APE's Pro System

[+Larry]

I haven't used the Pro System in years, but a question at the AtariMax forum got me curious about ProSys images, so I pulled out a couple of copy-protected utilities from the early 80's and proceeded to make PRO images from them.These were copy-protected with lots and lots of bad sectors, so processing them took about a half-hour each! Of course, I made a quick copy with a Happy onto much newer disks to avoid trashing the originals.

 

A quick calculation of the time being read showed that each sector is read about 400 times on a track with all bad sectors -- lots of wear and tear on the drive and disk. But offsetting that, once the image is made, then that disk doesn't ever need to have any more use. The images that I made were fully functional, and load much faster than the original disks. They load basically as if there is no copy protection -- no accompanying drive seeks, etc.

 

I definitely don't think I'd want to do a hundred disks with ProSys, but for doing a few disks, no problem, and if there are not bunches of bad sectors, the process should be quite a bit quicker. Too bad about VAPI -- using the Happy Drive would have streamlined this process quite a bit.

 

So... does anyone use the Pro System on a regular basis? The concept is great, I think, but the time and disk/drive wear is a bummer.

 

-Larry

[Louis]

i made some Pro System images a while a go. It takes for ever! Any it's a feature I just wanted to test.

I'm not a die hard software collector, so basically all the protected disks I've had could be found on the web.

[+Larry]

Hi Louis-

 

Thanks for the reply! This was really a "lonesome thread." Looks like there are not a bunch of Pro System users out there!

 

Steve is surely busy with many other things, but maybe he can find some time at some point to make some improvements. One improvement that would be very useful is that for folks that have a Happy Drive (or equivalent) or Archiver is to let them enter some type of script for tracks that are of unreadable format. ProSys would check the script (if it existed) and either write the code for an unreadable track of sectors, or process the track normally, reading every sector. The absolute best would be to have the ability to write out a disk from a .PRO file using an Archiver or Happy. At one time, I believe Steve was planning on this.

 

I'm like you -- most software has been cracked, but preserving the software in it's original "equivalent" form would be terrific. I've got a couple of hundred original protected disks that I'd like to back up, but not necessarily by making new disk copies.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

you may have heard of Nir Dary, he has burned most of his software onto CD ROMs. One of the subdirs is named "PRO" and contains dozens if not hundreds of APE Pro images (he has also a subdir named CAS with dozens of CAS images). And there is also the Holmes collection that contains several Pro images, e.g. here: ftp://ftp.pigwa.net/stuff/collections/holmes%20cd/Holmes%202/PRO%20Files/

 

Me, I DO NOT like copy-protected disk-images, no matter if they are APE *.Pro images or Vapi *.ATX images or any other format. I prefer hacks/cracks that are as close to the original version as possible (most important: without any hacker/cracker intros, with original intros/extros, original loading screens, etc.), but without copy-protection...

 

Believe it or not, I have already overwritten several of my copy-protected original disks with "copies" (that do not have any copy-protection). -Andreas Koch.

[idavis]

Larry,

I think I remember making a couple of PRO images, but I don't seem to recall them taking as long as you mention. My actual hardware is boxed up in the closet at the moment so I can't test it for you. What about if you tried with a stock drive and not the Happy version? Maybe that's throwing a little wrench into it. I am just speculating though. I don't have a Happy drive, just a couple stock 810's, 1050's and a US Doubled 1050.

[+Larry]

Hi Issac-

 

I tried a stock 1050, a Super Archiver, and a Happy 1050 with basically the same results. In the current version at least, one of the first things Pro System does is to set a Happy Drive into "Unhappy" mode. It gave the same message (and no other) with the Archiver, so I don't know what it does with it.

 

If you don't have a lot of bad sectors, then the reading goes much faster. I did another utility with several deleted data marks and the copy took about 5 minutes, so it all depends on the type/amount of copy protection.

 

-Larry

[+bf2k+]

I still use it occasionally but mostly on non-protected disks or to write out a real floppy from an ATR on my PC. I have 3 1050s hooked to it right now... 1 stock, 1 US Doubler and 1 Happy.

 

I have also used it to get data off of other people's disks they send me because it can read a lot of the flakier disks out there (unless they are completely 'flaked' off).

[+Larry]

Hi Andreas-

 

Thanks for the link! I had looked at some of Nir's collections, but I didn't run across that .PRO directory.

 

I like "cracks" too, but there is something to be said for maintaining original formats, I think.

 

-Larry

[+therealbountybob]

I use pro-system to backup my floppies from the 1050 when I'm programming a game, and sometimes to backup files when I'm reformatting a single density disk as enhanced density to squeeze more on