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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Gaming => Topic started by: FuZion on November 20, 2002, 09:03:57 PM

Title: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: FuZion on November 20, 2002, 09:03:57 PM
Very gradually, I am preparing myself for AmigaOne & OS4. One of the things I am doing is getting together some of my most treasured games & ADFing them. If you haven`t got a clue what I'm talking about, I'm sorry.

For those that do, can you help?

Some of the games I am trying to create these images of just will not have it. They are all original games so no cracks & stuff, but some just will not be ADFed. I have tried the various ADF programs I can find: TransADF, YADI & TSGUI but nothing.

I have tried the short cut by downloading my games in an already ADFed state but most of these are cracked so the installers for WHD & JST don't work.

Are my games destined to be small (Almost) square pieces of plastic in a drawer with no hard drive to live on forever or is there something else I can do?
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: odin on November 20, 2002, 09:11:04 PM
You are aware of the Catweasel Flipper, are you? That cute little feline/weasel/whale should make it possible to read bogstandard Amiga floppies on the A1.

Yeah okay, doesn't answer your question but still, your floppies will not be completely unusable (untill they will disintegrate of age ofcourse, and this it probably WHY you want to ADF them) =).
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: Ilwrath on November 20, 2002, 09:30:35 PM
Quote
I have tried the short cut by downloading my games in an already ADFed state but most of these are cracked so the installers for WHD & JST don't work.


Ahh... but if you have the originals, why not WHD or JST them to the hard drive on your miggy?  Then you could .lha the directory, and transfer THAT to the new machine?

Of course, if your miggy doesn't have a HD, you're screwed.  ;-)
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: FuZion on November 20, 2002, 10:04:58 PM
@ llwrath

I have a few 'select' games already installed but WHD & JST require the original chipsets. I e-mailed Wepl earlier this week & he has no plans to emulate the Classic Amiga chipset :-(

I want them in ADF form as a kind of backup because I have had some strange goings on with HD installed games. One week they could be working fine & the next week they don't love me.

@ Odin

Good point, the Catweasal COULD help me along the way.
As long as I can find a way to ADF them on my shiny new A1.
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: Ilwrath on November 21, 2002, 11:18:57 PM
Quote
As long as I can find a way to ADF them on my shiny new A1.


I'm not sure you're going to be able to ADF them, ever.  As far as I know, you can't ADF a disk that uses a custom sector layout, or something like that.  I believe the general rule of thumb is that if you can't copy the disk with XCopy's "FastCopy" module, you can't make an ADF of the disk.  That's why most abandonware games like on BTTR are the cracks and not the originals.
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: FuZion on November 22, 2002, 12:57:18 AM
:-( That's quite sad don't you think
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: Korodny on November 22, 2002, 02:10:07 AM

Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: Korodny on November 22, 2002, 02:10:32 AM
@Fuzion:

The CAPS (Classic Amiga Preservation Society) project is working on a way to dump original game disks to HD (similar to "ADF"'ing a disk) with the copy protection intact. They are furthermore working on various solutions to make these diskimages work under UAE. But they need to implement support for each copy protection system seperately, so it may take a while until your games are supported. Check their Website (http://www.caps-project.org) for more details.

And why should Wepl implement Custom Chip emulation? All versions of UAE support hard disks. Just download the appropriate WHDLoad installer, install your game on your miggy, pack it and transfer it to the A1/PC/whatever, then use UAE to run it. Where's the problem?
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: odin on November 22, 2002, 02:11:37 AM
Well...what can you do. I would think the masterfloppies of old games have long since disappeared from the vaults of the ol' game companies. :-/.
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: falemagn on November 22, 2002, 02:27:50 AM
Quote
The CAPS (Classic Amiga Preservation Society) project is working on a way to dump original game disks to HD (similar to "ADF"'ing a disk) with the copy protection intact.


Eh... That's kind of funny... copying a disk with copy protection and leaving that protection intact... duh :)
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: lionstorm on November 22, 2002, 09:48:10 AM
keep your floppy disks away from dust, humidity and heat, should make them last longer.
Until now, all my original games are working and most of them are not ADFable.
Hope I could keep them another 10 years !!
LionStorm
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: on November 22, 2002, 10:10:02 AM
Quote
Some of the games I am trying to create these images of just will not have it. They are all original games so no cracks & stuff, but some just will not be ADFed.



The DIC imager (included with WHDLoad i think) might be a good option. I've seen it creating images of floppies other programs wouldn't...

