ATARI 5200 Ultimate SD Wafer Drive (Up to 32GB of storage space)

[Keatah]

I don't think I have a single 3.5in 1.44mb disk that still works, but I can buy Atari software off Ebay that is fully functional.

 

I believe all my 3.5" disks are working. Last I checked some was in 2014.

[HDTV1080P]

TMR,

 

Blank CD-R's, DVD-R’s, and BD-R’s are still a lot cheaper and more reliable when compared to SD media. One can make games in QTY of one or ten copies and the optical disc media is still going to cost around 20 cents for a DVD-R, if one needs 25GB then 79 cents for a BD-R. Maybe some of these discs will last 100 years instead of a 1,000 years. A little more money one can get optical discs that are rated for up to 1,000 years. This is why recordable optical discs exist. It’s for some company or individual that wants to run off less than 10 copies of a game if needed. The recordable optical discs can also receive a nice color thermal or ink jet image with a special printer that makes the discs look professional.

 

There are still some ATARI 2600 game cartridges that were manufactured in 1977 that still work perfectly fine after 40 years. While the SD Association rates some SD cards to last 10 or more years. The higher quality more expensive cards might under ideal conditions last 50 years. The latest SanDisk SD cards are shockproof, X-ray proof, waterproof, and can stand temperatures between -13 to 185 degrees F. They come with a limited lifetime warranty and most likely might last more than 10 years. There is a possibility that under ideal conditions ,we are looking at 50+ years for some SD media as long as they do not get a EMP that optical discs are immune too.

Edited October 30, 2017 by HDTV1080P

[Keatah]

Any "medium-term" 10-100 years digital archive plan should include 2-3 different types of media and consider a plan for migration to current in-vogue media periodically.

[Keatah]

There are still some ATARI 2600 game cartridges that were manufactured in 1977 that still work perfectly fine after 40 years.

 

Some? I'd say nearly all. So, I wonder which ones have failed? And if they are starting to fail, then 1978 and 1979 are up next.

Edited October 30, 2017 by Keatah

[HDTV1080P]

 

Some? I'd say nearly all. So, I wonder which ones have failed? And if they are starting to fail, then 1978 and 1979 are up next.

Nothing lasts forever. Most ATARI 2600 cartridges after 40 years still work. However, one can read testimonies online of 1977 ATARI game consoles not working anymore and some game cartridges going bad do to wear and tear or plain old age where the electronic circuit board in the cartridge stops working. The ATARI 2600 game cartridges were unique and more reliable compared to some other systems since the ATARI 2600 game cartridges most of the time had an inner plastic shell that prevented the game cartridge circuit board from being exposed, and the inner plastic shell would not slide open unless the cartridge was inserted in an actual ATARI 2600 compatible system (This plastic inner shell protected the circuit board from static shocks and being damaged when dropped).

 

Is the majority of ATARI 2600 game cartridges still going to work after 80 years or 120 years? That is a question that future generations will be able to answer. Many electronics fail between 10-20 years, and it is a awesome engineering achievement that many ATARI 2600 game cartridges still function after 40 years. I plugged a ATARI 2600 game cartridge into my Coleco Expansion module #1 a week or so ago to test the ADAM computer, and I was amazed that all the cartridges in my collection worked. I plan on using the Harmony Encore SD cartridge to save wear and tear on the cartridge slot, plus running all the ATARI 2600 game rom images from one SD card is ideal.

Edited October 31, 2017 by HDTV1080P

[Keatah]

Masked roms with the older geometry are good for 200 years. Maybe 250.

[robbievgb]

All the confusing bullshit spewed from this thread inspired me to pick up an Atari 5200 Ultimate SD Cart (or as you would say, now named the Atari SD Wafer drive) from the AtariMax website, not from one or your auctions or on Amazon.

 

You are confusing the marketplace for this kind of stuff and its pathetic and sad.

Edited November 4, 2017 by robbievgb

[Keatah]

This thread should (somehow) remain visible so that others may be warned to only buy straight from AtariMax.

