08 July 2010, 02:40 | #1 |
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How to make IPF's work in the HXC floppy emulator
Hi all,
this is kinda freaky, probably been done already but... I was able to convert some ipf images to HFE images and then successfully load them on a real amiga. Titles i have tried so far has been last ninja, Shadow of Beast and Dragons Lair. I so far found one that wouldn't work (Zoom by Discovery) so i am not sure if it is the image or the tool not able to convert the ipf properly. I used the img2hfe tool to convert the ipf to HFE and then loaded it via the HXC floppy emulator. I will try some more to see just how many will work. edit... Superfrog works too Last edited by kipper2k; 08 July 2010 at 02:50. |
08 July 2010, 03:23 | #2 |
Da Digger :)
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Sorry for the probably stupid post but... I thought that the HXC floppy emulator was able to directly load .ipf files. Isn't it so then?
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08 July 2010, 03:28 | #3 |
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08 July 2010, 03:34 | #4 | |
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According to http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
Quote:
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08 July 2010, 03:42 | #5 | |
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Quote:
Below is the actual list of supported file images type: (Create FS Floppy button).*.ST, *.MSA, *.ADF, *.ADZ, *.DMZ, CPC DSK (standard and extended), CopyQM DSK, Oric DSK, *.IMG, *.SMC, MSX DSK, *.IMD, Zx Spectrum DSK, BetaDisk *.TRD, BetaDisk *.SCL, Thomson TO8D *.SAP, Thomson TO8D *.FD, PC88 *.D88, x68000 *.HDM (beta), x68000 *.XDF (beta), custom raw floppy geometry… An AmigaDOS or FAT12 floppy disk image can also be generated from spares files |
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08 July 2010, 08:18 | #6 |
Cheesy crust
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We're using HxC USB units here to test IPFs for systems we don't have final emulators for yet. You can load them directly after downloading the capslib from our downloads page. Works like a charm.
The SD card version needs files to be converted first, which renders some pretty tricky protections ununsable. The USB version does not have this limitation. |
08 July 2010, 15:46 | #7 | ||
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Quote:
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_...y_Emulator.pdf Quote:
For games relying on the track format or on the "high density" protection, overlap protection, this could works but nothing is guaranteed. If you want something able to emulate protected floppy disk “perfectly”, the old USB HxC Floppy Emulator (a 2005/2006 design ) is for the moment the only alternative. This board is more powerful than the SD version and are able to emulate variable bitrate, flakey bits, etc... |
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08 July 2010, 18:23 | #8 | |
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Is the latest board available as a kit, i'd like to build it myself if you have them available ? thanks |
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08 July 2010, 18:57 | #9 | |
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The USB board seems fairly dumb compared to the SD card version, just a slave to the host PC. The Windows app for the HxC USB board uses the SPS .DLL to produce the data stream as if it were an emulator, am I right? Not knocking it, very clever idea. |
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08 July 2010, 18:58 | #10 |
Cheesy crust
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There is a guy called "Guille" in Spain that built some for us. He should also have unassembled PCBs. PM me for contact if you want.
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08 July 2010, 19:59 | #11 |
Phone Homer
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So if you have a USB HXC and external drive with classic cyclone you could copy most IPFs back to disk wich is what people have been wanting to do.
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08 July 2010, 21:14 | #12 |
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Hmm, yeah if it can be copied with a Cyclone that would be possible.
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08 July 2010, 21:48 | #13 |
Cheesy crust
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Yes, could be true for "easy" things, like some less restrictive copylocks, longtrack keytracks or similar. It will still fail for more advanced copylocks, weak bits, mixing of 4us and 2us recording, things that mess with the gap (write splice point outside of gap), or "good" longtracks (which fail miserably due to missing precompensation, especially on tracks > 60). Still lots of "ifs"...
And to be honest... when you already have a HxC attached to your machine, why clone a disk? You already have a perfect clone to play with... |
08 July 2010, 22:10 | #14 | ||
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Quote:
You didn't understand how the USB and SD HxC Floppy Emulator works: With the USB version the PC just transfert a precomputed data/command stream to the Emulator, just like the SD version with HFE file. (IPF library is not used at the emulation time, it was used during the loading time) Why i said that the USB version is more powerful ? Simply because the CPLD is able to execute specials commands present in the data stream to change bitrate/sync side/generate flakey bits, while getting data from the USB, increasing/decreasing track position/ managing floppy signals in the same time. The 10Mips PIC MCU isn't able to do this because this chip doesn't have a serial output able to change its bitrate on the fly (like most mcu...) and doesn't have the time to parse the data stream to execute commands on the fly. And this is a MCU not a CPLD... So in the same time doesn't exist here Hooking a PC to this MCU doesn't change the problem. (And the sdcard throughput is more important than the USB 1.1 ;-) ) On the contrary if you hook the CPLD to the PIC, this new design should be able to emulate protected floppies with the same precision as the USB HxC Floppy Emulator. (but this cost too much...) I have used this MCU for an economical choice but this chip hasn’t the flexibility of an CPLD/FPGA… Quote:
For each file image type supported there are a "plugin" able to load IPF or ADZ file for example. Tracks data are generated (ADF/ADZ...) or extracted (IPF/SPS) at the loading time. This generated/extracted information are a physical description of the floppies : Bitstream/bitrate/flakey bits... Once you get this, you can send/export this data to the USB Floppy Emulator / to a file that the SD HxC Floppy Emulator can understand, or to another file type (*.AFI / *.MFM / *.IMG...) Depending of the target, this last process may implied some loss of data : For example the SD Card floppy emulator file format doesn't store the bitrate stream. IMG file store only sector data (like ADF file). On the contrary the AFI file format keep all data. For more details have a look to this: http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_...lator_soft.zip http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_...r_soft_src.zip Last edited by Jeff_HxC2001; 09 July 2010 at 07:38. |
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08 July 2010, 22:16 | #15 |
Phone Homer
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@Jeff with the SD card version are ADFs supported directly ? or do these have to be converted surely this is possible?
true kinda defeats the point - but I think there will always be an intrest in writing them back to floppy. |
08 July 2010, 22:23 | #16 |
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Well, for that you will have KryoFlux.
And it will be guaranteed to write exactly what is required |
08 July 2010, 22:33 | #17 |
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08 July 2010, 22:41 | #18 | |
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Quote:
The conversion tool is made to be quick and easy to use. You can try it : http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_...lator_soft.zip Here is the user manual : http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_...ser_Manual.pdf |
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08 July 2010, 22:50 | #19 |
Phone Homer
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Ok I agree the software is easy to useStill I think it would be possible with ADF Keep up the good work!
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08 July 2010, 22:59 | #20 | |
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Quote:
Note : I found an amigaos version of the converter somewhere on the web here : http://www.ppa.pl/artykul-HxC.Floppy...-1_3_1253.html http://c0ff33.net/~rkujawa/hxc/diski...-alpha1.tar.gz |
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