SIO2PC: What I think I know

[WizWor]

I've been reading through all the sio2whatever devices. I think I need one or two...LOL. Straighten me out where I have misunderstood, please.

 

I think this cable is as good as or better than any other available...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=260106682132

 

It is listed by a seller from Ohio called Atarimax with lots of good feedback. Atarimax.com is the APE home page. Am I naive to think that this seller has an official connection with APE?

 

I think I can use this cable with FREE software (Atari810: http://www.retrobits.net/atari/atari810.shtml) to use PC based ATR files with my Atari (run from, copy from, copy to).

 

I think I can use this software to back up all my unprotected Atari floppy disks and later use this software to recreate the floppy disks.

 

How am I doing?

 

I think I can order APE XP/ProSystem XP for $50. I think with that I can backup and restore all of my Atari floppies -- even protected ones.

 

Here are some things I don't understand...

 

1) Why would I want to order the APE XP Complete Starter Kit? What does Imagic buy me and why would I not just buy it separately if it was a good thing?

 

2) Since I am only interested in preserving my ability to enjoy these programs, would I be better off investing in a 'megacart' or 'sio2ide' or 'sio2sd' alternative?

 

3) Is it possible to use a PC as a SIO2PC or ATARI810 host while it is busy playing games or is it best to leave the PC idle while it is hosting an Atari computer?

 

4) What are the minimum requirements for a host? When we camp, I pack a bag of Thinkpads (600Es: p2 366, >160M of RAM, 30g disk, WinXP). Would one of these be a decent host?

 

5) Can the ATR files be run directly off optical media (DVD/CD) mounted on the host? I'm thinking of creating an autorun cd or dvd that loads atari810.

[Urchlay]

It is listed by a seller from Ohio called Atarimax with lots of good feedback. Atarimax.com is the APE home page. Am I naive to think that this seller has an official connection with APE?

 

He's Steve Tucker, the author of APE (aka the user "classics" on this board)... I've got one of his SIO2PC's, and it works like a charm. Also, he installed some mods in my 1200XL which came out great. I'm a very satisfied customer, and would recommend his stuff to anyone.

 

As to the APE/Atari810 questions, I can't really help you much there, never used either... The SIO2PC interface works great for me with AtariSIO on Linux, though.

[Tezz]

I can certainly second that recommendation (as i'm sure everyone else will here). you'll not have any worries dealing with Steve and his products. You'll be extremely happy with sio2pc or indeed the forethcoming sio2usb

[mimo]

I'll third it

Steve is a great asset to this community and should be supported ie. buy the SIO2PC from him!

you wont be sorry

Also, if you dont want the Atari plugged into a PC all the time, the MAXflash carts a great, flash the images of the games you want via SIO2PC and play straight from the cart.

Edited April 12, 2007 by mimo

[+Guitarman]

I've been reading through all the sio2whatever devices. I think I need one or two...LOL. Straighten me out where I have misunderstood, please.

 

I think this cable is as good as or better than any other available...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=260106682132

 

It is listed by a seller from Ohio called Atarimax with lots of good feedback. Atarimax.com is the APE home page. Am I naive to think that this seller has an official connection with APE?

 

I think I can use this cable with FREE software (Atari810: http://www.retrobits.net/atari/atari810.shtml) to use PC based ATR files with my Atari (run from, copy from, copy to).

 

I think I can use this software to back up all my unprotected Atari floppy disks and later use this software to recreate the floppy disks.

 

How am I doing?

d

I think I can order APE XP/ProSystem XP for $50. I think with that I can backup and restore all of my Atari floppies -- even protected ones.

 

Here are some things I don't understand...

 

1) Why would I want to order the APE XP Complete Starter Kit? What does Imagic buy me and why would I not just buy it separately if it was a good thing?

 

Imagic is an Atari disk image conversion program. There are a few different disk image formats out there and Imagic will convert them to ATR files.

 

2) Since I am only interested in preserving my ability to enjoy these programs, would I be better off investing in a 'megacart' or 'sio2ide' or 'sio2sd' alternative?

Those are alternatives in storage and access. You would still need a way to archive your floppies. That is what the combination of SIO2PC and APE/ProSystem are for.

 

3) Is it possible to use a PC as a SIO2PC or ATARI810 host while it is busy playing games or is it best to leave the PC idle while it is hosting an Atari computer?

 

Completely possible. I have APE going running my 1200XL while surfing Atariage all the time. APE uses very little PC resources.

 

4) What are the minimum requirements for a host? When we camp, I pack a bag of Thinkpads (600Es: p2 366, >160M of RAM, 30g disk, WinXP). Would one of these be a decent host?

Should be no problem as long as it has a serial port to connect the SIO2PC to. I use a Dell Optiplex P3 500Mhz 10gig HDD with only 256mb ram and have no issues at all.

 

 

5) Can the ATR files be run directly off optical media (DVD/CD) mounted on the host? I'm thinking of creating an autorun cd or dvd that loads atari810.

Yes you can, but you lose you ability to write to the disk image, which some games and software needs to do.

 

I would say, and I'm sure anyone would agree, Atarimax's SIO2PC adapter and APE are a must have to round out any Atari collection.

