Atari SupraDrive

[Albert]

The Supra files posted by @bob1200xl were removed at request of @kenames99, who claims ownership of this source was passed to him by Bob Klaas before he died.  Please do not repost them here. 

 

Thank you,

 

 ..Al

[+bob1200xl]

Thanks. I wondered how I was going to delete those files.

 

Did anyone d/l them? Please destroy any and all copies you may have. We have plenty to do without stepping on someone's intellectual property.

 

I don't want to engage in endless discussions about this - just follow the Rules, OK?

 

Please accept my apologies, Ken.

 

Bob

[evilmoo]

Well that's a short-sighted shame.  It certainly would've made writing emulation for the hardware easier.

[_The Doctor__]

well you know how it is.....

[flashjazzcat]

Gotta deal with such things carefully, especially when the technology is at the apex of its commercial viability.

[+DjayBee]

You never know, what finally will end up in the new VCS.

[_The Doctor__]

um not this...

[tschak909]

wtaf? Really? We're still playing these games with 35+ year old products?

 

-Thom

[+MrFish]

On 4/17/2020 at 4:11 AM, MrFish said:

I came across this in the Atari FAQ while researching the Supra Hard Drive / Interface. Can anybody verify the Miniscribe as the 20 MB 3.5" version that was sold?

 

(Oddly enough, I used to own that exact Miniscribe disk, which came in a Mac Classic II I used to have.)

 

- SupraDrive Atari Hard Disk system includes:
   - SupraDrive AT hard disk drive, one of
      - 10MB drive = Xebec 4000 / Xebec Owl (5.25" SASI)
      - 20MB drive = Miniscribe 8425S (3.5" SCSI) (can anyone verify this????)

 

 

Getting back on point, does anyone own an original SupraDrive AT 20, 30, or 60 MB kit? It's not anything crucial, but would be nice to know what kinds of drives they were supplying these higher capacity setups with.

 

[+Stephen]

59 minutes ago, tschak909 said:

wtaf? Really? We're still playing these games with 35+ year old products?

 

-Thom

There's gold in them there hills!  Gotta protect what is "mine" else it is no longer valuable.

[Mathy]

Hello Stephen

 

Them Thar Hills?

 

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

Edited April 22, 2020 by Mathy
Damn autocorrection

[+MrFish]

23 minutes ago, Mathy said:

Hello Stephen

 

Them Thar Hills?

Correct! I was going to post the same thing, but refrained. I'm glad I did, because you've added a concrete example. Definitely "them thar".

 

[kogden]

19 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

Gotta deal with such things carefully, especially when the technology is at the apex of its commercial viability.

Yeah seriously.  I would be more interested in seeing these devices repaired, modified and still used rather than hitting the trash heap.

 

I always wanted one of these.  I have the ACSI version for my ST but never owned a proper HDD interface for my 8-bits.  I would have loved a SupraDrive or MIO back in the day.  

 

Glad we have devices like IDEPlus now.  I just hate to see stuff fade into history due to intellectual property issues that seem kinda pointless.  PBI stuff is cool, I'd like to get to play with more of it.

[Caterpiggle]

Me, too . I never seen interface between HDD to 8 bits computers beside ST ! I would love to see an photo during operating between HDD and computers.

[BillC]

4 hours ago, MrFish said:

 

Getting back on point, does anyone own an original SupraDrive AT 20, 30, or 60 MB kit? It's not anything crucial, but would be nice to know what kinds of drives they were supplying these higher capacity setups with.

 

At that time I think that true SCSI drives were expensive, to reduce cost many companies used more common MFM HDD with adapters.

 

I bought a used HDD drive for my MIO in the late 80's. It used a SCSI to MFM adapter(Adaptec 4000A IIRC) to connect to the 20MB mechanism, I later swapped in a 40MB ST251 mechanism my brother gave me.

 

I still have this drive, though I haven't used it in over 20 years, don't know if it would still be operational.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by BillC

[video61atarisales]

first off let me say thanks to albert for responding to kens request so fast.

 

i own the k-products interface, and all support software. i purchased all of bobs products in 1998, have a bill of sales and clear paper trail showing ownership. ken and i were going to upgrade the unit to be more modern, and make it available to the market.

