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Re: EDD Plus Project

sicklittlemonkey wrote:

On Jan 14, 11:52 am, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:


As I've pointed out before, this software is not becoming suddenly
less readable than it was, say, last year, so there is little reason
to expect that there is any "emergency" in archiving it.



Yes, but it is becoming increasingly less affordable and obtainable.
In Japan, Apple II games are priced on Yahoo auctions at US$50 - $300.
(The upper end is for Wizardry, Ultima etc.)


I'm sorry to hear that, but I must regard it as a local anomaly.

In the US, large assortments of games are regularly given away or
sold for a pittance.  Even on eBay, I'm not aware of any systematic
rise in prices (but I haven't been paying much attention for the
last few months ;-).


Archiving--and, most importantly, distributing multiple copies of
the archive--is always a good preservation objective, but we should
keep in mind that we don't need an immediate, half-cocked solution.
There's plenty of time to figure out a thorough and easy-to-use
solution.



Well I would certainly like a solution. Not half-cocked, of course,
and not in 5 years time either. I made a few NIBs before deciding it
was a bit of a waste of time, and something needs to replace the NIB
format to prevent more being made.


I agree that this is very desirable.

I still think that it is important to differentiate between the
preservation of the game and the preservation of its copy protection.

The first objective is much easier, and satisfies most people's needs.
The second is quite difficult, and can, in general, be done only by
one capable of deprotecting the disk in the first place.

The situation is analogous to the preservation of literature (meaning
the preservation of texts) or the preservation of books (meaning the
actual artifact, or a facsimile thereof).


It is critical that the solution be usable by anyone with an unmodified
Apple II, without buying anything rare or unusual, since the originals
are wherever they are, and they will not come to the "capture machine".
The "capture machine" must *be* wherever they *are*--and that's a
garden-variety Apple II.



These excellent points are easily directed at FDI. I'm curious as to
whether you have or would buy an EDD+ card.


The real issue is whether all the folks with interesting titles would
buy one.  (I already have one. ;-)

My thinking is that most original games are not in the hands of a few
people who would be willing to spend a fair amount of money (or time?)
archiving them.  Therefore, the only ways that those games will ever
be archived is 1) make it cheap and trivial with a stock Apple II, or
2) convince the owners to send the games to someone willing to archive
them.

Actually, since most of these games are in people's attics, often
with the original owner absent, it seems likely that most copies will
find there way to landfill.  ;-(

A companion effort, which could be started now, would be to collect,
check, and properly store as complete a collection of original disks
as possible.  This would entail "Most Wanted" lists, public databases,
etc.

It would be interesting to see how much "coverage" of the published
software base for the Apple II is still extant in original form.

Would you be willing to concede that unprotected titles can simply
be saved as .dsk images?  If so, then categorization of the various
types of protection is in order, to ensure that at least one variant
of each "species" is available for analysis and preservation.


Note, however, that this code does not *automatically* back up any disk.
It must be parameterized by someone who has properly understood what is
relevant to the protection mechanism--an expert task, requiring testing
that is sometimes extensive.



Of course, but the requirements for general-purpose archival imaging
have been covered quite thoroughly in threads like the one you
referred Henry to. (Multiple reads, quarter tracks, analysis for weak
bits etc.)


Yes--but it would be good to see a real demonstration, if only to find
whatever counterexamples may exist!

-michael

NadaPong: Network game demo for Apple II computers!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."