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#81
Software / Re: Future Game Adaptions Sugg...
Last post by masteries - 23-07-2025, 14:50:43Outrun STE enhanced edition
Can be found in Atarimania
https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-out-run-ste_35456.html
There are long time loading from floppy each stage is finished, a hard disk adapted version will have faster or minimal loading times.
Can be found in Atarimania
https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-out-run-ste_35456.html
There are long time loading from floppy each stage is finished, a hard disk adapted version will have faster or minimal loading times.
#82
FAQ / Re: Mass storage (hard disk, n...
Last post by Petari - 23-07-2025, 11:28:47Sure, TOS 2.06 and 3.06 have improved Desktop with more options, functions. IDE autoboot, and 2.06 has 68010 CPU support.
Just little more about LFN filtering: I added it in my hard disk driver later versions. It is present in my iTOS too . But best is that avoid LFN filenames in case of files and DIRs which are intended to be copied on disk, Flash card, image file and even floppy for using with Atari ST(E), TT, Falcon.
LFN means multiple records in DIR, so waste of space. Especially not good for limited length Root DIR.
Really easy to solve with Total Commander.
Just little more about LFN filtering: I added it in my hard disk driver later versions. It is present in my iTOS too . But best is that avoid LFN filenames in case of files and DIRs which are intended to be copied on disk, Flash card, image file and even floppy for using with Atari ST(E), TT, Falcon.
LFN means multiple records in DIR, so waste of space. Especially not good for limited length Root DIR.
Really easy to solve with Total Commander.
#83
FAQ / Re: Mass storage (hard disk, n...
Last post by Ronald J. Hall - 23-07-2025, 00:54:39Personally, I love TOS. Especially TOS v2.06 and v3.06.
Just sayin'...
Just sayin'...
#84
Website section updates / Re: Just a "thank you" note to...
Last post by Ronald J. Hall - 23-07-2025, 00:52:50Totally agreed. Thanks Peter...!
#85
Website section updates / Just a "thank you" note to Pet...
Last post by Mayo - 22-07-2025, 19:57:16I don't think enough people take the time to thank Peter for what he has done for the 8bit website and the time and effort he has put into this project. I refuse to be one of them. I just wanted to personally join this forum and say thank you Peter!
The work and time you have put into preserving these great older games is highly appreciated. I couldn't hardly find any functioning games on any other webistes until i came across https://atari.8bitchip.info
I know people don't think about this but hosting all these games cost money and peter doesnt even ask for donations. I know the second I have a few extra bucks i will be donating to peter to thank him for his time and effort (and i only found his website a few weeks ago). I do recommend anyone reading this also consider helping this man out. Times are not easy for anyone and someone hosting FREE games for hours of enjoyment for 40 years straight deserves it more than anyone else. I truely hope some people read this and do the right thing and offer peter even a few bucks for the time he has spent enriching your life so you can enjoy the games YOU love.
Anyways Just wanted to put this into the universe as i know there are plenty of other good people that feel the same way i do. Peter I also think you should add a donation page to your website so it's easier for people to give since you have already given so much of your time and love for atari into 8bit.
The work and time you have put into preserving these great older games is highly appreciated. I couldn't hardly find any functioning games on any other webistes until i came across https://atari.8bitchip.info
I know people don't think about this but hosting all these games cost money and peter doesnt even ask for donations. I know the second I have a few extra bucks i will be donating to peter to thank him for his time and effort (and i only found his website a few weeks ago). I do recommend anyone reading this also consider helping this man out. Times are not easy for anyone and someone hosting FREE games for hours of enjoyment for 40 years straight deserves it more than anyone else. I truely hope some people read this and do the right thing and offer peter even a few bucks for the time he has spent enriching your life so you can enjoy the games YOU love.
Anyways Just wanted to put this into the universe as i know there are plenty of other good people that feel the same way i do. Peter I also think you should add a donation page to your website so it's easier for people to give since you have already given so much of your time and love for atari into 8bit.
#86
Software / Re: New game adaptations
Last post by masteries - 22-07-2025, 19:34:50Thanks a lot!
