Atari Happy 1050 Four Drive Duplication Station!

[@Mediaman67]

this brings me back! - we all knew that ONE kid who's parents got it for them... I used to copy a lot of discs with Sector copy - just slow down the drive for a few sectors and you were good! Thanks for sharing this! - I mowed 100 acres of grass 2 summers to buy the 800 in 1981!

[@Bellthorian]

I remember these stacks more for operating BB's back in the day. Having multiple drives like that really expanded what your BBS could do.

[@markstrickland438]

This is such a beautiful setup, Ryan! I do envy it so much. I *finally* got a 1050 drive about 10 months ago after all of these years. I suffered the early and mid 80s on my 400 (which did see an upgrade or two) with a 410 :( Later on in the 80s I did purchase an XF551 as soon as they came out. A couple of years later - early 1990 and just before Antic stopped publishing - I picked up a 65 XEGS and an XF551 from Sears for less than I'd paid for the XF551 two years (or whatever the time frame was...it has been 30 years,lol). I still have the 65XEGS with the XF551 in storage, along with tons of other Atari and other 8 bit machines and peripherals. 2019 is the year I finally pimp out a couple of machines, a mint 800XL and a mint 1200XL; Rapidus, Ultimate 1MB, SIO2xx, etc. I'd like to setup a different 1200XL as a dedicated BBS machine. These are good times for 8 bit users! And AtariAge is an invaluable resource with some insanely knowledgeable people.

[@RyanGoolevitch]

Thanks! I enjoyed demonstrating this with the real hardware!

[@tharkthax3960]

Epic setup! I collect and repair atari 8 bit stuff. The window in the drive is a nice feature. Hope its all still running well👍 Atari just seems to get better with age!

[@creatorgenerator1998]

I had the Happy upgrade. Mine failed and got replaced. It had overheat issues though so I ran it without the cover. Those were the fun days when I had some disposable income...😊

[@mikewest6569]

We used to have copy parties back in the early 80s where we would copy from a happy drive.

[@DougForce]

OMG, the “Happy” memories this brought back! I still have mine in a closet upstairs. Great vid!

[@RyanGoolevitch]

Thanks! Mine were in the closet for 15 years, but it's been great fun reviving my equipment recently! I hope to do some more videos at some point.

[@psccomputersmissouri]

The coolest Video of my Computing hey day! Thank you

[@aldemar.bernal]

Those beeps man! bring nice childhood memories. I still have my 130xe and 1050 but haven't turned on on years. I guess if those floppy disks I have still work.

[@RyanGoolevitch]

Aldemar Bernal Glad you liked it. I've enjoyed reviving my old equipment! I encourage you to as well. Lively forums on atariage.com with knowledgeable people who can help if you need a hand getting any of it working again. I recommend you look into a solution like SIO2PC-USB to get your old disks archived as well!

[@bryede]

Awesome! Saw this once back in my *cough* copy party days.

[@jrherita]

Funny I was just about to post the same thing.. I was a young kid, all of the adults were yapping.. and I was copying as many games as possible ;-). Bruce something hosted the party. I ran the Deadbeat BBS at the time..

[@jrherita]

OK - This absolutely reminds me of a copy party I attended back in the mid 1980s in southern NJ (the 4 drive stack)... The adults were all busy drinking and eating, and doing adult things. I was only worried about copying as many games as possible.. lol!! .. We also had a Happy 810 and a Happy 1050 later in support of our BBS.. Love the Window!

[@RyanGoolevitch]

Thanks for the comment, love hearing these stories. 😁👍

[@klaso]

Fun video to watch, makes me want to try something similar on my own. I have several 1050s and Happy boards for at least two, but the biggest problem is finding enough PSUs still working.

