Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative

[Savetz]

I want to help on this project, but am not sure how. I've read most of this thread but am feeling overwhelmed by it.

 

I have hundreds and hundreds of Atari disks, many of which I have digitized and uploaded to archive.org. And dozens of cassette tapes, some of which I have made into WAV files. I do own a kyroflux but haven't figured out how to make it work, and the lack of 2-side support bothers me. I tend to do my archiving with Whole Disk Copy in DOS to create ATRs.

 

I really want to help but don't want to spend a lot of time converting things — I just want to send digitized files to someone to deal with converting and checking.

 

My questions:

1. what's the best way to find out if a thing has already been archived? (The APSI google doc?)

2. do you INSIST on kyroflux stuff, or will ATR files of unprotected disks do?

3. where do I send protected disks to be archived?

3a. Or can someone walk me like a baby through making the kyroflux work?

4. I can't open ATX files on Atari800MacX can I?

5. WAV files for cassettes? To whom can I send these to be processed?

 

Thanks

Kevin

[+Ripdubski]

I;ve opened ATX files with Atari800MacX, but don't know if it can write to them or if it works 100%, but I have booted ATX disk images.

[tschak909]

I am correcting my reply, basically saying, that while it can't create them, it can write to them.

 

-Thom

[Farb]

I want to help on this project, but am not sure how. I've read most of this thread but am feeling overwhelmed by it.

 

I have hundreds and hundreds of Atari disks, many of which I have digitized and uploaded to archive.org. And dozens of cassette tapes, some of which I have made into WAV files. I do own a kyroflux but haven't figured out how to make it work, and the lack of 2-side support bothers me. I tend to do my archiving with Whole Disk Copy in DOS to create ATRs.

 

I really want to help but don't want to spend a lot of time converting things — I just want to send digitized files to someone to deal with converting and checking.

 

My questions:

1. what's the best way to find out if a thing has already been archived? (The APSI google doc?)

2. do you INSIST on kyroflux stuff, or will ATR files of unprotected disks do?

3. where do I send protected disks to be archived?

3a. Or can someone walk me like a baby through making the kyroflux work?

4. I can't open ATX files on Atari800MacX can I?

5. WAV files for cassettes? To whom can I send these to be processed?

 

Thanks

Kevin

 

Hi Kevin! I was hoping we'd get a chance to meet at the Portland Retro show but time got away from me :-)

 

In answer to your questions:

 

1. Yes, the Google Docs spreadsheet is currently where all information is being kept.

2. Flux dumps (Kryoflux or SuperCard Pro) are preferred but ATRs dumped from original disks are welcome. In cases where we've only had an ATR/ATX and later can get a flux dump, the ATR is still useful for verification.

3. Protected disks can be sent to me which I will dump and then send back.

3a. I'd be happy to help you with your Kryoflux. As you know, double-sided support requires a specially modded drive but single-sided disks (and even double-sided disks that have two index holes) are not a problem.

4. As Ripdubski said, Atar800MacX has limited ATX support. I need to make a point of contacting the author and seeing if he's interested in help improving it. I've documented what I know based on info provided by both Ijor and Phaeron here: http://whizzosoftware.com/sio2arduino/vapi.html

5. We have a Google drive share that others have been using to upload WAV files. Kr0tki has been generously helping us convert them to CAS format. If you have files you want to upload, PM me with an e-mail address and I'll add you to it.

 

Oh, and there a couple of folks that have been volunteering their time to make WAV files from cassettes. If you need help on that front, I'm sure they'd be willing to help.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Farb

[djmat56]

If anyone requires any help with cassette WAV files then I'm here !!

[luckybuck]

Wow! What a topic! Just saw, that I was years in the wrong forum, always in the Programmer, not in this here. The Star Raiders source code changed this. :-)

A few weeks ago I mentioned that at the general assembly at Abbuc. Well, my archive is reaching the end, should fit on a 500 GB hard drive (wav take the most, then pdf-files). Sure, a torrent is cool, but everything sorted even more cooler. Today, if I search something, I just press Apple-F, type in the word and that's it. To synchronize, a table would be good. Years ago, when I started, I fetched all Atari prize listings, FAQs, ads and so on. If I had it, I have canceled it out. There is just a few missing:

https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Rarity%2010

and we are through.

Mainly games should go to archive.org and Atarimania, the serious stuff, languages and so on to AtariWiki and archive.org? Just a suggestion...

Will download the stuff with the torrent and see.

