226:$ 250 cost would probably be more useful as part of the purchase price of a second disk drive, but those with two drives "would find the high speed and special capabilities of a Happy drive to be a worthwhile investment" and "a pleasure to use". Moriarty concluded, "I hope the ATARI community will not abuse this power by using the Happy drive (and other similar products) to infringe on the rights of others".
241:. The 1050 Enhancement was a plug-in board and could be installed without soldering or permanent modification. In addition to the buffered reading and writing with zero latency and faster serial I/O, it supported true double density (180 KB). The serial I/O of the 1050 Happy was faster than the 810 Happy due to the faster speed of the
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time decreased to 25 seconds from 38, and drives would last longer because of more efficient disk access. Moriarty's tests confirmed the company's claim that the board and accompanying Happy Backup software could duplicate any disk readable by the Atari 810 drive. He wrote that the 810 Enhancement's
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wrote in 1983 that the magazine was reluctant to publish reviews or advertisements of the 810 Enhancement "because of its unique potential for misuse", but after testing the board "decided that the legitimate performance benefits it offers are too significant to ignore". He found that booting time
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slot of the Atari ST computer. It backed up floppies and had connectors to allow a 3rd and 4th drive to be hooked up. The original ST computer only allowed for two floppy drives, and the extra drives were handy. There were 4 different options available. Options included a pass through for another
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under the name Happy
Computing. At that time, the 810 Happy was hand-wired on the internal side board. The name was changed to Happy Computers in 1983 when the company went from a sole proprietorship to a corporation. It stopped shipping these products in 1990, and since then many other Atari
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to override the notch in the disk. It also allowed switch selection of a slower mode to provide compatibility with some picky programs. Some commercial software only ran in the original slow speed mode. The controller required a mechanical modification to the drive's enclosure and hence its
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products that would run most efficiently with Magic format disks. At least one of the
Macintosh emulators also had a circuit to read Mac disks, but could make the emulations slower and less reliable. It was faster and more efficient to convert Mac disks to Magic format first.
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floppy disk drives, which achieved a tremendous speed improvement for reading and writing, and for the ability to backup floppies. Happy's products were among the most popular Atari computer add-ons. They were still in use and active in the aftermarket as of 2009.
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The HART chip (IC number HARTD1©87HCI) also allowed copying conventional ST disks much faster. The computer floppy controller required two passes per track, three with verification. The HART chip could format and write in the same pass, saving one pass per track.
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cartridge, a switch to bank select larger cartridges, and a switch to select/deselect the extra drives. There was also a battery backed up Time of Day clock option in the
Discovery Cartridge, a significant oversight the Atari ST lacked in the stock configuration.
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variable speed disks without needing a variable speed drive. The disks were then re-written in a standard "constant speed" 3.5 inch compatible format called Magic format. This allowed using the various Mac
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disk using a Happy enhanced 1050 drive. Because the 1050 was a single sided drive with only one head, the disk had to be formatted as SS (180 KB). The IBM disk could even be formatted on the 1050 drive.
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This was the first product released in 1982. The customer sent in either their 810 drive or the internal sideboard, and the upgrade was wired in. This consisted of a few extra
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This was a smaller version of The
Discovery Cartridge that plugged into the Atari ST cartridge slot and had a cable for 1 drive that allowed converting Mac disks.
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As early as 1983 Happy
Computing was mentioned in context of software piracy. By 1986 software companies began producing fewer titles for the Atari than for the
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The 1050 Controller was a small board that was installed inside the 1050 Happy drive that had 2 switches and an LED that allowed enabling or disabling disk
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Antic
Magazine, Vol. 4, NO. 3 / JULY 1985 / PAGE 40, by Eric Clausen, "EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERY D.O.S., Including the brand-new DOS 2.5"
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or permanent modification. In addition to the buffered reading and writing with zero latency and faster serial I/O, it made backups of floppies.
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The power of the "HART" chip (Happy Atari
Rotating Thing), designed by Richard Adams, allowed standard Atari drives to read the unusual
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This program was included with the Warp Speed software. It allowed transferring files back and forth between an Atari and an
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families produced by a small company called Happy
Computers. Happy Computers is most noted for the add-in boards for the
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released the more reliable, enhanced density (130 KB) 1050 drive with the introduction of the
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Diagnostics for the
Enhancement and the drive such as high speed xfer, RPM and read/write testing
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Multi Drive, which allows high speed simultaneous writing with up to 4 Happy enhanced drives.
