Need some information with strange disk format (mixed ADOS/NDOS?)

andreas · 24 September 2009, 19:37

Hi,

Cinemaware's Rocket Ranger disk 2 (zoned) has a disk format which appears quite weird to me...
You can get both the disk label (ADOS) as well the file entries (ADOS):

Code:

2>list
KBlocks.0 ..... 429404 .... --------- 15-Aug-88 23:34:18
KBlocks.1 ..... 420493 .... --------- 16-Aug-88 09:01:07
CODES ........... 6875 .... ----rwed 05-Oct-86 10:37:11

Hmm, so what do we have here?

Two huge files which almost take 100% of the disk, both of them read-protected. But we're clever are we?

Code:

2> protect KB#? +rwed

Looks good. But as we now try to copy the files to RAM: we get a r/w error on block 15 resp. block 895.
What kind of nonsense is this?

Could it be the "file entries" viewable on WB are just fake and the disk is true NDOS?

Another theory would be (almost) each of the disk blocks are encoded...somewhat interesting stuff.

Toni Wilen · 25 September 2009, 10:55

Without knowing what the game does and expects from disk, it looks like the disk has data from 2 different disks (or it was not formatted before "new blocks" were written)

There are multiple file entry-like blocks for KBlocks-file that are not linked to any directory, also some weird looking ascii texts that does not seem to have anything to do with the game.. (but as I said, I haven't played this game)

24 September 2009, 19:37	#1
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	Need some information with strange disk format (mixed ADOS/NDOS?) Hi, Cinemaware's Rocket Ranger disk 2 (zoned) has a disk format which appears quite weird to me... You can get both the disk label (ADOS) as well the file entries (ADOS): Code: 2>list KBlocks.0 ..... 429404 .... --------- 15-Aug-88 23:34:18 KBlocks.1 ..... 420493 .... --------- 16-Aug-88 09:01:07 CODES ........... 6875 .... ----rwed 05-Oct-86 10:37:11 Hmm, so what do we have here? Two huge files which almost take 100% of the disk, both of them read-protected. But we're clever are we? Code: 2> protect KB#? +rwed Looks good. But as we now try to copy the files to RAM: we get a r/w error on block 15 resp. block 895. What kind of nonsense is this? Could it be the "file entries" viewable on WB are just fake and the disk is true NDOS? Another theory would be (almost) each of the disk blocks are encoded...somewhat interesting stuff.

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25 September 2009, 10:55	#2
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,517	Without knowing what the game does and expects from disk, it looks like the disk has data from 2 different disks (or it was not formatted before "new blocks" were written) There are multiple file entry-like blocks for KBlocks-file that are not linked to any directory, also some weird looking ascii texts that does not seem to have anything to do with the game.. (but as I said, I haven't played this game)

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