New Dumping Disk

[fiath]

New version of the dumping tools is available. Main details in the next WIP, but basically:


Machines with interrupt generating hardware can now be used using a different dumping "mode".
Recognises more kickstarts from those submitted
Other dumping tool specific improvements
Scripts can now detect and disable 68060 CPU caches
Added missing serial.device (doh)
Documents updated
Other bits and pieces

Interestingly enough, this is the first time the actual dumping tool has been updated since it was first made public! That is about 1 1/2 years I guess, and the only reason for that is because we were getting so many people with interrupt generating hardware. Pretty cool huh? :) Mr "tech" IFW certainly did good on his research!

The included documents have basically had a complete rewrite, there was a lot of redundant stuff in there, and a lot of things we wanted to make clear. Also all the stuff we now know about getting PC2Amiga working properly (thanks §ane!).

Unfortunately now they are rather comprehensive, but we want to make sure this stuff is done right! Don't let it put you off. ;)

If you fancy dumping games for C.A.P.S. then just send a mail to contributions@caps-project.org and we will get the dumping tools out to you.

[Steve]

Great stuff. :great

I'll give it a try with one of my games and see what happens. Did my eyes decieve me or does it say in the docs that you are actually able to fix broken original disks. I have an old original Dungeon Master (NTSC) which only loads so far so it seems quite broken. Should I dump this or not?

[fiath]

Yes, when the mastering tools are available, you will be able to fix your broken disks providing the IPF is available. This is one of the most important goals of C.A.P.S. However, it will be a little while before it becomes available. Hopefully in the short term.

Please dump your Dungeon Master though, there is a possibility that the dumping tool can read what the game loader cannot, and thus there is a possibility that your non-loading disk still produces a 100% correct disk image. I'll admit, this is fairly unlikely, it depends on the error and your drive - but still possible and has happened on numerous occasions AFAIR.

Have you tried opening the disk shutter, rotating the disk all the way round while blowing inside? The "spin and blow trick" (tm). Do at your own risk, but many errors are down to dust and dirt that can be removed by doing this. Try it and test the game again - you never know!

[IFW]

Interrupt generating hardware actually is "rogue interrupt" generating hardware, ie devices generating interrupts that are not controllable by either the standard KS or through IRQ registers, These uncontrollable devices are quite often present on higher specced ppc cards etc. Since one member finally got hold on one such card we could finally fix the dumping tool for them.

Recognises more kickstarts == Recognises all kickstarts submitted ;)

[Steve]

Originally posted by fiath
Yes, when the mastering tools are available, you will be able to fix your broken disks providing the IPF is available. This is one of the most important goals of C.A.P.S. However, it will be a little while before it becomes available. Hopefully in the short term.

Oh right. I can't wait for that to be released. What an awesome tool that will be. Any idea on roughly how long it will be till it's ready to be released. Weeks, months maybe?

What happens after I send you my RAW files for you guys to investigate? Will I recieve the preserved IPF file of my disk when it has been investigated, checked and mastered? I hope I don't have to wait for the official Caps release before I could get hold of my IPF file.

I've just spent most of today dumping some different DM games and will upload the RAW files to your FTP soon so you can have a look at them. It seems to take about an hour to do 1 disk which is much longer than I expected. Still if it manages to grab every little detail about the disk then I'm not complaining. :D

[IFW]

1 hour?!?
It is a few minutes more like and I use a standard A1200 with 8mb fastram. It sound like you are dumping using a very slow serial connection?
If you have a harddisk I'm positive you'd prefer to dumping to harddisk instead of using a remote location, then use a faster method of transfer, than the one currently being used (serial?).

Please consult with Fiath, 1 hour per disk is definitely not normal.

[Steve]

Originally posted by IFW
1 hour?!?
It is a few minutes more like and I use a standard A1200 with 8mb fastram. It sound like you are dumping using a very slow serial connection?
If you have a harddisk I'm positive you'd prefer to dumping to harddisk instead of using a remote location, then use a faster method of transfer, than the one currently being used (serial?).
I have an unexpanded Amiga 1200 with no extra RAM, no accelerator and no hard drive. I'm using a serial cable set to 38400 bits per second so it looks like I'm stuck with 1 hour per disk. :(

[IFW]

Actually the speed is due to using the serial link unfortunately :(
Is there any way you could use a parallel cable instead?
I used a simple (pc-laplink: read cheap in any shop) laplink cable for dumping and it was just a few minutes, no accelerator involved. I suggest you discuss using the parallel link if possible, as dumping a disk for an hour (actually dumping for a few minutes, than transferring it in 50-55 mins over serial...) can take an eternity for a lot of disks.

I think there is a fast serial device available for the amiga (baud bandit?),but I don't know how compatible it is with a pc.

Please consult with Fiath or anyone who may be able to help to set up a parallel link or a fast serial link if such thing exist, the speed difference will be shocking to say the least... :eek

[fiath]

Serial Link:

Yes, I guess nearly an hour is about right unfortunately.

You can change the serial speed though... :)

Edit the file: CAPSTransfer:devs/dosdrivers/pcs

on the dumping disk and change the 38400 to either 57600 or 115200. The 56K setting should work, but the 115200 probably won't.

Then change the PC-side PC2Amiga settings to the same.


IPF's:

Quite a lot has to happen before the IPF's are released, it is not just a case of converting the file unfortunately. We decided to expend this enegy on those games we have scans for first.

So, I am afraid that DM needs to wait until we have scans for it. Then we will put the effort into verifying, converting to IPF + all the other stuff.

There is an good side-effect to this though, if we released the IPF files without scans, do you think that people would bother doing the scans? Well it is less likely anyway - at least this way we can ensure that the game is complete as released!

Sorry, but this is the way it has to be if we want to keep things fair to everybody.


Mastering Tool:

I have no idea when this will be available. Not in the immediate future at least.

[§ane]

Originally posted by IFW
If you have a harddisk I'm positive you'd prefer to dumping to harddisk instead of using a remote locationWhat? That's supported now?! If that is the case, cool, I will dump to HDD and transfer them over night instead of tying the PC up in the daytime.

[fiath]

Well.. It is supported, but indirectly. ;)

Basically the scripts wrapped around the dumping tool actually dump to RAM first, then dump is moved to HD. So you need 6Mb+ RAM to keep the image in memory until the dump is finished.

AFAIK dumping directly to HD will never be supported, because the bus activity would screw up the dumping. I am sure IFW could supply more info on this though.

[IFW]

Yes, I meant "indirect" hdd dumping and you need some extra memory for that.
Hdd communication has some timing constraints that changes by the driver, the type of hddd and other factors. Normally the OS takes care of that, but if you happen to disable the OS suddenly the process gets out of sync, and the hdd controller may refuse to accept data for writing/data gets interrupted during transfer->hdd corruption. You don't want that. :)

[§ane]

Thanks for clearing that up.

