What a treasure trove! Thank you so much for sharing this! I came into possession of one in a Tandy 1000 I bought --

How awesome that these were made by Diamond.

I am very happy to discover that it is an Trackstar-E and not a 128, for the ability to use images from a hard drive. I'll have to pour through the manual to learn about how to use it since there are no videos or documentation out there.

How do the Trackstars handle software that has music and sound? Can it use a PC/Tandy Chip, or ISA sound card to play what would otherwise use a mockingboard?

Also, being that these are so rare I wonder if it would be possible for someone to clone these.

Sure, you're welcome. I hope you are able to get a lot of useful info from the site.

Congrats on scoring an E! They are the ultimate in Trackstar luxury. 😁

One of the other great things about the Trackstar E is you don't need to have any floppy drives connected to it at all, if you don't want to. Just load up those disk images I converted and you're good to go. The Trackstar config program takes a few minutes to figure out, but after that you're golden.

In case you want to use DSK images with your Trackstar, to supplement all the custom APP images I provide on my site, I recommend connecting a Floppy Emu device directly to the Trackstar's Apple floppy drive port.

About the sound: Apple II standard sound and PC Speaker are basically the same. Trackstar is able to send the Apple II sound data to your computer's motherboard w/o need for a cable. So the sound will output from your PC Speaker. Mockingboards and other Apple II hardware are not supported. You basically have a full-featured Apple IIe Enhanced model w/128kb RAM onboard, which is pretty darn capable.

I was discussing the Trackstar with Henry over @ ReactiveMicro about possibly cloning the E, because he loves Apple II and his hobby / business is cloning Apple II hardware. Who knows if he'll do it; there's a lot of PALs on the card that would need to be "cracked" before any real work could begin. Not the easiest thing in the world. 😐

Anyway, enjoy your E and feel free to ask any other questions you may have. I'd like to know you're having fun with such a neat card.

great, another card I now want 🤣

DeathAdderSF wrote:

Mockingboards and other Apple II hardware are not supported.

Ahhh, a short lived dream of playing Ultima III, IV and V with music on my Tandy 1000.

DeathAdderSF wrote:

I was discussing the Trackstar with Henry over @ ReactiveMicro about possibly cloning the E, because he loves Apple II and his hobby / business is cloning Apple II hardware. Who knows if he'll do it; there's a lot of PALs on the card that would need to be "cracked" before any real work could begin. Not the easiest thing in the world.

I hope so! I don't like to see particularly rare pieces like this lost.

There's been some interesting updates to the website over time, such as downloads of the Trackstar 128 EPROMs & Quadram Quadlink ROMs directly from the respective ISA cards. I've also been making frequent updates to the joystick compatibility document, based on my continued game tests.

In the future I hope to offer at least one HDD volume of games -- as the Trackstar E can make use of ProDOS volumes in the form of large image files -- it's in the works now but I can't provide any time estimates.

In the mean time however I am continuing to convert more DSK images over to the Trackstar's custom APP format by way of the device itself. So I'm definitely not going to cease providing disk images just because I'm working on a HDD volume.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who drops by and checks out the website. I'm happy to know it's helping other Trackstar owners enjoy their experience even more. 😉

Have the Trackstar 128 executables not been cracked to avoid the copy protection? I'm a little surprised by that...

OK, so my Trackstar website was finally redesigned, and updated with lots of new info, scans, and downloads. Come by and have a look!

www.diskman.com/presents/trackstar

Good on you!!

I just received a Trackstar in a lot of ISA cards that I picked up from a recycler.

What’s interesting is that my card doesn’t look like any of the images posted online, though I suspect that it’s an original 64k model:

Has anyone seen a card like it? Based on a comment on your site @DeathAdderSF I think that this is the version that supports CP/M, as you can see that there is a Z80 onboard, partially obscured by the speaker extension cable.

Thanks!
- Alex

The scans page just had a few nice additions made to it: An article about the Quadlink from the June, 1983 issue of PC Magazine, and four different advertisements for the Quadlink.

www.diskman.com/presents/trackstar/scans.htm

Hey, who wants to pull their old-timey Trackstar v1 (from 1984!) out of mothballs and give it a go? *raises hand* I stumbled upon a complete kit last week, and made great haste in archiving the software and documentation. So! If you've got one of these majestic dinosaurs lying around, but no software to get it up and running... stop reading this and pop on over to the operating software and scans pages of my website!

www.diskman.com/presents/trackstar/software.htm
www.diskman.com/presents/trackstar/scans.htm

Interesting!

A bunch of really neat scans were just added to my Trackstar website, mostly relating to the Trackstar 128. There's a full color leaflet, a question and answer flyer, keyboard overlays, and a flyer with some absolutely smashing chariot artwork on it. There's also a Trackstar Plus new product release flyer. Check 'em out!

www.diskman.com/presents/trackstar/scans.htm

Today I've finally finished & released Trackstar games pack #1, which is a hard drive image containing 180 unique games: each of which has been compatibility tested. If you're tired of mucking about with floppy disk images, this is your chance to go gonzo! Simply load up this pack on your Trackstar E or Plus, and have a great time!

www.diskman.com/presents/trackstar/hd1.htm

I've also added a pinout for the Trackstar Plus VGA cable to the scans page, courtesy of Korrey Moore. If you need to build a custom cable, look no further!

www.diskman.com/presents/trackstar/scans.htm

Can I make use of these images on a real machine like a LC with IIe card and prodospartitions or an a IIgs ?

Thx Doc

dr.zeissler wrote on 2023-05-26, 11:39:

Can I make use of these images on a real machine like a LC with IIe card and prodospartitions or an a IIgs ?

The floppy disk images are in a custom format only used by the Trackstar. Although you can open & convert them to something more standard using the Ciderpress program, there's really no point IMO since there's already the "4am collection" on archive.org, in standard DSK format.

The hard drive images (HD1) are simply standard ProDOS ordered HDD volumes; the naming convention (PRODOS.HD1) is dictated by the Trackstar. So if you simply rename the HD1 file, you can use it on any Apple ][ machine.

However! Again, I don't think there's a point. The hard drive images I make are tailored to the Trackstar and its limitations, i.e. 10MB maximum HDD size, and only games that I've tested and guaranteed working with the Trackstar.

For a IIgs, you would be far better off downloading the "Total Replay" package, again from 4am. For the IIe Card, well, it's been a while since I've used one of those so I can't advise. Perhaps inquire on an Apple ][ message board or group.

Thx!

Thanks for this.
I’m about to finally use the Trackstar board I received 10 years ago from the USA.
I needed for that to have my Amiga 2000 up and running with a PC bridgeboard (indeed I have no dos pc but only my big box Amiga 4000 and 2000 with bridgeboards and Isa cards - I can’t use the Trackstar in the A4000).
I hope I will be able to route the pc vga out of my Ati board into the Trackstar then back to a vga in on my monitor.

These cards will be very rare...nether saw one on ebay.