Is there any reason to keep an 810 Floppy Drive around over a 1050?

[T.A.P.]

I was planning to just get rid of all of my floppy drives and disks, but I really like the look of the 810, and am foolishly considering keeping it.

 

Is there a lot of game software the 810 would not be able to run that the 1050 could?

[+DjayBee]

Only two relevant differences come to mind:

• The 810 can only use disks formatted in single density (SD, 90 KB), whereas the 1050 can also use Atari's enhanced density (ED, 130 KB) format.
  There are not many original disks which use this but your dad might have created "menu disks" containing several cracked games in which he used the additional storage space.
  As your dad dumped all disks to ATR images, you can check these files. SD images contain 92176 bytes and ED images 133136 bytes.
   
• Some copy protection schemes check explicitly for certain status codes which differ between both types of drives. (But this is more a problem of 1050s because most later programs know about this difference and allow both status codes.)

[+Larry]

From an operational standpoint, there is no reason to prefer an 810 over a 1050.  The 1050 is a better drive and more versatile.  OTOH, if you are really into Atari stuff, you will regret getting rid of your 810 at some point in the future.  Especially if you have an 800 to go with it. I'm an ATR guy, but I still have a lot of drives -- they're cool!

[Vyvyan B.]

The cool factor definitely applies. I have an sio2usb and an sdrive and I still use a floppy more than anything. Their simplicity is a plus too. Pop in disk, turn on power. Bob's your uncle. No mucking about with fiddly gadgets and all that. They just work.

Edited February 7, 2023 by Vyvyan B.

[oky2000]

I got a whole load of disks with an 800XL + 1050 so I guess that answers my question whether I will be able to play the games on those multi-game pirate disk cracks on my 800+810 I wanted to use (for nostalgic reasons).

 

I think I did get some disks with the 810 but no idea where I put them as it's been half a decade since I bought it!

[+slx]

I'll keep mine because it was my first floppy drive but it sure does take up a lot of space.

[Peri Noid]

I have ONE good reason - the 810 looks so old school! 😁