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#81
Software / Re: Atariausgabe releases 1-...
Last post by Ronald J. Hall - 09-12-2024, 18:45:08Hmm, I downloaded this and tried it on my STacy. I ran both executable files and it always
rebooted the machine.
This is with TOS v3.06, Ultrasatan, with no ACC's or AUTO folder programs, hi-resolution.
I'll try it again today with TOS v1.04 and see what happens.
Thanks.
rebooted the machine.
This is with TOS v3.06, Ultrasatan, with no ACC's or AUTO folder programs, hi-resolution.
I'll try it again today with TOS v1.04 and see what happens.
Thanks.
#82
Software / Re: Terminator 2 freezes on Oc...
Last post by Petari - 09-12-2024, 09:41:33It may be because of aging of machine. Replacing electrolyte capacitors in PSU is strongly recommended, if that was not done in last years.
Is this now on same config as it was when worked well ? You may try with installing/unpacking it from ZIP to some other partition or rename existing one and unpack it again.
If above helped not please write details: what hard disk/Flash card adapter, what driver SW . Are there some resident programs installed which activate after reset ?
Is this now on same config as it was when worked well ? You may try with installing/unpacking it from ZIP to some other partition or rename existing one and unpack it again.
If above helped not please write details: what hard disk/Flash card adapter, what driver SW . Are there some resident programs installed which activate after reset ?
#83
Software / Atariausgabe releases 1-9
Last post by Petari - 07-12-2024, 18:35:06Found it at atarimania. Of course, games, mostly in German lang. And lot of it is for monochrome video mode (was popular in Germany). It uses not so well solved depacker, so I made it to start different way (no need for extra reset) . Also made unpacked floppy images - they are for HD floppies - capacity needed is in range 1 - 1.4 MB . And then it works well with half MB RAM in ST(R) . I guess that will work fine with Gotek - I'm sure that more people has it now than HD floppy drive with Atari ST(E) .
I needed to do file name corrections by 2 games. And there are 2 with missing file(s) - will see in list.
Atariausgabe 1-9 game list
1. Strategie Monochrome
Airline 5 M
Europa 5 M
Fussball 1 M
Hotel 2 5 M
Imperator 5 M
ImperiumOEL 5 M
Tresor 1 M
7 working games 5 with half MB RAM
2. Action SW Color
Azarian 5 J
Alien Blockade 5 J
Clowns 5 M
Durchbruch 5 M
Felder - missing exec !
Hacman 5 J
Master Hit (Speed Master) 5 J
No Name 1 J
PD Super 5 J
Star Battle PD 5 J
Trido 5 J
10 w games 9 with half MB RAM
3. Strategie Monochrome
12JHT 5 M
Anno1700 5 M
Drachen 5 M
Galactica 5 M
Metropol 5 M
Napoleon 1 M
Universum 5 K
Wagnis 5 M
Barbaren 5 M
Isola 5 M
Logiker 5 M
11 w games 10 with half MB RAM
4. Adventure Color
Arcturus 1 M
Moor 5 J
2 w games 1 with half MB RAM
5. Simulation - board games mostly Monochrome
4Gewinnt 5 M
Aerger 5 M
Disc 5 K
Explode 5 M
Glückrad 5 M
Gobang 5 M
Hangman 5 M
Kreuz As 5 M
Memory 5 M
Monopoly 1 M
Pool 5 MK
Roulette 5 M
Shanghei 5 M
Shogun 5 M
Stagger 5 M
Up&Down 5 M
Yatzy (Yachtsee) Eng. Dan. 5 M
Zarge 5 M
18 w. games 17 with half MB RAM
6. Economy SW Color
Avalun 2 5 M
Big Deal 1 5 M
Dallas 5 M
Match (Spaceball) 5 M
Tauris 1 M
Trainer M 5 Med.res.
Tri Yatz PF (Yachtsee) M 5 Med.res.