Seems I'm in need of a RAM expansion card for the A1200.

[Steve]

Originally posted by IFW
Actually the speed is due to using the serial link unfortunately :(
Is there any way you could use a parallel cable instead?
I used a simple (pc-laplink: read cheap in any shop) laplink cable for dumping and it was just a few minutes, no accelerator involved. I suggest you discuss using the parallel link if possible, as dumping a disk for an hour (actually dumping for a few minutes, than transferring it in 50-55 mins over serial...) can take an eternity for a lot of disks.
Right, I've managed to get hold of an Amiga printer cable. I think that's a parallel cable also. One end plugs into the Amiga pefectly fine although the other end is expecting a printer socket. There are no pins just a long line made up of one blue connector. Will I be able to get hold of some sort of adapter so I can plug this end into the PC?

[fiath]

Err... That is the wrong type of cable I am afraid!

You need a "parallel null-modem" or otherwise called a "4-wire laplink" cable.

This will have a 25-pin D-type connector at both ends that will fit in both the Amiga and PC parallel ports.

I think you might be able to get one from Maplin, or other electronics shops.

Update: Here is a link to the required cable on the UK Maplin site:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/products/module.asp?CartID=03031112090912&moduleno=10398&modulecode=

[IFW]

Remember it is a pc accessory these days, so no need for "special" Amiga equipment at all.
Actually I bought my cable in a hypermarket while buying food or something like that and it was piled among pc accessories as 4 wire laplink cable...
So it is very, very common as a pc accessory and very cheap.

[Steve]

Doh. :lol
Ok I'll look for one of these cables. What is the speed difference roughly between serial and parallel? Why is parallel so much faster than serial? So far I've dumped 9 games for Caps.

[killergorilla]

What speed are we looking at for a parallel port? I'm buying a new (2nd hand) Amiga next week and was considering connecting it to my PC for data transfer.

I do have an A1200 at the moment but have always transferred data using floppy disks (not a lot of fun) or CDRs (not at all fun with MakeCD)

The comp I'm buying also has a fast serial port I believe, any chance that this would be faster than parallel transfer? (Not sure which model it is though)

It also has a 100MB zip drive, but I don't have one for my PC and don't want to shell out an extra £60 just to transfer stuff.

[IFW]

Originally posted by Steve
Doh. :lol
Ok I'll look for one of these cables. What is the speed difference roughly between serial and parallel? Why is parallel so much faster than serial? So far I've dumped 9 games for Caps.

Depends on the application.
Using pc2amiga and the speed description you gave on the serial link roughly 50+ minutes/disk :eek

[fiath]

Originally posted by Steve
Why is parallel so much faster than serial?

Parallel has 4 lines transferring data whereas serial only has one. ;)

I don't know the exact speeds, but I believe there is a reference in the PC2Amiga documentation.

[fiath]

Originally posted by killergorilla
What speed are we looking at for a parallel port? I'm buying a new (2nd hand) Amiga next week and was considering connecting it to my PC for data transfer.


Okay, but not great. About the speed of a floppy disk drive maybe? As above, look in the PC2Amiga docs, it has speeds for serial, 4-wire parallel and 8-wire parallel (but you have to make the 8-wire one yourself as it is non-standard).


The comp I'm buying also has a fast serial port I believe, any chance that this would be faster than parallel transfer? (Not sure which model it is though)


Unlikely, AFAIK you get a maximum of 115200 bits/s (10KB/s in practice) with serial. But it may not go that high on the Amiga, 57600 (5KB/s in practice) is more likely.

Laplink parallel on the other hand can theoretically do 0.7Mbps (700000 bps) on a PC though you would never be able to get this out of the Amiga's parallel port. I think you can best hope for about 20-30 KB/s.

[oldpx]

I get 115200 with serial but I also benefit the GUI of Amiga Explorer. Is pc2amiga any better?

[killergorilla]

Sounds like I'd be better sticking to CDR for PC > Amiga, and I'll probably stick to floppies from Amiga > PC.

When it comes to CAPS images or other larger files, I think I'll keep using MakeCD. It's not the best thing in the world but it's 10 times faster than those speeds.

I'm not looking forward to backing up my Amiga HD at the end of setting it all up. That should be fun.

Oh well!

[fiath]

Well, I use a PCMCIA network card which I bought for £15. Works like a charm and gives me about 220 KB/s over FTP.

Setting that up can be a pain though.

[killergorilla]

I've decided to go for a Zip Drive for my PC. There are tonnes of 100MB drives on eBay for under £15. I'll grab myself one of those and use it that way.

At last I'll be able to do some more CAPS backups to help you guys. I did do around 10 ages ago but I stopped because my 16MB Ram SIMM died on it's ass.

[IFW]

Thanks KG.
We all know the pain of dying hw/sw :sad

[andreas]

A big thumbs down.

You really cut off your nose to spite your face with those "practices".
What use does a CAPS dumping tool for A500/A1000 users make?

None at all. Because I won't equip my old boy with an 68020 or expansion board containing an 68020 + or whatever just because of ONE tool.

Sorry, but it's plain and simple: if you don't try developing a tool suitable for us A500/1000 users (and there are MANY, because [even nowadays] not everyone can afford an A3000 or A4000!), you will have to live without our support.

That's by no means an attempt to blackmail you, but simply plain facts.

[fiath]

Andreas, do you think there might just have been a reason for this? As you say, we are effectively excluding a HUGE amount of people from dumping their disks with the C.A.P.S. tool because it has to have at least a 68020...

Well, there certainly is a reason, and that is that you CAN NOT do what we need to do to get all the information from a disk on a plain 68000. This is simply plain facts.

There are very sound technical reasons for it, but apart from anything else, it is EXTREAMLY complicated. Why do you think all this has not been done before now? A 68000 (or 68010) does not have the processing grunt.

We didn't to it to exlude anyone, we did it because we had no choice. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY. If it would have worked on a 68000 (even if it took lots of effort), don't you think we would have supported it? We have spent nearly two years on this, so a little longer would not have made a difference.

Your right though, we will have to do without your support. But as we have absolutely no choice, there is not really much point in worrying about it is there?

Please don't jump to conclusions in future. All of this is explained in the documents that come with the tool. If you have a query, then just ask. We seem to answer pretty quick on here.

Basically, asking "Why don't you support plain 68000's?" might have been a bit nicer IMO. :p

[IFW]

There is no way to make it *reliably* work on a 68000 (unless cpu is seriously overclocked...), the bus/cpu combination is way too slow. Otherwise it would be working on it right now.

