Altair32 Emulator "Easter Egg" idea

[Cameron Kaiser]

> I used to have an alignment disk that worked by reading a 
> (specially-written) disk where each track was progressively more 
> out-of-line (or rather, started too far out, went into line, and then 
> became too far in).  The software would determine which track gave the 
> least read errors, calculate the amount the head was out, then 
> repeatedly whack the head off the appropriate end stop...

Vorpal Toolkit did something of this sort, using its own disk as an alignment
master (not sure if it was a modified Dysan or whatever). Once it found a
problem, it would then smack the drive head several times and start again.

> Terrifying to hear it in action, but it worked, and well.

Yes, it sounds like it was going to break the 1541 when it was whirling at
full bore. I was amazed that it worked, however.

I took the theory and wrote my own drive head killer called Torquemada 1541.
I've saved numerous 1541s that way, although there was one that Torquemada
could not revive and I tore my hair out until I opened it up and found out
how dirty it was. A cleaning diskette fixed that problem. As they say in the
medical field, when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.

-- 
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 Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA * ckaiser at floodgap.com
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