Preserving an Atari legacy

[rdefabri]

Back in the day (1980's time frame), a close friend of mine, his father, and I were all heavily involved in the Atari scene.  My friend has long since moved out to the West coast, and I hadn't seen him or his father in over 30 years.

 

By chance, I discovered he was back in town - he was helping his father (and mother) move from the house they had when we were kids using our Ataris for anything and everything.  My friend asked me if I wanted his father's old Atari stuff as he wouldn't need it in his new place.

Of course I was thrilled!  Not only to receive the items, but that it was his father's meant a lot to me.  This family were like second parents to me, and the honor of preserving his Atari legacy is something I take to heart.  

 

I ended up with a functional Atari 800, 3x810 drives (one with a Happy board), 2x850 interface modules, an 830 modem, a 410 tape drive, a Koala Pad touch controller, multiple power supplies and peripherals, and probably 150 disks of software.  At least one of the 810s won't power on, which probably explains why there are 3.  My friend's father used the 800 for years after they were no longer sold, so he likely purchased additional units if one failed.

 

I'm hoping to get everything tested and documented in terms of condition, function, etc.  This new addition comes more than 40 years after I purchased my original Atari 400, it's crazy how much and how long Atari has been an influence in my life!

[xrbrevin]

that was quite a powerful setup back in the day, wouldve cost a fair amount of dough too

good luck testing it!

[Tillek]

1 hour ago, rdefabri said:

Back in the day (1980's time frame), a close friend of mine, his father, and I were all heavily involved in the Atari scene.  My friend has long since moved out to the West coast, and I hadn't seen him or his father in over 30 years.

 

By chance, I discovered he was back in town - he was helping his father (and mother) move from the house they had when we were kids using our Ataris for anything and everything.  My friend asked me if I wanted his father's old Atari stuff as he wouldn't need it in his new place.

Of course I was thrilled!  Not only to receive the items, but that it was his father's meant a lot to me.  This family were like second parents to me, and the honor of preserving his Atari legacy is something I take to heart.  

 

I ended up with a functional Atari 800, 3x810 drives (one with a Happy board), 2x850 interface modules, an 830 modem, a 410 tape drive, a Koala Pad touch controller, multiple power supplies and peripherals, and probably 150 disks of software.  At least one of the 810s won't power on, which probably explains why there are 3.  My friend's father used the 800 for years after they were no longer sold, so he likely purchased additional units if one failed.

 

I'm hoping to get everything tested and documented in terms of condition, function, etc.  This new addition comes more than 40 years after I purchased my original Atari 400, it's crazy how much and how long Atari has been an influence in my life!

If you want to call any of the "modern" telnet BBSes running on the Atari with the 830, let us know and we can show you how!

[Tillek]

... and welcome to the 830 club!

[Dopeyman06]

3 hours ago, rdefabri said:

Back in the day (1980's time frame), a close friend of mine, his father, and I were all heavily involved in the Atari scene.  My friend has long since moved out to the West coast, and I hadn't seen him or his father in over 30 years.

 

By chance, I discovered he was back in town - he was helping his father (and mother) move from the house they had when we were kids using our Ataris for anything and everything.  My friend asked me if I wanted his father's old Atari stuff as he wouldn't need it in his new place.

Of course I was thrilled!  Not only to receive the items, but that it was his father's meant a lot to me.  This family were like second parents to me, and the honor of preserving his Atari legacy is something I take to heart.  

 

I ended up with a functional Atari 800, 3x810 drives (one with a Happy board), 2x850 interface modules, an 830 modem, a 410 tape drive, a Koala Pad touch controller, multiple power supplies and peripherals, and probably 150 disks of software.  At least one of the 810s won't power on, which probably explains why there are 3.  My friend's father used the 800 for years after they were no longer sold, so he likely purchased additional units if one failed.

 

I'm hoping to get everything tested and documented in terms of condition, function, etc.  This new addition comes more than 40 years after I purchased my original Atari 400, it's crazy how much and how long Atari has been an influence in my life!

