Things I’ve Learned

TIL

So I’ve been meaning to do a Things I’ve Learned page for ages. Just little snippets of info as and when I find them and think I may need them again. And I thought, well if I need them, somebody else might need them.

So here it is, I will update this page as and when I find those little things that might not fit elsewhere on the site.

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Atari ST Gotek Keyboard Controls

I dare you to try and find any reference to this anywhere on the Interwebs! I certainly struggled, so I thought I’d put the information here to make it easier for others.

You can also view these controls by pressing the Help key when the Gotek FlashFloppy page appears on the screen at startup:

File Browser

Keyboard Arrows and Joystick : Browse the SD/USB files
Right Shift : Go back to the top of the folder
F7 : Insert the selected file in the slot 1 and restart the computer with this disk.
ENTER/Joystick Fire : Enter a subfolder/ Select an image and enter the slots selection

Disk Slots Browser

Keyboard Arrows and Joystick : Browse the slots selection
BACKSPACE : Clear the current slot
ENTER/Joystick Fire : Set the current slot and leave the slots browser
ESCAPE : Leave the slots browser

Function Keys

F1 : Search files in the current folder. Type the word to search then enter. Escape to abort the search
F2 : Change background and text colours
F3 : Settings menu
F8 : Reboot
F9 : Save
F10 : Save and Reboot

The joystick can be used to browse all the interface and select the images.
The keyboard is not required.
The first line of each page allows you to switch to the next one :
Media files list-> Drive A slots list-> Drive B slots list-> Save/Settings page

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Writing an Atari ST image to a USB Floppy Drive

So something like 30 years after I got my Atari STFM, I spotted the original boxed copy of Magic Pockets for sale and duly received it for my Birthday.

It booted up to the title screen and started blasting out Betty Boo’s “Doin’ The Do” – which was all excellent. But then when I tried to load the first level, the disk was just making continuous grinding noises and refused to load.

Backups…

So what do you do in this situation? Well I have the original purchased copy, so what I needed was a “backup” copy. You can find games downloads all over the Internet of course, and I’m not pointing you to any sites here!

So I found a copy of Magic Pockets and downloaded it, only to find it was a disk image – .ST format.

I didn’t have any idea what to do with it, and also discovered nothing out there likes writing Atari ST images to external USB Floppy Drives. Eventually though, I found a way…

Steps

• Download a .ST image file
• Put a Double-Density disk in the floppy drive, not a High Density disk
• Open a command prompt and format your disk, in this instance mine was in drive A:
  FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9
• Download and install Rawrite32 from here: https://www.netbsd.org/~martin/rawrite32/download.html
• Run the program, and it should look like this:
  
• Click on Open and browse to your .ST image files (you’ll probably have to select all files *.* in the dropdown)
• Click on the Cog wheel for the settings and choose Logical Drive
• Then select A: (or wherever your Floppy Drive is) from the Target dropdown
• Then click on Write to disk…

That’s it! The things I’ve learned are now things you have learned! Bung it in your Atari and enjoy!