Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative

[E474]

Even better!

[andyhants]

Would I be right in thinking the 'Atari 8 bit preserved software 2020-01-25' directory under ftp.pigwa.net is the right location for the latest overall set of preserved images ?

[hardcorehubz]

Hey all, i'm the guy that has been scanning and dumping CliffRacer's stuff he sent me. The scans are all up now on the Internet Archive as well as my site www.gamingalexandria.com. I also just tried to register for your site's forums if someone can approve me.

 

I was only able to get a few of the disks dumped with my Kryo unfortunately, but one was the Lotto Program at least! I also have a WAV recording of Three Little Pigs but it seems to only partially load, however I'm not an Atari 800 emulation expert so I may be doing it wrong. I've attached the WAV here if anybody wants to play with it. It seems to have a high pitch squeal in the background, normally i record tapes I dump in Mono 48khz and export as WAVs from Audacity and that seems to work okay. But do Atari tapes require stereo or something different?

 

 

threelittlepigsprogram.wav

[Fred_M]

49 minutes ago, hardcorehubz said:

But do Atari tapes require stereo or something different?

I have listened to your WAV-file. Atari tapes are in stereo with the data track on the right channel and (when available) an audio track on the left channel.

 

Most software don't have an audio track and then a mono dump is okay. In this case there is an audio track, so your dump needs to be in stereo  

 

The audio quality of your dump is okay, but quite loud. I don't think there is clipping in your WAV-file, but I think you should lower the volume a little bit

 

I hope you can dump the tape again in stereo 🙂 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Fred_M

[hardcorehubz]

Absolutely! Will do it in Stereo and reupload soon.

[avanze]

I have a question. Eastern Front (1941) only has an ATR format will there ever be an ATX version?

[DjayBee]

41 minutes ago, avanze said:

I have a question. Eastern Front (1941) only has an ATR format will there ever be an ATX version?

Only if we find an original disk to dump or somebody contributes a flux dump of an original disk.

[luckybuck]

I have 2.400 hits on my mac regarding EF... There was an APX version, too, as far as I remember. Therefore, it would be good to know, which disk version exactly is searched for?

[+DrVenkman]

1 minute ago, luckybuck said:

I have 2.400 hits on my mac regarding EF... There was an APX version, too, as far as I remember. Therefore, it would be good to know, which disk version exactly is searched for?

The APX version was also released on cassette (I had a copy as a kid, before I got a disk drive).

[luckybuck]

I have the cas file and can upload, but here the disk is searched. Have attached my EF archiv.

Eastern Front.rtf

[+Allan]

As far as I know, the only disk version of Eastern Front was the APX version, which had no copy protection. It's pretty common as well.

 

 

[luckybuck]

Yeah, APX disk and Atari as cart, that is what I have in mind. Further, he was along with Bill Wilkinson the good soul, who published even the source code! Most funny thing is the author in front of a 800 hard working on EF with a German helmet...

[avanze]

23 minutes ago, DjayBee said:

Only if we find an original disk to dump or somebody contributes a flux dump of an original disk.

Right, if it doesn't have a copy protection it probably doesn't need an ATX, but still, I'd like to have an ATX version anyway, lol

[+Allan]

I'll look to see if I have a copy (most likely) and I will send it to Bill Lange in my next batch of disks that he will copy with the Kyroflux.

 

Allan

 

[luckybuck]

Thank you Allan and Bill in advance.

[Zarxx]

1 hour ago, avanze said:

Right, if it doesn't have a copy protection it probably doesn't need an ATX, but still, I'd like to have an ATX version anyway, lol

Here's an atx from the atr. I've never seen a protected version as mentioned previously.

Eastern Front (1941) (1981)(APX)(US).atx

 

You can create an atx from any atr easily with a8rawconv if that is your personal preference, but you gain nothing from it (just a slightly larger file).

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Zarxx
typo

[luckybuck]

Chris 1981, hard working on EF...

 

[Mclaneinc]

Ha ha....Not seen that in a long time....Nice..

[Gearhead Lu]

Hello Farb,

I started a topic asking about submitting disks and tapes for archiving Atari software. Evilmoo and others suggested I come here and ask you.

I have a collection of original US retail sold disks, cartridges, tapes and their manuals that I bought in the 1980's.

I have been backing up my collection by downloading image files mainly from Atarimania and noticed that several of the titles and a manual were listed as missing. 

I would like to submit my original disks/tapes if they are needed for the archives.

 

I started making an excel sheet with a list of what I have and noted what is listed as missing from Atarimania. So far I am up to the titles starting with the letter M and see that I own about 12 of the titles that are listed as missing. Could it be that the site has not been updated yet, or does Atarimania need the original disk dumps? I would need someone to do the disk file dumps.

 

Here are some of what I have and listed as missing.

