Very Computer

Could Darek or someone else please upload this .zip file to America
Online as well? Thanks!!!

p.s. Is there an easy way to use it on my 486/66 which only has a
3.5" drive? I do have an old 386 that has both types of floppies --
does the Xformer allow copying a disk image from an Atari floppy to
3.5" media??

Thanks, David

Currently, the PC X-Former does not access real Atari floppy disks, but if they
are Double Density (180k) disks there are ways of reading them with 5.25" IBM
PC drives.  Most Atari disks are 88k disks and some (especially European demos)
are 127k (Enhanced Density, Atari 1050 disk drive style) disks.

Anyways, if you want to use any of the software that you can download (ie, if
you can FTP to Umich with your IBM (or at least get the files to your IBM) or
call Atari 8bit supporting BBSes (again and get the files to the IBM)) you just
add those files to the XF2 command on the MSDOS command line..  ie, I did this
at my friend's house last night:

COPY DOS25.XFD BLANK.XFD     <- in MSDOS, I made a new disk
XF2 MYDOS45.ATR BLANK.XFD    <- in MSDOS, boot the emulator w/ MyDOS
DOS                       <- in the emulator, jumps to MyDOS menu
[I] [2] [Y]               <- in MyDOS, formats drive 2
[F5]                      <- in the emulator, quits back to MSDOS
ATTRIB +R BLANK.XFD       <- precaution measure, so that BLANK.XFD will always
                             be un-write-to-able, only readable

That gives me (my friend, actually) a 'blank disk' to 'buy from the store'.
Whenever he wants any blank disks for the Atari emulator, he must COPY the file
"BLANK.XFD" to a new file "somethng.XFD".

Here's how I got a couple of my games onto a "Games disk" for hime:

COPY BLANK.XFD GAMES.XFD  <- in MSDOS, I made a new disk ('bought one')
XF2 MYDOS45.ATR GAMES.XFD COOLTRIS.COM SLUDGE.COM  <- in MSDOS,
  now I have the following drives available to the Atari emulator:
    D1:  MyDOS 4.50 disk which I can read and write to and from
    D2:  The Games disk I just created.. it is 'preformatted' hehe
    D3:  COOLTRIS.COM, I can only read this (binary load, copy, etc)
    D4:  SLUDGE.COM, ditto
DOS                       <- in the emulator, jumps to MyDOS meny
[C] "3,2"       <- In MyDOS, copies everything from Drive 3 (ie, the one
                   file "COOLTRIS.COM" which sits on my friend's hard drive)
                   onto Drive 2 (the GAME.XFD file, the "Games Disk")
[C] "4,2"       <- Same thing but from Drive 4 to Drive 2 (copies SLUDGE.COM)
[F5]            <- In the emulator, returns to MSDOS

Now, you can "DEL"ete the files "COOLTRIS.COM" and "SLUDGE.COM" from the
hard drive because they now exist within the disk image file "GAMES.XFD"
(as well as about another 65 or 70k of empty space ('free disk space')).

Got it!?  There is currently no application which translates Atari disk image
files (".DCM" files, made with and used by DiskCommunicator 3.2) into IBM Atari
disk image files (".ATR"s for SIO2PC, which I'd love to have because of the
trouble I have with DiskComm. and my SIO2PC server .. as well as the ".XFD"s
for the Atari emulator PC X-Former 2.0.).

If you want to take a game or a demo, say DAS_OMEN.DCM available on the
archives, and run it on your XF2 emulator program (if it WILL run! :) ), you
must do this:

1) Follow the above steps shown for COOLTRIS and SLUDGE (put the file on the
   command line) to the file "DSKCOM32.COM" (Disk Communicator 3.2).  You
   don't need to use a blank disk, just put this (and Super UnARC and stuff)
   onto the MyDOS 4.50 or Atari DOS 2.5 disk images.  Example:

   XF2 MYDOS45.ATR DSKCOM32.COM   <- D1: is MyDOS, D2: is DSKCOM32.COM file
   DOS  <- jump from Atari BASIC to MyDOS 4.50
   [C]opy "2,1"  <- Copy DiskComm3.2 onto the MyDOS 4.50 disk

