Atari ST QL Emulator Hardware

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

I have been looking at some old Atari hardware, I came across 2 Atari ST extended Mode 4 hardware emulayor boards.

Here is a picture of the Atari ST QL hardware emulator, which attaches to the Atari ST Video Shifter Chip and various wire links on the Atari Board.

This allows SMSQ/E to run in Mode 4 at 512x280

You will that the people who made the PCB, were so paranoid about copying the hardware, they scraped all the component information off.

I have a Mode 8 emulator board, installed in an Atari STFM, I will post pictures, when I have it running.

[dilwyn]

Is the mode 4 one from Futura Datasenter in Norway? I've never seen one of those before. It would make it earlier than ones by Jochen Merz if that's the case. All I could see on the PCB was "QL-SHIFTER-PICKUP" (I think, it's not sufficiently clear magnified on my phone screen). Well worth taking good pictures for posterity, even if we can't see the chip details.

[Derek_Stewart]

Is the mode 4 one from Futura Datasenter in Norway?

No idea, I bought 2 Extended 4 board in 1993, also got some Atari Rom Cartridges to auto boot into SMSQ/E or Level E Drivers.

I've never seen one of those before. It would make it earlier than ones by Jochen Merz if that's the case. All I could see on the PCB was "QL-SHIFTER-PICKUP" (I think, it's not sufficiently clear magnified on my phone screen). Well worth taking good pictures for posterity, even if we can't see the chip details.

I am not David Bailey, I can not really do better than this.

[dilwyn]

FFS, that's not what I fucking meant. I give up.

[Derek_Stewart]

OK, no need to put it that strongly.

I am useless at photography.

he purpose of the pictures was to establish why the IC Chip details were scraped off by the manufacturer,, which I thought was clearly stated.

No matter, not interested now, end of discussion for me.

[Popopo]

Amazing,
How did it work?

An Atari emulating a QL
I like it.
Are you going to reproduce it?

[Derek_Stewart]

Amazing,
How did it work?

An Atari emulating a QL
I like it.
Are you going to reproduce it?

The emulator boards, for Extended Mode 4, Mode 8 and QVME, all were supplied by JMS Software, for Atari ST, Mega ST, TT030, which was pre-QXL, Gold Card in the QL history.

If you had looked at the photographs you would of seen that the IC Chips had all the designation had been scraped off with a scalpel blade or similar. The reasons for this are unknown, but the manufacturer must of wanted to protect the the hardware design.

A little petty, as the function of the chips can be determined quite easily.

[Popopo]

A little petty, as the function of the chips can be determined quite easily.

Nice!
So with the function perhaps some IDs could be obtained.
At any case, hope to get a break very next days and I will try to find more info about it that perhaps could helps to identify them and repro.

Thanks for explanation

[Derek_Stewart]

Good luck, even with boards in front of me, it is hard to determine the IC Chip function.