protek Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Hello and greetings! This is my first post on this forum. I am soon to be an owner of my very first 8-bit Atari as I've acquired an Atari 65 XE. It's just the plain machine without any storage devices, so I would be in need of some to be able to try out some games on the Atari. I've read the newbie thread on this forum and have a general idea what's available. At the moment I'm after a low-cost or value for money storage solution with least hassle. What of the available options would best suit my needs? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarixle Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 The most low-cost would be your local PC as Storage Device Emulator. Using the AspeQt-Software, the Atari will see it as a usual Disk Drive as build in 1979. For this, you can order a SIO-2-PC cable or build it yourself. I concider this, because the SIO-2-PC-cable is the most important tool to use these days. The most common storage device should be the read Disk Drive called the Atari 1050 Disk Drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Get yourself a cased SIO2SD device. I bought one a few weeks ago and it's completely revitalized my interest in the system. Ironically, you may end up paying more for a classic disk drive on eBay than you will for any of the new storage options available for the system! If you pay more than $30 for a working (basic) 1050 disk drive, or $50 for a working Indus GT, you're getting ripped off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmetal88 Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 I prefer using a disk drive, because it just 'feels' more correct. But I had to build a 1050-to-PC cable to be able to get games on to my disks, so you might as well start out with an SIO-2-PC cable and use that until you decide which storage route you'd rather take. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
protek Posted July 23, 2012 Author Share Posted July 23, 2012 Thank you for your answers! I've been reading through the different cables and SIO2PC seems a good option. What is the difference between SIO2PC and SIO2PC-USB? Are the schematics available somewhere, if one wants to build the cable by himself? Do I need to make a PCB? What about the SIO plug, are those still available? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivop Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 (edited) Here's a schematic (original by Nick Kennedy) and pcb I did a while ago. I etched it myself with a mixture of hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide. This was also a test board to see how well it would etch. The schematic is simple enough to build on a protoboard though. http://www.atariage....089-sio2pc-pcb/ Edited July 23, 2012 by ivop 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 I am the mantainer of the pinned Topic for newbies so I want to be neutral regarding available storage devices (in general they all are good pieces of hardware). If you want an easy to use 100% compatible device, you should buy SIO2PC or a SIO2SD devices. With the first ones you can do additional things (like having a virtual printer) but you always need a PC near your Atari. The second ones are stand-alone devices that only need an SD card to work. Other solutions (SIDE, flash cartridges, IDE Plus) are faster but not 100% compatible with software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olavese@online.no Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Not too much difference in SIO2USB and SIO2PC, except the port it uses. USB is more common and RS-232 seems to be taken more and more off mainboards. I'd go with SIO2USB, because if you go with SIO2SD, which is great enough, but you lose the P:, R: H: handlers A few useful links: http://atarimax.com/ http://www.atarimania.com/ http://atari.fandal.cz/ http://www.mushca.com/f/atari/index.php?idx=6 http://atarionline.pl/v01/index.php?ct=nowinki&ucat=1&subaction=showfull&id=1342989992 my page needs IE, looks crap on Firefox for download games, utilites and demos in ATR's http://pokeysoft.no/games/atari/a8list.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
protek Posted July 23, 2012 Author Share Posted July 23, 2012 Just curious, has anyone explored the possibility to use MP3 player as a storage much like a tape drive? I know that the Atari tape drives are intelligent units so do any kind of adapters exist to use the MP3s or do the SIO2PC adapters make those useless? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuY Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Just curious, has anyone explored the possibility to use MP3 player as a storage much like a tape drive? I know that the Atari tape drives are intelligent units so do any kind of adapters exist to use the MP3s or do the SIO2PC adapters make those useless? Yes and no. They work fine, in that I've used my mobile phone with MP3s on with a headphone jack to cassette adapter, and they load fine, but you still have the hassle of them taking forever to load, because they still have to be played in real time, so if a cassette took 20 minutes to boot off tape, it will still take 20 minutes to boot from an MP3. SIO2SD is probably the best route initially; they're fairly cheap caseless, slightly more with a case, and SD storage is cheap these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivop Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 (edited) Yeah, tape takes ages. But I have fond memories of waiting 15 minutes for Boulder Dash to load from tape, fail once, reload and after about 35 minutes we had the game running. And this was a special day, mostly sundays, on which we took the Atari downstairs to our colour TV (on week days, my brother and I played games in black and white on our old TV upstairs). If you really want to relive the old days, press play on tape edit: oh, and Boulder Dash was worth the wait and still is Edited July 23, 2012 by ivop 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Do Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Get yourself a cased SIO2SD device. I bought one a few weeks ago and it's completely revitalized my interest in the system. Ironically, you may end up paying more for a classic disk drive on eBay than you will for any of the new storage options available for the system! If you pay more than $30 for a working (basic) 1050 disk drive, or $50 for a working Indus GT, you're getting ripped off. I wish I could pick up a 1050 for $30 in the UK! Having bought a SIO2PC connection instead, I agree with that this is the way to go - it's fast, convenient and gives you access to a massive library. (Having said that, while most of the .atr downloads work a treat using the Atari Peripheral Emulator software with SIO2PC, there's the odd one or two that don't...) Yeah, tape takes ages. But I have fond memories of waiting 15 minutes for Boulder Dash to load from tape, fail once, reload and after about 35 minutes we had the game running. And this was a special day, mostly sundays, on which we took the Atari downstairs to our colour TV (on week days, my brother and I played games in black and white on our old TV upstairs). If you really want to relive the old days, press play on tape edit: oh, and Boulder Dash was worth the wait and still is Oh, the memories... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xuel Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 I like the FTDI breakout board SIO-to-USB solution with AspeQt: Wayback archive of Kinnon Stephens' instructions: http://web.archive.o...me.com/sio2usb/ Sparkfun product pages for everything you need (~$20) assuming you already have a USB-to-mini-USB cable: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9385 A picture on my blog (fourth one down): http://www.atariage....7364-ram-320xl/ Note that you can fit the female ends of the jumper wires directly onto the SIO pins on the back of the Atari. No need for an SIO cable. AtariAge threads: http://www.atariage....455-sio-to-usb/ http://www.atariage....breakout-board/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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