Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!ucbvax!UNLVM.BITNET!UCPL030 From: UCPL030@UNLVM.BITNET ("Douglas J. Evans") Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit Subject: Re: dead-list..??? Message-ID: <8908311018.AA04330@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Date: 31 Aug 89 11:01:01 GMT References: Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 31 Well, not dead, but mighty quiet. I have older 8-bit machines, both a 400 and an 800, the latter is used mainly as dial-in-to-mainframe, but still fun with the occasional game. One project started years ago with some friends, but set aside when they went on to bigger machines, was an attempt to network several Ataris, not as in a LAN, but actually running as one game system, with slave Ataris acting as displays to one main system as the game driver. Multi- player games have always been of interest to me, and the thought of invidual Atari screens each being a cockpit view of a plane in a dogfight, or a station on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise... Original attempt explored both PIA port connections and the serial port, but problems with signalling interupts seemed to be high on the list of obstacles. Anyone having ideas or interest in this subject should probably post to the list. We're trying to generate discussion, right? UPGRADING 800 to 800XL: My hardware knowledge is pretty limited, ergo the moribund project I just described. However, I'm pretty sure that a new OS is required, but not the only change you'd need. For one thing, I remember hearing about upgrades to the screen display chip(s). The XL's 'sharper, brighter' screen was one of it's big selling points. Whether tis necessary, or cosmetic, I have no idea. Lastly, where are you planning on sticking the extra 16K board? I don't think you can just slap in a 32K board in one of the regular slots. I love my lil ole 800, but with the prices I've seen, I suggest looking for XL to purchase over trying to upgrade. Adding a different keyboard(the one thing I decided was worse on the XL) to the XL would be a lot easier.