The blackmail is a cheap nice try, but *nobody* so far *actively contributing* to the project has only an a500 without any sort of cpu upgrade etc. You don't need an a3000 or an a4000 either. All you need is a 68ec20 cpu or better and about 2mb ram. The year is 2003 right now posting this ;)
An a1200 or something similar is literally thrown into the waste these days, unless they are towered etc.
Especially in Germany and the UK, just ebay should give machines literally selling for nothing if they don't have original games, monitor etc added to the package, to enhance the "sale" somehow.
Not to mention carboot sales where most of that stuff is collected from in the first place, exchanged for records, a few euros or whatever suitable.

If someone is really an Amiga nut, that should pose no problem to get a machine that is suitable for the task. This is somewhat different in the US I think, where a1200s are very rare, but big box amigas are not, and the dumping tool works perfectly on big box amigas as well.
A lot of effort went into making a reliable tool, that works in the long run and uses as little resources as is possible given the task.

Feel free to delete your rant as it is not based on knowing the circumstances - and feel free to ask next time as Mr. Fiath wrote :p

Finally: a big thumb down for C= for making a machine not suitable for real time signal processing in 1985:D

[Duke]

I have the Blizzard Turbo Memory Board in my A500, it uses a 68000 with 14 MHz and 2 MB Fast RAM, which are directly connected to the cpu (so the speed should be very fast). Sysinfo says the memory speed is better than an A1200 with 2 MB Chip Mem ;). Maybe it will work?

[IFW]

Yes I think *that* config definitely should do the trick, may need a slightly different core to get rid of 020 specific stuff, but the bus speed imo should be pretty much up to the task.
Do you have any means of using pc2amiga or something to make sure that you can transfer the images? Dumping directly to hdd can be done, but it is very dangerous see above why.
If you have some means of transferring the resulting images (please test first), I think we can give it a try!
Please get in contact if you are serious about this.

[Duke]

Does PC2Amiga work in 2k or XP? I think i have tried it and failed. I've used PC2Amiga with a Lap-Link cable to transfer disk images when i still had Win 98, now i'm using the Amiga Explorer from Cloanto with a Nullmodem cable.

Anyway, I would be glad to contribute my collection, i have about 120 original game disks (though not always with Box & Manual, but the disk should help if another dump is damaged or something like that).

[IFW]

Fiath can possibly be more helpful on XP issues with pc2amiga, than myself.
I think there is some kind of port emulator or compatibility setting is required on XP as pc2amiga hits certain parallel port lines directly (for a very nice speed effect).

Alternate transfering methods can be utilised, like:
local network access
some more ram (about plus 6mb) to dump to hd
serial connection, though it will be slow (see above how slow)
someone might give a try to use a faster serial link, like baud bandit (?)
burning cds

Possible anything that I can't think of right now...

But pc2amiga through parallel could be the cheapest and easiest solution.

Fiath?

[fiath]

Yes, PC2Amiga does work on XP/2K, but it seems people are getting mixed results. It works perfectly for me. But I guess it may need a bit of tweeking.

Remember though, that you need Amiga OS 2+ for PC2Amiga to work... Do you have OS2+ in your A500?

If so, I will try to help you get it working. There are many things you can try, but I think it is more a case of trying each one.

I don't know anything about Amiga Explorer, but you might be able to use that. Caan you mount the PC side as a normal device on your Amiga? We would need to add support for it on the dumping disk (not the Cloanto files though, but maybe with instructions on where to copy them).

Anyway, if you want to have a go, we can start trying to get your A500/PC setup working now with PC2Amiga (in preperation) or otherwise perhaps have a go getting Amiga Explorer going (if that is even possible)...

[IFW]

You can use any amiga device (in the sense of driver) so long you can use it as a standard way with the AmigaOS and the device itself does not depend on timing tricks.
pc2amiga in this sense is very nicely done, though you get some lost packets, but it can recover very nicely. Actually you can get rid of reporting lost packets and you won't even notice.
Dumped images contain a lot of crc32 checks for validity and I can safely say it is a very well written sw as real transfer errors rarely if ever occur.

[andreas]

Originally posted by fiath
We didn't to it to exlude anyone, we did it because we had no choice. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY. If it would have worked on a 68000 (even if it took lots of effort), don't you think we would have supported it?
Not necessarily, there might have been a theoretical explanation that you never tried it on an 68000 Amiga, assuming, "Amigas are that cheap now, we just assume that the gross of people has a 68020 Amiga." However, taking a closer look at the ratio of A500/1000/2000 users to A1200/3000/4000 users, the latter group will make the minority. I AM SURE about this, even though I never took it upon myself to actually prove this assumption of mine.
Basically, asking "Why don't you support plain 68000's?" might have been a bit nicer IMO. :p
Nicer yes, but you could just have asked via mail if I own an 68020 + Amiga and even save YOURSELF some work by not sending the dumping tools in case I only have an 68000 Amiga.
Instead, I felt like a little child full of excitement unpacking its Christmas present, read the README and every lineament in my face suddenly changed: UH. :shocked :sad
That might be the reason of my negative reaction (at this very crucial instant), whereas I would certainly react differently now.

[Duke]

Originally posted by fiath
Remember though, that you need Amiga OS 2+ for PC2Amiga to work... Do you have OS2+ in your A500?Yes, I'm using Kickstart & Workbench 3.1 in my A500 (Like I said in my previous posting, i was using PC2Amiga for quite a while with Win98 ;))

I don't know anything about Amiga Explorer, but you might be able to use that. Caan you mount the PC side as a normal device on your Amiga? We would need to add support for it on the dumping disk (not the Cloanto files though, but maybe with instructions on where to copy them).I don't think the Amiga Explorer will be useful here, it just makes all Amiga devices available to the PC as drives, you can't access the PC files from the Amiga side.

I'm not at home the next 2 days, but I will try to get PC2Amiga working this weekend.

[fiath]

Originally posted by andreas
Not necessarily, there might have been a theoretical explanation that you never tried it on an 68000 Amiga, assuming, "Amigas are that cheap now, we just assume that the gross of people has a 68020 Amiga."


Really not something we are likely to do. We did it because it was necessary, but we had no choice anyway.


However, taking a closer look at the ratio of A500/1000/2000 users to A1200/3000/4000 users, the latter group will make the minority. I AM SURE about this, even though I never took it upon myself to actually prove this assumption of mine.


You might be right, but it does not change the fact that it can't be done.


Nicer yes, but you could just have asked via mail if I own an 68020 + Amiga and even save YOURSELF some work by not sending the dumping tools in case I only have an 68000 Amiga.


Strangely enough, this was the first time I have EVER done that. I usually send only the requirements document and go from there. As I said in my mail to you, I was very busy (I was just heading upstairs to feed my daughter) and so, to get you the tool soon (i.e not for another day otherwise) I sent you the full package that included requirements doc anyway.

