AlienBash I & II - Original Coder Contacted - Help Needed in Rescuing 68000 Source!! - Page 10

MadAngus · 30 November 2011, 03:56

Inspiring and motivational work prowler.

Congratulation on your achievements and progress.

prowler · 04 December 2011, 22:00

I am now convinced that it is not possible to salvage any more data from this set of disks with the equipment I have.

All that remains is to fix the filesystem errors noted earlier and, where possible, restore the virus-overwritten blocks I discovered while assessing what needed to be done to fix this last salvaged disk.

This afternoon, I have repaired three out of nine virus-overwritten blocks on this last disk using data from matching songs found in online Soundtracker disk archives.

There is a fair amount of duplication of files on this disk set, so I'm hoping it will be possibile to repair most of the damage wreaked by the virus.

I will continue to report my progress on this...

Mr B · 04 December 2011, 22:36

Prowler, i mean this in the best way possible. Your insane. Crazy amount of work, with a "holy shit, did he just do that" result.
I want to vote you for president. For life. To bad England has a queen, and Sweden has a king. What if a few of us bought a small island, and claimed it for the Republic of Amiga, and you could be president there?

Amazing work effort. I know what this sort of thing costs if you want to pay someone to do it, so i can say it wouldn't have happened. You saved a piece of computer history, that other-ways would have been... History.
B!

prowler · 04 December 2011, 22:59

Thanks, MadAngus and Mr B, for your comments.

Yes, it is a lot of effort, and it can be very expensive if you have to pay a professional to do it. But I actually enjoy doing it. It gives me the same sort of kick that some people get out of doing jigsaws. The only downside is that I can't spend as long at it as I would like at a time, as it takes so long to prepare to resume - especially in the final stages.

There were others who volunteered to do this job as well, so I owe it to them to give it my best effort.

I must say that it has gone much better that I thought it would at the start. The disks are still in exceptionally good condition after 10 years or more stored in an attic.

After more than 18 months, thanks to everyone for your continuing patience. I am getting there...

prowler · 07 December 2011, 01:07

This evening, I have repaired two bad blocks which couldn't be salvaged intact from this last disk and a further three virus-overwritten blocks using data from matching but deleted Soundtracker songs found on another disk in the set.

There are three more virus-overwritten blocks belonging to a single Soundtracker song on this disk to repair, but no matching song either on the other disks or online with which to repair them.

I have found a Soundtracker song, both online and on another disk in the set, with the same name but more than four times the size, and I'm wondering whether the smaller one is a packed version of the larger one. Is that possible? The smaller file has the letters 'PACK' as the first four bytes.

Can anyone shed any light on this, please?

I can attach the two files here if that helps, though the smaller file is almost 60% obliterated by the Lamer Exterminator virus.

Edit: Yes, the letters 'PACK' denote a Soundtracker packed song. Does anyone know if the packer/cruncher is available separately?

Exit · 08 December 2011, 09:35

maybe powerpacker decruncher?

prowler · 10 December 2011, 00:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exit

maybe powerpacker decruncher?

It could be. The SoundTracker 2.6 application boot disk includes the PowerPacker support library 34.1, and a couple of executables are PowerPacker 2.3 packed.

However, the disk also includes the explode.library (Executable exploder V4.6).

In the meantime, I have found the SoundTrackerCruncher 1.0 and ST Packer 1.0 utilities, but I haven't tested them yet, so I'm not sure what support libraries they require.

Exit · 27 December 2011, 10:43

any luck yet?

prowler · 27 December 2011, 22:53

No, sorry, I've not had an opportunity to try them yet.

nujack · 27 February 2012, 18:31

What the status here? Could someone find the source of AlienBash2 on the disks?

prowler · 27 February 2012, 22:10

To briefly summarize:

I have completed what I started out to do with Glen's floppy disks. 190 of the 191 disks have been salvaged to disk images and the last one appears to be a blank disk.

The 190th disk was found to have been damaged by the Lamer Exterminator virus and on further checking it appears that a total of 26 disks have had some blocks overwritten by the virus.

Of those disks, the best have only one block overwritten and the worst has 40!

What is most worrying is that they are nearly all backup, code, data or work disks.

I could either give up at this stage and send Glen the data, or I could continue by treating each overwritten data block as unsalvageable and try to replace them using some of the duplicate files on the disks, or recreating the data where possible.

At this point, I am more familiar with the content of these disks than anyone else, so I've decided to continue when I have time until Glen wishes me to call a halt.

The 190th disk has three more virus-overwritten blocks belonging to a single Soundtracker song to repair, but no matching song either on the other disks or online with which to repair them.

Therefore, before I turn my attention to the other 25 damaged disks, I am trying to recreate the song from the original samples, but it's not easy for someone who has absolutely no relevant experience...

MadAngus · 28 February 2012, 03:39

This has always been difficult and time consuming work and truly appreciated.

