Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative

[Triads]

In case you have missed it.

 

phaeron has updated Altirra to emulate a simple dongle device. We will now be able to run the preserved copies of Leader Board and File Manager 800.

 

File Manager 800 = set the dongle port for 1 and use 0FFFFFF70FFFFFF7 as the bit pattern.

Leader Board = set the dongle port to 2 and use CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC as the bit pattern.

 

The Paperclip dongle is a bit more complex as it has a built in chip that simulates variable joystick movement and cannot be emulated.

 

Well done phaeron.

 

Farb, could we maybe add a simple text file to these Dongle required archives showing these patterns so we'll always have them?

[Farb]

I'm having trouble with "Lunar Lander (1981)(Adventure International)(US)[bASIC]". Both the ATR & ATX versions just cycle through the first 3 sectors producing Boot Errors.

 

Lunar Lander is not a bootable disk. You have to boot into BASIC with DOS and then execute RUN"D:START". The disk has been flagged in the database as non-autoboot and will be named appropriately in the next torrent.

 

I also just uploaded the manual to archive.org:

 

https://archive.org/details/LunarLander

Edited March 22, 2016 by Farb

[Farb]

 

Farb, could we maybe add a simple text file to these Dongle required archives showing these patterns so we'll always have them?

 

This would require changes to both my database and my archive generation script. Let me give some thought to the best way to do it.

[k1w1]

Thanks Farb, I woke up this morning and realised that was probably the issue.

 

Although I have been writing Atari softlists for the MESS project that has only been for cartridges and cassettes so my disk knowledge leaves a bit to be desired. It's been decades since I have used Atari disks so I need to re-learn the little tricks and traps.

 

Would it be worthwhile labelling these files [req DOS].

Edited March 22, 2016 by k1w1

[k1w1]

I have just gone through all of the Disks that use BASIC and have found a few anomalies: -

 

Abuse (198x)(Softsmith)(US)[bASIC].atx = requires OSb

Advanced MusicSystem v1.0 (1982)(APX)(US)[!][bASIC].atx = requires OSb

Floyd of the Jungle v2.0 (1983)(MicroProse Software)(US)[bASIC][OS-B].atx = Does not require BASIC is machine language

Quest of the Space Beagle, The (1984)(Avalon Hill)(US)(Disk 1 of 2 Side A)[bASIC][OS-B].atx = Does not run

Quest of the Space Beagle, The (1984)(Avalon Hill)(US)(Disk 2 of 2 Side A)[bASIC][OS-B].atx = Is the Quizmaster disk

 

I will go through the non BASIC disks over the next few days.

[Farb]

Thanks for reporting those issues, k1w1. I've made the changes to the database so they will be in the next torrent.

 

I do like your [req DOS] suggestion rather than the [non-autoboot] I'm currently using so I'll update the script.

[k1w1]

I have done a few more tonight: -

 

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1981)(Quality Software)(US).atx = OSb

Alien Egg (1981)(APX)(US).atr = BASIC

All of the ANALOG Computing issue disks 38 - 79 = BASIC

Arcade II (1985)(Keypunch Software)(US).atr = BASIC

Archon (1983)(Electronic Arts)(US)[!].atx = OSb

AutoDuel (1985)(Origin Systems)(US)(Disk 2 of 2 Side A).atr = Refered to in-game as "Side C"

Baja Buggies (1982)(Gamestar)(US).atx = OSb

Bandits (1982)(Sirius Software)(US).atx = OSb

BASIC A+ v3.05 (1981)(OSS)(US) = Both atr & atx show "ATARI version 2.00" on title screen.

[k1w1]

A few more with problems: -

 

Battlecruiser (1987)(SSI)(US) = Appears to be missing (Disk 2 Side A & B)
Bulletin Board Construction Set v1.3 (1985)(Antic Software)(US) = [req DOS]
Cartoonist (1983)(APX)(US).atr = BASIC
Circuit Lab (1982)(APX)(US).atr = BASIC
CodeWriter (1982)(Dynatech)(US) = Whole set BASIC
Cohen's Towers (1983)(Datamost)(US).atx = Possibly corrupt, cant read with disk explorer.
Coloring Series I & II contain .PIC files = [req DOS]
Commbat (1981)(Adventure International)(US)[OS-B] = [req DOS]
Compu-Math - Decimals (1981)(Edu-Ware)(US) = Can't get past the title screen.
Computer Crosswords - Dell (1984)(Softie)(US).atx = Loads but has problem with keystroke recognition.
Computer Football Strategy (1983)(Avalon Hill)(US).atx = Loads but has problem with keystroke recognition.
Crossfire (1981)(Sierra On-Line)(US)[!].atx = OSb
Deluxe Space Games (1982)(Alpha Systems)(US) = BASIC
Disk Boot Maker (1981)(Computer Age Software)(US) = OSb
Drelbs (1983)(Synapse Software)(US).atx = OSb
Eternal Dagger, The v1.0 (1987)(SSI)(US)(Disk 1 of 2 Side A)(Game Disk) = Won't load. TOSEC version does.
Fight Night (1985)(Accolade)(US)(Side A).atx = Won't go past copy protection.
Graphics #1 (19xx)(Computer Palace)(US) = BASIC

