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Re: Apple II version of Activision's H.E.R.O.
Further instructions for usign ADT / SST below.
Email me at: moose AT move DOT to
and I can send you the disk image I refer to below.
Mike
************************************************************
Apple ][ Disk Transfer Instructions by Moose O'Malley
************************************************************
****************************************************
Table of Contents :
****************************************************
- Apple 2 Disk Image Contents
- Apple <-> PC Disk Transfers
- Some Brief Notes about Disk Image Files
- Transferring Standard Floppy Disks : Apple 2 -> PC
- Transferring Standard Floppy Disks : PC -> Apple 2
- Standard Floppy Disks Problems ?
- Transferring Copy Protected Disks : Apple 2 -> PC
- Transferring Copy Protected Disks : PC -> Apple 2
- Copy Protected Disks Problems ?
- Conclusion
****************************************************
Apple 2 Disk Image Contents
****************************************************
Here are the contents of the disk that I use to do my transfers :
- SST - Super Saltines Transcopy
- ADT : Apple <-> PC Disk Transfer
- Copy ][+ v5.0
- Daltons Disk Disintegrator v2.0
- Trackstar 128 File transfer (Only useful if you have an Apple 2
disk drive hooked up to a Trackstar 128 Expansion Card in your PC.
i.e. this program is useless for )
- BCOPY v1.5
- Locksmith v4.1
- RENUMBER
- DOS BOSS
For disk transfer purposes, SST - Super Saltines Transcopy and ADT :
Apple <-> PC Disk Transfer are the two programs you need on the Apple
2 computer.
****************************************************
Apple <-> PC Disk Transfers
****************************************************
The version of ADT on this floppy disk image is ADT v1.21 - so it may
or may not work with other versions of ADT or ADT for Windows.
ADT is the "Apple Disk Transfer" utility. Paul Guertin developed ADT
as a way to transfer 5.25" disk image files from PC directly to
diskette on a 64k or larger Apple II and to send 5.25" diskettes to
PC where they are saved as .DSK disk image files.
A typical ADT setup is an Apple II with a serial card or built-in
serial port connected via a NULL modem cable to a PC's COM port with
each computer running ADT.
ADT can only handle standard Apple ][ floppy disks. i.e. non copy
protected disks and disks that don't have strange formats. If you
have these types of disks, then you need to use SST - Super Saltines
Transcopy. See "Transferring Copy Protected Disks" below for further
details.
There are various versions of ADT - DOS or Windows - depending on
which OS you like.
To install ADT on your Apple ][, you type in a command on your Apple
][ (usually IN#2 or similar, see Rubywand's excellent Csa2 FAQs) and
hit the send button on the PC (which is running ADT as well), and the
PC will send the Apple version down the null modem wire to the Apple
][ - it really is amazing software.
Then, you can save ADT to a disk on the Apple ][ and BRUN it, and
then you can transfer over the disk image I sent you and then you
should then be able to transfer standard and copy protected disks
using the software it contains. E.g. SST.
For more information about all aspects of disk transfers, including
ADT, communications, etc, see Rubywand's excellent Csa2 FAQs :
http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/Csa2T1TCOM.html
and the documentation included with most ADT distributions.
For ADT (DOS and Windows) downloads and information :
http://apple2.org.za/gswv/a2zine/Sel/ADTWin.html
It took me a while to set up ADT on my Apple ][ - because I didn't
realise that my Apple ][ printer cable was a null modem cable - once
I figured this out, I had it transferred in a few seconds.
****************************************************
My Apple ][c and Set-Up
****************************************************
My Apple ][c has an inbuilt serial port (for driving the printer),
and the Apple ][ printer cable is actually a Null Modem cable itself.
So, all I do is plug the Apple ][ printer cable into the serial port
on the back of my PC and I'm ready to transfer disks.
Transferring disks is very easy with the Apple ][c - no need to set
baud rates or mess around making cables or trying to get Super Serial
Cards to play ball, etc.
My ][c also has 2 floppy drives - the internal drive and an external
drive - which can save some disk swapping when doing SST transfers.
If you are looking to buy an Apple ][ for transferring disks, then I
highly recommend that you buy the Apple ][c - but make sure that you
get the Apple ][c printer cable as well.
I also have a Trackstar 128, but this requires a very slow bus - i.e.
a 468 PC or better yet, a 386.