   This should be the last time you need to do this for DiskComm unless you
   kill (or change) your boot disk images (DOS25.XFD and/or MYDOS45.ATR)

2) Make a new blank disk which will store the disk image which is currently
   within the ".DCM" file:

   COPY BLANK.XFD DAS_OMEN.XFD

3) Run DiskComm3.2 from the emulator:

   XF2 MYDOS45.ATR DAS_OMEN.XFD DAS_OMEN.DCM  <- note which is which! :)
   [Shift][F10]  <- I don't know if DiskComm works with BASIC enabled...?
      You are now in MyDOS because the system rebooted without BASIC
   [L] DSKCOM32.COM  <- Load DiskComm from the MyDOS menu
   [C] [C]           <- Change source from D1: to D3: (where the ".DCM" is)
   [D]               <- Change the destination from D1: to D2: (where the
                        yet-unmade XF2 disk image file of DAS_OMEN is)
   [B] DAS_OMEN.DCM  <- Create a disk from (a) File(s).  Option [B] in DiskComm
   [Return]          <- Uhh.. :) Source disk is already in drive 3 hehehe
   [N]               <- No need to reformat D2: because DAS_OMEN.XFD is already
                        formatted (remember, it is a copy of BLANK.XFD which
                        we formatted in MyDOS before we "ATTRIB +R"d in MSDOS)

   Sit back and relax while it reads from D3: and saves onto D2: ...
   DON'T do a [G] coldstart because the DAS_OMEN.XFD disk image is D2:, not
   D1:.. if you reboot (coldstart) you'll just get BASIC again..

Now, whenever you want to run the DAS_OMEN demo (now you can DELete
DAS_OMEN.DCM), just do this:

XF2 DAS_OMEN.XFD     <- In MSDOS, in this case DAS_OMEN is the boot disk

AH! BE AWARE!  Opps, XF2 has no way of booting without BASIC on (unless it
recognizes [Option] ([F9] on IBM keyboard, right?)) when you load it up, so do
a [Shift]-[F10] right as it loads and then it should work.

Also, I may have used a bad example in using DAS_OMEN.. I mean, that thing
didn't even work right on my 1200XL until I get the real 800XL OS installed, so
the thing probably works even worse on an 800 (NOT XL) OS, and probably like
*on a 80%-or-so working Atari 800 EMULATOR!!! :)

I guess I chose it because I heard "XF2" doesn't handle Atari-1050-drive-sized
disks and most demos and stuff (in ".DCM" format) are Atari 1050 disk images.

ALSO!  Another note, a good thing to have for your PC if you use XF2 is an
unARC program..  these are good for unARCing ARC's which have one or two files
in them or for looking inside of ARCs without loading the XF2.  I'd imagine
it'd be *to have to unARC something and then put ALL of the files that you
could (6 or 7, depending on if their destination is a boot disk image) onto the
command line and then copy them one by one..  Just get SuperUNARC 2.4 for the
Atari emulator! :)

BUT! I may be wrong about even needing that if you have the program "S2PC"..  
I haven't looked at it yet and don't remember exactly what I heard that it
does, but it does something with disk image files (ATRs probably) - either
reads out files from within them (they must be MyDOS (compatible)) disks and
saves the files it reads onto the IBM's drives, or it saves IBM files onto disk
images (that'd be cool!.. the S2PC program would have to in a sense emulate
MyDOS more than a simple reader program) or it may do both! Cool! :)

Wow, what a long post..  :)

-bill

New Breed Software      / | \
"My knee hurts.."

Xformer is not a file copy utility, so getting the 8-bit files
to the PC has to be done ahead of time. There is a p/d utility
called UTIL that lets you read 8-bit double density disks directly
on a PC provided you have a 5.25" drive on the PC.
There is of course the SIO2PC cable and the Xformer cable for
transfering over entire disk images.
But the easiest way to download 8-bit software is the same way
you download Xformer itself - download it by modem from a BBS
or use two modems and download the 8-bit files from the 8-bit
Atari to the PC. You DO NOT have to use the disk images to
run 8-bit files. Just download the 8-bit file directly to
MS-DOS as an MS-DOS file and Xformer can read it.

- Darek

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|  Views expressed are always my own.  |
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