SpicyChronos

My dad and I always liked the Fuji Film ones. Then we found a Quill catalog and we started bulk ordering the disks in 100 lots. I was a big ol' copier back in the day.

Hi all, I'm in the Columbia, SC area, and I could possibly do a pickup. It's about 3 hrs to get to the general area of Fayetteville. PM me, if shipping would not work, etc.

Just played it and made it to level 5. Excellent game! I played it for about 15 mins.

some more information I found doing a google search for Dr. T's Music. Computer Crossware Labs CCL was primarily devoted to developing and commercializing MIDI-based music software. Projects included "The Phantom", a SMPTE synchronizer for Dr. T's Music Software. This project involved development of a low-cost hardware unit that could communicate with the host 68000-based Atari and Amiga computers. Skills involved included 68000 assembly language, low-level interrupt handling, and inter-process communication in a multi-tasking environment. So it seems to be for the ST and Amiga computers for MIDI.

going to www.fcc.gov and selecting search, then by FCC ID this is what I get: Dr T's Music Software Inc 100 Crescent Road, Suite 1B Needham MA 92194 FCC ID: HTH2SBTHEPHANTOM Application Purpose - Original Equipment Grant Date - 02/27/1989 So it seems to be some sort of device from Dr. T's Music, possibly a MIDI device or sampler. Hope this helps!

Well i'm at it again. I am trying to adjust my Xebec drive to find track 0 so I can attempt a data recovery on my 8-bit. What i'm looking for is a program, or help writing a program that will allow me to constantly attempt to read a sector, etc. I've started looking for SASI documentation, and found some, but i'm still a green horn at all this. What i'd like to do, is setup a program to access the SASI drive, attempt to send some sort of command to tell the drive to constantly read a sector, or check that the drive is ready, etc. I'm using the Supra/KP interface, and I now have the Format utilities and the head park utilities. I have the drive cover open, and I try and park the heads, it errors out with a $06 command, which I think means Abort (06) or No track 0. This drive has a set screw to stop the heads from going so far, and when I was trying to troubleshoot it before, I opened it up, because it was hitting the set screw when it turned on. now that's it's be tinkered with, I can't get it to find track 0 again. I hope this isn't a futile attempt. Thanks. -Spicy

Okay, Thanks for explaining that. I was wondering if it was my upgrade, etc. -Spicy

Hello all, I wanted to play around with the XRAM memory tester from Satantronic, and when I load the COM file, it comes up, and when I run it, it says I have errors on $83. I have the Wizztronics 256K upgrade installed, it's based off of the Claus Buchholz 256K memory upgrade. I haven't had any trouble with lost data, etc.. but the XRAM tester only shows 240K of memory available, 15 banks. After the test runs, the computer locks up. any suggestions? thanks. -Spicy

PM sent to Kjmann...

Updated... -Marshall

I'm bumping up to the top, let let everyone know that I still have the items that don't have strike through. I am also letting you know, I'll combine items together, like if you want the 4 in 1 installed in one of the 800XL's I'll do the install for free, etc. I also have some parts to do memory upgrades for the 800XL's as well. One other item to add to my list is I do have a Happy board to install in one of the 1050s. If you'd like to get your hands on a Happy Drive, I'd be more than happy to install the Happy in a drive, and test it out for you before shipping it out. Thanks for looking. -Marshall

