Getting Atarimax Multicarts working through Windows XP

[+Allan]

I'm trying to get the Atarimax multicarts for the 5200 and Colecovision working on Windows XP which is on my Intel Imac run with Paralells (got all that?) with no luck. Has anybody been able to do this yet?

 

Allan

[mellis]

I'm trying to get the Atarimax multicarts for the 5200 and Colecovision working on Windows XP which is on my Intel Imac run with Paralells (got all that?) with no luck. Has anybody been able to do this yet?

 

Allan

 

It works for me.

 

I'm using VMware to run Windows XP from a Boot Camp partition, FWIW.

 

What's your failure?

[+Allan]

I'm not sure. Windows XP sees both carts but the two Atarimax programs don't see the carts. It just says cartridge disconnected.

 

Allan

[classics]

I'm not sure. Windows XP sees both carts but the two Atarimax programs don't see the carts. It just says cartridge disconnected.

 

Allan

 

Sounds like the driver is not installed correctly. Try opening the device manager with the cartridge connected and make sure the 5200 multi-cart is listed under Atarimax Devices.

 

Steve

[+Allan]

I'm not sure. Windows XP sees both carts but the two Atarimax programs don't see the carts. It just says cartridge disconnected.

 

Allan

 

Sounds like the driver is not installed correctly. Try opening the device manager with the cartridge connected and make sure the 5200 multi-cart is listed under Atarimax Devices.

 

Steve

It just lists both devices under 'Other devices' with the name 'Colecovision USB Multicart' and '5200 USB Multicart'.

 

Allan

[Divya16]

I'm trying to get the Atarimax multicarts for the 5200 and Colecovision working on Windows XP which is on my Intel Imac run with Paralells (got all that?) with no luck. Has anybody been able to do this yet?

 

Allan

 

It works for me.

 

I'm using VMware to run Windows XP from a Boot Camp partition, FWIW.

 

What's your failure?

 

Is that VMware downloadable free from somewhere like DOSBOX? I ran into some compatibility issues as well with old software for DOS, Win 3.x, Win 98, etc. on newer machines.

[classics]

It just lists both devices under 'Other devices' with the name 'Colecovision USB Multicart' and '5200 USB Multicart'.

 

The driver is not installed then, it is reading the description from the devices USB descriptor, but the proper class driver is not loaded. It should be listed under Atarimax Devices if the driver is installed.

 

Try opening the device properties for each device by double clicking on the entry under Other Devices and use the re-install driver option.

 

Steve

[mellis]

 

Is that VMware downloadable free from somewhere like DOSBOX? I ran into some compatibility issues as well with old software for DOS, Win 3.x, Win 98, etc. on newer machines.

 

You may purchase VMware Fusion from a variety of online retailers for between $50-$70. If you already own Parallels, they are offering a competitive upgrade for $9.99. Of course, Parallels is offering a competitive upgrade from VMware for $9.99 - so it's up to you to decide which is best. I've found that they are both good solutions, but for what I do, VMware is more compatible (I can swap disc-images with folks that use their PC version, for example).

 

Here's the product info page:

http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

[+Allan]

It just lists both devices under 'Other devices' with the name 'Colecovision USB Multicart' and '5200 USB Multicart'.

 

The driver is not installed then, it is reading the description from the devices USB descriptor, but the proper class driver is not loaded. It should be listed under Atarimax Devices if the driver is installed.

 

Try opening the device properties for each device by double clicking on the entry under Other Devices and use the re-install driver option.

 

Steve

Thank you a million, Steve. It works.

 

It's really nice to no longer have to use a second computer to use my Atarimax carts.

 

Allan

[atariksi]

 

Is that VMware downloadable free from somewhere like DOSBOX? I ran into some compatibility issues as well with old software for DOS, Win 3.x, Win 98, etc. on newer machines.

 

You may purchase VMware Fusion from a variety of online retailers for between $50-$70. If you already own Parallels, they are offering a competitive upgrade for $9.99. Of course, Parallels is offering a competitive upgrade from VMware for $9.99 - so it's up to you to decide which is best. I've found that they are both good solutions, but for what I do, VMware is more compatible (I can swap disc-images with folks that use their PC version, for example).

 

Here's the product info page:

http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

 

Do the VMware and Parallel support Windows 3.x or just Windows 98/XP?

 

Price seems high at $50..$70 given you can get an old laptop off of ebay with Windows 98 or XP for less than that.

[mellis]

Do the VMware and Parallel support Windows 3.x or just Windows 98/XP?

 

Price seems high at $50..$70 given you can get an old laptop off of ebay with Windows 98 or XP for less than that.

 

If you derive no value from running multiple, concurrent operating systems on a single workstation, and being able to seamlessly drag files to from these environments (and even cut/paste, for that matter) is not important to you, then some old, junker, eBay laptop is probably the best choice for you.

 

In my case, I do enough work developing cross-platform software that $50-$70 is nothing. I spend more than that on dinner at a restaurant.

 

 

EDIT: punctuation

Edited October 3, 2010 by mellis

[atariksi]

Do the VMware and Parallel support Windows 3.x or just Windows 98/XP?

