All-In-One Interface For All Your Retro/Legacy Drives

An anonymous reader writes "Individual computers have announced a new version of they're multi-format floppy controller the Cat Weasel. This new version (Catweasel MK3 PCI/Flipper) has a few surprises such as 3 different interfaces to connect it to the host computer and a socket for an original C64 SID chip :). 'The main purpose of the Catweasel has always been to allow access to non-standard disks using normal PC-disk drives, even if you usually need a completely different computer for that. The capacity of the drive does not matter in this case: A 5.25 inch drive with 1.2MByte capacity will read and write a C-64 disk with 170KByte as well as a 3.5 inch drive with 1.44MByte can access a 1,76MByte Amiga disk. Together with a company that has specialized in data recovery, we're working on the implementation of more than 1100 different disk formats, and it does not matter that this has been classified impossible by others before. Even the 800KByte disks from older Macintosh computers can be used in standard 1.44MB drives, although the original drives have rotated their disks at variable speeds.' Find out more at the Catweasel MK3 PCI/Flipper page."

Comments

Filesystem?

[Trusty Penfold]

It's all very well the drive being able to read the data. Where do I get the 1100 filesystems needed to interpret it?

Interesting

[User 956]

While the windows drivers are a given, I think it's interesting that companies like this will provide linux drivers and support, but no Mac drivers or support. The Mac desktop market is significantly larger than the linux desktop market, so it's not a marketshare issue.

But then, I guess Mac users are used to just throwing their computers away when it's upgrade time, and buying another one that "just works" (until new hardware comes out).

Re:Interesting

[StillAnonymous]

I'd reason that Macs "last longer" (meaning people keep them longer than they would a PC) is due to three main factors:

1) Apple doesn't develop hardware as fast as the x86 crew does. You hear about new and faster CPUs and motherboards for PC platform every two weeks (or so it seems). And people always seem want something faster, whether they need it or not.

2) The gaming industry pushes obsolesence more than any other. Since PCs are the primary platform for games, people are always upgrading their PCs to take advantage of the newest UT2010, Quake 5, and the like.

3) It's cheaper to upgrade a PC (do you consider it 'keeping the computer' if you replaced the MB and CPU?)

As far as resale value goes, if an object has a higher initial price, it almost goes without saying that it's resale value will be higher as well. Especially given point #1 above. A year down the road, that 1GHz Mac still isn't that much slower than the latest Mac available. But with a PC, one year means a LOT of progress in the hardware market.

Apple ][ Forever !

[UnknownSoldier]

Oh wait, they weren't mentioned. ;-)

Does anyone know if this will read Apple ][ disks?

Speaking of reading Apple disks, anyone still got a working Copy II PC board laying around?

Cheers

Wow....

[JoeLinux]

talk about specialize. More power to them. But I wonder if they can sell many of these. I mean, except for a few data recovery people, I don't see any real use for this. You need SCSI for your system, you get SCSI...you need IDE, you do IDE...change filesystems, stick it on a distant server tar-red up, then transfer it back down.

Just my $.02

JoeLinux

Re:Since when...

[NiceGeek]

I'd say because its an item I've never heard of and I'd say a fair portion of Slashdot's readers are intertested in emulators and this product would help them transfer their old software to their PC.

Commodore 64 drives?

[Sacarino]

Come on... I mean, I have a C64 sitting in the closet, right next to my C128 and my ol' Atari. I even have a working TRaSh-80. I keep them because I loved them back in the day and I don't want to toss them.

It's called memorabilia. As in "something worthy of rememberance." How big do they think a market for this will be? I don't even think you'd find enough consumers to call it a niche market.... please correct me if I'm wrong.

Just look at the name!

[Anonymous Coward]

With a name like "Catweasel" it has to be good.

Sweet

[florin]

I can't even carry a floppy halfways across a room between two drives that are supposed to work with the same filesystem without seeing my data eaten by bad sectors, and now my PC can ruin my old 8-bit collection too. What a deal.

Re:I dont think so

[Troy H Parker]

> I dont buy that it can read 800k disks, people have been tring

Hate to burst your bubble, but the ISA version of the CatWeasel has been reading 800k disks for years and years.

This isn't a new product, it's an upgraded CatWeasel.

Jeeze, just do a Google for "CatWeasel" for crying out loud.

Hell, I know I'm going to blow all my karma on this CatWeasel thread, but you people have NO CLUE about anything not Linux or Windows related, and it irks me most of the clueless comments that are being made. Mod away, I can take it :(

I need something that can accomodate 8 inches...

[weave]

Sigh, I have a lot of my very first coding (in Z80 assembly) stored on 8" floppies, CP/M format. I'd really like to get those text files transferred off of them. What a rush it would be (if they are still readable that is. It *has* been 20 years...

Those puppies held something like 160K and cost $5.00 (in 1980 dollars) a piece.

Will it read Laser / VZ disks?

[eggstasy]

Small intro: The VZ was a Z80 based computer sold around the world, under many names. VZ in Australia, Laser in Germany, and also known as "Texet" and "Salora Fellow" IIRC.
We on the vzemu mailing list have been tossing around ideas on how to get the old VZ games up and running on the PC. There's more than one emulator but we could use some more software. We have copied some of the stuff over using some pretty weird processes (like manually typing in memory dumps) but we could use something better. Since these guys are german, who knows?
Shameless plug:
If there's anyone even remotely interested in this machine we would LOVE to have you on the mailing list since the active members are currently very few, and for a machine that was sold to hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, only having 5 or 6 ppl interested in its emulation strikes us as a bit odd.
Anyway you can subscribe by sending a blank email to vzemu-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
I better go and post a link on the mailing list now! :)

I had a sour experience with Individual/Catweasel

[blakespot]

I had an Amiga 1200 (060 50MHz, towered) that I was trying to use a PC drive with. (Sold the Amiga to fund the purchase of an iBook 700 recently...) I purchased a Catweasel for the Amiga and could never get it working properly. The reason I went this route is that I was under the impression that the floppy in the A1200 was configured such that certain software would not run on the machine. (It was a very recent A1200, do a google search to find out what I'm talking about).

Anyway, I was talking with the main guy behind the Catweasel (can't recall his name right off) via e-mail and giving him my situation and photos of different parts of my mobo and he was walking me through the process of getting the drive wired properly w/ the Catweasel, etc. but it was not working. Turns out he had incorrect information regarding the configuration of these late-model A1200's and that my whole wiring, soldering, and Catweasel experience was for naught. As this was being discovered, the guy got tired of going through the back and forth in trying to get Catweasel working on my Amiga, and stopped responding to me.

Left a sour taste. Wasted $$. I'm sure most people won't have this need for support or this less than ideal experience. My $.02.

blakespot