Man, who started this stupid thread "nir-PAL"? What a classic example of
how nonsense gets spread around on networks, like so much fresh manure.
THERE IS NO SUCH PRODUCT GOING BY THE NAME OF "NIR-PAL"!!!!!!!!!
Did I make that clear to everyone?
Okay, FOR THE RECORD:
There's a guy in California by the name of Nir Dary. He's an Israeli
citizen studying computer animation/graphics in the USA. He was formerly
an electronic technician in the Israeli Army. He's an Atari enthusiast, &
he's a member of my usergroup (Ol' Hackers, in New York).
Nir has developed an upgrade which calls the "PAL-NTSC Upgrade".
Everyone understand that? Please, henceforth let's call the thing by it's
correct name.
The upgrade consists of a PAL ANTIC chip plus a modified OS ROM. If
your XL/XE has sockets for those chips, installation is a no-brainer.
As Jeff Potter mentioned, it is indeed true that you can get by 90%
of the time running both PAL & NTSC software on an XL that merely has had
the NTSC ANTIC replaced with a PAL ANTIC. However, some European software
uses PAL-timed key repeats (or something like that, I'm not a programmer).
Such software may crash or give jerky movements using the keyboard timing
given in the NTSC XLOS. (Don't ask me which software programs they are,
this is just what Nir told me.)
The OS modifications Nir did was to change the key repeat timing in
the OS to make it compatible with those few European programs that use
PAL timing. All the other nonsense that people have been conjecturing
about the OS changes are just that: nonsense. He only changed the key
repeats, nothing else.
Last week he told me he was working on a disk-based fix that might
remove the need for a new OS. Some kind of program that will shadow
the ROM into RAM, make the fix, then run the OS from RAM (if I understood
him correctly). As far as I know he's still working on that.
Nir is also working on a draft of his docs for the upgrade. He's
supposed to be sending that to me any day now, we have an agreement
whereby I'll be editing his docs for final production (Nir's English is
a little weak).
I've been beating up on the guy to go on-line somewhere & join this
newsgroup, but he steadfastly refuses, claiming that answering e-mail
will take too much of his time (he works long hours in addition to his
classes). Well, I can't argue with his reasoning.
Anyone wishing info about the PAL-NTSC Upgrade can call Nir Dary
at home, in the evenings only, at: 818-831-2353. Or, write to him at:
Nir Dary
19185 Castlebay Lane
Northridge, CA 91326-1046
Please make creful note of the above info if you are interested in
this upgrade. This is the only time I will post this information.
- Ben Poehland