Many new game adaptations from my last visit here,
=>Found a game that is not in the adaptation list: Outrun STE enhanced edition (https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-out-run-ste_35456.html)
Many new game adaptations from my last visit here,
=>Found a game that is not in the adaptation list: Outrun STE enhanced edition (https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-out-run-ste_35456.html)
#87
FAQ / Re: Mass storage (hard disk, n...
Last post by Petari - 22-07-2025, 13:56:20Quote from AF :
" TheNameOfTheGame wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:22 pm
For people copying over to real hardware sdcard or such they will be copied over as LFN with some software which could cause issues with TOS.
FYI, EmuTOS doesn't suffer from that issue (Atari TOS does). It silently ignores all LFN artificats. This might explain why this wasn't noticed." .
Oh, sure, "buggy" Atari TOS 'suffer' - they were not aware that some 10 years later LFN will be introduced. Lamers ! So, let's all we upgrade to EmuTOS ! Or maybe to Win 11 ?
Really pathetic. Btw. I saw lot of Atari SW packages (ZIP usually) with LFN online in latest decades.
Dealing with very old SW (and TOS is it too) means knowing what it needs to work well. Surely not things which did not exist when it was created, developed. And Atari ST SW needs compatible TOS - with self , not with some later C standards, recommendations .
" TheNameOfTheGame wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:22 pm
For people copying over to real hardware sdcard or such they will be copied over as LFN with some software which could cause issues with TOS.
FYI, EmuTOS doesn't suffer from that issue (Atari TOS does). It silently ignores all LFN artificats. This might explain why this wasn't noticed." .
Oh, sure, "buggy" Atari TOS 'suffer' - they were not aware that some 10 years later LFN will be introduced. Lamers ! So, let's all we upgrade to EmuTOS ! Or maybe to Win 11 ?
Really pathetic. Btw. I saw lot of Atari SW packages (ZIP usually) with LFN online in latest decades.
Dealing with very old SW (and TOS is it too) means knowing what it needs to work well. Surely not things which did not exist when it was created, developed. And Atari ST SW needs compatible TOS - with self , not with some later C standards, recommendations .
#88
FAQ / Re: Mass storage (hard disk, n...
Last post by TheNameOfTheGame - 17-07-2025, 12:16:39I still have and use iTOS on my quad-TOS STE and I find it very well done with cool and useful features built-in.
#89
FAQ / Re: Mass storage (hard disk, n...
Last post by Ronald J. Hall - 16-07-2025, 17:08:48Thanks for the explanation Peter.
#90
FAQ / Re: Mass storage (hard disk, n...
Last post by Petari - 16-07-2025, 12:04:45 I need to add here some things. Used some harsh words - idiotic, stoopid and like. Well, how should react on writings which say that TOS, old Atari SW is buggy.
" rely on weird patterns or buggy TOS error codes to work properly"
Really, this is something stupidest I did read in some computer related text, article.
TOS was released in 1985 and Atari ST had good sales, lot of SW from diverse firms, hobby programmers and like was released. And of course TOS DOCs by Atari, lot of it in magazines, books. I bought in 1987 April Atari 520 ST, and in same time Atari ST ProfiBuch - some 700 pages, and there were detailed descriptions how to use TOS function calls (Trap #1, #13, #14 ...) . All it was pretty consistent, and nothing weird. And of course it stays for error codes - and was not so much of them.
In same year, 1987 first updated TOS v. arrived - v 1.02 . It was not bug fixing, but doing diverse things better. And updating OS was normal thing by other firms too. I barely used 1.02 - went on 1.04 and 2.06 few years later. And they have significantly better hard disk support, filesystem.
I'm not saying that TOS was perfect - there are some flaws, and I wrote about some on my Atari WEB pages.
Some fixes appeared too - like Folder 100 - what is not bugfix. It just expands something - of course at price of some RAM used. I never needed it. Well, I programmed in ASM since 1987, made some floppy util SW, RAMdisk ... In 1992 went on IDE hard disk with Atari . And that was when did making floppy based games to work from hard disk. It was especially useful with 4 floppy based Microprose F1 GP .
