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Atari 800XL core instructions
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Mark Watson
scrameta@gmail.com
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Cores available for DE1,MIST,MCC216 and Replay
These cores differ a little in use.
These instructions were for the MCC216.

Brief notes for other cores:
Replay: Copy atari800.bin and replay.ini to the root. No drive emulation yet, use the serial port with sio2pc software. Roms loaded from ini file.
DE1: SW9: sdram only/sram then sdram, SD8: PAL/NTSC. Roms in atari800/rom and atari800/user. NB: RS232/GPIO SIO not connected yet
MIST: Roms in atari800/rom and atari800/user. New firmware (as of June 20th) needed.
MIST: Without keyboard its possible to use it! If you can remember these...
MIST: mist button0=F11, mist button0+fire=F12, mist button0+stick=reboot
MIST: mist button1=option, mist button1+fire=start, mist button1+stick=select
CHAMELEON: Roms in atari800/rom and atari800/user.
CHAMELEON: freeze button: toggle scanlines
CHAMELEON: CDTV remote: mouse:joy1,joy:joy2!,power:reboot,stop,reset,rew:start,play:select,ff:option,genlock:choose/boot(aka f11),cd/tv:settings(aka f12)
CHAMELEON: C64 keyboard matches Atari layout where possible:
CHAMELEON: (ESC)1234567890<>(CAPS)(HELP)(DELETE)
CHAMELEON: (CONTROL)QWERTYUIOP-=(TAB)
CHAMELEON: (BREAK)(SHIFT LOCK)ASDFGHJKL;+*(RETURN)
CHAMELEON: (INV)(SHIFT)ZXCVBNM,./(SHIFT)(F11/disk and boot)(F12/settings)
CHAMELEON: F1/F2=START,F3/F4=SELECT,F5/F6=OPTION,F7/F8=RESET(F9),CONTROL+F7/F8=COLD START(F10)
MCC216: As below... Official releases will lag but be better tested. This is a beta.
MCCTV: Special/console keys (joystick 1):
MCCTV: Start button or button 4 - Start
MCCTV: Select button or button 3 - Select
MCCTV: button 2 - Option
MCCTV: left shoulder 1 - Reset
MCCTV: left shoulder 2 - Cold start (clear base 64KB RAM and reset)
MCCTV: right shoulder 1 - Select drive 1 and cold start


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The keyboard is mapped to match an Atari 800XL physical layout(See below).

Special/console keys:
F5 - Help
F6 - Start
F7 - Select
F8 - Option
F9 - Reset
F10 - Cold start (clear base 64KB RAM and reset)
F11 - Select drive 1 and cold start
Use joystick to make selection in menu
Left - up several lines
Right - down several lines
Up - up 1 line
Down - down 1 line
Fire - select
Remember many titles require holding 'option'
Select "DIR .." to go up a directory
Select "DIR xxx" to go down a directory
F12 - System settings menu
Use joystick to make selection
Turbo - system speed
Left/right to select
1x (default): is very compatible - speed closely matches original hardware ~1.7MHz
2x: ~3.4MHz - less compatible
4x: ~6.8MHz - less compatible
8x/16x: 13MHz, 27MHZ - limited by SDRAM latency, not quicker than 4x yet.
RAM
Left/right to select
64KB: like 65XE
128KB: like 130XE, 64KB ext ram, switchable by antic/cpu
320KB(Compy shop)(default): 256KB ext ram, switchable by antic/cpu
320KB(Rambo): 256KB ext ram, both antic/cpu switch together
576KB(Compy shop): 512KB ext ram, switchable by antic/cpu
576KB(Rambo): 512KB ext ram, both antic/cpu switch together
1088KB: 1024KB ext ram, both antic/cpu switch together
4160KB: - very imcompatible!
ROM
Right/fire: File selector
Select a different system OS ROM - can by 16KB or 10KB
Drive
Left: Remove disk
Right: File selector
Fire: Put this disk in F1
Cartridge
Left: Remove cart
Right: File selector
Fire: Put this cart in

System ROM:
Loaded from /System/rom/atari800/atarixl.rom

Basic:
Loaded from /System/rom/atari800/ataribas.rom

Disk images:
Default dir: /atari800/user
Supported types:
.ATR - Atari disk image with header. single/medium/double density.
.XFD - Atari disk image without header.
.XEX - Atari executable. A simple bootloader is loaded, not 100% compatible.

Cartridges:
Default dir: /atari800/user
Supported types:
.CAR - Atari 800 cartridge with header.
NB .BIN files can be converted using various programs - e.g. Atari800WinPlus.

Important notes:
When running Atari software a lot of programs need to have basic disable. Hold option when pressing reset.

Keyboard layout

The keyboard is mapped to match an Atari 800XL physical layout. On a UK keyboard this means the layout is:
Directly mapped:
ESCAPE,F1-F4,BREAK,CONTROL,SHIFT
By position:
1234567890<>(DELETE)
(TAB)QWERTYUIOP-=(RETURN)
(CAPS)ASDFGHJKL;+*
ZXCVBNM,./
Other:
Right alt = inverse video


Features

* Acid 800 test pass
* 99% of software runs
* Version for PAL/NTSC VGA/SVIDEO
* Write support
* Drive emulation

Known issues

* ~1% of programs fail
* Keyboard layout board on UK PS2 keyboard, no remapping possible yet.
* Copymate write verify fails
* Entering menu during disk access may hang ZPU (used for drive emulation/menus)
* Sometimes keyboard input fails - need to power off/on the MCC.
* Hardware matches Atari very closely - including overscan corruption - this often shows up on VGA monitors.

Enjoy !

(4-4/5)