[@awelder4040]

This brought back a lot of memory's, way way back in the day I used to go to all the "copy parties" in my area, and there were a lot back in the early 80's in Florida... ans yes that "happy drive" software worked very well... but I sued to use the big old Tan colored 1050 hard drives

[@RyanGoolevitch]

Would have been cool to witness that :) are you thinking of the big Atari 810 disk drives? Those had big full height mechs, and an even bigger case, but matched the 70's styling of the 400/800 computers. There were archiver and happy upgrades available for those too by 82 or so. Not nearly as easy to install as the 1050 versions. (Required soldering many points on the 810 controller board)

[@awelder4040]

@@RyanGoolevitch yea, you are right, they were the big old tan 810 hard drives I had 2 of them and one of them had the modification for the happy drive softwear... there were some hardware internal modification to the 810 drive you had to do, to make it work right, a friend of mine did it for me... I must have copied hundreds and hundreds of copy protected disks over the many years... never missed a chance to go to a "copy party" they lasted all day in my area of Florida... Those were the days...

[@mechmany2k]

I used to ride around to different friends houses, with my happy drive 810, strapped to the seat of my moped, lol... Good times. :)

[@RyanGoolevitch]

Thanks for the comment. So cool to hear these stories from when the Happy was hot stuff. :)

[@spearPYN]

Those legendary loading sounds! I loved them back in the days and love them today... compared to silent C64 this was much more fun...

[@fragalot]

5:38 WOW that's sick all 3 drive writing at the same time. Atari SIO really wasn't made to access devices simultaneously, but the happy mod was The SH1T in the day. But I only ever had US Doubler 1050s, which gave me fast speeds in SpartaDOS, and double density.

[@shaggyaxe]

As a kid, I wished I could afford a Happy drive

[@przemekkobel4874]

The amount of cool Atari 8-bit hardware that was available back then and even now (including all the upgrades, floppy emulators or video cards, and everything is cross-compatible) is just obscene. Looks like they created the most awesome computer system ever and didn't even noticed it. Yet, there is one machine that I'd really like to see in action, but it'll probably never happen - the 65XEM (AKA 'what could have been if they managed to complete THAT soundchip for the ST').

[@RyanGoolevitch]

There's actually a recent topic on the Atari 8-Bit forum on AtariAge about Curt Vendels recent find of an actual AMY sound chip, ans has been posting supporting atari documentation as well. Blows me away this rare stuff is still out there, and making it into the hands of collectors who share and archive this stuff. Supposedly its all getting added to atarimuseum.org as well

[@przemekkobel4874]

@@RyanGoolevitch I was kind of hoping that someone will try to re-create it (via emulator at least) using available specs, but having a real thing is something else. OTOH I saw a place once where someone gathered stuff from European (defunct) Atari divisions, after the company went belly up. It wasn't just Atari, but as I was walking the isles, there it was - an ABAQ, And some Inmos transputer chips collecting the dust. So yes, such things can happen. Thanks for sharing that info.

[@mementohal]

Last seen in 1987 an still HAPPY to see it.

[@NerdThingsAndMore]

Good video thanks

[@fogartym77]

Loved it when I had my Happy chip fitted. Couldn't believe the speed difference. Great days.

[@elmoredneal5382]

Very nice set-up! 😁👌 I was big into Atari 8 Bit in the 1980s. As a kid, Happy Drives were an almost "mythical" device 🙏 I knew they existed and what they could do (drool...) but nobody I knew actually had one. I only ever saw a Happy Drive in person a couple of times in my life 😮👉 Both times after arranging a "Copy Session" with someone I had met on a local BBS. Back in the day of 300 and 1200 Baud dial up modems, transferring anything "online" was very SLOW 🐢 An in person copy session was really the only way to do a large amount of copying in a reasonable amount of time. Happy Drives sure made the process go a lot faster! 😮 And of course the added bonus of being able to copy (most?) copy protected disks 😁 Although most of my stuff was cracked anyways 🤫

[@MrWesleymoon]

I had setup like this but was put to shame when I went to a party and this rich dude had a hard disk drive.

[@pauljs75]

Weren't there two versions of those drives? If I recall it was the newer style that had the bad belt-slipping problems. I think I ended up getting an older drive at the time because of that.

