Re: Using 3.5" Drives (or CFFA) with 5.25" DOS3.3 Disk Images Directly

[Warren Ernst <wernst@gmail.com>]

On Jan 18, 3:18 pm, magnusfalkirk <dean.pha...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Warren Ernst wrote:
> > So I was in the mood to play Choplifter for the first time in at least
> > 10 years last night. I downloaded a disk image from one of the
> > archives, gunzipped it on the PC, FTP-ed the DSK or PO file to the GS
> > via SAFE2, and then ran DiskMaker 8 to make a 5.25" disk. So far, so
> > good.
>
> > I had to dig deep for a good, unused 5.25" floppy disk to write the
> > DOS 3.3 image onto, which I finally did.
>
> > That said, I have loads of good 3.5" disks, both 800k DD and 1.44MB
> > HD, for my Apple 3.5" Drives and my SuperDrives, plus I have a 1 GB CF
> > card in the CFFA with loads of unusued space - all ProDOS (plus a
> > large HFS partition).
>
> > Is there any way to directly use any of these ProDOS volumes for
> > uncompressing the 143kb DOS 3.3 disk images, and then playing the
> > game? I'm looking to bypass 5.25" disks entirely from the process.
>
> > I know there are a few methods, such as UniDOS, for transferring DOS
> > 3.3 Disk contents to specially formatted 800k 3.5" disks, though I
> > don't know much about them (any thoughts, anyone??). That said, I
> > thought they all started with a working 5.25" DOS 3.3 disk, which is
> > what I'd love to avoid altogehter.
>
> > Thanks for any tips and pointers,
>
> > Warr
>
> One possibility, since you have 3.5 disks available, would be to go to
> Asimov and download D3447AST.SDK, which is a Shrinkit image of a 3.5
> disk. There are several old DOS 3.3 games on the disk, one of which is
> Choplifter. I could even e-mail you the image if you'd like. Then you
> could use ADTPro, or some other program, to transfer the image to your
> GS and put it back on a 3.5 disk.
>
> Dean

Dean,

Thanks for the kind offer, but it is unnecessary. I did find a couple
5.25" disks and was able to play choplifter just fine. I was inquiring
about a way to completely do away with physical 5.25" disks.

I've since been searching the archives via Google, and it seems as if
my answer will be "not bloody likely." The various DOS 3.3's that work
with 3.5" disks aren't easily readable by utilities like Copy II + or
the Finder, so it doesn't seem likely that any disk decompression
utility would either.

I have been reading up on Glen Bredon's DOS Master and while it makes
putting hundreds of DOS 3.3 volumes on a CF card with the CFFA, the
processes of copying many games over looks torturous.

But if anyone has any bright ideas, I'd love to hear them...

-Warr