AmigaWorld Tech Journal disks

[mark_k]

Are the coverdisks for the AmigaWorld Tech Journal magazine already available online? Because if not I could upload them.

[TCD]

They aren't available at least on the file server (and it seems also not on AMR), so an upload would be very appreciated

[prowler]

Ha! You beat me by a whisker, TCD!

[mark_k]

I have uploaded an archive of the AmigaWorld Tech Journal disks to The Zone.

Here's the Read Me.txt file in the archive:

AmigaWorld Tech Journal disks
-----------------------------
This archive contains PackDev and MFMWarp images of each AmigaWorld Tech
Journal floppy disk, compressed with gzip. I originally created these images
in 2000. As far as I can tell, none of the disks have been written to since
new.

PackDev is a disk imaging program which can work with any disk-like device,
not only trackdisk.device. The advantage over a plain "ADF" disk image is that
sector label data is preserved in PackDev images.

PackDev is available from http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/PackDev1_9

WinUAE supports gzip-compressed PackDev images natively; just select the file
as you would for an ADF file.

To use on a real Amiga, decompress using gzip then write back to a floppy disk
using a command like this:
  PackDev FROM filename.pkd TO DF0: ETDF
For faster writing you can disable the write verification pass:
  PackDev FROM filename.pkd to DF0: ETDF NOVERIFY

Note that the AmigaDOS bitmap of the December 1991 disk (Volume 1, Number 5)
is invalid. Presumably when the master disk was being prepared, it was removed
after the last file was written, but before AmigaDOS could update the bitmap.
Because of that, when you insert that disk AmigaDOS validates it which takes
some time. And if the disk is write-enabled, AmigaDOS will write to it when
validation is complete.

MFMWarp is available from http://www.whdload.de/imaging.html
The MFMWarp images are not needed to use the disks but are included for
completeness. MFMWarp images contain the raw MFM track data. In addition to
being able to archive non-trackdisk format disks, examining the track lengths
in the MFMWarp images gives a good indication of whether an original disk has
been written to since it was new. If all track lengths are similar the disk is
probably unmodified. (Simply opening a disk icon in Workbench 1.x causes the
disk to be written to, so it was very easy to unwittingly cause original disks
to be modified.)

  April/May 1991 - Volume 1, Number 1
  June/July 1991 - Volume 1, Number 2
  August/September 1991 - Volume 1, Number 3
  October 1991 - Volume 1, Number 4
  December 1991 - Volume 1, Number 5
  January/February 1992 - Volume 2, Number 1
  March/April 1992 - Volume 2, Number 2


mark_k