[HDTV1080P]

Also when purchasing directly from ATARIMAX one can request their new custom label called “Ultimate SD Wafer Drive”. ATARIMAX designed the label and ATARIMAX places it on their Ultimate SD cartridge. This is an official ATARIMAX product regardless if it is purchased from an ATARIMAX dealer or ATARIMAX’s official website directly. Those that prefer the older original label called “Ultimate SD” or “Ultimate SD Multi-Cart” can still purchase that directly from ATARIMAX also.

[Osgeld]

you have failed to even make a coherent point about why anyone would care about your wafer drive shenanigans, let alone request it

[adamchevy]

I purchased one of these wafer drives on eBay recently . Probably should have paid $40 more and purchased it directly from the Atarimax website, but oh well. I was a bit confused when going to the Atarimax website as it calls this product “Ultimate SD Multi-Cart”. I thought maybe I purchased an inferior/out dated model for a minute . You should have kept your name the same! Wii, Wii-U, anyways....As this is the newest version of the Atarimax what speed/class SD drive works best? If indeed this is the newest version ?

Edited August 20, 2018 by adamchevy

[+Stephen]

I purchased one of these wafer drives on eBay recently . Probably should have paid $40 more and purchased it directly from the Atarimax website, but oh well. I was a bit confused when going to the Atarimax website as it calls this product “Ultimate SD Multi-Cart”. I thought maybe I purchased an inferior/out dated model for a minute . You should have kept your name the same! Wii, Wii-U, anyways....As this is the newest version of the Atarimax what speed/class SD drive works best? If indeed this is the newest version ?

Sorry to hear you got scammed. We try to keep the swamp drained so to speak, but it's been filling up rather quickly as of late. Must be a summer monsoon.

[adamchevy]

Sorry to hear you got scammed. We try to keep the swamp drained so to speak, but it's been filling up rather quickly as of late. Must be a summer monsoon.

Not so sure it’s a scam?

[_The Doctor__]

cd rom won't last as long as you think.... read about how they are recorded and how long the medium really lasts, specially if used or subject to light or normal background radiation (light or otherwise)

[zylon]

I'm sticking to my original carts and a 128-in-1 Atarimax cart until the new "waffles & bacon" drive comes out and makes this wafer crap sooooo last week.

[AtariNerd]

Just to go further divergent, I admit I was pretty enamored on those DVD-RAM discs for awhile - mainly for video recording, as I was able to go in and edit out commercials on my DVD recorder. Supposedly had better longevity than standard DVD-R, provided you didn't re-record too many times; though that might have only been marketing.

[Keatah]

People have a tendency to pick a favorite storage medium and stick with it. Till it fails on them.

[adamchevy]

People have a tendency to pick a favorite storage medium and stick with it. Till it fails on them.

I wonder how long until catastrophic cloud server failures start becoming a common occurrence, and people lose faith in those as the cure all. I’m sure Apple and Dropbox really care about your family photos.

[Keatah]

I wonder how long until catastrophic cloud server failures start becoming a common occurrence, and people lose faith in those as the cure all. I’m sure Apple and Dropbox really care about your family photos.

 

I don't really know. I can tell you that datacenters are moving to TLC and QLC memory technologies. They are the most short-lived instances of flash memory on the market. And they are nearly analog in nature. They sport write cycles of 700 and 500 respectively.

 

I can tell you from personal experience that all the fear-mongering marketing departments implanted in (your) head about magnetic hard disks and floppies going bad is mainly hogwash. I've got boxes of drives from the 1980's that read just fine today. And similar with floppy disks. As long as they were properly stored.

 

Floppy disks inherently have more to go wrong with the data surfaces, because binding, because plastic, because oxidation. But that they made it nearly 50 years to date is a far cry and from the 5-year life expectancy spouted by media companies to scare you into buying new stuff. The materials used in HDD (to get the necessary precision) are by nature 100X or more stable than what goes into a floppy. 50 years seems a good life for floppies. HDD, much longer.

 

In fact, the interface standards and file system and formatting "style" are likely to go out of date long before the platters become unreadable.

 

So that's where data migration comes into play. Digital data properly organized and prepared for migration transcends all media-related problems and will continue to live on. With migration in the picture, you can't go wrong.