7 w. games 6 with half MB RAM
7. Action SW Esclusiv Monochrome
Baller 5 M
Bank Robbery 1 M
Bounce 5 J
Bumerang 5 M
Diamond 5 JM
Fire Set (Feuerwehr) 5 J
Invaders 5 KM
Killer - works not, file(s) missing
Macpan 5 JM
Megaroids 5 K
Monkey (Business) 5 JK
Mr Hüpf 5 MK (fixed)
Push 5 M
Tetris 5 K
13 w. games 12 with half MB RAM
8. Strategie Color
Adel 5 M Med.res.
Greece 5 M
Hotch Potch 5 M
Imperium 5 M
Mile Stone 5 M
Queboid 5 J
Top 20 5 K
Celest Engl. 5 M Med.res.
8 w. games 8 with half MB RAM
9 Adventure SW Exclusiv Color
Larn 5 K
Lost Civilisation 5 K
Mörder 5 M Monochrome (fixed)
Lords of Fate (the) 5 K Med. high res
Vault 1 5 K
Vault 2 5 K\
Vault 3 5 K
Zaubertrank 5 K Med. high res
8 w. games 8 with half MB RAM
Sum: 84 working games
76 works with half MB RAM . 8 needs min 1 MB RAM
Stays for versions not packed. Packed releases need mostly min 1 MB for all.
When running from floppy. Hard disk run needs 1 or 2 MB RAM min .
This will go in my new hard disk compil. Will add corrected floppy versions to my Atari ST Game Archive.
And idea is to make new selections - best color games on 1-2 floppies. And same with monochrome ones.
Suggestions are welcome .
You can try games with emulators, of course .
Here is HD v. of part 1 : Atariausgabe 1 for HD 2MB Ram min
I needed to do file name corrections by 2 games. And there are 2 with missing file(s) - will see in list.
Atariausgabe 1-9 game list
1. Strategie Monochrome
Airline 5 M
Europa 5 M
Fussball 1 M
Hotel 2 5 M
Imperator 5 M
ImperiumOEL 5 M
Tresor 1 M
7 working games 5 with half MB RAM
2. Action SW Color
Azarian 5 J
Alien Blockade 5 J
Clowns 5 M
Durchbruch 5 M
Felder - missing exec !
Hacman 5 J
Master Hit (Speed Master) 5 J
No Name 1 J
PD Super 5 J
Star Battle PD 5 J
Trido 5 J
10 w games 9 with half MB RAM
3. Strategie Monochrome
12JHT 5 M
Anno1700 5 M
Drachen 5 M
Galactica 5 M
Metropol 5 M
Napoleon 1 M
Universum 5 K
Wagnis 5 M
Barbaren 5 M
Isola 5 M
Logiker 5 M
11 w games 10 with half MB RAM
4. Adventure Color
Arcturus 1 M
Moor 5 J
2 w games 1 with half MB RAM
5. Simulation - board games mostly Monochrome
4Gewinnt 5 M
Aerger 5 M
Disc 5 K
Explode 5 M
Glückrad 5 M
Gobang 5 M
Hangman 5 M
Kreuz As 5 M
Memory 5 M
Monopoly 1 M
Pool 5 MK
Roulette 5 M
Shanghei 5 M
Shogun 5 M
Stagger 5 M
Up&Down 5 M
Yatzy (Yachtsee) Eng. Dan. 5 M
Zarge 5 M
18 w. games 17 with half MB RAM
6. Economy SW Color
Avalun 2 5 M
Big Deal 1 5 M
Dallas 5 M
Match (Spaceball) 5 M
Tauris 1 M
Trainer M 5 Med.res.
Tri Yatz PF (Yachtsee) M 5 Med.res.
7 w. games 6 with half MB RAM
7. Action SW Esclusiv Monochrome
Baller 5 M
Bank Robbery 1 M
Bounce 5 J
Bumerang 5 M
Diamond 5 JM
Fire Set (Feuerwehr) 5 J
Invaders 5 KM
Killer - works not, file(s) missing
Macpan 5 JM
Megaroids 5 K
Monkey (Business) 5 JK
Mr Hüpf 5 MK (fixed)
Push 5 M
Tetris 5 K
13 w. games 12 with half MB RAM
8. Strategie Color
Adel 5 M Med.res.