Patience will reward us with the best set of disks and files. I'm sure prowler will update us with any significant progress as and when it's achieved.

In your own time prowler

gggcumming · 29 February 2012, 13:40

Hi Prowler,

If you email me what you've got if I recognize the source I'll post it here for someone to try and assemble - might save you some time trying to repair what might be old rubbish code disks.

Cheers,

Glen

prowler · 29 February 2012, 23:15

Hi Glen,

I know you've been looking forward to see what I've managed to salvage from your floppy disks and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

If it wasn't for the virus damage some of the disks have suffered at one time, then I would surely have completed this work towards the end of last year.

I now have 190 disk images, 26 of which have some degree of virus damage (i.e. overwritten data blocks).

I have not attempted to isolate or even identify which files comprise the Alienbash source code. My area of expertise is data recovery, not programming.

What I would like to do now is, just the same as I did with your A590 hard drive, make the data available to you on a CD-R containing images of your disks, together with folders which recreate the directory structure of each DOS disk for you to examine with your Windows PC. Plus, of course, I will indicate which disks are damaged and to what extent.

This will expedite the process of releasing the various components of the source code if they should happen to be undamaged.

Meanwhile, I will continue to repair what is possible when I get time to spend on it, and provide updates as they become available. (I may decide to approach this by completing the more trivial fixes first. The damage which remains on the 190th disk is anything but trivial to repair!)

If you could just let me know whether the address I sent the hard drive files to is still valid, then I can start preparing a new CD-R for you straightway.

gggcumming · 01 March 2012, 18:50

Hi Prowler,

Yes the previous address is still valid.

Yes it will be very interesting to see what source code is available - I'm not sure if I will even recognize it - looking through the stuff on the A590 was sort of like remembering parts of a dream - very vague.

Again thanks for all the hard work.

Glen

prowler · 01 March 2012, 21:59

Thanks, Glen.

It'll take a few days to build the filesystem and burn it to CD, but I'll let you know when I've sent it.

lesta_smsc · 02 March 2012, 16:51

Would it not be easier to send via email than burn to CD-R? Can't wait for AB III!

prowler · 02 March 2012, 20:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

Would it not be easier to send via email than burn to CD-R?

Not when there are 400MB or so of data to send.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

Can't wait for AB III!

That's a little presumptuous at this stage. If you had read the thread you would know that ew're not even sure yet that these disks contained the complete ABII code before the virus damage.

lesta_smsc · 03 March 2012, 19:08

One can be hopeful

...

RMK · 04 March 2012, 21:23

Great work Prowler.

04 December 2011, 22:59	#184
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	Thanks, MadAngus and Mr B, for your comments. Yes, it is a lot of effort, and it can be very expensive if you have to pay a professional to do it. But I actually enjoy doing it. It gives me the same sort of kick that some people get out of doing jigsaws. The only downside is that I can't spend as long at it as I would like at a time, as it takes so long to prepare to resume - especially in the final stages. There were others who volunteered to do this job as well, so I owe it to them to give it my best effort. I must say that it has gone much better that I thought it would at the start. The disks are still in exceptionally good condition after 10 years or more stored in an attic. After more than 18 months, thanks to everyone for your continuing patience. I am getting there... Last edited by prowler; 04 December 2011 at 23:04. Reason: typo.

07 December 2011, 01:07	#185
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	This evening, I have repaired two bad blocks which couldn't be salvaged intact from this last disk and a further three virus-overwritten blocks using data from matching but deleted Soundtracker songs found on another disk in the set. There are three more virus-overwritten blocks belonging to a single Soundtracker song on this disk to repair, but no matching song either on the other disks or online with which to repair them. I have found a Soundtracker song, both online and on another disk in the set, with the same name but more than four times the size, and I'm wondering whether the smaller one is a packed version of the larger one. Is that possible? The smaller file has the letters 'PACK' as the first four bytes. Can anyone shed any light on this, please? I can attach the two files here if that helps, though the smaller file is almost 60% obliterated by the Lamer Exterminator virus. Edit: Yes, the letters 'PACK' denote a Soundtracker packed song. Does anyone know if the packer/cruncher is available separately? Last edited by prowler; 07 December 2011 at 01:18.

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30 November 2011, 03:56	#181
MadAngus AMOS Documentation Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Scotland Age: 55 Posts: 131	Inspiring and motivational work prowler. Congratulation on your achievements and progress.

04 December 2011, 22:00	#182
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	I am now convinced that it is not possible to salvage any more data from this set of disks with the equipment I have. All that remains is to fix the filesystem errors noted earlier and, where possible, restore the virus-overwritten blocks I discovered while assessing what needed to be done to fix this last salvaged disk. This afternoon, I have repaired three out of nine virus-overwritten blocks on this last disk using data from matching songs found in online Soundtracker disk archives. There is a fair amount of duplication of files on this disk set, so I'm hoping it will be possibile to repair most of the damage wreaked by the virus. I will continue to report my progress on this...

