Hay usuarios que utilizan indistintamente los ordenadores reales y los emuladores para jugar o para probar un programa determinado. A día de hoy son muchas las opciones que puedes usar para no depender de un ordenador encendido y conectado a la hora de cargar programas en tus ordenadores preferidos.
Llega un momento en el que las cintas dejan de cargar, los floppìes empiezan a mostrar errores de lectura y mantener todas las librerías vivas es a la larga un duro trabajo que tienes que ir haciendo día a día. Con el paso de los años han ido apareciendo prototipos que nos permiten utilizar el software preservado en las máquinas originales mediante un sencillo interfaz que usa tarjetas de memoria conectables a cualquier PC.
En un conocido Blog de Roms Retro, estos días han publicado algo parecido en lo que esta entrada se basa, pero por motivos de derechos no quiero enlazar y solo me queda enviar desde estas lineas un enorme agradecimiento a Diabol.
ATARI 400, 800, 600XL, 800XL, 65XE y 130XE
Un Atari de 8 bit es toda una experiencia, los dispositivos disponibles en la actualidad para este sistema son:
SIO2SD y SIO2IDE.
SIO2SD
Como su nombre indica es un interfaz a tarjetas SD. Este dispositivo te permite CARGAR lo que quieras en el Atari a través de la interfaz SIO desde tarjetas de memoria SD y MMC.
Su precio aproximado es de 75 €uros.
Los esquemas gratuitos para montarte tu propio SIO2SD están disponibles en: http://www.mmj.pl/~lotharek/atari/
CARACTERÍSTICAS SIO2SD
Works with SD/MMC (FAT12,FAT16 and FAT32 formats - Warning !!!Software up to version 2.0 had a bug in FAT12 code - FAT12 is typically used by Windows XP for 16MB cards)
Handles ATR (rw), XFD (ro) and COM/XEX (ro) file types16x2 LCD display allows to "walk" catalog tree and choose files to loadHandles SIO with turbo (allows to set speed index from 1 to 16, default is 6 (69kb/s), in versions 1.x speed index was always 10 (51kb/s))All densities with 128B and 256B sectors, including 16MB disksHandles drives d1 to d8 (up to version 1.2 only d1 to d4 drives were available)Can be configured using ATARI (its possible to load configuration tool directly from MCU flash memory, so no SD card is needed)
SIO2IDE
Como su nombre indica es un interfaz que te permite conectar un HD IDE o una tarjeta Compact Flash.
Su precio aproximado es de 65 €uros.
CARACTERÍSTICAS SIO2IDE
Amiga, Atari ST - Falcon, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Sam Coupe, X68000, Dragon 32 y 64 y OTROS...1. ATARI side: SIO2ID
Uses standard Atari SIO at a speed of 19200 baud
Works with Atari High Speed SIO (US and Happy) at a speed of 52000 bauds.
Emulates Atari disks D1: to D8: disk D1: can be swapped with Common disk D1: (HD1_ZW jumper, drive D9: in config file)
Can be used with any Atari DOS and OS
Can be used without any problems with other SIO devices (disk drivers, printers, modems, SIO2PC, second SIO2IDE etc)
Can be easy installed inside your Atari with 2.5 laptop HD or CF card
Is easy to configure via special fdisk.com utility software (changing disks sequence and active directory)
It use ATR files to emulate real floppy disk or hard drive
You have to use CF2IDE adapter to be able to connect CF card to SIO2IDE
2. IDE device side.
All IDE ATA/ATAPI devices can be used: Disk Drives (2.5 and 3.5), Compact Flash cards etc.
Supports PC file systems, FAT16 and FAT3
Supports CD file system, ISO9660
Supports ATR disk images (SD, DD up to 16MB)
Supports directory change (multiconfig)
Is easy to configure, many text configuration files (sio2ide.cfg) can be stored in different directories
Disk configuration can be checked by special checkfs.exe PC utility
Standard system disk utilities can be used (defrag.exe, scandisk.exe etc)
Long File Name (LFN) support for HDD
TEST mode for checking HDD initializations
Supports Master/Slave IDE devices
Disk defragmentation is not required3. USB port side:
Interface works as Mass Storage Class device (removable drive)
No drivers are needed for Windows 2K, ME, XP
Driver for Win98 is included in this SIO2IDE package
SIO2IDE in USB mode is not working with Linux
- HxC Floppy Emulator .
Emulador de disketera.
Te permite emular las disqueteras estándar de 34 pines. Tan solo tendrás que poner las imágenes de disco a usar en la SD.