bump

Hi all, I have some Atari 8-bit hardware up for grabs. Please make me an offer. I have 4 - 1050 Disk drives w/ Power supplies and SIO cables. Not sure if any of them have been modified, etc. I'll check them in the morning when I get home from work. One has be spoken for. (07-29-07) Update on the 4 - 1050s All stock drives (07-23-07) 3 out of the 4 drives are good, the one will only spin the disk, and not seek the head (Tandon). Spins for three seconds, shuts off, and repeats. I think this is an easy fix. And as well as 3 of the 4 drives are Singapore built w/Tandon mechs, as the 4th is built in Hong Kong with a World mech. I also have a 65XE stock with Power Supply and monitor cable One 130XE modded with Steven Tuckers 4-in-1 OS (Normal OS, APE OS, 800 OS and Reverse Basic OS), with power supply and monitor cable 2 - 800XL's in various states, but they all worked before disassembly. I was going to upgrade the memory and install 4-in-1 OSes in them. Never got the chance. I now have one (1) 800XL left, I'll re-assemble it to stock, but if someone would like to have it upgraded, i'll do whatever you want to it, Memory, OS upgrade, ClearPic, etc. The 1st 800XL has been spoken for, and will get some nice goodies. The 2nd 800XL has been spoken for (07-29-07) One 1050 for parts missing the front bezel. This is a Singapore built drive w/Tandon Mech. (Updated 07-24-07) An 810 for parts missing the top cover and front bezel An TRAK drive Model AT-D2 ( I'll get the model in the morning) with Power supply (not sure of the working condition of it, I'll check it as well. It's been in storage for a while) Looks Like it works great. Single and double density. Slave drive hook up, and printer interface on the back. Was able to format a disk in single and double density, and read/write both types of densities. The Trak AT-D2 drive has been spoken for. (07-29-07) An Indus GT drive in poor shape, w/ Power supply. (I added a write protect switch in the back) The drive worked before going into storage, but when I pulled it out, the control board at the front got damaged, and pushed in. This drive also has the CP/M module installed (I got it for a deal a long, long time ago, and never knew how to use it). So i'll sell it as parts as-is. The Indus Has been spoken for. Thank You. (07-20-07) A MyIDE+ 1Mbit flashcart modded with the Pin-20 power.I'll include an IDE to Compact Flash adapter w/LED indicators. (classics again) The MyIDE+Flash cart has been spoken for. Thank You. (07-23-07) 1 - 4-in-1 OS upgrade from Steven Tucker (Classics) This uses two toggle switches to change the OS (Nornal OS, Reverse Basic OS, 800 OS, and Ape Warp OS+). (Updated 07-27-07) 1 - Wizztronics 800XL 256K memory upgrade board with support chips, ribbon cable and 8 - 256K memory chips. 1 - P:R: Connection by ICD (Just added 07-23-07) 1 - 850 Interface in beige plastic shell w/Power Supply (just added 07-23-07) 1 - CX-85 Keypad. (added 07-23-07) 1 - Happy Drive modification board for 1050. (Added 07-27-07) Two huge boxes of blank or can be re-formatted DS/DD disks (at least 180+ disks) (updated 07-23-07) UPDATE: 07-29-07 All items have been spoken for, thank you everyone for looking, and for those people who bought from me, thank you, I hope you enjoy your newly aquired Atari 8-bit hardware. Thanks all! -Marshall (SpicyChronos)

Drool....... I need to save up some pennies so I can get one. -Spicy

This is very cool. I never got to play the Wizardry series. even though I think I have them on the PC as a best of collection. Never got to play. but now i'll take a look through my boxes and see if I can get a game going. -Spicy

I'd like to recommend igg1na Sold me some joysticks. Came fast, and was packaged neatly. -Marshall

I Say ten fifty as well. or twelve hundred ex el, or eight hundred ex el, one thirty ex ee.

That chip was the problem with my Super Archiver II drive I won off of eBay a long time ago, even though the person said it didn't talk to the computer, I guessed that was the problem. So I promptly got some IC sockets and about a dozen of those chips (never know when your gonna need spares), and viola! it worked. So I hope for your problem it is the CA3086 chip at U1. Best of luck to you! -Marshall

31. Lexington, South Carolina. Originally from Illinois, and before that Utah. 2600 Was 1st gaming console I got, then got the 800XL with Indus GT drive for Christmas one year. Have a Mega 4 in storage, as well as a Jaguar.

Atari 1050 Modifications - Write Protect Bypass W/LED indicator - Drive ID Re-Location Here are some images and graphics to show how I did my Write protect bypass and drive ID re-location I hope these will help others in doing their own modifications. - Marshall Walker

That's pretty slick! Hey Algie.. did you do the Write protect switch as well? Do you have a wiring diagram that you used? Mine works, but my LED only lights up when I put it into write only mode. nothing in normal (it should change when it detects a notch) I wonder if I wired mine wrong.. -Spicy EDIT: Gee Um, helps if I wire it right. HAHA It's fixed now..

