[Heavy Sixer Serial Number Thread]

Got this Heavy Sixer from a flea market a few months ago. I think it's a 1977 board inside a 1978 case because it has the access hole for the channel select switch and yet there is no such switch wired to the board. The "Recondition" stamp on the S.N. sticker probably has something to do with it. Serial number is 99477N

 

 

 

[Laser 128 Missing Keys]

Hi, I've recently bought a Laser 128 Apple II clone computer. Unfortunately, it is missing the F10 key and the space bar key. Is there a place where I can get replacement key caps? And if there is none, will key caps from an Apple II fit?

[The Dark Side of the Disk]

3 hours ago, Nezgar said:

Looks like its a failed copy attempt of 1983 Epyx Summer Games according to telling text in sectors 17, 36, 44, 45, 249, etc.

Now how did that end up on a Sirius disk? This is starting to reminding me of those Laserdisc dead sides. I should check the B-sides of other disk in my collection and see what I can find. Also, wouldn't it be theoretically possible to disable the copy protection on this copy and get the game to work?

[The Dark Side of the Disk]

Ok I managed to make it work. What I did is that I set both the source and destination drive to drive #1. When Disk Wizard prompted for the source disk, I unplugged the SIO2PC cable, turn on the 1050, and let it read the disk. Then when it prompts for the back up disk, I turn the 1050 off, plug in the SIO2PC cable, insert a blank disk image into virtual drive #1, and let it save. Anyway, here's the image.

 

 

Bandits_B_Side_Complete.atr

[The Dark Side of the Disk]

On 10/13/2019 at 3:46 PM, _The Doctor__ said:

yep once the copier is loaded and ready to go empty the slot on respeqt... you can then choose to copy from real disk in 1 to respeqt slot 2 etc... but remember to have it set up to save in real time or save the changes of the ATR when done...

 

Nezgar has the right idea in this...

Tried this and it did not work. In fact, If the cable is plugged in to the drive, then the Atari won't read from it, even if RespeQt isn't running.

[The Dark Side of the Disk]

6 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

I'd say set your real drive as ID 1 (source) and make sure all slot on respeqt are empty, then put a blank atr into respeqt slot 2, sector copy from drive 1 to drive 2, make sure to have respeqt write the changes to the disk when done

(you have to select if it should write to the disk, or tell it to save the changes to the atr when done, depending on setup and version)

 

How will I be able to load Disk Wizard II to the Atari then? I have to load it through RespeQt, and the Atari can only boot to drive 1.

[Is the Atari 400 Bad to Use?]

Unless you are buying an Atari 400 to play non-stop rounds of Typo Attack, I'd say go for it and install the 48k mod. Also fun fact: Typo Attack was programmed using a 400, an Atari Assembly cartridge, and a 410 cassette deck.

[The Dark Side of the Disk]

11 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

make sure the drive you are using to grab the sector copy from is on a different ID than the disk you are sending the sector copy to. If you have drive 2 as the source... then respeqt's drive 2 slot needs to have NO ATR/FOLDER/IMAGE/PCLINK of any kind in that ID slot... it must be empty..

I was sure that the second virtual drive was empty, and I made sure that the 1050 was not set to drive 2.

[The Dark Side of the Disk]

Ok actually, when I try it with a disk that I know works, it still says it has bad sectors. I think it is trying to read from respeQt's virtual drive and not my actual 1050. Is there a way to prevent that from happening?

[The Dark Side of the Disk]

So I built the cable and dumped the disk using Disk Wizard II. It says that the b-side is full of bad sectors. It may just be some corrupt data, but here is the .atr file if you want to take a look at it.

b-side.atr

[The Dark Side of the Disk]

Just bought the FTDI usb to serial cable. I'll build the SIO2USB cable as soon as it gets delivered and dump the contents of the b-side soon after.

[The Dark Side of the Disk]

Anybody know where I can buy the usb to serial cable used in the video?

[The Dark Side of the Disk]

Just now, Nezgar said:

Do you have the means to sector copy and post an ATR image of the disk?

Unfortunately, I don't have a method of dumping disks into .atr files. Where can I find instructions on how?

[The Dark Side of the Disk]

Hi, I have this copy of Bandits in my Atari 8-bit floppy collection. Out of curiosity, I ran a directory listing on the b-side of the disk in DOS 2.5 to see if anything was written on that side. Surely enough, there is some kind of data written to that side.

It seems to be some kind of garbage data. When I would try to boot the Atari XL through the b-side, it would load for a few seconds, and then soft-lock, no "BOOT ERROR" message or anything. The disk itself has a write protected b-side this data must have been written to the disk during the duplication process. Does anybody know what this data might be? Also if you just so happen to have a floppy disk copy of Bandits, does it also have data written on the b-side?

["Relax" By Synapse - What Is This?]

On 8/12/2019 at 3:33 PM, Tempest said:

Similar idea I think.  They both detect when your face twitches.  The Mindlink was more for action games while the Relax unit was for relaxation type games.

Don't they work differently from each other? I think the Relax unit functions like Atari 2600 paddle controllers, while the Mindlink is proprietary.

[Loot Crate is bankrupt]

I forgot about Loot Crate until now, they and their copy cats were a huge fad up until around 2017. It seemed like everyone and their moms were doing Loot Crate unboxing videos and sponsored ads back then. I personally never cared, I guess getting cheap, random junk in the mail every month didn't appeal to me.

[Capturing/recording gameplay on CRT-TVs (old type TVs) in a good way to display games from ones collection]

Really the best option is to use a VCR hooked up to a capture card. But another method (which is the one I use) is to use a DVD recorder and a couple of DVD-RWs.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

This took me way too long to make.

[Tetris on a mechanical TV]

Ok, this is amazing. Also I thought I'd share a video that goes in depth on mechanical TVs.

 

[Great arcade game dialogue]

"What Strength!! But don't forget there are many guys like you all over the world" -Street Fighter

[Arcades back in the day that seemed to carry lots of obscure games]

I recall Disney Quest (R.I.P) having a Trog arcade machine isolated from the other machines for some reason, and a bunch of Fix it Felix Jr.s in their own section of the arcade to promote Wreck it Ralph. I wouldn't call Fix it Felix Jr. obscure, it's more that they got a limited release and were put on location exclusively in Disney property with a scant amount sold to private collectors.

[Do you use a "Homebrew Joystick"? - Post your pics!]

Thought I'd show off my summer project.

It works with the Atari 7800, Colecovision, and pretty much anything that supports an Atari 2600 joystick. It may also work with the Sega Master System and SG-1000, but I don't have a Master System or Power Base Converter to check.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

With how many times Biff misspells "forums", it makes me wonder if he's either allergic to spellcheckers, or if he rejects the correct spelling and substitutes his own.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

In other news, Burger King is now selling $1 tacos...that is all.

[What did you buy today?.........]

Got this Super Pong Ten console for $15 from the Flea Market.