Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative

[+MrFish]

Possible the other libraries were optional add-ons that cost more...

 

Yes, as it turns out, they were all, in fact, modules to be purchased separately. The author of this Creative Computing review talks about it in the sixth paragraph: Going Forth.

Edited August 30, 2016 by MrFish

[Farb]

I suspect these to be (technically) bad dumps with gone-bad sectors in unused areas of the disk:

Blue Max (1983)(Synapse Software)(US)[OS-B]

Factory, The (1982)(HesWare)(US)[bASIC]

M-ss-ng L-nks (1984)(HesWare)(US)[bASIC][OS-B]

Picnic Paranoia (1982)(Synapse Software)(US)

Protector II (1982)(Synapse Software)(US)[OS-B]

Spy vs. Spy II - The Island Caper (1985)(First Star Software)(US)

Survivor (1982)(Synapse Software)(US)

 

The bad sector of these dumps contains data but is not read during initial loading of the game:

Blue Max 2001 (1984)(Synapse Software)(US) 33/$21

Drelbs (1983)(Synapse Software)(US) 693/$2b5

 

 

 

Thanks to Ijor, we now have good images for Blue Max 2001, Picnic Paranoia, Protector II, Spy vs. Spy II and Drelbs. They will be in the next torrent.

 

We will need to obtain more dumps of the other titles before we can release good, verified images.

[Shannon]

I could not get any of the following images to work in an emulator. I tried everything including disabling high speed patches and different system configuration, etc.

 

Hans Kloss (1992-02)(L.K. Avalon)(PL)

HardBall! (1985)(Accolade)(US)

[Kr0tki]

I just love when an emulation-related issue description does not even name the emulator. Makes it so much easier to help. :-]

[Shannon]

Altirra latest version.

Atari800win (ATX version)

Atarixlbox (based on atari800 core ver 2.03 and recently released VAPI code added by me).

 

I guess most people would figure I'd only use emulators that can handle VAPI (atx) images. Which limits it to those three and the Atari800 for the MAC. Which I don't have.

Edited September 23, 2016 by Shannon

[Madi]

I could not get any of the following images to work in an emulator. I tried everything including disabling high speed patches and different system configuration, etc.

 

Hans Kloss (1992-02)(L.K. Avalon)(PL)

HardBall! (1985)(Accolade)(US)

Hans Kloss (1992-02)(L.K. Avalon)(PL)

Game is CAS

Load using Altirra with the following:

Basic=OFF

Cassette SIO=OFF

Mem= 64K and up (XL/XE)

48K (800 OS-A/B)

When you hear the peep, press, F1 to speed up loading

Start game with (Fire). Start will crash the game.

-----------------------------------------------------

HardBall! (1985)(Accolade)(US)

Game is: ATX image

Did not work for me either.

To go around the protection at sector 707, alter routine to jump to $1809

(obviously, The game would be a crack and will not be considered a Preserved)

madi

Edited September 23, 2016 by Madi

[Shannon]

ok thanks. Not sure what happened with Hans Kloss... I'm pretty sure I tried with those settings. But it is working for me now.

[+remowilliams]

So I actually found my kryoflux AND a working drive. Seems I can make ATX dumps once again

 

Or at least for disk sides that have an index hole. That's kind of annoying...

[Farb]

That is great news, remowilliams! We would appreciate any flux dumps you can send our way...

[+remowilliams]

Thanks, Djaybee. I had already pulled Space Beagle from the torrent (it won't be in the next one) and I'll correct the others.

 

In case you need it: Quest of the Space Beagle.zip

[+remowilliams]

Preservation. Gone wrong.

 

 

[F#READY]

Depends on the flipside. With some cleaning it could even be readable...

[Farb]

I could not get any of the following images to work in an emulator. I tried everything including disabling high speed patches and different system configuration, etc.

 

Hans Kloss (1992-02)(L.K. Avalon)(PL)

HardBall! (1985)(Accolade)(US)

 

See if this one works better for you...

Hardball.zip

[Shannon]

That hardball works much better thanks. I tested it on Altirra and Atari800win.. Did not do atarixlbox just yet because I'm attempting to update to the synchronized pokey core and it is partially inoperable atm.

[ijor]

Preservation. Gone wrong.

Yep, it happens. I have a collection of disks in that condition. Only from Blue Max (probably the worst title in this regards), I think I have a handful completely destroyed.

 

First thing first. Take your time for a very good cleanup of the drive. It is probably very dirty and full with debris. Do not attempt to read anything valuable with that drive before you are sure it is clean again. Try with expendable disks before.

 

I believe I said it already a few times. Many disks cannot be dumped with the default (so called preservation quality) parameters. The usual suspects are disks from certain period by Synapse, Avalon Hill, ICD, and a couple of other cases. Most of those disks simply cannot sustain the pressure of the disk head for too long.

 

I even had a special version of my dumping software for reading those disks. The goal, contrary to the normal, redundant, mode of dumping disks, was to make the disk to rotate with the head engaged as less as possible.

[+remowilliams]

Yes the drive is spotless, that was the first order of business on all the disks before this one. It needed cleaning afterward though...

 

This disk was in known bad shape so I went for a limited pass, first revolution it just disintegrated completely. I was not surprised in the least.

 

I would agree that Blue Max was probably the worst ever, I must have had 3 or 4 fall apart on me by just looking at them.

[tschak909]

I need to state something here, because this is very much like a similar situation that I've had to deal with, regarding reel to reel studio audio tape manufactured from the late 1970s through the late 1990s.

