Atari ST 1040

[jishnudg]

A friend of mine started out with the Atari ST 1040 in the mid 80's, and did a lot of work using Atari based sequencers,editors and midi files. Double sided double density floppies were the media used. His 1040 still works but the monochrome monitor seems to be rather temperamental so he doesn't use it at the moment - - - he'd still like to use the software he bought for the ST 1040 on the PC - - -is there any way that he can do so? The MIDI files might be able to be used on a MIDI file player, but what about the sequencers and editors? In a nutshell,he's looking for a way to transfer the data to a CD which can be used on PCs. He says he's tried some emulators without success....any ideas?

[deadastronaut]

hi there are these monitor converters..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Atari-520-1040-STE-ST-VGA-high-resolution-monitor-adaptor-sound-cubase-Notator-/151447035157?pt=UK_VideoGames_VideoGameAccessories_VideoGameAccessories_JN&hash=item2342f25d15


i still have my 1040 and the mono screen too..

and have many disks of cubase midi stuff i did in the 80's , i would also like to convert for pc use...


the floppies are 'single sided' IIRC...

[Nasse]

You can format a diskette so it can be used in Atari ST and pc

[anotherjim]

IIRC, if the floppy has been formatted on a PC first (or were bought ready formatted for PC and you left it that that), then the Atari could use them. So all your .mid files should be readable on a PC. Project files too if your current DAW is capable of opening the old ones. Maybe worth finding a USB floppy drive to see if your PC will read them or firing up an old machine that has a floppy drive.

You can still upgrade an ST quite a bit if you want. Optical mouse, Solid state drive (Satan drive?) as well as a TFT screen.

[deadastronaut]

my pc wont read them at all...so were likely formatted on atari..

they are singled sided...so i think it would need an old single sided drive to read them..

ive read about emulators too, but would still need a single sided floppy drive i would think...hmmmmm....

[Hatredman]

A friend of mine built a faux-printer-to-RS232 interface for a TRS80 he had. He printed the text in Wordstar on the TRS80 and it magically appeated in a TXT file on the PC.

He is a writer but likes to dabble with electronics and programming.

I would go this path instead of trying to find a reliable floppy drive for your PC.

[anotherjim]

Well, if you have the old machine and the right program with project & midi files on the discs, you could just play them into a PC DAW on record?

One point is that you might not now have the sounds they were made for. But, quite a few VST sims of Atari era synths like the Korg can read the voice/program sysex if you saved them.

Old info - the ST discs were easy to read on a Win98 machine if in PC format. XP onward cut back on floppy capability. Probably as much to do with DD versus HD than single or double sided.

I found a utility...
https://strecover.codeplex.com/

and visit this place...
http://www.atarimusic.net/

I converted all of mine to PC long ago. I have them on Floppy, Iomega Zip (!) and CD-r.

[PRR]

> need an old single sided drive

No. All DS drives can read SS disks. That's really in the software (operating system). Part of the command sequence specifies Side 1 or side 2. If the O/S realizes the disk is SS, it just issues commands to Side 1.

After Apple ][ days, after the IBM PC dominated, *all* machines used the same drive mechanisms. IBM PC Clone demand made that type drive MUCH cheaper than any other. Different non-IBM systems may use different bytes per sector or sectors per track or tracks. IIRC, the low-density disks were coated for 40 tracks, all conservative formats used 37 or 38, but brave formatters could go 40 or maybe 42 tracks before the coating typically gave-out. I also recall 9 sectors per track but fussy O/Ses only trusted 8 of them.

Jim may be correct about XP not knowing the very early IBM diskette layouts. (And 360KB on 3.5", which IBM never offered.) There would be an aftermarket disk-reader to cover that (it's not heavy work and somebody musta had more old diskettes than old machines).