littleman jack Posted March 20, 2022 Share Posted March 20, 2022 Hello all, I need suggestions to help load a disk. I just acquired a new (to me) copy of Star League Baseball, one of my favorites from childhood. However, when I start it up, it gets stuck at the start screen and loads no further. It normally would display the scoreboard, play a tune, and show the date. Then it would move on to show options that you could chose using the option, select, and start keys. But as it is, it will not go to the options screen. It should load more. It just keeps playing the tune and showing the title and date. Any ideas on what to do? OR what might be the problem (drive, ram, disk, SIO cable)? This is the first time I've run a disk in over 6 years. Thanks for any help and suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted March 20, 2022 Share Posted March 20, 2022 It plays on both 800 and XL/XEs and with or without Basic loaded, so the holding the option key or not at startup doesn't matter. It should work on all Atari 8-bits except an un-expanded 600XL or un-expanded 400. My guess is that your disk is bad. If your drive loads other programs without a problem that is probably it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted March 20, 2022 Author Share Posted March 20, 2022 Just now, Allan said: It plays on both 800 and XL/XEs and with or without Basic loaded, so the holding the option key or not at startup doesn't matter. It should work on all Atari 8-bits except an un-expanded 600XL or un-expanded 400. My guess is that your disk is bad. If your drive loads other programs without a problem that is probably it. Thank you for the info. That's what I feared. The disks do have a limited shelf life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dzzy1982 Posted March 20, 2022 Share Posted March 20, 2022 Do you have an sio2pc or similar? You could always re-write the disk from an ATR image and get it working again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted March 20, 2022 Author Share Posted March 20, 2022 13 minutes ago, dzzy1982 said: Do you have an sio2pc or similar? You could always re-write the disk from an ATR image and get it working again. Thanks for the info! Yes, I do have an sio2pc, but I have no idea how to work it, unfortunately and embarrassingly. I use Linux on my PC and can run an emulator and play Atari 8-bit games/files on it, but I do not understand how to run files from my PC through the SIO into the actual 800, nor do I know where to learn. Can you suggest websites or reading? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted March 21, 2022 Author Share Posted March 21, 2022 I'm going to try some other disks, once I get some in the near future. The problem is most likely the disk, and the disk was probably good a few days ago, but my wife left it with the mail in her car. So I think she may have accidentally killed the disk by leaving it in a hot car. So, long story short, I think the problem is that my wife left the disk in her car and it died. I'll need to ask her to leave all incoming mail in the air-conditioned house. She didn't know that there was a floppy in the mail, and that floppies are very heat sensitive. But I am up for trying to create a new disk. That might work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-star-league-baseball_4985.html it's all right there for you... I would make sure it's not a hardware issue and that the disk drive heads are clean, as well as running at the correct speed... countless disks are treated as bad when it's actually another issue 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invisible kid Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 (edited) Yep, Star League Baseball was a favorite in my circles. Solid AAA game. Some info may be out of date but basically: You'll need a server to run on linux, such as AtariSIO or RespeQt. AtariSIO is command line, RespeQt is Qt gui. I use AtariSIO, so here are links to that: https://www.horus.com/~hias/atari/#atarisio https://github.com/HiassofT/AtariSIO There may be installation packages for your package management system for RespeQt, I don't use that. It has it's own sub-board on atariage, probably good info there. I or others can help you through the steps, but it's relatively painless to create a new disk from an image on the net. Edited March 21, 2022 by invisible kid 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted March 21, 2022 Author Share Posted March 21, 2022 1 hour ago, _The Doctor__ said: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-star-league-baseball_4985.html it's all right there for you... I would make sure it's not a hardware issue and that the disk drive heads are clean, as well as running at the correct speed... countless disks are treated as bad when it's actually another issue Thanks for the info and link! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted March 21, 2022 Author Share Posted March 21, 2022 1 hour ago, invisible kid said: Yep, Star League Baseball was a favorite in my circles. Solid AAA game. Some info may be out of date but basically: You'll need a server to run on linux, such as AtariSIO or RespeQt. AtariSIO is command line, RespeQt is Qt gui. I use AtariSIO, so here are links to that: https://www.horus.com/~hias/atari/#atarisio https://github.com/HiassofT/AtariSIO There may be installation packages for your package management system for RespeQt, I don't use that. It has it's own sub-board on atariage, probably good info there. I or others can help you through the steps, but it's relatively painless to create a new disk from an image on the net. Thank you for the info and link as well! I'm happy using a Qt or a gtk based gui. I'll check them all out and see which one makes the most sense to me currently. