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side 3


lotharek

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iam still waiting for device which can run all formats :) xex, com, atr (more drives), rom, img (can play 60fps videos), bin and maybe others :)

 

will be SIDE3 thing iam waiting for? :)

ATR support through the cartridge port is always sub-par IMHO. SIO2SD, SDrive, SIO2PC, etc.. are always superior. Cartridge emulation and SIO emulation could be combined, but that would require an extra cable to the SIO port. It seems most Atarians do not like that (as far as I read on AA). There's a C64 cartridge (1541 Ultimate II+) that does exactly that (connects to the IEC serial port), which is extremely versatile.

 

Edit: forgot quote...

Edited by ivop
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ATR support with a cartridge is best achieved with corresponding internal mods, of course, which is how U1MB/SIDE does it. But unless SIDE 3's SPI controller completely emulates an IDE controller, it won't work with the U1MB PBI driver... and I have no idea, since no-one told me anything. :)

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Thats why I am using both the Ultimate cartridge and SIO2SD.

With the Ultimate I can load carts (CAR/ROM/BIN) and files (XEX/COM), while with the SIO2SD I can load disks (ATR, also swap disks!) and files (XEX/COM). Think it is not easy to combine everything in one add-on (as a cartridge or SIO2xxx-device or PBI-device) that also works without an extra OS and/or works without SDX (booting e.g. ATR images from IDE-2 afaik only works with SDX)...

 

Maybe (a big maybe) one could create a sort of "PBI cartridge" that only reads/loads from FAT-32 / ex-FAT / NTFS / ..., comes with a cartridge-like case (for XLs with PBI, for XEs with ECI+cart) with SD-slot (for SD, SDHC, SDXC, etc.) on it and uses the 2kb of the mathpack (and some onboard RAM and flash) for its firmware and a special bootloader that boots / loads ATR, CAR/ROM/BIN and XEX/COM (all of them without requiring SDX and without requiring a U1MB)...

Edited by CharlieChaplin
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and/or works without SDX (booting e.g. ATR images from IDE-2 afaik only works with SDX)...

 

SDX is not needed for this functionality, but yes you need a SpartaDos formatted partition to store the ATR files on. Mounting can be done through the IDE+ menu (only to D1:) or in SDX (to more drive numbers, multiple ATR's).

 

I wrote a tiny tool (not spread yet, I need to make it userfriendly) that saves the settings of the mounted ATR's in a very tiny binary file. Handy. When you fire this saved binary file (from MyPicoDos or whatever dos you prefer) the previously stored settings of mounted ATR's is restored and your ATARI boots the ATR's.

 

I have a lot of these tiny XEX files now: Goonies, summergames, Johny's Trouble, ECKN+ etc. for all the disk games, stored on my MyPicoDos game partition. As soon as I want to play Goonies or Summergames, I simply load that tiny file, the IDE+ mounts the right ATR's and there it goes.

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Bit concerned with hearing that fjc has no involvement in this. His BIOS for Incognito and Ultimate1MB, as well as the SIDE loader far surpassed the originals in look and functionality.

 

Can't agree more. FJC has proven to be the best BIOS creator in the entire scene. His creations are far superior, and I am really excited about all the extra functionality he achieved. I would love to see a BIOS for IDE+ from his hand. That would be gooooooooood.

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Does anyone have any news you can share on this? It's been quite a while since the announcement.

I'd like to know if the Side 3 is still planned, as well. Candle's been scarce on the forum the last year or so according to his profile.

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If the lack of SD card support is your only holdback - you can get an CF-SD adapter ;)

for example https://www.ebay.com/itm/123038197343

 

TBH i haven't tried one in my SIDE2. I have one, so I'll give it a try to see if it works

 

They work, especially if you use the firmware update that I haven't released yet. :) But yes: they're very stable in SIDE2.

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If I have an Ultimate Cart and a 1088XEL with an XEL-CF in it, is there anything the SiDE2/3 offers that I don't already have?

I kind of doubt it. I am interested in seeing what the SiDE3 is going to offer but I already have an Ultimate Cart, a UNO, a SIO2SD, and a SDRIVE-MAX. It's hard to conceive that the SiDE3 will be able to offer much that I cannot already do.

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I just realised I can load atr files from the XEL-CF! :dunce:

 

So I can load:

Hard Drive from XEL-CF

CAR/XEX from the Ultimate Cart

ATR/XEX files from the XEL-CF

ATR/XEX/ATX/CAS from the SDrive MAX

ATR/XEX/CAS from SIO2PC (ATX is in development)

 

Yeah, I don't think there is much I would need a SiDE3 for.

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