The BIKE Atmos system.

In this forum you can write about anything that does not fit in other forums.
This includes generic Oric talkings and things that are totaly unrelated but want to share with people here :)
User avatar
ibisum
Wing Commander
Posts: 1646
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:56 am
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact:

The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by ibisum »

Hi Oricians,

Recently, I learned about a great Oric Atmos system that was being sold by its original owner, and which I have now added to my Oric collection - its not my first Atmos, but it is my first Microdrive, squeal!(*).

When I learned about this system and its history .. I knew I had to make an extra effort to add it to my archives, and as a result I now have this beauty:



Anyway .. to make it clear I henceforth refer to this as the "BIKE" Atmos, because it was programmed - by the original owner - to function as a database system for his motorcycle club, and indeed was used in that capacity - successfully - for quite some years.

It is, therefore, the most commercially used Atmos in my collection, and I intend to preserve it as closely to its original purpose as possible, for the fact that it was a very, very well-used commercial machine.

The original owner took my suggestion of preservation of their original programming quite well, and has left it all there for me - well, us - to explore, including the custom database system that the motorcycle club used. The original owner also made an extra effort to not include any original customer information in the package. The stack of, quite clearly well used floppies, is going to be very fun to explore, and I've got permission to recover whatever is of interest and share it with the Oric community, so I'll be doing that over the next weeks.

My plan is, if all goes well, to set up the machine and make copies of the discs, if possible. I will therefore try to configure my Cumana drive as SLAVE .. and use SED to make disk copies to a .DSK file. Or, is there some better way to do this? The goal is preservation as a great example of actual, commercial use of an Oric.

(*- Yes, I am an Oric fanboy. My next system will be Pravetz.)
User avatar
Chema
Game master
Posts: 3014
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:55 am
Location: Gijón, SPAIN
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by Chema »

Congratulations! That is a very nice set. I love Microdisc drives... they are indeed beautiful.
User avatar
iss
Wing Commander
Posts: 1641
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 5:43 pm
Location: Bulgaria
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by iss »

Wow, absolutely beautiful! Congrats!
Enjoy the next fun moments of the preservation process - starting with more photos for us :).
User avatar
rax
Flying Officer
Posts: 193
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2018 3:16 pm

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by rax »

Congratulations. It is interesting to we see a short video :).

p.s. Pravetz 8D has been used for some time in the Bulgarian army.
User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4444
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by Dbug »

Cool, crossing fingers!

Could you take a close-up picture of the small label on the top of the oric?
User avatar
Steve M
Squad Leader
Posts: 787
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:33 am
Location: Cumbria, UK
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by Steve M »

That arrived fast.
I thought you had a Microdisc?!
Oh well - better late than never.

I'm not sure what you mean about copying with SED. The way I used to do it was to copy 3" disks to 3.5" and then use READDSK on a WIN98 PC to produce a .Dsk image.
User avatar
ibisum
Wing Commander
Posts: 1646
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:56 am
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by ibisum »

I'll take some more pictures this weekend - stay tuned.

Steve M, I've got Cumana, Cumulus, and the 3.5" drive that came with my Telestrat .. but no official Microdrive until now. I plan on keeping the whole system together as a working example of a truly commercial application of the Oric, but I'll mix and match parts to get the software recovered first, of course. And not without some degree of quality check from you guys before I turn anything on, given that I have a busted Telestrat to repair simply because I didn't follow advice to a tee. ..
User avatar
ibisum
Wing Commander
Posts: 1646
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:56 am
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by ibisum »

DBug, et al., I took some closeups of the user cheat sheet as requested .. seems it contained some important power user tips, which I'm not quite sure I understand but I'm sure you guys will decipher:

User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4444
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by Dbug »

Well, the left part of the sticker is just some control code values for the attributes, and characters, in normal and video invert mode (+128).

So as indicated in the Appendix 2, page 232 of the Oric Atmos Manual:
0 = BLACK INK
128 = 128 + 0 = INVERTED BLACK INK
144 = 128 + 16 = INVERTED BLACK PAPER

136 = 128 + 8 = Standard Text attribute
138 = 128 + 10 = Standard Text Double Height
140 = 128 + 12 = Standard Text Flashing
142 = 128 + 14 = Standard Text Double Height Flashing

14 = CTRL+N = Clear Line

So as indicated in the Appendix 9, page 272 of the Oric Atmos Manual:
DEEK #276 just returns the current value of Timer 3

Regarding #2F5, no idea, would have to check the Oric DOS documentation, or possibly it's some internal stuff installed when the software boots.
User avatar
ibisum
Wing Commander
Posts: 1646
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:56 am
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by ibisum »

I'm really curious why this sticker was necessary .. guess I'll keep it in mind as I explore the stack of discs this week .. once I get a chance to set the system up and boot it. Perhaps this reference served the developer well while they were building their custom BIKE software, somehow, lets find out ..
User avatar
iss
Wing Commander
Posts: 1641
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 5:43 pm
Location: Bulgaria
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by iss »

#2F5 is the '!' vector, so DOKEing some addresses link it to specific routines.
The first one '!NUM', imho, can be a BASIC renumbering utility which resides at #954C (obviously need to be CLOADed first).

EDIT: IMO, after you have a picture of the sticker it should be removed for better Oric outlook :).
User avatar
ibisum
Wing Commander
Posts: 1646
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:56 am
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by ibisum »

iss, I plan on keeping this one as close to 'original owner condition' as possible, because after all I already have a few mint-condition/boxed Atmos' in my collection and my personal-use Atmos is perfect. Very tempted to add the Microdrive to my daily-use machine, but .. Cumulus just feels better actually ..
User avatar
iss
Wing Commander
Posts: 1641
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 5:43 pm
Location: Bulgaria
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by iss »

ibisum wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:15 pmI plan on keeping this one as close to 'original owner condition' as possible.
I absolutely agree with your plan! My point was just: more older sticker means more pain by removing :).
User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4444
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by Dbug »

iss wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 10:02 pm My point was just: more older sticker means more pain by removing :).
I don't actually agree with that, many of the stickers I had on retro computers stuff, either on cardboard boxes, tapes, computers themselves, etc... are generally trivial to remove (undamaged) with a hair drier because the glue is so old that it basically dried out or partially dissolved over time.
User avatar
Chema
Game master
Posts: 3014
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:55 am
Location: Gijón, SPAIN
Contact:

Re: The BIKE Atmos system.

Post by Chema »

Dbug wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 7:50 am
iss wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 10:02 pm My point was just: more older sticker means more pain by removing :).
I don't actually agree with that, many of the stickers I had on retro computers stuff, either on cardboard boxes, tapes, computers themselves, etc... are generally trivial to remove (undamaged) with a hair drier because the glue is so old that it basically dried out or partially dissolved over time.
And consider too that duct tape may damage the plastic with time. Oh, and paper and tape will rot or get completely destroyed eventually leaving a mark in the plastic it covered.

I am sure it should be possible to remove the note, clean the case, plastify the note and put it somewhere near the computer (or on top of it as it is, but without sticking it) to preserve the user's handwritten notes.
Post Reply