Lucifer's Realm

[Wilheim]

Hi, everyone!

 

Just for curiosity, I tested the adventure game "Lucifer's Realm" and realised that in the version there are some corrupted files for the images, having this result:

 

 

I tried different sources, and in all of them have the same files corrupted. I looked into the ATR files, and saw that there are some blank data sectors, that impedes to load the files properly.

 

Does anyone have a dumped version without this issue? Moreover, does anyone have the original disks and try to redump it? I'm aware it's rare to find one, but I think it would be helpful to preserve this game.

 

 

[Wrathchild]

@Wilheim Can you state where the blank sectors (plus disk/side) are so that people can check?

[Wilheim]

So far I found (in hex): sectors 5, 6, 1e, 1f, 23, 24, 40 and 5e from the second atr image (Disk 1, side B or Disk 2, side A depending on the version used).

 

 

 

[+Philsan]

Did you check Homesoft?

[+DjayBee]

28 minutes ago, Philsan said:

Did you check Homesoft?

Same as all the others.

 

I even searched images for C64 and Apple II for identical data blocks. This once worked to repair the contents of a gone-bad sector in Warrior of RAS #3 - The Wylde.

Edited October 14, 2020 by DjayBee

[AHA]

i am at this moment copying the old floppies to atr, will put a zip s00n

 

[AHA]

hi guys, heres the zip file, i think the first three disks should be perfect, had an error on disk four

 

hope you can use these to repair yours....

Lucifers Realm.zip

[Wilheim]

5 minutes ago, AHA said:

hi guys, heres the zip file, i think the first three disks should be perfect, had an error on disk four

 

hope you can use these to repair yours....

Lucifers Realm.zip 208.01 kB · 2 downloads

Thank you for your effort!

 

Unfortunately, it has the same error and the blank sectors are the same:

 

 

Looks like the original release has this error. A bug? I don't know.

 

 

 

[OmaOhneBH]

3 hours ago, Wilheim said:

So far I found (in hex): sectors 5, 6, 1e, 1f, 23, 24, 40 and 5e from the second atr image (Disk 1, side B or Disk 2, side A depending on the version used).

 

 

 

 

Found this version, contains blank sectors, but less than the ones you mentioned, or maybe they are just kinda shifted back or forth somehow.

 

 

093a Lucifer's Realm A.atr 093b Lucifer's Realm B.atr

[Wilheim]

Thank you! Then again, it stills has the error.

 

I'm modifying manually the ATR images. I put a sector link for every blank sector. At least I can see this:

 

 

I'm going to retest the game and see which images look better or worse.

 

[+DjayBee]

25 minutes ago, OmaOhneBH said:

Found this version, contains blank sectors, but less than the ones you mentioned

Thanks, but this does not help.

It has one more missing sector on side B(#7). But side A seems to be virgin without saved data.

[Wrathchild]

Wouldn't original disks have the write protect tabs covered so the user can't accidentally save over them?
Would a disk copier potentially see/write a blank sector if it got an error?

If it was a mastering error then I would have thought there would have been reports in magazines etc.

[+Nezgar]

I know from my own observation MyCopyR 2.1 results in blank sectors on the copy. Disk Wizard II will write out the data it could read from a "bad" sector. Not sure how other programs behave. @AHA which sector copier did you use?

 

[AHA]

hello nezgar, i used sector copier  -  if you hit a bad sector it alerts you, then press start to continue copying...

[Wilheim]

Well, it seems we have to fix some files.

 

In the meantine, I consolidated single ATR files for Lucifer's Realm and The Institute. This way, it's easy to convert them into cartridge, using MaxFlash Studio.

 

Let's hope we could fix the corrupted files due to the blank sectors.

 

The Institute single disk.atr Lucifer 's Realm single disk.atr

Edited October 15, 2020 by Wilheim

[+Nezgar]

5 hours ago, AHA said:

hello nezgar, i used sector copier

Which one though?

 

Could you kindly try again using Disk Wizard II?

 

Edit: nevermind - my bad - irrelevant.

[+DjayBee]

23 minutes ago, Nezgar said:

Could you kindly try again

I doubt that this will help. 

He wrote that only disk four had read errors. This is a random game DOS disk which probably only by accident was on side B of the second disk. 

[Wilheim]

That's odd! On every site I visit (atarimania, atarionline, Holmes archive, fandal, etc.) I found this bug. There have to be a solution.

 

I revised the image file format, and I could see it's a simple RLE implementation, like Koala, but with 160 horizontal lines instead of 192. Maybe we can reconstruct the images a reencoding them from, et's say, the C64 version.

 

What do you think?

[+DjayBee]

3 hours ago, Wilheim said:

That's odd! On every site I visit (atarimania, atarionline, Holmes archive, fandal, etc.) I found this bug.

I guess that every single image on the net is derived from the same copy. I already had other titles where all images were the same.

 

3 hours ago, Wilheim said:

Maybe we can reconstruct the images a reencoding them from, et's say, the C64 version.

This was my idea when I compared the disk images. But as the images are bitmaps and no plot-here, drawto-there vector graphics, they depend on the hardware and are different between platforms.

To do this, one would need to redraw the missing parts manually while looking at the game running on a C64 or Apple II emulator. Or maybe you find a tool which converts picture formats between the platforms.

[www.atarimania.com]

Please try the following disk images: Lucifer_s_Realm.zip

 

I didn't get the bug but there might be some other problems (despite following the solution exactly, I got stuck shortly after).

 

Also remember this is an OS-B title.

[+DjayBee]

14 minutes ago, www.atarimania.com said:

Please try the following disk images

Sides B and C are the same as all the others.

Side A is virgin but with differing place holder names ("UNUSED" vs. "EMPTY" in OmaOhneBH's image).

 

With now two differing virgin images I begin to believe that there was a massive error in mastering this disk instead of my first thought that all images are "offspring" of the same disk set.

Edited October 16, 2020 by DjayBee

[www.atarimania.com]

I did get the particular picture with the stairs to display properly, though.

[+DjayBee]

You are right, but nonetheless the file is damaged.

I don't know why it is shown OK while the other three files show errors. I also added the correct last three bytes to the missing sectors, so DOS does read on until the real EOF, but there was no visible change.

 

The first four files on side B all have at least one $00-filled sector.

 

L01.PAC: 2nd and 3rd sector are empty. Its size should be 14 sectors.

R1C.PAC (the stairs): At least 13th sector is empty. Its size should be 28 sectors.

R1E.PAC: sector #19 out of 26 (and perhaps more).

R1F.PAC: sector #22 out of 26 (also perhaps more)..

 

If you want to see the pictures immediately after booting:

• Set a break point to $2EA7 in Altirra and boot side A.
• Patch side B: Rename the file which you want to see to R00.PAC
• When the break point hits, replace the image in D1: with the patched copy of side B.
• Continue (F8)

[EddyFree]

 

I looked at it. Found disks 1 and 3 good. Disk 2 has 6 bad sectors effecting the first four file entries(numbers 0-3). File #0 and #1 have two bad sectors each, file #2 and #3 have one bad sector each. I went ahead and patched up the links so the files can be fully read, even though there's obviously missing data. Probably the same thing you've already done but I'll post it anyhow.

 

Lucifer'sRealmDisk2(LinksPatched).zip

[+DjayBee]

Thanks to @Atarigrub we now have a working dump of the game coming from a different publisher.

 

As a teaser I fixed disk B of "our" set which was used here in this thread.

Have fun.

 

Lucifer's Realm _ side B_fixed.atr