luckybuck Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 Hi Farb! Do you have SynFile+ in the 128K version from 1985(?) in a 1:1 copy? Would be a big one... :-))) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farb Posted October 4, 2016 Author Share Posted October 4, 2016 Hi luckybuck, Unfortunately, I don't have an original dump of the 128K version of SynFile+. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckybuck Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 OK, I will be back... Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 Suspected bad dumps with errors in probably unused sectors: - Telly Turtle (1983)(Carousel Software)(US)[!] 1st sector in track 23 bad instead of missing - Microsoft BASIC (1981)(Atari)(US) 3 bad sectors in used area Hi DjayBee, Telly Turtle: Track 23 is completely unformatted. Are you sure you mean track 23? MS Basic: All the missing sectors are by design. Sometimes is difficult to distinguish this. But in this case there are no doubts. As a sample, see the track layout for one of the tracks with the missing sector: Track: 20 1 - 26 + 26 Sector: 18, status: 00 2 - 199 +173 Sector: 1, status: 00 3 - 372 +173 Sector: 3, status: 00 4 - 545 +173 Sector: 5, status: 00 5 - 718 +173 Sector: 7, status: 00 6 - 891 +173 Sector: 9, status: 00 7 - 1064 +173 Sector: 11, status: 00 8 - 1237 +173 Sector: 13, status: 00 9 - 1410 +173 Sector: 15, status: 00 10 - 1583 +173 Sector: 17, status: 00 11 - 1756 +173 Sector: 2, status: 00 12 - 1929 +173 Sector: 6, status: 00 13 - 2102 +173 Sector: 8, status: 00 14 - 2275 +173 Sector: 10, status: 00 15 - 2448 +173 Sector: 12, status: 00 16 - 2621 +173 Sector: 14, status: 00 17 - 2794 +173 Sector: 16, status: 00 Sector 4 is missing. But the distance between sector 2 and sector 6 (before and after where sector 4 is located in other tracks) is identical to the others. If the sector would be missing because of damage in the disk, then the distance would be about twice as large. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 Telly Turtle: Track 23 is completely unformatted. Are you sure you mean track 23? MS Basic: All the missing sectors are by design. Sometimes is difficult to distinguish this. I don't remember what I saw concerning Telly Turtle. Sorry. DId you verify all bad sectors of MS Basic since the ones in tracks 20 and 21 are actually the copy protection? I was talking about tracks 31, 32 and 39. Sorry for not being specific in the first place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 I don't remember what I saw concerning Telly Turtle. Sorry. DId you verify all bad sectors of MS Basic since the ones in tracks 20 and 21 are actually the copy protection? I was talking about tracks 31, 32 and 39. Sorry for not being specific in the first place. Yes, I checked all the bad sectors. All the tracks are about the same story. But in this case there are further indications that the disk is in, what I use to call, mint (perfect) condition. The track layout is just one of the indicators. Furthermore, multiple dumps from multiple disks, match, all have the same bad sectors. Unfortunately it is not that easy in most cases. Ok, no problem about Telly Turtle. Your work is much appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 Unfortunately it is not that easy in most cases. Ok, no problem about Telly Turtle. Your work is much appreciated! No problem for me. My comments about bad dumps are just guesses based on some sort of "anomaly" which cannot always be spot-on. Thanks for verifying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farb Posted October 6, 2016 Author Share Posted October 6, 2016 (edited) Battlecruiser (1987)(SSI)(US)(Disk 1 of 2 Side A)(WWI Scenarios)bad dump: sector 42 is only "crc error" instead of "weak bits". Disk fails to run Wargame Construction Set v1.1 (1986)(SSI)(US)(Disk 1 of 2 Side A)(Editor)bad dump: sector 42 is only "crc error" instead of "weak bits". Disk fails to run Ijor was able to confirm that a8rawconv is incorrectly detecting the weak bits as a CRC error. He's created correct ATXs for both these titles which will be in the next torrent release. @phaeron, let me know if you want the raw dumps to troubleshoot this. Thanks again for pointing this out! Edited October 6, 2016 by Farb 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Yeah, drop me a link to the dumps. I'm guessing that a8rawconv managed to extract the same data for the sectors in at least two passes, in which case it drops the rest of the reads and assumes those two reads are the correct ones. Distinguishing weak bits from a marginal read is tricky and a8rawconv errs on the side of trying to recover marginal data than detecting deliberately bad data. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farb Posted October 6, 2016 Author Share Posted October 6, 2016 PM sent! