Back in Business! Yeah!

[Gunstar]

Today I finally got around to repairing two of my three 1050 drives, one of which has my home-made SIO/10502PC adapter built into it, so I know have 2 working 1050's (enhanced density) and my 810 (single density) and, of course, I'm SIO2PC capable again too! WOOHOO! The last drive (1050 doubledensity/Ultraspeed) that I have to repair is the one that I have the US Doubler chip installed in, and I looked at it and found the problem, it's the ICD US Doubler chip; one of the pins on it broke, probably from my move from Wisconsin to Texas jarred it at some point. So, I will repair it later tonight and I will once again have 4 working drives (mainly for my multi-disk RPG's like Ultima and Alternate Reality: I hate to swap disks) and of course access to every .atr game/app image available through my SIO2PC device. I'm one happy camper again! Now, I know the SIO2PC can have up to 8 virtual drives working, but I've found nothing but headaches with the hacked RPG images I've come across, which is why I have all the drives to play the games with the original disks. Anyway, I'll be in 8-bit RPG heaven again for quite a while now...I never did finish ultima II and IV...only I and III, so those are the first on my list, but of course I'll start a new campaign with Alternate Reality: The Dungeon very soon too, after all, it's my all-time favorite RPG.

[Goochman]

Ult II can be finished in a day if you know the way - I loved this game.

[Shawn Jefferson]

So, I will repair it later tonight and I will once again have 4 working drives (mainly for my multi-disk RPG's like Ultima and Alternate Reality: I hate to swap disks) and of course access to every .atr game/app image available through my SIO2PC device.

 

You should check out the AtariMax Flash cartridge, if you don't already have one. There are images for Ultima IV and Ultima III for the 8Mb cartridge.

 

Some enterprising soul may even try to put U2 on the flashcart soon. Given some free time devoid of kids and house related repair work.

[Gunstar]

So, I will repair it later tonight and I will once again have 4 working drives (mainly for my multi-disk RPG's like Ultima and Alternate Reality: I hate to swap disks) and of course access to every .atr game/app image available through my SIO2PC device.

 

You should check out the AtariMax Flash cartridge, if you don't already have one. There are images for Ultima IV and Ultima III for the 8Mb cartridge.

 

Some enterprising soul may even try to put U2 on the flashcart soon. Given some free time devoid of kids and house related repair work.

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These are unhacked/cracked images? Now, Obviously becuase of copy portection SOMETHING had to be used to get the images, but the images I have tried are cracked/hacked images (.atr) that do not work properly, they always crash at some point. You've been able to successfully play thes games all the way through with no problems? How do saves work? But probably most importantly anyway is HOW MUCH does the AtariMax Flash cart cost? I mean, I already have these games on floppy, and it works fine for me that way, so if this thing costs $50 or more than it's not really worth it to me since I have other alterantives such as 4 disk drives and SIO2PC...why should I want it? I'm not that concerned with waiting a few seconds or a minute or so for something to load from the SIO2PC or real floppy, so speed isn't an issue with me. If it's cheap, like $20-$25 then It becomes an option, but I'm not going to pay more than that just so I can play something I ALREADY have a little bit faster...when I said I hate disk swapping, it's the actual physical requirement and all the drives avoid this, it's nice to not have too swap, but I don't mind a little bit of load times.

[Callipygous]

. If it's cheap, like $20-$25 then It becomes an option, but I'm not going to pay more than that just so I can play something I ALREADY have a little bit faster...

 

$25 for 1Mbit or $40 for the 8Mbit. You need the larger one for Ultima.

 

http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/documentation/index.html

[belboz]

Don't forget the cart can be used for more than just Ultima. Reprogram it after finishing Ultima. (The Ultima Hack talked about saves your games to the Flash cart too).

 

I have an 8Mbit and have flashed a ton of my favorite games onto it and just select the ones I want from the menu.

 

Great little device, great price, easy to use.

[Shawn Jefferson]

These are unhacked/cracked images?

 

Probably created from cracked images.

 

You've been able to successfully play thes games all the way through with no problems?

 

No, not me. I think the Ultima IV cartridge has been tested fairly well. The Ultima III cartridge, which was done by me, needs to be tested more.

 

How do saves work?

 

Saves to the flash ram on cartridge.

 

since I have other alterantives such as 4 disk drives and SIO2PC...why should I want it? I'm not that concerned with waiting a few seconds or a minute or so for something to load from the SIO2PC or real floppy, so speed isn't an issue with me.

 

Well, maybe you don't want it. It's useful for more than just Ultima to be sure... but it all depends on what you want to do with it.

 

I think it's pretty cool myself, that's why I bought one. Just making a friendly suggestion in case you hadn't heard of it.

[Gunstar]

These are unhacked/cracked images?

 

Probably created from cracked images.

 

You've been able to successfully play thes games all the way through with no problems?

 

No, not me. I think the Ultima IV cartridge has been tested fairly well. The Ultima III cartridge, which was done by me, needs to be tested more.

 

How do saves work?

 

Saves to the flash ram on cartridge.

 

since I have other alterantives such as 4 disk drives and SIO2PC...why should I want it? I'm not that concerned with waiting a few seconds or a minute or so for something to load from the SIO2PC or real floppy, so speed isn't an issue with me.

 

Well, maybe you don't want it. It's useful for more than just Ultima to be sure... but it all depends on what you want to do with it.

 

I think it's pretty cool myself, that's why I bought one. Just making a friendly suggestion in case you hadn't heard of it.

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I do appreciate the suggestion, I've just had bad luck with cracked RPG images, my original disks still work fine, and, if I ever get around to it, i can make A.P.E prosystem back-ups which DO work as well as the original disks from the few images I have. But I'll probably pass until they get much larger flashcarts out so I can put EVERYTHING on it like I have on my PC's HD now, with SIO2PC cable (except for the few mention RPG's). The ultraspeed loading of .atr images with A.P.e and SIO2PC is very quick, it only takes like 3-10 seconds to load a game, so I doubt the flashcart is all that much faster (though I'm sure it is faster, probably like a split second). But just a few seconds is fine with me. I can see the advantage of having a HUGE flashcart though, where one could do away with anything but the cartridge and basically turn the computer into a console though, this would be cool, so I'll keep looking/waiting for a flashcart that can do 100's of MB or GB that could hold everything I could ever want, and work more like the APE system with several virtual drives or something.

[Goochman]

We really need a 'Cuttle Cart 2' for the XE's where one could put in an SD or MMC card with lots of storage space and load it like the MyIDE stuff (ie, exes or atr images)