Greece 5 M
Hotch Potch 5 M
Imperium 5 M
Mile Stone 5 M
Queboid 5 J
Top 20 5 K
Celest Engl. 5 M Med.res.
8 w. games 8 with half MB RAM
9 Adventure SW Exclusiv Color
Larn 5 K
Lost Civilisation 5 K
Mörder 5 M Monochrome (fixed)
Lords of Fate (the) 5 K Med. high res
Vault 1 5 K
Vault 2 5 K\
Vault 3 5 K
Zaubertrank 5 K Med. high res
8 w. games 8 with half MB RAM
Sum: 84 working games
76 works with half MB RAM . 8 needs min 1 MB RAM
Stays for versions not packed. Packed releases need mostly min 1 MB for all.
When running from floppy. Hard disk run needs 1 or 2 MB RAM min .
This will go in my new hard disk compil. Will add corrected floppy versions to my Atari ST Game Archive.
And idea is to make new selections - best color games on 1-2 floppies. And same with monochrome ones.
Suggestions are welcome .
You can try games with emulators, of course .
Here is HD v. of part 1 : Atariausgabe 1 for HD 2MB Ram min
#84
Hardware / Re: Question instead sharing w...
Last post by Ronald J. Hall - 06-12-2024, 18:44:53I personally have never used a Gotek device of any kind.
I always preferred mass storage like the Ultrasatans.
I understand though, that lots of people use the Gotek.
I always preferred mass storage like the Ultrasatans.
I understand though, that lots of people use the Gotek.
#85
Hardware / Question instead sharing wisdo...
Last post by Petari - 06-12-2024, 15:23:39I dealt in last days with Atariausgabe editions 1-9. They used some really not well made depacking system, to be able to put as much possible (well, with that packer, which efficiency is unknown, as packer self is pretty unknown, so relative) . What is my point here ? It is RAM requirement of games. I did examinations for parts 1-3, and some 85% of games can work with 512 KB RAM (or 1 MB RAM in case of hard disk adapt). The thing is that depacking system uses 65 KB of RAM, and that makes big part of games not working with 512 KB RAM (or 1 MB in case of hard disk adapt) . My idea is to make it usable for people with not so much RAM in their ST machines. But it needs more floppy disk space (of course, they wanted to put as much possible games on DS floppy (max capacity about 820 KB) . Without packing, those releases take space in range 1000-1400 KB. What is fine with HD DS floppies (of course, there were no HD SS floppies).
So, my question is: do now popular HW floppy emulators like Gotek support HD floppy mode ?
Yes, I know that it needs to be supported on Atari ST side . I dealt with it back in 1990 . The thing is that DMA chip is capable for much more than HD floppy transfer speeds.
I want to publish floppy images of this Atariausgabe editions, in unpacked form - what needs floppy capacities over 1 MB, so HD . And now lot of people using Gotek instead floppy drives.
Other way is to use my hard disk driver Virtual Floppy feature - max capacity supported is 2 MB . Or using my iTOS releases. More details on my Site . We can be more compatible than those forcing after Atari ST era solutions. We want to run old Atari ST(E) SW with modern storage.
So, my question is: do now popular HW floppy emulators like Gotek support HD floppy mode ?
Yes, I know that it needs to be supported on Atari ST side . I dealt with it back in 1990 . The thing is that DMA chip is capable for much more than HD floppy transfer speeds.
I want to publish floppy images of this Atariausgabe editions, in unpacked form - what needs floppy capacities over 1 MB, so HD . And now lot of people using Gotek instead floppy drives.
Other way is to use my hard disk driver Virtual Floppy feature - max capacity supported is 2 MB . Or using my iTOS releases. More details on my Site . We can be more compatible than those forcing after Atari ST era solutions. We want to run old Atari ST(E) SW with modern storage.
#86
News / Re: How to be useless
Last post by Ronald J. Hall - 03-12-2024, 18:36:16Quote from: Petari on 03-12-2024, 17:35:11And atariage still 'delivers' : Connecting 4 drives at once
Huh - I was writing already 10 years ago that avoid connecting 2 or more hard disks on 1 port of Atari ST(E) machines - because they are old, and extra load may cause unreliable work, or even some failure by components (in adapters too). And now, when it is old some 35 years 4 drives ... Why doing it at all ? Only clever thing with so old drives is to save/copy valuable data from them to some newer storage (someone said SD card ?), and then put them aside, in museum.