[Shannon]

The ones that load and have problem with keystroke recognition most likely require a different OS.. maybe just OS/B..

Edited March 25, 2016 by Shannon

[k1w1]

I tried a number of OS combinations with no success. I am using Atirra 2.80 -23. Are they working for you?

[phaeron]

Computer Crosswords and Computer Football Strategy seem to work fine for me. They require the joystick for some parts, but they work even with AltirraOS.

 

Cohen's Towers requires turning off extended memory (48K/64K). Otherwise, it banks itself out during hardware init and crashes.

Compu-Math -- works (press joystick down), but seems like the wrong game? It loads up as The Snapper for me, and doesn't seem educational....

 

Fight Night -- copy protection problem, probably bad dump. Farb, could you say what is showing up during the ATX conversion for sector 707? Fight Night is looking for pretty much any read error on track 39, sector 5, but it is failing because the sector is missing instead.

 

Eternal Dagger -- copy protection problem, probably bad dump. The game is reading sector 41 (track 2 sector 5) twice and expecting some bytes to be different, but the ATX image has a stable CRC error in it. This probably should be a weak sector.

[Farb]

Thanks for going through these k1w1. I'm making database corrections as I can confirm them.

 

What emulator are you using and with what settings? The following all work fine for me in Altirra 2.6's 800 OS-B 48k NTSC mode:

 

Cohen's Towers

Eternal Dagger

Fight Night

 

Thank you for pointing out Compu-Math: Decimals - it is incorrectly a duplicate of "The Snapper". You start the game by pushing down on the joystick to go through the game options.

[Farb]

Thanks for taking a look at these as well, phaeron. Looks like we posted a response at the same time :-)

 

Fight Night -- copy protection problem, probably bad dump. Farb, could you say what is showing up during the ATX conversion for sector 707? Fight Night is looking for pretty much any read error on track 39, sector 5, but it is failing because the sector is missing instead.

 

Here is the output of a8rawconv on Fight Night:

 

Reading KryoFlux track stream set (96 TPI)...

Bad sector size!

Bad sector size!

Bad sector size!

Bad sector size!

Bad sector size!

Writing ATX file: FightNight-a.atx

WARNING: Track 39, sector 7: 1 phantom sector found.

WARNING: Track 39, sector 6: 1 phantom sector found.

WARNING: Track 39, sector 17: Deleted sector found.

WARNING: Track 39: Missing sectors: 5.

1 missing sector, 2 phantom sectors, 1 sector with errors

The game seems to work fine for me :-?

 

Eternal Dagger -- copy protection problem, probably bad dump. The game is reading sector 41 (track 2 sector 5) twice and expecting some bytes to be different, but the ATX image has a stable CRC error in it. This probably should be a weak sector.

 

This one is interesting. If I look at an ATX that remowilliams provided, I get this (which aligns with what you are saying):

 

Writing ATX file: EternalDagger-a.atx

WARNING: Weak sector detected for track 2, sector 5 at position 0.13, offset 9.

0 missing sectors, 0 phantom sectors, 1 sector with errors

However, when I run a8rawconv against my flux dumps (both a Kryoflux one and a SuperCard Pro one), I get this:

Reading KryoFlux track stream set (96 TPI)...

Writing ATX file: EternalDagger-a.atx

WARNING: Track 2, sector 5: 5 different sectors found at the same position

0.20 but different bad data. Keeping the most popular one.

0 missing sectors, 0 phantom sectors, 1 sector with errors

[phaeron]

I think Fight Night working on 2.60 might actually be a bug. That version of Altirra doesn't set the FDC status register when returning a missing sector error, which is almost certainly wrong based on my reading of the 810 firmware. It just happens that this causes a CRC error to be returned to Fight Night, which allows it to finish loading. Any chance there's at least an IDAM lurking for sector 5 somewhere in there?

 

Re: Eternal Dagger, the second dump output means that a8rawconv happened to get the same sector contents for two reads, which is unfortunate.

[Farb]

Here are the raw dumps for...

