Finally
done! Working Dragon Alpha with two working floppy drives!
Work left to do:
- Replace flaky RAM.
- Provide forced cooling (fans), so that it doesn't fall prey to the overheating problems of other prototypes. Although without a top case it does appear to run OK.
- Build Replica top case.
And here's the pictures of the Dragon Archives own Alpha.
Also pleased to report that Phill Harvey-Smith has Nitros OS9 and DragonDOS in development for the Alpha and MESS EMU.
Dragon Alpha screen shots galore... check them out!
A FarmFax package arrives, sadly in poor condtion BUT it has some software, "CullCow" and "Trainer" both on cart with instructions.
On the Alpha project, been continuing the work to get the original disk drives working. Have now managed to get one drive to spin up reliably, read a disk and load a file (formated on a Drag 32). But seek errors and no write means there is still some way to go.
Well the all the work finally pays of and produces a working Alpha/Professional main board! A big thanks to:
- Phill Harvey-Smith - For double checking all my work, work on reversing engineering the Alpha ROMs and finally getting the faulty chip out of there!
- Simon Hardy - on going support and the first to get the boot screen working in MESS.
- Ian Gardner - help in dumping the ROMs, general advice and his soldering skills in fixing the piggyback crystal board.
- Tony Duell - general advice.
- Phill Morris - general advice.
There is still a large amount of work to be done as follows:
- The original 3 1/2" floppy drives are faulty :-( Technical info on Sony OA-D33V floppy drives seriously needed *plaese help*.
- The original RAM is a little flaky so some more needs to sourced.
- Lack of a top case, I feel some serious amount of plastic work coming on to make a replica.
- No software, if I can get the floppies working there is a small chance I can get copies.
More news as time allows.
Still *very* busy working on the Alpha Prototype to bring it back to life. In the mean time here are some updated Dragon 64 schematics.
A very quick update to confirm I now have the Dragon Alpha main board. Unfortunately the board is faulty but I'm looking at it :o) Simon Hardy has managed to get part of the Boot ROM going in an emulator so I'll update with pics and the first ever screen shot of the Dragon Alpha soon!
A long time since a good update here are a few to keep you going. In the last few weeks I have spent *alot* of time investigating the Dragon Beta board, making adaptor to run off a modern ATX power supply etc. But pretty much as expected the Beta is poorly and non functional. More in the Hardware/Beta section.
More good news is that there is a Dragon Alpha main board with bottom section of the case with *my* name on it! Should be in possession in about a month.... more info to follow....
** WOW!! **
I have come in possession of a Dragon 'Beta' prototype mainboard (aka Dragon 128). Along with it comes a PSU, disk drives and the drive/PSU shelf from a Dragon Alpha! Alot of work to do, but I'll post pics soon. If you have any information please, *please* do get in contact as this is going to be a tuff one to get roaring again.
A real update! Pictures of the FarmFax Dragon 32.
Forget to add to my 2003 review *most played games of 2003*:
Dragon Game : Cave Hunter
Retro Game : Galaga - MAME
Current Game : Project Gotham Racing - XBOX
Neo Retro : Space Channel 5 & REZ - Dreamcast
A quick summary of recnt events can be found here!
Been quite a while since an update so here's a quick summary:
* Many thanks again to Gareth, Rob and Simon for their continuing support.
* On new stuff a small selection of software and a boxed disk controller.
* Plus a small update of pin outs
for the Dragon in the Technical section.
* And sorry about the pop up and banner from my domain reg company, but
monies too tight to spend on removing such things.
Found an excellent write up on the 80's and the technology. Please check it as I make a start on my look back at the times that shaped the Dragon with a Kick Up The 80's
Got an interesting quote from John Young who had an interview and Dragon Data.
Also if anyone wants a Dragon 32 (not boxed) please get in contact in the next week, otherwise their off to ebay.
Update on Dragon 64 pics with the arrival of a Dragon Data mailing box and a Dragon 64 box - all in excellent condition. FANTASTIC!
Should have done this a couple of weeks ago, so here they pictures from my visit to the opening of a home computer exhibition at MOC@S.
At last! A good few weeks pays off with Dragon T-Shirts and Mugs now available from a link up with UK Geek. The first new Dragon goodies for about 15 years, I thinks!
New advert "What would I do with a GEC Dragon 64?" now available .
