SAM Coupé FAQ

Nice tiny pictures. Have you painted them?

No, they all were made or converted on the SAM Coupé (mainly with the use of the FLASH! or SAM Paint software packages) years ago and have been purchased from public available disk magazines now.

Any SAM BASIC interpreter/compiler for Windows/Linux?

Not yet, please try Code like it's 1982!

I want to use use the SD card with the Coupé...

You should buy the Trinity interface or use a CF-SD adapter in the CF slot of the Atom Lite+. With the classic Atom interface look for some SD-IDE adapter by your local dealer (e.g. DealExtreme) or check the list on the VELESOFT´s website.

I would like to use all huge PC peripherals like HDs or CD/DVD-ROMs with the Atom interface...

Use the original 16bit Atom interface with the B-DOS v1.6 or higher, not the Atom Lite(+).

I am a madman and/or a pure retro-maniak, where is to get the floppy disk drive for the SAM Coupé?

Please leave these pages as soon as possible and ask for help by QUAZAR.

Some programs (e.g. Mandelbrot generator) are too slow in SimCoupe...

Disable framesync option (go to menu/view or press F7 key).

I have not a working floppy drive, how to set up a CF card for the Atom Lite(+)?

In order to install a boot sector into a real CF card, put a CF card into a USB reader, run the Simcoupe and use the physical drive option (instead of an image.hdf file, in Tools/Options settings). Autorun the bdos system disk image in the Simcoupe with an image.hdf file attached.

For a more detailed approach use the samdisk tool and follow these instructions:

1. Identify a CF card in the USB reader. C: samdisk list -v
You should get this info (for a 256MB CF SanDisk card):
Name: Generic USB CF Reader
Capacity: 501760 sectors = 256 MB
Geometry: 980 Cyls, 16 Heads, 32 Sectors
Volume: J:

2. Format the CF card. C: samdisk format 3:

3. Check it. C: samdisk list 3:
You should get something like: Atom Lite, 314 records.

3. Make an image file. C: samdisk 3: myimage.hdf

4. Autorun the bdos system disk image in the Simcoupe with the HDF file attached. Install a boot sector (no extra formatting is necessary).

5. Spread the image back to the CF card. C: samdisk myimage.hdf 3:

What data types could be used with the SimCoupé?

MGT disk image is Coupé´s and Disciple/+D raw format, lacks a file header, SimCoupe uses the file size to determine whether it's a MGT image, checking for a size of 819200 bytes (even inside a .gz or .zip)
DSK disk image in simple form exactly the same as the MGT format, SimCoupe should report that some disk images are invalid when you insert images of another platforms (DSK is used in emulation of the zxs+3, amstrad, bbc, apple2, ti99/4a, msx, nascom2)
new extended DSK format should be used for copy-protected disc software
TD0 disk image made by the Teledisk program (PC), comes from the early Coupé´s days, when it was a convenient compressed format used for distribution
IMG Disciple/+D disk image similar raw dump to DSK files but with a different track order, you should use some PC tool to convert it
SDF disk image mixed sector sized, faked ID field values, blank tracks, extra tracks and some other tricks
SAD disk image - in comparison to the MGT image is added a support for more than 80 tracks, a signature to make recognising the disks easier and an internal gzip-like compression
a binary file like PAK (made by Archiv II program) or simple BIN, RAW, COD could be imported or exported directly into/from the Sim´s memory
TAP tape file images not yet supported in the SimCoupé v1.0

Is really the SAM Coupé the last and best 8bit computer?

Well, the very last were the Amstrad´s CPC+ Series and finally the PCW16. Commodore´s C65 could beat everything done before...