Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'preservation'.
Found 13 results
-
I have completed the work on preserving My Original Disks and my Non-Original Disks and have moved on to building my TNFS server for Fujinet; www.naberhood.com. In the above two threads there was interest in menu disks so I started this project. While I am building my TNFS server I am going to collect and organize any and everything I find that can be put on a menu and post them here and on the TNFS server. This can include rips from Cassette, Cartridge, Disk and XEX, etc. 3-D Supergraphics (1980)(United Software of America)(US)[BASIC] 3 Sector Boot Demos 0001 (SSDD) 3 Sector Boot Games 0001 (SSDD) 3 Sector Boot Games 0002 (SSDD) 3 Sector Boot Games 0003 (SSDD) 3 Sector Boot Games 0004 (SSDD) 3 Sector Boot Games 0005 (SSDD) 3 Sector Boot Games 0006 (SSDD) 3 Sector Boot Scott Adams' Adventures 32 BASIC Programs for the Atari (SSDD) 101 Programming Tips & Tricks Academy on Computers - Atari Self-Tests AT1.1.1 (1983)(WNET-THIRTEEN)(US) Agent CIO (19xx)(Butler, Mark)(US) BASIC Games 0001 (DSDD) Softside Adventures of the Month (3600 Sectors)
-
Hey everyone! Been a long-time lurker, but finally decided to create an account because I've taken on a personal project I'm hoping some fine folks here might be able to help with. I'm from Ottawa, Canada and grew up here. Back in the 80s and 90s, there was a local organization called the National Capital Atari Users Group. It was primarily focused around the earlier Atari home computers, such as the 400/800XL, 130XE and to a lesser extent, the Atari ST line. Growing up with a 130XE in the house, one of the things I loved about this organization was the monthly disks they put together for members, consisting mostly of community developed games and utilities, many of which were as good or better than anything you could buy off the shelf. These were made for a number of years and I think I had at least a couple dozen of them once. Sadly, these have long since been lost. I've been looking for a retro project to take on and this came to mind. I'm looking to build an online archive of all these monthly disks that will be free to everyone. I have spent many hours researching and cannot find any such archive online, or even images of the disks on Archive.org. I'm wondering if there are any former members of this organization out there who have some or all of these disks, either in imaged or physical form that they'd be willing to give or lend me. For physical disks, I will make 1:1 images of them using 1050 drive with an interface to connect it to PC. I'll then build a web site to host the archive and upload the collection to Archive.org for posterity. Of course, full credit will be given if desired. I have a lot of great memories of my early computing life thanks to the NCAUG and these monthly disks and I'm excited about building this tribute to them for other Atari enthusiasts. If anyone can help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it. Cheers! -
I shared this in my regular retro-gaming discord and someone suggested I post it here... I recently picked up a 2600 Junior for a tenner from ConsoleMad; price reduced because the cartridge interlock tabs were broken. As I researched various fixes for this I noticed all the fixes involved butchering the case in some way. I know a lot of people aren't bothered by that kind of thing but I like to preserve all the hardware I own in as close to original condition as possible - so I came up with this solution. It's just a small 3D printed plate that sits on top of the cartridge slot and releases the mechanism as the original, fragile, tabs would have done. I've stuck it down with double-sided tape so it's completely reversible. I've tested it with Combat, Warlords, Pac-Man, and Breakout and they all work perfectly.
-
Here's a little guide I put together after a few hundred hours of playing with disks. I hope it's some use. Atari 8-bit Disk Preservation Guide.pdf ATRs & Manuals Tools.zip
- 4 replies
-
- 13
-
-
- Preservation
- KryoFlux
- (and 1 more)
-
Hi, this is Klaus. We managed to dump the 99/2 on the last weekend. So now it is time to complete the picture by also getting the other machines into the next preservation stage. We will try to dump the system roms of the never released/produced CC-40+, Compact Computer+. Steve Eggers is having one prototype unit and according to acadiel also ksarul is one prototype owner. The basic steps will be started off like acadiel managed to do all his dumps on the CC-40 unit.
