+Nezgar Posted November 26, 2018 Share Posted November 26, 2018 Played with this 84 version SpartaDOS 1.1 a bit tonight.... some observations: - INIT utlity has a 'customization' option to specify default drive, number of buffers, and write with verify on/off. (as well as the usual pick .DOS to use) - When creating a new disk with DOS using INIT, the .DOS file is hidden. - No R-Time8 support (tested with real R-Time 8 cart). Not sure which version introduced support for it? Probably 3.2 I guess. - HS DOS works with Speedy divisor 0x9 (US Doubler, Happy, Duplicator, Super Archiver all use 0xA - for example UltraSpeed+ OS works with 0xA, but drops to 1x SIO with Speedy). - HS DOS will boot, and seems somewhat reliable all the way up to divisor 4. It will successfully boot at divisor 2 sometimes. Amazing the routines from 1984 actually work with an SIO speed unfathomable to be supported in any storage device at the time. - non-HS DOS's identify as version "A.1" instead of "1.1" - STD_HS memlo $2557 (as booted) - STD memlo $1F00 (using 2 buffers) - RO_HS memlo $1B80 (using 2 buffers) - RO memlo $1980 (using 2 buffers) Haven't compared these observations against the '85 version of Sparta 1.1 to see if any of this is unique to the '84 version yet... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 Scanning the early Spartados manual now. It's big and I have to do it manually so it will take a number of days. Question: Did Tom Harker program the original Spartdos, or was he just the owner of the company? Allan 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 No he did not, He brought the Spartan software DOS under the ICD umbrella. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 Scanning the early Spartados manual now. It's big and I have to do it manually so it will take a number of days. Question: Did Tom Harker program the original Spartdos, or was he just the owner of the company? Allan Mike Gustafson was VP of R&D with ICD, I believe Spartan Software was his company and he likely brought an early version of SpartaDos with him when he and Tom Harker founded ICD. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 Mike Gustafson was the technical mastermind of almost every single ICD product. He coded most versions of SpartaDos (except SDX, I think), the USD firmware, the Archiver, and many more. He also designed the US-Doubler and the MIO among others. He was also one of the original ICD founders. ... And I can't believe that after so many years nobody has any contact with him as he disappeared from the surface of the earth! Just imagine having an interview with Kevin. Just image saying, yes, I still have the original sources and schematics for most ICD products !!! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 Gustafson's on LinkedIn, I looked him up a couple days ago on a whim, thought about asking him about SDX. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted November 29, 2018 Share Posted November 29, 2018 Gustafson's on LinkedIn, I looked him up a couple days ago on a whim, thought about asking him about SDX. Please do. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted November 30, 2018 Share Posted November 30, 2018 Gustafson's on LinkedIn, I looked him up a couple days ago on a whim, thought about asking him about SDX. Wow. So great! Not sure if the most appropriate question is about SDX. Precisely one of the few ICD products that (as I understand) he didn't write himself. Although, being the boss, he probably might have set the specifications to the developer. May be just commenting him that there is still an active Atari community that admires his work so much, and would love to hear about him? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted November 30, 2018 Share Posted November 30, 2018 Scanning the early Spartados manual now. It's big and I have to do it manually so it will take a number of days. Question: Did Tom Harker program the original Spartdos, or was he just the owner of the company? Allan Scanned 89 pages so far. Taking a while. It's a pain to scan. Into appendix C. About 19 pages to go. Hopefully I can finish tomorrow. Allan 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted November 30, 2018 Share Posted November 30, 2018 I commend and appreciate your efforts! Cleaning up and formatting just the 20 page MPP modem manual took me an evening...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted December 1, 2018 Share Posted December 1, 2018 And it is done. http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-spartados_15919.html Allan 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted December 1, 2018 Author Share Posted December 1, 2018 (edited) Nice job on the manual. Thanks Allan and Bentarian; another obscure relic safely archived for the future. Edited December 1, 2018 by MrFish 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted December 2, 2018 Author Share Posted December 2, 2018 Thanks Allan and Bentarian; another obscure relic safely archived for the future. Brentarian, I mean; a little typo there. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 (edited) Here is Mike's response: Hi Jeff, Sorry, just noticed your question today. The core DOS functionality of SDX came from SpartaDos 2.3. Its disk layout is quite different from AtariDos and DOSes derived from it. SDX added a ton more commands to SpartaDos 2.3 and of course was cartridge based rather than loaded from disk. -Mike Edit: I had asked him if SDX was from scratch or not. Edited February 12, 2019 by Alfred 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 It's evidently a ground-up rewrite (I've seen the source code), or what one might call a full reimplantation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 Yeah, I'm not sure I believe his answer. Perhaps he misunderstood. I mean yes, the disk format that SDX uses comes from 2.3 or even 1.1 but that wasn't the question. So what, 3.2 and the unreleased 3.5 were just one-off throwaway versions ? That seems unlikely, Gustafson doesn't strike me as someone who just wastes his time. Although perhaps after finishing 3.5 he thought it was going to be too much work to get to where he wanted with the cart and started over. I don't believe there is any of the CAR: handler in 3.5, so perhaps things like that pushed him to start again. I did notice with some amusement that in that 1.1 handbook it says ICD stands for Innovative Computer Design. Harker always insisted that it had no meaning. When I was there to pick up the Action! source and I asked him (again) he said what it really meant was I Can't Decide. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 It was Innovative Computer Design afaik.... I never heard it referred to as anything else, ah Mr. Harker.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 I Couldn't Deliver (those CatBoxes) Too soon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted February 13, 2019 Share Posted February 13, 2019 It was Innovative Computer Design afaik.... I never heard it referred to as anything else, ah Mr. Harker.... Well.. I was also in the "I Can't Decide" camp, but sure enough, here's what's officially written in the manuals: SpartaDOS 1.1: SpartaDOS Construction Set: SpartaDOS X doesn't actually say : And I always laughed when I saw this in the SDX manual... Even more appropriate today, a powerful DOS for ancient computers I really wonder where I read "I can't decide" now. I know Harker mentioned it in the Interview, but I heard it long before that. Maybe there's older magazine articles or other text documents to find... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted February 13, 2019 Share Posted February 13, 2019 Found one official reference otherwise... Antic April 1987: https://archive.org/details/1987-04-anticmagazine/page/n27 Had to stop calling it that because of a name conflict? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted February 13, 2019 Share Posted February 13, 2019 Sounds like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 Were there ever disk images and manual scans made for the early versions of SpartaDOS? Scans of a floppy and manual cover can be seen at Atarimania of one early version: SpartaDOS (1984) I have SpartaDOS 1.1 for the 800. I can post an ATR if anyone wants it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 I suppose if someone lived in Illinois, they could go look up ICD's incorporation papers and see what Harker and Gustafson put down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 I remember being told it was "I Can't Decide" back in the 90's. I unfortunately do not remember who said it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 I have SpartaDOS 1.1 for the 800. I can post an ATR if anyone wants it. Would be appreciated - Good to verify if it matches up with the two known 'versions' of v1.1 discussed in this thread or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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