ISOCD-Win (Windows Alternative to ISOCD)

StatMat · 24 May 2016, 20:59

Whilst working with AmigaJay on the testing of the new AGS2 for his recent unreleased games compilation, I decided it'd be quite useful for me to be able to produce CD32 compatible ISOs with my own .NET compilation builder. By studying the ISO9660 spec, the CD32 developer doc and observing ISOCDs operation, I have been able to come up with some new code that replicates it's core functionality. The app is a bit bare bones for now and just uses the defaults from ISOCD, without a great deal of error checking and such, but it does let you set the trademark file (both have been tested with created ISOs in WinUAE) and volume ID. In the next release I plan to include more of the CDFS options for tweaking and introduce folder prioritisation (like some others use in their layout files for C, startup-sequence etc) and automated blank space addition at the start of the image to improve double speed usage.

For anyone that's interested, the isocd-win.zip is in my upload folder on the file server. Be nice to see if it works on the real thing. Based on my tests, it should produce byte-exact ISOs to ISOCD, so it shouldn't produce many coasters. Well hopefully not many anyway!

Amigajay · 24 May 2016, 21:29

Great job! I'll try it sometime this week. I'm sure it will come in very handy and easier for those who don't want to get into the Amiga workbench side of things, could open the door to more people creating CD32 discs!

jotd · 24 May 2016, 22:42

Will certainly test it! Is there a batch mode planned?

StatMat · 25 May 2016, 08:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amigajay

I'm sure it will come in very handy and easier for those who don't want to get into the Amiga workbench side of things, could open the door to more people creating CD32 discs!

Sure, that's the hope. It'd be nice to have even more releases and spark more interest. I am hoping to pick up a CD32 myself soon.

StatMat · 25 May 2016, 08:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by jotd

Will certainly test it! Is there a batch mode planned?

Great, please do! And yes, I can easily add command line support to allow it to be use in a GUI-less batch mode. I'll incorporate this into the next release.

Amiga1992 · 26 May 2016, 16:22

Awesome stuff, I will surely test this when I get a chance. thanks for making it!

jotd · 26 May 2016, 23:33

Ok I have tested it and I'm sorry to say it did not work for me. But I'd like it to work, so here are my findings:

- when selecting CD32.TM, it built a CD which did not boot, not even readable with 7zip. ISOCD can do that sometimes when you select CD32.TM AFTER the other settings (Patrik helped me on that)
(fortunately I just tested it on WinUAE BEFORE burning it for real, cautious and greedy bastard that I am)
- preferences are not saved when you quit
- it should remember the previous directory that you scanned and the previous .ISO file you selected as output
- it should have a batch mode

- When you press "build" when it's already building the program proposes to build again! You should change "build" by "stop" and propose to stop the build instead (the stop build feature is really sorely missing)

But keep it up I love the idea, and will test it until it works for me (and after that I will use it

)

StatMat · 27 May 2016, 01:07

Thanks for the feedback and testing. I'm sorry it didn't work for you. Do you think you could upload the files you were using to the file server (if it's not too big)? I am wondering if something amongst the files is throwing it off.

And thanks for the suggestions. I will certainly make it more user friendly once we have it stable.

jotd · 28 May 2016, 10:01

I have kept my CDTV.TM and CD32.TM files. I can make a test with CDTV.TM I'm sure it will work better (as I said, ISOCD has the same problem: you have to set CD32.TM first or it will create a corrupt CD)

Edit: it still creates a corrupt CD with CDTV.TM. 7zip cannot open it.

StatMat · 28 May 2016, 11:49

Indeed, this certainly seems like a different bug to ISOCD. Can you share the files or ISO so that I can examine? I'd very much like to get this working for you.

StatMat · 30 May 2016, 21:44

Okay, so I assumed you'd been having problems building your latest RUGCD release, so I extracted the contents of the new ISO and rebuilt using ISOCD-Win and sure enough it wouldn't boot. Upon investigation the code had two bugs.

The first was an encoding issue where it was using UTF8 instead of ISO-8859-1 which was causing some filenames on your CD to have multi-byte names (e.g. for anything containing ³² like CannonFodder CD³².info) and thus knocking out the size and alignment calculations.

