Dungeon Master V2.0 IPF?

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by BarryB

I've been playing the IPF in WinUAE from a saved game disk (ADF) I had when I was using the SCP and for nearly 2 hours now not ran into any issue with saving to the ADF, it not recognising the IPF as the original disk or guru'ing while playing!

Great!!!

Only on Level 2, Choose your door choose your fate!

Do you mean that on level 2 the protection kicked in? Or that you played till you reached Level 2?

Originally Posted by BarryB

It was never stated the IPF would work on real hardware, the IPF generated is for emulation only,

You're right.

rather a conversion of IPF > SCP > Greaseweazle > Disk *may* work.

According to the tests done by me and Snoopy1234, it would seem not .

[BarryB]

Originally Posted by Supamax

Do you mean that on level 2 the protection kicked in? Or that you played till you reached Level 2?

I already had a save game from when I was testing an SCP so have used that save with the IPF and it was already on Level 2! After playing for around 2 hours under emulation with that save disk + IPF no guru's or it asking for the original disk when saving!

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by BarryB

I already had a save game from when I was testing an SCP so have used that save with the IPF and it was already on Level 2! After playing for around 2 hours under emulation with that save disk + IPF no guru's or it asking for the original disk when saving!

Great!

Originally Posted by Snoopy1234

I now know. I've written the "track shifted" version of the scp of yours to disk and it passes the character save test on my A1200 with Relokick 1.4 - OS 1.3.

I remember reading before about that "track shifting" method (in HxC, if I remember well).
In which thread is it described? When is it necessary, why and for which titles?

Your original scp doesn't work anywhere so I think the shifted one of that might be the most viable image.

So it would seem that my original floppy is indeed not working anymore? Can I/we assert so?

[Snoopy1234]

Originally Posted by Supamax

Great!



I remember reading before about that "track shifting" method (in HxC, if I remember well).
In which thread is it described? When is it necessary, why and for which titles?

The author of the SuperCard Pro system is the man for that. When misaligned reading of disks occurs I believe, it doesn't interfere with data.

So it would seem that my original floppy is indeed not working anymore? Can I/we assert so?

Only you can make that decision. Re-writing it with a working scp would be your best option. Better still if it is the scp from your disk.

[lesta_smsc]

My SCP works fine written back (at least for me) and so if you're after writing and playing the original in floppy disk form then it may be an option for you. If you're just interested in emulation then the IPF file is smaller and seems to suffice.

According to @JimDrew:

"Dungeon Master is not a big deal... just weakbits with valid data framed. Typically you will see the failure right away with the protection check because you can't open the door. If you get that far, the next check is when inspecting/selecting players from the wall which won't select. I don't believe there are other checks that will fail if both of these pass (but they do occur in random places)."

[gothmog]

Originally Posted by BarryB

I've uploaded to The Zone my KF dumps of DM v2.0 French and DM v2.2 English!

I arrive too late and your files have been removed from the zone!
Would you be kind enough to re-upload them for me please?

[Snoopy1234]

Originally Posted by gothmog

I arrive too late and your files have been removed from the zone!
Would you be kind enough to re-upload them for me please?

Zone files are archived on the EAB FTP server. http://ftp2.grandis.nu/

[TCD]

A bit more specific: http://ftp2.grandis.nu/turransearch/...0&httplinks=on

[gothmog]

Many thanks for the link !

[gothmog]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Only with Disk Analyse :/ currently the SPS tool doesn't handle the protection.

Denis, could you please get some inside information about officially supporting the Dungeon Master copy protection?

I supplied kryoflux dumps of Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back to SPS so long ago that I don't even remember when (more than 10 years ago I would say).
I have been proposing my help for years to help add support for the DM/CSB copy protection in this thread:
https://forum.kryoflux.com/viewtopic.php?p=16105#p16105
Still waiting patiently...

Is the kryoflux project making any progress silently that we are not aware of? From the outside, it really seems that the project is dead: it's been years since the last update on http://www.softpres.org/ , no new software version / announcement / work-in-progress
If there is so much work to do, why not ask for the help of other people to help spread the workload?

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by gothmog

Denis, could you please get some inside information about officially supporting the Dungeon Master copy protection?

I supplied kryoflux dumps of Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back to SPS so long ago that I don't even remember when (more than 10 years ago I would say).
I have been proposing my help for years to help add support for the DM/CSB copy protection in this thread:
https://forum.kryoflux.com/viewtopic.php?p=16105#p16105
Still waiting patiently...