 

Alternate Reality- The City         Datasoft                   Manual

Astro Chase                             First Star Software    Disk

Aztec Challenge                        Cosmi                      Disk

Blue Max                                  Synapse Software    Disk

Captivity                                  Program Design Inc.  Tape

Claim Jumper                           Synapse Software     Disk

Combat Leader                        Strategic Simulations  Disk

Electra Glide                             Mastertronic               Disk

F-15 Strike Eagle                      Microprose Software  Disk

Mercenary- Escape from Targ    Datasoft                    Disk

Mercenary -The second City      Datasoft                    Disk

Mig Alley Ace                            Microprose Software  Disk

 

 

Thank you for keeping Atari software alive and available.

[Farb]

Hi @Gearhead Lu,

 

Thanks for reaching out and for your offer to help with our preserving efforts.

 

One thing to note, the want list of Atarimania you refer to is different than ours. Atarimania is focused on building a comprehensive archive where we (the a8preservation.com initiative) focus on building a curated one with provenance back to original media. So there will be things that are not on their list that we need and vice versa. The two sites collaborate but their goal and accumulated assets are different.

 

If you want to send me a full list of what you have, I can compare it to our site. Or you can use our search function to look up each title and see whether we have already preserved it.

 

From the list you posted, the following would be helpful because we either don't already have a dump or haven't yet verified our existing one:

 

Aztec Challenge

There are several releases of this: http://a8preservation.com/#/software/title/2646. Do you know which one you have?

 

Blue Max                                  Synapse Software    Disk

This has been a challenging title to preserve and we can use as many different dumps as we can get!

 

Captivity                                  Program Design Inc.  Tape

Claim Jumper                           Synapse Software     Disk

Mercenary -The second City      Datasoft                    Disk

Mig Alley Ace                           Microprose Software  Disk

 

Of course, even titles we already consider "preserved" may be interesting to dump in case it is an unknown variant (which we run across more often than you would think).

 

I'll PM you to work out where you can send things to be dumped.

 

Thanks again.

[andyhants]

On 5/10/2020 at 8:51 PM, andyhants said:

Would I be right in thinking the 'Atari 8 bit preserved software 2020-01-25' directory under ftp.pigwa.net is the right location for the latest overall set of preserved images ?

Bump - so is this a taboo question ?

 

Seriously - I've had marvellous patient support for all of my other 'noob' type questions & am hugely grateful for that & but is a question asking about a convenient d/l source for the full set of latest a8-preserved software a no-no ? Taking the time to read through this thread it seems that the archive.org source has now been deleted. There's talk of torrents being created with regular - 6 monthly-ish - updates posted which seems to make sense to me but no apparent info on if such a source exists. Is my question irrelevant - no  d/l location currently exists (hard to believe) or is it actually a 'PM me for more info' type thing? 

[Timothy Kline]

4 minutes ago, andyhants said:

Bump - so is this a taboo question ?

 

Seriously - I've had marvellous patient support for all of my other 'noob' type questions & am hugely grateful for that & but is a question asking about a convenient d/l source for the full set of latest a8-preserved software a no-no ? Taking the time to read through this thread it seems that the archive.org source has now been deleted. There's talk of torrents being created with regular - 6 monthly-ish - updates posted which seems to make sense to me but no apparent info on if such a source exists. Is my question irrelevant - no  d/l location currently exists (hard to believe) or is it actually a 'PM me for more info' type thing? 

 

I continue to host the most recent archive here (link below), @andyhants, but there hasn't been a subsequent, newer archive released that I'm aware of:

 

https://atari-owner.com/fun/atari-preserved-software/

 

--Tim

 

[DjayBee]

1 hour ago, andyhants said:

so is this a taboo question ?

Nope, probably just overlooked by everybody.

 

Yes, this is the latest release.

[+evilmoo]

17 hours ago, Timothy Kline said:

I continue to host the most recent archive here (link below), @andyhants, but there hasn't been a subsequent, newer archive released that I'm aware of:

 

https://atari-owner.com/fun/atari-preserved-software/

 

The .zip file here throws some odd errors when I unzip it under Linux:

 

Atari8bitPreservedSoftware2020-01-25/Ϻ+���Ϻ+�Ϯ (198x)(aDawliah)(SA)[cartridge].zip:  mismatching "local" filename (Atari8bitPreservedSoftware2020-01-25/الطاقة (198x)(aDawliah)(SA)[cartridge].zip),
         continuing with "central" filename version
 extracting: Atari8bitPreservedSoftware2020-01-25/Ϻ+���Ϻ+�Ϯ (198x)(aDawliah)(SA)[cartridge].zip  

Any idea what's going on here?  The "local" name appears to be the correct encoding, at least as far as InfoZip unzip is concerned.

 

[+SenorRossie]

Use a different tool to unzip the file. The command line unzip program has problems with unicoded filenames, is my personal experience with debian (raspbian) and Ubuntu.