04 December 2011, 22:36	#183
Mr B Registered User Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Sweden Posts: 749	Prowler, i mean this in the best way possible. Your insane. Crazy amount of work, with a "holy shit, did he just do that" result. I want to vote you for president. For life. To bad England has a queen, and Sweden has a king. What if a few of us bought a small island, and claimed it for the Republic of Amiga, and you could be president there? Amazing work effort. I know what this sort of thing costs if you want to pay someone to do it, so i can say it wouldn't have happened. You saved a piece of computer history, that other-ways would have been... History. B!

08 December 2011, 09:35	#186
Exit Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Holland/The netherlands Age: 50 Posts: 122	maybe powerpacker decruncher?

27 December 2011, 10:43	#188
Exit Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Holland/The netherlands Age: 50 Posts: 122	any luck yet?

27 December 2011, 22:53	#189
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	No, sorry, I've not had an opportunity to try them yet.

27 February 2012, 18:31	#190
nujack Zone Friend Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Leipzig/Germany Age: 49 Posts: 459	What the status here? Could someone find the source of AlienBash2 on the disks?

27 February 2012, 22:10	#191
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	To briefly summarize: I have completed what I started out to do with Glen's floppy disks. 190 of the 191 disks have been salvaged to disk images and the last one appears to be a blank disk. The 190th disk was found to have been damaged by the Lamer Exterminator virus and on further checking it appears that a total of 26 disks have had some blocks overwritten by the virus. Of those disks, the best have only one block overwritten and the worst has 40! What is most worrying is that they are nearly all backup, code, data or work disks. I could either give up at this stage and send Glen the data, or I could continue by treating each overwritten data block as unsalvageable and try to replace them using some of the duplicate files on the disks, or recreating the data where possible. At this point, I am more familiar with the content of these disks than anyone else, so I've decided to continue when I have time until Glen wishes me to call a halt. The 190th disk has three more virus-overwritten blocks belonging to a single Soundtracker song to repair, but no matching song either on the other disks or online with which to repair them. Therefore, before I turn my attention to the other 25 damaged disks, I am trying to recreate the song from the original samples, but it's not easy for someone who has absolutely no relevant experience...

28 February 2012, 03:39	#192
MadAngus AMOS Documentation Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Scotland Age: 55 Posts: 131	This has always been difficult and time consuming work and truly appreciated. Patience will reward us with the best set of disks and files. I'm sure prowler will update us with any significant progress as and when it's achieved. In your own time prowler

29 February 2012, 13:40	#193
gggcumming Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Tintern/UK Posts: 35	Hi Prowler, If you email me what you've got if I recognize the source I'll post it here for someone to try and assemble - might save you some time trying to repair what might be old rubbish code disks. Cheers, Glen

29 February 2012, 23:15	#194
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	Hi Glen, I know you've been looking forward to see what I've managed to salvage from your floppy disks and I'm sure you won't be disappointed. If it wasn't for the virus damage some of the disks have suffered at one time, then I would surely have completed this work towards the end of last year. I now have 190 disk images, 26 of which have some degree of virus damage (i.e. overwritten data blocks). I have not attempted to isolate or even identify which files comprise the Alienbash source code. My area of expertise is data recovery, not programming. What I would like to do now is, just the same as I did with your A590 hard drive, make the data available to you on a CD-R containing images of your disks, together with folders which recreate the directory structure of each DOS disk for you to examine with your Windows PC. Plus, of course, I will indicate which disks are damaged and to what extent. This will expedite the process of releasing the various components of the source code if they should happen to be undamaged. Meanwhile, I will continue to repair what is possible when I get time to spend on it, and provide updates as they become available. (I may decide to approach this by completing the more trivial fixes first. The damage which remains on the 190th disk is anything but trivial to repair!) If you could just let me know whether the address I sent the hard drive files to is still valid, then I can start preparing a new CD-R for you straightway.

01 March 2012, 18:50	#195
gggcumming Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Tintern/UK Posts: 35	Hi Prowler, Yes the previous address is still valid. Yes it will be very interesting to see what source code is available - I'm not sure if I will even recognize it - looking through the stuff on the A590 was sort of like remembering parts of a dream - very vague. Again thanks for all the hard work. Glen

01 March 2012, 21:59	#196
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	Thanks, Glen. It'll take a few days to build the filesystem and burn it to CD, but I'll let you know when I've sent it.

02 March 2012, 16:51	#197
lesta_smsc Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 3,188	Would it not be easier to send via email than burn to CD-R? Can't wait for AB III!

03 March 2012, 19:08	#199
lesta_smsc Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 3,188	One can be hopeful ...

04 March 2012, 21:23	#200
RMK Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: UK Posts: 189	Great work Prowler.

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