Tip
of the day
Fox-1 has
more Atari stuff than most of us have had
hot dinners. One photo couldn't capture
the whole eye-watering mess so here we have
another gallery. Note the apparent lack
of simple life-sustaining facilities such
as a kitchen and normal bedroom.
"An
overview of the entrance to my neat-and-tidy computer room. This
picture only shows one side of the room,
due lack of space to stand it's impossible
to take a photo of the other sides. It's
the room I have to walk through to reach
the real one and therefore has something
of a corridor to be able to reach the next
one.
The upper
shelf contains the less interesting stuff,
like the documentation of some old Falcon
terminals, which are located just out of
sight. Well, maybe the Atari 520STF looks
like it could be useful, but it isn't anymore,
since it's just an empty case.
The second
shelf is more useful. This one holds all
kind of Atari related books and documentation.
Yes, some are missing (Mapping the Atari,
De-Re-Atari, SpartaDos Construction Kit),
but these are located in the other room
for instant access. Behind the books are
some Atari 8-bit parts, like joysticks,
lightguns, disk drive mechanisms and more
of that.
The third
shelf is dedicated to Atari computers. Actually,
all free space is dedicated to that, but
these are some of my 65XE/800XE/130XE computers.
Some of them are brand-new. You need spares,
don't you? On the right are some Compute!
magazines. Not Atari-only, but there are
some interesting Atari pieces in it.
We've reached
the fourth shelf. Some more peripherals,
like XEP80 interfaces, data recorders, disk
drives and some more fun. Some of those
work, others definitely won't ever again.
The fifth
one contains too many different things to
write down. Much of it is totally useless
now, but hey, you never know what will happen
in a few years.
On the floor,
right next to the shelves, are the boxed
pieces. This stack contains several XF551
disk drives, VCS2600s, a Jaguar, some XL
computers, and probably a lot more things
I can't remember.
That pile
of aluminium sticks is an antenna, used
for another hobby. For the technicians,
it's a home-built 5-element short Yagi,
designed to transmit (or receive at wish)
on the 3M band (about 100MHz). This hobby
doesn't seem to be the most legal one over
here as the local authorities told me several
times when they came by for a "chat",
so I had to lower the activities a bit (and
build/buy new equipment again!).
The door
on the left leads to the programming room,
which also acts as sort of unprofessional
music studio, gaming room, and technical
documentation library for my cars (another
hobby again). It's also the place where
I do my electronics and more of that. Oh,
it also seems to be my sleeping room, even
though the whole place is only a couple
of square feet. It's located directly below
the roof, hence the mobile air conditioner.
I need it to keep my Atari floppies and
audio tapes in shape. As a bonus, it's also
a heater. I live in the Netherlands, you
know.
This is a
picture of my multi-purpose room, taken
by Nir Nary from Israel when he came by
to travel with us to UnConventional 2000.
Too bad I was too late to hide myself.
The big screen
on the left is/was my TV, which served as
an Atari monitor and died a while ago. Right
next to it is my main Atari set-up, which
is an Atari 130XE with Black-Box, a 676MB
SCSI hard disk and some disk drives. The
screen is just an old TV, but it works.
On top of the disk drives is the box with
floppies I most often use. No games in here,
just utils, copiers, editors, whatever.
On the right
side of the drives, there is the other Atari
set-up. It's similar to the first one, (Atari
130XE (320KB), Black-Box, 676MB SCSI HD),
but this one has a 14.4K modem connected
and a RTC interface. Useful, since this
set-up runs the BBS. The software it uses
is Sparta-Dos 3.3b, Ramjet, and of course
BBS Express! Professional 5.0b.
Further to
the right are some other systems, like some
Pentiums and more of that. An old 486 is
installed to run A.P.E. to transfer files
between PC and Atari 8-bit. All PC stuff
is connected to each other with an Ethernet
hub, and the whole network is connected
again to the internet. Next thing is to
connect the Atari in a more direct way to
the network, which would make some things
much easier.
Out of sight
is (More?! - Ed) an Atari 800XL set-up,
and a wall filled with cartridges, boxed
software and audio CDs.
A picture
of the ugliest and least comfortable (very
noticeable after a 2,600 kilometer ride!)
transport I have, but it's a useful Atari-party
cruiser since we can load a whole lot of
stuff in the back! Besides the four subwoofers,
speakers, amplifiers, and the remaining
audio stuff there is still space left to
put five Atari 8-bit set-ups, one Jaguar
set-up, and an ST set-up, complete with
monitors, peripherals, whiskey, beer, and
other important stuff, like sleeping bags
and more primary things, like more whiskey
and more beer.
The picture
was taken at the ABBUC JHV in Germany I
think. Don't know who took it, but found
it on the net."
Submit your
Tip of the day via e-mail to matthew@myatari.net, or by post to the
address below, the more untidy the better!
MyAtari magazine
c/o Matthew Bacon
49 Douglas Road
Surbiton
Surrey
KT6 7RZ
United
Kingdom
Please note
that all postal submissions are non-returnable. |
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Issue
11