Pro-EU, chunky, hirsute tech author into: old & new technology, real ale, photography. Creator of 'Smelling Pistakes' on FB. Owns 'Mee Docs'. Atari ST scener!
Heaton Chapel, UK
Joined January 2012
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Thanks to the BBC weatherman this morning saying that Storm Austen was going to be staying in the southern half of the UK ... luckily I took a brolley with me, but that's not much protection against the drivers heading up the A6, who thought it best to s… instagr.am/p/De1k2i-CLIb/
Mike Mee #FBPE retweeted
Firmware v4.0.0 for the SidecarTridge TOS Emulator and Kickstart Multi ROM is out. The biggest update these boards have had, and it brings a new SWITCHER and a new rescue switcher with it, because the three now speak a new protocol and flatly refuse to talk to their older siblings. Family drama, ROM edition.
What's new:
No RESCUE button at hand, or the case already closed? Set RESCUE_TIMEOUT in CONFIG.TXT, power on holding RESET, and the board drops into rescue mode by itself.
Accelerator board fitted? ACCELERATED_BUS runs every boot at full clock, about 25% faster, so some accelerator boards that used to struggle may now work. Not magic, but worth a try.
Your computer always gets something to boot: if the default ROM can't be used, the board starts the rescue ROM instead of a black screen.
The ROMEMUL drive is tougher, with a pile of fixes, and the firmware refuses to run on a board it wasn't built for.
The SWITCHER has a configuration page (press C) that shows what the board is running with.
The rescue switcher has a self-test. Press T and it checks every address and data line, hammers the board with thousands of random reads, then names your machine, monitor and RAM. Press S for a 30 second soak: 265,905 reads and zero errors in the screenshot. Next time someone says "it's the cartridge", you'll have numbers.
What's fixed:
Mac users with around 29 ROMs or more: the hidden ._ files macOS sprinkles everywhere could wreck the ROM list. Thanks, Apple. Fixed on both sides.
The SWITCHER leaked memory every time you went back to the list, and a 512 KB machine eventually crashed. Plugged.
Monochrome STs could boot the rescue screen shifted sideways. Straightened.
Upgrading from firmware v3.x keeps your ROMs, but you have to replace the SWITCHER and the rescue switcher too, or they'll sulk at an incompatibility screen:
docs.sidecartridge.com/sidec…
docs.sidecartridge.com/sidec…
For board revision 3. Board revisions 1 and 2 stay on firmware v2.1.0.
Flash it from your browser:
webflash.sidecartridge.com
Mike Mee #FBPE retweeted
I hadn't considered a ruins theme until yesterday morning, and I nearly binned it because I really wasn't happy with it. Just over a day later, it's shaping up to be one of my favourites!
#ZXSpectrumNext #RetroGaming
Mike Mee #FBPE retweeted
In 1990 Andreas Kromke (the author of KAOS TOS, the heavily modified and performance-tuned TOS for the ST range) looked at TOS and said: one program at a time? No, thanks. Mag!X was born, later MagiC: a real multitasking OS for the Atari ST, with several GEM apps running side by side in their own windows, and still happy with software written for TOS.
It was a commercial product for years. Then Kromke did something few authors do: he opened the complete sources under the GPLv3. And this year he shipped MagiC 6.30 for Atari computers. In 2026. On a 68000. Respect.
Normally MagiC boots from disk: TOS starts first, then a loader pulls the kernel into RAM. We thought that was a waste of perfectly good RAM, so we built the MagiC ROM Builder. It turns MagiC 6.30 into a 256 KB ROM image that boots in place of TOS, plus the boot floppy or hard disk files for its desktop. Everything happens in your browser, nothing to install.
Flash it with the SidecarTridge TOS Emulator on an STE or Mega STE, or on an ST or Mega ST with the 256KB Decoder. No TOS needed, around 240 KB more free RAM, and it boots straight into a multitasking desktop.
