A conversation picked up from the ADAM list from Rich Clee
which bears a message often repaeated but sometimes never
heard.  Although most ADAM owners don't use data packs any
more, they are still a viable medium for the ADAM to use.
  
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To: Will Nerini
From: Frances &/or Richard Clee <cleechez@tamcotec.com>
Subject: A question about datapacks

Re datapacks: first let me declare my interest - I am a dealer 
software and accessories including far more brand-new silver-
label datapacks in the original factory-sealed boxes than I 
really need - forget that on this particular item Phil Kosowsky 
probably has more.

That said, when Jack Leamy ended up in China with his Adam he was
cut off from any source of supply for years, and indeed he did 
whip out his trusty double cassette tape recorder and made up 
datapacks from whatever make and quality of cassettes the 
Chinese market offered, and used them with satisfactory success. 
So there is no question that it can be done.  But during my 
years as president of the Metro Toronto Adam Group, I heard
and read a great deal on the subject. I did get my ear bent by a
number of people who tried the same method and either weren't 
successful, or were successful but found that as time went by 
the non-Loran (Coleco) seemed to lose their formatting and thus 
accessibility sooner and more frequently than the real goods. 
Remember this is anecdotal evidence so evaluate it accordingly.
For the record, Coleco and Loran always claimed (not without
obvious self-interest) that the official datapacks were fund-
amentally different.  They said the tapes were low-bias because 
it worked better, that the base was made to run at the higher 
speeds of the Adam drive and endure the sudden stops and 
reverses without stretching or dropouts of oxide particles
from the coating, and that the casing was made of Lexan to
withstand the high levels of heat that a heavily-used tape 
drive can generate. This is probably true. And for all I know, 
Loran (they're in Warren, PA.) would probably still produce a 
custom run of datapacks if the quantity were right and there 
was any demand for them.  I have Syd Carter's Megacopy set up 
in my backup Adam. It isn't without its faults; something makes 
it very reluctant to read and copy block 64 properly so it can 
be necessary to go over it a couple of times, or maybe
use a block copier to reinforce it later. It is dreadfully slow,
especially the version I have, though I recently acquired a 
later model actually built in to an Exp.3 CPU, but I haven't 
tried it yet. But the software is flexible, allowing the 
creation (as long as you have a master in that format) of 
regular or flippy tapes or right-directory games tapes. There
are a fair few others in the Adam community who also still have
operating Megacopy setups, I believe.
So yes, you can putz around if you like and do things with a
double-cassette recorder, or you can buy the original, or you can
cut a deal with someone who has the Megacopy setup. All depends 
on what quality you want and how much you're willing to pay for 
it. - Rich Clee


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