The edu stuff is nearly done. Kevin, Thom and Allan have done already a giant job:

http://www.atariarchives.org/APX/showindex.php

APX is close to be finished.

This one:

https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Atari%20Learning%20System%20Software

will be the last frontier.

Source Code:

https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Articles#section-Articles-SourceCodes

a really hard one...

What about an open table, where users can make a cross, when they have it? Just loud thinking...

ATX: it runs on Atari800MacX 4.6.0, but as read only. Don't know, how Thom has made it again. :-) He is a Jedi master and I am just a wannabe padawan in the 1st year of trying.

Mark, the author of Atari800MacX, is doing his PhD, so a new version will take some time.

If possible, a conversion to ATX may be a good thing. Maybe Mark puts his app into open source, so the community can take over?

Wave-files can be converted with:

WAV2CAS.zip

Ernest's great work.

Further, we have some infos on the Wiki:

https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Intention%20of%20the%20Voice%20%26%20Data%20chapter

https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=FAQ

If we all work together, as the scientists do at Cern, Switzerland, then everything is in the best hands and Atari on a jump to stay forever, not only in Blade Runner as an ad, which plays in 2019...

 

See you all out there in the galaxy.

[luckybuck]

Have downloaded everything. That is a great archive, but just 1 GB...

 

Have made a conversion of the list to a Excel-file, please see attached.

 

Further, a great find for:

 

https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Articles#section-Articles-VoiceDataCassettes

 

is: European Countries and Capitals as a wav-file. We really missed that. States & Capitals (if with voice, I don't know) would make it complete.

 

Thank you very much, a real good ad for the community.

 

Thank you. :-)))

Atari Preserved Software 2015-10-13.xls

[Farb]

Have downloaded everything. That is a great archive, but just 1 GB...

 

Yes, this archive is about quality rather than quantity -- everything has been dumped from original media with titles verified against multiple dumps where possible. The quantity will come with time as more people contribute.

 

States & Capitals (if with voice, I don't know) would make it complete.

 

 

That one (with voice) will be in the next release :-)

 

Thank you. :-)))

 

 

Glad you're enjoying it :-)

[+Stephen]

 

Yes, this archive is about quality rather than quantity -- everything has been dumped from original media with titles verified against multiple dumps where possible. The quantity will come with time as more people contribute.

 

 

 

That one (with voice) will be in the next release :-)

 

 

 

Glad you're enjoying it :-)

If anyone has trouble, I have a States & Capitals cassette and a nice working deck to capture it. I can't guarantee the tape is good, but it was as of a year ago.

[luckybuck]

Hi Stephen,

 

that would be cool! If you can make a wav-file of it. I will do a flac-version and post it on Atariwiki.

 

The European version is ready so far, I just have to do the job.

 

Do you have dropbox?

[Kyle22]

Somewhat off-topic, but it involves software used to download this torrent, so I hope it's acceptable.

 

I have made a MSI installer for uTorrent which contains all my speed tweaks, etc. I would like everyone to test it.

 

I have included 2 files in the .ZIP, One that works perfectly with Windows XP (and will only install on XP and 2003), and one called Test.msi.msi. My bad on the double .msi, but I just re-installed Windows before I made this (to make 100% sure virus-free), and forgot to un-check "hide extensions for known file types"...

 

Anyway, please try the test one on Win 7, 8, or whatever you run and PM me if any problems. I strictly run XP and 2003, and am unable to test on newer Windows versions. Also, please let me know if it is FAST.

 

Please don't post results here and pollute this thread any more than I already have.

 

Disclaimer: This software is only to be used for sharing the Atari Preservation torrent.

UT.ZIP

 

Edit: The main thing I'm concerned about is how the user folders are handled. C:\Documents and Settings\Kyle\Application Data\uTorrent vs C:\Users\Kyle ... I don't know what internal differences there may be (if any) with %APPDATA%.