Greets
P
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: Paul_Gadd on November 22, 2002, 10:11:07 AM
hmmm, if you have JST and WHDload installed games then all you have to do is rename the files (900k ones)  to the games name and add ADF to the name (IE .adf) load it via UAE or anything else what uses ADF Images,

funny how people never mention the above.

Quote
all my original games are working and most of them are not ADFable.


not ADF able?? if they have a WHDLoad or JST installer for them then use the above i mentioned.
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: Desolator on November 22, 2002, 10:24:33 AM
regarding copyprotections... some of the games that were made for the Amiga is actually quite impossible to get hold of in the original box, complete with a manual and codewheel or whatever being used as copyprotection. So the games that are non-aquirable and that is definitly not being sold anywhere but available as ADF is actually quite a good idea, as long as someone don't abuse it. (back2roots is a good example, they have contacted the software houses that made the game and asked for permission to have the games on their site.)

Now personally I buy all the games I want to my Amiga through various websites, but sometimes it is impossible to aquire some rare, really old game, as I mentioned before. So one should not be too quick to judge the cracked versions... UNLESS some idiot tries to sell these games and make a profit for himself!
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: fiath on November 23, 2002, 07:10:03 AM
@Korodny & all

Hi guys, just to add a little more info,

Quote: "The CAPS (Classic Amiga Preservation Society) project is working on a
way to dump original game disks to HD"

Actually, that is done. It was the "easy bit". We can now dump anything - well
at least the 4000+ disks dumped so far have not posed a problem. :)

Quote: "(similar to "ADF"'ing a disk)"

Not really, but the effect is the same :)

"They are furthermore working on various solutions to make these diskimages work
under UAE."

Quote: We are currently in talks with them and are right now writing the code that will
allow UAE to support the images.

Quote: "But they need to implement support for each copy protection system seperately,
so it may take a while until your games are supported."

Not really, any game can be dumped - we do not need to know the copy protection
to do that. However, to allow an emulator to use it, or write it back to disk
(writing back to disk is the primary purpose od the project - running the games
in emulators is just a nice side effect ;) we need to not just know *what* is
on the disk, but *how* it is stored - i.e. if we wrote it back to disk we would
need to know *how* to write it back.

This is where the protection comes in. We need to add support for each one, and
each custom track format (which is different really). But you will be pleased to
know that we know 95-99% of disk formats now so nearly all games can be checked
and supported.

You may find things start happening soon.

Anyway, thanks for the plug!
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: Spyros on November 23, 2002, 07:59:31 AM
Hallo Fusion

Adf programs read up to the 79th track of the disk by default. You could set them to read up to the 80th for example (you can do this with transADF using the END argument)

I don't know if this will help you. I hope it will (never tried it myself)
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: magic2002 on November 23, 2002, 10:29:16 AM
Hmm, Interesting thoughts on ADF I have nearly over 1,000 games and demos(animations)etc on CD now. ADFing works a  treat. Everything from lemmings, to the Killing game show etc is on cd and they all work fine all originals apart from one or two :-D

Avid Amiga Gamer :-D

Any one for Stunt Car Racer link up?
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: KingTutt on December 03, 2002, 03:31:51 AM
On the issue of preserving your originals in ADF format, maybe some of you will be happy to know that Cinemaware (http://www.cinemaware.com) are back and offering some rare treats on their site. They have some of their classics ready downloadable, and this aint the cracked versions circulating amongst the emu community.

Just thought I give some of you peeps the heads up.

For those unfamiliar with Cinemaware's work. Let me refresh your memories.

Cinemaware were unquestionably the pioneers back in the ol skool amiga days and the embodiment of the Amiga gaming experience. Titles like...

It Came from the Desert I and II (Antheads)
The TV Sports series
Lord of the Rising Sun
Defender of the Crown
King Of Chicago
Three Stooges
WINGS...should I go on???!?!

Show your support to this gaming ledgend, who helped carve the landscape of Amiga gaming as you remember it. Join their forums (http://cinemaware.com/forum) to automatically qualify membership for download of those original ADFs, and see the latest developments, and what all the fuss is about.
Title: Re: Creating ADFs... Any other bright ideas?
Post by: blobrana on December 03, 2002, 03:45:18 AM
All this preservation should have some standardisation.

There was a recent article that described the recent
Doomsday book ( only 15 years ago!) could`t be read:
because there was a lack of tape machines that could read the original BBC code.

It was only with the advent of a BBC emulator that the files could slowly ( with the few working tape machines ) be re-written to Cd's.
:-D
Anyway here`s a token link for the Retros

 :-D http://nthdimension.emuunlim.com/ (http://nthdimension.emuunlim.com/)