GEMini Atari/GEMini_Atari_CD-ROM_Walnut_Creek_December_1993.iso/files/diskutil/dupltwix/blitz.txt

Text File | 1990-01-28 | 5KB | 109 lines

                                THE HAPPY KILLER
                                  BLITZ COPIER


    Are  you  ready for a $22.00 copier that will copy as good,  or  in  most
    cases better,  than a $150.00  cart?  Yes??  Well then, Blitz is
    for  you.   Blitz is a revolutionary new back-up system for the Atari  ST
    computer.   Using  a  special  cable (that you  can  make  yourself)  and
    software included in this arc,  it will back up your software at a  speed
    and power unheard of before.

    If  you know a little about wiring and how to solder,  that's  the  most
    that this copier will cost you.   If you have to have someone make one up
    for you,  it might cost you $30-40 (although some people have been  known
    to pay up to $50 for a pre-made cable).

    That's  right,  all  that  is needed is a cable  (and  two  drives).   No
    internal  wiring to be done in the  computer.   No  special,  over-priced
    cartridges.  In a nutshell, all you do is cut an Atari drive cable in two
    and then attach a third plug that goes into your printer port.  What this
    cable does, is copy from drive one, out through the printer port to drive
    2.  (Copying is ALWAYS from drive 1 to drive 2.)

    It reads from drive 1 and writes to drive 2 at the same time!   So in the
    time it takes ACopy,  ProCopy,  or Happy to just read a disk into memory,
    this program has read AND written out the same disk in one pass.   And it
    does  not care if the disk is protected or not,  it copies just  as  fast
    either  way  (this  way  you can make a legal backup  copy  of  all  your
    protected software).   Plus,  it seems to copy a lot of stuff that ACopy,
    ProCopy AND Happy won't copy!!!

    BLITZ operates the disk drives at a very low level. When backing up disks
    it  should go through an entire disk without a pause.  If it  does  pause
    (for   more  than  a  second  or  so)  then  it  may  have  got  out   of
    synchronization.  In this case,  press ESCAPE to abort the copy and start
    it going again.   So the best thing to do is watch it copy and count down
    the tracks.   If it stops for even a second,  then you can forget it  and
    start  again,  as it has gotten out of sync and the copy will  not  work.
    But  for a program as fast and as cheap as this,  you can afford to  take
    the time to count down the tracks.

    One  other thing.   There are very few programs that this  program  won't
    copy  IF you're drives are in alignment and up to proper speed.   If  the
    copy  that  you make does not work properly,  try  changing  your  drives
    around (if possible) or try it on someone else's computer and drives.

    BLITZ comes as a program or a desk accessory.  To run it as a program you
    will need "BLITZ.PRG" and "BLITZ.RSC" in your working folder.   To run it
    as  an accessory,  you will need "BLITZ.ACC" and "BLITZ.RSC" on the  root
    directory of your boot-up disk.

    If  you are unsure as to whether a disk is single sided or  double  sided
    copy  it  double  sided (the main difference will be that  it  will  take
    longer).

    BLITZ will quite happily appear to write to a write protected  disk.   Do
    not  worry here - If a disk is write protected then there is NO WAY  that
    BLITZ can write to it (unless your disk drive is  faulty).  However,  you
    must be careful that when you DO want to write to a disk that the disk is
    not write protected - because BLITZ will not notice.

    IMPORTANT  NOTE:  You  will not be able to use your external drive  in  a
    normal way with the BLITZ lead plugged in.



                           MAKING YOUR OWN BLITZ CABLE

                 (See BLITZ.PC3 or BLITZ.IMG for cable layout!)



    Here's all you'll need........

    1 Atari drive cable.           Cost = about $20 for a six foot one.
    1 24-pin printer plug (male).  Cost = $1.00
    1 Printer plug hood.           Cost = $1.00

    ....That's it!  Just print out the BLITZ.PC3 or BLITZ.IMG file and you'll
    see how to hook up the printer plug into the drive cables.

    I suggest that you obtain an Atari drive cable and cut into two parts  to
    obtain plugs one and two.

    Plug 3 is a 25-pin male D connector, available at any Radio Shack Store.

    On machines with one internal drive and one external drive,  plug P1 into
    the computer drive-out port.   Plug P2 into the 2nd drive's drive-in port
    and plug P3 into the computer printer port.

    On  machines with two external drives,  connect drive one in  the  normal
    manner.   Plug P1 into the drive 1's drive-out port.   Plug P2 into drive
    2's drive-in port and P3 into the computer printer port.

    You might consider which setup you have before you cut the cable.

    With this setup, the computer will not recognize drive 2 unless the BLITZ
    software is running.   So if you leave your machine setup with the  BLITZ
    cables  connected,  you will lose the use of drive 2 for  everything  but
    copying.

    Switch boxes can be setup to allow you to leave the setup intact.

    I'm  sorry  but I can't tell you the color code on the  Atari  cables  as
    every one is different.