Why the fuss about IPF images?

[Fabrice]

If you can remember, please send me a list of the originals that you sent and I'll try to help you get them back.
As for .IPF files; you will find all publically released thus far on the EAB File Server

Thanks Damien, I will check this and if required come back to you.

- - - - - -

Wonder how many more games are stored in Keiran's warehouse. Guess you'd call them stolen good by now.

Well, once again, I'm not here to blame anyone. I have shipped games twice to CAPS, first time some games without boxes and second time some other games with boxes, then I moved to an other place, changed my email address because the provider has disappeared, etc.
So I was not easily reachable if someone wanted to send me something back, would that be only .ipf or originals boxes.

Even now, I would have no use of the boxes or disks, as I'm not a collector person. From my point of view, a box is just ... a box. I can live with scans and ipf/adf/dms etc. Also, disks will be unreadable in the future so ... the SPS/CAPS project is itself a good project.

However, I do care much more about the software preservation itself.
I don't get why all the Amiga received games were not converted as .ipf, especially the boxed versions. Anyone can be sure they are originals, there is no doubt.

At least, SPS should provide an update with :
- a list of the received Amiga disks and if possible who sent it,
- the ones they failed to convert as ipf + the reason why (someone might help after all ...)
- a "still to convert" list or missing products.

Some more questions :
1 - some manuals had often the protection system with copy protection passwords included (like go page #16 and use the word #89). How is this included with the ipf file ? Can we download the manuals elsewhere as pdf or so ?
2 - did CAPS/SPS preserve utilities like DeluxePaint ?
3 - had the CAPS/SPS a real agreement with software/games copyright holders to proceed with the preservation in ipf format ?
From my point of view :
- If yes, I understand more why everything was kept so secret, but at least, we should have more informations about the way backups are managed, stored, the people involved, etc.
- If not, it doesn't make sense not to share that huge work with the benevolent Amiga community. Say differently, at this point, it doesn't go against the preservation to share the ipf files, au contraire ! As one can find any Amiga game as cracked version on websites like planetemu, let's replace them by ipf originals. The copyright problem would remain the same (cracked or not, a copy remain a copy), but at least those 30 years old games will be preserved as they were in the past.

[DamienD]

Just a quick answer to your question about manuals / code input.

Usually the manuals / code sheets etc... were distributed with the official .IPF release.

...sometimes not though; if this is the case then look on HOL or any other Amiga manual site

[Fabrice]

Great resource ! I should have visited the Amiga community more often those last years.
Btw, I have noticed the " Have SPS release " entry.
I guess it refers to the official SPS list, right ?

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Fabrice

Great resource ! I should have visited the Amiga community more often those last years.

Yup, HOL rocks!!!

...and is part of the abime.net family; just like EAB

Originally Posted by Fabrice

Btw, I have noticed the " Have SPS release " entry.
I guess it refers to the official SPS list, right ?

Yes, but it is probably massively out-of-date as one of the SPS team members would have handled this field on HOL (and their database on the official website is also out-of-date as far as I know)...

As you've probably noticed; the SPS team have been AWOL from the Amiga community for many, many years now.

[dlfrsilver]

i'm a member of SPS, and i here since loonngg

[DamienD]

Yes, I should have said besides you Denis

[malko]

^ And a really friendly EAB member as well

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by malko

^ And a really friendly EAB member as well

I hope so. I try to do my best to support as much people as possible.

[chip]

Yeah, i can confirm, dlfrsilver is a really kind guy

[BarryB]

Originally Posted by chip

Yeah, i can confirm, dlfrsilver is a really kind guy

200% agree

Same goes for a lot of other members here too!

[chip]

Exactly, that's the reason why i spend my time on this forum indeed

[Fabrice]

It sounds like I still have the manual and the box for this game : http://hol.abime.net/2459/boxscan (I probably shipped the disk to SPS a while ago ... )
I can scan the manual and send the file to whoever needs it, just let me know.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Fabrice

It sounds like I still have the manual and the box for this game : http://hol.abime.net/2459/boxscan (I probably shipped the disk to SPS a while ago ... )
I can scan the manual and send the file to whoever needs it, just let me know.

We have the box scan, not the manual, if you want to scan it for HOL

For the game, unfortunately, it's the fungus format variant 3, which is not recognized by the SPS actual tool.

[Keir]

Re tricky titles like this ^, I add unsupported titles to my analyser (https://github.com/keirf/Disk-Utilities) if images are sent my way and/or tickets raised on the Github project page.

[BarryB]

Originally Posted by kaffer

Re tricky titles like this ^, I add unsupported titles to my analyser (https://github.com/keirf/Disk-Utilities) if images are sent my way and/or tickets raised on the Github project page.

Lol, i've got more than enough 'unknowns' to keep you busy

[Vipersan]

Just got to the end of this rather long thread..and appreciate there has been rule changes along the way.
So .. to my reason for posting.
I am relatively new to preservation and am not very software savvy...hardware is more my forte.
Last year I built a dual floppy unit which can handle 3.5" and 5.25 inch disks and at its heart a Kryoflux unit.
DTC has been installed on an old XP desktop unit and so I have a basic Copy station built with DTC installed.
I have copied a few PC floppies using the DTC GUI but now it is time to learn how to make and clone some games using command line access.
I have recently got access to quite a few authentic original Amiga floppy disk sets ..sadly without the boxes or manuals...but still ..I'd like to get these Amiga floppies preserved both as raw images and cloned to actual diskettes.
This is where I am at a loss..
I really dont know how to approach this aspect of preserving the floppies.
can it be done via the gui (some of these disks have protection)...or would this only be possible using the command line interface ?
If so could one of you guys help me ?
In other words ...what syntax would be required to read/dump raw images for storage & archive ...and then write new backup clones to physical disks.
Hope you can help ...and please treat me gently as although I understand the hardware aspects of this ...when it comes to software I need leading by the hand.
rgds
VS

[Vipersan]

..forgot to add ...
I aquired these disks from a house clearance so no idea of condition or bit rot status.
I dont want their first outing to be in my A1200 ...so want to clone them first before testing any of them.

[fatbob_gb]

The Kryoflux forums have some batch files that they recommend for preservation.
https://forum.kryoflux.com/viewtopic.php?t=53

[Vipersan]

Thanks Bob I'll take a look ...but I suspect I will still be confused.
..and looks like the 'scripts' relate only to dumping for SPS ...and not writing physical disks
rgds
VS

[fatbob_gb]

Originally Posted by Vipersan

Thanks Bob I'll take a look ...but I suspect I will still be confused.
..and looks like the 'scripts' relate only to dumping for SPS ...and not writing physical disks
rgds
VS

If you aren't interested in preservation and are using Windows the wildewutz GUI is easy to use for both reading and writing.
http://www.kryoflux.com/download/wildewutz_0.7zip