If possible, try to conserve those floppies and create ATRs of them. Might have a treasure in one of those

 

[+Allan]

Can you take pictures, especially of the software?

[rdefabri]

28 minutes ago, Allan said:

Can you take pictures, especially of the software?

I can - I gather that most of it is pretty much what I already own since they got a lot of the software from me / my connections, but there may be some stuff I didn't have...likely more on the business application side.

 

I need to get an 5 pin DIN to S-video or HDMI cable so I can test if everything works.  I can power on the 800 and when I press keys, the internal speaker clicks, so I'll assume I'm good there.  At least one of the 850s powered up, have to test the other 810s (although I know my original 810 still works).

[Dopeyman06]

27 minutes ago, rdefabri said:

I can - I gather that most of it is pretty much what I already own since they got a lot of the software from me / my connections, but there may be some stuff I didn't have...likely more on the business application side.

 

I need to get an 5 pin DIN to S-video or HDMI cable so I can test if everything works.  I can power on the 800 and when I press keys, the internal speaker clicks, so I'll assume I'm good there.  At least one of the 850s powered up, have to test the other 810s (although I know my original 810 still works).

Get this cable....

[rdefabri]

Cable ordered.

 

Can confirm the Happy modified 810 powers on and spins freely.  My memory must be going, I swore that the Happy modification was just a daughter board (or replacement board) you installed inside of the 810.  This drive is completely modified - doesn't even have the same loading mechanism and the case is modified (no 810 or Atari logo, missing front face).  I'd surmise this was purchased as a modded device directly from Happy Computers, but I can't remember what my friend's dad did.  I seem to remember he bought the daughter / replacement board, but I guess somewhere along the way he acquired another one??

 

One of the 810s did not power up, but I think the power supply is funky, so I'm going to try it and the 3rd one in the box soon.

[+Allan]

18 hours ago, rdefabri said:

I can - I gather that most of it is pretty much what I already own since they got a lot of the software from me / my connections, but there may be some stuff I didn't have...likely more on the business application side.

 

I need to get an 5 pin DIN to S-video or HDMI cable so I can test if everything works.  I can power on the 800 and when I press keys, the internal speaker clicks, so I'll assume I'm good there.  At least one of the 850s powered up, have to test the other 810s (although I know my original 810 still works).

The non-game stuff is what needs much attention for archiving.

 

[rdefabri]

1 hour ago, Allan said:

The non-game stuff is what needs much attention for archiving.

 

Looks like some more common apps, Visicalc, Atariwriter, VT-100 terminal emulator.  A lot of magazine disks - ANALOG and Antic (these go through 1990).  Some of the magazine disks are original branded disks as opposed to copies.

[rdefabri]

I've got the system up and running!  I do have at least 2 bad power supplies, so rather than continually cycling through them, I connected my Fujinet adapter - it works!

 

I don't know how to completely use Fujinet, but I'll learn.  It's on my Wifi network and I'm able to mount images to my drives, just couldn't figure out how to boot (I am at work, after all LOL).

 

I'm excited this is working.  Now I need to source new power supplies - I know this is a big topic here, what's the recommended replacement?

[rdefabri]

I'm now getting deeper into this.  Of the 5 power supplies I have, only 2 work.  Of the 3 810 drives, they all power on, but none of them will read a disk.  The computer is waiting for the data, but the disks won't read.  I get boot errors for all of them.

 

I own another 810, which was mine from BITD, but I'm doubtful I'll see different results.  Main thing is I want to boot the program(s) I made as a kid, so this is important for me to get right.

[_The Doctor__]

maybe you should have someone image your disks so that if anything goes wrong you still have them

[rdefabri]

1 minute ago, _The Doctor__ said:

maybe you should have someone image your disks so that if anything goes wrong you still have them

Well, looks like MY 810 works!  I was able to boot files no problem at all.  Crazy that it still works.