****************************************************
Some Brief Notes about Disk Image Files
****************************************************
There are several types of Virtual Apple 2 Disk Image file used with
Apple 2 emulators, but the main two are DSK and NIB, as follows :
Disk Image File
Type File Size Extension
----------- --------------- ----------
DSK 143,360 bytes .DSK
NIB 232,960 bytes .NIB
NIB disk images are 1.625 times the size of DSK disk images, because
NIB files also contain the copy protection / formatting information
of the original disk. DSK files don't contain this formatting, so
these can only be used to contain images of disks from standard Apple
DOS disks.
So, if the original floppy disk is copy protected, then you need to
transfer the disk to the PC using additional steps.
If the original disk is not copy protected, then you can transfer the
disk to the PC in a single step.
Standard floppy disks have formats that are DOS 3.3, ProDOS, Pascal,
and others.
Normally, you can CATALOG these disks and see a list of files.
Copy Protected Disks have strange, non-standard formats, and usually
you cannot CATALOG these disks - even if you boot with a standard DOS
or ProDOS master disk and then insert the other disk and do the
CATALOG.
Below I discuss transferring Standard Floppy Disks and Copy Protected
Disks between the Apple 2 <-> PC.
****************************************************
Transferring Standard Floppy Disks : Apple 2 -> PC
****************************************************
*** Work in Progress
*** See the ADT help or the CSA2 FAQs
****************************************************
Transferring Standard Floppy Disks : PC -> Apple 2
****************************************************
*** Work in Progress
*** See the ADT help or the CSA2 FAQs
****************************************************
Standard Floppy Disks Problems ?
****************************************************
If you have any problems / errors, then check out your original disk
and make sure it is fully working. If it contains bad sectors, then
there is nothing ADT can do to fix these errors, and your data may
not be recoverable. (Try Bag of Tricks or similar programs - you
might get lucky, and they may be able to fix your original disk - and
then you can transfer it).
When floppy disks become old (10-15+ years), then there is a real
danger of data loss, bad sectors, and invalid sectors / data on disks
because of the ravages of Bit Rot. Unless you have good backups of
these disks, then it may be too late and your data / programs may be
lost forever.
If the disk image does not work after the transfer, and you are sure
that your original disk is 100% good and working, then there could
have been some sort of corruption or bad sectors on one of the floppy
disks on the Apple 2 (something that used to happen with alarming
regularity on real Apple 2's), or some sort of corruption in the
transfer process, or the disk may be copy protected or it could use a
strange format.
ADT can only handle standard Apple ][ floppy disks. i.e. non copy
protected disks and disks that don't have strange formats. If you
have these type of disks, then you need to use SST - Super Saltines
Transcopy.
See "Transferring Copy Protected Disks" below for further details.
****************************************************
Transferring Copy Protected Disks : Apple 2 -> PC
****************************************************
Execute SST - Super Saltines Transcopy on the Apple 2 :
Select Menu Option 1 - Pirate a Disk
Select Menu Option 2 - Pack
Enter the Start Track - 0 is the default
- just hit enter to keep this value.
Enter the End Track - 34 is the default
- just hit enter to keep this value.
Step - 1 is the default
- just hit enter to keep this value.
Synchronize Tracks - NO is the default
- just hit enter to keep this value.
Nibble Count - NO is the default
- just hit enter to keep this value.
Now you are told to insert disks, and press <Return>.
So, place the Copy Protected Disk into Drive 1 on your Apple 2 and a
blank DOS 3.3 formatted disk into Drive 2, and press <Return>.
SST will then read the copy protected disk and write this in packed,
transferrable format onto the standard DOS 3.3 disk in Drive 2.
Only half of the image of the Copy Protected Disk can fit onto the
blank disk in Drive 2, so at the half-way point, SST will ask you to
place another blank formatted disk into Drive 2.
Do, this, and press <Return> and SST will complete the process.
Now, you have a 2 standard DOS 3.3 floppy disks that each contain
half of a complete image of a Copy Protected Disk.
These Disks can then be transferred to the PC for use with emulators
using ADT, in exactly the same as we transferred Standard Floppy
Disks above. (See "Transferring Standard Floppy Disks" above).
On the PC side - where you are running an Apple 2 emulator - you will
need to use SST (running on an Apple 2 Emulator) to stitch the 2
halves of the Copy Protected Disk's disk images back together again.
