toddtmw Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 I was looking at PDF's of Antic (As one does) and came across this ad for Micro Mainframe. The device itself isn't too overwhelmingly interesting, but the part at the bottom where you can use a TRS-80 Model III as an Atari Disk Drive emulator? Did that ever actually ship? Has anyone seen one? I mean, I especially like the part where they say you can use your Model III as an Atari Floppy for only $90. (You know, plus the cost of the Model III...) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 It doesn't sound like it uses it as a floppy emulator, but actually uses the Model III floppy drive as an Atari floppy drive. I'm sure that's probably what you meant, but it's an important distinction. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddtmw Posted September 17, 2020 Author Share Posted September 17, 2020 2 minutes ago, bfollowell said: It doesn't sound like it uses it as a floppy emulator, but actually uses the Model III floppy drive as an Atari floppy drive. I'm sure that's probably what you meant, but it's an important distinction. Well, yeah. I'm comparing it to the SIO2PC devices we have now. The Model III was seen by the Atari as a Disk drive. Sure, it wrote to files on the Model III floppy drive, but that is because that was the storage the Model III had. An SIO2PC could read and write from a floppy drive attached to a modern Windows PC and would be doing the same thing. I'm just impressed they even thought to try it and wondered if they ever actually sold any of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StickJock Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 It sounds like the TRS-80 will read & write Atari formatted disks, so you can use a commercial disk, or you could write to a disk on the TRS-80 and then read the disk on another computer with an 810. The SIO2PC presents itself like an 810 (or other drive) but reads & writes the data to it's own disk architecture. Even if you still had a 5.25" floppy drive, you couldn't move the disks between the Atari & the PC. If the disks truly were portable between the Atari & TRS-80, that would be pretty slick! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 I had one. The MMF was HUGE -- I'd bet it was at least 24" long. It was kinda cool, but boy was it big! (Okay, most stuff back then was big, but this was in a league of it's own, IMO.) Traded it. @bob1200xl do you still have your MMF? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 Of course! I always assumed that it was an Atari drive that ran on SIO. Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 It does! It worked well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 Crazy that even in 2020 I am hearing about some of this stuff for the 1st time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 Looking at it, I see SIO and 34-pin FDD connectors. Two HH drives. Yep, it's big... Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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