Just when you thought you'd never see another Dragon Professional, pictures of a second, yes a second Professional arrive in my inbox! Many thanks to the owner for taking the time to take the picture and forwarding them on.
Thanks to Robert Olive for the arrival of boxed 'Dragon Mountain' cassette and 3 loose tapes with the rarer N305?? codes.
Added the source code used to test Dragon 32's during their burn in period in the factory, in the technical section.
Been far to long without a real update, so I've updated all the cartridge descriptions to show the know variations in packaging.
Sorry about the lack of updates people but I am working on a Dragon related project, hopefully should be sorted out in the next couple of weeks.
Once again my thanks go out again to Simon and Robert for continuing support of my Dragon efforts and to Adrian for his general retro support.
Stop Press 3 is now available for download.
Contact with Miguel Durán brings confirmation that Eurohard did work on the Dragon 128 and some 'slightly' better pics of the Dragon MSX. Some searching through old Dragon literature finds another picture of a Dragon 200 and a picture of the Dragon QD drive.
The technical section get a nice update with the circuit diagrams for the Dragon 64. Not the best quality, but still better than nothing.
A Bumper crop of Dragon Software arrives, including boxed Black Santum, Moon Hopper, El Dianblero and a *big* collection of other Dragon titles. *Many* thanks to Robert Olive for sorting this lot out! Robert has alos been very busy producing a list of all known Dragon games ever published a small bit of Cut 'n' pasting and it will here shortly.
An update from Simon Hardy on the D32 board jumpers and basically "Don't play with them or you could fry the RAM chips."
On the web re-design front, Concept 2 - 'Modern' is winning 4:1, so if you want to keep that 80's look get emailing.
The arrival of the D64 meant pulling out all the cupboard so I took the opportunity for better pics of the early Dragon 32 box and added pics of the RAM piggyback boards.
Finaly managed to get a nice looking Dragon 64 (@ the bottom), with no mods ;o))
Some more research pays off as I bump into Lyndon Davies, who was with Dragon Data from the very begining , through to the bitter end, including some time at Eurohard! More details added into the Dragon Data Quotes (History). So *many* *many* thanks to Lyndon for spending a great deal of time on the phone and my stupid emails.
With this information from Lyndon it is now OFFICIAL that the Dragon is a Tandy clone.
A good few evenings work pays off with the disk drive manual "An Introduction to Dragon DOS" is now available for download in the Publications section. Thanks to Duncan Smeed for the manual and Simon Hardy for getting me started on the OCRing.
A few pics from my visit to the first museum in Britain dedicated to computing. This is a major move forward in trying to get computing history preserved and for all to see, find out more... And wishing all the best to the museum for the future.
Happy New Year or Ground Hog DAY!! (depending on where you are), but it's bad news for North America as Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow during the annual Groundhog Day ceremony.
You can now now search the Dragon Data Archive for everthing you need! Please follow 'Search The Archive' on the left hand menu. Enjoy and any problems please let me know.
Added an iternview with Tony Clarke(Taken from Dragon User) into the time line (April 83). Thanks to Simon Hardy for helping out with the formating.
A small update of adding the Peaksoft history into the Non-Dragon Data Quotes section and whilst we are on Peaksoft, it has now started trading again, with mail order books, plus starting a record label and publishing their first CD!
Also done some more work on Drgaon Data history, which I hope to publish soon, just awaiting approval from the source.
The web site move is over and a couple of updates to boot.
Plus a special *big* thanks to Paul Jones for the new web space.
Due to site move and general disruption, I've put in some
changes:
1. History section opens with the starts of a timeline
and quotes from Dragon Data Employees and fans.
2. The Technical sections gets it's first update with
scans of the Pipkin and Cartridge PCB's.
3. The Gallery has now closed, but the Hardware related
pics can still be found in the Hardware section and everything else has
been moved into the History section.
Issue 2 of 'STOP PRESS' in now available for download.
1. Detail added for the Happy
Birthday tape.
2. 'CRANKY' from the 'young learner' series in a small padded box arrives,
thanks to Wayne for the deal.
Gareth Tuttiett again sorts through his personal archive and comes up with some rare pictures of the Port Talbot factory. Please check out the gallery for Dragon Data, for Kevin Stephens and the outside of the Port Talbot Factory.. *Many* thanks to Gareth
A picture added of the Finlux Dragon.