Nevermind. Sorry for trying to get it to you sooner rather than later... :) :p


Instead, I felt like a little child full of excitement unpacking its Christmas present, read the README and every lineament in my face suddenly changed: UH. :shocked :sad
That might be the reason of my negative reaction (at this very crucial instant), whereas I would certainly react differently now.

Okay, I understand. Sorry Santa didn't quite bring you the prezzie you wanted. :)

Other than that, what I said still stands. Even if we really really really wanted to we couldn't do it and expect the dumps to work.

Just of of interest, if we did have a tool working on A500's how on earth would you either contain the dumps, and transfer them to a PC? These guys are *at least* 3Mb but can be up to 10Mb in some rare circumstances.

CD burning: no way on a500
internet: no way on a500
using pc2amiga: no way on a500
dumping to hd: not on a vanilla a500
pcmcia network card: not on an a500

?

The conclusion is even if you could dump the games, you wouldn't have the means to transfer the results, so it would be a fairly pointless exercise anyway. Unless you have any ideas?

If you are not dumping straight to another computer you need 6Mb of RAM to dump disks (even if you have an HD).

Again, unfortunately, this is unavoidable. If we could make it possible - we would .

On the other hand if your a500 is souped up somehow, like with a cpu card, then you definitely can use the dumping tool right now anyway. We are not talking of a3000 or a4000 machines here, just bare bone standard dirt cheap amiga models - unless you can only import a working machine from the Uk to Hungary in that case the posting fee is well known to be much more, than the
machine itself ;)

On the other hand if you are located in the Uk or Germany we do have members who can dump and return needed games. We just don't like doing that unless absolutely necessary.

[fiath]

Originally posted by Duke
Yes, I'm using Kickstart & Workbench 3.1 in my A500 (Like I said in my previous posting, i was using PC2Amiga for quite a while with Win98 ;))


I thought this might be the case, but I just wanted to check :)


I don't think the Amiga Explorer will be useful here, it just makes all Amiga devices available to the PC as drives, you can't access the PC files from the Amiga side.


Okay. Thanks.


I'm not at home the next 2 days, but I will try to get PC2Amiga working this weekend.

Okay. Well, there are some recent threads on here with really good tips. If you can't get it to work from them, then I will try to find that Win2K/XP legacy parallel driver you can use PC2Amiga with... It worked for me, but I didn't need it in the end anyway.

[andreas]

Originally posted by fiath
The conclusion is even if you could dump the games, you wouldn't have the means to transfer the results, so it would be a fairly pointless exercise anyway. Unless you have any ideas?
Of course: in compressed form it could indeed work with my A1000 + Golem box. (2 MB RAM)

If you are not dumping straight to another computer you need 6Mb of RAM to dump disks (even if you have an HD).
YIKES! 6 MB! Values getting more and more, huh? :D

On the other hand if your a500 is souped up somehow, like with a cpu card, then you definitely can use the dumping tool right now anyway.
I thought so ... with an expansion card it would be possible. But my A500 is unusable right now ... I only have my A1000 atm.

[Duke]

It seems i need that legacy parallel port driver, PC2Am keeps saying 'Cannot tranfser packet for a long time' :sad

[fiath]

Originally posted by andreas
Of course: in compressed form it could indeed work with my A1000 + Golem box. (2 MB RAM)


With that amount of RAM, you would need to dump directly to another computer. PC2Amiga needs OS2, so thats out. Is there something similar that mounts another computers drives as a normal Amiga device?


YIKES! 6 MB! Values getting more and more, huh? :D


The bare minimum is probably maybe 5Mb, but it would depend on what you are dumping. Some disks would never dump with this amount of RAM.

If you are dumping directly to another computer though (for example using PC2Amiga on OS2+) then you only need about 1Mb of RAM for *any* disk, no matter what is on it.

But PC2Amiga can't run on a A500/A1000 unless it sports Kickos 2. :(


I thought so ... with an expansion card it would be possible. But my A500 is unusable right now ... I only have my A1000 atm.

Oh well. Maybe sometime in the future then.

[fiath]

Originally posted by Duke
It seems i need that legacy parallel port driver, PC2Am keeps saying 'Cannot tranfser packet for a long time' :sad

Did you try setting compatibilty options in windows? (create a shortcut to the pc2am.exe, and set the options) ?

Anyway, I will try to find that port driver again...

[fiath]

Hmm, I found this one:

http://www.zeecube.com/IOAccess/index.htm

But you have to pay for it... I know there is a free one somewhere....

UPDATE:

Okay, try this one, it is not the one I used but it seems to do a similar thing:

http://www.thesycon.de/upp/eng/upp.htm

[Duke]

Hm, I got PC2Am working using VirtualPC (PC Emulator). The Amiga can now access the virtual PC drives (from which I can copy the data to my normal hd's). Those legacy drivers didn't work.

Now I need the transfer & test programs :)

[§ane]

Originally posted by Duke
Hm, I got PC2Am working using VirtualPC (PC Emulator).Didn't I say pipe it through Virtual PC ? (http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=95294#post95294) :)

The Amiga can now access the virtual PC drives (from which I can copy the data to my normal hd's).Setup a shared folder and avoid this extra step. Then again, PC2Amiga might not enumerate network drives.

[Duke]

@sane: I didn't read this thread ;). Virtual PC is really a nice piece of software (no wonder, one of the main mame devs is one of the developers ;)).

PS: If anyone tried to contact me on duke@mightygamers.de: this address is not working any longer. Please use fatplumber@gmx.de.

[fiath]

Nice one! Another tip to go into the docs, thanks guys. :) I am not sure why my PC2Amiga works now. ;)

About the tools, IFW has got other important stuff going on right now, as the next WIP will reflect. But I guess he will start work on it as soon as he can.

[Steve]

When I'm dumping games for the Caps project I usually leave the computer making the back-up as it can take a while on my mega-slow serial connection. Nearly every single disk I dump gets a packet time-out error. Probably because of the slow serial connection.


Cannot transfer packet for a long time.
Check cable and PC software

Click on HELP when you are not sure what this means.


All I have to do is press on RETRY and it gets going again. This is extremely annoying when I leave my computer for an hour to dump the disk only to come back and find it's only done about 10 of the 83 tracks.

So what I'm requesting is an Auto-Retry feature that will attempt to send the packet with 3 or 4 attempts before it brings up that damn system request box. That would save me a huge amount of precious time which I have very little of at the moment.

[fiath]

That is not the dumping tool, that is the PC2Amiga software - and therefore, unfortunately, we have no control over what it does.

However, I have found that happening too. The reason it was happening on my system (after some investigation by IFW) is that Windows sucks.

Seriously! :)

Basically, you need to keep the PC2Amiga window on the PC-side focused, otherwise Windows thinks the process is inactive, and gradually gives it less and less CPU time. As PC2Amiga needs real-time monitoring of the parallel port, it is not surprising that it times out occasionally.

