Xenon 2 - Megablast conversion issue
 

Yo!

Can anyone help. I can't seem to convert my personal copy of Disk 1 for Xenon 2 Megablast from the floppy extracted .SCP to a useable .ADF for my Gotek.

WinUAE accepts and loads the .SCP fine, but nothing will load up the converted .ADF from the .SCP version. I don't know why!?

I've tried using HxC and disk-analyse without success.

You'll find the .SCP in one of my DropBox folders here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k3bkkkh63...1c9lhRhKa?dl=0

Thank you in advance. :)

This is normal, the game is copy protected. The adf format cannot handle the copylock. You need to convert to hfe v3.

When i tried to do this using disk-analyse, it gave me an error regarding sector 950 or something. I preumed then that the conversion had failed. ?

of course i've not tried the resultant .HFE yet, a WinUAE doesn't run .HFE. I'll try it on the Gotek anyway.....just for giggles on a Sunday morning.

Right. So that image, despite the disk-analyse warning of error, seems to load up on the Gotek fine as a .HFE Rev3. Weird.

I tried the same thing with .IPF (0297) http://www.oldgamesfinder.com/?q=xenon+2&m=-4 using disk-analyse, and it dosn't work in the Gotek. Why is that?

Hmmm. Conversion seems to be a minefield of inconsistency. I've just used HxC to convert .IPF (0297) to HFE Rev3 and it works fine in the Gotek, but doing the same conversion in disk-analyse proved not to work. Weird.

Anyway, i'm happy now. :)

End of line.

There are 3 releases of Xenon 2, all use some form of protection. There is a 2 Disk release that is ADOS + Copylock, a 1 Disk release with Speedlock + MFM tracks and another 1 Disk release that just uses RNC PDOS format, so none of them (unless cracked) can be converted to an 880k ADF and work!

Disk-Utilities supports all 3 releases!

The NTSC version on Retroplay was ripped by me, the ADF files in it are not copy protected, use those. on EAB FTP.

When using disk-analyse, did you specify the correct format for Xenon II? I think there are a few different versions.

Upped an archive with TjLaZer's US version to the zone, for convenience named them TOSEC style.
Seems to work well in PAL mode as well. :)

It's not strictly NTSC as it loads in PAL in WinUAE, as Retroplay states. So the Spotlight/Cinemaware release was unprotected, in that case, yes you can convert to ADF and it will work!

Well unlike the "PAL" Version of the game, which seems to have been done a lot by these companies back then, they merely shifted the screen down a bit to center it vertically for PAL. Otherwise yes it runs fine on both systems.

It's the two disk edition I have here, just like (0297). So I used the correct "Xenon 2, 2 disk" format option in disk-analyse. didn't work though. Neither does (0297) using disk-analyse and that format option.

0297 converts for me! It's case-sensitive so Xenon 2, 2 Disk is the correct syntax!

Is your repository up to date?

I used exactly the same case as is written in the FORMATS document. I was going be memory when i wrote my message last night.

Converts for you and then runs on WinUAE and a Gotek?

What do you mean my repository? Linux? I don't know much about Linux. I've only been working with it to get disk-analyse working in virtual box on my laptop. Although Ubuntu went through a massive update exercise automatically yesterday after i tried doing file conversions. Is that what you mean?

I mean is your Disk-Utilities repo up to date, cd into your Disk-Utilities folder then issue a git pull and see if it says Already up-to-date.

Whenever people say 'convert' and mention Disk-Utilities I always read that to mean convert to 'IPF' not 'HFE', so no, I haven't tried the HFE converted by Disk-Utilities in my Gotek!

But, using the files Retroplay uploaded to The Zone, you won't have to worry about ANY conversion as they are already in useable ADF format!

Thank you for that, I didn't know that. I've now done that, and it says already up to date.

What is "The Zone".

Others were telling me that Xenon 2 (uncracked i guess) couldn't be converted to .ADF and that I needed to convert it to .HFE (Rev 3)?

How do I get access to The Zone?

Once you have access to The Zone just download the file Retroplay uploaded from TjLaZers dump: Xenon 2 - Megablast (1989)(Image Works)(US).zip

This is a 2 Disk ADF with NO PROTECTION so you can use it 'as is' on your Gotek :great

Note: Ignore the bit about uploading IPF files, they are not banned anymore!

Thanks for that BarryB, much appreciated. I'll take a look when i get a chance, maybe in the next few days. Although, as discussed earlier in the thread, I do have Xenon 2 from (0297) .IPF working on my Gotek already. It's just that I couldn't convert it from .IPF to .HFE (Rev 3) using disk-analyse. I got it converted ok using HxC instead. So same result. (I've no idea why it didn't work using disk-analyse)

It sounds like the copy you're talking of is just another cracked copy of the game, which is not what i wanted. You can already get these cracked .ADF versions all over, so you're not limited to "The Zone", unless there's something special about that particular .ADF version?

Disk analyse is made to encode from SCP or KF to IPF or any other output format.

If you want to convert from IPF to HFE v3, use the HxC tool.

Thanks dlfrsilver. Indeed your advice helped me out set up HxC to accept .IPF files and successfully make a Gotek friendly .HFE working copy of the game. :great