11 replies to this topic

[atari8warez]

I never had an ST (I was and still am an Atari 8 bit fan), but now I would like to get my hands on one, however my knowledge of ST doesn't go beyond it's tech specs.,

Anyhow I was just wondering if there is a PC software available which will act as a peripheral emulator for ST (i.e. will emulate disk drives so that ST can boot from it or just use it like a real disk), Atari 8 bits can do this with SIO2PC interface (interface hardware + emulation software running on PC).

Thanks

[ParanoidLittleMan]

I'm not sure what you really want. But there is floppy emulation and even hard disk emulation in best Atari ST emulators like Steem and Hatari. You need to use floppy disk images or hard disk images. If you mean using real floppies direct from emulators, I think that Saint can do it - via fdrawcmd (what is much used by 8-bit emulators, and not much by ST emuls). In any case, it is best to work with images instead real disks from many reasons.
And internal floppy emulation can do pracrically everything - booting, acting as real disk or working much faster, and with Pasti can even emulate copy protections.

[Rybags]

He's wanting to emulate a real drive via connection to the ST.

AFAIK there are no such systems to do it by PC connection. ST and Amiga drives have offboard controllers, so the computer talks to the drive at a low level.

There's standalone solutions like SatanDisk and Hcx floppy emulator (multi-system) and I believe there's also modern day hard disk replacement options.

For transferring files to ST you can essentially do it using 720K MS-Dos disks although 1.44 Meg drives aren't the ideal solution for creating them. There's also null-modem cable setups but they're fairly slow.

[atari8warez]

ParanoidLittleMan, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:37 AM, said:

I'm not sure what you really want. But there is floppy emulation and even hard disk emulation in best Atari ST emulators like Steem and Hatari. You need to use floppy disk images or hard disk images. If you mean using real floppies direct from emulators, I think that Saint can do it - via fdrawcmd (what is much used by 8-bit emulators, and not much by ST emuls). In any case, it is best to work with images instead real disks from many reasons.
And internal floppy emulation can do pracrically everything - booting, acting as real disk or working much faster, and with Pasti can even emulate copy protections.

Yeah, like Rybags said, I am looking for a software which runs on PC and emulates an ST floopy/hard drive, so that the ST can be connected to the PC (via a cable) and use it as a floppy/hard disk drive.

[wood_jl]

atari8warez, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 11:47 AM, said:

ParanoidLittleMan, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:37 AM, said:

I'm not sure what you really want. But there is floppy emulation and even hard disk emulation in best Atari ST emulators like Steem and Hatari. You need to use floppy disk images or hard disk images. If you mean using real floppies direct from emulators, I think that Saint can do it - via fdrawcmd (what is much used by 8-bit emulators, and not much by ST emuls). In any case, it is best to work with images instead real disks from many reasons.
And internal floppy emulation can do pracrically everything - booting, acting as real disk or working much faster, and with Pasti can even emulate copy protections.

Yeah, like Rybags said, I am looking for a software which runs on PC and emulates an ST floopy/hard drive, so that the ST can be connected to the PC (via a cable) and use it as a floppy/hard disk drive.

Well, there was the HxC USB floppy emulator, that connected to the PC via USB and emulated floppy drives, like SIO2PC on the 8-bit Atari. Because the 8-bit Atari controlled all the peripherals (almost) on the SIO, it was convenient to add printer/modem emulation. There was not hard disk emulation (hard disks connected to the PBI) but you could have extremely large floppies.

Not having dedicated printer/modem ports on the 8-bit Atari was a hell of a drawback back in the old days, because you needed to buy 850 interface (etc) to hook all that stuff up. However, when it comes to SIO2PC emulation, that handicap turns into a boon.

On the ST, of course, there were dedicated ports for those things. So the floppy drive is on its own interface, like most "normal" computers.

The USB HxC floppy emulator (pictured above) then did what it could; it emulated the floppy drive. The only drawback (and to most people, it's a significant one) is the need to dedicate a PC to run the software, and tether a USB cord to it. Hence, the SD card version, called (inconspicuously) the "SD Card HxC Floppy Emulator."




