PLATO DS/DD

[sparkdrummer]

This is something I've been wanting to do since I first read about it many years ago - Taking all the SS/SD Plato disks and converting them to DS/DD.

 

What does this mean?

It means that the entire Plato courseware has been put onto 139 DS/DD disks instead of over 450 SS/SD disks.

 

I primarily did this so I could pile all the disks on to one of my Nanopebs's - starting at Volume 100 (see attached Word file)

 

Note that I do not have:

Seperating Fact from Fiction

Physics Elementary Mechanics

 

Please note - These disks must be transfered as a complete sector copy - As Plato uses sector 359 (>167) as the directory sector.

 

I believe I have done them all correctly, let me know if not - And yes, It was a pain in the ass! 

Plato DSDD.zip PLATOLIST.doc

[sparkdrummer]

For those that may be interested, attached is 2 ways to go about the above.

 

The idea was originally conceived by Charlie Summerhill.

 

I went with the procedure that Michael Dorman came up with - West Penn newsletter.

PlatoDSDD.pdf 1988_12 WEST PENN.pdf

[horizon2374]

Thank you sparkdrummer! I downloaded the zip file and used TI99-PC to make disk images to 5.25” disks - real TI disks that I can confirm, for the most part, work correctly! I have seen some lockups when getting into the course itself, not sure why that’s happening but it’s duplicatable. I’m going to try reformatting those disks in TI-99PC and changing the skew factor to 2 as the readme file suggests and see if it makes any difference. Regardless, great job and I had a hell of a time trying to make SS/SD copies of the Plato disk images from the Whtech website - which never worked because of the difference in the directory sector location. I’ll keep you updated! Thank you!

Edited May 21, 2023 by horizon2374

[horizon2374]

Thank you sparkdrummer! I downloaded the zip file and used TI99-PC to make disk images to 5.25” disks - real TI disks that I can confirm, for the most part, work correctly! I have seen some lockups when getting into the course itself, not sure why that’s happening but it’s duplicatable. Regardless, great job and I had a hell of a time trying to make SS/SD copies of the Plato disk images from the Whtech website - which never worked because of the difference in the boot sector location.

Here are the errors I found. It locks up the system and every time locks up in same place (duplicatable) always when going first into the content.

 

PHD5291 Physics 2

Disk 2:

 Nuclear Physics 1 Tutorial

 

PHD5292 Chemistry

Disk 2:

 Chemical Reactions 1 Tutorial

 Chemical Reactions Drill

 Solutions 1 & 2 Tutorial

Disk 3:

 Solutions Drill

 Acids, Bases, Salts 1 & 3 Tutorial

 

PHD5296 Biology 2

 Genetics Drill appears twice in menus. Missing Heredity Tutorial.

 

PHD5299 Geography

 Will not boot to menu screen (prompts as Insert Correct Plato Disk).

 

Other than this, that’s all I’ve found. Most likely could be quick fixes. Perhaps a possibility that with the compression of a .zip file the data got corrupted? (although most disks work correctly).

 

Thank you again! This is awesome for all of this to be working!! 😊