Coverdisks

[BippyM]

Will CAPS be preserving coverdisks?

Reason I ask is cuz I have about 25 coverdisks here that have not been opened, so should be perfect for dumping

[barkingboy]

I was wondering the same. I have loads of them - I think some even have full games on them like Trolls.

Also, it would be cool to CAPS the disks because some of the AUI disks are not suitable for ADF as they used a special disk format.

There were also a few non-DOS disks as well.

[BippyM]

Well I won these : http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1

I have visually checked these and they certainly do look unused!!!

Sealed in packets and no finger prints/marks etc on the metal sliders

[[idoru]]

I briefly mentioned coverdisks with Fiath a while back, and will be dumping mine once I've finished dumping "proper" games (Amiga & Atari ST). From what I remember the requirement/preference (whichever it was) was that the disk should have at least 1 game on it, which may rule out some stuff - hopefully Fiath/IFW will clarify that one.

On the coverdisks line it would be helpful (at least to me) to draw up a list of what's verified ok as we go along as I have about 1000 coverdisks with as many as 5 or 6 copies of a single disk (some sealed etc), so don't really fancy dumping all 1000 I know we may have to dump them all anyway as the duplication process was probably done on the cheap without verification etc.

Before you go reading any disks, you might like to look at the following list:

http://au.geocities.com/redskulldc/amiga/Coverdisks.txt

I scanned most of my coverdisk collection a few years back.
Many don't exist on the TOSEC collection, though I have posted them on alt.binaries.emulators.amiga several times.

Most of the AUI 'special format' disks are also there as LZX files.

Cheers,
Red

[fiath]

Yes we will.

We are not 100% positive on what the coverdisk criteria will entail though. It was initially just going to be game-related stuff, yes, but going forward... we have not decided yet.

Any coverdisks that have full games on are very welcome of course.

As for the rest, perhaps it might be nice to collate all the disks for a particular magazine, and release them in one big bunch... But of course they have to be dumped first. But there is problems with this...

Exactly right Idoru, from what we have seen so far, coverdisks were not verified, and this leads to plenty of disks having mastering errors. Due to the limited run of coverdisk production, it is likely that no "good" copies of these exist, so what do we do, preserve the errors too? As expected, tons are also modified/copied over.

We should being a list, on the site perhaps, listing all the coverdisks dumped.

The problem with all this is that it takes time, so what do we do? Conventrate on the games (which are of course much more important) or take time out to do coverdisks? So far we have just been doing "unique" coverdisks for all these reasons.

IFW may (or may not) also have something to say on the matter...

[fiath]

RedskullDC: The problem with that is that DMS/ADF, format etc. do not store the kind of information we need to see a disks low-level logical structure, and see if the disk is authentic (not modified after original mastering etc.).

This is the reason why they need to be dumped with our tool.

[BippyM]

Originally Posted by RedskullDC

Before you go reading any disks, you might like to look at the following list:

http://au.geocities.com/redskulldc/amiga/Coverdisks.txt

I scanned most of my coverdisk collection a few years back.
Many don't exist on the TOSEC collection, though I have posted them on alt.binaries.emulators.amiga several times.

Most of the AUI 'special format' disks are also there as LZX files.

Cheers,
Red

Well if you wanna up them to my ftp, I will tosec them

Originally Posted by bippym

Well if you wanna up them to my ftp, I will tosec them

Happy to, as time permits.

What are your FTP details, and what preferences (if any) as to the order you would like the disks in?

Cheers,
Red

Originally Posted by fiath

RedskullDC: The problem with that is that DMS/ADF, format etc. do not store the kind of information we need to see a disks low-level logical structure, and see if the disk is authentic (not modified after original mastering etc.).

This is the reason why they need to be dumped with our tool.

Understood.
All of the dms/adf images I made were of original unmodified (by me anyway) coverdisks.
It is probably fair to say that most contain compressed lha/lhz etc. files which need to be de-compressed before use.

Assuming they all have the correct files, does the low-level disk structure of these disks have the same importance as a proprietry game? Not in my opinion.

Cheers,
Red

[fiath]

Having the low level details of the disk is more of a side effect in this case, since obviously most (Amiga) coverdisks are normal AmigaDOS format, (of course, it would also come in useful for those coverdisks which have custom formats / copy protection).

My post above actually wasn't very clear on this. The problem is that we need that low level information to "inspect" the disks so we are 100% sure that the disks are authentic. That is, unmodified (rather than taking your word for it, as good as your word may be - you may not be aware that it happened) and without errors - which can happen to anybody's disks and *will* happen to everybody's disks, sooner or later.

Without this low level information, we can't ensure any of that. So even for coverdisks, having it is just as important if we want to ensure they are as good as they can possibly be for preservation.

[[idoru]]

I did start working on a coverdisk "master list" (if you will) complete with magazine cover & disk scans (where i had them) quite a while ago (couple of years now), but never got round to finishing it properly by any stretch of imagination.

Among the reasons I started this was to improve the TOSEC Coverdisks dat which is rather crappy as it stands. Many of the intros/menus on the disks themselves lie about what issue number they are (where the creators forgot to update issue numbers/dates/disk numbers etc or just got them plain wrong ) so re-working the dat through from a list made from the magazines themselves was the way to go. It was also a way to work out what I had and what I didn't have here as original disks (and since CAPS has come along, hopefully I'll be able to work out which are good and which can be used as blanks )

Anyway, to quit rambling...if I find some time to actually finish this I do intend to, and the point of all this rambling is that CAPS are welcome to the list when done if it would be of any use. Of course, other people may already have done a similar task...in which case you can ignore everything above

[fiath]

Sounds good. Hopefully we can fill in what we have as it is submitted - I'll have to discuss it with IFW...

[BippyM]

I just won another 86 Coverdisks

That takes my total to over 100 (Not including what I already have)..

Ido if you want to work on something together with regards to the tosec dat, and scanning disks etc.. gimme a pm or catch me on irc

[Antiriad]

Hey BarkingBoy, I got a tonne of AUI coverdisks.

[barkingboy]

Originally Posted by Antiriad

Hey BarkingBoy, I got a tonne of AUI coverdisks.

Cool, that was a good magazine. Lots of neat utilities on the coverdisks - which in my pre-internet days were essential!

I have just been making a list of my (200 odd) disks, here is a quick summary:

Amiga Action - 9
Amiga Computing - 33
Amiga Format - 66
Amiga Power - 4
Amiga Shopper - 20
Amiga User International - 34
CU Amiga - 25
The One Amiga - 10

[teh]

Bippy, i also have about 150 that i can dump

[[idoru]]

Originally Posted by bippym

I just won another 86 Coverdisks

That takes my total to over 100 (Not including what I already have)..

Ido if you want to work on something together with regards to the tosec dat, and scanning disks etc.. gimme a pm or catch me on irc

Sounds good bippy

I'm not gonna have a chance for a bit though - just got some big contracts in at work this week and I'm going to be really snowed under until the end of the month and then I'm going on holiday

It'll be mid-June I reckon before I get a chance to sit down properly...

From a quick look at my list, I'd finished listing all the info I had on Amiga Action, Amiga Power and The One, and had made a start on Amiga Computing, Amiga Format & CU Amiga.

[redblade]

Yay =] more cover disks =].

It is good because both nthdimension and amigacoverdisks?? are missing quite a few, and some of the disks are non working.

Would be nice if some one could upload the Amiga Power Cannon Fodder 1 demo to the zone please (With protection).

[redblade]

Another pointer, Alot of those disks have assembler stuff on them too =]