 

Let me explain (big long grody technical explanation following):

 

THE PROBLEM:

 

As preservationists would attempt to archive studio tapes from artists from roughly 30-40 years ago, they kept running into a very consistent problem: the magnetic oxide would flake off the tape, and would deposit itself, en-masse on the tape heads, ultimately destroying the head assemblies and requiring replacement.

 

This is literally because of a simultaneous change in the formulation of the magnetic oxide blends used on the surface of the tape, as well as drastic changes in the chemical properties of the adhesives used to bond the tape to the mylar substrate. The simultaneous change of both properties resulted in magnetic tapes with better frequency response (we're talking roughly a 10-15% increase)...but the drastic change in adhesive properties is what bit studio engineers in the arse.

 

Specifically, it was discovered that using a urethane adhesive with short chains was effective at improving frequency response. However, these particular urethane isomers had the effect of being HIGHLY hydroscopic, absorbing water even from the ambient moisture around the tape. Over decades, the stored water keeps the urethane in an amorphous gelatinous state, and thus it's like ripping away jello form the bottom of a glass casserole dish, at high speed.

 

THE SOLUTION:

 

The solution turned out to be very simple: Baking the tape at approximately 130 degrees for 4-6 hours was sufficient to temporarily evaporate the moisture from the urethane, and provide enough time, after cooling, typically a day, to be able to transfer the tape, to another tape, or onto a digital system. However, the process has a cost: it vastly re-accelerates the process of pulling in moisture, and the whole process will have to be repeated again, if one wishes to pull from the same source.

 

THE CONCLUSION:

 

I believe a similar approach can be taken for floppy disks, after their removal from the protective jacket, to avoid the very problems you are describing, but I have yet to be able to test the idea. Perhaps somebody can verify it?

 

-Thom

[ijor]

I need to state something here, because this is very much like a similar situation that I've had to deal with, regarding reel to reel studio audio tape manufactured from the late 1970s through the late 1990s.

Very interesting.

 

I didn't perform a chemical, scientific analysis. Certainly don't have the tools neither the knowledge. But not sure it is quite the same thing on floppies. On our floppies, it sounds as the problem is the other way around. Not that it becomes too damp, with too much moist. But actually that it becomes too dry and too rough. And according to my experience, it helps a lot to wet the disk surface with alcohol isopropyl just before reading.

 

Also, just for the historical background. In our case, it is mostly about floppies manufactured during a rather small period (a couple of years or so), and usually only recorded by a a few publishers. It is just quite unlucky that covers the golden, and most prolific, period of Synapse.

 

 

The solution turned out to be very simple: Baking the tape at approximately 130 degrees for 4-6 hours was sufficient to temporarily evaporate the moisture from the urethane,

...

I believe a similar approach can be taken for floppy disks

Well, besides theory, it is certainly worth trying ... anybody?

[Kyle22]

. . . Baking the tape at approximately 130 degrees for 4-6 hours. . .

 

Remember, that's 130 degrees F or 54 degrees C.

[Mclaneinc]

You sure

 

Crispy

[tschak909]

yes, apologies.

 

-Thom

[+DjayBee]

Like most of my posts in this thread, some errors and findings for the latest torrent.

 

• Pitstop (1983)(Epyx)(US)(Side A)
  might be Value-U-Line because
  1. identical disk layout to the other V-U-L titles
  2. V-U-L Pitstop at Atarimania has indentical content except for some "numbers" in the unformatted tracks
  3. according to Atarimania the Epyx release is cart-only
  
• My First Alphabet (1982)(APX)(US)[bASIC]
  rename: copyright 1981
  
• Factory, The (1982)(HesWare)(US)
  rename: The file inside the archive is named ATR but actually is an ATX
  
• Computer Quarterback v2.0 (1981)(SSI)(US)
  No ATX in archive but it is a protected disk (similar to the Microprose and SSI titles below)
  
• U.S.A.A.F. v1.1 (1985)(SSI)(US)
  1. game disk is missing "U.S.A.A.F. v1.1 (1985)(SSI)(US)(Side B)"
  2. probably "technically" a bad dump, but bad sector 611 is located inside a deleted file
  
• 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
  
• Remove the ATR from these archives because the disks are protected. Unfortunately the alignment protection is not effective in emulation and with track-buffered disk drives, so the games will run there without protection.
  Conflict in Vietnam (1986)(MicroProse Software)(US)
  Crusade in Europe (1985)(MicroProse Software)(US)
  Colonial Conquest v1.0 (1985)(SSI)(US)
  Computer Ambush v1.2 (1984)(SSI)(US)
  Field of Fire v1.00 (1984)(SSI)(US)(Side A)(Game & Editor)[!]
  Gemstone Warrior (1985)(SSI)(US)
  Six-Gun Shootout v1.0 (1985)(SSI)(US)[!]
  Wizard's Crown v1.0 (1986)(SSI)(US)(Disk 1 of 2 Side A)(Game Disk)
  
• 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

[Kr0tki]

My First Alphabet (1982)(APX)(US)[bASIC]

rename: copyright 1981

Nope. As the manual's front page says, the APX release is from March 1982. Actually it should be renamed to (1982-03).

[+DjayBee]

1:0 Kr0tki

But then consequently the Atari version, which currently is named 1981, should be renamed to 1982. It came later and also has the 1982 copyright on box and manual.

=> 1:1

[Farb]

 

Like most of my posts in this thread, some errors and findings for the latest torrent.

 

 

As always, thanks for the help DjayBee!