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Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative


Farb

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Slight correction: It's actually two tables to diffenrentiate between PAL and NTSC.

 

You are right, of course. And for those that wonder, the time is (almost) the same in both systems. Two tables are needed because they are in frames.

 

Btw, thank you for your reverse engineering work. It helped a lot investigating the issue.

Edited by ijor
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A short message from "dump QA" (I attached what I have to fix these.). ;)

  • Atarischreiber (1983)(Atari)(DE)(NTSC)
    FIle name is nonsense there is no relation to NTSC
  • Atari Vereinsverwaltung (19xx)(Atari)(DE)(NTSC)(Disk 1 of 2 Side A)[bASIC]
    You put the bad dumps into the torrent and there is also no relation to NTSC
  • Print Shop Companion, The (198x)(Broderbund Software)(US)(Side A)
    Year: 1985, needs 64K, is version 1.1
  • Drelbs (1983)(Synapse Software)(US)[OS-B]
    Might be 810-only (you have to select 1050 in Altirra to make it run). Perhaps somebody can verify this on hardware
  • Square Pairs (1983)(Scholastic)(US)[OS-B]
    Needs BASIC
  • Wargame Construction Set (1986)(SSI)(US)(Disk 1 of 2 Side A)(Editor)
    is version 1.0
  • Space Eggs (1981)(Sirius Software)(US)[a]
    The only difference to the non-[a] version is the filler byte for unused sectors ($1A instead of $00)
  • Lasermania + Robbo Konstruktor (1990)(L.K. Avalon)(PL)(Side A)(Lasermania)
    Lasermania + Robbo Konstruktor (1990)(L.K. Avalon)(PL)(Side B)(Robbo Konstruktor)
    both are PAL-only and need 64K
  • All these L.K. Avalon titles need 64K:
    Wladcy Ciemnosci (1993-05)(L.K. Avalon)(PL)(Side A)[!]
    Klatwa (1992-06)(L.K. Avalon)(PL)(Side A)
    Kampania wrzesniowa (1993-04)(L.K. Avalon)(PL)
    Smus (1993-09)(L.K. Avalon)(PL) ?
    A.D. 2044 (1991-12)(L.K. Avalon)(PL)(Side A) (only true for .cas - .atr works with 48K)
    Zybex (1992)(L.K. Avalon)(PL)
    Constellation (1992)(L.K. Avalon)(PL)
  • Hellcat Ace (1982)(MicroProse Software)(US)[bASIC]
    Hellcat Ace (1982)(MicroProse Software)(US)[bASIC][a][p]
    NTSC-only - In PAL you can not type a number to select mission
  • Conversational German (1981)(Atari)(US)(Tape 4 of 5 Side B)(Unit 8 - I Like...)[a fixed][CLOAD+RUN][bASIC].ogg
    Conversational German (1981)(Atari)(US)(Tape 5 of 5 Side B)(Unit 10 - Actions)[a fixed][CLOAD+RUN][bASIC].ogg
    Both files are exactly identical which seems unlikely
  • U.S.A.A.F. v1.1 (1985)(SSI)(US)
    game disk is missing (Side B)
  • Mech Brigade v1.0 (1985)(SSI)(US)(Side A)(Scenario)
    Bad dump (missing sector in file FULDA)
  • Super Hangman (198x)(Main Street Publishing)(US)[bASIC]
    Superman - The Game (1986)(Main Street Publishing)(US)
    Probably bad dumps because these titles make no check for protection and have several bad sectors in unused areas of the disk

 

Atari Vereinsverwaltung (19xx)(Atari)(DE).atx.zip

Mech Brigade v1.0 (1985)(SSI)(US)(Side A)(Scenario)(p).atx.zip

U.S.A.A.F. v1.1 (1985)(SSI)(US)(Side B).atr

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I shut down my torrent to stop spreading the errors and bad dumps.... I have also deleted it and will wait for the corrected torrent to appear...

I noticed some of the same things but didn't have time to make a complete list...

If you snag the torrent please take the time to peruse it and make sure it's all good.. on both pal and ntsc...

