Re: Help with creating disks from disk images...

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Supertimer writes ...
> 
> axiom@NOSPAMtexas.net (Will Loconto) wrote:
> 
> >Just to see if it was a bad DSK file, I tried creating other disks from
> >different DSK files, and none of them worked. I even tried using a
> >different set of drives. If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. I'd hate
> >to lose all my old software as the disks start to go bad.
> 
> One of the reasons that Asimov never appealed to me is because
> my 5.25" drives croaked YEARS ago.  I have since lived without
> the pesky clunking sounds and my GS is that much more
> functional.
> 

     Too bad. You might want to contact Steve Buggie for one of his
souped-up 5.25" drives. There are many good games and other interesting
wares on 5.25" diskette.


> What I would like to see is a program to convert DSK images into
> DOS 3.3 Launcher images.  DOS 3.3 Launcher is a program (one
> version for the 8-bit II and one version for the GS) that runs on an
> A2 and lets you store your DOS 3.3 wares as disk images on your
> A2 hard disk or 3.5 inch disk.  Just double-click on an image file
> and your disk images are "booted"...it makes your A2 work like
> an emulator does...
> 
> Since Asimov is an emulator site, what is needed to make it truly
> useful for the real A2 user is such a conversion program.  It would
> work like the 2MG utilities for XGS, but instead of converting to
> 2MG, it would convert to DOS 3.3 Launcher.
> 
> Question -- Is the DOS 3.3 Launcher image format compatible with
> ANY of the emulator image formats?

 ....


     Below are some excerpts from the DOS 3.3 Launcher documentation ...

>>

DOS 3.3 Launcher 2.0 (1993)
John MacLean

Requirements:
-------------

To use DOS 3.3 launcher, you will need either: a ROM1 or ROM3 GS, a
//c or //c+, or a 128K enhanced //e. You will also need a 3.5" disk
drive
or hard disk, and an appropriate program launcher such as the Finder
on the GS or ProSel on a //e or //c. Finally, you will need a 5.25" disk
drive and some old DOS 3.3 software.

 ....

Copying DOS 3.3 Programs To Your Hard Disk:
-------------------------------------------

There are two options for copying DOS 3.3 programs to your hard disk:

The first is only appropriate for single file DOS 3.3 programs that do
not
access the disk once they are loaded into memory. Many old arcade style
games fall into this category. These files can simply be copied from a
DOS 3.3 disk onto a ProDOS disk, and then have their launch options set.
They can then be launched by DOS 3.3 Launcher, which simply loads the
files into memory and executes them.

The second option involves converting one or more disks into a large
file
on your hard disk. Any disk that uses a standard RWTS (Read/Write
Track/Sector) routine can be copied in this manner. This includes not
only
DOS 3.3 disks, but also many old games which use a standard RWTS, but
are
not actually DOS 3.3. They can then be launched by DOS 3.3 Launcher,
which
"boots" the large file directly from your hard disk.

 ....

Memory Usage:
-------------

DOS 3.3 Launcher saves ProDOS 8 in auxiliary memory when a DOS 3.3
program
is launched. It also uses auxiliary memory for its quit code, and for
tables
used by the RWTS routine. This means that most DOS 3.3 programs that use
auxiliary memory will not work with DOS 3.3 Launcher. However, DOS 3.3
Launcher does not use the portion of auxiliary memory required for
double
high resolution graphics, so programs that only use auxiliary memory for
this
purpose should work OK.

 ....

<<

     Since more than one disk side can go into a file, it does not seem
likely that D33L's format is compatible with emulators. 

     One major limitation is not being able to run DOS 3.3 products
which use the Language Card space in which D33L puts ProDOS. This
eliminates "64k" games which want to use the space.

     Another major limitation is requiring that the product use the
standard RWTS. Even software which has been copy-deprotected may retain
a non-standard RWTS. These products would have to be detected and either
modified or excluded.


     None of the above prevents D33L from being used to archive quite a
few wares; however, it is not a general-purpose format which could
substitute for DSK disk image files.

     If you want to store and run a wide variety of 5.25" wares from
hard disk, it looks like you need a way to handle DSK files on the GS as
though they were diskettes.  



Rubywand