Re: Might and Magic II

[Linards Ticmanis <ticmanis@gmx.de>]

magnusfalkirk wrote:

> I recently purchased a copy of Might and Magic II for the Apple II.
> Unfortunately I didn't pay attention to the write up about the game
> before I bought it as it came with only the first of the three disks,
> along with the documentation. Does anybody know if it is possible to
> turn a nib file back into an actual 5.25 disk?

*If and only if* they're NIBs to preserve a certain volume number, but
are otherwise normal Apple format disks, then it's tedious but easy.
Just format a few physical disks under DOS 3.3 with the right volume
numbers; COPYA the NIB images to fresh DSK images on an emulator; and
ADT-transfer those DSKs to the physical disks.

On the other hand, if they aren't standard Apple format, then there is
no automated way. You'll have to do some analysis and write some code.

> Looking at the directions for SST would it be possible to run it in an
> emulator and copy the nib file to Two disk images, then transfer that
> to real disks and then use SST on the real Apple II to transfer the
> Two disks back to one?

No, that won't work. NIBs are missing the vital information on which
bytes are sync bytes and which aren't. Also NIB tracks are longer than
almost all real disk tracks, so you have to throw away some garbage or
duplicated stuff on each track if you want to make a real disk. Of
course to do that you have to find out first what is garbage and what isn't.

I've successfully written back "Ultima I" (the old release, non-standard
13-sector format) and the Infocom V4/V5 games (one-giant-sector format)
with this approach. I can send you my source code for this, but it won't
work unmodified.

-- 
Linards Ticmanis