🚀 go-pugleaf

>Subject: Blitz! Floppy Backup available (Advertisement)
>
>BLITZ is a revolutionary new back-up system for the Atari ST computer.
>BLITZ uses ONLY a special cable and software to back-up your software at

I built up the cable illustrated in the original posting and thought I would
send off to the company mentioned for the software, $2.00 and you can't
go wrong, right?
Then on a hunch, I called up a local, major BBS (Canada Remote Systems,
if you must know) and found 2 (yes TWO) versions of the software in the
utilities area. One is obviously the initial version and the other is an
enhanced, Turbo version.

First, here are some tidbits from the .DOC and .TXT files in the archives:

"
"                                THE HAPPY KILLER
"                                  BLITZ COPIER
"
"
"    Are  you  ready for a $22.00 copier that will copy as good,  or  in  most
"    cases better,  than a $150.00  cart?  Yes??  Well then, Blitz is

The wiring diagram also appeared as a drawing file suitable for printing
with PICSW7:

"    ....That's it!  Just print out the BLITZ.PC3 or BLITZ.IMG file and you'll
"    see how to hook up the printer plug into the drive cables.
"

and...

"=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"=-=-=                                                       =-=-=
"=-=-=                       INTRODUCING                     =-=-=
"=-=-=                                                       =-=-=
"=-=-=           DUPLI-TWIX BLITZ ST DISK DUPLICATOR         =-=-=
"=-=-=                                                       =-=-=
"=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"
"(The  following  product was introduced and demonstrated  at  the
"WAACE DC AtariFest, October 7-8, 1989.)
"
"Are  you tired of running ProCopy or ACopy on your latest $39  or
"$59 program or game only to find that you can't make a backup  of

and...

"Magic Media Research in conjuction with 1st STOP Computer Systems
"Ltd is gearing up for production and distribution of the fastest,
"most reasonably priced disk duplicator for the Atari ST available
"anywhere!
"
"                        What does it do?
"                        cccccccccccccccc
"It copies disks.  Fast.  Copy protection and all.  It even copies
"some disks that the Discovery cartridges have trouble with.   Our
"Discovery  cart  took  15 minutes and 40 tries  to  back  up  our
"Populous disk.   It took DupliTwix less than half a minute!   Our
"Discovery cart wouldn't back up our Batman disk at  all.   Dupli-
"Twix did it in less time than it takes the ST to format a disk!
"
"Sorry, but you can't put Mac ROMs into DupliTwix (OK, Dave?).

Well, it does what it says... I backed up my copies of Populous and
Bloodwych in 25 seconds each. And they booted immediately.
To be honest, Populous duped with the first? version of the program
but Bloodwych wouldn't, so I used the Turbo mode on it. That worked fine
(and was faster too). Populous was tried on the Turbo mode and it too
worked fine.

One minor hitch with the turbo software: it takes a long time to exit
back to the desktop. The disk directory windows re-open quickly but
no files are drawn into them for quite a while. I thought it had crashed.
I am running a .5 MB 520 with a Supra 20 hard drive.
It's not much of a problem, though, because you usually want to disconnect
the drive and reboot to check the backup anyway.

I took a good look and there appears to be no licencing or restrictions on
re-distribution, so the software could be uploaded. I would check on any
local BBS's first, also GEnie or C'serve. I will go back to my archives and
read the suggestion about submissions on the BITNET side and follow up. In
the meantime, If you are seriously in need, I could E-mail a UUEncoded
file to you (too many requests might clog us up, though... one hop to the
main nodes is only 2400 baud). If you are asking for the file, please
indicate if you would be willing to re-mail for me if I send you a net
name and address.

PS the original posting showed a 36 pin plug for the printer output
port. It is a 25 pin plug but the pins are numbered correctly... pins
26 - 36 don't exist. The listing of interconnections is right, the
assignment of colors to the plug given is numbered right but positioned
wrong. The drawing file in the archive is correct.

Regards, Stu Beal, VE3MWM, (U009@CCIW.BITNET),
National Water Research Institute,
Burlington, Ontario, Canada.