I've mentioned my general goals for this ST. SCSI enclosure, disk imaging, Spectre GCR and stuff. But there's a lot I'm doing behind the scenes like how I had to build the Practical Solutions Monitor Master hack to get video working.
One project I'm working on is documenting everything we have and I'm making internal Wiki pages for each of these items as I go.
My Atari to-do list is pretty much a best-of ST gizmos and doodads.
Getting video off my Atari 1040STf has been a real journey. The general consensus is that high-res mono will work on any monitor, and then for color you'll just make a composite mod cable coming off your standard Atari monitor port. The trouble is that composite video is only on that port if you have an RF modulator, so either STFM or STE so that wasn't really an option. When I got the ST I bought a Truemouse USB dingus and a DIN 13 to VGA, but that thing never worked. It's likely I immediately smoked it, I'm not really sure what the deal is there, but I just figured I needed something Special even for mono. I've seen videos of people using Mono on an LCD but figured they had some scaler going on.
While all this was happening I joined the kickstarter for the Checkmate IPS monitor. This thing is a /monster/ and I love it, but a main factor in my decision was its advertised support for 15khz video produced by the ST's color mode. However it wasn't clear that that support relies on having composite video. The VGA port is unfortunately 35Khz only. Not their fault, it does what it says on the tin. The tin is just ambiguous ;-)
While I was poring over various methods to fix all this I did, after watching Rees' shootout videoactually get an OSSC Pro, which was definitely the right move. However totally unrelated to that searching this video by BackOfficeShow popped up from 8 years ago and sparked what would become the answer. Big shout out. I'm a long time subscriber but never came across this one. Basically you can just passively wire an Atari DIN-13 to a VGA cable directly and it'll just work, at least for mono since again, 15Khz sync for the color mode. But I had the OSSC on the way and his switch seemed like it ought to just work. I just need to order a switch and a 13 pin DIN port or rip the one off my non-functional $9 Atari -> VGA dingus.
While digging around looking for "extra" cables it dawned on me that I thought I had a monitor switchbox, and indeed, here it is with the ST:
This box is a Practical Solutions Monitor Master, is designed to have two monitors plugged in and switch a single inbound signal between them. It's got a single latching switch at the front, and a permanently attached monitor cable to the computer, two monitor-out ports, mono audio out and composite out on the back.
Turns out the switch inside is a 6 way 2 pole switch which is more than enough space to do what I need to switch. What I ended up doing was to pull out the composite connector and use that hole to run my VGA cable out of. The switch very helpfully has pins on the top side for each of the sets of switched connections, so I was able to use the "left" side for the R, G and B/Mono signals and one of the other pairs for the mono detect line, which basically just grounds the mono detect wire when the button is latched. Oh and I had to lift the signal pin for the audio and run that separately. Of everything I feel this connection is the most tenuous. If I do it over again I would leave the audio switch intact and wire that up through the board as normal.
Rather than remove the switch or modify the internals in any way, I just bypassed the on-board connector altogether and only used the board for the ground plane. I just have dupont connectors connecting to the ST-side cable and then soldered to the appropriate switch pins. This means my signals are going all over the place, and probably bad things will happen if you plug a monitor into one of the monitor ports while it's configured this way, but it's also quickly reversible. Just rip out my crappy wiring and plug the cable into the original connector and you're good to go.
Here's kind of a demo:
The man I bought this collection from had color and mono monitors, and obviously bought a monitor switchbox because he always had the good toys. It's kind of important to me to maintain and recreate the original workflow for this machine. A couple of my major goals are to use the original ICD hard disk enclosure (with a BlueSCSI, I'm not a madman) and the Spectre GCR cartridge. I remember this machine in this configuration from the late '80s and early '90s, so I want to get it fully up and running as original as I can.
Just yesterday I wrote a whole thing about how I feel bad for sounding like I'm trashing this monitor, when in reality I haven't actually used it as a monitor for more than a few minutes total. I really want to express my admiration for Steve and his project.
After spending a day with the CheckMate I have decided that it's going to change my workflow in a big way and reminded me of the Real Use Case for this thing.
I've had a CheckMate IPS monitor for quite some time and it's shown up in some pictures, but I haven't really mentioned it and given it a real objective look yet.
I have lots of thoughts so far but it's very early days. I've basically been super frustrated trying to get my target and admittedly "niche" use cases (NeXT Monochrome, Non-Composite Atari ST) to work and haven't really taken the time to look at how the actual monitor functions.
Holy cow did I have a good couple of hours in HengeWorld.
When I got home from lunch around 3 my wife handed me the NuIO board we ordered for the NeXT machine. This was a very welcome surprise. I expected just a board and it came in a very nice 3D printed case. I cabled it up and plugged it into the CheckMate IPS monitor I've been doing battle with for a year.
With extremely low expectations, I hit the soft-power button on the keyboard.
Fired right up, straight to a desktop, looked FRIGGIN' gorgeous. Sharp. This machine, while frustrating to assemble due to the "unique" decisions of Team NeXT in 1989, has been remarkably reliable. Once I understood exactly what I needed (non-ADB keyboard / mouse), spent a bunch of money, it all just worked great. Even worked great on my 4:3 Eyoyo monitor though it's understandably not as nice is the 17" CheckMate.