[@RyanGoolevitch]

Yes, the 'earlier' drives made in Singapore had Tandon mechanisms, and later (Trameil era?) drives made in Hong Kong had World Storage Technology mechanisms. These later WST mechs were known for the belts falling off because the spindle had a smaller surface area, though I never had this problem myself. My WST mech was quieter, and less force needed to insert a disk... The WST mechanism drives also seem more rare nowadays, I don't see them pop up on eBay.

[@muttBunch]

I'm not lucky to have a single 1050 at the moment. Still have my 800xl but still looking for a 1050 :/

[@sigmiami]

the good old days, I just started to put my collection together with a modified 800xl after losing it all in my divorce

[@CesarCompuNets]

Question: I see you have Original, Omniview! and Omnimon! indicators lights. What does the 3rd light indicate? I can't quite read the 4 letters on your label even in 1080p. (I only had 1 disk drive too back in the 80s. LOL.)

[@RyanGoolevitch]

Cesar Gonzalez heya! Good eyes. There's 4 lights, for four OS's: Original XE, Omniview XE, BOSS XL, and Omnimon. There's actually a 4 chip stack inside - fine handiwork by my dad in the 80's. Also 320K RAM.

[@UNKNOWN-le2tu]

back in the day I used dos to load the games and programs. I had multiple games on 1 disc. my dad built a wooden case to hold all the discs like over 2000 of them.

[@Madgitty2]

Hi Love the window, is there any way you can tell me the measurements of the window and the measurements where it is, love todo the same Thanks

[@RichardCyberPunk]

Wow, i've never seen this on video before. Rather cool. Is this also possible on the Speedy upgrade ?

[@RyanGoolevitch]

Hmm, I never had a Speedy but I think it was just a Speeder upgrade for normal disks, and still couldn't copy copy-protected disks. I'm sure someone here or on AtariAge forums will know. :)

[@RichardCyberPunk]

I'm also member of AtariAge. :)

[@markthackray3185]

Fantastic. Did you put the window into your top drive? Looks superb.

[@RyanGoolevitch]

Yep, I liked watching the position of the head while the drive was working away back in the day, so I my dad kindly did it by grinding out the hole with a bench grinder, and a glued a piece of plastic for the window. Many years of enjoyment in my youth seeing what was going on in lieu of a track # display!

[@michaeldemers2716]

I would give all my friends the Atari 5200 convertersion of Centipede and Blueprint. Great fun. I have been Emulating the 800 on my Gamecube with Retro Arch. Takes a second to load but works fine. I love atari. I wish I had a button one so I could start games like Congo Bongo, Frogger and Mrs.Pacman. I wonder if the big PC controller would work but it's Emulation and the controls may not be able to be configured. Idk.

[@markwiygul6356]

Atari computer and a Commodore monitor ??? SACRILEGE !!!! Lol :-)

[@robertmiles9942]

Seems like most Atari 8-bitters use the Commodore monitors. Makes it a little harder to get one for your real Commodore. Another weapon in the war :)

[@tharkthax3960]

😂

[@pcsocket462ecsviak7vza]

rapidus? vbxe?

[@RyanGoolevitch]

The only mod in this 130XE is the 4xOS switch and indicator LED's to see which one is active.

[@AnOfficialAndrewFloyd]

You'd think by now all those copy preventive disks would be cracked and patched.

[@RyanGoolevitch]

A Floyd yep most of them have. But it's interesting to recreate the tools used back then. I've found it fascinating learning the various methods used, which all seemed like voodoo back then. Intentional CRC errors, duplicate sectors, missing sectors, custom sector skews, and more.

[@rabidbigdog]

Geezus man, no need to slam the heads closed or open.

[@RyanGoolevitch]

No drives were harmed. :) What in the video did I slam heads you are referring to?

[@rabidbigdog]

@@RyanGoolevitch Yes, I guess not heads as such, just noticed you really cranking the drive door lever hard. It is just my 'mechanical sympathy'. :)

[@RyanGoolevitch]

Yep a firm grip so as to ensure I don't accidentally let it go and slam back open, but not forcing "past" the vertical closed position.

[@TMS5100]

>PD ahrrr matey