Re: Might and Magic II

["magnusfalkirk" <dean.phares@gmail.com>]

On Mar 8, 2:30 pm, Linards Ticmanis <ticma...@gmx.de> wrote:
> 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

Linards,

Could you tell me how to format a disk in DOS 3.3 and specify the
volume name? Sorry to sound ignorant but even when I originally
started out with the Apple II+, in 1980, I didn't mess with DOS much
and as soon as I got a copy of Copy II+ I simply used that to format
disks.

Thanks,
Dean