricking the drives into thinking they were HD, even though the magnetic layer is slightly different).
Atari · English · Retro · Uncategorized
6 minutes
Mega STE 1.44 HD floppy, FPU, fan and RTC upgrades
A few weeks ago I acquired a computer I never had the chance to play around with when it was new, an Atari Mega STE. It’s the culmination of Atari’s 16 bit line of computers, very compatible with the ST(E) range yet much more expandable, usually coming with a SCSI adapter and HD (1.44MB) floppy support. Besides the expandability, it can run at 16Mhz, with cache, compared to 8MHz for the rest of the ST(E) computers.
Atari · English · Retro · Uncategorized
3 minutes
This last weekend me and many others were participating at the third incarnation of the STNICCC Atari ST conference. The first and original one was held in 1990 - where sadly I didn’t attend - and the second one was held as a reunion in the year 2000. Back then they joked about meeting up again in the far far away future of 2015. … and that happened. Me and two others from my old demo crew had written a brand new demo that we showed at the demo competition, and additionally I had been asked by the organizer to do a talk on the latest findings with regards to two of the Atari ST’s more magical demo tricks - overscan and sync scroll.
Atari · English · Retro · Uncategorized
1 minute