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malers

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Posts posted by malers

  5. Posted

    Just for the records:

     

    The SA can copy early EA Titles (MULE, Archon I, 7 Cities of Gold,...). For Synapse and later EA titles you need the Bit Writer supplement which makes the 1050 able to copy the 34 Sector tracks.

    Currently I only know two titles which are not copyable with SA/BW combination. It is Spy vs Spy 2 (UK-Version) and the SuperArchiver-Disk. Of course, there might be more....

  6. Posted

    Hello,

     

    it is now working.

    I got my third 1050 with super archiver.

    Using this one with super archiver 3.12(skew) produces working copies of this protection scheme.

    Important is using the same 1050 for reading and writing when you use skewing in the super archiver.

     

    My 1050 with super archiver and bit writer supplement is now able to copy everything except spy vs spy 2 uk version and the super archiver disk.

    Both use quite advanced protection schemes.

     

    Regards

    Michael

  7. Posted

    Hello,

     

    for some reason I am not able to copy the early Electronic Arts copy protections (double sector 41 and track skewing) with the super archiver. MULE and Archon I fail to load after skew check.

     

    Happy Enhancement is able to copy those, what is quite interresting.

     

    I use super archiver 3.12 (skew) and I tried it with 2 different super archiver 1050.

    I also tried it with version 3.02 with skew parameter on.

    Is there somebody, who copied EA titles with the super archiver successfully?

     

    Could it be, that i am using a PAL 800XL ? (timing)

     

    Thanks in advance for any hint

    Michael

  8. Posted

    After many years, I'm re-installing my Bit Writer in a Super Archiver 1050. The actual installation of the board was uneventful, but in order to write long tracks with the BW, there are some speed pots on a small board that must be attached. And there's the rub. My kit has 3 speed pots and 4 black wires coming from it My docs correctly mention the 3 pots, but only describe attaching two of the 4 wires. And of course, it doesn't say which two of the four wires gets connected.

     

    Does anyone have any docs that mention the extra wires?

     

    These pots are all hooked together with some small (looks like) switching diodes, so my inclination is to attach the two end wires and ignore the center two. But if no one has any better docs (or ideas) I may try to call Bob Puff and see if he can shed any light on it.

     

    Thanks,

    Larry

     

    Hello,

     

    just for the ones with asimilar issue.

     

    The speed pot board with 3 speed pots is another variant of the bit writer. The additional speed pot just replaces the Super Archiver speed pot.

    The 4 black wires of the 3 speed pots have following destinations when the Super Archiver speed pot is removed.

     

    The black wire not comming from a diode on the speed pot board goes to 2917 chip pin 10 within the 1050 drive. Its the same location as for the super archiver speed pot wire.

    3 black wires are comming from the three different diodes on the speed pot board. the black wire for the 20kOhm pot goes to the 6523 located at U7 in the 1050 drive pin 23.

    The other two black wires ( both from 50kOhm pots diodes ) go to the 8621 (EF6821P) chip on the bit writer board. One to pin 19 and one to pin 39.

     

    Best

    Michael

  11. Posted

    I insist in an idea I also mentioned in the other thread. Let's post all raw dumps in some public place. This way we won't depend, at least not exclusively, on the scarce time of somebody else (including SPS people, but also including me) to post process the dumps.

     

    Would be a pleasure, to upload dumps in a public place. But I thinks one of SPS people should create the public place and do some communication. That should not take a lot of time.

  12. Posted

     

     

     

     

    Yes, that's the main drawback of the Kryoflux for the purpose of writing back 8-bit disks. It can handle 360K drives, at least some of them, but the electrical interface is not ideal. Older drives require stronger pullups and higher current buffers.

     

    This doesn't mean that the Kryoflux can't work with any 360K drive at all, neither it means that it is completely impossible to write back DD disk on an HD drive. But it is not the ideal hardware for this purpose.

     

    OTOH, the ideal hardware is useless without the correct software ...

     

    Reading DD disks on an HD drive is less of a problem except for the flippy side, which most HD drives can't without a hardware mod. Most DD drives do can read the flippy side without any hardware mode, by physically flipping the disk (as you would do on a 1050 or 810 drive). Some people believe that this method is useless for preservation purposes, because the index pulse is lost. But in the worst case, you still can, at the very least, read non original flippy disks with most DD drives.

     

     

    Which 360K drive is in your opinion the best one for writing with kryoflux? The C64 people should face the same problem, dont they?

  13. Posted

    Mainly we need a decent collection (usually a couple of hundred, depending on the platform) of raw disk image samples for our research. We can then research the formats, common protections and such things. Atari 8-bit has an additional difficulty of flippy disks. To dump those at a raw level, you need a modified drive. We're currently trying to buy up lots of the games (with some great help from some people here) to image using the modified drives we have. But it's sadly a very expensive business...