 

Thank you DjayBee for posting up a more complete list of what works or doesn't or needs correction... +1

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I took a look at the ANALOG Computing disks marked bad () in the torrent. Issue 42 side B is marked bad, but all the files look intact and seem to parse as valid Mac/65 files, so perhaps the bad sectors are only in the unused portion of the disk (only about 1/3 of the disk is used).

 

Issue 76 on the other hand has a number of corrupted sectors in the files SKEET.M65, MLEDITOR.BAS and EDITORII.LST. The last two files are on many of the disks, so restoring them is straightforward. The SKEET.M65 file is in Thumpnugget's disk collection, which I used to restore the handful of corrupted sectors and fix the disk.

 

76-fix.atr

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Thanks for your feedback on the current torrent, DjayBee. It's super helpful as usual. I've updated the database with your corrections and they will be in the next torrent.

 

And thanks, Atari_Ace, for creating a working disk image from ANALOG 76. I've updated that as well.

 

Oh, and according to my notes, Ijor mentioned a difference between the [a] and non-[a] versions of Space Eggs is the sector interleave. I don't know if that has any impact on filler bytes or not.

Edited by Farb
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Oh, and according to my notes, Ijor mentioned a difference between the [a] and non-[a] versions of Space Eggs is the sector interleave. I don't know if that has any impact on filler bytes or not.

 

I wouldn't guess so but then it makes sense from a preservation perspective.

 

But maybe he can jump in and knows something about these $1A-sectors.

This value puzzles me for a long time because there are many images which have all "empty" sectors filled with $1A instead of a plain $00.

 

My guess is that it either depends on the disk duplication machine or the dumping equipment. Which would also make sense in relation to the different sector interleaves of Space Eggs.

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If you have something from here:

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

especially the 2 remaining German programs, please let us know. :-)))

 

I doubt that I will be able to supply anything new because I do not have a large collection from BITD and therefore am only acting on stuff which is public available.

 

Btw.: Check the Wiki's HTTPS-configuration / certificates. Current browsers deny to open the site.

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Space Eggs (1981)(Sirius Software)(US)[a]

The only difference to the non-[a] version is the filler byte for unused sectors ($1A instead of $00)

...

But maybe he can jump in and knows something about these $1A-sectors.

This value puzzles me for a long time because there are many images which have all "empty" sectors filled with $1A instead of a plain $00.

 

My guess is that it either depends on the disk duplication machine or the dumping equipment. Which would also make sense in relation to the different sector interleaves of Space Eggs.

As you may know, Atari 8-bit drives write the sector data inverted. When you write a $00, the physical value actually written on the surface is $ff. In this case, $1A inverted is $E5, so the sectors are actually filled with $E5, which historically was one of the most common filler values when formatting a disk.

 

$E5 and other similar values, like $F6, were chosen because in theory they are the ones that magnetically stress the disk more, but only when using MFM encoding. The idea is that if the disk is not good condition, you have more chance to find out right at format time when using these values. It shouldn't really matter for FM single density though.

 

Not directly related, but ... IIRC, the Indus or some other third party drive formats the sectors with something that is not $00, don't remember if it's $E5 or something else. And, again, IIRC, they changed it at some point because it creates a minor compatibility issue.

Edited by ijor
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Run for the Money (1986)(Thunder Mountain)(US)

neither does match it's own copyright message, nor it's entry in Atarimania.

Both say that it was published 1983 by "Scarborough Systems". The images from the torrent and Atarimania are identical - with the exception of the removed protection in Atarimania's version.

 

So the question is if this is a typo in the filename or a re-release by a different company which according to its list of titles on Atarimania made re-releases of different educational titles, including one other from Scarborough Systems.

http://www.atarimania.com/pgelstsoft.awp?system=8&type=G&publisher=1653&step=25

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Oh, and according to my notes, Ijor mentioned a difference between the [a] and non-[a] versions of Space Eggs is the sector interleave.

 

The Tail of Beta Lyrae also has identical "content" with several track formats.

Look here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/158241-the-tail-of-beta-lyrae-washouts/page-5?do=findComment&comment=3776093

 

It might be worth to add the other dumps to your archive as well.

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