 

ken was not a contract programmer, he owns the internal software, i own the interface. so that download was kens legitimate property.

 

 both of us ran into some serious health problems which put us way behind. will we continue, perhaps, the market is still there.

 

thanks,

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

of course...

always comes back to- or is in orbit of this one particular entity....

such a coincidence in matters such as this...

 

they go in A-OK and come out, like so many others... guarded and paranoid... better encrypt those files... and lock them away for another 30 plus years. I wonder if merely mentioning the names are some sort of printed rights violation... better go check...

Edited April 22, 2020 by _The Doctor__

[tschak909]

I want to yell at these two, so badly, for being complete fucking selfish, self centered, narrow minded idiots.

 

(oh shit, did I say that out loud? Oh darn!)

 

(and yeah, it's always the same group of genetic defectives, isn't it? Same fucking fights for three decades now.)

 

(Yeah, I'm in a combative mood, come at me. I'm tired of these stupid fights that are preventing proper preservation. There is no valid argument from the other side, at this point, go fellate yourselves.)

 

-Thom

Edited April 22, 2020 by tschak909

[jamm]

1 hour ago, video61atarisales said:

first off let me say thanks to albert for responding to kens request so fast.

 

i own the k-products interface, and all support software. i purchased all of bobs products in 1998, have a bill of sales and clear paper trail showing ownership. ken and i were going to upgrade the unit to be more modern, and make it available to the market.

 

ken was not a contract programmer, he owns the internal software, i own the interface. so that download was kens legitimate property.

 

 both of us ran into some serious health problems which put us way behind. will we continue, perhaps, the market is still there.

 

thanks,

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

 

 

I'd say that opportunity passed a few decades ago. 

Every day the potential pool of users of these tools - free or otherwise - shrinks ever smaller.

[Albert]

Guys, please be civil.  You can argue your points without name calling.

 

Thank you,

 

 ..Al

[evilmoo]

1 hour ago, video61atarisales said:

ken and i were going to upgrade the unit to be more modern, and make it available to the market.

Perhaps if you could expound upon this, we could find a way to preserve the hardware through emulation and let you keep your market.

Alternately, if you could just release the information related to the hardware registers and their names and functions, that would go a long way towards helping emulation efforts.

 

Thank you for your time.

[+Stephen]

1 minute ago, evilmoo said:

Perhaps if you could expound upon this, we could find a way to preserve the hardware through emulation and let you keep your market.

Alternately, if you could just release the information related to the hardware registers and their names and functions, that would go a long way towards helping emulation efforts.

 

Thank you for your time.

LMAO - why not ask for a digital download and see how that goes.

[tschak909]

We've asked for such things in the past, to crickets. This is why some of us are _REALLY_ frustrated and angry.

[+DjayBee]

4 hours ago, video61atarisales said:

ken was not a contract programmer, he owns the internal software, i own the interface. so that download was kens legitimate property.

 

No reason to defend yourself on this fact. From my non-native English understanding nobody in this thread doubted this.

 

4 hours ago, video61atarisales said:

ken and i were going to upgrade the unit to be more modern, and make it available to the market.

I would expect the market to be in the high single- to low double-digit figures. This makes it a labour of love instead of a profitable product. So every competitor will be out of this game.

If the information gets disclosed, the true and hardcore fans who want this interface, highly likely will buy it anyway instead of fumbling with a solder iron and EPROM burner.

 

But with your stance you prevent this stuff being archived for documentation.

Quite often members of this forum have come up with great ideas and bug fixes IF things were discussed publicly.

 

Just my € 0,02.

Edited April 22, 2020 by DjayBee
typo

[+Stephen]

All good points DJay, but you'll get more results talking to a brick wall.  Shit's been hashed and re-hashed more times than I can count the past 20 years.  It seems that everyone in this tiny hobby of ours is doing stuff for fun, and Video 61 and the 2 people that still work with him seem to think it is a job that will pay their bills.

 

Even more sad is the fact, that I would pretty much guarantee that people that are offering their stuff for free get more via donations (solicited or otherwise) than the people screaming piracy and "we have to protect our stuff".  Oh well - I already have more HDD interfaces for the 8-bit than I need, and the Supra will not be one of them.  In the end, when (not if) the design gets lost as it will, it's just another piece of Atari history.