bill@mwca.UUCP (Bill Sheppard) (07/13/90)
Well, I got copies of the Union and Carebears demoes (thanks, Dan!), and to
my utter horror discovered that they are 50 Hz, and my Video Key doesn't
tolerate this too well. Are there any measures I can take to make these
demos viewable? If I crank on the vertical hold I can stop the rolling but
the picture is shifted such that 30% of the screen is lost to the right, and
full-screen stuff looks like utter garbage. Any suggestions?
On a related note, I've got a multiscan available to me - can someone mail
me the pinouts to make a cable? I suspect this may alleviate the 50Hz
problem...
--
################################################################################
# Bill Sheppard -- bill@mwca.microware.com -- {uunet,sun}!mcrware!mwca!bill #
# Microware Systems Corporation --- OS-9: Seven generations beyond __/_!! #
#######Opinions expressed are my own, though you'd be wise to adopt them!#######dmb@wam.umd.edu (David M. Baggett) (07/14/90)
In article <1661@mwca.UUCP> bill@mwca.UUCP (Bill Sheppard) writes: >Well, I got copies of the Union and Carebears demoes (thanks, Dan!), and to >my utter horror discovered that they are 50 Hz, and my Video Key doesn't >tolerate this too well. Are there any measures I can take to make these >demos viewable? If I crank on the vertical hold I can stop the rolling but >the picture is shifted such that 30% of the screen is lost to the right, and >full-screen stuff looks like utter garbage. Any suggestions? On a related note, I've found that a lot of games from acros the pond don't work with my Atari monitor (SC1224 or whatever), but DO work on other peoples' monitors (also SC1224 or whatevers). Mine is different in that it's vintage 1986; an "old style" monitor. When running some games, the screen rolls horrendously. (Bill's vertical hold fix works on mine too, but you should see the desktop after you diddle with your monitor that way!) Anybody know what it is that these hackers are doing that mucks up the screen? (Examples of programs that do not work: Afterburner, Blood Money) Dave Baggett dmb%wam.umd.edu@uunet.uu.net
hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (07/14/90)
In article <1990Jul13.222947.10562@wam.umd.edu> dmb%wam.umd.edu@uunet.uu.net (David M. Baggett) writes: >On a related note, I've found that a lot of games from acros the pond >don't work with my Atari monitor (SC1224 or whatever), but DO work on >other peoples' monitors (also SC1224 or whatevers). Mine is different >in that it's vintage 1986; an "old style" monitor. When running some >games, the screen rolls horrendously. (Bill's vertical hold fix works >on mine too, but you should see the desktop after you diddle with your >monitor that way!) > >Anybody know what it is that these hackers are doing that mucks up >the screen? (Examples of programs that do not work: Afterburner, >Blood Money) > >Dave Baggett >dmb%wam.umd.edu@uunet.uu.net I remember this occasionally happening with my SC1224 on the old Rex demo. I figure they were probably trying to up the vertical resolution or something. (I'd achieved the same in my 8-bit Atari days by messing with the display list. Try to draw too many scanlines, instead of leaving X number black at the top & bottom of the screen, and the picture rolls.) Rex demo also scrolls colors across the overscan region, so they must at the very least be messing with the display enable signal. (By toggling the screen between two scan rates. Probably 50 & 60hz.) I'm going to have to try Afterburner again, I don't remember it working on my system either. Oh well. -- -- Howard Chu @ University of Michigan one million data bits stored on a chip, one million bits per chip if one of those data bits happens to flip, one million data bits stored on the chip...
