Request for any gems

[Belgarath]

But Katakis and Denaris are different games...(and Denaris certainly isn't an American version). The levels are different in each game, so they both deserve entries.

[DamienD]

Yeah, I should probably re-add Denaris

[SquawkBox]

Denaris is the reworked version of Katatis, after Activision threatened to sue Rainbow Arts on the ground of blatant similarities with R-Type.
What about adding another version of MegaBall ? I was thinking MegBall v2.0, as a single ADF. For one, the latter doesn't require any fixing (as far as I can tell).

[hitm4n]

Megaball v2, v3 and the original "Ball" could all go on the MegaBall 4 HDF as extras rather than seperate games. I was thinking of doing this myself, along with the Poing collection on an HDF in a similar manner and the Infocom adventure collection on another...

But i still don't know which games Damien is or isn't adding from my list so i've made no movement yet other than playing with files and learning how to build these. The first time i did start, some games appeared in an update so i stopped again.

Subject to change (i might change my mind on some of these titles, or i may struggle creating them), this is my current list of proposed additions.

4096 (2014)(PD)(Coagulus)(ADF)
Axel Tetris (2020)(PD)(SQDisk)
Brainbow (PD)(1992)(ADF)
Breakin Briks AGA (1995)(PD)(Needs HDF)
Coin Mania (PD)(1995)(ADF)
Drag and Drop (2020)(PD)(ADF)
Eight Feet Under - Hibernated 1 Addon (2019)(PD)(PolyPlay)(R6)(ADF)
Emerald Mines CD32 (19xx)(PD)(BIN-CUE)(Native)
Germz v21.2.14 (2021)(PD)(SQDisk)
GlowTrack (2013)(PD)(Axel)(SQDisk)
Gold Mine (1992)(PD)(ADF)
Hibernated 1 - This Place Is Death (2018)(PD)(PolyPlay)(R17)(ADF)
Imbrium - Day of Reckoning (1992)(LW)(ADF)
Interlock (1995)(PD)(ADF)
Jelly Othelly v1.1 (1995)(PD)(Daisy Software)(ADF)
Journey (1989)(Infocom)(r30)(ADF)
London Rain Matrix (2014)(PD)(Hitchhikr)(SQDisk)
Looty V2 (2020)(PD)(ADF)
Mean Arenas CD32 (1993)(ISO-CUE + WHDLoad)(Native)
Modsurfer (2019)(PD)(Arcanist)
Not Cave Runner II (1990)(PD)(Cave Runner Enhanced)(ADF)
Oubliette v1.03 (2016)(PD)(James Wilkinson)(ADF)
Poing Collection (1992-2002)(PD)(Needs HDF)
Pump Up The Volume (1990)(PD)(SQDisk)
Quest For Galaxia (1993)(PD)(SQDisk)
Rags AGA (2001)(PD)(Needs HDF)
Redpill Puzzle v1.0 AGA (2020)(Lemming880)(ADF)
Rings Of Zon - Trilogy One Of The Zon Saga (1990)(Micro Fix)(SW-R)(ADF)
Schelobers Quest For A Babe (1993)(SW)(ADFs)
Space Pilot Of Death (2021)(PD)(SQDisk)
The Eire Raising Adventures Of Seamus OMally (1995)(PD)(VideoBionics)(ADFs)
The Invaders (+2)(1991)(PD)(Mental Image Game Disk 1)(ADF)
The Invaders II (+2)(1992)(PD)(Mental Image Game Disk 2)(ADF)
The Lost Treasures Of Infocom (1991)(Activision)(SQDisks)(Needs HDF)
The Ninja Zombie Killer (2019)(PD)(ade_arana)(Needs HDF)
Tomcat (1994)(SW)(ADFs)(Needs HDF)
Werner Flaschbier (1991)(PD)(SQDisk)
Wiz 2 (1999)(PD)(Mr E Software)(ADF)

Cheers.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by hitm4n

But i still don't know which games Damien is or isn't adding from my list so i've made no movement yet other than playing with files and learning how to build these. The first time i did start, some games appeared in an update so i stopped again.

Jesus man... I've spent the last few weeks busting my balls i.e. creating 3 x new Update Pack parts, putting together the "base install plus "Update Packs #1 - 50" incorporated", uploading twice etc.

You of all people should know how long this stuff takes to put together

Ok, yes I sometimes don't get time to go through people's recommendations as quickly as they'd like... there are requests in this thread that are over a year old and I still haven't looked into them

Patience please man.

Also, nothing stopping you from creating "unofficial" Update Packs. If I add some of these games later, then no big deal.

[hitm4n]

If you could just let me know a shortlist of the games you know you will NOT add, i have somewhere to start. Thanks.

[DamienD]

No time at the moment...

I've just done something really, really, really stupid and now my personal laptop won't boot into Windows 7, and instead brings up the "Acer eRecovery Manager" as if the laptop is brand new

My only options are to "Restore Windows back to Factory Default" or "Restore Windows and retain User Data".

I have 2 x partitions; C: and D: with over 350GB of data. I don't have a backup of everything...

I'm now building a bootable Windows PE USB stick so that I can at least copy all data off before reinstalling everything.

Will be a few days work

[hitm4n]

"Restore Windows and retain User Data" will fo just that. Fix windows and make it bootable again, and save your entire profile folder. It will create a new profile for you, but then you can copy your old profile stuff into place. While using the "retain user data" option too, you will not lose all your installed apps from program files etc, unless it has been corrupted. You will have minimal stuff to fix or reinstall. I've used this option myself a long time ago.