Su precio aproximado es de 70 €uros.
CARACTERÍSTICAS HxC
ZX SpectrumDivideHE10 34 pins floppy connector
Shugart compatible mode supported
PC compatible mode supported
Tested on PC, Atari ST, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Thomson, MSX, ZX Spectrum series computers
3 LEDs ("Power LED","Floppy access LED"," SDCard access LED ")
3 buttons ("Next","Select/Eject","Previous")
1 audio transducer
2*16 chars Alphanumerical LCD
LCD and buttons can be put on an external front panel
SD Card up to 2GB
SDHC Card supported up to 32GB
10Mhz SPI bus mode. Average byterate: ~500KB/s
FAT32 supported. Subdirectory and long name file supported
Track mode based floppy emulator (Full track pre-encoded in the HFE image file)
Read support: Most of existing formats (FM/MFM/Amiga track) supported
Custom tracks supported
Write support: ISO MFM 256/512/1024 Bytes sector write supported
Write support not available on Amiga computers
Floppy bit rate supported: 250/300Kbits/s (DD floppies) 500Kbits/s (HD floppies)
Archiconocida interfaz para ZX Spectrum que te permite conectar un HD IDE o una tarjeta Compact Flash.
Su precio aproximado es de 32 €uros.
CARACTERÍSTICAS DIVIDE
divIDE uses full 16 bits of ATA bus
divIDE works on all ZX Spectrum flavours (16, 48, 48+, 128, +2, +2A, +3 and clones)
Thanks to divIDEs onboard logic, theoretical transfer speed is 218 KB/sec (determined by the latency of INI/OUTI instructions)
divIDE has 8 KB of shadow flash ROM that hosts operating system core, leaving your original ZX Spectrum ROM intact. Additional 32 KB of RAM accessible as 8 KB memory banks are present
divIDEs auto-mapping feature transparently maps shadow ROM at important entry points, enabling standard tape emulation, BASIC extensions, NMI menu and DISCiPLE/+D or BetaDisk emulation
divIDEs MAPRAM feature helps developers and users to test new software without the need of reflashing their working system in shadow ROM. It can also emulate another 8 KB of ROM if necessary
divIDE works with all ATA-compatible devices (there are no known compatibility issues)
Available software supports widely used emulator formats (TAP, SNA, Z80, SCR).
Commodore 16, 64, 128, plus4
1541 Ultimate y SD2IEC
1541 Ultimate
La ULTIMATE 1541 es una solución de almacenamiento para tu panera, tu 128 y casi cualquier Commodore, este hardware implementa una unidad 1541 real, cara al ordenador. Está disponible en dos versiones. La 1541 Ultimate-I y la Ultimate-II. La primera usa tarjetas SD o MMC mientras la segunda usa microSD o unidades USB.
Su precio aproximado es de 129 €uros.
CARACTERÍSTICAS ULTIMATE 1541 I y II
Full emulation of a real Commodore 1541 diskdrive.
Uses .D64 and .G64 files stored on MicroSD card or USB stick
Supports .G64 files as well (Read/Write)
Configurable ID
Configurable ROM (1541/1541C/1541II or custom)
RAMBOard memory expansion (up to 40K)
MicroSD or USB storage device (stick, card reader, and even HD)
FAT/FAT32 support, with sub-directories and long filenames
Supports SD V1.1 cards as well as SD V2.0 in High Capacity mode (SDHC)
Battery backed up Real Time Clock
C64 cartridge emulation:
Final Cartridge III
Action Replay
Retro Replay
Super Snapshot
Turbo Assembler w/ Codenet
Epyx Fastloader
Custom 8K/16K carts
Custom Ocean / System3 carts (up to 512K)
Commodore 1750/1764 REU
REU Compatible
Size selectable from 128K up to 16 MB
Can be combined with Retro Replay and SuperSnapshot compatible roms
Flexible freezer menu
Select, mount, create D64 images, browse disk images
Create new directories, delete files
Ultra fast DMA load of single file programs (.PRG files on SD/USB, inside .D64 or .T64)
Configuration screen, with resident settings
Tape emulation, through 6-pin header on the bottom of the board
Totally rewritten firmware, for easier expansion and maintenance
SD2IEC
El SD2IEC es un dispositivo de almacenamiento masivo que permite usar tarjetas SD y MMC con una interfaz a bus IEC. Está basado en el microcontrolador de la familia ATMega644 Atmel AVR, Su principal función es la de emular una unidad 1541. Es Open Source.
Su precio aproximado es de 45 €uros.