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Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative


Farb

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I have the original of Seastalker but no way of converting to ATX.

I have asked for the VAPI tools several times but always seems to fall on deaf ears! I have modified 1050 drives and a laptop all connected up. Just wish someone could provide me with the software. I have some other disk software not on Atarimania too.

 

 

 

 

 

Some more Infocom titles preserved from my collection:

 

Ballyhoo

Moonmist

Spellbreaker

Wishbringer

 

Alas, I also dumped "The Witness" but side B had errors :-(

 

By my count, that leaves 8 Infocom titles unpreserved:

 

Cutthroats

Lurking Horror
Plundered Hearts
Seastalker
Sorcerer
Starcross
Suspect
Witness, The
Anyone want to contribute? :-)

 

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@Shannon, thanks for spotting the error. It's been fixed.

 

@djmat56, it is frustrating how closed the VAPI initiative has been. On the bright side, the flux-level imaging this initiative is using is vastly superior to the VAPI tools (at least the ones I'm familiar with). A flux image can be converted into ATR, ATX or any other image format that might be invented in the future since it's a VERY low level image of the magnetic changes on the disk without regard to formatting, copy protection, etc.

 

If you would consider mailing me your disks, I'd be happy to image them for you.

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I would consider mailing but I'm in the UK and the postage costs won't be cheap....and then there's the risk involved too.

 

I was also after the VAPI tools so I could transfer the protected images back to real floppies. So frustrating as I have a modded 1050 and everything else needed.

 

 

@Shannon, thanks for spotting the error. It's been fixed.

 

@djmat56, it is frustrating how closed the VAPI initiative has been. On the bright side, the flux-level imaging this initiative is using is vastly superior to the VAPI tools (at least the ones I'm familiar with). A flux image can be converted into ATR, ATX or any other image format that might be invented in the future since it's a VERY low level image of the magnetic changes on the disk without regard to formatting, copy protection, etc.

 

If you would consider mailing me your disks, I'd be happy to image them for you.

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I would consider mailing but I'm in the UK and the postage costs won't be cheap....and then there's the risk involved too.

 

Understood... having just recently won an eBay auction for SSI's Phantasie and paying shipping from the UK, I know that the cost can be high and shipping anything across the pond can be risky.

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Tell me, just had an item (non Atari) sent to me from Israel from a good friend for my daughter, he apparently got a small amount of the address wrong and rather than try to deliver its been sent BACK to him for him to send again...

 

The moral, posting aint cheap..

 

Let alone the delicacy of what is being sent being damaged...

Edited by Mclaneinc
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I would consider mailing but I'm in the UK and the postage costs won't be cheap....and then there's the risk involved too.

 

I was also after the VAPI tools so I could transfer the protected images back to real floppies. So frustrating as I have a modded 1050 and everything else needed.

 

 

 

I don't think the VAPI tools support writing to real floppies. I think you'd need the Kryoflux or SuperCard and the images that are being created here for that (?)

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A big thanks to the following folks who have provided software for preservation:

 

advfan

 

Beyond Castle Wolfenstein (MUSE)

Clowns and Balloons (Datasoft)

Phantasie (SSI)

 

adam242

 

Abuse (Softsmith)

Dropzone (Microdaft)

PQ (Suncom)

Solar Star (Microdaft) - appears to work but was difficult to dump and may have issues so it's being flagged as having a dump error until it can be confirmed with another copy.

 

Thank you for the contributions!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'll have another update in a couple of weeks. I don't have the ability to torrent at the moment :-)

Awesome! Let me know, I will continue to seed the current one till you have the update ready. Thanks for all the hard work!

 

P.S. If you could put it up in dropbox or something similar, I could build the torrent and seed it for you.

Edited by Dragon375
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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks to advfan we've now preserved:

 

Aztec Challenge (Cosmi)

B-1 Nuclear Bomber (Avalon Hill)

Cutthroats (Infocom)

Genetic Drift (Broderbund)

Roundabout (Datamost)

Shuttle Intercept (Hayden Software)

 

Sadly, the copy of Silicon Dreams (Rainbird) that he provided could not be imaged :-(

Edited by Farb
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Great work, Farb and Freddy! :)

 

I try to archive a lot of Polish games but I can not convert them from KryoFlux stream files because a8rawconv always assumes that they are created with use of 96tpi drive. I use Mitsumi D503V which is built into XF551 (48tpi drive of course). :)

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Hi Voy!

 

All credits go to Farb and others.

I didn't contribute any disk images here ( yet?).

 

Maybe you can get a 96tpi drive somewhere? Or i can send you one if you like.

 

It would be great to have all those Polish titles preserved! :-)

 

Friendly greetings,

Freddy.

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Hi Freddy!

 

Thanks for your help, but Pasiu told me that he found a Chinon FZ-506 drive in his apartment and he'll bring it home for me when he'll arrive in Zawiszów. :)

 

Mitsumi D503V works smoothly with KryoFlux (although correct cooperation with this software requires a bit of of experiments).

 

Phareon wrote a couple months ago that a8rawconv can't tell whether stream files were dumped as 48tpi or 96tpi, and currently it always steps by 2 since it assumes 96tpi and he would need to add an option for this.

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I haven't read the whole backlog... is this project mainly about original games... and games only?

 

 

Not at all. There are a number of non-game titles that have been preserved. It just happens that most of the software I've had access to are games.

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