Is the kryoflux project making any progress silently that we are not aware of? From the outside, it really seems that the project is dead: it's been years since the last update on http://www.softpres.org/ , no new software version / announcement / work-in-progress
If there is so much work to do, why not ask for the help of other people to help spread the workload?

Always the same explanation : "real-life + work"....... It's planned, but i don't know when it will happen

[malko]

Even if the general saying states : "If you want a job done right, do it yourself." considering and accepting help from others may be a good solution to go forward (even if it means training the person who helps)

[malko]

Tested the "Chaos strikes back" IPF (CSBv3.5.rar).

WinUAE, quickstart A500.

- CSB "Game disk" loads ;
- Can choose a language (FR in my case) ;
- Enter the "Prison"
- Walk around, choose 4 characters to create a party.
- Within WinUAE, create a new blank floppy ;
- Within CSB, format it and save the game.

If I understood correctly the on-screen message when I entered the "prison", I now have to reboot with the CSB "Utility disk", to be able to then enter the Dungeon.

- The "Utility disk" loads ;
- The intro can be watched ;
- Click to create a new adventure.
- Select the "Chaos strikes back" save option but the program complains that no save-game could be found.
- Same if I select the "Oracle" option. It complains that no save-game could be found.

If I reboot with the "Game disk", I can load the saved game and my party is at the exact same place where I saved it.

I then rebooted with "Dungeon master" (v3.6), created a party and saved it where I resurrected the 4th party member.
CSB "Utility" also complains that no save-game could be found...

[gothmog]

Note that while there are multilanguage versions of the CSB game disk (English / French / German), there are no multilanguage version of the Utility disk.
I suspect that your saved game file is named CSBGAMEF.DAT (because you selected FR language) and that the utility disk you are using is English only and expects a saved game file named CSBGAME.DAT (default name for English).
Can you try again by selecting English language? Or after renaming your saved game file?

[malko]

Damn, after renaming the initial file on the save-disk (CSBGAMEF.DAT -> CSBGAME.DAT) I can confirm that you got the finger on it.

With the initial save-game file renamed, the "utility disk" loads it and allows the creation of a new adventure save-game that can then be loaded with the "game disk" (the newly created adventure save-game has been renamed back before loading the game (CSBGAME.DAT -> CSBGAMEF.DAT)).

I hope this manipulation is explained in the manual that is provided with the Psygnosis release otherwise it would be a big disappointment (IMO , as is, it's already disappointing that a FR or DE save is not recognised by default by the "utility disk").

Thank you for mentioning it gothmog

[gothmog]

This is not documented in the manual. In fact there were distinct versions of the Utility disk: one for each supported language (French, English, German). If you bought the game in France, you got the French utility disk, if you bought it in Germany you got the German one, and anywhere else, you got the English one.
It was a bit incoherent to have a multilanguage game disk bundled with a single language utility disk, but that's the way it was done...

You may download all variations of the utility disk that I have here: http://dmweb.free.fr/?q=node/591#toc18

[malko]

Originally Posted by gothmog

[...] It was a bit incoherent to have a multilanguage game disk bundled with a single language utility disk, but that's the way it was done... [...]

Yes, it's a bit strange.
My only guess, as I haven't checked the sizes and available free space on the disk, but given that the texts displayed during the intro and the texts needed for the edition (both texts are very small), I am wondering if they did like this because hints from the Oracle are big enough that at the end all together the three languages do not fit on one disk ?

Originally Posted by gothmog

[...] You may download all variations of the utility disk that I have here: http://dmweb.free.fr/?q=node/591#toc18

Got the FR utility disk. Thanks

[gothmog]

Now, about that "Chaos strikes back" IPF (CSBv3.5.rar), did you play long enough to confirm that the copy protection does not trigger?
It always triggers when you save the game, and often when you move from one level to another (through stairs or pits).

[malko]

No, I hadn't had the time to play it for long yet.
Have to say also that the place where the dungeon start has some aggressive big worms (don't remember their name) that caused some trouble to my quickly build team before I found a way to minimize the received hits... .
Once I finally killed them and escaped the room it was to fall in a pit (can we really jump as written in the wall ? - have to read DM (again - BitD is long ago ) & CSB manual to check.
Where I appeared I then decided to get a sword and then walked down some stairs to face an army of blue ants (managed to kill only 5 of them) that then used my team for barbecue...
I think to do a proper test about the viability of this IPF set, some "boosted/cheated" team will be required.

[malko]

Have seen on dmweb.free.fr that there are many different editors. Since I don't have the time to test which one is able to edit the v3.5 CSB save game, could you redirect me to a one that can fit the requirement and will allow to increase the team characteristics ?