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VintageComputerManuals.com, by Tim
Patrick, PDF Document: Documentation for HappyXLVersion"
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and used sockets already in place on the 810 internal board without the need for any
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423:, "What are the Atari 810, 815, 1050, and XF551 Disk Drives?", Retrieved 10-23-2008
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Happy Compactor which allows organizing and combining multiple floppies into one.
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441:. Vol. 98, no. 1357. Reed Business Information. pp. 376–377.
394:, "Atari 8-Bit Computers: Frequently Asked Questions", Reytrieved 10-23-2009
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existed on the Atari, and cited Happy Drive as a major cause of the piracy.
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148:. They attributed this to their belief that an unusually high amount of
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classiccmp.org, "Atari 8-Bit Computers Frequently Asked Questions List"
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This version of the 810 Happy board was a plug-in board with a better
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The software that came with the Happy boards had many options.
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Brooks, M. Evan (May 1987). "Computer Wargaming 1988-1992".
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The Discovery Cartridge was a device that plugged into the
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Fast, slow and unHappy mode drive options for compatibility
475:Williams, Gregg (Sep–Oct 1986). "Atari Playfield".
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Tracer mode for evaluating wasted space on floppies
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618:"Drive tests" by Mark D. Elliott, August 16 1989
603:AtariMania, "The World's Finest Atari Database"
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529:, logicsays.com, retrieved October 23, 2008
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527:"Happy Computers Discovery Cartridge"
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245:processor that replaced the on-board
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292:Happy Backup for backing up floppies
221:decreased to 11 seconds from 14–18,
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435:"Happy days for software pirates"
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262:installation was more permanent.
460:"Survey of Game Manufacturers".
579:Antic Vol. 6, No. 10 - Feb 1988
433:Gosnell, Kelvin (12 May 1983).
192:, it made backups of floppies.
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181:reading and writing with zero
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1:
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137:and replicated the products.
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101:; 42 years ago
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581:(new product announcement)
464:. April 1986. p. 32.
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510:"Happy 810 Enhancement"
128:was formed in 1982 by
633:Atari 8-bit computers
540:"Discovery Cartridge"
492:Computer Gaming World
477:Computer Gaming World
462:Computer Gaming World
319:Atari 16-bit products
177:. In addition to the
175:point to point wiring
34:enhancements for the
508:(July–August 1983).
156:Atari 8-bit products
597:Antic Vol. 2, No. 4
591:Antic Vol. 2, No. 9
585:Antic Vol. 2, No. 5
573:Analog Magazine #12
324:Discovery Cartridge
266:Warp Speed software
169:chips, a different
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643:Floppy disk drives
354:Q-Verter Cartridge
135:reverse engineered
62:
516:. pp. 81–82.
133:enthusiasts have
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16:(Redirected from
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599:(product review)
593:(product review)
575:(Product Review)
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514:ANALOG Computing
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150:software piracy
142:Apple II series
126:Happy Computers
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80:Happy Computing
63:Happy Computers
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58:Happy Computers
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239:Atari 1200XL
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146:Commodore 64
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91:enhancements
28:Happy drives
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274:Warp Speed
185:and faster
161:810 Upgrade
36:Atari 8-bit
627:Categories
544:Atari Wiki
362:References
223:formatting
89:Disk drive
51:Atari 1050
32:disk drive
587:(Q&A)
447:0262-4079
338:Macintosh
330:cartridge
206:soldering
47:Atari 810
638:Atari ST
549:March 2,
421:faqs.org
392:faqs.org
343:emulator
179:buffered
85:Industry
77:Formerly
43:computer
40:Atari ST
183:latency
114:Founder
104: (
96:Founded
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301:copier
299:Sector
187:serial
235:Atari
171:EPROM
167:logic
551:2016
443:ISSN
247:6507
243:6502
173:and
106:1982
99:1982
49:and
38:and
312:IBM
276:DOS
214:of
190:I/O
144:or
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399:^
370:^
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