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Steppe
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 1510 |
FD2000/HD/1581 versions of multidisk games
Hi all,
I'm right now playing Ultima V on my C128. And even though I have a second drive connected I find the disk swapping extremely annoying. I wonder if one of those jewel crackers out there would like to do a version of that game (or other multidisk RPG like Bard's Tale II+III, Dragon Wars, just to name a few) that run from a single 1581/CMD FD2000/CMD HD or IDE64 (even 64HDD would be nice)?
I did a little research on Ultima V and discovered that the majority of the files on the 8 disks is redundant data! Actually only about 2 files per disk differ from files on other disks with the same filename! So I could imagine that all it takes is to modify the main program files, add a few branching instruction depending on the location of the game (Dungeons, Keeps, Towns...), rename the non-redundant files and adjust the main program files to load those renamed files instead.
Am I just blue-eyed, or do you think this is doable with reasonably low effort? |
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Steppe
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 1510 |
Using 1581copy myself, never had problems with it. All it takes are two properly aligned drives. ;-)
The 1581 support in SC really sucks big time (no offense, Joe), you feel set back to the old datasette days, where you loaded the game, then went to make homework. And when you came back it was either finished or you had a ?LOAD ERROR on screen... ;-) |
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6r6_Nostalgia
Account closed
Registered: Oct 2003
Posts: 14 |
Quote: Anything wrong with 1581Copy, can use Star Commander to edit D81 and xfer direct.
1581copy is a nice tool for smaller files. But for large files, for instance a iffl file of 300+ blocks, it only gives me errors. |
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Stryyker
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 468 |
Well I don't use it for files within a 1581 disk image - just for a plain disk image itself. Would be sweet if it worked under XP.
I use my own tools for the disk image fiddling.
I was only asking because GRG suggested copying to 1541 then to 1581 (way slower than the quick time 1581Copy takes).
Back to the original idea - I've found many older multilevel cracks worked fine with my FD as most used ROM file routines. Sweetness for the JiffyDOS people etc. |
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6r6_Nostalgia
Account closed
Registered: Oct 2003
Posts: 14 |
Stryyker, I do it your way, I fill up a output.d81 image
and transfer with 1581COPY /B OUTPUT.D81 A:
But that doesnt work for me on large games.
Moving all the files from my version of Project Firestart into a d81 image and copy with 1581copy doesnt work.
Copying with SC -> 1541 and then 1541 -> 1581 does work!
Maybe it has to do with what kind of hardware your pc got,
so I am only suggesting that the safest method seems to
be the slow method.
<6R6> |
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Stryyker
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 468 |
I don't use the BAM copy like you. Perhaps this part is bugged? I'm a simple 1581copy sthing.d81 a: |
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6r6_Nostalgia
Account closed
Registered: Oct 2003
Posts: 14 |
Some news regarding FD2000/4000 :
The bug we had with those drives has been
fixed, and our next games featuring the iffls routine will
work for FD users as well. It has only taken 2 years to
find out what was wrong....
Look out for iffls v3.5.
Many thanks to Ninja/Dreams for debugging.
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Bender
Account closed
Registered: May 2003
Posts: 9 |
That's great news! Will the games with the old routine be re-released with the new one installed? That would totally rock! |
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6r6_Nostalgia
Account closed
Registered: Oct 2003
Posts: 14 |
I am considering. I do have backups of most of my work files from the last 2-3 years. The fix is rather easy to do, the old iffl routine will work for FD if you remove 4 or 5 BCS lines in the scanner and loader code.
If you want to test for yourself I can tell you what
to do....
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6r6_Nostalgia
Account closed
Registered: Oct 2003
Posts: 14 |
Actually this makes me wonder, how many browsing these
forums are using FD-2000 or FD-4000? Say 'AYE' |
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Stryyker
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 468 |
AYE |
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