Creating .dsk disk images
Rubywand
>
> Just exactly how do you create a disk image? I have quite a few old Apple
> programs, but I have no clue on how to make images. Do you use CrossTalk?
> Is there a special program... Someone asked me to make an image of the
> Koala software, I'd love to but how?
>
There are two basic approaches to creating standard 5.25" .dsk disk image
files.
1. If you have a 3.5" drive, hard disk, Zip Drive, etc. connected to your Apple
II, you can use DSK2FILE to convert one side of a 5.25" diskette into a 140k
.dsk file. For example, you could convert your Supergame diskette into a file
named "Supergame.dsk". Supergame.dsk is a ProDOS file.
If you have a IIgs with a 3.5" drive, etc., you can use DSK2FILE or the GS-only
program ASIMOV to create disk images.
The reason you need at least a 3.5" drive is that a standard 5.25" ProDOS
diskette does not have space to hold a 140k file. There are ways around this
limitation-- using a special 36-track ProDOS and writing to a 36-track diskette
is one. Another is to use an image maker which splits the image and saves it on
two 5.25" diskettes. Both ways seem like more bother than they are worth.
2. Practically any Apple II can create standard 5.25" .dsk disk image files
using ADT. The Apple II reads the diskette and transmits the contents over a
NULL modem connection to a PC running the PC half of ADT. The .dsk disk image
file is created on the PC.
For info about ADT, see http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/Csa2T1TCOM.html#003 .
For more about disk images see
http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/Csa2FLUTILS.html#006 .
Not every 5.25" diskette can be converted directly to .dsk disk image
form. If a disk is copy protected or if it uses 36 tracks it probably can not
be converted. The usual way around copy protection is to produce a deprotected
diskette (using info from Computist or a similar source) and convert the
deprotected copy to .dsk form. Converting a 36-track disk requires finding a
way to get the contents onto a 35-track diskette.
> I know this has been asked a hundred times before. My Apple computers are
> so remote from my PC. If I rig a telephone line to the Apple, could I do
> it that way? I think it has a modem, I think I remember downloading stuff
> from the old BBS, (AOL).
>
....
Whether or not you use the ADT approach, you need to get the .dsk file to
your PC. I have heard of users using their phone lines to join two modems in
the same house or using a phone cable to join two modems. There is some
discussion of this at http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/Csa2T1TCOM.html#023 .
The usual way to join an Apple II and PC for local transfers is NULL
modem. If your computers are closer than 50 feet, you can use a long modem
cable. It may be a lot less bother to move your Apple II or get a second Apple
II-- like a IIc+ or IIgs just for doing transfers. NULL modem is pretty easy to
set up and very handy when you want to transfer stuff you download from the net
to your Apple II.
(See http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/Csa2T1TCOM.html#004 .)
Rubywand
Ernest
NetHack?
E
"Rubywand" <ruby...@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:3A007FA2...@swbell.net...
Rubywand
>
> Thanks for the info, Rubywand.
You're welcome, Ernest. Be sure to ask if anything about the process is
unclear.
> By the way, is your name from the game,
> NetHack?
>
> E
....
No. The name originated in the early 1980's.
Back when I started playing adventure games which let you have multiple
characters in a party-- games like Shadowkeep and Ultima III-- there was a need
to come up with names that sounded right (to me) for fighters, clerics,
thieves, mages, etc..
One of the names I came up with was "Rubywand" (who is nearly always
imagined to be a female, human, super-babe mage). A couple others are
"Batfoot" (shortish, heavy, dwarf fighter) and "Mothnose" (hobbit-like cleric
with an enormous nose). These characters plus three or four others have filled
the slots in my parties on countless quests since then; and, the names have
appeared in published screen shots of Apple II, C-64, and PC game reviews.
When I got on the net with AOL in 1995 the setup software asked for a
screen name. The natural response was to pick a favorite character name and
"Rubywand" was the choice.
Rubywand
Andy
else) creates .dsk files by transferring the disk image data directly from the AII
to the PC through a serial port. I think this is a brilliant program, but the
problem is that the util is limited to standard format disks. Hope the authour
continues his/(her?) fine work.
Perhaps you might be more up to date on this Ruby?
Paul Schlyter
> ADT (Apple Disk Transfer) from ......... I don't remember ('gee thanks'
Paul Guertin created ADT
> -everyone else) creates .dsk files by transferring the disk image data
> directly from the AII to the PC through a serial port. I think this is
> a brilliant program, but the problem is that the util is limited to
> standard format disks. Hope the authour continues his/(her?) fine work.
And even if the author doesn't continue, nothing prevents others from
continuing where the author left off - after all, the source code is
available. I had the problem that ADT required the Super Serial Card
on the Apple II side, but I only had the older Communications Card.
Instead of hoping that the author would add Comm Card support, I
added it myself, and then released a Comm Card version of ADT.
That's the great idea behind OpenSource: more than the original
authors can contribute to the software!
--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter, Swedish Amateur Astronomer's Society (SAAF)
Grev Turegatan 40, S-114 38 Stockholm, SWEDEN
e-mail: pausch at saaf dot se or paul.schlyter at ausys dot se
WWW: http://hotel04.ausys.se/pausch http://welcome.to/pausch
Rubywand
>
> ADT (Apple Disk Transfer) from ......... I don't remember
Paul Guertin
> creates .dsk files by transferring the disk image data directly from
> the AII to the PC through a serial port. I think this is a brilliant
> program, but the problem is that the util is limited to standard format
> disks. Hope the authour continues his/(her?) fine work.
>
> Perhaps you might be more up to date on this Ruby?
Since Paul published the source code for the standard version of ADT, it
is not too difficult to make some changes.
For instance, ADT could read a source diskette's Volume Number and offer
the option of placing the information in the file name. So, for a diskette
with Volume Number = 238, instead of sending, say, Xgame.dsk to the PC, you
would send Xgamq238.dsk.
The format rule might be: if the last four characters before the "." in
a filename are a "q" followed by three digits, then, you have a Volume
Number. It would be up to your favorite emulator to use the information and
set Volume Number for the disk image to 238. (I do not know how difficult it
might be to modify popular emulator programs to use the Volume Number info.)
Similarly, ADT could apply the Volume Number detection rule for .dsk
files moved from PC back to diskette on an Apple II.
Though simple, this one change in ADT and .dsk naming conventions could
allow swapping in .dsk files for most .nib files currently maintained on
archive sites and make .dsk a significantly more useful archive format.
Dealing with copy protected diskettes is a 'whole different ball game'.
In order to be sendable by ADT as a .dsk disk image, the copy protected
diskette would need to be converted into a deprotected disk image. Since this
kind of conversion can be fairly complicated to set up, ADT would become a
disk image transfer routine attached to a fairly hefty deprotection utility.
What this boils down to is that it is a lot easier to handle
deprotection as an entirely separate task via directions from an issue of
Computist or some other source. This allows trying out a deprotected diskette
on your Apple II and being reasonably sure that you have a copy that works
before doing a .dsk transfer to PC.
Rubywand