dhollis@shiloh.UUCP (Dan Hollis @ 7819367) (07/14/90)
In article <1661@mwca.UUCP>, bill@mwca.UUCP (Bill Sheppard) writes: > Well, I got copies of the Union and Carebears demoes (thanks, Dan!), and to > my utter horror discovered that they are 50 Hz, and my Video Key doesn't > tolerate this too well. Are there any measures I can take to make these > demos viewable? If I crank on the vertical hold I can stop the rolling but > the picture is shifted such that 30% of the screen is lost to the right, and > full-screen stuff looks like utter garbage. Any suggestions? > > On a related note, I've got a multiscan available to me - can someone mail > me the pinouts to make a cable? I suspect this may alleviate the 50Hz Yes, the multisync (I suspect that's what you meant?) should work perfectly with the demos, I don't think the Video Key was ever designed to work with anything other than a 60hz signal.. 50hz causes alot of problems in the U.S. Most monitors work just fine, but some roll, and some are shifted over about 2 inches.. sounds like the video key is the worst of both worlds! I do not have the pinouts for a multisync, but it should be easy enough to hack one up.. on a similar note, there is a company, talon microsystems or some similar name, that makes a box to hook up to a multisync, but it was an ungodly $80! All these drastic actions, just for some demos... =^)
gt1448b@prism.gatech.EDU (FORRAI,DAVID PAUL) (07/15/90)
Somebody recently posted a question concerning the CP/M emulator
and a hard drive. This is what I know:
The CP/M-Z80 emulator is capable of accessing your hard drive,
but it is limited to 4 Mb partitions. If your partition is greater
than 4 Mb, you will get a warning that it has been truncated to 4 Mb
when you try to access it. If you use TOSDIR to list the files on
your hard drive, it will list the files in the currently active TOS
folder for that partition.
You could set up a 4 Mb (or less) partition and use it strictly
for CP/M. You would have to develop a routine like INIDIR to convert
it to a CP/M partition (INIDIR is coded for a 360K single sided drive
only). You can also install a RAM disk and use it. I used the SS RAM
disk with Turtle, then used INIDIR to change it to a CP/M RAM disk.
This worked out quite well.
--
David P. Forrai
uucp: ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!gt1448b
Internet: gt1448b@prism.gatech.edularserio@IFI.UIO.NO (LarsErikOsterud) (07/15/90)
It's possible to adjust the SM1224 vertical hold so that both 50 Hz and 60 Hz work...... Lars-Erik / ABK-BBS +47 2132659 / ____ ______ ________________________ Osterud / larserio@ifi.uio.no / /___ / The norwegian ST __________/ ______________________/ ____/ / Klubben, user association
vanleeuw@udcps3.cps.udayton.edu (James Van Leeuwen) (07/16/90)
In article <1990Jul13.222947.10562@wam.umd.edu> dmb%wam.umd.edu@uunet.uu.net (David M. Baggett) writes: >In article <1661@mwca.UUCP> bill@mwca.UUCP (Bill Sheppard) writes: >>Well, I got copies of the Union and Carebears demoes (thanks, Dan!), and to >>my utter horror discovered that they are 50 Hz, and my Video Key doesn't >>tolerate this too well. Are there any measures I can take to make these >>demos viewable? If I crank on the vertical hold I can stop the rolling but >>the picture is shifted such that 30% of the screen is lost to the right, and >>full-screen stuff looks like utter garbage. Any suggestions? > >On a related note, I've found that a lot of games from acros the pond >don't work with my Atari monitor (SC1224 or whatever), but DO work on >other peoples' monitors (also SC1224 or whatevers). Mine is different >in that it's vintage 1986; an "old style" monitor. When running some >games, the screen rolls horrendously. (Bill's vertical hold fix works >on mine too, but you should see the desktop after you diddle with your >monitor that way!) > >Anybody know what it is that these hackers are doing that mucks up >the screen? (Examples of programs that do not work: Afterburner, >Blood Money) Who knows what they're doing, but I can tell you for sure that some things will not work on some monitors. The difference between 50Hz and 60Hz can sometimes be without a cure. There are several different 50/60 switchers available in the public domain. I've found one that works great, and is only about 500 bytes long. If anyone is interested, let me know. This will help with a lot of the problems, but not all. Where I work, we've fixed about 5 or so games from Europe with it, but some, like Blood Money, just will not work on some of the 1224's out there. If anyone is interested in a program like this, let me know and I'll post it to comp.binaries.atari.st. Jim -- "We didn't start the fire, / ___/_ Jim Van Leeuwen it was always burning / / / \ The University of Dayton since the world's been /___/__/ / UUCP: vanleeuw@udcps3.cps.udayton.edu turning..." --Billy Joel /______/ GEnie: JVAN