13 March 2012, 13:06 | #361 | |
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Any ideas where you can get video cables from so i can display the unit i have on my TV. Also are there keyboard combinations that you can use instead of the mouse as i dont have one, or for that matter where you could get one of those as well. |
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16 March 2012, 10:11 | #362 |
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I don't suppose anyone knows if you can image the archimedes disks with an amiga?
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16 March 2012, 22:27 | #363 |
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No, but if you can't get all the bits you need to do it on your Archimedes, then you can do it on a PC running the DOS utility 'Arcimg'.
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=458437&postcount=91 |
17 March 2012, 12:58 | #364 |
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17 March 2012, 16:06 | #365 |
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Well I have ordered a usb floppy drive so the moment that gets here from china i will image them
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18 March 2012, 11:22 | #366 | ||
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I can image some discs if you need, as have an A1200 sitting here ready for the job. Let me know. Quote:
With the multidisc games I have tried none of them give you access back to the wimp to enable you to change the adf. I didn't know if perhaps looking at adding a small loading script for multidisc games was a possibility later on. Last edited by MarkYoungIW; 18 March 2012 at 13:28. |
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19 March 2012, 13:31 | #367 | |
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I've analysed all 32 protected APD images in detail now. Only 25 actually use protection, of those there are 18 distinct methods being used, ranging from sector within sector to invalid ID's and alternative sector sizes. In essence I need to write a 1772 FDC emulator and feed the output into ADFS. That isn't possible though, without patching or rewriting sections of ADFS - which isn't really a viable option due to the vast number of versions out there. The alternative, which I'm trying, is to front ADFS and pass-through calls where appropriate. I also need to expand the DiscOp functions in ADFFS, as I didn't bother coding DiscOp 3/4 (read/write track) - they weren't required for ADF images. Some of the protection methods however rely on DiscOp 3, to read sector within sector and invalid sector ID's. Although Zarch and MagicPockets have SD track data in the APD file, it looks like DD tracks that just happen to verify when read as SD. Zarch certainly seems to load with DD track data only, as its protection is to check for alternative sized sectors on the disk. I suspect MagicPockets is the same, as it has a blank track and alternative sized sectors. If anyone is aware of more protected discs, please let me know so I can try to source the originals to analyse them. One's I'm aware of are: Cycloids Darkwood Drop Ship The Dungeon Fire & Ice FTT Gods Gribbly's Day Out The Last Ninja Magic Pockets Nevryon Pandora's Box Populous Powerband Repton 4 Sensible Soccer StarFighter 3000 The Wimp Game Wolfenstein World Class Leaderboard Zarch. Although APD's are available for the following, they do not use disc protection - they use other methods, such as code wheels, manuals etc: Premier Manager Repton 3 Stunt Racer 2000 Seems, like an awful lot of coding for so few discs! |
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19 March 2012, 13:45 | #368 |
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There can be lots more. I have a number not there. Leave it with me, I'll eMail you some. Tom's APD seems to work for all protected discs, and there are many protected discs for the Arc. I will get on that today.
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19 March 2012, 19:53 | #369 |
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According to this thread http://www.iconbar.com/forums/viewth...d=11868&page=1 Inferno and Quark use copy protection.
I actually have both original games but I don't know how to make APD format files. APD seems to be a bit too closed a format for useful preservation. |
19 March 2012, 20:12 | #370 |
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I dont think it is intentionally closed and I am sure it will soon be fully documented (also Jon sounds like he has pretty much reversed it now already!!)
With regards to making an apd its fairly simple. It involves Rawread on the Amiga like this and a windows app Tom made called getapd.exe There were a lot of games that were protected in many ways, I am sure not all of these require apd, but some definately do. Hope this helps. |
19 March 2012, 20:22 | #371 |
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19 March 2012, 20:55 | #372 | |
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OK, well that's good to know. |
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23 March 2012, 19:46 | #373 |
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I won't post off topic updates here, but I'm making good progress with ADFFS, APD support is getting there and I now have control of ADFS::0
See the following thread for further updates: http://riscos.me.uk/forums/viewthrea...threadid=11846 I've heard nothing from SPS after raising a ticket a few weeks ago, so no progress on IPF support. |
24 March 2012, 12:34 | #374 |
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Hi Jon,
Many thanks for the updates. I think most people would agree with me that ADFFS will be as important to Acorn as WHDLoad has been to the Amiga, if not more so! Really pleased to hear you have got ADFS::0 that could have been a big problem with some images. Thank you for your work for the Acorn scene, with this for the real hardware and Tom's Arculator for those times we can't be bothered to get the Arc out of the loft, I think its fair to say it makes all the disc images, so much more meaningful!! |
03 April 2012, 09:44 | #375 |
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I have a few bugs to iron out, but have over half the APD's now working under ADFFS. Mark - I'll send you an updated beta later, it's still RO 3.5+ only. If that's an issue let me know and I'll spend some time getting backward compatibility fixed.
Anyhow, whilst analysing the various protection methods used, it dawned on me that I could probably automate what I'm doing, to allow floppies to be captured on the Arc. Essentially what I'm doing is recording all the disc access and responses from ADFS and then replaying them in ADFFS, to confirm I'm returning the correct data and errors. However, there's no reason why this couldn't be automated and possibly with a little user input for the more complex methods, the disc captured into a working image. The bulk of the disc can be read sector by sector, based on the core Disc Rec - the other Disc Recs for the protection areas are all captured by running the game and recording it's disc access. It's then a matter of filling in the gaps in the protection tracks, noting any unformatted tracks / sectors with CRC errors in the data or sector ID - this may not be required, it obviously depends on how the protection is performed. If all the protection checking is done up front, it should be reliable. Sector within sector may need some hand holding, where DiscOp 3 (read track) is used (Fire & Ice for example). Just a thought, obviously I want to get ADFFS working with APD's reliably first before thinking about extending ADFFS, to add reconstruction. It will however probably need yet another file format, as IPF / APD are floppy image based, rather than data image based. I suppose it's possible to convert the data back into MFM and reconstruct an IPF / APD - but it won't be a 100% accurate representation as they are currently. |
03 April 2012, 11:23 | #376 |
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Wait, wait, wait! This all sounds spectacularly awesome, even though I'm not completely sure I understand it!
Are you saying you could release a utility that would be able to create APDs on an Acorn? But that it would have to go through an intermediate format first? |
03 April 2012, 20:36 | #377 |
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04 April 2012, 12:23 | #378 |
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05 April 2012, 09:14 | #379 |
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There's an early beta of ADFFS with APD support available, head over to the Icon Bar thread to see the caveats before downloading though.
http://riscos.me.uk/forums/viewthrea...&page=3#119972 EDIT: 1.21 is available, which is a stable release supporting virtually all APD's: http://adffs.filecore.net Last edited by Jon Abbott; 12 April 2012 at 19:23. Reason: Update |
13 April 2012, 01:15 | #380 |
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Now that APD support is nearly complete, I'm looking at expanding ADFFS into a complete retro gaming solution, along the lines of MAME/MAMEUI.
Some of you may be able to help out, with instructions, scans, screenshots etc. Take a look at the "help wanted" section on the Icon Bar thread and let me know your thoughts/ideas: http://riscos.me.uk/forums/viewthrea...threadid=11846 |
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