So since the ST (just like the Amiga, and just about everything else) isn't going to have any other peripherals on the dedicated floppy connector, it's a floppy emulator, rather than a [multi] peripheral emulator, so there's no point in tethering to a PC when an SD card will do everything stand-alone. You can make great big disk images, and there is a hard disk emulator for it, but I've never tried it, and it isn't going to be as fast as a hard disk on the DMA port, obviously.

I love mine. I've started more than one thread on the device (search the ST forum for "hxc" or "floppy emulator" and there's some good info and pictures).

Since most of what I used the SIO2PC for on the Atari 8-bit was simply floppy emulation, I then moved to Sdrive and SIO2SD on that machine, since I hardly ever used the "other peripherals" anyway. Then when I got this on the ST, I really didn't feel like I was losing anything, since the product is really analogous to the SIO2SD, rather than SIO2PC.

The HxC SD floppy emulator is NOT cheap, but really, none of these SD card solutions are, anyway. It is 100% awesome, however! One very nice thing about it is you can use it on Amiga, too.

The hypothetical total peripheral emulator will never be created for ST and Amiga. Could be done, but would be some sophisticated (and very expensive) device with all sorts of cables and plugs going to every port of the ST/Amiga and then to the PC. There would never be enough demand, when floppy emulation gets you most of the way there, already. For printing things, I just use a cheap used Epson printer and ubiquitous thrift store IBM parallel printer cable. I suppose you could also use the ST Emulator on the PC for printing or telnet, etc.

About the only thing the emulator sort of sucks on is games, and all you need to emulate to do those on real hardware is the floppy emulator.

[MrMaddog]

You mean something like APE? Yeah, there's a program called GhostLink... You run the master program on the ST and the slave on a DOS PC hooked with a null modem cable. The ST will now read the PC's drive like it's own. It uses the serial port so it's quite slow, but still works.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

I see now. it is of course HxC floppy emulator. USB version. Myself have it too. Works really well (word 'great' is overused here ) .
Actually, I can only recommend it for everyone instead real floppies and drives.
And HxC supports now in big part even Pasti images, thanx to Jeff and 'someone' pushing him to improve support. But we need to push Jeff even more, as there is still many STX image not working via HxC.
HxC supports: ST, MSA, STT, STX - partially. And some things not possible with real floppies like 12 sectors/track and similar.

[Christos]

MrMaddog, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 10:00 PM, said:

You mean something like APE? Yeah, there's a program called GhostLink... You run the master program on the ST and the slave on a DOS PC hooked with a null modem cable. The ST will now read the PC's drive like it's own. It uses the serial port so it's quite slow, but still works.

Ghostlink won't let you run executables and it's only for filetransfer.

[atari8warez]

Great info guys, thank you very much all... The reason I asked the question in the first place is that I've recently seen a 520ST listed on ebay. It is computer only deal with no power supply/floppy drive etc., just bare computer. I can probably fashion a PS for it but instead of trying to find and buy a floppy drive / HD I thought an emulator would do the trick.

My other option is to wait for a 1040ST (with built-in floppy drive) to show up on this side of the border but they are rather rare. I've also recently found an ebay listing for a complete 1040STF on the south side of the border but I am waiting for a shipping quote, which I suspect could be prohibitive (monitor and all).

Ray

[wood_jl]

Actually, Toronto (great city I've been to many times) is a FINE place to find ST stuff, it seems. I've noticed several nice ST/STe systems listed from there on Ebay, and when I was last there (couple years ago?) I looked on Craigslist and even saw some. It's a shame "international" shipping across the border of these 2 countries (so close) is so darned expensive. I wonder why??

[Lynxpro]

wood_jl, on Sat Feb 11, 2012 10:00 PM, said:

Actually, Toronto (great city I've been to many times) is a FINE place to find ST stuff, it seems. I've noticed several nice ST/STe systems listed from there on Ebay, and when I was last there (couple years ago?) I looked on Craigslist and even saw some. It's a shame "international" shipping across the border of these 2 countries (so close) is so darned expensive. I wonder why??

And had it not been for the Revolution and the War of 1812, we'd all be one big nation probably called "British North America" today.

[DarkLord]

And STILL paying too much tax on our bloody tea!