Let's say you transfer the 2 standard disks as "d1a.dsk" and
"d1b.dsk", we now need to UnPack these disks from within the Apple 2
Emulator on the PC to a special NIB disk image file (you could copy
and overwrite an existing NIB file, or else download and use the
blank.NIB file from Asimov - I'll assume you have called the NIB file
"game.nib" on the PC) :
Select Menu Option 1 - Pirate a Disk
Select Menu Option 3 - UnPack
Select Menu Option 1 - Packed Parms
Enter the Start Track - 0 is the default
- just hit enter to keep this value.
Enter the End Track - 34 is the default
- just hit enter to keep this value.
Step - 1 is the default
- just hit enter to keep this value.
Synchronize Tracks - NO is the default
- just hit enter to keep this value.
Nibble Count - NO is the default
- just hit enter to keep this value.
Place d1a.dsk in drive 1 and game.nib in drive 2, and hit <return> to
make SST proceed.
Then, when prompted to "turn over the disk", place d1b.dsk in drive 1
and leave game.nib in drive 2 and hit <return> and SST will finish
the process of rebuilding a virtual disk image copy of the original
copy protected floppy disk.
You should then have a NIB disk image file that contains the copy
protection / formatting information of the original disk along with
all of the program code / data from this disk, and this disk should
now run under emulation just as the original floppy disk runs on a
real Apple 2, only it will be considerably faster under emulation.
****************************************************
Transferring Copy Protected Disks : PC -> Apple 2
****************************************************
You can reverse the above process to transfer NIB disk images back to
real floppy disks on the Apple 2. To do this, you would use SST on
the Apple 2 emulator to pack the NIB disk onto two .DSK disk image
files, ADT these across onto 2 floppy disks on the real Apple 2, and
then use SST on the real Apple 2 to unpack (stitch) these together
again onto a single floppy disk.
****************************************************
Copy Protected Disks Problems ?
****************************************************
If you have any problems / errors, then check out your original disk
and make sure it is fully working. If it contains bad sectors, then
there is nothing SST can do to fix these errors, and your data may
not be recoverable. (Try Bag of Tricks or similar programs - you
might get lucky, and they may be able to fix your original disk - and
then you can transfer it).
When floppy disks become old (10-15+ years), then there is a real
danger of data loss, bad sectors, and invalid sectors / data on disks
because of the ravages of Bit Rot. Unless you have good backups of
these disks, then it may be too late and your data / programs may be
lost forever.
If the NIB disk does not work after the transfer, and you are sure
that your original disk is 100% good and working, then there could
have been some sort of corruption or bad sectors on one of the floppy
disks on the Apple 2 (something that used to happen with alarming
regularity on real Apple 2's), or some sort of corruption in the
transfer process. So try again.
If the resulting NIB disk still doesn't work, then the problem is
most likely because the Copy Protection on the original disk image is
more than SST can handle with its default settings, and you may need
to adjust some of SST's parameters, or (if that doesn't work), then
use some other process to transfer the disk - see below.
I have transferred well over 50 Apple 2 disks from the Apple 2 to the
PC or from the PC back to the Apple 2, and probably only 5-10 of
these were copy protected or had strange formats, but SST handled
these disks perfectly every time, and straight ADT transfers handled
the rest.
I have never heard of SST having problems with fierce / nasty /
strange copy protection schemes - it seems to handle everything you
can throw at it - but I guess there could be cases where SST just
can't handle the protection / formatting of the disk.
If SST does not do the job for you, then use some other process to
transfer the disk. (Such as a Copy ][+ Option Board, or a TrackStar
128 Card, or enlist the help of someone who is an expert in
deprotecting ancient Apple 2 disks or do something else).
****************************************************
Conclusion
****************************************************
Whatever you do, make sure you do it sooner rather than later. The
older your disks become, the higher the chances for errors and data
loss.
In the late-1990's, I purchased an Apple ][c epecially to transfer
all of my existng work from my Apple 2 days way back in 1981/82/83
over to the PC. However, as it turned out, I was too late, and I
ended up losing a large number of the earliest programs and work that
I had ever written on the Apple 2 because of old disks going bad, and
this was very painful and sad. I hope you don't suffer the same
fate. ;)
Transfer your old disks today !
All the best,
Mike "Moose" O'Malley
____________________________________________________
Moose's Software Valley - Established July, 1996.
WEB: http://move.to/moose
____________________________________________________
EOF.