Recursive coverdisks

[coldacid]

Some coverdisks contain additional (real) coverdisks as DMSes, with just a bit of supporting software to make it easy for users to make physical copies of the DMS'd disks. CU Amiga is the magazine that I've seen do this the most. Should these get datted?


If they should get datted, how should the disk images be named? I am assuming that the DMSes would be unpacked to ADF. As an example, CU Amiga coverdisk 96 contains two DMS images, "XCAD.DMS" and "ThemePark.dms". Would "Theme Park Christmas Edition (1994)(Electronic Arts)[CU Amiga (1994-12)(Coverdisk 096)].adf" or "CU Amiga (1994-12)(EMAP Images)(GB)(Disk 1 of 2)[Coverdisk 096][unpacked Theme Park].adf" be the more appropriate name for the unpacked ADF? Or something else entirely?

[Nor Bert]

I think this version of the name will be the best
"CU Amiga (1994-12)(EMAP Images)(GB)(Disk 1 of 2)m[Coverdisk 096][unpacked Theme Park].adf"

[Crashdisk]

There are no rules for this and the treatment will depend on the content because a DMS file in a coverdisk does not necessarily contain exclusive content.


When looking for a demo of a commercial game, it seems more logical to search in "Games" than in "Coverdisk".
Especially since magazines are not the only way to distribute demo.

Don't forget that we are not allowed to duplicate content and that some content has been published in several media and/or place.

Originally Posted by Nor Bert

I think this version of the name will be the best
"CU Amiga (1994-12)(EMAP Images)(GB)(Disk 1 of 2)m[Coverdisk 096][unpacked Theme Park].adf"

the use of the [m] tag does not seem appropriate here and there is no tag to describe this anyway...

Modified - [m]

The original software has been hacked/altered in some way (but not deliberately), e.g. if you dumped an original UNTOUCHED floppy disk (say it is a game for some microcomputer), the image would also be original/clean. If the floppy disk had been played/loaded (BUT NOT WRITE PROTECTED), then the disk might have an additional file saved back to it such as a saved game, or saved high score table. If you then re-dumped it, the image would no longer be original/clean, and a [m] flag would be appropriate.

[coldacid]

Well, duplicates would be found via hashing before adding them, right? I would assume that any inner disks that are just mashed versions of ADFs already in the database would be caught and not added to the database.


I do hear you about not putting these in Coverdisks per se, but rather in a more appropriate location for the content on the inner disk. Following the example, Theme Park xmas edition would go to Games, and XCad Designer to Applications, with a more info tag stating that it's an unpack from CU Amiga coverdisk 96. Of course, barring that either of them already exist in TOSEC (but from my check with ROMVault, it doesn't look like they do).

[Exodous]

One thing to be aware of is that a lot of these multi-disk coverdisk images actually have the files stored in archives like lha/lzx etc. on the "master" coverdisk.

They build the individual disks by formatting a disk, then extract the files to the formatted disk.

Therefore, every single extraction of these files will be unique due to the filesystem timestamps and contain other potential differences for things like file locations on that disk, depending upon the version of OS used when extracting them, which means there would effectively be infinite alternative versions of exactly the same extracted disks.

[Crashdisk]

Originally Posted by coldacid

Well, duplicates would be found via hashing before adding them, right? I would assume that any inner disks that are just mashed versions of ADFs already in the database would be caught and not added to the database.

Using ADF-Workshop to identify content allows me to know if it is already TOSEC.
Once the databases are generated, I have another program to check for duplicate filenames, content and renaming conventions (TNC).

Originally Posted by Exodous

One thing to be aware of is that a lot of these multi-disk coverdisk images actually have the files stored in archives like lha/lzx etc. on the "master" coverdisk.

this is a recurring problem, it is often found in the Games category in cases of crack fix or trainers on standard DOS disks.
Some disks go into Non-TOSEC to avoid the proliferation of identical content generated at different times which therefore gives a different result...

[hitm4n]

I think the coverdisks should remain as they are in their unpacked state. End user can choose to extract DMS files and play the included "stuff". DMS files i believe will always create an identical disk, so if you do want to unpack and catalogue, i don't think the LHA/LZX point above applies.

I would unpack and catalogue ONLY if it is something unique/obscure, but then why only do this for some of the stuff... tough call.

[coldacid]

@Exodous I'm not considering archives at all, just actual disk image files like DMS.

@Crashdisk BTW, thanks for ADF-Workshop. It's let me match a number of images I have that I only had as DMS to ADFs in TOSEC.

@hitm4n you mean their packed state, right?

By the way I have found at least one unique/obscure inner coverdisk already -- CU Amiga coverdisk 98 includes two inner coverdisk DMSes, one for Comic Setter v1.0a for PAL (TOSEC has v1.0 prime for PAL, and 1.0a for NTSC, but not 1.0a for PAL), and another for the Comic Setter clipart that goes along with the CU Amiga Comic Setter manual that came as a supplement with the related magazine issue.

[hitm4n]

Originally Posted by coldacid

@hitm4n you mean their packed state, right?

Their Un-unpacked state

[redblade]

The Amiga Format Issue 039 October 1992 bullfrog tutorial #1 with Devpac 2 on the coverdisk, the version I found online was modified as it had both Tutorial #1 and Tutorial #2 extracted to the coverdisk.

The Amiga Computing Issue 076 August 1994 Devpac 2.15 seems to be one of those recursive coverdisks that you mention but that makes sense to compress all the include files to distribute it.