Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative

[+MrFish]

[Deleted]

 

Edited June 12, 2021 by MrFish

[Farb]

6 hours ago, Zarxx said:

Well spotted. Unfortunately, I only have the Datasoft one.

Indeed. This was corrected a few months ago and will be in the next release. The U.S. Gold and Datasoft releases are identical.

[+SoulBuster]

On "Forms Generator (1986)(Twenty-Fifth Century Software)(US)[disk]" it is not noted that basic is required, like on other titles.

[+DjayBee]

20 minutes ago, SoulBuster said:

On "Forms Generator (1986)(Twenty-Fifth Century Software)(US)[disk]" it is not noted that basic is required, like on other titles.

I fixed it in the database. It will show up with the next releases torrent.

[+SoulBuster]

Reader Rabbit (1984)(Learning Company, The)(US)[disk]

 

I could only boot this up properly under OS-B. If this is not the case what configuration are you using?

[+DjayBee]

Works for me: Altirra configured as 800XL 64k PAL (even with Rambo 320k) or XEGS 128k NTSC.

[+SoulBuster]

1 hour ago, DjayBee said:

Works for me: Altirra configured as 800XL 64k PAL (even with Rambo 320k) or XEGS 128k NTSC.

I will try those.  Thanks

[+SoulBuster]

To those keeping the archive:

 

I am about to embark on archiving my entire 8-bit library. I have a SuperCard Pro and have read the guide on archiving.  I will also be scanning or taking pictures of documentation, boxes, disks, etc.

 

There is a shit-ton of this stuff and will probably take several months before I am finished.

 

So I need to ask how you want it:

1. In a separate thread?

2. Scans to PDF all pages or individual JPGs per page?

3. Archive it all or just fill in what is missing based on the website? Or, Should I compare disk images and include ones that are different?  Is there software to do this?

4. If the disk is not copy protected, are ATRs good enough?

5. Do you want the documentation/scans and the disk images in the same zip file or separate?

6. Is there anything I did not ask about?

 

I am currently sorting it so all the scans and disk images will be together and it will probably be posted alphabetically. I should be done with that today and will begin immediately.

[+SoulBuster]

I decided to start my own thread here.

[Farb]

6 hours ago, SoulBuster said:

So I need to ask how you want it:

1. In a separate thread?

2. Scans to PDF all pages or individual JPGs per page?

3. Archive it all or just fill in what is missing based on the website? Or, Should I compare disk images and include ones that are different?  Is there software to do this?

4. If the disk is not copy protected, are ATRs good enough?

5. Do you want the documentation/scans and the disk images in the same zip file or separate?

6. Is there anything I did not ask about?

Thanks for your work in doing this.

 

2. It is ideal to have the raw image scans at a minimum. A cleaned PDF is certainly nice to have as well so we can put it on the website.

3. What is missing from the website is our highest priority. Also, no need to upload dumps that are identical to dumps that are flagged as "preserved" on the site. I have created a command-line utility that can compare disk images. Here are the latest version for Windows and Mac. Just keep in mind that ATX and ATR cannot be compared directly.

4. Flux dump is preferred so we retain all the low level information that is lost in an ATR. This can be helpful when comparing and/or repairing dumps.

5. Same ZIP is fine.

6. It is helpful to keep the disk dump and media scan/photo (preferably without disk sleeve) together so it is clear what physical media the dump came from. It is also helpful to know what packaging the media was from if you know this since there were multiple releases of many titles.

Edited June 17, 2021 by Farb

[emkay]

delete

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by emkay

[+DjayBee]

29 minutes ago, Farb said:

2. It is ideal to have the raw image scans at a minimum. A cleaned PDF is certainly nice to have as well so we can put it on the website.

May I add that lossless TIFF is preferred over lossy JPG (and can hold all pages of a document in one file instead of a huge "file-pile")?

[BillC]

On 6/17/2021 at 2:00 PM, DjayBee said:

May I add that lossless TIFF is preferred over lossy JPG (and can hold all pages of a document in one file instead of a huge "file-pile")?

An issue I have encountered with Windows 10 is the inability to delete large multi-layer tiff files exported from GIMP.

[+SoulBuster]

How do you go about archiving a Cartridge for Altirra to use?

[luckybuck]

Yeah, good question SoulBuster. What I am searching for, is a booting disk, which writes $8000 to $BFFF simply to a disk file. Easy to use for all, without machine language knowledge. Maybe some of our yodas can write a short program for this purpose?

[+SoulBuster]

There is Scanalyzer (The).  It dumped Pilot to disk, but from there I am lost.

[Farb]

3 hours ago, SoulBuster said:

How do you go about archiving a Cartridge for Altirra to use?

I use the MaxFlash USB programmer to dump cartridges: https://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/documentation/

[+Allan]

2 hours ago, Farb said:

I use the MaxFlash USB programmer to dump cartridges: https://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/documentation/

I can't recommend this product enough! You can get adapters for 5200 and Intellivsions carts as well.

[BillC]

3 hours ago, Allan said:

You can get adapters for 5200 and Intellivsions carts as well.

There are 8 adapters available, which means it's can be used with 9 different cartridge systems.

[ijor]

19 hours ago, SoulBuster said:

There is Scanalyzer (The).  It dumped Pilot to disk, but from there I am lost.

It is not exactly my area of expertise. But I don't know how safe is to insert the cartridge with the computer already on. I never liked that method. On the other hand, there is no alternative without custom hardware, or at least custom OS.

[+remowilliams]

Updated

 

https://mega.nz/folder/Uo9GhAyK#u1SFXI8DZXd8mTSp5AZlyQ

 

Atari8bitPreservedSoftware.2021-07-02

 

 

 

[firebottle]

On 10/27/2020 at 5:15 AM, Timothy Kline said:

As always, the latest official preservation archive can be found mirrored at the URL below for Atari enthusiasts and collectors:

 

https://atari-owner.com/fun/atari-preserved-software/

 

--Tim

 

Glad this link still exists. For whatever reason, mega.nz is mega-slow today.

[Timothy Kline]

3 hours ago, firebottle said:

Glad this link still exists. For whatever reason, mega.nz is mega-slow today.

I had the same issue with Mega when I was sourcing down the file for hosting on Atari-Owner, so thank you for re-posting the link to the folder, @firebottle (I was going to, but company showed up at my house earlier). And HUGE THANKS to the Atari Owners who continue to compile and archive the Preservation collection!!

[mikic]

Playing through old Avalon Hill images in the latest collection release. Ran into a snag with the Voyager I cassette image. Once it boots to the title window and asks "start a new game?". Answer yes and it displays "working" but hangs. Have tried all system variations I can think of but same hang at "working". Using Altirra 3.90. Can anyone get the image to run past "working", is the image bad, or is the program just not workable on emulator?

[Atarigrub]

3 hours ago, mikic said:

Playing through old Avalon Hill images in the latest collection release. Ran into a snag with the Voyager I cassette image. Once it boots to the title window and asks "start a new game?". Answer yes and it displays "working" but hangs. Have tried all system variations I can think of but same hang at "working". Using Altirra 3.90. Can anyone get the image to run past "working", is the image bad, or is the program just not workable on emulator?

It does work, just takes ages to get beyond the 'working' part. Under System menu in Altirra, select Warp Speed and it then takes around 15" to get into the game.