Moving data from PC to any Classic systems - Suggestions, Ideas, anyone?

From: Scarletdown <SecretaryBird_at_SoftHome.net>
Date: Sun Oct 13 22:58:00 2002

On 12 Oct 2002 at 15:35, stewart allen wrote:


> Hoping as many peoples as there are ideas may respond and all help is
> appreciated. Off list if possible _at_ vze4cykj_at_verizon.net
>
> If I downloaded files on my PC for old systems (e.g. Apple ][, Amiga,
> Amstrad, Commodore, PCjr, Sinclair, TRS-80, Texas Instruments TI)
>
> (1)Please describe some ways to move files to any of above systems
> assuming they had hard drives or floppy with correct format. Please
> note the above are only examples, I mean to include all classic
> systems excluding most PC XT systems. (2) Please describe any other
> alternative way different from downloading to PC first
>
> (3)Describe software and hardware that will be needed and know-how's.
>

When I first started collecting old systems back in the mid 90s, I
had the same quandry. The easiest way to do it, I learned, was a
direct modem to modem connection between the computers (note, you
will need to get a terminal emulator with at least XModem or Kermit
for the classic system).

Going from memory here...

1: Connect the two modems with a standard phone cord via the LINE
    jacks (may also me labelled WALL

2: Fire up the terminal programs on both computers.

3: On both systems, enter the command ATX3. This lets you operate
    without needing a dialtone.

4: On the PC, enter the command ATA. The PC should start to scream
    as she waits for an incoming signal.

5: On the other system, enter the command ATDT. The two should now
    start negotiating a connection. And if all goes well, you should
    see the message CONNECT xxxxx (where xxxxx is the connection
    speed).

6: You may need to experiment with various terminal settings, such
    as Local Echo, Full or Half Duplex, etc. Been a while since I
    last did this.

7: You should now be able to do transfers with whatever protocols
    both systems have.

Once you can get this set up, there are a couple utilities I highly
recommend you search for. One is called D2D or D3D or something like
that. This is for the Amiga, and actually lets the Amiga read and
write MS-DOS disks. Once you have this little utility, you will no
longer need to do the modem to modem connection to transfer stuff
from the PC to the Amiga. Likewise, if you have a Commodore 128 with
a 1571 or 1581 drive, there is a freeware utility called Little Red
Reader, which allows you to read and write MS-DOS disks on your
Commodore drive. I also seem to recall a similar very simple utility
that works with the 1541, but I can't remember at this time what it
was called.

Oh, and if you have any CP/M based systems, 22Disk is a must-have.
That will allow you to read and write a wide array of CP/M formats
from your PC. I used it to make KayPro II disks and CP/M-86 disks.
It doesn't handle Apple II CP/M though, since Apple's developers, in
their infinite lack of wisdom, decided to use GCR encoding instead of
MFM. On that track, I've been wondering if there might be a way to
read and write Apple II disks on a 1571 or 1581, as those drives use
both types of encoding, from what I seem to recall...

Anyway, hope this info is of some use to you.

-- Scarletdown
Received on Sun Oct 13 2002 - 22:58:00 BST