I'm not sure why Rcamp is trying to use 4 Megafiles either. Look at all the space and electricity that will take up. He would be far better off going with one of the many newer mass storage solutions available these days.
I did have a Megafile 60 and a Megafile 30 together one time but that was waaaay back in the early 90's. Even then, one of them kept overheating and would have to be shut down occasionally to let it cool off.
#87
News / Re: How to be useless
Last post by Petari - 03-12-2024, 17:39:30
#88
News / Re: How to be useless
Last post by Petari - 03-12-2024, 17:35:11And atariage still 'delivers' : Connecting 4 drives at once
Huh - I was writing already 10 years ago that avoid connecting 2 or more hard disks on 1 port of Atari ST(E) machines - because they are old, and extra load may cause unreliable work, or even some failure by components (in adapters too). And now, when it is old some 35 years 4 drives ... Why doing it at all ? Only clever thing with so old drives is to save/copy valuable data from them to some newer storage (someone said SD card ?), and then put them aside, in museum.
Huh - I was writing already 10 years ago that avoid connecting 2 or more hard disks on 1 port of Atari ST(E) machines - because they are old, and extra load may cause unreliable work, or even some failure by components (in adapters too). And now, when it is old some 35 years 4 drives ... Why doing it at all ? Only clever thing with so old drives is to save/copy valuable data from them to some newer storage (someone said SD card ?), and then put them aside, in museum.
#89
Software / Re: About my hard disk driver ...
Last post by Ronald J. Hall - 01-12-2024, 01:06:54Thanks for the explanation, appreciated.
#90
Software / About my hard disk driver SW
Last post by Petari - 30-11-2024, 11:38:08 About my hard disk driver SW:
I work on this for some 17 years. Intention was/is to make easy to use, with some useful extra features, low RAM consuming (ASM code) and very important: compatible driver/partitioner SW. With what good old Atari ST(E) SW works well. As it is mostly for floppies, some changes my be needed in SW, code for hard disk work. More compatible driver - less changes needed. Then, easy data transfer with modern computers is very useful, especially since Internet time. Atari TOS developers went actually on DOS compatible format with floppies and hard disks in filesystem (FAT12 and FAT16). However it is not 100% compatible. Everyone can see it if looks with Hex viewer some disk image - Intel byte order is used, while CPU 68000 is not such (normal byte order by numbers). As I did looot of 'adapting for hard disk' - mostly games, I have really big experience about usual SW, and how hard disk driver needs to work. See lower for more details.
Started with Atari ST hard disks since 1992 - then designed IDE adapter and used it with 40 MB 3.5 inch drive - my first hard disk. As driver I used AHDI driver by Atari . Later used 2.5 inch IDE drives, capacity in range 80-160 MB . And I learned in short time that is worth to make multiple partitions, with size under 32 MB, because then they are DOS compatible, so was able to access them with PC with DOS, Windows. That was good for file transfers . My Atari ST activity lowered, as I used mostly PC for work, playing new games on much faster computer, 3D graphic cards arrived, and Internet too . One of things what I spent more time around 1999-2000 was making images of all my Atari floppies, and save them to hard disk - as images, as files for usage from hard disk. Then learned that it may need some changes in SW to make it work from hard disk. Talking not about copy protected SW. I had (and still have) some original games, but I made them to work from hard disk . For instance Microprose F1 GP - it's on 4 floppies originally. That was good experience, and I even used packing. New interest for Atari ST came by appearance of Flash cards - at around 2003 - I bough 128 MB Sandisk CF card, and Flash card with standard IDE connector (Transcend) - much more practical than those large, noisy and power hungry drives. And could connect it to PC - via USB reader. Also good emulators of Atari ST appeared on then pretty powerful PCs (CPU clock over 1 GHz, so faster than ST at least 100x ) . Steem became my favorite - and it had 2 types of hard disk emulation. And as it is relevant here, details: "Hard drives" - it is in Disk menu section, and I would call it Filesystem emulation. Now some call it GEMdrive and like - misleading , in fact it is not real hard disk emulation, or even drive - just some DIR on host computer assigned as logical drive (partition C-P) on emulated Atari ST(E) .It is based on redirecting file/DIR function calls (read, write, seek, etc) to host filesystem. And includes of course long filename conversion to 8.3 format . And because that way not all hard disk functions work - can not access hard disk specific sectors (area), as no such. And that means that SW what use such calls will not detect hard disk, and will not run properly or at all. Because it is written for regular system - with hard disk with partitions, MBR, partition locations etc. AUTO boot hard disk driver takes care about it - and it is called from TOS FAT16 filesystem handling code . In TOS is even no any code to interpret MBR and set/mount partitions - it is on driver SW . Sure, space in TOS in ROM is limited, plus it gave space for driver SW developers to solve it in diverse ways, to add some new features for better/easier usage ...
