Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!uwvax!oddjob!gargoyle!att-ih!ihnp4!ihlpm!njd
From: njd@ihlpm.ATT.COM (DiMasi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: XE Game Cartridges on 400/800
Message-ID: <1832@ihlpm.ATT.COM>
Date: 12 Apr 88 23:15:12 GMT
References: <1010003@hpfcmr.HP.COM>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 25

> Bob Montgomery writes:
> 
> Ok, let's talk about games.  I have lots of games and I want more.  And
> some of those new XE games look pretty good.  But I have a 48K 800.  Will
> they work, he wonders?
> ......
> Anyone know or care?

I don't know about any of the newly-released-on-cartridge (or new, and on
cartridge) games in particular.  I do care, because I feel that owners of
the "old" (400/800) Atari 8-bit computers should not be excluded arbitrarily.
Certainly, if the game requires 64K, it's not going to run on a (stock)
400/800.  If the program depends on specific changes to the OS (rev. B?) in
the XLs/XEs, it won't run on a 400/800.  But would Atari release a game that
has such dependencies?

If your dealer(s) will let you try out the games in the store, why not just
bring in your 800, hook it up (no disk since these are cart. games), and
try the games?   I've done this sort of thing with my first disk drive when
a program would not load.

Nick DiMasi
Uni'q Digital Technologies (Fox Valley Software subsidiary;
   ^          working as a contractor at AT&T Bell Labs in Naperville, IL)
(  | this is an accent mark, supposed to replace the dot over the 'i')