 

So now the big question - how do I convert a program into an image file (.ATR or .XEX)?

[xrbrevin]

if your faulty power supplies are the 9VAC type, they might have a fuse inside 🙃

[rdefabri]

3 minutes ago, xrbrevin said:

if your faulty power supplies are the 9VAC type, they might have a fuse inside 🙃

Yup they are - I'll check that!

[xrbrevin]

the way i convert a real world floppy disk into an .atr file is by using an SIO2PC daisychained to the real drive and aspeqt software on the PC to do the task.

in a nutshell:

1. load in copy2000 or similar full disk copying software on your A8 computer
2. set it to copy from the real disk drive as the source, to the virtual drive in aspeqt as the destination
3. start the copy - the A8 will be none-the-wiser and an .atr of the disk will be generated on your PC!

[_The Doctor__]

10 minutes ago, rdefabri said:

Well, looks like MY 810 works!  I was able to boot files no problem at all.  Crazy that it still works.

 

So now the big question - how do I convert a program into an image file (.ATR or .XEX)?

For that we normally use and AtariMax SIO2PC cable (USB or RS232) and APE, Prosystem, or RespeQT/AspeQT/SIO2BSD etc.. Also FTDI cable homemade selfmade

You can use devices that make .ATR files like FujiNet, SIO2SD etc and copy disks to those containers.

Or KryoFlux, SCP, GreaseWeazle your disks  etc.

Edited 21 hours ago by _The Doctor__

[xrbrevin]

id like to see a pic of your "frankenstein" 810 when you get chance!

 

[rdefabri]

Just now, _The Doctor__ said:

For that we normally use and AtariMax SIO2PC cable (USB or RS232) and APE, Prosystem, or RespeQT/AspeQT/SIO2BSD etc.

You can use devices that make .ATR files like FujiNet, SIO2SD etc and copy disks to those containers.

Or KryoFlux, SCP, GreaseWeazle your disks  etc.

I do have a Fujinet device. How simple is it to create an .ATR of a BASIC file?

[rdefabri]

So I have an interesting update.  In my testing of the other 810s I received as part of this lot, I mentioned none of the disks worked.  I tried my original 810, and it worked fine.

 

However, I tested the disks I got with the lot of Atari stuff, not thinking that perhaps those disks were corrupted.  When I tested those disks on MY 810, they didn't work.  My disks did.

 

So I'm thinking the lot of disks I received with the system are all bad.  I will test the drives later.  Also, as requested, here's a pic of the setup - pardon the appearance, I'm just pulling this stuff out of boxes:

 

[_The Doctor__]

Or the disks will work on the drives they were created on as an indication of alignment or speed being wrong on either your original drive or the newly arrived drives. Also the other drive could have modifications, happies etc.

They can read their own writing but no one else can so to speak.

Clean heads and clean disks are your friends. Look everything over carefully each and every disk.

Edited 20 hours ago by _The Doctor__

[rdefabri]

Just now, _The Doctor__ said:

Or the disks will work on the drives they were created on as an indication of alignment or speed being wrong on either your original drive or the newly arrived drives. Also the other drive could have modifications, happies etc.

Looks like this is the case.  My working disks (as confirmed on my 810) did not work in the other drives.  One of those other drives is a Happy drive, so I do want to get it working at some point.

 

Main thing I want to do is learn how to make the ATR files because I was able to boot up some of the things I created.

[Dopeyman06]

1 hour ago, rdefabri said:

Well, looks like MY 810 works!  I was able to boot files no problem at all.  Crazy that it still works.

 

So now the big question - how do I convert a program into an image file (.ATR or .XEX)?

I don't have a FujiNet, so I can't answer that part..

 

But I do have this adapter and this adapter. And with RespeQt on your Mac or PC, I'm able to convert real disks into ATRs and vice-versa.

 

EDIT: Also, as it was mentioned, maybe you'd want to have someone image them first before you cause any damage to your originals.

 

Edited 20 hours ago by Dopeyman06