Hopefully keeping the PC2Amiga DOS window focused will fix your problem, if not, then the only way you can get it working is to install Windows 95/98/ME. :(

Update:

Apparently you can disable packet timeouts on the amiga side completely. The needed paramter is in the mountlist. Check the pc2amiga documentation...

The drawback however is that you'll only notice pc2amiga "freezing" for minutes by watching the track counter stay frozen forever, and more importantly it will look exactly like the dumping tool freezing (but of course, it isn't)...

[§ane]

Originally posted by Steve
Nearly every single disk I dump gets a packet time-out error. Probably because of the slow serial connection.

All I have to do is press on RETRY and it gets going again.I hate to break this to you Steve, but it is highly probable all of your CAPS dumps thus far are corrupt(!) due to these time-outs. I found this to be the case on account of some simple tests.

So what I'm requesting is an Auto-Retry feature that will attempt to send the packet with 3 or 4 attempts before it brings up that damn system request box. That would save me a huge amount of precious time which I have very little of at the moment.This is almost funny, no sorry, uhm this can be done through editing the mount entry, details might be in the readme. Don't bother though. The requester should be taken as indicator to start again!

Originally posted by fiath
Basically, you need to keep the PC2Amiga window on the PC-side focused, otherwise Windows thinks the process is inactive, and gradually gives it less and less CPU time.I do NOT recommend task switching while PC2Amiga is working, however.. If you create a shortcut for PC2Amiga and alter it's Properties, untick Background "Always suspend" on the Misc tab, then it's not absolutely imperative that you keep PC2Amiga as the foreground window.

Hopefully keeping the PC2Amiga DOS window focused will fix your problem, if not, then the only way you can get it working is to install Windows 95/98/ME. :(It's the same deal with 9x/ME, methinks.

Anyway, ensure the baud isn't any higher than 19200 bps (over serial) if you have an unexpanded machine.

[IFW]

Just upload some dumps to the ftp and we'll see whether they are corrupt or not.
Using parallel mode data corruption (almost) never occured to me, but I have never ever tried a serial link, so can't tell how well pc2amiga works with that.

[Steve]

Originally posted by §ane
I hate to break this to you Steve, but it is highly probable all of your CAPS dumps thus far are corrupt(!) due to these time-outs. I found this to be the case on account of some simple tests.
OH SHIT. You must be joking!!

My Dumps folder is over 82MB!! :(

I'll upload and hopefully some of them will be ok.

[fiath]

Has it happened for all the disks you dumped? Or is it just recently happened?

BTW, the author of PC2Amiga is willing to let people have the source if they want to improve it. However, he suspects it would be a complete re-write anyway. It is also mostly assembler. But I just thought I would mention it if anybody is nutty enough. ;)

[Steve]

Originally posted by fiath
Has it happened for all the disks you dumped? Or is it just recently happened?
I think it's probably happened on about half of the disks I've dumped.

[IFW]

I really think it is a good idea to test the dumps...
Just my 2ec :)

[IFW]

Steve:

I guess it's your folder that is called Steve on the ftp ;)
I've downloaded and tested all the dumps and none of them have any sort of transfer errors. :)
In fact even the game marked as bad was readable by the analyser, so it is not bad by my definition.

There is only one problem disk, but the problem has nothing to do with the transfer, it is a problem with the disk itself, but a few "redump techniques" may improve on the result.
Fiath is going to contact you with the details.

FYI: an average dumped image has 4*84*2 crc32 checksums to pass and to filter out transfer and other integrity problems.

[Steve]

Originally posted by IFW
I've downloaded and tested all the dumps and none of them have any sort of transfer errors. :)
In fact even the game marked as bad was readable by the analyser, so it is not bad by my definition.
Fantastic news. :great :great :great
I knew they would be fine really. :D
Are you able to check the quality of the original disk also? What are mine like? I'm quite suprised about that DM (bad) disk being ok. So there's a chance that will actually load perfectly? :)

Originally posted by IFW
There is only one problem disk, but the problem has nothing to do with the transfer, it is a problem with the disk itself, but a few "redump techniques" may improve on the result.
Fiath is going to contact you with the details.
Is that the Chaos Strikes Back disk with the unformatted track?

[IFW]

They are generally in pretty good condition, everything not mentioned below is fine. :)

Comments:

There is no unformatted track on Chaos Strikes Back, I guess you meant the protection track, and that is not unformatted for sure ;)

Crystal Kingdom Dizzy: poor condition, but good enough for the analyser.

Eye of the Beholder: disk #2 is modified ( the only modified disk in the uploaded dumps)

Jurassic Park AGA: #1 and #2 in rather poor condition, but good enough for the analyser

SWOS 96-7: #1 somewhat bad, but good for analysation (ok I'm not going to repeat this)

DM loading perfectly: there are disks that are unreadable by either the kickstart or a game loader, but are readable through the analyser from raw dumps. The reason for this is completely different processing, that is normally able to put together broken data from smaller valid segments of reads.
I know for fact there are games that are no longer readable by any means, but the dumps are perfect. Since the analyser reconstructs selected good data parts using the original geometry of the track the resulting ipx image does not have any defects that may appear on the broken disk that was originally used for dumping.
You may try to load the game just in case you get lucky, but don't expect too much.

The only really bad read is Darkmere #3, and that must be redumped. Fiath or Ville9 can tell about how such disks can usually be dumped successfully, if there is a slightest chance.

[fiath]

That was me who mentioned the unformatted track, it is on Crystal Kindom Dizzy, Disk 2 not Chaos Strikes Back.

As for everything else, I am unavailable for the rest of the day, but I will try to sort the rest of the stuff out tonight.

Update: I was pretty exhaused this weekend (I am only able to use the computer after 11pm), but I will catch up with this asap.

[Steve]

Originally posted by IFW
The only really bad read is Darkmere #3, and that must be redumped. Fiath or Ville9 can tell about how such disks can usually be dumped successfully, if there is a slightest chance.
Ok I'll dump this disk tonight and upload it to the FTP.

[fiath]

Before you dump them...

(Yes, I have been meaning to get you this for ages and catch up with the mail, and I still didn't bring the "prepared document" with me to work *again*. Nevermind.)

Anyway, we have found we have a 50% success rate re-dumping bad disks if the following is done... We call it the "spin & blow" trick.

Open the disk shutter and look inside (while rotating it as described below) can you see any dust/dirt/etc.?

Basically you open the metal shutter and actually blow inside the disk while turning magnetic disk inside around with the metal round bit at the back. Then do it again on the other side of the disk.

Obviously you do this at your risk, but we have never made a disk any worse. I have done it to probably over a hundred disks and they have either started working or had the same errors.

