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Trak AT Series - Original Software (DDINIT)


MrFish

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Anybody have the original software that came with the Trak AT Series drives?

They're supposed to come with a utility/patch called DDINIT, which will modify

Atari DOS 2.0S to support double-density.

 

Failing that, I'd settle for a copy of DOS 2.0S already modified with this utility.

 

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2.0D and 2.5zx

https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Atari DOS 2

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/323472-my-software-library-a-preservation-effort-non-originalscracks/?do=findComment&comment=4883768

and the other usual suspects have a number of double density capable DOS listed... could be interesting to see what the patches look like compared to these...

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17 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

 

DOS 2.0D is the supplied DOS from Atari for the 815.

 

  

17 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

 

Although this is an interesting specimen, I have no way to validate that it's been patched with DDINIT.

 

  

17 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

and the other usual suspects have a number of double density capable DOS listed... could be interesting to see what the patches look like compared to these...

 

I'm just specifically interested in the DDINIT program/patch from Trak, or a copy of DOS 2.0S that is known to have been modified with DDINIT.

 

Edited by MrFish
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@playermissile, please look for it, there are several people like me hoping that someone will find it and make a backup (freedom from plastic to the intertubes).

I got a Trak drive and it is working. I also was able to use the "slave" connector to fit a Gotek with FlashFloppy firmware (it works just for SingleDensity ATRs as D2: or more generally as Dx+1:).

Great website you have!, btw.

 

 

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It turns out I had already imaged my Trak disk, but it didn't have the DDINIT program. However, it did have a program called TADS.SYS. I used it and wrote out new DOS files to a double density disk image, and the resulting DOS.SYS files do have differences, e.g. FD in the DD version where it's 7D in the SD version.

 

UPDATE: now I'm not so sure what TADS.SYS is doing. It seems that the DOS 2.0S that is there is able to format and write to DD without using the TADS.SYS file.

 

dos20s-tads.atr dos20s-dd.atr

Edited by playermissile
no idea what's going on
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1 hour ago, playermissile said:

UPDATE: now I'm not so sure what TADS.SYS is doing. It seems that the DOS 2.0S that is there is able to format and write to DD without using the TADS.SYS file.

Perhaps it only applies the patches to change DOS 2.0S into DOS 2.0D which are only a few bytes. 

If you afterwards write out DOS to a disk these changes become persistent. 

 

I would have expected that DDINIT does a little more. 

The MMG disk from SoulBuster's thread seems to to more. I have not yet actually used or tried this DOS but when you run CHANGE from the disk, it will ask you which drive should be changed to what density. 

This DOS can be found on later disks of MMG's BASIC compiler v2.0.

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2 hours ago, DjayBee said:

I would have expected that DDINIT does a little more. 

I think DDINIT must do more. This is not it.

 

I disassembled TADS and it looks like all it is doing is sending two commands to the drive using calls to SIOV. The first is a #$4e command, and the second is a #$4f. Both commands are non-standard. The $4e must be a read of the drive status of some sort, because if succeeds reading in the 12 requested bytes, it toggles a single bit and sends it back out with the $4f.

 

It my dim memory, I think it might be switching the density of the drive? I seem to remember there was a way to swap the drive status light from single to double, and maybe this was it.

 

 

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4 hours ago, playermissile said:

It turns out I had already imaged my Trak disk, but it didn't have the DDINIT program. However, it did have a program called TADS.SYS. I used it and wrote out new DOS files to a double density disk image, and the resulting DOS.SYS files do have differences, e.g. FD in the DD version where it's 7D in the SD version.

 

UPDATE: now I'm not so sure what TADS.SYS is doing. It seems that the DOS 2.0S that is there is able to format and write to DD without using the TADS.SYS file.

 

dos20s-tads.atr 90.02 kB · 3 downloads dos20s-dd.atr 179.64 kB · 2 downloads

 

So, I guess these are from non-original disks.

 

I'm surprised nobody has originals. These seemed to be fairly popular drives, and they made 4 different models.

 

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44 minutes ago, MrFish said:

So, I guess these are from non-original disks.

 

I'm surprised nobody has originals. These seemed to be fairly popular drives, and they made 4 different models.

I had a habit of editing my DUP menus to be silly, so yes, these DOS 2.0s images are from standard sources. I didn't change the DOS.SYS as far as I remember, so here's that from my Trak disk image. It does differ by a few bytes from the DOS.SYS on the earlier attached .atr file.

DOS.SYS

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  • 2 years later...

Yes, the Trak disk was formatted and used to distribute pirated games 😢

My best guess is that this was done by the Atari club my Dad was a member of (Cleveland/Akron OH area).  From what I remember, many or all of the club members purchased the Trak drives at the same time. Apparently, the Trak utilities were considered to be of much less value than a blank disk to distribute games! My 12 y.o. self agreed at the time 🙂.

 

Add me to the list of folks that would love to find this missing software.

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  • 2 months later...
On 8/27/2021 at 6:50 PM, playermissile said:

I think DDINIT must do more. This is not it.

 

I disassembled TADS and it looks like all it is doing is sending two commands to the drive using calls to SIOV. The first is a #$4e command, and the second is a #$4f. Both commands are non-standard. The $4e must be a read of the drive status of some sort, because if succeeds reading in the 12 requested bytes, it toggles a single bit and sends it back out with the $4f.

 

It my dim memory, I think it might be switching the density of the drive? I seem to remember there was a way to swap the drive status light from single to double, and maybe this was it.

 

 

The documentation for TADS was in an addendum provided with the drives. It looks like it was used to switch densities as you say.

Trak Addendum.pdf

 

However, it looks like there was at least more than one addendum:  

 

So who knows which addendum was bundled with which ROM version, or if all addendums contained the TADS documentation.  🤷‍♂️

Edited by burkhart87
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