     

    What are the exact options for DTC-tool for copy protected Atari 8 bit disks, which create the stream-files SPS needs?

    I think most copy-protected disks are SD/SS, 40 Tracks, 128 Bytes per sector, 18 Sectors per track. The protection itself can be of course long tracks, short sectors, fuzzy sectors, bad sectors.....

  14. Posted

     

    That's kinda the problem actually. SPS can't start producing IPF's for Atari 8-bit until we have enough images to do the appropriate research for the platform. We can't do that alone. We have some help, but we need lots of support for the each community in order to get things rolling.

     

    As to whether KryoFlux is useful for Atari 8-bit, it really depends what you want to use it for. For writing images, then yes, clearly it is not appropriate for that at this time. However, if you want bit-for-bit images of what is on the disks for preservation purposes, then I think it is ideal - that is the very reason it was created.

     

    For a supported platform, creating IPFs is mostly automatic - mainly it is a process of verification and double-checking - and that requires a lot of technical knowledge and familiarity with our tool chain. Of course, the initial support for the platform needs to be done, and any formats and copy protection not seen before would need more work.

     

    What could I personally do to support SPS to support Atari 8 Bit on their side? I already wrote a request to SPS, asking about status on A8 plattform...

  15. Posted · Edited by malers

    I don't really know much about the XFD format, but given it is a "sector"-based image format, I wouldn't think so.

     

     

     

    Writing IPF images is easy (using KryoFlux). Producing the IPFs in the first place is hard. The Software Preservation Society currently does that for Amiga, Spectrum, Amstrad and Atari ST. There are no IPF images for 8-bit Atari yet (at least not from Softpres).

     

    Thanks.

    Then, in my opinion, Kryoflux is not off high value for Atari 8 Bit world. I hope, that the The Software Preservation Society will support producing IPFs for Atari 8 Bit soon. Is it a manual process which they do for Amiga, Spectrum,.... or is it already sth automatical? And must it be done for each disk?

  16. Posted

    Whats the difference between xfd, ipf and adf formats?

     

    XFD - High level "sector image" format for Atari 8-bit. The contents of each block on a legally formatted disk.

    ADF - Same as XFD, but for the Amiga format.

    IPF - Mastering format, similar to how the disks were originally mastered. Intended to contains and describe any copy protection on a disk.

     

    Can KyroFlux be used for backing up protected atari disks?

     

     

    Yes, as long as the disk doesn't have any physical protection (physical holes, etc.), you can back up to KryoFlux's low level "stream format". This contains any copy protection on the disk. You should know though that there are fundamental problems writing this kind of "raw read" back to disk (no matter what device you use) - kind of similar to the sort of problems you get copying VHS tapes. However, once you have the data in stream format, it is possible to use it in emulators, it is also possible to write it with some technical know-how (you need to know "how" to write it). That's just the problem you get with copy protection, whatever device you use to read it.

     

    Thanks for the information.

     

    Could XFD also contain information about copy protections?

     

    Writing back an IPF to a disk seems to be difficult. But, I read a lot of success-stories in AMIGA forums about duplicating copy protected disks. And they seem to do it with IPF-Format.

     

    My intend is the same as Bryans. I would like copy my original games like Archon II, which has a 34 sectors track as protection.

  17. Posted

    So, a tool for converting ATX to XFD format is needed. XFD can in turn be written to a 5 1/4 Disk with the kryoflux.

     

    I just ordered a kryoflux....

     

    KryoFlux can read to XFD images, but can't currently write them. It's write support is currently limited to IPF and ADF, though more are planned.

     

    Whats the difference between xfd, ipf and adf formats?

     

    Can KyroFlux be used for backing up protected atari disks?

  22. Posted

    Is the article posted somewhere? Just curious about what you had to say about them.

     

    http://vapi.fxatari.com/docs/sa.html

     

    Do someone know, if the bit writer software is also copy protected?

     

    I think it isn't. The reason that the Super Archiver disk is copy protected is because the software was also sold as a separate product without the hardware (say, you could use it if you have a Happy drive). The Bit Writer software (probably) works only with the Bit Writer hardware, so it wouldn't have much sense to copy protect it.

     

    Anyway, if somebody has the original Bit Writer disk and could post an ATR image?

     

    I wish the super archiver 2 was available, that one allows copying of enhanced density disks...

     

    SA II is just updated software. IIRC, version 3 of the SA software is the SA II, so possibly it is included in the disk posted above (didn't try it). Anyway, I think the SA/SA2 disk was cracked long ago. Search this forum.

     

     

    Is there any possibility transfering an ATX/vapi image back to a disk? Probably with an SA 1050?

     

    /Michael

     

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