Making an Atari 8-bit disk image

[+atari2600land]

How do I make an Atari 8-bit disk image for use in emulators? Is there some special program I need that does it, or what? Google turned up nothing.

[Roydea6]

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/212133-previewing-atari-disk-images/?p=2751803

 

This post has a link to MakeATR at the very bottom of page.. versa 6

[+atari2600land]

What I meant was could I turn like, say, a .txt file into an .atr file?

[fadix]

Try running AspeQt. Go to "Disk", "New disk image". Mount the disk image you just created. Click on the "Show properties" button. Then "Add files to this directory".

 

I'm not sure if it automatically does the end line character conversions. Atari uses $39 which is different from the PC.

[+atari2600land]

All I want to do is make a file that I can run in my emulator so I don't have to type the same thing over again when I want to do it. Why does it have to be so hard?

[fadix]

If it is not an already existing file on your computer, then just load DOS with your emulator. Download it at http://ftp.pigwa.net/stuff/collections/holmes%20cd/Holmes%201/ATR%20Programs/Disk%20Operating%20Systems/Dos%202.5.atr

 

You run the DOS using your emulator, when you are in BASIC, type SAVE "D1:FILENAME.BAS" to save your program.

[+atari2600land]

I'm not understanding any of this. What I want to do is to put BASIC code and make a disk file for an emulator so I don't have to type all of it when I enter the emulator. I've downloaded lots of stuff and none of it seems to be working for what I want to do.

[ricortes]

If you say which emulator it will help.

 

Generally, down load an ATR file that has DOS on it. Use the emlator menu to load it as disk 1 and cold start/boot from there. Assuming you have done it right and are booting with BASIC enabled, type DOS<RETURN> at the BASIC prompt and see if you have a working disk. If you see the DOS menu, use the option 'RUN CARTRIDGE' to get back to BASIC.

 

Type in your program and use

SAVE "D:MYPRG.BAS"

To retrieve it

LOAD "D:MYPRG.BAS"

or

RUN "D:MYPRG.BAS"

[+atari2600land]

I'm using Atari800Win PLus.

[1050]

From the disk drive menu in 800Win, select New Image and make one of the size you want. Mount the image in a drive and SAVE files to it as ricortes outlines above. Or you can import/export free standing files into/from ATR files using ATRUtil among others.

http://atari.kensclassics.org/a8emulators.html#utilities

 

You will need to boot a DOS ATR image in order to write out files, even on an emulator. You can't directly write a BASIC listing file as a plain text file and just turn it into a .BAS file that would be useable on an ATR image, sorry. You have to use the emulated BASIC machine to do that on and again you need to boot with a DOS disk first in order to even 'see' the contents of the mounted ATR image or access that content as well.

 

Having gotten this far and everything is working for you, it might be possible to then ENTER a properly formatted text file and have the emulated BASIC machine SAVE it back to the ATR as a standard .BAS file so you CAN do it with plain text files, but they have to be EXACTLY correct in order to be usable at all. You'll have to convert End Of Line (EOL) characters to Atari ones and be very precise all over the place but it can be done. Best way to go about it would be to first write out a LISTing of a working BASIC program, export that file from the ATR, convert the EOL characters and take a look at it in notepad or whatever you are using. Your written code will have to be EXACTLY like that example text file or it won't be accepted by the emulated BASIC machine when you use the ENTER command after reversing all the steps it took to get the example text file out of the emulator in the first place.

 

SAVE is to

LOAD

 

as is

 

LIST is to

ENTER

 

Inverse characters will mess it all up for you and they do them a LOT in BASIC listing files, it's pretty much the nail in the coffin for the ENTER method of plain text files, but it still can be done if you don't use inverse characters.

[+atari2600land]

THERE! Why did this have to take all freaking day to do?!

Here's my program. It's 2 lines. But it's not a game, it's a sort of Hello World thing I did with experimenting with circles. To see it again, type RUN when it's over (but you probably already knew that.)

circles.atr

[Roydea6]

http://dskcenter.free.fr/ATARI800/TEXT2ATR.zip

 

This is a little old now, but I use to use it on my XP windows about 3 years ago..