You can take this ides to the extreme. If you have a soft brush and some cleaning fluid, you can clean off any obvious (or even non-obvious) bits of dirt. This shouldn't damage the disk, but from our perspective, it doesn't really matter, since a disk with errors is a pretty useless disk. ville9 has got quite a few more disks working this way, above and beyond the normal spin and blow trick.

[Steve]

Darkmere disk 3 has been redumped and uploaded to the CAPS FTP server. I tried out your "spin & blow" trick fiath. I'm not sure if it's made any difference to the disk though as it looked clean to me with no sign of dust. Lets hope the dump is ok this time. I've also uploaded another game (4 disks) which I dumped last night. :)

[IFW]

Originally posted by Steve
Darkmere disk 3 has been redumped and uploaded to the CAPS FTP server. I tried out your "spin & blow" trick fiath. I'm not sure if it's made any difference to the disk though as it looked clean to me with no sign of dust. Lets hope the dump is ok this time. I've also uploaded another game (4 disks) which I dumped last night. :)

Darkmere: spin&blow indeed made a difference :)
As for LOV: first disk (only that!) should be redumped, 1 cylinder is completely missing I really hope it's only just bad luck (head settling slower than it should be) and not magnetic damage... This would be the first ever unmodified English dump of the game.

[Steve]

Originally posted by IFW
Darkmere: spin&blow indeed made a difference :)
As for LOV: first disk (only that!) should be redumped, 1 cylinder is completely missing I really hope it's only just bad luck (head settling slower than it should be) and not magnetic damage... This would be the first ever unmodified English dump of the game.
Ooooh. Exciting. I'll redump it tonight then. :)
It did make a strange loud clicking noise when I put the first disk in the drive to be dumped and it eventually quietened down.

Syndicate has been uploaded to the FTP server.

Legends of Valour Disk 1 has been redumped and uploaded to the FTP. It didn't make any horrible clicking noises this time so it should be fine. :)

By the way I'm not sure if my Legends of Valour is modified or not. I don't think it's modified but I'm not 100% sure about this.

[IFW]

It is not modified.
And the redump is 100%

[Quader]

Sorry to disturb, i just want to ask if i have to tell you when new dumps have been uploaded to the server.

If it is so, then new dumps have been added to my directory "svenw".

The Scans are ready too, but will be uploaded as soon as your "scanning-tool" will come out.

If you can see automatically when new uploads arrive at your server, i'm sorry for posting.

Thanks,

[fiath]

Originally posted by Quader
Sorry to disturb, i just want to ask if i have to tell you when new dumps have been uploaded to the server.


No, you don't need to worry too much about that. We can see if new stuff is uploaded (only if we check the FTP obviously. :))


If it is so, then new dumps have been added to my directory "svenw".


Great, thanks! We will have a look as soon as possible.


The Scans are ready too, but will be uploaded as soon as your "scanning-tool" will come out.


Scanning tool? Not sure what you mean? The scanning guidelines is now up (which will be announced properly soon). It is here:

http://www.caps-project.org/scanning.html


If you can see automatically when new uploads arrive at your server, i'm sorry for posting.


Hehe, no need ;)

[andreas]

Originally posted by fiath
With that amount of RAM, you would need to dump directly to another computer. PC2Amiga needs OS2, so thats out.
NOT necessarily. :cheese
You didn't know that a 2 MB A1000 is able to softkick into OS 2.0, did you? :)

[fiath]

So get a faster CPU then! :p

Seriously though, have you *tried* PC2Amiga with that?

[andreas]

can't before I get another STABLE golem box...
this thing here is too unstable...making the A1000 crash from time to time :(

[Steve]

Ok, let it begin!

I've purchased a parallel cable today so I can dump disks 4 times faster than with a serial cable. Guess what? Surprise, surprise, it doesn't bloody well work. I'm also using the dreaded Windows XP. :shocked

I've bought it new so I guess it's a 4-Wire Laplink cable. I've setup PC2Amiga to make sure it reads from the parallel port. I've even gone and downloaded and installed that UPP Driver. Although I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with it. Do you run it before, during or after PC2Amiga? Anyway the bottom line is that it doesn't bloody work when I try to get the Amiga (with the Caps dumping tools) to recognise the link up. Typical. Nothing is ever plug and play where the PC is concerned. :mad

Is there anything I should try? I've already tried running two instances of PC2Amiga and then closing the non-working one. That doesn't seem to solve the problem. I think I might not be clicking on the right thing with this UPP program. Anyone know?

Also do I have to set the Parallel port to enable legacy plug and play detection? What about my parallel ports interrupt settings. Currently I've set it to this:

Use any interrupt assigned to the port.

This hasn't solved the problem either. :confused :(

[IFW]

Hold on Steve!
I just tried with XP Pro, and although it does run (in debug mode), it is so slow you barely notice it working... but it does, not that is any useful as is. Seems it looses sync with every single byte transferred or so...
I am researching the problem, and if I find a solution that does work on my setup it will be the same solution for yours.
Fingers crossed ;)

[IFW]

I can get it to work, but it is not very fast... you are probably better off with the serial link, speed should be close :sleep
It seems to get out of sync very quickly and spends most of the transfer time with handshaking.
It is very likely to use tight loops for timing the transfer on the pc side. This combined with 16 bit emulation under a virtual mode certainly is a lot of trouble, win9x not affected since 16 bit code is native there.
It seems to be a miracle that it works properly for some people on NT/2K/XP, might be the side effect of some hardware or software installed that changes the 16 bit emulation mode of NT.
A complete rewrite of the PC side client in 32 bit native code should help it definitely. I may look into the pc source sometime, but I remember it was a complete mess, about 100k in x86 assembly. :(

[Interceptor]

right click on 'my computer', choose manage

click on device manager, open ports, double click LPT1: port

click port settings, change setting to 'use any interrupt assigned to this port'

try that, see if that makes a difference

[Steve]

Originally posted by Interceptor
click port settings, change setting to 'use any interrupt assigned to this port'
Thanks for the tip but I've already tried that. See my last post. Oh well. Looks like I've just wasted £5.00 on that cable. :(

[IFW]

Nothing is wasted, trust me - it is just a matter of time :)

[Interceptor]

heh, i didnt read that too well did i!

it was late tho.....

i had this problem with an old dos cnc program running on winxp. never did get round it, had to upgrade to the windows version...


something about accessing the port directly doesnt go down too well, you have to use the windows API.

not sure how your situation is affected tho.

[fiath]

I'd love to be able to sort this out comepletely at some point. I get the full ~20Kb/s using a 4-wire laplink on XP. I use a normal EPP mode parallel port, but I think I did have to enable compatibility settings, which took up a ton of CPU resources. How fast if your PC?