- 6 replies
-
- 4
-
-
- Compact Computer
- CC-40+
- (and 2 more)
-
Being someone who likes video games and wants to play them 10-30+ years down the line, stuff like streaming only game systems and all digital systems kind of make me worry about how we'll preserve and play these modern games in the future. Is it going to be next to impossible to play today's games tomorrow through emulation or by using the native console, or have people already found loopholes and such to preserve such stuff? (Sorry if it sounds like I repeated my first paragraph, I'm very tired at the time of writing this post)- 21 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- preservation
- modern gaming
- (and 2 more)
-
I did a bit of searching around on Google and couldn't find any information on the subject, so I was wondering if anyone around here knew if any efforts were being made to preserve some of the more standout WiiWare titles now that the Wii Shop is no more? Sadly I never got to experience Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, Contra ReBirth, or any number of other critically acclaimed WiiWare titles when they were still available for download; so I was wondering if there are any groups or inviduals out there working on a way to preserve these games for the future?
-
What is your thoughts on FPGA arcade board replacements? For those who don't know a FPGA is a special chip that can be programed to actually become other chips so it can emulate hardware in hardware which can come close to a perfect re-implementation or replacement if done right. Unlike MAME you can make the chip run at the same speed and act and load the ROM in the same way and have the same exact bugs and you can update the outputs to more modern outputs like Displayport, HDMI or just regular VGA. There are current projects that have re-implemented some games and there are even replacement boards on the market. I know there is a Williams multi FPGA board and a Berzerk FPGA. There also is the MiST FPGA project that is implementing arcade chipsets with some that are Works In Progress. What are your thoughts on this? Is this okay to preserve faulty boards like Berzerk that may not survive much longer. Which boards or games do you think are in need of an FPGA implementation? What are your thoughts on this in general? -
Hey Everyone, (First off-- apologies if this is obviously covered in another post-- I didn't find anything conclusive with search.) Is there an organized effort to archive ST software similar to Farb's project for the 8-bits? https://atariage.com/forums/topic/234684-atari-8-bit-software-preservation-initiative I'm curious is there's anyone that's done a significant amount of ST disk dumping with either SuperCard Pro or Kryoflux and if there's already been discussion on preferred software to use, settings, formats, etc. (And/or if there's any alternate tools like 'a8rawconv' tailored for ST use?) If this is all documented somewhere, please feel free to tell me to RTFM and just post a link. Thanks, -Clay
-
In my various searches of the internet, I couldn’t help but notice there are many Atari titles that have unfortunately vanished. They are still available in various cracked forms, but finding an unaltered .atx version with copy protection intact can be difficult. Many thanks to the Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative and all the others who have managed to find and preserve all this great Atari 8 bit software. I have a couple of titles to offer for consideration to be “preserved”, which I have been unable to find anywhere in an unaltered form with copy protection intact. Drol (1983)(Broderbund)(US)(Color Version) Drol (1983)(Broderbund)(US)(Black and White Version) Both versions of this game have nice .atx disk images with COPY PROTECTION INTACT. However these are not exactly what they appear to be. These are 2016 REPRODUCTIONS that I have created myself. These images load, look and sound like an authentic Broderbund disk. These images have authentic copy protection, including Duplicate Sectors and Bad Sectors on Track #5 (Typical of Broderbund copy protection). The copy protection functions EXACTLY in the manner that it should, including a subroutine that checks if you are running a “Happy Drive”. The game data is encrypted (just like an authentic Broderbund disk). The titles “crack” in the exact same way as an authentic Broderbund disk. NO these are not “true” disk images but they look, sound, load, etc. the same as a “true” image. If an authentic image is unavailable a good reproduction could “fill the gap”. They were actually made from a composite of SEVERAL clean cracks and some authentic disk images. Using several different versions (instead of just 1) gave me the ability to check the data for modifications. I usually crack Atari software but that gives me an advantage of knowing how certain software companies protect their software. Because I have studied Broderbund copy protection, I know how it functions and what should or shouldn’t be there. The game data for the Drol color version actually had to be re-encrypted. I COULD have used the unencrypted version and just skipped the decryption routine (who would know?) BUT! an authentic Broderbund title DOES NOT FUNCTION LIKE THAT, so neither do my reproductions. (Using Altirra Emulator) I actually used the Broderbund copy protection routine ITSELF to do the data encryption, so I’m quite certain it has been correctly encrypted (so it can be decrypted each time the disk is loaded). This Release Contains: 1 .atx “Original” image of each version with copy protection intact 1 .atr Unmodified backup of each version (won’t boot but shows copy protection at work) 1 .atr Cracked backup version of each title I hope everybody enjoys this and I hope this can be a small contribution to “preserving” Atari Software for the ages! Drol (1983)(Broderbund)(US) - 2016 Reproduction.zip
