Posted at 13:17 on September 10th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Student Gumby Posts: 33 | Uploaded: Billy The Kid Returns! - Alive Software 1993 3.5" disk version. Not sure if it will be accepted though as it's my first and I may have done something wrong. |
Posted at 14:40 on September 10th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Zombie Gumby Posts: 3881 | @AliensOfGold, Added: Billy the Kid Returns! (2732): Removed 1024 bytes of overdump. What imaging application did you use? ----- Cheer up! Remember the less you have, the more there is to get. |
Posted at 15:06 on September 10th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Admin Reborn Gumby Posts: 11097 | Originally posted by AliensOfGold at 13:17 on September 10th, 2018: Uploaded: Billy The Kid Returns! - Alive Software 1993 3.5" disk version. Not sure if it will be accepted though as it's my first and I may have done something wrong. Hey, nice one! I played this quite extensively when I first got into the IBM world. Thank you very much! ----- Now you see the violence inherent in the system! |
Posted at 15:56 on September 10th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Student Gumby Posts: 33 | Originally posted by Moebius at 14:40 on September 10th, 2018: What imaging application did you use? Thanks for that. That image was created with Floppy Image, I also have WinImage installed as it seemed to be the go to software for this as I couldn't find much information about creating floppy images for backup. EDIT: I see the recommended image writer is RawWrite. I'll try that for my 1.44Mb disks. ----- Edited by AliensOfGold at 16:42 on September 10th, 2018 |
Posted at 16:50 on September 10th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Zombie Gumby Posts: 3881 | Quote: I see the recommended image writer is RawWrite. I'll try that for my 1.44Mb disks. It's alright, but that's really old FAQ right there. I personally recommend UltraISO which has only one downside: it's commercial. Hopefully in the nearest future we'll have a renewed guide for disk imaging. ----- Cheer up! Remember the less you have, the more there is to get. |
Posted at 16:00 on September 11th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Student Gumby Posts: 33 | Uploaded: Countdown - Access Software 1990 3.5" 1.44Mb disk version. |
Posted at 16:56 on September 11th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Zombie Gumby Posts: 3881 | @AliensOfGold, Added: Countdown (2733): v1.0. Restored OEM ID, removed AT. Thank you. ----- Cheer up! Remember the less you have, the more there is to get. ----- Edited by Moebius at 21:01 on September 11th, 2018 |
Posted at 17:30 on September 12th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Student Gumby Posts: 33 | Uploaded: Electroman - X LanD Computer Games 1993 1.44Mb 3.5" Epic Pinball - Cyborgirl (B&N Software release) 1994 720Kb 3.5" ----- Edited by AliensOfGold at 17:46 on September 12th, 2018 |
Posted at 21:02 on September 12th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Zombie Gumby Posts: 3881 | @AliensOfGold, Added: Epic Pinball - Cyborgirl (2734): Removed 1024 bytes of overdump. Electroman (2735): Restored OEM ID, cleaned AT, removed 1024 bytes of overdump. Thank you. You're using that app again, though. Why? Not that it bothers me, I can keep trimming the files for you, just curious. I thought you started using a different tool? Also, please don't make screenshots and create a directory structure. That is only required for complete review submissions, otherwise it can be ignored. Sorry for any inconvenience. ----- Cheer up! Remember the less you have, the more there is to get. ----- Edited by Moebius at 21:07 on September 12th, 2018 |
Posted at 05:24 on September 13th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Student Gumby Posts: 33 | Originally posted by Moebius at 21:02 on September 12th, 2018: You're using that app again, though. Why? These files were done before I bought a copy of UltraISO to do the rest of my disks. I think Countdown was done using that program which is probably why you didn't have to fix it up so much. I can do them all again with UltraISO if that would be better as I want these for my own backups as well and I want the best versions I can make. For future files I'll just upload the disk images. Sorry about that. ----- Edited by AliensOfGold at 05:25 on September 13th, 2018 |
Posted at 12:48 on September 13th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Zombie Gumby Posts: 3881 | Quote: These files were done before I bought a copy of UltraISO to do the rest of my disks. I see. That was my other theory. Quote: I can do them all again with UltraISO if that would be better as I want these for my own backups as well and I want the best versions I can make. It won't be really necessary because other than adding this record at the end of the file your app should do the job no different than any other imaging tool. You may re-dump the games just to make sure I fixed the files correctly. ----- Cheer up! Remember the less you have, the more there is to get. |
Posted at 12:57 on September 13th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Student Gumby Posts: 33 | What exactly do you do to these images when people upload them. You restore OEM ID's, clean AT's and remove overdump, but how do you do this? Is it something that can be done myself or does it require powerful wizard knowledge (years of experience) to begin to comprehend it? Genuinely interested in this though. |