[Keatah]

cd rom won't last as long as you think.... read about how they are recorded and how long the medium really lasts, specially if used or subject to light or normal background radiation (light or otherwise)

 

Just to go further divergent, I admit I was pretty enamored on those DVD-RAM discs for awhile - mainly for video recording, as I was able to go in and edit out commercials on my DVD recorder. Supposedly had better longevity than standard DVD-R, provided you didn't re-record too many times; though that might have only been marketing.

 

I was really keen on CD-R/W in the Pentium II era. I thought it was the end-all be-all for removable storage. But the lifespan was horrible and the sequential nature (especially the directory structure) was frightful, at least for my use. I didn't even have time to migrate to those in entirety before they started going bad.

 

I switched to IEEE-1394 disks from Western Digital, and they were badly designed. No cooling whatsoever and every single drive in their first-run FireWire lineup failed due to overheating.

[Keatah]

But back on topic. I can tell you from direct personal experience that Wafer Drives are nowhere near as reliable as a standard and modern SD Card.

 

So you'll want to be aware of what you purchase.

[Greg2600]

I purchased one of these wafer drives on eBay recently . Probably should have paid $40 more and purchased it directly from the Atarimax website, but oh well. I was a bit confused when going to the Atarimax website as it calls this product “Ultimate SD Multi-Cart”. I thought maybe I purchased an inferior/out dated model for a minute . You should have kept your name the same! Wii, Wii-U, anyways....As this is the newest version of the Atarimax what speed/class SD drive works best? If indeed this is the newest version ?

 

Dude, I still have yet to understand what this wafer crap is all about. Just seems like this HD1080P character is making this up, and selling on ebay.

[adamchevy]

 

Dude, I still have yet to understand what this wafer crap is all about. Just seems like this HD1080P character is making this up, and selling on ebay.

I'm pretty sure its just a marketing tactic. As he mentions you can get the other label upon request.

[MMarcoux66]

Would be awesome if someone could start a thread with the latest firmware. It seems to not be on the Atarimax website and no one is answering emails there. 

Edited November 28, 2020 by MMarcoux66

[HDTV1080P]

Less then a week ago I was informed by Atarimax that the very first Ultimate SD Wafer drive (also called Ultimate SD Multi-cart) for the Atari 5200 videogame system is now out of production with no plans to make anymore of that version. ATARIMAX still supports that version with their lifetime warranty. ATARIMAX is all out of stock on the old version, but at the time of this post there are a couple left from Atarimax dealers on the web until supplies last.

 

The good news is that ATARIMAX has released the new and improved Atari 5200 Ultimate SD Wafer Drive (also called Ultimate SD Multi-Cart). The price for the new version remains the same at $129.95 plus $6 shipping and handling. One can request a custom Atari 5200 Ultimate SD Wafer Drive label from ATARIMAX when ordering. Also comes with a lifetime warranty from ATARIMAX. 

 

·      The Atari 5200 cartridge label has been changed and the new model has a reset button for the first time. The ColecoVision/ADAM Ultimate SD cartridge remains unchanged but in the future that design may get an upgrade also, and in the future may have the better specs that the new Atari 5200 Ultimate SD Wafer Drive currently has.  

 

·      New internal SRAM is 1024kB (up from 512kB)

 

·      New internal flash is 512kb (up from 128kB).

 

·      New design has more modern electronic components, reset switch, a better shielded 4-layer printed circuit board, and new cartridge case and board (cartridge case developed from a new custom ATARIMAX injection mold).

 

·      More licensed and public domain games included on the SD card. Beef Drop is the licensed game and Atari Blast is included with permission from the author. Also some public domain games on the SD card.

 

·      New Atari 5200 cartridge shells for the Ultimate SD cartridge (the old version only had new printed circuit boards inside a recycled cartridge case). Also, these new Atari 5200 cartridge case shells are being offered not only for this Ultimate SD cartridge, but are being offered for sell to Atari 5200 videogame developers. For the first time in decades Atari 5200 videogame developers will have access to professional brand new cartridge case shells for the Atari 5200 videogame system (contact Atarimax for more details about the plastic cartridge cases that hold up to a 1MB cartridge rom board). This will encourage videogame development since they will be affordable to anyone making/selling a game intended for retail and will provide a consistent, clean, new looking product, which is difficult when recycling old 5200 cases.

 

https://www.atarimax.com/5200sd/documentation/index.html

Edited November 9, 2022 by HDTV1080P