mouse problems with arkanoid

[arkanoidfan1]

Hi all,

Ive just joined the site as im trying to play one fo my fav games as a kid - Arkanoid. i have a 1040ste and have tried three different arkanoid discs and the same thing happens.....the game loads but the mouse doesnt work!!! arrrgghhhh!

ive looked through a couple of forums and i picked up that its something to do with TOS (?) and GEM which i assume is the desktop??

Could someone please help me!!! Im not a computer whizz, so it would be greatful if it could be explained in lamens terms hehe

im dying to play the game!!!!

many thanks in advance

[simonsunnyboy]

Arkanoid 1 has sloppy coding and REQUIRES TOS 1.0 from 6.2.1986 to work properly.
Use the crack by Klapauzius, he patched this and the game will work on Falcon too.

[arkanoidfan1]

hiya, thanks for that but i have no idea what any of that means!! where do i find the patch? what do i do with it???
thanks

[PaulB]

http://www.klapauzius.net/Old_Games.html#Arkanoid

[arkanoidfan1]

ive just downloaded the file - thanks, but what do i do with it now??? how do i get it to my atari??? I'm so confused!!!

[christos]

The same way you get any file from one computer to another, regardless of the computer.

[ppera]

You need to write floppy with that image file content.
In case that have Win XP use FloImg:

http://www.ppest.org/atari/floimgd.php

[arkanoidfan1]

ok - ive put a floppy disc into my desktop computer, copied the file over in two ways - zipped and unzipped. i then put it into my atari and says that drive A is not responding!!!
please help.

[ppera]

ok - ive put a floppy disc into my desktop computer, copied the file over in two ways - zipped and unzipped. i then put it into my atari and says that drive A is not responding!!!
please help.

Yeah... Christos was very helpful

MSA is floppy image file - in other words content of floppy. So, need specialized program to write it on floppy in correct way.
Link is in post above...

[christos]

ok - ive put a floppy disc into my desktop computer, copied the file over in two ways - zipped and unzipped. i then put it into my atari and says that drive A is not responding!!!
please help.

Yeah... Christos was very helpful

Always

Didn't notice Klaz had an MSA file.. Either way.. the problem here is that arkanoidfan1 put a high density floppy in the pc and copied it there. You need a double sided double density disk in which to copy the files from the disk image...

[arkanoidfan1]

as i said from the beginning, im not a computer whizz, and i have no idea about this stuff!! im trying the floimg9 thing now, lets see how it goes....

[arkanoidfan1]

ive tried three times with the floimg9 thingy and its still not working!!!
if i format the disc on the atari the desktop pc doesnt recognize it, and if i format it on the pc the atari doesnt recognize it!!
can someone please xplain what i need to do in step by step process from start to finish as im just not getting this!! ive tried following the instructions in floimg9 but to someone who doesnt know what all the lingo is it's hard to understand. its been years since ive evan had to look at a floppy disk so have no idea whats double sided etc!!!
i have some old floppies stored with my atari. should i use one of those?
please, i dont mean to be a pain, but i have no idea what to do.

[christos]

Here's a small step by step guide... (Note to admins: we should write an article for the wiki).

1. MSA or ST files are disk images, the same concept as ISO images for cd/dvd. The first thing we need to do is turn the image to a real disk.
2. The disk image is of a 720Kb (DSDD) disk that the ST uses. If you see larger size that means that it has been specially formatted. In that respect, just like you can't burn a cd image on a dvd, you can't use a high density disk (1.44MB) for this (Unless you do a small trick I'll explain later). The difference between the two types is one small hole located in the left top corner (face front) of the disk. If the hole exists this is a high density disk else it's a double density. We need the double density disk.
3. Place the double density disk into drive a: of your pc.
Now you have to make a choice. Either use an ST program or a PC one. Since you chose on floimg....
4. Navigate yourself in floimg's graphical user interface and don't hesitate to ask ppera for whatever information you need. I don't use floimg myself, for reasons that if mentioned will derail this thread into a flamewar, so I can't help anymore.
Hope this clears things up a bit.

PS. The trick I mentioned. If there is no DSDD disk available then you can use a HD disk by covering the aforementioned hole with some kind of tape.

[arkanoidfan1]

thanks for that - alot clearer now. im going to investigate the disks i have then give it a try.
many thanks for your help!!

[arkanoidfan1]

i have a high density 1.44mb disk, so i have put some tape over the hole you mentioned. when i try to use floimg with the disk like this, it says boot read error. yet when i do it with no tape it reads the disk? I'm going to see if i can find a double density disk in my loft. are there any other programs you can suggest for trying to get this done!!
thanks again

[techie_alison]

Heyo,

Don't get frustrated. WE WILL help you. Worst case it may take a couple of days, but we know how to do it, and it's an education for you too.

Very worst case, one of us will put it to disk for you.

Welcome to Atari Forum btw.

[arkanoidfan1]

right, i used a double density disk, put it in my pc and used floimg. i went right across the top line of the software, put all the bits in, then i get to the next line and i dont know what to do? i press msa-st and it does something, i then do the stt bit, i then press file transfer and it says that something has been written to the disk, so i think all is done. i then put it in my atari and it still says drive a is not responding, please check the disk drive or insert a disk. does anyone know what i'm doing wrong?