 

Price seems high at $50..$70 given you can get an old laptop off of ebay with Windows 98 or XP for less than that.

 

If you derive no value from running multiple, concurrent operating systems on a single workstation, and being able to seamlessly drag files to from these environments (and even cut/paste, for that matter) is not important to you, then some old, junker, eBay laptop is probably the best choice for you.

 

In my case, I do enough work developing cross-platform software that $50-$70 is nothing. I spend more than that on dinner at a restaurant.

 

 

EDIT: punctuation

 

I wasn't thinking of a single unit price but I sell/distribute many 16-bit/32-bit software for Windows 3.x/95/98SE that worked fine on XP/Vista 32-bit but doesn't run on 64-bit OSes. I can't tell my customers to purchase some VMware or Parallels for $50..$70 given my software mostly costs less than that. For single user, I have old laptops that run 16-bit/32-bit stuff fine but I need cheaper solution for customers. So does VMWare even support the 16-bit/32-bit stuff from Windows 3.x? And does it involve installing the old OS from original disks or is it included with the software? I couldn't expect people to buy an old OS and install it on their 64-bit OS; it would have to be something that's included.

[mellis]

Do the VMware and Parallel support Windows 3.x or just Windows 98/XP?

 

Price seems high at $50..$70 given you can get an old laptop off of ebay with Windows 98 or XP for less than that.

 

If you derive no value from running multiple, concurrent operating systems on a single workstation, and being able to seamlessly drag files to from these environments (and even cut/paste, for that matter) is not important to you, then some old, junker, eBay laptop is probably the best choice for you.

 

In my case, I do enough work developing cross-platform software that $50-$70 is nothing. I spend more than that on dinner at a restaurant.

 

Before someone misinterprets my previous comments, I just want to clarify: my point is that for something you use many times per week, the return-on-investment for the VMware purchase price ($50-$70) is very favorable. My point is that I save so much time being able to seamlessly host multiple OSes on my Mac, that $50-$70 amounts to nothing because of the huge time savings.

 

It was not my intention to imply that I burn $50 bills in order to light cigars or something.

 

Of course, it's for you to decide if that particular product would be a good choice for you.

[mellis]

 

I wasn't thinking of a single unit price but I sell/distribute many 16-bit/32-bit software for Windows 3.x/95/98SE that worked fine on XP/Vista 32-bit but doesn't run on 64-bit OSes. I can't tell my customers to purchase some VMware or Parallels for $50..$70 given my software mostly costs less than that. For single user, I have old laptops that run 16-bit/32-bit stuff fine but I need cheaper solution for customers. So does VMWare even support the 16-bit/32-bit stuff from Windows 3.x? And does it involve installing the old OS from original disks or is it included with the software? I couldn't expect people to buy an old OS and install it on their 64-bit OS; it would have to be something that's included.

 

It is possible to get Windows 3.1 to run under WMware - I have successfully done that before.

 

However, their integration tools (which facilitate the drag-and-drop of files between environments, and cut-and-paste between environments) require newer Windows versions, as I recall. Also, you will need images of the boot floppies for such an old OS. Put simply, getting Windows 3.1 installed is possible, but it will be kind of a pain (on the same order of difficulty as getting it running on newer Wintel hardware). That said, once you do successfully get it working, you now have a nice disc-image that you can use as a baseline - so you'll only have to endure the pain once.

 

Also, we're talking about Mac OS X software in regard to "VMware Fusion" and "Parallels Desktop". Nevertheless, VMware offers a PC version, and I believe Parallels does too, but those products have different names (don't look for "VMware Fusion" for the PC).

[atariksi]

 

I wasn't thinking of a single unit price but I sell/distribute many 16-bit/32-bit software for Windows 3.x/95/98SE that worked fine on XP/Vista 32-bit but doesn't run on 64-bit OSes. I can't tell my customers to purchase some VMware or Parallels for $50..$70 given my software mostly costs less than that. For single user, I have old laptops that run 16-bit/32-bit stuff fine but I need cheaper solution for customers. So does VMWare even support the 16-bit/32-bit stuff from Windows 3.x? And does it involve installing the old OS from original disks or is it included with the software? I couldn't expect people to buy an old OS and install it on their 64-bit OS; it would have to be something that's included.

 

It is possible to get Windows 3.1 to run under WMware - I have successfully done that before.

 

However, their integration tools (which facilitate the drag-and-drop of files between environments, and cut-and-paste between environments) require newer Windows versions, as I recall. Also, you will need images of the boot floppies for such an old OS. Put simply, getting Windows 3.1 installed is possible, but it will be kind of a pain (on the same order of difficulty as getting it running on newer Wintel hardware). That said, once you do successfully get it working, you now have a nice disc-image that you can use as a baseline - so you'll only have to endure the pain once.

 

Also, we're talking about Mac OS X software in regard to "VMware Fusion" and "Parallels Desktop". Nevertheless, VMware offers a PC version, and I believe Parallels does too, but those products have different names (don't look for "VMware Fusion" for the PC).