 

Eternal Dagger:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7VbqNUi-LBvaHhaUWpTSklIaE0/view?usp=sharing

 

Fight Night:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7VbqNUi-LBvLVpYeW9PUHlnVlk/view?usp=sharing

[phaeron]

Oh, this is a fun one. Fight Night does indeed have a track 39, sector 5, and this is its address field:

E3 7F[C7 FE]8F FC 1F F8 3F F1 7F E2 FF C4 FF 89 | 15.87
FF 13[FF 27]FF 4E FF 9C FF 38 FF 70 FF E0 FF C0 | 15.86
FF 80[FF 00]FF 00 FF 00 FF 00 FF 00 FF 00 FF 01 | 15.86
FF 02[FF 05]FF 0A FF 14 FF 28 FF 50 FF A1 FF 42 | 15.92
FF 85[FF 0A]FF 15 FF 2B FF 56 FF AD FF 5B FF B6 | 15.84
FF 6C[FF D9]FF B2 FF 64 FF C9 FF 92 FF 25 FF 4B | 15.78
FF 97[FF 2E]FF 5C FF B8 FF 70 FF E0 FF C0 FF 80 | 15.87

Anyone have an idea what the FDC does with a sector length field value of $0A?

 

Eternal Dagger... well, looks like the Kryoflux read the disk a little too well. Probably no good way to handle this besides an override, as trying to handle this automagically would compromise the ability to rescue marginal disks. Typically, weak sectors are a little weaker than this.

[k1w1]

I am running Altirra 2.80 -23.

 

I got Cohens Tower to run on 48k - OSb. Thanks for the tip phaeron.

 

Fight Night seems ok with Altirra 2.6 but i note what phaeron said above.

 

I still can not get Eternal Daggger to run even on on Altirra 2.6. Have tried a number of combinations and settings.

[k1w1]

I just came across another one that runs fine on Altirra 2.6 (OSb) 48k, but not on Altirra 2.8 -23

 

HardBall! (1985)(Accolade)(US).atx

[Zarxx]

Oh, this is a fun one. Fight Night does indeed have a track 39, sector 5, and this is its address field:

E3 7F[C7 FE]8F FC 1F F8 3F F1 7F E2 FF C4 FF 89 | 15.87
FF 13[FF 27]FF 4E FF 9C FF 38 FF 70 FF E0 FF C0 | 15.86
FF 80[FF 00]FF 00 FF 00 FF 00 FF 00 FF 00 FF 01 | 15.86
FF 02[FF 05]FF 0A FF 14 FF 28 FF 50 FF A1 FF 42 | 15.92
FF 85[FF 0A]FF 15 FF 2B FF 56 FF AD FF 5B FF B6 | 15.84
FF 6C[FF D9]FF B2 FF 64 FF C9 FF 92 FF 25 FF 4B | 15.78
FF 97[FF 2E]FF 5C FF B8 FF 70 FF E0 FF C0 FF 80 | 15.87

Anyone have an idea what the FDC does with a sector length field value of $0A?

 

Eternal Dagger... well, looks like the Kryoflux read the disk a little too well. Probably no good way to handle this besides an override, as trying to handle this automagically would compromise the ability to rescue marginal disks. Typically, weak sectors are a little weaker than this.

 

It's a Double Density sector.

 

Fight Night - Side A - T0-2 (19s) - s95x, T39 (19s) - Dupe s6-7, s5 Double Density, s17 deleted data mark *** Slow

Fight Night - Side B - T0-2 (19s) - s95x, T39 (19s) - Dupe s6-7, s5 Double Density, s17 deleted data mark

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUE3yXxvDQ4

[k1w1]

Here you go Farb, a few more to be going on with: -

 

Home Inventory (1982)(Creative Software)(US) = BASIC
I'm Different! (1982)(APX)(US)[PILOT] = OSb
Instant Programmer's Guide, The (1983)(Koala Technologies)(US) = BASIC
Jukebox #1 v1.0 (1982)(APX)(US)[OS-B] = BASIC
Lava Run (1983)(K-TEK Software)(US) = BASIC
Lazer Maze (1982)(Avant-Garde Creations)(US) = BASIC
Lunar Leeper (1983)(Sierra On-Line)(US) = OSb
Murder on the Zinderneuf (1983)(Electronic Arts)(US) = Won't go past copy protection, asks to remove cartridge when none present.
Musicgame (19xx)(CE Software)(US) = BASIC
Panzer-Jagd (1983)(Avalon Hill)(US) = BASIC
Powerstar Demo Disk (1986)(Pandora Software)(US) = [req DOS]
Preschool Games (1981)(APX)(US) = BASIC
Puzzler (1983)(APX)(US) = BASIC
Rich Man's Word-Processor, The = Side B should be labeled (Boot Disk) . It needs to load first.