And more about it: some call it 'patching', some 'conversion', some 'cracking' . Surely deactivating copy protection is needed, but that's only part of needed things. Conversion is not really good - there is need first to understand game's code - like custom floppy code, and I saw really a lot of diverse solutions, some with really weird and hard to follow, trace, understand code.
I say that 'adapting' is best term. Can not convert custom floppy code, you need to adapt it to hard disk usage. And that can be done in different ways.
Important factor is percentage of diverse program/SW solutions by games.
There are details on my pages: https://atari.8bitchip.info/doinadapts.html
So, most is with TOS function calls. That needed making TOS 1.04 running in RAM - what solves multiple things: TOS version incompatibility problems, special hard disk access from game, support for game state saves and exit to Desktop ...
Needed disassembling properly TOS 1.04 - and that was long process. First versions were with only GEMDOS part - without AES, Desktop, as most of games is with AUTO run.
Later I solved AES/Desktop part disasm. too . It is needed for games using TOS AES functions , so windows, menus and functions in second part of TOS .
To make if work faster I combined my older disk access system with HAGA, HAGE systems:
https://atari.8bitchip.info/imprhage.html
All this was lot of work, but resulted in being able to do individual game adaptations much faster.
Plus, did improved TOS versions, which are compatible with old Atari SW, games. Unlike EmuTOS .
Must be because my iTOS is buggy (as everything I do) like old Atari SW is buggy 
" rely on weird patterns or buggy TOS error codes to work properly"
Really, this is something stupidest I did read in some computer related text, article.
TOS was released in 1985 and Atari ST had good sales, lot of SW from diverse firms, hobby programmers and like was released. And of course TOS DOCs by Atari, lot of it in magazines, books. I bought in 1987 April Atari 520 ST, and in same time Atari ST ProfiBuch - some 700 pages, and there were detailed descriptions how to use TOS function calls (Trap #1, #13, #14 ...) . All it was pretty consistent, and nothing weird. And of course it stays for error codes - and was not so much of them.
In same year, 1987 first updated TOS v. arrived - v 1.02 . It was not bug fixing, but doing diverse things better. And updating OS was normal thing by other firms too. I barely used 1.02 - went on 1.04 and 2.06 few years later. And they have significantly better hard disk support, filesystem.
I'm not saying that TOS was perfect - there are some flaws, and I wrote about some on my Atari WEB pages.
Some fixes appeared too - like Folder 100 - what is not bugfix. It just expands something - of course at price of some RAM used. I never needed it. Well, I programmed in ASM since 1987, made some floppy util SW, RAMdisk ... In 1992 went on IDE hard disk with Atari . And that was when did making floppy based games to work from hard disk. It was especially useful with 4 floppy based Microprose F1 GP .
And more about it: some call it 'patching', some 'conversion', some 'cracking' . Surely deactivating copy protection is needed, but that's only part of needed things. Conversion is not really good - there is need first to understand game's code - like custom floppy code, and I saw really a lot of diverse solutions, some with really weird and hard to follow, trace, understand code.
I say that 'adapting' is best term. Can not convert custom floppy code, you need to adapt it to hard disk usage. And that can be done in different ways.
Important factor is percentage of diverse program/SW solutions by games.
There are details on my pages: https://atari.8bitchip.info/doinadapts.html
So, most is with TOS function calls. That needed making TOS 1.04 running in RAM - what solves multiple things: TOS version incompatibility problems, special hard disk access from game, support for game state saves and exit to Desktop ...
Needed disassembling properly TOS 1.04 - and that was long process. First versions were with only GEMDOS part - without AES, Desktop, as most of games is with AUTO run.
Later I solved AES/Desktop part disasm. too . It is needed for games using TOS AES functions , so windows, menus and functions in second part of TOS .
To make if work faster I combined my older disk access system with HAGA, HAGE systems:
https://atari.8bitchip.info/imprhage.html
All this was lot of work, but resulted in being able to do individual game adaptations much faster.
Plus, did improved TOS versions, which are compatible with old Atari SW, games. Unlike EmuTOS .
Must be because my iTOS is buggy (as everything I do) like old Atari SW is buggy