a donation for caps

Joe Maroni · 12 December 2004, 21:11

i bought several pc-ibm-floppy games from ebay and don´t like to use them anymore...

now i decided to donate them to caps...if they are interested...

if it is so, let me know and i like to dump them...

tell me how to do...

fiath · 12 December 2004, 22:06

Okay, great. Are the DD disks for HD disks?
If DD, you can just dump them in the normal way.
If HD, then you should be able to dump them normally, but pretty obviously only if you have an Amiga HD drive...

Joe Maroni · 13 December 2004, 05:38

yes they are HD Disks...

problem is that i only own DD diskdrives...
but i didn´t like to buy a new drive...couldn´t i send the full game packages to one of the caps members..??
i really don´t need them and really have no problem to donate it to this project...

fiath · 13 December 2004, 11:15

Okay, let me just check who has an HD drive and I'll get back to you...
Thanks

mark_k · 14 December 2004, 01:54

The CAPS dumping tool needs to be updated in order to work properly with HD floppies.

The problem is most likely a buffer overflow when reading data from unrecorded tracks (e.g. tracks 80 & 81 on most disks). At least, it repeatedly crashed for me whenever such tracks were read.

Once the problem is fixed, I'd be happy to dump HD disks if no-one else is able to.

-- M

IFW · 14 December 2004, 09:50

What happens if you start reading on an unformatted track? Or just 5 track say from 75.0?
If it crashes it is very likely a buffer overflow.
If it works it is not a buffer overflow, instead ram: crashing when running out of memory or some other limitation of the os. Alternatively a bad memory modul, that otherwise is not in daily use.

Interceptor · 16 December 2004, 13:23

as i remember it, an HD drive connected to an amiga has to have a buffer because the data is transferred at twice the speed and the disk controller cant cope.

i remember when i had an HD drive in my 1200 it had a go-between board for this purpose.

not sure how it was on the A4000 as i never had one. my guess is it had a different controller of sorts?

mark_k · 17 December 2004, 00:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by IFW

What happens if you start reading on an unformatted track? Or just 5 track say from 75.0?
If it crashes it is very likely a buffer overflow.
If it works it is not a buffer overflow, instead ram: crashing when running out of memory or some other limitation of the os. Alternatively a bad memory modul, that otherwise is not in daily use.

With the limited tested I did using an original commerically-duplicated HD 1.44MB floppy, reading any range of tracks 0-79 worked fine. (That is, with no errors or crashes; of course I'm not able to analyse the data in the image file.)

Whenever I dumped anything in tracks 80-81, either as part of a complete dump (0-81) or a single track, the computer would almost always crash. Of course tracks 80 & 81 were unformatted/unrecorded. It's not a hardware problem. (I emailed CAPS a few months ago about that, and uploaded some raw dumps for examination.)

-- M

mark_k · 17 December 2004, 01:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Interceptor

as i remember it, an HD drive connected to an amiga has to have a buffer because the data is transferred at twice the speed and the disk controller cant cope.

i remember when i had an HD drive in my 1200 it had a go-between board for this purpose.

not sure how it was on the A4000 as i never had one. my guess is it had a different controller of sorts?

True Amiga HD drives spin at 150rpm when an HD disk is inserted (vs 300rpm for DD disks), so the data rate remains the same.

Chinon FB-357A and FZ-357A are model numbers for true Amiga HD drives. Also the Dell external drive (P/N 25749) which was sold with Amiga cable under Amitek and other brands, functions as a true Amiga drive, spinning at 150rpm with HD disks. (The drive was probably originally manufactured for use with some Dell laptop PC.) No software hacks/patches are needed to use 150rpm drives with HD floppies.

Your A1200's floppy drive was probably not usable as an HD drive in the Amiga. My guess is it was a standard PC HD drive, and the extra board was used to convert the standard PC pinout to the Amiga one, much like the board you'll see if you open a normal Amiga DD external drive casing.

Power Computing used to sell an external HD drive (maybe internal too?), called something like the Power XL HD drive. That used a PC-type HD drive (300rpm) and a special interface board. Writing to HD disks required that a software patch be run beforehand. At a guess, reading HD disks with the CAPS dumping tool in a Power Computing HD drive may not give usable results. (The interface board probably buffers the whole track, so timing/density info would be lost.)

[The Dell HD floppy drive I mentioned above is sometimes referred to as the Dell DX9. However, that's incorrect. DX9 is the first three characters of the FCC ID DX9-DELL-EXFDD, which indicates the drive was actually made for Dell by Teac Corporation. It isn't a model number.]

-- M

Interceptor · 17 December 2004, 11:47

indeed it was power computer drive with the said patch.

but i sold that tin can years ago

i have a standard chinon DD drive in my current a1200. i suppose geniune amiga HD drives are rarer than rocking horse shit now

Joe Maroni · 19 December 2004, 11:18

ok make something visible i made some pics...:

the only game i´m possible to dump is the game collection...

these are all DD Disks...

one pic is also missing...Allo Allo Cartoon Fun

BTW: i´ve got a liitle bit time to upload the games that i mentioned at the IRC meeting...

it nearly 27MB of new stuff...have fun with it...

andreas · 19 December 2004, 19:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by x_to

i bought several pc-ibm-floppy games from ebay and don´t like to use them anymore...

Pity!
When I first read this, I was about to jump up high in the air, since I hoped that you had found 5.25'' floppy games from the IBM from ~ 1981-1987!

These are scarce as hen's teeth, even on e-bay. (And I'm not even speaking about them being boxed

)

fiath · 20 December 2004, 11:50

Great stuff x_to, thanks very much!

Joe Maroni · 20 December 2004, 21:21

are the dumps ok...??

fiath · 21 December 2004, 09:39

Since the PC/Atari format is not supported yet, I have no idea. However I can do some small checks which will at least tell us that the dumping went okay - but I can't tell if the disks are "100% perfect" until we can actually check the CRC16 checksums on the disk which will come along with the format support.

When it does get supported, we will surely let you know if there are any problems.

keropi · 21 December 2004, 09:58

hey, I also recently acquiered about 120+ original _amiga_ game disks, with various games and a 2-3 german adventures are boxed too ... Should I make a list ? or is there a WANTED LIST from caps somewhere?

IFW · 21 December 2004, 09:58

Small correction: you can check the crc16 it is used by quite a few formats.

abelthorne · 21 December 2004, 10:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by keropi

or is there a WANTED LIST from caps somewhere?

See there : http://www.caps-project.org/wanted.shtml. Also, thers is a list of already dumped games on the website that you can check.

EDIT : BTW, it may happen that some games you own have already been dumped but lack the documentation, or box scan and such.

IFW · 21 December 2004, 10:10

Keropi,

Please make a list
Basically use the online database to find games that are not available, make sure you check the version, language etc info, it is possible that one of your games even if it is the same title is a different version.
The database is correct minus the upcoming Christmas releases

The wanted page is stuff that mostly we got annoyed with finding no good disks so far - luckily a few entries can be removed soon.
Of course if something is not listed on wanted it does not mean we are not interested in it. The explanation on the wanted page should be very helpful on what to dump.

Thanks.

keropi · 21 December 2004, 10:11

oks, I'll make a list with names, I'll post it here, and if there is something u want, I'll do my best to provide it...

12 December 2004, 21:11	#1
Joe Maroni Moderator Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Germany Age: 44 Posts: 1,303	a donation for caps i bought several pc-ibm-floppy games from ebay and don´t like to use them anymore... now i decided to donate them to caps...if they are interested... if it is so, let me know and i like to dump them... tell me how to do...

19 December 2004, 11:18	#11
Joe Maroni Moderator Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Germany Age: 44 Posts: 1,303	ok make something visible i made some pics...: the only game i´m possible to dump is the game collection... these are all DD Disks... one pic is also missing...Allo Allo Cartoon Fun BTW: i´ve got a liitle bit time to upload the games that i mentioned at the IRC meeting... it nearly 27MB of new stuff...have fun with it... Attached Thumbnails Last edited by Joe Maroni; 19 December 2004 at 13:21.

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12 December 2004, 22:06	#2
fiath Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South East / UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,930	Okay, great. Are the DD disks for HD disks? If DD, you can just dump them in the normal way. If HD, then you should be able to dump them normally, but pretty obviously only if you have an Amiga HD drive...

13 December 2004, 05:38	#3
Joe Maroni Moderator Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Germany Age: 44 Posts: 1,303	yes they are HD Disks... problem is that i only own DD diskdrives... but i didn´t like to buy a new drive...couldn´t i send the full game packages to one of the caps members..?? i really don´t need them and really have no problem to donate it to this project...

13 December 2004, 11:15	#4
fiath Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South East / UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,930	Okay, let me just check who has an HD drive and I'll get back to you... Thanks

14 December 2004, 01:54	#5
mark_k Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Posts: 3,351	The CAPS dumping tool needs to be updated in order to work properly with HD floppies. The problem is most likely a buffer overflow when reading data from unrecorded tracks (e.g. tracks 80 & 81 on most disks). At least, it repeatedly crashed for me whenever such tracks were read. Once the problem is fixed, I'd be happy to dump HD disks if no-one else is able to. -- M

14 December 2004, 09:50	#6
IFW Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: ... Age: 52 Posts: 1,838	What happens if you start reading on an unformatted track? Or just 5 track say from 75.0? If it crashes it is very likely a buffer overflow. If it works it is not a buffer overflow, instead ram: crashing when running out of memory or some other limitation of the os. Alternatively a bad memory modul, that otherwise is not in daily use.

16 December 2004, 13:23	#7
Interceptor Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: Essex, UK Posts: 414	as i remember it, an HD drive connected to an amiga has to have a buffer because the data is transferred at twice the speed and the disk controller cant cope. i remember when i had an HD drive in my 1200 it had a go-between board for this purpose. not sure how it was on the A4000 as i never had one. my guess is it had a different controller of sorts?

17 December 2004, 11:47	#10
Interceptor Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: Essex, UK Posts: 414	indeed it was power computer drive with the said patch. but i sold that tin can years ago i have a standard chinon DD drive in my current a1200. i suppose geniune amiga HD drives are rarer than rocking horse shit now

20 December 2004, 11:50	#13
fiath Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South East / UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,930	Great stuff x_to, thanks very much!

20 December 2004, 21:21	#14
Joe Maroni Moderator Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Germany Age: 44 Posts: 1,303	are the dumps ok...??

21 December 2004, 09:39	#15
fiath Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South East / UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,930	Since the PC/Atari format is not supported yet, I have no idea. However I can do some small checks which will at least tell us that the dumping went okay - but I can't tell if the disks are "100% perfect" until we can actually check the CRC16 checksums on the disk which will come along with the format support. When it does get supported, we will surely let you know if there are any problems.

21 December 2004, 09:58	#16
keropi . Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Ioannina/Greece Posts: 5,040	hey, I also recently acquiered about 120+ original _amiga_ game disks, with various games and a 2-3 german adventures are boxed too ... Should I make a list ? or is there a WANTED LIST from caps somewhere?

21 December 2004, 10:10	#19
IFW Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: ... Age: 52 Posts: 1,838	Keropi, Please make a list Basically use the online database to find games that are not available, make sure you check the version, language etc info, it is possible that one of your games even if it is the same title is a different version. The database is correct minus the upcoming Christmas releases The wanted page is stuff that mostly we got annoyed with finding no good disks so far - luckily a few entries can be removed soon. Of course if something is not listed on wanted it does not mean we are not interested in it. The explanation on the wanted page should be very helpful on what to dump. Thanks.

21 December 2004, 10:11	#20
keropi . Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Ioannina/Greece Posts: 5,040	oks, I'll make a list with names, I'll post it here, and if there is something u want, I'll do my best to provide it...

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