12 replies to this topic

[UberFreak]

Hi

Now that I have my MEGA-1 finally up and running, I want to watch some demos.
From what I can tell, the Atari formats disks with a geometry of 9 sectors per track, 80 tracks, 2 sides.

I installed the PC program "Floppy Image" but every image file I opened was detected with a geometry of 10 sectors, 82 tracks.
When I write these images to floppy, the ST doesnt recognize them.
Trying to format on the Atari & writing on the PC doesnt help.

Is there any way to solve this problem?

Thanks!

[CyranoJ]

Start with this.

Or, just used fully filed versions of many games (and some demos) from here.

[rdemming]

Or safe yourself the hassle of writing floppy disks and replace your ST floppy drive with this

Robert

[UberFreak]

@CyranoJ:

Thanks, but the HD-COPY program is intended for DOS (or Win95/98) machines, doesnt work at all under W2k or XP.
Unfortunately, I dont have access to a DOS machine at the moment...

@rdemming:

I know the HxC but its way out of my price range, cant really justify the expense.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

UberFreak, on Wed Aug 3, 2011 4:10 AM, said:

Hi

Now that I have my MEGA-1 finally up and running, I want to watch some demos.
From what I can tell, the Atari formats disks with a geometry of 9 sectors per track, 80 tracks, 2 sides.

I installed the PC program "Floppy Image" but every image file I opened was detected with a geometry of 10 sectors, 82 tracks.
When I write these images to floppy, the ST doesnt recognize them.
Trying to format on the Atari & writing on the PC doesnt help.

Is there any way to solve this problem?

Thanks!

Normal way is to write to author of the SW. Even better - read instructions.
Btw. by AtariST 10 sectors per track was most used.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

CyranoJ, on Wed Aug 3, 2011 4:42 AM, said:

Start with this.

Or, just used fully filed versions of many games (and some demos) from here.

"Write a better one then..." Quoted from : http://www.atariage...._1#entry2314398

[Lynxpro]

rdemming, on Wed Aug 3, 2011 5:50 AM, said:

Or safe yourself the hassle of writing floppy disks and replace your ST floppy drive with this
Robert

Wouldn't that be slower than an UltraSatan - and similar devices - since the floppy emulator hardware is connected via the floppy port instead of ACSI/SCSI?

[rdemming]

Lynxpro, on Fri Jan 6, 2012 7:24 PM, said:

rdemming, on Wed Aug 3, 2011 5:50 AM, said:

Or safe yourself the hassle of writing floppy disks and replace your ST floppy drive with this
Robert

Wouldn't that be slower than an UltraSatan - and similar devices - since the floppy emulator hardware is connected via the floppy port instead of ACSI/SCSI?

Yes, since HxC emulates a floppy, it has more or less the same speed as a floppy. But the advantages are that you can play any game while with UltraSatan/Harddisk lots of (most) games won't work unless they are hacked to be HD friendly (see the DBug website for example).

Also with the HxC transferring games is as easy as drag and drop the diskimages on an SD-card (long filenames are supported) while with harddisks you have to transfer your files to the harddisk first using floppies or RS-232. With UltraSatan you could format the SD-card in mixed ST/PC format but this is limited to one partition and partition size is limited too and things also depend on the TOS version you use.

Robert

[DarkLord]

But its dead handy! I've got a small SD card setup as 32 megs that will let me transfer easily
between my STacy and Windows machines. Its totally transparent. Not knocking the HxC, its
a great device, just pointing this out...

The recoded releases from Dbug and Klaz also have other advantages. They are usually not
only "fixed" to run from hard disk, but they often are fixed to run on higher end machines,
and to take advantage of the faster speeds. Trainers and other things are often included as
well. Multi-disk titles usually have disk swapping removed.

Each device is solid, and has a worthy place as an option, depending on what the user needs.

HTHs.

[rdemming]

Duplicate post because AA was down when I submitted the post but somehow it still was processed.

[rdemming]

DarkLord, on Mon Jan 9, 2012 12:04 PM, said:

But its dead handy! I've got a small SD card setup as 32 megs that will let me transfer easily
between my STacy and Windows machines. Its totally transparent. Not knocking the HxC, its
a great device, just pointing this out...

Indeed, once you got it partioned and formated right it is an ease. But it takes some effort to set the SD-card up properly for ST<>PC interoperability. Especially if you only have TOS 1.02 like me which has some HD limitations/bugs compared to higher TOS versions. I really need to upgrade those ROMs
And of course, you should invest in HD-Driver to make an ST/PC compatible partition. I don't think any other HD software can use/make and ST/PC compatible partition.

DarkLord, on Mon Jan 9, 2012 12:04 PM, said:

Each device is solid, and has a worthy place as an option, depending on what the user needs.

Thats why I recommend both. I use the HD fixed versions where possible and HxC for the rest.

Robert

[ParanoidLittleMan]

rdemming, on Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:00 AM, said:

Indeed, once you got it partioned and formated right it is an ease. But it takes some effort to set the SD-card up properly for ST<>PC interoperability. Especially if you only have TOS 1.02 like me which has some HD limitations/bugs compared to higher TOS versions. I really need to upgrade those ROMs
And of course, you should invest in HD-Driver to make an ST/PC compatible partition. I don't think any other HD software can use/make and ST/PC compatible partition.
Thats why I recommend both. I use the HD fixed versions where possible and HxC for the rest.

This thread went little off topic. But when we are by hard disk fixed games and transfer on Atari disks, SD, CF cards: here can find almost everything:
http://atari.8bitchip.info/ http://atari.8bitchip.info/fromhd.php
Most games done for hard disk run. Complete image files with 200 games and driver (TOS/DOS compatible, with multi partitions). Write image in few minutes onto SD or CF card (but can on some SCSI drive too, if have equipment), then attach to Atari and play. No need to bother with complicated Hddriver install and settings.Not to mention diverse guides etc. Later can add other files, games very easy with card reader on PC, MAC. Hard disk driver used has some unique features.

Edited by ParanoidLittleMan, Tue Jan 10, 2012 10:55 AM.

[DarkLord]

I can say that I've used several games from here and they work great!