Time for an update I think.
FIrst up *MANY THANKS* to Simon of the Dragon
Archive for a box stuffed full of Dragon sofware, which pratacly doubles
my Microdeal collection in one go! The Dragon Data items include:
- Number Puzzler - Boxed
- Cosmic Invaders - Boxed
- Shark Treasure - Boxed - German
- Happy Birthday Dragon - Big Box
- Timscript
- Storm Arows
- Shuttle Zap
Sorry about the lack of updates put a sick PET 4032 and the Xbox has been sucking my time ;o), but some good stuff comming n the next couple of weeks.
1) The 3rd variation in the BASIC
Manual, example has now been added.
2) Work has started on a history section of Dragon Data, it's going
to take some time so updates may get thin for a while. To make the History
section more personal, I'm looking for personal accounts of you and your
Dragon, especially if you have first hand contact with Dragon Data - EMPLOYEE'S
I NEED YOU!
The 3rd variation in the BASIC Manual, with the Dragon 64 additional information, incorporated into the manual has been confirmed 100% by it's arrival. I'll do a pic etc. soon.
Been battling with the MESS
emulator and .CAS files to update some of the software descriptions with
screen shots. 10 Games updated, just look for the 
logo. Thanks to Simon for
the help.
Also added a couple of internal pictures to the Dragon 32 gallery.
Added pictures of Cathy Hyde and Kevin Stephens to the Gallery.
Another fine item arrives from Gareth T., the OS-9 OS box. So along with the instructions from Simon I'm nearly there, just missing the original disk, can you help??.
It just gets better and better! Another DRAGON Data Archive *exclusive*, the first pictures of the Dragon Proffesional for 18 years! added to the gallery section. Also checkout my mini write-up on my encounter with the Proffesional.
A DRAGON Data Archive *exclusive*, the first ever public pictures of the *first* ever Dragon 32, the 'Pippin' is added to the hardware section, under prototypes.
Just uploaded the 'Dragon 32 Addtional Information', the booklet was proveded with early Dragon 32's. Added into the BASIC Manual page.
First of the stuff from Duncan Smeed provides an update to the information on OS-9 Programmer's Manual, with scans of the box and extra text.
OK, OK! It's been a while but recent events have taken a lot of time! Ok here whats happened, not in any particular order.....
- Another set of boxed different joysticks arrive.
- Big Box copy of 'Cimeeon Moon' arrives.
- Moved house
- Got made redundant - 'Giss a job' ;-)
- And to round off many thanks to Duncan Smeed (of Dragon ROM fame) digs out loads of Dragon goodies for me to photo and scan. This means in the next couple of weeks some *fantastic* stuff is coming up.
- And it that wasn't enough The Dragon Data Archive is one year old!
Oh yeah, thanks to www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk for the nice TI-99.
Well, the house move has began so sorry to report no updates for while but I've got some good Dragon stuff in the pipeline. I'll update as soon as I can.
Many thanks to Jordi who identified the font used on a number of Dragon Data titles, such as ALL DREAM. Anyhow the font is '..a Facsimile Fonts design (licensed by Letraset many years ago) called Yagi Link Double'. AND double thanks to Jordi for sorting out a scan of the original 'Yagi' font. I feel some luverly neon titles could be comming this way ;-).
The 'INTRODUCING THE NEW DRAGON MICRO' brouchure is now also available as a PDF download.
Added 'INTRODUCING THE NEW DRAGON MICRO' brouchure, into the advert section..
Also still working on making the site more 80's and Dragon Data, so a new style of links and side bar are being added (slowly).
Dragon Disk Drive Unit brouchure added to the Adverts section. Also added a better picture of the Dragon 200.
Added a scan of a Dragon Data factory Visitors Pass.
Another Dragon goodie package gets me out of bed early with the arrival of 'Super Dragon Writer II' cart complete in big box., this just leaves two carts left, if you have 'Bridge Master' or 'Logo', please get in touch. Plus the added bonus of a loose 'Rail Runner' cart and 'Calixto Island'. Must run and do some packing.
Added a picture of a Dragon Data envelope in the Misc. section, also includes a HQ scan so you can print your own ;-)
Many thanks to Eddie for the Dragon 64 that made an arrival today.
Added the Dragon 32 - Press Information into the Adverts section.