(All this speed needed for a fecking parallel transfer, sheesh!) :(

What is the spec of your Amiga? Do you have a vanilla A1200, and just get a load of timeouts? If this is the case, have you tried using PC2DEBUG.EXE instead of the normal one? This can be reported to work in certain circumstances...

UPP, not sure. I tried that a long while ago, and I have forgotten, I will try to get it working again and get back to you.

[Bloodwych]

Hmmm. This old chestnut. :)

I've written so much on the pc2ami proggy. Not sure how well it works with Win XP/2K. :(

Read my links in this post (http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5719)

I've been using it for ages with WinME, an A1200 14Mhz 020 8MB RAM and a 4-way laplink.

Get 22K/s Ami->PC and 40K/s PC->Ami. :)

Quick tips:

Install amiga software and configure it.

Run pc2amcfg.exe PC side and select the correct options.

Best to use pc2amiga.exe and NOT the resident version which is slower.

Start pcamiga.exe on the PC first, then the Amiga software second.

Must go to dos options (as it runs in a dos box) and cancel screen saver, give it max priority (ie low idle sensitivity) and try and get rid of all background multitasking/programs. Most background multitasking activity seems to disturb the connection.

If transferring a large amount of files, zip them first and you'll find the large single zip file goes across without packet loss. I had the packet loss problems when transferring a large number of individual files/folders but had no issues sending over a 400MB zip. :)

Use a program such as dopus for transfering the files over - do not drag them across wb windows.

Sorry if I repeated anything, but this thread is long and I didn't read all of it. Hope this info can be of some use. Don't know if it'll help XP/2K users. :(

[Codetapper]

Not sure if this is helpful but here goes!

I used to use Win95 connected to my Amiga to copy files back and forth. It worked quite well but I did have a lot of timeouts at irregular intervals. I downloaded a program on Aminet called Requester.lha which you can run with command line such as "Retry 3" which auto presses the Retry button in the requester after 3 seconds.

I got used to it and it worked so I was able to backup my Amiga HD to the PC's hard drive and burn it onto CD's.

I recently upgraded the PC to Windows 2000 and no matter what I did, NetworkPC wouldn't work as well as all parallel transfers. Nothing but errors and bad connections.

The way I got around it is a bit long winded but perhaps it might fix the XP -> Amiga problem too. I installed VMWare and setup a windows 98 "hard drive" inside Windows. I setup a parallel port connected directly to the windows 2000 one and then ran the NetworkPC problem. With that, I was able to emulate the old Dos based parallel port transfer software perfectly (no transfer errors anymore either - 2 Ghz seems to help it keep up with a 50Mhz Amiga!)

Perhaps worth a try? As I say it's a bit long winded but I'm just happy I can copy files between the Amiga and PC again! :-)

[IFW]

Bloodwych: the problem is clearly the transfer going out of sync and spending 99% of its time with re-trying. This is due to it being a dos program written in x86 on the pc side. While 16 bit code is win9x native, it runs under a virtual machine on XP and that's not very healthy for a program that relies on very tight synchronization... Why does it work perfectly for fiath is a mystery, though setting idle sensitivity to low may actually help to make it behave better. Sacrifices performed and stuff like that may be helpful as well... :D
CT: yes that should work, though vmware is not exactly cheap...

[fiath]

Perhaps "Bochs" (the PC emulator) can be used to do the same thing?

[IFW]

No, how do you expect syncing problems that are very visible under a virtual machine to go away on a fully emulated machine...?

[whiteb]

Can somone send me the dumping program ?

I want to back up my floppy collection (some nearing 15+ years old)

I have an A500, with an A530 (030 40mhz, 8MB ram, 1GIG SCSI)..... MY PRESCIOUS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!. And an A1200 with 030 28mhz with 16mb ram.
[edit] Oh and the SPARE !!!!!!!!! 4MB GVP SIMM. :cool yes I have 3 of them

whiteb891@hotmail.com

Cheers

I have an MFM version of James pond too (needed for WHDLOAD) as there isnt a loader for it.

OMG, Dragons Breath released, whats the FTP address ????? :)

[IFW]

http://www.caps-project.org/contact.shtml

[whiteb]

Originally posted by IFW
http://www.caps-project.org/contact.shtml

Last time I did that, I never got a reply, several years ago mind you.. I got as far as telling my machine specs and it stopped there. :sad

[IFW]

Unless your domain is blocked for spamming or something like that you will certainly get a reply, in a few days at most. For that reason you may want to use a real email address, hotmail is unlikely to work.
Just try it :)

[whiteb]

Originally posted by IFW
Unless your domain is blocked for spamming or something like that you will certainly get a reply, in a few days at most. For that reason you may want to use a real email address, hotmail is unlikely to work.
Just try it :)

Or it may have been WHDLOAD for my MFM version of James pond....... i forget now.

But looking at your wanted page... I MIGHT have Jet set willy, but dont get excited I have to have a look through my collection first.

[edit] Correction, I have Manic miner (C) 1990 Software projects.

[fiath]

I'm sorry if we stopped mailing you. Is that the email address you used? I can't find any record of that here. We did have a problem with mail near the beginning of CAPS, it may have been that.

Anyway, I have now sent you the dumping tools. Please do the tests on your system first and send us the output as described in the docs.

If the A500 Kickstart 1.3? If so, it will be easier to just test on the A1200. If it is KS2+ you can try the A500 too if you want to. But the A1200 is probably fine...

Thanks!

[whiteb]

Originally posted by fiath
I'm sorry if we stopped mailing you. Is that the email address you used? I can't find any record of that here. We did have a problem with mail near the beginning of CAPS, it may have been that.

Anyway, I have now sent you the dumping tools. Please do the tests on your system first and send us the output as described in the docs.

If the A500 Kickstart 1.3? If so, it will be easier to just test on the A1200. If it is KS2+ you can try the A500 too if you want to. But the A1200 is probably fine...

Thanks!

A500 with A530 (Full 030 8MB ram and 1GIG drive) has KS2.04 with Workbench 2.
A1200 (030 16MB ram), KS3.0 with WB 3.1.

now I have had time to think, it might have been WHDLOAD, because i offered them a copy to make a version of the loader to accept the NONdos MFM version.

Cheers.

[fiath]

Okay :)

To save you effort, you might want to see if the A1200 is okay first - but I leave it up to you. It might be nice to see how your A500 does...

BTW, in our terminology (very nearly) all Amiga game disks are MFM. It is the physical encoding used to help store data on the disk, even AmigaDOS ones. Whether a disk has a different logical structure to AmigaDOS is what you mean from our perspective.

I think if you said "is okay, I can copy it, it is not MFM" to somebody who was/is in the disk media industry who knows a little Amiga disks - you wll get them very confused. ;)

[whiteb]

Anyway, I have now sent you the dumping tools. Please do the tests on your system first and send us the output as described in the docs.

