Hard disk adapted game compilations new policy

[noclafirata]

Has anyone purchased the game compilation image, if so how did you write it to an sd card.

I've been trying for hours and just get the same stupid error message, about it being a pc disk then saying access denied. 

[Atari8guy]

Yes. I used Winimage to write the card.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Would be good to make some list of SW what is good for writing image files on Flash cards, hard disks. And of course good for reading them, making images of. For Windows, MAC, Linux - there lot of people using DD command line, but I guess should be some GUI programs too.

[tzok]

For Windows my choice is HDD Raw Copy Tool from HDD Guru.

[TGB1718]

Win32Diskimager or BalenaEtcher

[eightbit]

Reading through this whole thread...well....it makes me go hmmm. As a matter of fact, I will be adding this to the list of things that make me go hmmm.

 

 

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Some notes after reading diverse posts here:

I don't think that anyone except me really understands what means doing about 1500 game hard disk adaptations (to add here, if someone told me that number 15 years ago, I would say that is nut ? ) . That's pllllllllleeeenty of time and effort, and there are pages with game screenshots, YT videos ...

And all it would not happen without Steem Debugger and diverse TOS mods, for running it in RAM, for diverse game code categories (only GEMDOS usage, GEM/AES usage too), then diverse file access, floppy image access, etc.

Some crew, which dealt with this claimed some 12 years ago, that most of ST games does not use TOS calls, has own disk access code. Well, I made my own statistic some 10 years ago, and already then was clear that opposite is true - most of ST games use TOS calls (about 65 %), and I can just confirm it now, after dealt with much more games .  In theory TOS call using games makes hard disk adapt easier, but there are new problems, not present by those not using TOS calls - TOS version incompatibility, some really weird code, and diverse restrictions . So, additional corrections might be needed.

Not so good TOS DOCs by Atari are additional problem.

 

I saw that some were shocked by idea of charging - with diverse claims - which are not correct in most cases. And I explained already in previous posts that even just putting together compilation with special drivers for diverse TOS versions, game start menu is plenty of work (took months) . Interesting is that nobody was shocked by blatant lies about stealing code. So, lying, stealing other's work (putting it on own site without permission, any asking) is not problem, but asking money for work is ?  Sick World is here now.

More about alleged code stealing: whole claim is ridiculous (as is claim about my Floppy Imager damages data on hard disks) - my first hard disk system for games is totally different that what ULS is.  It has more direct disk access, via partial TOS  in RAM, not via TOS in ROM. It is faster.  Then, my system supports TOS calling games, while no such thing in ULS. Klapazius made own support for TOS calling games, but it is limited, and not much games done that way.

In later years I made complete TOS in RAM (HAGE) for not small number of games using AES/GEM calls (often without real need), and that made process easier, faster, + that's only way to have game state saves with regular TOS versions in machine.  Price is little higher RAM usage, but still even 1 MB machines can run well games needing 512 KB in case of running from floppy. Just need to have clean RAM, not installing diverse ACCs, drivers with large RAM usage and like.

 

Considering writing image files to Flash cards:  this is nothing new, I made some images (with about 50-100 games) 10 years ago. And people solved their write to cards without bigger problems, in short time. Now it is little harder because diverse Win security measures, but still not so hard.

In any case I will check programs mentioned here, and make page about using them, image writing ...

 

[tzok]

8 hours ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

I saw that some were shocked by idea of charging - with diverse claims - which are not correct in most cases. And I explained already in previous posts that even just putting together compilation with special drivers for diverse TOS versions, game start menu is plenty of work (took months). Interesting is that nobody was shocked by blatant lies about stealing code. So, lying, stealing other's work (putting it on own site without permission, any asking) is not problem, but asking money for work is ?  Sick World is here now.

I think no one was really shocked by the idea of charging, but rather by the idea of offering disk images with games. In the "western world", even the idea of patching code to which you don't have rights to it is questionable, but making compilations and selling modified (or not) code is seen as unacceptable breach in the western vision of copyrights. Western world went so far in this theory, that I'm afraid, they will likely consider learning as stealing intellectual properties... or wait, they already consider it as so - see NDAs, where you had to consent that everything you will learn and create during a project belongs to the company, and you cannot use neither tools you have created, nor knowledge have possessed, for any other company. So in short - it is illegal to use anything you have learned in the company, outside this company. Connect this with paid high schools, where barely anyone is able to afford it, and has to get credit either from a bank or from a corporation, and after finishing school effectively becomes a slave of a corporation which credited his or her studies.