I work on this for some 17 years. Intention was/is to make easy to use, with some useful extra features, low RAM consuming (ASM code) and very important: compatible driver/partitioner SW. With what good old Atari ST(E) SW works well. As it is mostly for floppies, some changes my be needed in SW, code for hard disk work. More compatible driver - less changes needed. Then, easy data transfer with modern computers is very useful, especially since Internet time. Atari TOS developers went actually on DOS compatible format with floppies and hard disks in filesystem (FAT12 and FAT16). However it is not 100% compatible. Everyone can see it if looks with Hex viewer some disk image - Intel byte order is used, while CPU 68000 is not such (normal byte order by numbers). As I did looot of 'adapting for hard disk' - mostly games, I have really big experience about usual SW, and how hard disk driver needs to work. See lower for more details.
Started with Atari ST hard disks since 1992 - then designed IDE adapter and used it with 40 MB 3.5 inch drive - my first hard disk. As driver I used AHDI driver by Atari . Later used 2.5 inch IDE drives, capacity in range 80-160 MB . And I learned in short time that is worth to make multiple partitions, with size under 32 MB, because then they are DOS compatible, so was able to access them with PC with DOS, Windows. That was good for file transfers . My Atari ST activity lowered, as I used mostly PC for work, playing new games on much faster computer, 3D graphic cards arrived, and Internet too . One of things what I spent more time around 1999-2000 was making images of all my Atari floppies, and save them to hard disk - as images, as files for usage from hard disk. Then learned that it may need some changes in SW to make it work from hard disk. Talking not about copy protected SW. I had (and still have) some original games, but I made them to work from hard disk . For instance Microprose F1 GP - it's on 4 floppies originally. That was good experience, and I even used packing. New interest for Atari ST came by appearance of Flash cards - at around 2003 - I bough 128 MB Sandisk CF card, and Flash card with standard IDE connector (Transcend) - much more practical than those large, noisy and power hungry drives. And could connect it to PC - via USB reader. Also good emulators of Atari ST appeared on then pretty powerful PCs (CPU clock over 1 GHz, so faster than ST at least 100x ) . Steem became my favorite - and it had 2 types of hard disk emulation. And as it is relevant here, details: "Hard drives" - it is in Disk menu section, and I would call it Filesystem emulation. Now some call it GEMdrive and like - misleading , in fact it is not real hard disk emulation, or even drive - just some DIR on host computer assigned as logical drive (partition C-P) on emulated Atari ST(E) .It is based on redirecting file/DIR function calls (read, write, seek, etc) to host filesystem. And includes of course long filename conversion to 8.3 format . And because that way not all hard disk functions work - can not access hard disk specific sectors (area), as no such. And that means that SW what use such calls will not detect hard disk, and will not run properly or at all. Because it is written for regular system - with hard disk with partitions, MBR, partition locations etc. AUTO boot hard disk driver takes care about it - and it is called from TOS FAT16 filesystem handling code . In TOS is even no any code to interpret MBR and set/mount partitions - it is on driver SW . Sure, space in TOS in ROM is limited, plus it gave space for driver SW developers to solve it in diverse ways, to add some new features for better/easier usage ...