4 ms·

The first question that comes to my mind is, "where did they get the floppy drives?" Surely the original manufacturer of those drives isn't still making them???

The first question that comes to my mind is, "where did they get the floppy drives?" Surely the original manufacturer of those drives isn't still making them??? And having a batch manufactured as a one-off seems like it would be prohibitively expensive. So I'd be really curious to know how they managed that part of the whole thing. Anyway, looks like a great project. I wasn't a C64 fanboy as a kid or anything, but I'm still tempted to look into getting one of these. OTOH, I still have an Atari 800 I bought last year that I haven't touched yet, a half-started Z80 retrocomputer project to finish, and a desire to get an Atari 1040 "one of these days". So maybe I don't need yet another retrocomputer "thing" to play with... :p

dfxm12 4y ago
So I'd be really curious to know how they managed that part of the whole thing. Searching the linked development blog yields this: https://c65gs.blogspot.com/2019/03/floppys-floppys-everywhere.html https://c65gs.blogspot.com/2019/03/floppys-floppys-everywher... After some searching, we found what we were after: A local supplier here in Germany who has some quantity of different models, including a large number of ALPS 3.5" 1.44MB drives.
- mindcrime 4y ago
  Wow, so it sounds like they actually had to go with used drives. I was thinking maybe they got lucky and found some unsold NOS ones in an old warehouse or something. No such luck. But at least they found something to let them move forward with the project. It does lead me to wonder though: How many floppy drives would one have to commit to ordering, and how much would it cost, to get a company to manufacture a run of such devices?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - salgernon 4y ago
    There’s some interesting reading from the creator of a Mac Floppy emulator on sourcing the obscure (DB19) connector it uses - and his setting out I do a new production run. This [1] is kind of in the middle of the thread - but still interesting reading: [1] https://www.bigmessowires.com/2015/03/20/finding-a-db-19-angering-the-internet/ https://www.bigmessowires.com/2015/03/20/finding-a-db-19-ang... Better[2] link: [2] https://www.bigmessowires.com/2016/06/04/db-19-resurrecting-an-obsolete-connector/ https://www.bigmessowires.com/2016/06/04/db-19-resurrecting-...
  - MegaDeKay 4y ago
    The article actually states that the drives are not new.
forinti 4y ago
The last time I bought a real brand new floppy drive at a shop was in 2010 and they were really cheap (about US$5). They must have been trying to get rid of old inventory already.
- mlindner 4y ago
  There's numerous types of floppy drive and disks and the Commodore ones aren't compatible with modern drives or disks.
  - hakfoo 4y ago
    I thought it was less the drives and more the controller. You can image them with something like a Greaseweazle and a normal "PC" drive, so it's probably less that the drive is unusual and more the whole GCR versus MFM encoding and different track layout.
whartung 4y ago
The other issue is that 3.5" floppy disks are no longer made, and finding reliable ones is apparently quite difficult. Even NOS floppies can be unreliable. Sony apparently was the last manufacturer of them, and they stopped back in 2011.

dfxm12 4y ago

So I'd be really curious to know how they managed that part of the whole thing. Searching the linked development blog yields this: https://c65gs.blogspot.com/2019/03/floppys-floppys-everywhere.html https://c65gs.blogspot.com/2019/03/floppys-floppys-everywher... After some searching, we found what we were after: A local supplier here in Germany who has some quantity of different models, including a large number of ALPS 3.5" 1.44MB drives.

mindcrime 4y ago
Wow, so it sounds like they actually had to go with used drives. I was thinking maybe they got lucky and found some unsold NOS ones in an old warehouse or something. No such luck. But at least they found something to let them move forward with the project. It does lead me to wonder though: How many floppy drives would one have to commit to ordering, and how much would it cost, to get a company to manufacture a run of such devices?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- salgernon 4y ago
  There’s some interesting reading from the creator of a Mac Floppy emulator on sourcing the obscure (DB19) connector it uses - and his setting out I do a new production run. This [1] is kind of in the middle of the thread - but still interesting reading: [1] https://www.bigmessowires.com/2015/03/20/finding-a-db-19-angering-the-internet/ https://www.bigmessowires.com/2015/03/20/finding-a-db-19-ang... Better[2] link: [2] https://www.bigmessowires.com/2016/06/04/db-19-resurrecting-an-obsolete-connector/ https://www.bigmessowires.com/2016/06/04/db-19-resurrecting-...
- MegaDeKay 4y ago
  The article actually states that the drives are not new.

forinti 4y ago

The last time I bought a real brand new floppy drive at a shop was in 2010 and they were really cheap (about US$5). They must have been trying to get rid of old inventory already.

mlindner 4y ago
There's numerous types of floppy drive and disks and the Commodore ones aren't compatible with modern drives or disks.
- hakfoo 4y ago
  I thought it was less the drives and more the controller. You can image them with something like a Greaseweazle and a normal "PC" drive, so it's probably less that the drive is unusual and more the whole GCR versus MFM encoding and different track layout.

whartung 4y ago

The other issue is that 3.5" floppy disks are no longer made, and finding reliable ones is apparently quite difficult. Even NOS floppies can be unreliable. Sony apparently was the last manufacturer of them, and they stopped back in 2011.