The top of platter 0 doesn't seem to have visible damage, but that may well lurk on one of the other sides. When bad sectors develop, the drive should try to read them a number of times before giving up in vain. If track 0 is bad, you're screwed. Does the drive find track 0 if you remove the stopper alltogether? BTW: make sure to close the lid if it doesn't need to be open, as even the tiniest of dust particles can cause a headcrash. When that happens, you're really, really screwed. Now you could try the following trick as a last resort, if you're prepared to wipe out any data stored on the drive. Put in the stopper in the position you think it originally was and lowlevel format (built in the controller's firmware or available as a separate program?) the drive. This will rewrite all tracks including track 0. If it detects a bad sector on track 0 when verifying the sectors, screw the stopper in a few turns and lowlevel format again. Repeat this procedure until track 0 verifies OK. Now lock the stopper with glue. What this routine does, is shift the physical position of the cylinders a bit to the inside of the platters. Usually there is some room available for this. I recall owning a Maxtor XT-1140 MFM drive once, which had a spare of more than 100 cylinders. That's more than 10%, originally it was listed as having 918 cylinders, but the completely identical RLL model (XT-2190) was sold as having 1024. Formatting the XT-1140 with 1024 cylinders worked flawless, and later on I used it on a WD1006 RLL controller for years without any problem whatsoever. As a sidestep in history, and an amusing story in its own right, I remember that back in the days over time Tandon TM-262 drives developed a similar defect as your drive is having. They didn't have a feature that parked the heads in a safe zone when powering down. Usually they parked in track 0, which was particularly nasty, as your partition table, sector table, directory entries and boot sector were all stored there. Once it had a bad sector there was nothing you could do about it. A friend of mine had found a way to revive such a drive, though. By reverse engineering he had found out he could inverse the position where the drive stores track 0. Originally this is the most outer cylinder, but by putting in modified PAL on the drives' electronics he could make the drive store track 0 on the most inner cylinder. After this hack these drives were good for another 2 years or so of use. Ah yes, the good ol' days, don't you just love 'em... re-atari Very cool information. But what I need is some type of software to try to read sector 0, since this is where the partition table is located with the Supra/KP interface. I really would like to get the data off the drive, as there are programs on there that I don't have backups of from the originals (ie. Daisy Dot III, and some others) The software that I have for the interface is very simple, and no re-tries built in, etc. What I need is something that will read the sectors constantly, so I can see if I can get to sector 0. Like you said, read, adjust screw, read again, etc... If I knew what commands to use, I possibly could write something.. it'd be crude as I don't know assembly, m65, etc.. but I guess I could try BASIC. *shrug*

I think a lowlevel format can take care of the misalignment. The controller will have to provide such a routine in its firmware, of course. LLF'ing basically writes new blank tracks. Do you mean by misaligning, that you shifted or removed the track-00 sensor? re-atari Well in my troubleshoting, etc of the drive, I opened the case and tried moving the rw heads a few times to see if it might have seized up. well the movement works fine if I remove the metal stopper that stops the head at track 0. otherwise it makes a horrible clicking sount, as it's trying to get to track 0.

You are probably going to need the mfg's. data sheets to determine that. You mention "SCSI HDD's" -- I read that the Supra interface had booting problems with real SCSI drives (as opposed to an MFM drive using a bridge board). But perhaps that got fixed along the way. What kind of a bridge board did your XEBEC (SASI?) drive use? -Larry Hi Larry, It was a Xebec Owl 4000 drive I think, from the documentation I got from LLPWhite. It was just a drive. It had it's own controller on the board. it was an 50 connection edge connector straight to the KP interface. Here's what I tried... I have a 213MB Maxtor LXT213SY SCSI drive. I dumped the EPROM from DanWinslow's interface, and with the documentation I figured out what bits to change to add the correct Cylinders and Heads. As well as changing the partiton sizes. Well I tried that and with the formatting utility that comes with the docs, it errors out with some error codes. That's the smallest SCSI drive I have. all the rest are 2.1GB and 4.1GB.. too big for this project.. The Problem I'm having with the XEBEC drive is that the RW heads might be out of alignment (my fault) and I have no clue on how to re-align them. -Spicy

Hi all. I haven't played a 2600 game for a long time, but I saw this neat website for Distellamaps for 5 2600 carts. You can even order the prints to hang on your wall. Not sure if anyone else has posted this, I did a quick search for the author, but nothing came up. http://benfry.com/distellamap/ Pretty neat. -Spicy