 

If you'd be offering just the patches itself, probable no one would have any objections (but barely anyone would be interested in buying them).

 

Another oddity is that when you steal and give it for free - it is ok, but when you steal and request some money for it - it is wrong. But when you forget about money, "stealing" intellectual property is not really anything. By the definition, when you steal something, the owner looses it, so you can't steal the knowledge.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Learning is natural process of every life form. And best teacher is life self. 

It is known that first buyers of some new product of established manufacturer are their concurrents - firms which manufacture same products. Like autos.

So, every new Mercedes, Toyota etc. model will be examined, dismantled in parts by competitors, and nobody can do anything against it. 

And it is nothing new. Even if solutions are patented, competition will learn, find often a way to do it little different, or seemingly different ...

This with 30-35 years old games is really nobody's interest. And funny thing is to see pirate floppy images on site of some game company, because they simply don't have other source for own game.

Other funny thing: some 25 years ago I went into BIOS setting of some PC. And there was text: 'disassembly is prohibited'  ?  Sure, that will prevent those which want to do it ...

And of course, SW is also what is analyzed a lot by competition. 

Everyone who releases his product on mass market should know, and most know it - it can be, it will be examined, analyzed a lot.

Btw. there were compilations sold, there are compilations online. Examples: Marcer game DVD (and there were my adapts. without any asking). TOSEC - tens of thousands of floppy images. GameBase ST ...

And more: there is risk that those examiners will find some bad solutions in product, and make it public. Maybe make it better. Then what ? Who can benefit from that ? Users, of course. Maybe those who made it ... But not 30 years later. In other words, big names, big companies are not perfect. Ordinary people may do some things better.  It was told to Nikola Tesla , when he was in high school that making electric motor without commutator is not possible, while he already then had idea about motor without it. And we know what happened some years later ...

This times are bad. Now we need to pay for some things for which was normal that they are free. Concrete: Compact Flash card specifications. CFA association made manufacturers to some kind of slaves, and they must obey. While it is not in interest of their sales. Same is with HDMI . So, I did not save Sandisk CF card specs, when it was online for free, and now I should pay to see them again ... Sorry, but I'm not big manufacturer, and will not pay some 1000 $ for simple PDF doc. Where are times when young people could deal with electronic, simpler computers, and had all it accessible for little money, all before Internet ?

 

[noclafirata]

Almost got it maybe, so I'm using win32diskimager, I copy the zeros image to my sd card, then I that the sd card out and reinsert it, then I copy the game image to the sd card, but my Atari will not read it but my pc will now and everything is there. Did I miss something?

 

[eightbit]

In all honesty I do not see anything wrong with asking a price for all of the work that was involved here. I have quite a few of these games downloaded years ago while they were still available and it must have been a task getting all of these functional, with trainers, etc. Its a lot of work no matter which was you slice it....so I really don't think of the cost as "paying for games". All of these games are very available online as disk images and have been for years. It's the work behind getting them to work on a HDD that brings a convenience factor that I do not mind paying for if I have to.

 

In any case, everyone will have their own opinion of course and everyone is entitled to it. I'd just say if you are not interested, don't pay for it. Pretty simple.

 

Me, I am going to pay for it because I do appreciate all of the work that was involved. That said, Peter, you've got mail!

[ParanoidLittleMan]

I'm in process of putting back individual games for DL on site. It will take some time. For instance I spent almost whole this day with only 5 games - and their updates were done months ago. Just needed to make YT videos, new pages with screenshots, cover scans, little text about ... Yeah, when you want to offer more to people than just DL links and few words about game it needs lot of time.

More about in thread  'New game adaptations' .

[bfollowell]

Does this mean that you're not doing the compilation packs for a reasonable fee like you'd mentioned a while back, or is that still going on?

 

I've been focusing on my 8-bit more lately, but I want to dig my STE out soon and get my UltraSatan going, and then I'll want to be getting a bunch of your corrected/modified games and I want to make certain I do it the correct way.

 

Thanks for all that you do @ParanoidLittleMan!