STX atari

HxC Floppy Emulator on Atari ST support
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pat007
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:36 pm

STX atari

Post by pat007 »

I am very interested by the emulator because i have many programs for atari ST and i use steem or my old atari ST which is functionnal but very old
My question is The HcX Floppy drive drive emulator can or not produce images of real disk protected like dunger master or captive
The stx format (Pasti) for atari games can or not be used by HxC Floppy drive emulator
Best results with steeem or HxC ?
Thanks
Sorry for my english i am french

Jeff
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Re: STX atari

Post by Jeff »

pat007 wrote:I am very interested by the emulator because i have many programs for atari ST and i use steem or my old atari ST which is functionnal but very old
My question is The HcX Floppy drive drive emulator can or not produce images of real disk protected like dunger master or captive
The stx format (Pasti) for atari games can or not be used by HxC Floppy drive emulator
Best results with steeem or HxC ?
Thanks
Sorry for my english i am french
Bonjour,

Concernant les STX ils peuvent être utilisés en grande majorité avec la version USB. Concernant Dungeon Master cela fonctionne parfaitement.
Concernant la version SD, c'est plus limité et donc beaucoup de protection contre la copie ne passeront pas.

megar
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2011 12:22 am

Re: STX atari

Post by megar »

This post is interesting, because, I was just thinking about submitting a new one about the very same subject.

It seems to me that Pasti support in the HxC SDcard is very, very limited. I have only tried four of five STX image, and none worked. I would like to know what is the limiting factor ?
I don't think it is the conversion to .HFE format, because, as you said, the USB version has far superior support for it. So I guess the limiting factor is either hardware or software. If the hardware is able to support it, how to improve the software (the firmware), is there a way to help ?

The Sdcard emulator is near to be the *perfect* device, the only limit is the ridiculous support for Pasti file format, it would be a great step to have it improved. Of course, the write support can be disabled when operating on a Pasti file. Since this format is mainly used for archiving, it would actually be a plus.

Jeff
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Posts: 8092
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 12:12 am
Location: Paris
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Re: STX atari

Post by Jeff »

megar wrote:This post is interesting, because, I was just thinking about submitting a new one about the very same subject.

It seems to me that Pasti support in the HxC SDcard is very, very limited. I have only tried four of five STX image, and none worked. I would like to know what is the limiting factor ?
I don't think it is the conversion to .HFE format, because, as you said, the USB version has far superior support for it. So I guess the limiting factor is either hardware or software. If the hardware is able to support it, how to improve the software (the firmware), is there a way to help ?

The Sdcard emulator is near to be the *perfect* device, the only limit is the ridiculous support for Pasti file format, it would be a great step to have it improved. Of course, the write support can be disabled when operating on a Pasti file. Since this format is mainly used for archiving, it would actually be a plus.
Concernant le STX il y a plusieurs problèmes :

1 : Le SD HxC FE ne supporte pas le variable bitrate. Il s'agit d'un manque de puissance. Après analyse, le pas le plus fin serait de 200ns. Il est toujours possible de bricoler un truc mais avec un résultat mitigé.
2 : J'ai obtenu le format STX par decompilation... : Pas de specs officiels du format. Après 5 ans l'auteur n'a toujours rien publié.
3 : Il manque la motiée de la disquette avec les dumps STX : L'information de Clock n'est pas présente (comme beaucoup de format...). conséquence : certain dump ne peuvent pas être recrée en physique ... a moins d'avoir un algo "miracle".

En gros ça marche relativement bien avec la version USB carte cette carte posède toutes les caractéristiques pour cela : variable bitrate, flakey bits. Pour la version SD ça serait beaucoup de travail pour un résultat douteux (le chip est déjà au limite de ce qui est possible pour un uC de ce type ;) ).

Donc : Je prefere travailler sur le HxC Floppy Emulator "Pro" basé sur du FPGA, qui completera la gamme HxC a merveille ;)

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