Edited November 29, 2015 by Kyle22

[Farb]

There have been a number of new updates over the past several weeks:

 

Disks from advfan:

 

Beach Landing (Weekly Reader)

C'est la Vie (TDC Distributors / Adventure International)

Essex (Synapse Software)

Masters of Time (Cosmi)

 

Disks from orpheuswaking:

 

Crusade in Europe (MicroProse)

Flight Simulator II - Japan Scenery Disk (subLOGIC)

S.A.G.A. #6 - Strange Odyssey (Adventure International)

Hijack! (English Software Company)

Hazard Run (Artworx)

Miniature Golf Plus (XLEnt Software)

Wizard of Id's WizType (Sierra On-Line)

Snake Byte (Sirius Software)

Deluxe Invaders (Roklan)

Combat Leader (SSI)

Suspect (Infocom)

Rich Man's Word-Processor, The (CSS)

Pensate (Penguin Software)

Star Island (Stedek Software)

Living Daylights, The (Domark)

Trivial Pursuit (Domark)

Micro League Baseball - 1982 Teams (Micro League Sports)

Micro League Baseball - 1984 Teams (Micro League Sports)

Micro League Baseball - 1985 Teams (Micro League Sports)

Snapper, The (Silicon Valley Systems)

Sun Star (CAL)

Train Dispatcher (Signal Computer Consultants)

 

Disks from my collection:

 

221B Baker Street (Datasoft)

Agent USA (Scholastic) - Teacher's Edition

Eternal Dagger, The (SSI)

Goonies, The (Datasoft)

Phantasie II (SSI)

Pond, The (HESWare)

Questron (SSI)

Sammy the Sea Serpent (PDI)

Spy vs. Spy (First Star)

Stock Market (Acorn Software)

Wizard's Crown (SSI)

[Kyle22]

Is there a new .torrent or magnet link?

[Farb]

I'm in the process of migrating the Google Docs spreadsheet into a proper database so I can't generate a new torrent yet.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[+MrFish]

First off, I'd like to say that I appreciate all the work being done on this project, and it's good to see the focus is on quality first. Great job to everyone involved. I've already gotten some good use out of the files being provided here.

 

I have one question about the criteria for archiving disks. I see that some are archived as ATR only, some as ATX only, and then some have been archived as both ATR and ATX. I was assuming at first that you'd only be archiving disks as ATX if it was necessitated by copy-protection. But at this point I'm not sure what approach is being used. For unprotected disks I would think ATR would always be preferred because it's a more universal format, and supported by PC based disk editors, whereas ATX is barely supported if at all in that arena. Any help clearing things up is appreciated.

[Farb]

Good question

 

The criteria is as follows:

 

- ATX files for copy protected disks.

- ATX and ATR for non copy protected disks.

 

The ATR+ATX decision was made after a lot of titles were already preserved and I haven't yet gone back and created ATXs for all of those. That's why you see some titles with only an ATR.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[+MrFish]

Alright; it all makes perfect sense now. Thanks for the answer.

[tschak909]

it's just nice to see, that in this day and age, unlike some scenes, *cough*Apple II*cough*COMMODORE 64...that you can actually play the games the way they were meant to be played.

 

I do respect the pirating organizations which basically PRESERVED this stuff, long after the game companies stopped giving a shit...but at the same time, I do respect that there are people trying to find and preserve the originals.

 

-Thom

[luckybuck]

Yes Thom, feel the same.

 

Really have bad feelings to rise something in atariwiki. Would really like to add Visicalc and Microsoft Basic officially. Had already asked a woman from Microsoft, they won't get into it.

 

But what are the alternatives? That all we liked will gone forever? The magnetic layers won't last forever... Even > 3 decades is a miracle!

 

For example: the blueprint of the Saturn V moon rocket got back to the US via the KGB in May 1991, because they(!) had a backup?

 

Is it really necessary to do it this way? For that price?

 

What about a stock à la iTunes store, where the 'new' users pay 10 Ct for an old game? Or a payment to UNICEF, the poor, veterans.... just loud thinking.

 

Even Elvis is paid these days...

 

Retro Computing is getting bigger and bigger, therefore I hope there will be a solution for this.

 

Only thing I can do and will, is to keep the copyright notice and if possible, the name of the author.

 

Further, atariwiki is on non-profit. To be honest, it costs money instead. But the day, ads are on that website, I am off as author. Of course, donations are welcome, but all are reinvested. Since I started, I have never earned just a single dollar and want to keep it that way.

 

I ask myself, when do mankind will learn from the past? In 47 BC we lost the great library of Alexandria with all the rolls of how the pyramids were made due to the Romans, who burned them down. More than 2,000 years we are still guessing anymore.

 

Do we or our followers really need that again for Atari? Or does it make more sense to have a backup on all continents, moon, mars and in a galaxy far far away?

 

In my opinion, we should use the techniques we do have.

