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I have the opportunity to nab an Atari 65XE and I wonder what are the possibilities I have with it. I know it has only 64KB of RAM but will this be a problem with software I'd be interested in (demos, trackers, etc)?
If it is a problem, will it be easy to upgrade its RAM to 128KB? How about adding a stereo POKEY?
What else differs between a 130XE and a 65XE besides RAM?
Thanks a lot for your info!
As far as i know, is the same specs from the 130xe but the ram.
The stereo upgrade works like a charm on 800xl, i know it because i've seen some machines working perfectly with it.
But, there are some demos/trackers that don't work on my atari 800xl (NUMEN runs on 320 KB xD) , 'cause they will run out of ram, specially polish demoscene ones, which are specially programmed for the 128KB or even more. 130XE is about the same as the 65XE but with more RAM, and this last have some differents specs on the cartridge input and design with the 800XL, as far as i can recall. Please feel free to correct me.
There's a little chilean scene, more specialized on hardware modding than anything else, and some guy made a RAM upgrade on the 800xl:
please read the link for more information: (in spanish)
http://www.retrogames.cl/ampliacion.html
I can bet that the stereo mod works on the 65XE or 130XE, (Greyscale uses 130XE) i'll ask my atarian fellows.
If i can help you in other issues atari related, please let me know.
cheers!
Last edited by Analog (May 4, 2010 2:29 am)
If I recall it's missing a port on it's backside that the 130XE had, don't quote me on that though. Ah, it had neither the Enhanced Cartridge Interface of the later machines like the 130XE or the Parallel Bus Interface of the early machines. Pretty big turn off for me.
For stereo POKEY this looks to be the best one. Really great bit of features I think!
http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/15 … -avaiable/
However for combined stereo POKEY with Covox MOD 4 channel sample doohicky there is this, but I don't think it's needed. We have Amiga's for that plus it has a weird daughter board.
http://spiflash.org/block/9.html
Lastly memory upgrades don't seem to be a problem considering a radical 1MB upgrade possible on most Ataris!
http://www.mmj.pl/~lotharek/atari/
For a drive I recommend SDrive and for alternate OS's, Sparta DOS X looks to be the cream of the crop.
Also, you might be interested in this.
http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/142283-vbxe-2/
Cheers! 
Last edited by Theta_Frost (May 4, 2010 2:34 am)
Thanks a lot for this cool info!
I guess I can get this machine and perform a 512KB RAM upgrade then? That would set me straight!
I didn't have any problem at all using my atari 800XL with only 64KB: Theta Music composer 2.0, Music Pro tracker, and Chaos music composer.
I think I will get this 65XE I'm waiting for the seller to quote me a price!
Demos yes... and you need stereoPCB (2xpokey soundcard) for trackers.
But tracking on 64kb with stereoupgrade is pretty what you need.
You dont need 128kb/320kb...
http://raster.infos.cz/atari/hw/stereo/stereoen.htm
Hello Akira (anime rules 
),
I spotted a thing you might consider interesting:
http://www.atarimusic.net/atari-music-n … &t=113
As for hardware improvements - the stronger country in this case is Poland.
Their forum (you can ask in English easily) is: http://atariarea.krap.pl/forum/
Subsection about hardware 8bit is: http://atariarea.krap.pl/forum/viewforum.php?id=3
I wish you luck.
Thank you Johny!
I didn't get my XE yet but I am really looking forward to get it
(for the record, I do not like anime 
)
Cheers!
Akira, check it out. 
http://8bc.org/music/yerzmyey/Tokyo+Gon … +ATARI%29/
That's Pokey.
I STILL haven't got hold of the guy selling this machine, I am getting angry already, I really want to acquire it.
Nice tune YErz!!!