Posted at 14:57 on September 13th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Zombie Gumby Posts: 3881 | Quote: What exactly do you do to these images when people upload them. You restore OEM ID's, clean AT's and remove overdump, but how do you do this? It's dealing with raw code mostly. Using hex editor I manually edit certain regions known to be affected by several different factors. For instance, modified OEM ID and embedded CT & AT (creation & access timestamps) are all typical consequences of accessing write-unprotected disks from Windows. The latter introduces changes to them without user permission or knowledge, which is why you should never use unprotected disks under Windows whether or not you make any changes yourself. In fact, reading alone is enough to modify them. And my work is not limited to just that. I also clean extraneous and orphaned data, save and configuration files, and last but not least, I restore lossy dumps which come from partially undreadable disks. One of the reasons I recommend using UltraISO is because it has a feature of skipping bad sectors by replacing those with NULL bytes after a few read-over attempts, whereas most other apps just quit the job on read error (WinImage included). Finally, if the damage is light enough I can easily fill in the gaps with lost chunks of data. Quote: Is it something that can be done myself or does it require powerful wizard knowledge (years of experience) to begin to comprehend it? It's no rocket science, but it does take a little bit of research and hex editing skills. If you wish to find out more you could join our channel on irc.freenode.org (#TGOD) lest we clutter the thread. Alternatively you could PM me, but I'd rather we talked on IRC. ----- Cheer up! Remember the less you have, the more there is to get. ----- Edited by Moebius at 23:05 on September 13th, 2018 |
Posted at 16:52 on September 13th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Student Gumby Posts: 33 | Uploaded the last of my 3.5" games in a RAR file. Hope that was ok. Included are: Adventure Math (Published by Epic MegaGames) 1992 720Kb 3.5" x1 All New World Of Lemmings (DMA Design) 1994 1.44Mb 3.5" x4 (Disk 1 may be corrupt or copy protection?) Cannon Fodder 2 (Sensible Software) 1994 1.44Mb 3.5" x2 Castle Of The Wind - A Quest For Vengeance (SaadaSoft) 1993 720Kb 3.5" x1 Corncob 3D Shareware v2.00 (MVP Software) 1994 1.44Mb 3.5" x1 Indianapolis 500: The Simulation (Papyrus) 1989 720Kb 3.5" x1 (Sound Blaster 2.0 bundle disk) Jill Of The Jungle (Epic MegaGames) 1992 720Kb 3.5" x1 Terminator 2 (Dementia) 1991 720Kb 3.5" x2 (The Hit Squad release. Disk 1 may be corrupt) Star Wars X-Wing (LucasArts) 1993 1.44Mb 3.5" x5 Star Wars X-Wing Imperial Pursuit (LucasArts) 1993 1.44Mb 3.5" x1 Star Wars X-Wing B-Wing (LucasArts) 1993 1.44Mb 3.5" x1 That's all I have. I tried TIE-Fighter, but disk 2 seems to be corrupt, Space Quest 2 disk 1 is corrupt, but I think that's the copy protection, and the 2 other games I own on floppy are on 5.25" and I don't have a drive for them. Some of these files were done with that other program and all of these disks will have at some point decades ago been opened in Windows with the "rubber" off. I only just found out about that sneaky little trick recently so they have all been touched by Windows. |
Posted at 22:12 on September 13th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Zombie Gumby Posts: 3881 | @AliensOfGold, Added: Adventure Math (2736): Cleaned AT and orphaned data. Note: The latter thing must be leftovers of some antivirus or disk checking program, because it recurs consistently in this latest batch. All New World of Lemmings (2737): Modified OEM ID, embedded AT, some written and orphaned data. Note: This one apears heavily modified with multiple file copies distributed on all disks. This could happen on attempt to install the game to the source media itself, but there seems to be a bit more to it than just that. While better candidate is ID 1241 I decided to keep your set just in case. Also, disk 1 is neither corrupt nor copy protected, not sure where that came from. Castle of the Winds I: A Question of Vengeance (2738): v1.1A. Removed 1024 bytes of overdump. Note: A few different bytes in the MBR if compared against ID 1713. Could be a modification, a weird and rare type, too. Corncob 3D (2739): v2.00 Shareware. Modified OEM ID, embedded AT, multiple root/data modification. Note: Too many issues so I decided to leave it as it is. Jill of the Jungle: Episode 1 (2740): v1.2 Monkey Business re-release. Removed 1024 bytes of overdump. Note: Again, same small difference in the MBR if compared to another fairly similar set in our archive. Strange. Not added: Cannon Fodder 2: Modified SETUP.DAT, same orphaned data. Better candidate is ID 2286. Indianapolis 500: Embedded AT and same orphaned data. Otherwise a match to ID 1958 which is now Verified. Terminator 2: Same orphaned data, otherwise a match to ID 2054 which is now Verified. X-Wing: Modified OEM ID and embedded AT on disk 1, otherwise a match to ID 110 which is already Verified. X-Wing: B-Wing: Modified OEM ID, embedded AT and same orphaned data, otherwise a match to ID 1604 which is now Verified. X-Wing: Imperial Pursuit: Modified OEM ID, embedded AT and