I ported GOB's Program to csh
So this spurred me to try some ST stuff I've had in mind too. I wanted to try and wire straight into a Mono/Color ST switchbox with a sacrificial VGA cable and see if I can just make a color/Mono VGA switcher. I don't know if the switch is going to work but I just soldered straight onto the pins from the inbound ST cable and...
The ST looks great, there's interference like if there's nothing on the screen, but once programs were running I didn't notice it at all. It all feels very much as I remember.
I chalk that noise up to my test setup:
Turns out the $5 or whatever Exxos (* I can't recall if Exxos actually made this or not) ST->VGA dingus I got was the culprit all along for years now. Oh well. Maybe I can rescue one or both of the 13 pin DIN and female VGA connector off of it.
After the OSSC thing didn't work out I started really bumming pretty hard on this whole project. Then Youtube recommended this awesome BackOfficeChannel video from 8 years ago which made it click in my brain that I can just straight up solder a VGA cable to an Atari cable and any SVGA monitor should work with it. And I remembered that Len had this Mono/Color switchbox and I decided I want to try to recreate that workflow and keep this machine as original feeling as I can.
It took me an hour to map out which conductors went to which pin on the ST and VGA cables and how the diagrams I was looking at are oriented. But man that looks nice even on the garbage cable I hacked together.
I was watching this Adrian Black mass ST testing and it's just funny that they basically just all worked more or less. He said the same thing about the Atari 8-bits about how if your power supply was good they're more or less just going to work vs all the problems with commodore 64 and Amigas.
Too bad he's not really gonna get much content out of that whole pile!
This is not a "general purpose" guide for people to learn how to make network cables. I'm sure there are better guides with better methods and videos and whatnot. This is not a technique super-guide. If you find it and it's useful, great!
K, so here's us putting an RJ-45 end on a CAT-6 cable.
Strip about 1.5-2 inches of jacket from the cable. In the world of pass-through connectors you're not really penalized anymore for making everything a bit "too long". It's easier the more slack you have.
The other day I found a Suncom Starfighter joystick in my projects bin labeled as "needs repair, right and down only". I tested it and sure enough Up and Left didn't work at all unless you really push which I was unwilling to do. This isn't a joystick I ever had when I was a kid, but it's a real tank. It's the exact same internal design as the Tac-2 and other Suncom sticks. I definitely see why the Tac-2 is more popular with the much cooler ball-capped shiny metal stick. I remembered seeing Jan Beta repair one of these and went and grabbed that and a few other video guides.
I'm trying to lay out some projects that I want to do "when I have the time". I'm considering streaming / recording these as I go if anyone wants to see them and/or help live. I'm at least going to document all of this so it's available to anyone who needs it.
I'm going to update this page as more things come up and I start completing tasks.
Pimp my Atari ST
Get video working. I have an SC1224 which isn't /super/ reliable. I have a Checkpoint monitor that I'm trying to get working for color + mono. I need to get that thing figured out and order whatever I need to make it go
Get a BlueSCSI working as a novelty oversized hard drive with tons of partitions and everything on there. This will involve removing the RIFA caps and getting Len's ICD enclosure working and learning how to install drivers and stuff.
Get my ST talking to Linux machines over serial. This could either be the Pi inside the CheckPoint monitor, or ideally hooked up through the Avocent serial console switch so I could address other ports
Use the serial terminal to manage software transfers from my PC to ST eliminating using aging physical floppy disks and drives or new things like GoTek
Use this method to make images of Len's stuff and transfer to the PC. I think that will be the easiest way to archive these disks
Build the AdaFruit project to use the NeXT non-ADB keyboard on a PC with USB
Use that knowledge to gauge how hard it might be to go the other direction? Using USB stuff on NeXT would be way more useful
Try to get the service manual for that printer or an equivalent Canon model
MiSTer Cabinet
Remove that front door. I keep banging my knees on this idiot door
While the cabinet is apart, extend all the ports from the TV inside with like pigtail connectors including power (C14 -> C15), HDMI and anything else like RF and stuff to hook up Ataris
I never got the appeal of the "Bullet Hell SHMUPs" genre that started popping up in the arcades in the 90s. I just saw a game that cost 50 cents that had lots of confusing shit happening. Surely you just get wasted right away because it's so hard compared to Galaga, and I know I suck at Galaga even though I torture myself with it daily.. So tonight I tried Fire Barrel on my MiSTer. No reason for that one vs any other SHMUP title, I think it was on some list of best arcade games or overlooked gems or something.
Anyway I had no idea how easy it is to feel like you're getting good value for money on this stuff. Even on the MiSTer it feels like a good deal. You quickly start blasting away with rapidly increasing weapons until hey I'm shooting guns, firing in 6 directions plus rockets and homing missiles. And there's fire everywhere. If you catch a bullet you will rapidly get leveled back up. Galaga is damn near impossible for the Average Maroon to play for very long.
I'd been playing a bit of side scrolling R-Type type games recently and they're fun and fairly unforgiving, I last maybe a couple level-ups so far before I have to move on. I probably should familiarize myself with the priorities of those games and what each different little nearly identical sphere thing means in like Xenon on the ST and Amiga..
In the meantime it's fun to just feed a couple quarters in for continues and Fire Barrel feels like a pretty good value for dollar pretty quick. As I'm looking for screenshots it doesn't seem like it was super beloved or anything, there's just rudimentary "This was a SHMUP from 1993" type information. If Fire Barrel is the "bottom of the barrel" that no one plays and is hardly documented, maybe the "good ones" are actually worth playing.
