[steem] a long story and a final (long) note ;) - RE: ATARI-ST ROM-Disk
- From: "Edouard Lombard" <edouard@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <steem@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 00:41:18 +0100
Well thanks for the first answer Dr. WorST, it was very interesting.
Then I'll answer myself to my own questionnaire, before others do. It's
long, but as long as you have the time and the patience, I wrote it for you,
so do not hesitate to fully read it, including the final (long) note.
Why not tell us about your own Atari story?
I used to have an Atari 1040 STF as a child, and because I needed money to
buy a PC, I had to sell it for almost nothing. I was using it for games,
music, and programming. The craziest thing I've done was to give away my
floppy disks with it, when the buyer didn't even care for them as it was for
a gift. When I was older, not before a year ago, I felt a deep regret for my
Atari, as I really liked using the Steem emulator which reminded me of my
Atari. So I decided to buy an Atari. But I got a 520 STE. I felt that I
needed something with more memory. So I also bought a MegaSTE with 4Mb RAM.
Then I downloaded on the Internet as many disks as I could, and also bought
those CDs from the LGD site. I must have right now more than 3 DVD+Rs of
Atari stuff. The idea for me was to find again everything I remembered I had
with my 150 disks at that time. I could find all games without too many
problems of course, but for some rare utilities, I couldn't find them (maybe
I have them in the huge collection, but it's not easy to try all archives).
For example, there was this greyscale program that could draw isometric
fake-3D landscapes using a map of altitudes. I loved it for some reason (?!)
and remembered it very well. If anyone has the name, please tell me. I also
liked a lot GFA Basic, it was a beginning for me in programming. And I was
trying to do some MODs using soundtrackers. I also liked doing stuff like
retouching the bitmaps found on game disks like the one on Robocop, to make
it look like it was version 3 (the foolish things a kid can do to pretend
he's a pirate!)...
How many do you have?
2
Which model?
Atari 520 STE with color screen / Atari Mega STE 4Mb with color & mono
screens
How much do you like it?
Read the story above, what do you think?
Are you some of you not working in the computer industry now?
I am, I don't think many of the Atari owners on this list will tell us
they're hunters or barkeepers or monks... I work as a consultant a large
French IT consulting firm.
How did you get yours?
Read the story at the beginning.
How do you still like to use them?
I have managed to buy on the Internet an unused set of a hundred 720k floppy
disks, so I transfer images with chosen games or software on them to use the
real Ataris with them. I have found a nice and smooth way to do that: my
Mega STE is in "network" with my laptop. When I've decided which image to
transfer from my DVD+R or harddisk, I use "Ghostlink v1.02 Beta 02/05/94"
that allows me with a serial cable connected between the PC and the MegaSTE
to pretend that a folder on my PC is a drive on the ST. I can fully browse
on the ST the PC folder, then copy the wanted image(s) to the harddisk, and
then use a program like "MSA-II 2.3+" to transfer the image to a 720k floppy
disk. It took me some time to find this method which really accelerates
things, mainly because I couldn't write images using any of my PC floppy
drives, even with 720k floppy disks : there would be a problem with the
first 40 tracks at read time. I think most of you have read on some forums
like me that there are alignment differences between PC and ST floppy
drives, so I don't really understand how some people manage to make MakeDisk
work with any image, even those with many sectors. Anyway, I could have
MakeDisk work with only some rare images, certainly not games compilations,
and with difficulties with normal disks.
Do you use Steem in conjunction with your real machine?
I use Steem - especially on my laptop - to give a try to the most images I
can, before I choose to transfer one to the real STs.
What are your favourite programs/games?
There are a lot. I can't name them all.
Do you mainly use original discs or ones found on the Internet?
I sold all the ones I had purchased when I was younger, so now I use
Internet-downloaded images.
How do you share your time of personal use between Atari and PC?
I'm a huge PC user, both at work and at home, so you can't really make a
comparison. But I like to use Steem and my real STs a lot, even though it
looks strange to my girlfriend and most of my friends. But they're geek too,
what does that mean? Maybe I don't have geek enough friend.
The final (long) note:
For some reason, before I found this GhostLink system, I hadn't been able to
find a definitive guide to writing ST disks, with every single problem one
could encounter, even though the forums were full of people that had
problems with standard solutions. For instance some said that you couldn't
make MakeDisk work unless you used real 720k disks, and not transformed 1.4M
disks. Some others said it would only with images that had more than 80
tracks or more than 9 sectors. Let's get serious for a moment, if we want to
make the Atari passion live not only with a concentrated kernel of fans, but
with all the people that once had an Atari (and they were numerous), we must
help organize the "scene", like with any other scene in the computer world.
Why not have a central site, closely linked with the principal ST & ST
emulation sites. OK, LGD is already there for that, with its forums. Then
why not let dedicated ST fans have editorial rights on such a central site
and let them post on it more beginner-oriented tutorials: which programs to
use for the most common tasks (emulation, writing st disks, ripping st
disks, st hardware, buy/sell hardware, promoting awareness of abandonware
and why it should be legal). I'd really be delighted to hear about what
anyone has to say about this suggestion.
Fresh Mike
--
Steem - http://www.blimey.strayduck.com/
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