Would help if I actually uploaded the pics to early joysticks ;o)
More goodies have arrived this week including a mid-style (fan) joystick box in excellent condition and 'Bloc Head' big box with German instructions.
Also added pics of the early style joysticks.
For all your gaming addicts - "Game On: The Culture and History of Videogames", chronicling 40 years of game development, opens at the Barbican in London this Thursday and will run until Sept. 15, when it will travel to Edinburgh. Please double check this before running half way around the country, BFN!
A nice selection of carts have arrived this week.
The variations in software packaging has been updated to include the 'bag' packaging, which I forgot to stick in on the 6th, sorry all.
Added a page showing all the currently know variations in software packaging, under the software section
And thanks to Simon (Dragon Archive - see MORE) for the visit.
Picture of the Dragon Lapel Badge added in the Misc. section.
Got bored so also added a 'Stop Press' release for the Dragon 64 into the Advert section.
Joystick Leaflet added into the adverts section, download available.
It looks like the archive will be moving to smaller premises, so it means 'dumping' large amounts of my non Dragon Data stuff and other 'junk' I've appeared to have accumulated, so sorry to say this is keeping me busy so updates are going to thin for a while.
But on the plus side the big box version 'Starfighter' turned up the other day.
Been *very* busy with one thing and another so the updates etc. has suffured. :-(
As for new stuff a boxed copy of Cosmic Invaders arrives, in the early style logo box :-) and a boxed single disk drive.
Plus a visit to Gareth Tuttiett yesterday with a scanner brings in some very nice items including leaflets/brochures for Dragon 64, Joysticks, disk drive and many more goodies. It's going to take a while to touch up the pics and turn them into something presentable... so hold on for more good stuff. AND if that wasn't enough, Gareth kindly parted with a very late boxed Dragon 32, that's in a D64 style case and D64 keyboard fitted. Thanks to Gareth for allowing me to waste his evening with Dragon stuff.
BEFLIX[] of glitch art fame gets in touch and provides us with an insight into how it all game about. Many thanks to BEFLIX[] for use of his material.
<Big Grin> Early logo style boxed Dragon 32 arrives </Big grin>
It also came with what appears to be the very early style Dragon Data joysticks, I'll post pics of these when it's confirmed they are the right ones.
Looks like my DNS gremlins are over and I've moved back into my original home (Many thanks to Tudor). For regular visitors I would still recommend using dragondata.co.uk for now, oh and if you do have any problems please let me know.
'Stop Press' issue 1 is now available as a PDF download (Publications).
The goodies are still comming in :-)
8 Dragon Data Software posters in excellent condition, still in their original tube. Many thanks to Gareth for such fine items.
Also... A trip to Stephen Knight, brings another *stack* of Dragon stuff, still sorting through it. Once again, thanks for letting all those good memories go.
Pictures added for late style joystick and box in the hardware section.
A bit of reaserch today has confirmed the existance of the 'Finlux Dragon' - Pics and hopefully info to follow.
The Dragon 32 gets a mention on silicon.com!
Far to long without an update, mostly due to production of the BASIC manual into, but it has been worth it.
The manual has now been added to the Publications section, with additional info and available to download :-).
Also been very busy with ebay and a visit to 'The Dragon Archive' brings some very nice, goodies including a stack of OS-9 software.
A Dragon *rescue* yesterday brings in another 32 with a box full of goodies, including 3 new DD carts and 1 new DD tape. Many thanks to Jeff of Bath for the gift.
Also added a status bar, so you can see if I'm online and even get in touch.
The manual work is currently stuck on page 118 as I'm have to go back and re-do alot of stuff due to a 'corrupt' font.
Started work on the a links
page. It a bit thin at the moment but still has some good *stuff*. Just
take a look under 'More' on the left menu.
I'm also currently experiencing DNS problems, so please just use www.dragondata.co.uk
when connecting or linking to this site.
Details and instructions added for FLIGHT.
Moving forward on the BASIC manual, currently at page 103 on the re-formatting.
It's been a while for an update but Christmas, New Year and the flu has taken alot of time away. Any how, I'm currently working on producing a Word version of the BASIC manual, it's turning into a labour of love but with any luck it'll be done soon. The arrival of the 20th Anniversary edition of TRON arrived this week, just to remind me what a great year 1982 was for technology ;-) and so added the 20th Ani. logo.