Re: I need an Atari 400 -> 800

[bellm@mail.med.upenn.edu (Marcus G Bell)]

omar (opualuan@oboe.calpoly.edu) wrote:
: It's a special 3d input device that is EASIEST to use with an atari,
: then transfer the data to a mac or pc through disk or serial.. the atari
: has the peek(15284) and (15285) command, which means all programming for
: this device can be done in atari basic, no machine language needed...

Seems like if you're writing a basic program that can read the
joystick ports on the Atari, you could be doing the same thing with
the printer port on a PC. The PC printer port has input lines for
printer status functions.

Forget trying to transfer data between the Atari and another computer
over the serial line, unless you have an Atari-compatible modem with a
decent comm program.  The disks are not cross-compatible with anything
else, unless you write the bit-banging routines to read them
(different format, file system, etc.). That's plenty of machine code,
or at least dealing with the hardware in the non-abstract form.

: Basic is built into the atari, right?

Only the models AFTER the 400 and 800, like the 600XL, 800XL, 1200XL,
1400XL, 1450XL, 65XE, 130XE. In the 400 and 800, you needed a
cartridge. 

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Marcus. ( bellm@mail.med.upenn.edu )