Struggling with ADFFS/Pi2/RO5.23

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GraemeScott
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Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2017 10:03 pm

Struggling with ADFFS/Pi2/RO5.23

Post by GraemeScott »

I'm hoping this is a quick question... I bumped into you at the Risc OS London show with some Acorn woes. I've been trying to get some of my games, imaged and working on VirtualAcorn, on to the Pi running Risc OS 5.23 with the ePIc card I picked up at the show.

I have upgraded the OS to the nightly beta build, and ADFFS works great for the games available to download here.

However I'm struggling with two adf images that I have of Galactic Dan and Small. They are both listed as compatible, and work on Virtual Acorn, however they both refuse to run on the Pi2 with ADFFS.

I tried mounting the images, then running the game specific !Obey file for it, but Small says "Memory cannot be moved" and Galactic Dan (with the !Obey file) displays the title screen followed by an Abort on Internal data transfer error.

Is there a guide to using your own existing adf's, or what am I doing wrong? I presume, if I had a real RiscPC, ADFFS could produce the correct image from the original disk, and I'd not have any issue. Is the issue that these adf's are not produced by ADFFS? I'm hoping I can aquire a real RiscPC, use my original disks again, and get this going. :)

I did buy the PC card from the charity stand... I just lack the rest of a RiscPC!

Thanks;

Graeme
JonAbbott
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Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:13 pm
Location: Essex
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Re: Struggling with ADFFS/Pi2/RO5.23

Post by JonAbbott »

Hello again Graeme.

You will need to use the boot script that comes with ADFFS for the version you have. You can find these in !ADFFS.Obey which is a ZIP file, just open it with SparkFS and run the correct script with the ADF mounted.

Bare in mind, the scripts are written for the original game releases, so may or may not work with unofficial copies.

Keep your eye on eBay, you'll eventually find a cheap RiscPC.
GraemeScott
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2017 10:03 pm

Re: Struggling with ADFFS/Pi2/RO5.23

Post by GraemeScott »

I've picked up a proper RPC now, but creating adf's of my old disks has proven problematic. I've replied on another thread to this effect. I couldn't seem to get ADFFS to create the image. I tried, as an alternative, !ADFCreator, and that did manage to create images of Galactic Dan and Zarch. However if I mount the images with ADFFS, when I 'boot floppy' Zarch it crashes... and Galactic Dan fails at the loading title screen with a Prefetch error. :(

It seems my nostalgia gaming session will have to wait... :(

Graeme
JonAbbott
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Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:13 pm
Location: Essex
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Re: Struggling with ADFFS/Pi2/RO5.23

Post by JonAbbott »

GraemeScott wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2017 10:24 pm I've picked up a proper RPC now, but creating adf's of my old disks has proven problematic. I've replied on another thread to this effect.
You need a machine the game will run on first, before you can create the recording file. I'll make the recording files I've generated publicly available, which will allow people to image games on later machines...provided they're identical versions of course.
GraemeScott wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2017 10:24 pm I tried, as an alternative, !ADFCreator, and that did manage to create images of Galactic Dan and Zarch.
Both discs have sector based disc protection, which !ADFCreator won't be able to image. !ADFCreator also adds rubbish into the file, the output isn't a true ADF file.
GraemeScott wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2017 10:24 pm if I mount the images with ADFFS, when I 'boot floppy' Zarch it crashes... and Galactic Dan fails at the loading title screen with a Prefetch error.
"Boot floppy" will only run the !Obey.Fxxxx script if it's booting a JFD file, which contains metadata. Booting an APD or ADF is the equivalent of SHIFT-BREAK so will rely on the game being compatible with the machine you're attempting to run it on.
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