- 5 replies
-
- 11
-
-
- drol
- broderbund
- (and 2 more)
-
The Software Preservation Society, a project for preservation of historic computer disk games, accepts dumps for the Atari 8-bit. Please give your original disks a chance! The Software Preservation Society (SPS) is a project to preserve historic computer games supplied on disks. It wants to preserve the games in their original published form, unabridged and futureproof. To achieve that, the disk will be read with an IBM-PC, a Kryoflux USB board and a suitable disk drive and a so-called dump be created. Because Kryoflux samples the low level magnetic flux transitions, only this procedure guarantees that all information of the disk can be determined, like phantom sectors and exact alignment of sectors on adjoining tracks. This binary dump will then be transferred to the SPS which analyses it and creates an IPF file which contains all disk information of the original disk. This IPF file can then either be written back to a real disk or be used in an emulator. Of course, this process takes some time, because the members of the SPS carry out the conversion in their spare time. The source code of the loading library has been published under a MAME-like license, thus the format is futureproof and adaptions are easy, contrary to e. g. VAPI, where some images do not work in the "Atari800" emulator, because it is not known how they must be integrated. IPF has been established on the Amiga and realised for the Atari ST, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC, and dumps will be accepted for various other systems. To get the ball rolling also for the Atari 8-bit, a minimum amount of about 80 dumps must be gathered, thus this call for participation. And time runs out slowly: Original disks are perishable media, the magnetisation decreases continuously and reaches now, 25 years after their creation, a critical level where single bits begin to fail. In practice, of the 300 Amiga-dumps I submitted, I got 270 IPFs in six years, and on the remaining ones either their format has not been supported yet, the disk has already read errors, or no unabridged dumps have been found, where no highscores or similar have been written to the disk. However, every dump is sensible, because firstly, every contributor of an original dump gets an IPF when its published, and secondly, IPFs have already been created from several pieces of dumps. Normally, original disks are written with specialised hardware which implements a certain timing different from home equipment, thus the SPS can determine the originality. For the Atari 8-bit, the procedure is as follows: If the disk is single-sided it can be dumped with an 80-track drive. Flippy disks require a rare "flippy" drive which is able to step to track -8 in order to read both sides at once. Thus these disks must either be send to SPS or read on a personal meeting, e. g. on a Retro-party. If someone has really many flippy disks (30 minimum), such a drive can also be rent, but due the rough conditions of postal service and the limited availability of such drives this is restricted. For private persons, the conversion is free of charge. The preliminary dump format has been documented, but it is planned to be changed once again. Based on it, also games could be supported in an emulator whose IPFs have not yet been created. For further information of the SPS please look on their website. Question may be asked there or in the Kryoflux forum. This text is being published under the license Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by Achim Härtel and ABBUC. Distribution and translation is desired. Weblinks: SPS http://www.softpres.org Kryoflux http://www.kryoflux.com CC-BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ ABBUC Atari Bit Byter User Club http://www.abbuc.de/ Preliminary stream format documentation http://www.softpres.org/kryoflux:stream
-
So I just got my shiny new Kryoflux board yesterday. I got it all set up with an old IBM drive that I cleaned up and it is working perfectly. I was so excited to watch it produce raw stream and .img files of my original Atari 8-bit Bruce Lee disk in less than a minute and a half! I couldn't wait to put in a blank disk and see if it could write a working copy of the disk, protection and all. Then comes the "cannot open image file" error... Did I do something wrong, I wonder to myself? Wait, what? The software can't write back the images it produces??? ??? I have to send them to the "Software Preservation Society" to have them decide if it is worth their time and effort to generate a writeable .ipf file for me? I don't mean to sound ungrateful, because the Kryoflux is truly a remarkable product, but is there ANY way I can build an .ipf file myself with a windows PC? I have a lot of my own data disks; my old BBS disks especially that have become unreadable through the years, that I would like to try to bring back from the dead with this product. Any ideas, links, suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
-
I actually play my games, so I need to open the boxes from time-to-time. Opening these thin cardboard boxes without bending the lid a little bit doesn't seem to be my forte. It also isn't too difficult to put wear on the tabs under the lid. Are there any techniques you guys use to open the boxes without putting any noticeable wear on them?
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord