Game copy list.

[Pheonix]

Back in the day, pre-internet, got everything from BBSes most of which were long distance calls. I had joined Sprint-NET, wich was a local call with my term (JR-Comm 1.02 was the latest greatest,) I would give a city code, and a destination phone number. I would then re-connect to the remote BBS directly. Cost my $20 a month, but I could call almost anywhere with no per-minute fees. That aught to give many of you an idea about how long ago this was.

Anyway, what I'm trying to find is a list I downloaded once (I had actually gotten several updates as well.) I thought I had it around here somewhere, but just went through about 100 or so disks, and have yet to find it. Many of the disks were completely unreadable any more, so I may have ended up going past it and never knowing. What the list contained was a list of games and what was needed to create a play disk for them. Ok, I'll be honest, what was needed to copy them.

The list was broken down into several files, AB-AL for example. I also remember I had to spread them out onto at least 2 disks (could have been 3, I just don't remember.) Each entry would be sort of like:

Adventure Construction Set: Maverick v2 parameter to remove protection; XXX Copier settings: INDEX - 4750 Nible maintians protection

Or something like that. It would list several copy programs, and how to set them to get a good copy. It would also list parameter copiers and version that had special copiers or protection removal tools. So, you had a game you just bought, you loaded the list, scrolled down to it's entry, and it would tell you exactly how to copy it. I do know that there were some entries that were "No known way at this time."

Since I absolutely refuse to ever play a game off the original, this list was priceless to me. I know that there were games that I woud actually put on a shelf (never even opening them,) until an entry I could use appeared in the list (that's how insistent I was on it.) There were times, I would end up desperately searching for the copier I needed (though that became less and less necessary over time.) Of course, back then I wasn't aware that some copy programs were actually professionally produced. I thought they were all 3rd party, hacker in the basement, affairs.

Does anyone else remember this list, and/or know where I can find the latest (last,) revision? It would be greatly appreciated

[exoticaga]

Off topic maybe.

IsoBuster is good, at recovering amiga formated iso's and cd's. Actualy there's very little if nothing that can work as well as this software can.

IsoBuster does have limitations, has no auto-retry for continous read retries. To get all the data, you'll need to sit there and actually click for read retries over and over... (tiresome and boring).

If used once with difficult disk or iso you will soon be hoping for better software, atm there is none. IsoBuster is a pain in the ass, and has been like that forever. This aspect should have been changed long ago, as is the vital part of data recovery.

If i came accross the same for hdd recovery, i would delete the software and forget about it. Shame this is the only software atm that stands you any chance of data recovery from iso, cd or dvd.

Ignore this if you have tried it, maybe of help for others reading.

[Pheonix]

Could be helpful to someone I'm sure. The disks I have that are unreadable, though, are floppies.

Between the 7 mounted & running CD/DVD drives I have, I usually can find at least one that will read any given CD, as long as there isn't any serious physical damage. I have had a couple that I've had to move from one drive to another, through almost all of them before I recovered everything.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by exoticaga

...maybe of help for others reading.

I should say!

Thanks for posting that gem of information, exoticaga!

[exoticaga]

Originally Posted by Pheonix

Just went through about 100 or so disks

My mistake phoenix i missed this bit, sorry.


Have you tried for Amiga: Cylone 20
OR Disksalv

For Windows: PC Inspector file recovery OR Winhex


I know how you feel Pheonix, i have one more amiga cd yet to be recovered. One that has many modified preference files, that i used to use. Some took a while to modify, perfect.
Someday whenever iso buster gets auto retry added for data retries i will attempt to recover them.

Prowler i thought you'd know of, some really good floppy disk recovery softwares ?




Iso Buster (revisited)..
In the settings set read retries to the max 99. For each disk inserted for recovery, it doesn't save this setting for some reason. Still need to press retry over and over, when fails to recover data.

I like, that it knows rockridge format well. It handles all the amiga chr$, the ones that illegal in windows file names. You cannot extract those illegal windows file names to windows. Can save as windows filename to get the data, for data recovery.

One cd left for recovery, the one i need.. Have tried on many cd and dvd drives, not seen in any os. May try small adjustments of the drive lense, with dirve open upper disk clamped, maybe possible. Though i think the cd disk is well past it, the reason for not trying lense adjustment yet.

Anyone know of software that can recover data from amiga or any os. Must be as good, or better than iso buster.

[Pheonix]

You might try taking it in to have it resurfased. Friend of mine just did that with a CD that I thought was totally trashed. He managed to get his stuff off of it and reburn to another one. I don't have any CDs (or DVDs for that matter,) that are that far gone, but you might look into it. Just call a couple of local computer stores and one might be able to help you, or at least point you to someone who can.

[prowler]

For UK residents, many Gamestation branches offer disc resurfacing while you wait.

[Pheonix]

Well, it seems nobody here knows about the list so my search goes on. I have about given up on ever finding it again, though. What I'm doing now is attempting to rebuild the list from scratch. I don't have that many games to work with on my own. So I would need help from others finding out how to copy games they have. I would also need someone willing to put the list up on their web site. It would be nice if they set up a searchable database, and put something in place allowing people to add/edit entries.

So, what I'm doing right now:

First step, I'm going through my parameter lists and creating entries that specify which copiers have a parameter and what they do (remove document protection, remove physical protection, keep all protections in place, etc...) This list will mostly be blind, in that I'm trusting that the parameter listings are correct.

Second step, I'm going to go through the disks I have now and test the parameter entries that I can test with them. This will confirm the entries for those games/apps and may give me more details (some parameter lists only list the program, they don't specify if protections are maintained or removed.)

Third step, I'm going to go through the disks I have that are not listed in any parameter list I have. For these I'm going to attempt to find information on the protection method they use, and then try to set up Nibble copiers to copy them. Not being a hacker, here is where I will probably need the most help (and 4th step below.) The best I can do is try to find which tracks (if any,) hold the protection, and try to find Nibble settings to copy them, but I can only work by trial & error on this.

Fourth step, go through the disks I have that I copied through parameters in step 2 above. These I will also try to find Nibble settings that will copy them. This is primarly ONLY for disks where the parameter removed the protection. The others usually have special copiers to do the work. I do know that there were entries in the original list that listed maintain protection parameters, that also had Nibble settings to do the same thing. I just don't remember the details, even for games I have/had.

I'm still in the first stage right now. I have the lists from the parameter copiers I have (latest versions I have access to,) except for Maverick v5. That one did not have a list I could use, so I'm having to load it up and manually type out every entry into a text file (just started the E's.) Once I'm finished with that, I'll be combining all the lists into the start of my unified list. Another area I would need help with is getting access to parameter copiers. I have another topic set up that is already helping me with that. I'm also searching eBay regularly to help find those, along with games/apps I don't already have. But in the case of eBay I'm limiting myself to only the games/apps that I already want (ok, mainly just games, not interested in many Amiga apps.)


**EDIT**
Ok, finished the Maverick v5 list. Started on the RAW parameter list now. I zipped all the parameter lists together and here they are if anyone is interested. I'll post the Copy List itself once I've compiled all the parameter lists together.