The second was a sector alignment problem that was not correctly preventing directory entries from crossing a sector boundary in all cases.

Anyway, both issues are now fixed and I can create a working CD from your RUGCD files using both CD32.TM or CDTV.TM. This version also has saved configs and the ability to abort during the build process as you quite rightly suggested as being useful. It also has the ISOCD CDFS stuff implemented. The only thing missing from your list is batch support, which I plan to add in the next version.

The new version can be grabbed from my folder on the file server or here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mofoo1i21n...n-1.2.zip?dl=0

jotd · 30 May 2016, 22:32

Hi,

Just tested and now the ISO is valid and boots. So I'll test that on real HW should work. Great work. I cannot wait for batch mode.

Edit: tested the burned CD won't boot, not recognized by the real console! Damn, 1 CD lost. WinUAE with ISO: OK, 7-zip: OK, but no way on real HW.

Amigajay · 30 April 2018, 20:11

Thanks again for this StatMat! Just when ISOCD does its usual playing up when there's lots of files and folders saying there's no space when there is! this comes in very handy to use instead!

jotd · 30 April 2018, 20:40

Can someone else test on real HW? this ISOCD clone SW is just awesome, and I may have tested it just before my CD lens and/or motor died (I'll try to get it fixed soon)

StatMat · 14 May 2018, 19:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amigajay

Thanks again for this StatMat! Just when ISOCD does its usual playing up when there's lots of files and folders saying there's no space when there is! this comes in very handy to use instead!

No worries. Glad it's working for you.

I have never been able to check on real hardware myself and had assumed there were still significant issues to fix based on jotd's testing. Perhaps I should go back to the code at some point soon to finish up what I had planned (i.e. finish up the tool and integrate it with my AGS2 menu builder).

MrDBUG · 01 November 2021, 03:23

Is it working now ??

girv · 06 December 2023, 10:53

Is the link above the latest version?
Is the source code for this app available?

I'd like to be able to master CD32/CDTV ISO automatically as part of my build steps. I found the Python tools as well, but that thread suggests ISOCDWin produces "better" images that boot faster?

jotd · 06 December 2023, 11:33

Clearly if you're using mkisofs it's not very good performance wise on a real CD32

ISOCDWin is so much better for the real HW. But you're right, it's not command line, pity.

24 May 2016, 20:59	#1
StatMat Code Fiddler Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: UK Age: 48 Posts: 81	ISOCD-Win (Windows Alternative to ISOCD) Whilst working with AmigaJay on the testing of the new AGS2 for his recent unreleased games compilation, I decided it'd be quite useful for me to be able to produce CD32 compatible ISOs with my own .NET compilation builder. By studying the ISO9660 spec, the CD32 developer doc and observing ISOCDs operation, I have been able to come up with some new code that replicates it's core functionality. The app is a bit bare bones for now and just uses the defaults from ISOCD, without a great deal of error checking and such, but it does let you set the trademark file (both have been tested with created ISOs in WinUAE) and volume ID. In the next release I plan to include more of the CDFS options for tweaking and introduce folder prioritisation (like some others use in their layout files for C, startup-sequence etc) and automated blank space addition at the start of the image to improve double speed usage. For anyone that's interested, the isocd-win.zip is in my upload folder on the file server. Be nice to see if it works on the real thing. Based on my tests, it should produce byte-exact ISOs to ISOCD, so it shouldn't produce many coasters. Well hopefully not many anyway!

30 May 2016, 21:44	#11
StatMat Code Fiddler Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: UK Age: 48 Posts: 81	Okay, so I assumed you'd been having problems building your latest RUGCD release, so I extracted the contents of the new ISO and rebuilt using ISOCD-Win and sure enough it wouldn't boot. Upon investigation the code had two bugs. The first was an encoding issue where it was using UTF8 instead of ISO-8859-1 which was causing some filenames on your CD to have multi-byte names (e.g. for anything containing ³² like CannonFodder CD³².info) and thus knocking out the size and alignment calculations. The second was a sector alignment problem that was not correctly preventing directory entries from crossing a sector boundary in all cases. Anyway, both issues are now fixed and I can create a working CD from your RUGCD files using both CD32.TM or CDTV.TM. This version also has saved configs and the ability to abort during the build process as you quite rightly suggested as being useful. It also has the ISOCD CDFS stuff implemented. The only thing missing from your list is batch support, which I plan to add in the next version. The new version can be grabbed from my folder on the file server or here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mofoo1i21n...n-1.2.zip?dl=0 Last edited by StatMat; 27 May 2018 at 12:26. Reason: Fix broken link