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 (edited) I'm guessing that a8rawconv managed to extract the same data for the sectors in at least two passes, in which case it drops the rest of the reads and assumes those two reads are the correct ones. These disks, and these dumps, are quite a difficult case in this regard. It is a combination of factors: - The flux transition are not random. They are just PLL violations. The randomness and weak bits effect is produced by the mechanic and magnetic variations across different revolutions. - The dump is too damn good! The drive is too good, it rotates too stable, and the signal of the disk seems quite stable as well. There are virtually no flux differences between each passes. - The PLL violations are not specifically optimized for weak bits. They just seem written at (seudo) random timing. So they not necessarily fall at the bitcell transition border. Hence tiny variations between passes is not enough to easily decode differently. This combination gives a quite stable, non weak, behavior. To make things worse, the "weak zone" is not too long. It doesn't cover most of the sector data area. And the protection only checks just a few bytes. If there were weak bits only by the end of the sector, the protection wouldn't pass. But Atari drives usually don't rotate that stable. Not nearly as stable as the drive that produced these dumps. So the PLL violations would likely vary enough among revolutions to produce weak bits. And hence the disks would work. Edited October 6, 2016 by ijor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Lunar Leeper does not require basic to be active. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farb Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 Lunar Leeper does not require basic to be active. Thanks, corrected in the database. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyhants Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Hi all Thanks for all your fantastic efforts in preserving this stuff. I notice there has been quite a lot of narrative around Quest of the Space Beagle but I can't work out whether there is a runnable ATR/ATX now available. Can anyone please let me know whether I'm wasint my time & it doesn't exist or please point me in the right direct for a working set of files. Many thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Thanks for all your fantastic efforts in preserving this stuff. I notice there has been quite a lot of narrative around Quest of the Space Beagle but I can't work out whether there is a runnable ATR/ATX now available. Right here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyhants Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Right here. Spot on thanks. Just started playing it - the first combat section is really tough! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Here's VersaWare VersaWriter versions 1.2 and 2.0. (Requires specialized hardware.) VersaWare VersaWriter v1.2.atr VersaWare VersaWriter v2.0.atr 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farb Posted October 25, 2016 Author Share Posted October 25, 2016 Here's VersaWare VersaWriter versions 1.2 and 2.0. (Requires specialized hardware.) Thanks, Kevin! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 The cosmic balance requires Atari 800 OS-A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farb Posted October 26, 2016 Author Share Posted October 26, 2016 Updated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 I picked up a bunch of user group disks — mostly from SPACE (Seattle Puget Sound) at Portland Retro Gaming Expo. The majority of the disks that I acquired are already archived (I found them on POOLDISK.) I archived the ones that I wasn't sure were already achieved. They are in the attached ZIP file. I thought the Portland Atari Club Story disks were particularly cute, and hadn't seen them before. SPACE disks.zip BRACE 22 - Graphics Demos.atr BRACE 23 - Graphics Demos.atr C-SQD 1 - 3-D CAD.atr C-SQD 2 - CAD Facility side A.atr C-SQD 2 - CAD Facility side B.atr JACS PSG1 Print Shop Graphics.atr JACS PSG2 Print Shop Graphics.atr Portland Atari Club Story 1 The Noisy Giant.atr Portland Atari Club Story 2 Caveman Joe.atr SPACE 3-D CAD & XY Plot side A.atr SPACE 3-D CAD & XY Plot side B.atr SPACE 42 - Print Shop Graphics.atr SPACE 43 - Print Shop Graphics.atr SPACE 54 - Turbo BASIC side A.atr SPACE 54 - Turbo BASIC side B.atr SPACE 57 - Drill Instructor.atr SPACE 58 - Education.atr SPACE 61 - Print Shop Graphics.atr SPACE 62 - Print Shop Graphics.atr SPACE 63 - Print Shop Utilities.atr SPACE 70 - Print Shop Graphics.atr SPACE 71 - Print Shop Graphics.atr SPACE 72 - Printer Utilities - Dot-Magic.atr SPACE 73 - Printer Utilities - Screendump II.atr SPACE 78 - Daisy-Dot II side A.atr SPACE 78 - Daisy-Dot II side B.atr SPACE 86A - Machine Language games - Gabi.atr SPACE 86B - Machine Language games - Kvadryk.atr Kevin 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 Rails West... OSB and Basic needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 Rescue on Fractalus! (1985)(Activision)(GB)[!].atx Does not seem to work at all (crashes emulator). I tried it with ALL SIO accleration options turned off. This is in both Altirra and Atari800. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 Rescue on Fractalus! (1985)(Activision)(GB)[!].atx Does not seem to work at all (crashes emulator). I tried it with ALL SIO accleration options turned off. This is in both Altirra and Atari800. Try the attached one. Rescue on Fractalus! (1985)(Activision)(GB).zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 Yeah that one works fine. I believe that was an ATX released by atarimania? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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