[phaeron]

It's a Double Density sector.

 

Fight Night - Side A[/size] - T0-2 (19s) - s95x, T39 (19s) - Dupe s6-7, s5 Double Density, s17 deleted data mark *** Slow[/size]

Fight Night - Side B[/size] - T0-2 (19s) - s95x, T39 (19s) - Dupe s6-7, s5 Double Density, s17 deleted data mark[/size]

 

Not really... double density implies MFM. This is just a 512 byte FM sector. As it turns out, the FDC ignores bits 2-7 of the sector length field, so $0A is equivalent to $02.

 

This does expose another issue, though, which is that the 810 and 1050 appear to differ in how long sectors are handled. Specifically, the 810 bails while the sector is still being read while the 1050 waits for the whole sector read to complete. This results in different FDC status codes for different drives. I've confirmed that a 1050 will return either $F1 or $F9 depending on whether the sector has a good or bad CRC; unfortunately, I don't have an 810 so I can't confirm for it, but from the firmware listing it looks like it would return either $FE or $FC, both of which are allowed by the Fight Night loader.

 

Murder on the Zinderneuf (1983)(Electronic Arts)(US) = Won't go past copy protection, asks to remove cartridge when none present.

 

This is an emulation issue. The game forces a software cold reset immediately after first boot, and this causes the OS to reinitialize and re-check the Option key without the emulator knowing, causing BASIC to turn back on. You can bypass this by holding down Option manually across the restart, but it's a moot point as the game appears to need OS-B regardless.

[+Ripdubski]

Here you go Farb, a few more to be going on with: -

 

Rich Man's Word-Processor, The = Side B should be labeled (Boot Disk) . It needs to load first.

 

 

Do you have the images for this disk?

[Farb]

Thanks, k1w1, I've updated the database.

 

Rich Man's Word-Processor, The = Side B should be labeled (Boot Disk) . It needs to load first.

 

 

From the manual:

 

800XL/130XE Owners: Boot side #2 of this disk before loading the Richman's Word Processor. Side #2 contains a program which increases your computer's available memory.

 

So I don't know that labeling it "Boot Disk" would be completely accurate. I try to keep the side names in the database true to what was on the physical disk label(s). The label of this disk didn't have names for side A or B.

[k1w1]

Thanks phaeron, I got Murder on the Zinderneuf working in OSb. I could have sworn that i tried that setting as an option. It was late at night though and i was a bit tired.

 

Farb, I assume from what you are saying that "Rich Man's Word-Processor" should run on the 400/800 OSb series from Side A as well. Unfortunately it does'nt appear to do so. A message comes up saying "No RAM for Eighty Columns" and than reboots back to that message continually.

Edited March 26, 2016 by k1w1

[k1w1]

The last batch: -

 

S.A.M. (Software Automatic Mouth) (1982)(Don't Ask Software)(US)[!] = BASIC
Ship of Stars (1983)(K-TEK Software)(US) = OSb & BASIC
Snooper Troops - Case #2 The Disappearing Dolphin v1.0 (1983)(Spinnaker Software)(US) = BASIC
Snooper Troops - Case #2 The Disappearing Dolphin v2.0 (1983)(Spinnaker Software)(US) = BASIC
Space Games (1985)(Keypunch Software)(US)[!] = BASIC
Spider Eater (1983)(Koala Technologies)(US) = Is duplicate of "United States Adventure"
Star League Baseball (1983)(Gamestar)(US) = The scoreboard under the flag should change after a few second to the game menu but does not. Possible copy protection issue.
Star Sentry (1982)(ANALOG Software)(US) = OSb (Re-boots in game when running under XL/XE)
Starfighters (198x)(Genesis Software)(US) = Game called "Starfighters 2" in-game.
Survivor (1982)(Synapse Software)(US) = OSb
Trivial Pursuit (1983)(Domark Ltd.)(US)(Side A) = Game crashes in question phase of game on both ATR & ATX Question packs.
Trolls and Tribulations (1984)(Creative Software)(US) = Will not load, crashes on Sector 707
United States Adventure (1984)(First Star Software)(US) = BASIC
Utilities II (19xx)(Computer Palace)(US) = BASIC
Utility #1 (19xx)(Computer Palace)(US) = BASIC
Video Poker + Vegas Jackpot (1986)(Mastertronic)(US) = Option 2 "Video Poker" will not play.
WarGames (1984)(Coleco)(US)[!] = Can't get by copy protection.
Zaxxon (1983)(Datasoft)(US) = OSb

Edited March 27, 2016 by k1w1