same orphaned data, otherwise a match to ID ID 1605 which is now Verified. Quote: That's all I have. I tried TIE-Fighter, but disk 2 seems to be corrupt You could dump the remaining disks just to check if we have it already (which we probably do), so you could use that to restore your disk 2. Quote: Space Quest 2 disk 1 is corrupt, but I think that's the copy protection .Most early Sierra games did use disk-based copy protection, so yes, it must be that. To dump such media correctly though you need to use a different tool such as Teledisk. We are not publishing this format yet, but soon we will. Incidentally, Sierra used simple enough copy protection scheme, but anything more sophisticated would require KryoFlux or Supercard Pro hardware/software combo. I'd like to ask you something. Could you re-dump Castle of the Winds and Jill of the Jungle with UltraISO? I'm a little suspicious now. Both seem to have very minor modifications in the MBR, and I wonder if it's your old app that does that. It seems to be consistent among overdumped files, at least those which I could compare against the already existing and virtually identical sets in our archive. ----- Cheer up! Remember the less you have, the more there is to get. ----- Edited by Moebius at 01:44 on September 14th, 2018 |
Posted at 07:05 on September 14th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Student Gumby Posts: 33 | Uploaded Jill and Castle of the Winds again with dumps from UltraISO. Good to hear my copy of Lemmings is at least not corrupt, bad to hear the rest of it though. I wonder what could have happened to it. The reason I assumed it was corrupt or possibly protection was it was giving me errors at around 88% with all programs, but the files copied over in DOS and Windows just fine. Terminator 2 was also giving me errors, but UltraISO pushed passed them and gave me the all clear so I guess they're good still. Have also uploaded what I have of TIE-Fighter. |
Posted at 12:43 on September 14th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Zombie Gumby Posts: 3881 | @AliensOfGold, Ok, Jill and Castle showed no difference, meaning your app is not the culprit. Perhaps it's just a coincidence and it's our sets which are modified, I don't know. Quote: The reason I assumed it was corrupt or possibly protection was it was giving me errors at around 88% with all programs, but the files copied over in DOS and Windows just fine. It was probably just blank space which is a non-data and therefore ignored on simple copy procedure. An imaging tool on the other hand has to process and dump the entire disk. The last few sectors can be rusty like that. Your Tie Fighter is a complete mess. Disks 1, 4 and 5 have been overwritten which in all likelihood was a restoration attempt. The files contained come from one of those big DOS collections which are fairly easy to spot. Disk 3 seems to be original, but it's modified with the same orphaned data. The matching existing set is ID 2729 which is verified. When you have enough points you can use that to restore your disks back to their original state. Quote: Good to hear my copy of Lemmings is at least not corrupt I now suspect it may have actually been overwritten, too. Its MBR data differs dramatically from our clean set, which typically indicates that the files have been reintroduced to the disk, which would explain all those copies of INSTALL.EXE whose timestamps also seem to be modified. I really doubt it's another release or version, more like yet another manual restoration attempt. ----- Cheer up! Remember the less you have, the more there is to get. ----- Edited by Moebius at 13:07 on September 14th, 2018 |
Posted at 13:28 on September 14th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Student Gumby Posts: 33 | Originally posted by Moebius at 12:43 on September 14th, 2018: Your Tie Fighter is a complete mess. Disks 1, 4 and 5 have been overwritten which in all likelihood was a restoration attempt. The files contained come from one of those big DOS collections which are fairly easy to spot. Disk 3 seems to be original, but it's modified with the same orphaned data. Guilty on the TIE-Fighter charge I'm afraid:( I made an attempt a few months back when I set up my DOS machine, forgot about that, but I was sure it was only disk 1. Lemmings is a complete mystery to me though. That game has always worked without issue so I never had reason to attempt a fix and I've never let anyone borrow it years ago. I wonder what could have done that. I will definitely be restoring all my disks with fresh images once I've accumulated enough points. Oh and I did find one other game, Batman Returns, but every disk except the last disk 6 is dead. Won't even install on my DOS machine. In hind sight I probably should have tested TIE-Fighter with backup disks, but hind sight also shows me that I should have backed up my damn disks. ----- Edited by AliensOfGold at 05:12 on September 15th, 2018 |
Posted at 21:05 on September 15th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Bachelor Gumby Posts: 54 | Uploaded: Midwinter 2x720k DOS English WinImage files from my boxed version. ----- Edited by bmanbdaman at 21:05 on September 15th, 2018 |
Posted at 21:21 on September 15th, 2018 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Bachelor Gumby Posts: 54 | Uploaded: Summoning (91) 2 disks from my boxed set. Verified SHA1 is the same. |