Re: How to make .nib disk images?

[noone@nowhere.net]

The program is Saltines Super Trancopy or SST.
Copied from post in same group, different thread, thankx Moose:


****************************************************
 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 "d1.dsk" and "d2.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 d1.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 d2.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 d 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.


Hope this is useful.

 Mike "Moose" O'Malley
____________________________________________________
 Moose's Software Valley - Established July, 1996.
 WEB:  http://move.to/moose  Email:  moose@move.to
____________________________________________________


> > The way you create a disk image now is, a program reads the disk bytes
> > from half a disk and stores that data on a whole normal disk.  Then it
> > is repeated for the second half.  These two disks get moved to the other
> > pc and merged into a nib image using the emulated version of the
> > program.
> 
> really??  what program is that??  is there a program that runs on the
> II that can spit out a whole .nib image onto a 3.5" drive?  can this
> above program read in a .nib and produce a real floppy??