TopGunBBS86

Yes...PLEASE!

Thank you for the feedback. I am not super-fluent in SpartaDOS X. Maybe you can help me? Say I have a 720kb ATR loaded onto a virtual drive D2 (via AspeQt), and a blank formatted 720kb floppy disk inserted into by 3.5in drive, allocated as D1. What would be the complete command line syntax for the HDSC copier, to copy D2 onto D1? Thanks again.

That is how we say in America...HAUTE! Same question as I asked OracleJedi...do you know of a sector copier that will read and write 720kb disks / ATRs?

oracle_jedi, I'm with you 100%. There's something VERY satisfying about the 3.5in floppy. In the early 90s, When I finally upgraded to my first Windows PC with a 3.5in drive, I always said, "Damn, I wish I had one of these for my 800 XL all these years. My nostalgia of the format made it a no-brainer to spend a few bucks on Zaxxon's FIRST generation A8 3.5in drive. I painted it off-white and marked it as a poseur 1055 drive. I know the storage media is not as secure as 5-1/4", and an SD card solution would put everything in one basket. I don't care. I just love the CLICK of a 3.5in floppy. I want my data backup up onto MULTIPLE formats. I still have all my original 5-1/4 disks in storage, but PLAY off 3.5in disks. . May I consider you a veteran with this format? I have a few questions: 1) The only A8 DOS's that support 720kb are SpartaDOS X, MyDOS 4.5x, and LiteDOS correct? 2) Do you know of a good SECTOR COPIER that will read from and write to 720kb disks? I have ported over a bunch of 130kb physical floppies and ATR images onto 3.5in, even if it is a waste of space. I tried to create large *.EXE game archives onto 3.5in disk using MyPico DOS. I only got so far. It crashed before I maxed out the 720K (2867 free sectors). I have even compiled a bunch of 720kb ATRs in Windows using AspeQt. 3) How can I copy these MAXED out 720kb ATRs onto blank 3.5in disks? If you figured out the best process for compiling *.EXEs onto 3.5in disks, I am kinda stuck. Thank you for the help.

I didn't know LiteDOS worked with these larger storage. I will work with that as well. Thank you for the advice. I am working with MyPicoDOS, which I've had some success with. I hope to find some time over the weekend to make a breakthrough.

This is my first experience with any floppy media larger than 130k. I am learning. I was curious as to whether or not Sector Copier would write past 130, and up to 720k. Thank you for the clarification, and the advice. I will try to play with "Disk Duplication". My 65XE mod with U1MB upgrade is out of action right now. All I have working is a stock 800XL w/64k. With my 800XL running MyDOS 4.53, I can format blank 720k floppies to the proper size. I also can load up each disk with dozens of large-sized games. However, I need to get a decent menu software up and running for these collections. I am getting closer. Thanks again everyone.

Man, I was SO hoping this was going to be the one. I used "SECTOR COPIER" (by who knows) to copy the 720k disk image from my pc. During the read process, SECTOR COPIER gave me an ERROR 8A AT 004. I don't even have the error codes for this software to tell you what this means. Thank you again. I will keep trying.

This is spectacular! One happy customer right here.

Thank you so much. I imagine I could figure this out eventually. I'm somewhat of a newb. Having a pro take care of it is always easier. I am trying to figure out how to WRITE these 3-sector game-DOS menus onto a newly formatted disk. I am getting there...slowly. I have been relying on grabbing existing ATRs, writing them to newly-formatted disks using AspeQT, deleting the existing executables, then loading them up with new ones, using MyDOS 4.53. However, what I really need are ATRs formatted for 720k. Otherwise, I am losing a lot of valuable space, that I specifically wanted, when buying this 3.5in drive.

This is great! Thank you. I am still a bit confused. I hope you can clear this up for me. Are you indicating the "games999.atr" menu WILL work on double density disks? I believe the first line, "Yep. Doesn't work with double density..." was referring to a previous ATR posted on "Holmes" (Pirate's%20Treasure%20Chest%20A%20-basic.atr). How would I "extract the first sectors and have them", then write them to a new blank floppy? The ATR is sized for 130k. I have a stack of 3.5in floppies, formatted with MyDOS 4.53 to 720k (2,865 free sectors). I'd like to load them up with my game files. I have the MyPicoDOS 4.6 menu up and running on at least one 3.5in disk. However, the UI isn't my favorite.

The ATR of Ali Baba I downloaded also runs instantly from an UnoCart (and I assume other multi-carts). When I played Ali Baba in the 80s, I had to boot AtariTranslator or FixXL first. Then I could boot the game disk. Ali Baba was written for the 800 (pre-XL). Since the ROM I downloaded boots right from a cartridge, I'm not sure if it was fixed to work with XLs, or perhaps the UnoCart somehow boots the XL fix as a BIOS. Any ideas on this? I haven't burned my downloaded AliBaba ATR onto a blank floppy, to see if it boots without an 800 translator. Maybe I'll try that now that I think of it. Regardles...GREAT game to play during the golden age of Advanced D&D.

Worked great! I had to rename the files as *.fwa (Fun With Art). Recoil opened them, and I can save them as *.png files. Thanks again.

Thanks, I downloaded RECOIL and will check it out shortly.

Already covered? I tried a search, but came up negative. In the 80s, I used EPYX Fun With Art on my 800XL to create a lot of raster images. I still have them saved on floppy disk. I know I can boot a ROM of Fun With Art through emulation, and open these files in a Windows environment. Then I can just use a screen grab to get access to the bitmaps in modern software. However, I am wondering if there are any Windows-based image viewers that can open, or convert, these pics as-is. I have them saved on floppies in *.pic format. However, I am wondering if they should be renamed with the *.fwa extension. Thanks for the feedback.

Bump! I have lots of money set aside, waiting to buy this. We'd all still love to see it.