CTOUT.TXT sent back, from my REAL, NON HOTMAIL account.

[edit] from my A500 setup. Your disk liked the "CPU 68020+" entry.

[fiath]

Replied... :)

[whiteb]

In original i have.........

Manic miner (Awaiting upload)
Shadow Warriors (2 hot 2 handle, 2 disk)
Total Recall (2 hot 2 handle, 2 disk)
Super Off Road (2 hot 2 handle)
James pond, Millenium/Vectordean
Seconds out Boxing (1991 Prism Leisure)
Batman The movie (Free with A500)
F/A-18 Interceptor
The Duel (Test Drive II) Accolade
Ghostbusters II (Ozisoft, 2 disk)
Eye of the Beholder, 2 disk (SSI)
Startrek 25th anniversary (8 disk) Interplay
Swords of Twighlight, Electronic Arts
Das Boot (2 disk, Artech Digital)
GrandPrix Circuit (accolade)
Jack nicklaus Greatest 18 Holes (2 disk, accolade)
Zany Golf (Electronic Arts)
Marble Madness (Entertaining Australasia)
Rainbow islands (Ocean)
Captain Blood (Exxos/ERE)
Monkey island (Ozisoft Disk 3 of 4 ?)
4 Wheel Drive combo racer (Gremlin, 2 disk)
4 Wheel Drive Team suzuki (Gremlin)
Victory road (Imagine)
Elite (Firebird)
New Zealand Story (Free with A500)
E-Motion (USGOLD, ASTRA PACK 3)
Firepower (microillusions)
Badlands (Tengen)
Backlash (Novagen)
Pirates (microprose, 2 disk)
Projectyle (Electronic Arts)
Starray (Prism leisure)
The Hunt for red october (APS)
Populous (Bullfrog)
Populous The promised lands
Populous World editor
Advanced Fruit machine simulator (Codemasters)
Pub pool (mastertronic)
Cyberball (Tengen)
Chase HQ (Ocean)
Blasteroids (Imageworks)
Tetris (mirrorsoft, metal protective flap loose, spring broken ?)
Impact (Action sisteen/Digital intergration)
Hunter killer (mastertronic)
Gauntlet II (Klassix)
Casino Roulette (CDS)
Hard Drivin (Tengen)
PowerMonger (Electronic Arts)
Shadow of the Beast 1 (Psygnosis, 2 disk)
Shadow of the beast 2 (Psygnosis, 2 disk)
Pinball Fantasies (4 disk)
Killing Game show (psygnosis, 2 disk)
Super Space invaders (Taito, 2 disk)
X-OUT (Rainbow Arts, 2 disk)
[edit] Dungeon Master (FTL, 1986)

Dragons breath, now this is tricky, had the disks, disks went bad and I think I threw them away :( but I still have the manuals.
Pinball dreams (4 disk) i know I have this (NOT FAULTY) but I cannot find the disks right now

[haynor]

EDIT: Please do not request this stuff here

[whiteb]

Originally posted by haynor
EDIT: Please do not request this stuff here

I didnt see before the edit, I take it that it was a <COUGH> REQUEST <COUGH> :laughing

[whiteb]

Manic miner is up in my uploads.... 2003-06-13/manicminer.zip

[Edit]

Added to uploads, 2003-06-13/X-OUT.zip (Crossout, for those who remember the arguements about the prenounciation of its name)

[fiath]

Thanks! I have mailed you on your questions etc.

Crossout? I didn't know that... Okay, so what was the sequel called? :cheese

BTW, posting about your dumps here is not really necessary. :)

[whiteb]

Originally posted by fiath
Thanks! I have mailed you on your questions etc.

Crossout? I didn't know that... Okay, so what was the sequel called? :cheese

BTW, posting about your dumps here is not really necessary. :)

Zed-Out ? (Z-out ?) i know there was a game called that.

But i always had many arguements with amiga friends before I left the UK wether the name was (Crossout or X-OUT).

So you will automatically know if upload more stuff to my directory ?

[IFW]

It will eventually get noticed once the directory date changes.

[Feltzkrone]

Is this the right cable to be used for dumping on standard A1200 with no RAM expansion and no HDD?
http://www.pavouk.comp.cz/hw/parcable.png

THEN I would like to start dumping disks, but I read that my system would need to be checked first. How is this done exactly?

[pcGTW_Webmaster]

@Feltzkrone: Yes, that is the correct cable. To check your system you'll need the dumping disk. It will generate a text file which you have to send back to caps.

[fiath]

If you mail contributions@caps-project.org, we can take you through the "standard" process :)

[Craigt]

Is there any chance that the new dumping program will sort out the problems I was having when I tried to dump my disks?

You probably don't remember, but about a year ago I tried to dump my amiga collection but there seemed to be a problem with all the dumps. I re-dumped Mega-lo-mania a few times but the problems kept on occuring. We never worked out what the problem was so I gave up :(

I've still got all my games sitting at home here (about 50 of them, 30 of which are not yet in the CAPS list). Do you think its worth me giving the new dumping tool a go?

[fiath]

Unfortunately Criag, your system is a complete enigma to us. :( We have never seen results anything like it before or since.

I suppose we could try again with different configurations, but the dumping tool hasn't changed since we later had a go...

[Craigt]

Woohoo! I'm unique :)

I've been wondering if the problems are due to the transfer method I have been using between the Amiga and PC. I have been dumping to hard drive, zipping the file on the amiga, transfering over a serial link using NComm<->Hyperterminal and then re-zipping on the PC (to get a better compression ratio). I shouldn't think it would make a difference, but you never know.

I am going to try to get PC2Amiga up and running and transfer a dump to my PC. I can then use windiff to compare the PC2Amiga version with a version I have transfered using the old method.

I will try taking out my blizzard 030, and try swapping the simm with another and compare again to see if it has made a difference.

I'm not going to be able to try it out until next weekend, since my amiga is currently living at my parents place.

[fiath]

If there was a transfer error, we would see that straight away. See here: http://www.caps-project.org/articles.php?id=integrity

As we said before, your dumps are "impossible" ;) So we have no idea what is going on here. I think trying without the Blizzard is a good idea, and maybe try with a different (perhaps external?) drive?

Anyway, whenever you have some spare time...

Thanks!

[Craigt]

I'm currently using my external drive. My internal drive was not up to the task when it was checked. External drives only seem to be a few quid on ebay so I will try and pick one up.

It turns out that I have got one of the games on the Wanted list sitting here... 'Trivial Pursuit: A New Beginning (English)'. So it should be worth seeing if I can get it working.

[fiath]

Cool :) Okay.

I just checked your results again. It may be worth trying your internal drive, but I don't think it will work. But we may get lucky.