From the point of view that according to the various mentions of such disk drives in page 6 and DB pub's ATARI USER, the only Atari supporter even daring to stock these drives were Home Entertainment centre in Brum (Birmingham for those that hate shortforms)
Even then the only one they stocked was the Indus GT, nothing by trak data, Percom or Rana
Where there problems with Atari dealers importing these drives from the US, or were they pressured by Atari UK to not selling or stocking these drives
That is one possible theory, the only possible other one i can think of was that, given the popularity (as well as plethora) of disk drive upgrades/mods, like Warp lazer/lazer USD/Hyperdrive 1050, Happy, The chip/Archiver/Sup. Archiver 1 and 2, The Duplicator, USD, Speedy/Super speedy and lastly IS plate 1050, which essentially gave 1050 (or 810) users the same densities and capabilities of these 3rd party A8 compatible drives but without the double sided format option
I was lucky enough to have briefly owned an Indus GT which i bought from CEX's retro store in euston (before they shut it down) if i'd known how long my one had lasted i would have bought the other 3 that were also there, mind you, considering that CEX were selling them at 90/95 squid a pop (no PSU or SIO lead)...I don't think buying the other 3 was much of an option
I did know someone that had a RANA disk drive (can't remember what version, since they came in single or double drive cases) but he sold it along with his entire A8 setup/collection to someone up north
prior to buying the one at CEX, I was offered one by someone in southfields (just the other side of putney, south london), I chickened out and bought his Sa2 upped 1050 instead
Even then the only one they stocked was the Indus GT, nothing by trak data, Percom or Rana
Where there problems with Atari dealers importing these drives from the US, or were they pressured by Atari UK to not selling or stocking these drives
That is one possible theory, the only possible other one i can think of was that, given the popularity (as well as plethora) of disk drive upgrades/mods, like Warp lazer/lazer USD/Hyperdrive 1050, Happy, The chip/Archiver/Sup. Archiver 1 and 2, The Duplicator, USD, Speedy/Super speedy and lastly IS plate 1050, which essentially gave 1050 (or 810) users the same densities and capabilities of these 3rd party A8 compatible drives but without the double sided format option
I was lucky enough to have briefly owned an Indus GT which i bought from CEX's retro store in euston (before they shut it down) if i'd known how long my one had lasted i would have bought the other 3 that were also there, mind you, considering that CEX were selling them at 90/95 squid a pop (no PSU or SIO lead)...I don't think buying the other 3 was much of an option
I did know someone that had a RANA disk drive (can't remember what version, since they came in single or double drive cases) but he sold it along with his entire A8 setup/collection to someone up north
prior to buying the one at CEX, I was offered one by someone in southfields (just the other side of putney, south london), I chickened out and bought his Sa2 upped 1050 instead