Build your ROM:
magic.sidecartridge.com/
MagiC sources by Andreas Kromke:
gitlab.com/AndreasK/Atari-Ma…
Various shop doors and other bits from yesterday's @mpcollective24 photo walk around Manchester.
The fourth picture was through a window using my ULHPro - a rubber device which sticks to the window and blocks out the light. I backed it ages ago on Kicks… instagr.am/p/Deoj_uYCFrR/
Odds & sods street photos from yesterday's photo walk with @mpcollective24
1) Photo taken through a Manchester bin and then cropped.
2) I couldn't get the angle right to see what was written on the sign.
3) More people with proper cameras.
4) Same pers… instagr.am/p/DeoiPS3iHBZ/
Various pictures of other photographers (plus one of myself) on yesterday's @mpcollective24 wander around Manchester City Centre. Deansgate Mews > St. Peter's Square > Canal Street > Piccadilly > Northern Quarter.
Tag yourself if you were there. Thanks … instagr.am/p/DeohVKLiC14/
Mike Mee #FBPE retweeted
I've always wanted to play the DOS/Amiga-exclusive Indy 500 on the Atari ST, so I spent months painstakingly disassembling the Amiga version and rewriting for for the ST with a ton of references close by.
Nah, just kidding - Claude did 99% of the work.
Absolutely mental. 😱
A few randoms from a quick wander around Deansgate and through to the Arndale Centre.
I had booked this train for the @mpcollective24 meetup originally planned for today as I had not been able to attend any since earlier this year.
But the date was cha… instagr.am/p/DeUOMMpiNqx/
I travelled down to Bristol for a few days to see some of my work colleagues.
I went up to the Clifton Suspension Bridge as it was a 20 minute walk away.
I've not seen it in 50 years (give or take a year) when I lived down there with my parents and bro… instagr.am/p/DeRJTZWiBXy/
I was visiting Bristol to see some work colleagues and on the Tuesday evening, I went for a walk up to the Clifton Suspension Bridge. It's (near enough) 50 years since I last saw it.
My Dad told me that he used to take the kids (that he looked after) ro… instagr.am/p/DeRFS3NiAdv/
Roots get in the way of dragging a heavy suitcase up a hill :-) instagr.am/p/DeMB3SZISzF/
I nipped to Bolton on Sunday. It was the cheapest train ticket (£6.66!). Once there I spotted a few bits and pieces to take pictures of, but this one was the funniest.
Take your bike to Bolton Interchange and see what spare bits you can get or donate! instagr.am/p/DeJ8YAUoFSF/
Mike Mee #FBPE retweeted
Last time I checked, hanging Temu Union flags on lampposts, painting roundabouts red & white, wearing a black nonce bonnet, terrorising anyone who looks a bit foreign and offensively chanting about dark-skinned people doesn’t make you patriotic. It makes you a twat.
I'm heading down to Bristol to catch up with colleagues I've not seen in a non-Teams headshot form since June 2025.
With a "happy" AI-related book to kill the time.
I'm old enough to remember the days when Rise Of The Robots meant a really over-hyped (… instagr.am/p/DeHWHQmoG1y/
A quick wander around Weir Mill and see what's there.
I didn't realise there was an open day in progress, so it was a bit crowded. I managed to grab a new book in Prologue (also rammed) and avoid the beer bus, only because it's Oktoberfest at Runaway wi… instagr.am/p/DeCJyPZiO20/
Mike Mee #FBPE retweeted
The two dumbest events of the 21st century, so far:
1. America electing Trump to a second term after the psychotic shitstain already tried to overthrow democracy.
2. The Brits voting to pass Brexit.
Bigotry makes absolute fucking morons of people who are already stupid.
One of life's many lessons, even in my older and (allegedly) wiser years, is that regardless of how wet you get your trainers whilst cleaning mud off them... never put them in the dryer to speed up the drying process!
They were quite old, and hardly wor… instagr.am/p/Dc_EByhIFkw/