[R.Cade]

it's just nice to see, that in this day and age, unlike some scenes, *cough*Apple II*cough*COMMODORE 64...that you can actually play the games the way they were meant to be played.

 

I do respect the pirating organizations which basically PRESERVED this stuff, long after the game companies stopped giving a shit...but at the same time, I do respect that there are people trying to find and preserve the originals.

 

-Thom

 

I've been archiving C64 originals for over 10 years, so not sure what you mean here...

 

Apple II, yes- different story there.

Edited December 23, 2015 by R.Cade

[luckybuck]

Archiving for your own is legal, to offer it to others is non legal.

 

But without the help from all over the world, the digitizing project would fail. Therefore, it is hard to do it right.

 

On the other hand, the more heros like Clinton Parker, Doug Neubauer, Steve Hales, etc. gave their code free, there is hope.

[_The Doctor__]

A disclaimer follow by a way for someone to indicate they do not want their work to be distributed and have it removed is usually sufficient. with a blurb about abandonware etc. etc attemps to contact or determine blah blah blah....

[Dragon375]

Atari 8-Bit Game Manuals 1-12-16.rar

Another update for the Games Manuals torrent. Only 1 new manual added.

[Clay Cowgill]

Thanks for the manuals torrent-- I need to get to scanning on what I've dug up from storage. I've already dumped most all my original disks by SCP now and got them over to Dan (~125-ish, give or take).

 

If I get some stuff scanned, what's the best way to get them included in the torrent?

[Farb]

Yes, Clay has generously contributed a ton of new SuperCard Pro disk dumps which I've been slowly going through and adding to the preservation list/torrent.

 

Here's what I've incorporated so far:

 

"Disk Cracker!", The (CSS)

"Impossible"!, The (CSS)

130XE Auto Artshow (Antic Software)

3-D Supergraphics (United Software of America)

Action! Toolkit, The (OSS)

Advanced Music System (APX)

Ardy the Aardvark (Datamost)

Ballblazer (Epyx)

BASIC A+ (OSS)

Bulletin Board Construction Set (Antic Software)

Cohen's Towers (Datamost)

Crockford's Whimsy (Antic Software)

Drelbs (Synapse)

Edumate Light Pen (Futurehouse)

Epyx Preview Disk (Epyx)

Four-in-One Infocom Sampler, The (Infocom)

Graphics #1 (Computer Palace)

Heavy Metal Art (Antic Software)

Hey Diddle Diddle! (Spinnaker Software)

HomeWord (Sierra On-Line)

Jawbreaker (Sierra On-Line)

Juggles' House (Atari)

Labyrinth (Broderbund)

MAC/65 (OSS)

MAC/65 Toolkit, The (OSS)

MagniPrint II+ (Alpha Systems)

Micro Illustrator, The (Koala Technologies)

Micro-Painter (Datasoft)

OS/A+ (OSS)

Pac-Man (Datasoft)

Phobos (APX)

pm ANIMATOR (Don't Ask/Tronix)

Repton (Sirius Software)

Seven Card Stud (APX)

SmartDOS (Rana Systems)

Spelldiver (Scholastic)

Spelling Builder (APX)

Star Raiders II (Atari)

Starfighters (Genesis Software)

Super Boulder Dash (Electronic Arts)

Superclone (Frontrunner Computer Industries)

Text Wizard (Datasoft)

Tink! Tonk! - Tink's Adventure (Mindscape)

Tink! Tonk! - Tonk in the Land of the Buddy Bots (Mindscape)

Ultra Menu/DOS, The (CSS)

valFORTH (Valpar Industries)

Warp Speed Software (Happy Computers)

Wavy Navy (Sirius Software)

Wizard of Wor (Roklan)

 

On top of that, I've been able to use Clay's dumps to verify and flag existing dumps as "preserved" including:

 

Archon (Electronic Arts)

Caverns of Mars (Atari)

DOS 2.5 (Atari)

DOS XE Master Diskette (Atari)

Frogger (Sierra On-Line)

Gauntlet (Mindscape)

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The (Infocom)

S.A.M. (Don't Ask Software)

Sargon II (Hayden Software)

Starquest: Rescue at Rigel (Epyx)

Top Gunner Collection (MicroProse Software)

Turtle Tracks (Scholastic)

Ultima III: Exodus (Origin Systems)
Word Flyer (Electronic Arts)

XE Term (Atari)

 

Thank you so much for the contributions, Clay! I know what a pain it is to dump this stuff :-)

Edited January 13, 2016 by Farb