30 May 2016, 22:32	#12
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,162	Hi, Just tested and now the ISO is valid and boots. So I'll test that on real HW should work. Great work. I cannot wait for batch mode. Edit: tested the burned CD won't boot, not recognized by the real console! Damn, 1 CD lost. WinUAE with ISO: OK, 7-zip: OK, but no way on real HW. Last edited by jotd; 30 May 2016 at 22:52.

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24 May 2016, 21:29	#2
Amigajay Registered User Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: > Posts: 2,881	Great job! I'll try it sometime this week. I'm sure it will come in very handy and easier for those who don't want to get into the Amiga workbench side of things, could open the door to more people creating CD32 discs!

24 May 2016, 22:42	#3
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,162	Will certainly test it! Is there a batch mode planned?

26 May 2016, 16:22	#6
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	Awesome stuff, I will surely test this when I get a chance. thanks for making it!

26 May 2016, 23:33	#7
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,162	Ok I have tested it and I'm sorry to say it did not work for me. But I'd like it to work, so here are my findings: - when selecting CD32.TM, it built a CD which did not boot, not even readable with 7zip. ISOCD can do that sometimes when you select CD32.TM AFTER the other settings (Patrik helped me on that) (fortunately I just tested it on WinUAE BEFORE burning it for real, cautious and greedy bastard that I am) - preferences are not saved when you quit - it should remember the previous directory that you scanned and the previous .ISO file you selected as output - it should have a batch mode - When you press "build" when it's already building the program proposes to build again! You should change "build" by "stop" and propose to stop the build instead (the stop build feature is really sorely missing) But keep it up I love the idea, and will test it until it works for me (and after that I will use it )

27 May 2016, 01:07	#8
StatMat Code Fiddler Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: UK Age: 48 Posts: 81	Thanks for the feedback and testing. I'm sorry it didn't work for you. Do you think you could upload the files you were using to the file server (if it's not too big)? I am wondering if something amongst the files is throwing it off. And thanks for the suggestions. I will certainly make it more user friendly once we have it stable.

28 May 2016, 10:01	#9
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,162	I have kept my CDTV.TM and CD32.TM files. I can make a test with CDTV.TM I'm sure it will work better (as I said, ISOCD has the same problem: you have to set CD32.TM first or it will create a corrupt CD) Edit: it still creates a corrupt CD with CDTV.TM. 7zip cannot open it.

28 May 2016, 11:49	#10
StatMat Code Fiddler Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: UK Age: 48 Posts: 81	Indeed, this certainly seems like a different bug to ISOCD. Can you share the files or ISO so that I can examine? I'd very much like to get this working for you.

30 April 2018, 20:11	#13
Amigajay Registered User Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: > Posts: 2,881	Thanks again for this StatMat! Just when ISOCD does its usual playing up when there's lots of files and folders saying there's no space when there is! this comes in very handy to use instead!

30 April 2018, 20:40	#14
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,162	Can someone else test on real HW? this ISOCD clone SW is just awesome, and I may have tested it just before my CD lens and/or motor died (I'll try to get it fixed soon)

01 November 2021, 03:23	#16
MrDBUG Registered User Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Larvik, Norway Posts: 125	Is it working now ??

06 December 2023, 10:53	#17
girv Mostly Harmless Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 1,109	Is the link above the latest version? Is the source code for this app available? I'd like to be able to master CD32/CDTV ISO automatically as part of my build steps. I found the Python tools as well, but that thread suggests ISOCDWin produces "better" images that boot faster?

06 December 2023, 11:33	#18
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,162	Clearly if you're using mkisofs it's not very good performance wise on a real CD32 ISOCDWin is so much better for the real HW. But you're right, it's not command line, pity.

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