[arkanoidfan1]

thank you techie alison - its a bit of a relief!! its driving me crazy!!

[ppera]

right, i used a double density disk, put it in my pc and used floimg. i went right across the top line of the software, put all the bits in, then i get to the next line and i dont know what to do? i press msa-st and it does something, i then do the stt bit, i then press file transfer and it says that something has been written to the disk, so i think all is done. i then put it in my atari and it still says drive a is not responding, please check the disk drive or insert a disk. does anyone know what i'm doing wrong?

OK. Some more beginner-friendly explanation/guide:

Put DD floppy in PC drive. Click on A floppy icon. It is irrelevant will program complain about boot sector.
Check on small box by 'Format' . Click on 'Open Image File' . Select desired one. After it click on 'Image to Floppy'.

After about 1 min it should be finished. If you will see messages about 'RNF' then floppy is in bad condition - not usable.

After it just pull out and place in ST. If it will be unreadable on ST then you have no luck - probably there is disalign between drives in 2 machines.

Second way: Click on 'Open Image File', select Arkanoid MSA. Then click on 'File transfer' under 'Image to floppy' .
Should see one file in list. Click on filename - it will be inverted then. Click on Extract. File from floppy image is now extracted. If don't know where is it saved set "Dest Dir' before with proper icon.

Format floppy on Atari. Put it in PC and start FloImg, click on A icon. After it click on 'File transfer' under 'Floppy to image' In new dialog click on 'Add Files' icon and select Arkanoid file extracted prior.

[ppera]

Here's a small step by step guide... (Note to admins: we should write an article for the wiki)...
2. The disk image is of a 720Kb (DSDD) disk that the ST uses. If you see larger size that means that it has been specially formatted..... Since you chose on floimg....
.... I don't use floimg myself, for reasons that if mentioned will derail this thread into a flamewar, so I can't help anymore.

There are guides about it. Even in this forum... On WEB is many of them. And many obsolete, with incorrect statements.
720K, 800K, 820K is all same in practice. 'Special' format is not so special. Only XP is dumb, and can not work with them (it was much better with Win 95).
From that reason people needs to make floppy utilities for WIn XP, to support old computers.

Reasons ? Taking seriously people full of sh*t

[christos]

Here's a small step by step guide... (Note to admins: we should write an article for the wiki)...
2. The disk image is of a 720Kb (DSDD) disk that the ST uses. If you see larger size that means that it has been specially formatted..... Since you chose on floimg....
.... I don't use floimg myself, for reasons that if mentioned will derail this thread into a flamewar, so I can't help anymore.

There are guides about it. Even in this forum... On WEB is many of them. And many obsolete, with incorrect statements.
720K, 800K, 820K is all same in practice. 'Special' format is not so special. Only XP is dumb, and can not work with them (it was much better with Win 95).
From that reason people needs to make floppy utilities for WIn XP, to support old computers.

Yep, but people keep asking the same questions. So it's obvious that a definitive guide is needed or .....

Reasons ? Taking seriously people full of sh*t

That's exactly the problem

[techie_alison]

Isn't there the version of Arkanoid which is just a couple 100k in size? And just a file on it's own? I'm sure I've had it on a hard disk before now.

Can someone find that one for him? Then he doesn't need to do all of this transfer fiddling about. Just copy the thing straight to disk. I think it's the one off of one of the Automation disks?

btw. when transferring files to/from Atari TOS to/from Windows. Format the floppy on the ST. XP usually reads it. XP can be funny with DSDD disks though. Also best to use DSDD (Double Sided Double Density) disks.

Windows 98SE I think is the better option. But that's just my opinion. I much prefer using DOS 5.0 personally. I have a 486 laptop with the CD drivers on it, and create the disks from .ST images on that. Seems more reliable somehow.

Where are you geographically?

[arkanoidfan1]

omg omg!!! ive managed to do it!!!! have just played it for the first time!!!!!

Thank you alll soooo much - your last way of explaining it ppmera was fabulous - got it first time!!! hehe

god, feel like a little kid again!!

If i ever need any help i'll be sure to come back here - you guys rock!!!

[simonsunnyboy]

Take note, the second way will not work with all disk images as some games/cracks are not entirely file based.
All modern ones, e.q. D-Bug and Klapauzius ones, are filed ofcourse.

[Heavy Stylus]

720K, 800K, 820K is all same in practice. 'Special' format is not so special. Only XP is dumb, and can not work with them (it was much better with Win 95).
From that reason people needs to make floppy utilities for WIn XP, to support old computers.

Not sure if this is what PPera is referring to, but contrary to popular belief (and even the Microsoft website) it *IS* possible to format a standard 720KB DS DD disk under XP.

Easy shortcut for regular use is to:

* Create a new text file.
* Enter into the file this line:
format a: /n:9 /t:80
* Save the file, and rename the file so the extension is .BAT
* Insert a floppy disk, run the BAT file and away you go.

If you only want to use this once, then just enter format a: /n:9 /t:80 using the command/dos window.

Someone needs to add this to the wiki...