exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Is there a public spec somewhere of all those newer formats ? I only know what ST and MSA is.. there seems to be multiple ones now ?

So I just pasted what I could find into AI and just grabbed a random STX off atarimania. https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-s ... 30476.html

Now it got to desktop and loaded one of the games !


I doubt this would work for copy protected stuff.. I just thought it may help me get some STX (possible other formats) over to a floppy a lot easier if I build a online util to handle all this stuff for me !

Here, I usually use JayMSA to copy .ST files 'n such over to HD (or floppy if the software
won't work anywhere else). This includes the copy protected stuff.

However, I can't do the same with .STX files unfortunately.

Darklord wrote: 10 Jul 2026 02:30 However, I can't do the same with .STX files unfortunately.

STX is more advanced than .ST images. Some stuff can be extracted but its all way over my head. You basically need the proper hardware. I have a normal floppy drive and that's it, so I can't use those flux type images at all.

I will build a test script to extract MSA and .ST images, as I keep having to use steem emulator to do it, be easier just to have a simple script online to do this quick simple tasks.

.STX format (as it's creator ijor reminds everyone) is an "emulation only" disk image format and not intended to be able to be written back to disks.

While it is possible to write some STX images back to disks using a GreaseWeazle, Kryoflux or Supercard Pro there will always be a possibility that it is not 100% correct.

Much better to look for an IPF format. Writing these back to disks is (I'm told) more reliable that STX. There is a growing database of confirmed unmodified (i.e. duplicated) disk images on Atari-Forum (FYI you might want to work backwards in the thread to find the latest location of the collection)

https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=28228

alexh wrote: 17 Jul 2026 10:57 Much better to look for an IPF format. Writing these back to disks is (I'm told) more reliable that STX. There is a growing database of confirmed unmodified (i.e. duplicated) disk images on Atari-Forum

Theres so many formats now its way to confusing. I never even heard of IPF. But if the spec is published for all these formats and its possible to write them back to files, then I can add them into my tool.

exxos wrote: 17 Jul 2026 11:03 I never even heard of IPF. But if the spec is published

http://www.softpres.org

exxos wrote: 17 Jul 2026 11:03 and its possible to write them back to files, then I can add them into my tool.

What "Tool"?

You need specialised hardware to write RAW/IPF/SCP/STX images back to disk (because they can contain copy protection information impossible to write with a standard floppy disk controller). These are flux level images containing multiple rotations of the disk. They are not track/sector/block based.

Anyone or any sites have a IPF file ?

exxos wrote: 17 Jul 2026 11:32 Anyone or any sites have a IPF file ?

https://mindbomb.atari.co.uk/browse/Stream%20Images

exxos wrote: 17 Jul 2026 11:32 Anyone or any sites have a IPF file ?

https://megafile.atari.co.uk/list
https://mindbomb.atari.co.uk/index.php
both sites are same content.

I was helping with this floppy disk preservation work. IPF format is the format if you want to write back and have confirmed that you flux dumps are good. IPF is a format from Software Preservation Society (SPS) and was very controlled until things kicked off on the Atari-Forum with the help of @Dlfrsilver .

Get a Kryoflux (KF), Supercard Pro (SCP) or Greaseweazle and preserve old disks. It's been a work-in-progress on https://atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=28228 for a while with IPF provided for good clean, original flux dumps.