 

OK Steve, where's my commission?? LOL....JK

Edited April 12, 2007 by Guitarman

[+Larry]

I've been reading through all the sio2whatever devices. I think I need one or two...LOL. Straighten me out where I have misunderstood, please.

 

I think this cable is as good as or better than any other available...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=260106682132

 

(snip, snip, snip...)

 

 

Most of your other questions have been answered, but perhaps I can amplify a couple of things:

 

ATARI810 is a nice piece of software, however you will find it is much less full-featured than APE. ATARI810 has not been altered in quite awhile -- APE keeps getting better. While my desktop is an AMD 64, APE runs well for me using a Pentium I-100 MHz using W95. I run this on a Libretto palm-top. Multi-tasking is a different issue. I have no idea of minimum hardware when doing multiple operations. It depends... BTW, WinXP on a P2-366?

 

Soon a new version of APE will be released. See the thread "SIO2PC USB Adapter." That version will have still more features -- at least the registered version will. Hopefully Steve will omit some nice new features from the "TRIAL" version to provide some incentive for folks to register.

 

While you can use the APE ProSystem software to make functional images of protected disks, you cannot currently reliably restore PRO images to floppy disks with serial APE. At some point this may be possible with VAPI software using special hardware (HAPPY, Super Archiver, Catweasel, etc.). This may also be functional in a future version of APE. Steve would have to comment on that.

 

I know this for sure -- APE is the most full-featured accessory ever produced for the Atari 8-bit. If you buy an adapter and register the software, I would be astounded if you ever regretted it.

 

-Larry

[Rybags]

I found that the DOS version of APE prettywell runs on anything.

 

The Windows version needs probably at least a P2-400 or equivalent if you're using Win98, and probably something faster again for XP.

[HiassofT]

5) Can the ATR files be run directly off optical media (DVD/CD) mounted on the host? I'm thinking of creating an autorun cd or dvd that loads atari810.

 

If you'd like to do this really quick (and if you don't mind that the software is Linux based) you could try my AtariSIO bootdisk. It's still work in progress (and I have to update it again) but should be quite stable.

 

You can get the latest version from here. Unpack the ZIP file and have a look at the readme.txt. Basically you just need to create a CD/DVD with your ATRs and tell your cdwriter software to use the atarisio.img as a boot image.

 

It's best if your PC is not too new, standard IDE CDROMs should work fine but SCSI or SATA devices could be problematic (the Linux kernel on the image is quite stripped down so it'll fit all on a 1.44MB disk).

 

so long,

 

Hias

[+bf2k+]

I found that the DOS version of APE prettywell runs on anything.

 

The Windows version needs probably at least a P2-400 or equivalent if you're using Win98, and probably something faster again for XP.

 

I ran APE Win for quite a few years on a P1 - 200 (I think 48Meg RAM for a while) under Win 98 right up until November of last year when I moved. I got a new P4 machine out of the move deal for APE.

[WizWor]

Glad I asked. Turns out I didn't know as much as I thought I knew. Looks like I should sit tight until the SIO2PC USB Adapter is available. I'm OK with rs232, but, if the software has compelling features, fixes problems with backups, and the price is not much more, this seems like the way to go. I guess this would require software updates, so atari810 would no longer be an option? Probably require an update to Hias' AtariSIO bootdisk (thanks for the link, Hias) too?

 

I probably don't need imagic -- all of my images are ATR. I can't recall ever seeing any other format.

 

Maxflash sounds interesting, but the forums are pretty discouraging -- lots of people reporting problems. Looks like the carts *can* be programmed with an A* but that sio2pc is the easiest way to program the cart.

 

Thanks for all the valuable advice. I'll be keeping an eye on that SIO2PC USB Adapter thread.

[Tezz]

The pc spec required for running APE is actually very low. I have an old 486 75mhz laptop with only 8mb dedicated for APE, it's running a stripped down very minimal Windows '95 installation and runs just fine on it. I personally prefer to have a dedicated laptop for use with the A8 so that my main pc (Overclocked Core2Duo, 2GbDDR2, 2xNvidia8800 768Mb running in SLI etc etc) is not tied up for my work. It's kinda like just using this little laptop as an Atari peripheral with a gui, it's a nice way to work with the Atari this way You can easily pickup old pc hardware like that for next to nothing, consumers see something that old as useless trash. I've added Ethernet and usb1.1 so i'm ready for the new sio2usb when it's released. As much of the required specs reported here on Atariage, there's only a negigable benefit using usb2.0 so it should be no problem... I just need to install Happy into my good old 1050

 

Good luck with your setup

[WizWor]

I have an old 486 75mhz laptop with only 8mb dedicated for APE, it's running a stripped down very minimal Windows '95 installation and runs just fine on it.

 

Good luck with your setup

Turns out after A8, my second favorite 'retro' platform is the IBM Thinkpad 600 class laptop. I mentioned that I bring a bag of these camping. They are durable and useful...and cheap. I also have a TP560 that came free with a laptop case. I think, given your experience, this would make a APE host. It's a p133 with 40m of ram and a 2g disk running win95. It's not very useful as a laptop given its small 256 color screen, poor battery life, and the fact that I have a bag-o-600Es, but it sounds like a decent APE host.

 

Thanks!