But you should make a full backup of all data first for sure. A bootdisk or bootcd will let you copy everything from your drives to an external drive. I usally have a 1tb drive kicking about for backups and work or this kind of thing.

Good luck.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by hitm4n

"Restore Windows and retain User Data" will fo just that. Fix windows and make it bootable again, and save your entire profile folder. It will create a new profile for you, but then you can copy your old profile stuff into place. While using the "retain user data" option too, you will not lose all your installed apps from program files etc, unless it has been corrupted. You will have minimal stuff to fix or reinstall. I've used this option myself a long time ago.

My data is not just under "C:\Users\<username>"; it's all over "C:" but in a nice file structure; and the whole "D:" drive is data (this will be safe).

Originally Posted by hitm4n

But you should make a full backup of all data first for sure. A bootdisk or bootcd will let you copy everything from your drives to an external drive. I usally have a 1tb drive kicking about for backups and work or this kind of thing.

Good luck.

I'm going to manually copy everything off first using a Windows Bootable USB stick to access the hard drive / partitions.

I have 6 x 3TB external hard drives here so no problem there

I'm also thinking it may just be the MBR that's become corrupt so will try to fix that first after the data copy.

[ma693541]

When you have fixed the MBR, try to use NTFS UnDelete from a bootable USB Pen Drive to see if it can recover more data before the main recovery of the Windows. I know that you are an IT man, so it just a suggestion from my side.

[DamienD]

I've built a "WinTech" bootable USB stick; as well as a "Windows 7 SP 1 x64" bootable USB stick from my work laptop.

Booted my personal laptop with the "WinTech" bootable USB stick and can see my partitions; currently copying to an external hard drive but it doesn't give any progress bar / status and is sloooow as hell...

Afterwards I'll mess about with trying to repair the MBR, and if that fails, then try to repair Windows.

[ma693541]

Well, hope it work's out for you my friend. You need maybe a faster USB port/drive then. My PC is soon 6 year's old and Windows 10 start's to nag me that my version of Windows 10 is soon to old for support. Micro$oft product's s*cks when you have to upgrade and upgrade every month. Maybe I shall try out Linux on my 9 year's old laptop that I have laying in my sleeping room.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by ma693541

You need maybe a faster USB port/drive then.

Using an external USB 3.0 hard drive which is connected to a USB 3.0 port.

Just a lot of data; it's just finished all my stuff from the C: drive; was 170GB so took some time...

The lack of a progress bar / status in "Explorer++" on the "WinTech" bootable USB stick is a right pain in the butt though

[DamienD]

Bah, it's screwed...

Tried using the following from a command prompt:

bootrec / rebuildbcd

It finds the Windows partition on D:, which is correct. It asks me to update the boot files, I say yes and get an error about the drive no being found or something.

Tried all sorts i.e. "bootsect /nt60 D: /mbr", this writes successfully but after a reboot still no go...

Need to now copy off all D: drive data and then it's wipe rebuild

[ma693541]

Sorry to hear that. I know you will find a solution.

[malko]

Originally Posted by DamienD

[...] I've just done something really, really, really stupid and now my personal laptop won't boot into Windows 7, and instead brings up the "Acer eRecovery Manager" as if the laptop is brand new [...]

Damn. Such things su__s ! Even if I know that you know what to do to recover/backup important data : all the best for the process.

[SquawkBox]

Don't hesitate to create a thread in OTT if the situation worsens. Best of luck!

[DamienD]

Yeah, maybe best if a GMod can please move all these laptop issue posts to a new thread under the OT - Technical section.

Currently still copying all D: drive data to an external hard drive... will take a while as it's 250GB or something.

Afterwards I can wipe / reinstall Windows 7 SP1 x64 / install all device drivers / install all apps / configure. I'll then image the partition and finally put all data back.

Probably 2 days work if honest

Just really annoying that fixing the MBR didn't work; and tried numerous things

Oh well, I probably needed to do this anyway... once done it will be like a new laptop

[DamienD]

Phew!!! All done

Steps I had to take in order to fix my non-booting laptop:

• Create a "WinTech" bootable USB stick, boot with and copy 300GB of data from my C: and D: drive to an external USB hard drive.
• Create a "Windows 7 SP1 64-bit" bootable USB stick, boot with, try various methods to repair the MBR but failed so some reason, try running a Repair but also failed.
• Wipe the laptop back to Acer's default image.
• Uninstall all the rubbish they put on.
• Download / install the latest device drivers.
• Reinstall all applications i.e: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Reader, Audacity, CDex, Chrome, CloneCD, Daemon Tools, Edge, Filezilla, ImgBurn, Jasc PaintShop Pro, MS Office 2016, Notepad++, Quick Batch File Compiler, Symantec Endpoint Protection, TOR, UltraEdit, VLC, WinRAR, XBox Controllers and XnViewMP.
• Clean up all temp files / folders and run a Defrag.
• Make an image of the C: drive partition --> external USB hard drive.
• Test by reimaging afterwards, takes 15 minutes.
• Copy all data back to the C: and D: drives.

The laptop is now like brand new and purring like a kitten... and it ever breaks again, it's just a matter off moving data off and re-imaging

[Radertified]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Jasc PaintShop Pro

I ended up updating to Corel's PSP but I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The Jasc versions were solid

So glad you got everything working again, Damien!