 

That's a double whammy for a customer-- buy the older OS and VMWare or Parallels. Hopefully, it doesn't partition the hard drive since they wouldn't want to screw up their current 64-bit set up. And I guess you have the intel-based Macs with 64-bit support?

 

I would want my old Windows stuff to work on Macs and PCs. It's just unfortunate that PCs with 64-bit OSes made them incompatible with older Windows stuff. It used to be a free solution that you can run your old stuff on newer OSes.

[atariksi]

...It was not my intention to imply that I burn $50 bills in order to light cigars or something. ...

 

Oh, I thought you eat too much that you spend $50..$70 for dinner or that you go to an expensive restaurant.

[mellis]

Hopefully, it doesn't partition the hard drive since they wouldn't want to screw up their current 64-bit set up.

 

By default, both VMware and Parallels create drive-image files. They are just regular old files that sit on whatever partition you want, and they store the contents of what would normally be placed in a partition. So when you boot the virtual machine (VM), you're booting from a file.

 

On the Mac (and probably on the PC too, dunno for sure), you have the option of using an actual Windows partition. On Mac OS X, that is called a "Boot Camp Partition". Personally, I use both techniques (a Boot Camp partition for Windows XP and a drive-image file for Windows 7) .

 

And I guess you have the intel-based Macs with 64-bit support?

 

If you have a 64-bit capable CPU, all versions of Mac OS X (since 10.4) include seamless support for 64-bit CPUs. Unlike Windows, there are not separate 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Mac OS X. So yes, you could say my Macs have 64-bit support (because they have 64-bit CPUs).

 

I would want my old Windows stuff to work on Macs and PCs. It's just unfortunate that PCs with 64-bit OSes made them incompatible with older Windows stuff. It used to be a free solution that you can run your old stuff on newer OSes.

 

Well, sooner or later Microsoft had to pay the piper. They rode the backward-compatibility bandwagon as far as it would take them, but when x86-64 chips are in 64-bit mode, they are different animals (lots of 32-bit/16-bit/8-bit cruft gets heaved out of the window).

[atariksi]

Hopefully, it doesn't partition the hard drive since they wouldn't want to screw up their current 64-bit set up.

 

By default, both VMware and Parallels create drive-image files. They are just regular old files that sit on whatever partition you want, and they store the contents of what would normally be placed in a partition. So when you boot the virtual machine (VM), you're booting from a file.

 

On the Mac (and probably on the PC too, dunno for sure), you have the option of using an actual Windows partition. On Mac OS X, that is called a "Boot Camp Partition". Personally, I use both techniques (a Boot Camp partition for Windows XP and a drive-image file for Windows 7) .

 

And I guess you have the intel-based Macs with 64-bit support?

 

If you have a 64-bit capable CPU, all versions of Mac OS X (since 10.4) include seamless support for 64-bit CPUs. Unlike Windows, there are not separate 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Mac OS X. So yes, you could say my Macs have 64-bit support (because they have 64-bit CPUs).

 

I would want my old Windows stuff to work on Macs and PCs. It's just unfortunate that PCs with 64-bit OSes made them incompatible with older Windows stuff. It used to be a free solution that you can run your old stuff on newer OSes.

 

Well, sooner or later Microsoft had to pay the piper. They rode the backward-compatibility bandwagon as far as it would take them, but when x86-64 chips are in 64-bit mode, they are different animals (lots of 32-bit/16-bit/8-bit cruft gets heaved out of the window).

 

I guess that file idea is a good solution for those non-technical customers especially Mac owners. For PC owners that are technically inclined, you can already partition the hard drive and set up multiple OSes but you can't copy/paste between them or run them at the same time. It does prove that the intel chips are backward compatible with 16-bit/32-bit/64-bit but the OS purposely restricted things. I am in favor of backward compatibility and in intel's case it doesn't slow things down since they have modes that you can set a particular code segment to. You can set a code segment attribute to 16-bit segmented, 32-bit, or 64-bit. Windows 98SE for example runs 32-bit code, 16-bit code in protected mode, and 16-bit code in real mode (DOS). They retained the backward compatibility all the way to DOS until Windows 2000/XP came out and got rid of real-mode 16-bit stuff.

[Lord Helmet]

 

Is that VMware downloadable free from somewhere like DOSBOX? I ran into some compatibility issues as well with old software for DOS, Win 3.x, Win 98, etc. on newer machines.

 

You may purchase VMware Fusion from a variety of online retailers for between $50-$70. If you already own Parallels, they are offering a competitive upgrade for $9.99. Of course, Parallels is offering a competitive upgrade from VMware for $9.99 - so it's up to you to decide which is best. I've found that they are both good solutions, but for what I do, VMware is more compatible (I can swap disc-images with folks that use their PC version, for example).

 

Here's the product info page:

http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

 

Do the VMware and Parallel support Windows 3.x or just Windows 98/XP?

 

Price seems high at $50..$70 given you can get an old laptop off of ebay with Windows 98 or XP for less than that.

 

Sun Virtual Box is free. I use it to run XP and Win7 from time to time.

 

http://www.virtualbox.org/

 

Don't know if Win 3.x will run on it though.