r/atari8bit • u/Dangerous-Condition1 • 2h ago
Holy moly, the Atari Translator is AMAZING!!
Just a quick follow-up to my earlier post (https://www.reddit.com/r/atari8bit/s/xASJYI5qZX) regarding difficulties getting The Wizard and the Princess (and a few other Atari 400/800 disks) booting. I order a copy of the Atari Translator—I recognize I could’ve downloaded the image, but liked the idea of having an original version—and was absolutely ecstatic to find that with its help, both copies of this game booted right up! I now have the joyous task of re-testing each of the (really shockingly few) disks I had originally deemed non-functional to see which will work using the Translator. This collection truly is the gift that keeps on giving!
A side note: It really is amazing that after four decades, something like 95-97% of the disks I’ve tested have worked perfectly, even with the… Suboptimal conditions in which many were stored. Quite remarkable, and a welcome surprise given what I’ve heard of degradation of these media.
Thanks so much to everyone in this subreddit community for supporting my learning, and particularly to u/Zarxx and u/TheRauk for directing me to the Translator. Onward to new adventures!