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invisible kid Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 (edited) Direct link to the RespeQt forum: https://atariage.com/forums/forum/184-respeqt-sio2pc-software/ Edited March 21, 2022 by invisible kid 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 10 hours ago, littleman jack said: However, when I start it up, it gets stuck at the start screen and loads no further. It normally would display the scoreboard, play a tune, and show the date. This is its behaviour if the copy protection did not work. Did this exact disk work before or did you make a copy from a disk which worked? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted March 22, 2022 Author Share Posted March 22, 2022 16 hours ago, DjayBee said: This is its behaviour if the copy protection did not work. Did this exact disk work before or did you make a copy from a disk which worked? It's an official, original store bought disk that used to work about 10 days ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 Can you inspect the disk for flaws and then clean the R/W head of the drive with 91% Isopropyl alcohol? But the final solution is to make a new disk from an ATR. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted March 24, 2022 Author Share Posted March 24, 2022 The disk looks okay from what I can tell. And the drive has just been serviced, but if other disks won't work then I'll try the Isopropyl alcohol. So I think your third suggestion is the next step. Thank you for the advice! I'll keep moving forward and get a working copy. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted March 31, 2022 Author Share Posted March 31, 2022 So, I got another copy of the game (Star League Baseball) on disk today in the mail, used. And it did the very same thing. It loaded up to the title screen, played the music, but never progressed to the options or began the game. Could it be my Atari 800? I had this game on disk when I was a kid and it loaded fine. I do wonder if the heat is killing the games in the mail. Although, I recently received 3 working disks and 3 non-working ones this very week. I don't know. It could be the heat. It could be the age of the disks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+kheller2 Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 Do you have any mods to the 800 or floppy? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 You seem not to have any means to copy disk images from a PC to the Atari. Correct? Do you have a disk editor on the Atari which would allow to change particular bytes in disk sectors and a sector copy program? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted March 31, 2022 Author Share Posted March 31, 2022 21 hours ago, kheller2 said: Do you have any mods to the 800 or floppy? My 800 is stock, but the 1050 has the Happy mod. Could that be the problem? I upgraded to it from an 810, which is now gone. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 Yes you must set the drive to UN - Happy mode Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted March 31, 2022 Author Share Posted March 31, 2022 18 hours ago, DjayBee said: You seem not to have any means to copy disk images from a PC to the Atari. Correct? Do you have a disk editor on the Atari which would allow to change particular bytes in disk sectors and a sector copy program? I have the Happy disk software for the 1050 drive, but nothing other than that. Would I need two disk drives? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted March 31, 2022 Author Share Posted March 31, 2022 5 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said: Yes you must set the drive to UN - Happy mode How do I do that? That might be the reason why several of my disks are not working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 10 minutes ago, littleman jack said: How do I do that? That might be the reason why several of my disks are not working. It can be done with the Happy software, in the Warp Speed Software v7.0 it is done with the following selections: 1) OTHER OPTIONS 1 1)SELECT UNHAPPY MODE 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted April 1, 2022 Author Share Posted April 1, 2022 33 minutes ago, BillC said: It can be done with the Happy software, in the Warp Speed Software v7.0 it is done with the following selections: 1) OTHER OPTIONS 1 1)SELECT UNHAPPY MODE Bill C, thank you so much. I'll give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted April 1, 2022 Author Share Posted April 1, 2022 47 minutes ago, BillC said: It can be done with the Happy software, in the Warp Speed Software v7.0 it is done with the following selections: 1) OTHER OPTIONS 1 1)SELECT UNHAPPY MODE That did it! All my disks work now. Thank you so much! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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