Re: Ultima Apple Emulation

[eric@neilsonhart.com]

On Jan 17, 6:50 am, Linards Ticmanis <ticma...@gmx.de> wrote:
> dwk3 wrote:
> > I would like to have 100% verified original and unalterd Apple Ultima disk images for emulation because that
> > is the "original" platform for teh series. ... There is no
> generally recognized file format that covers all or even most copy
> protected Apple disk images - except for FDI, which is very hard to
> create and unsupported by existing emulators.

I believe a straight Nibble copy will get you pristine backups of
Ultima I-IV.  If in doubt, the Virtual ][ emulator which runs on OSX
supports full half track nibble sends from original floppies and
stores them in the .v2d format, which is basically the D5NI standard.
I've successfully archived fairly nasty half track formatted disks
with no problems.  I'm almost positive Origins never went to quarter
track protection schemes.

If you decide to try Virtual II, you'll use the A2V2 program on OSX
and ADT on your Apple //.

As far as I know, no other emulator supports the .v2d format which is
a shame because it's an open standard.

If you want true archival quality images, the .v2d format supports
quarter tracks, but no emulator has that feature yet.  Modifying the
ADT software on the Apple // side to support quarter tracking nibble
sends would be a snap now that half tracking nibble sends are
working.  We just need an emulator.

Eric