Creating APD Images

Discuss the project, or ask a general question
Post Reply
arcador
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 6:13 pm

Creating APD Images

Post by arcador »

I am wanting to image my old floppies as I know some are starting to fail and have got through a large proportion but have no idea where to start with the protected originals, even after much googling.

Could someone point me in the right direction for creating these please? I have quite a few to do, but specifically I am wanting to make sure that Bamboozle survives as I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere!

I'd rather not have to buy a Kryoflux if I don't have to, but do have access to an Amiga if needed.

Thanks!
JonAbbott
Posts: 2938
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:13 pm
Location: Essex
Contact:

Re: Creating APD Images

Post by JonAbbott »

arcador wrote:I am wanting to image my old floppies as I know some are starting to fail and have got through a large proportion but have no idea where to start with the protected originals, even after much googling.
The software to create APD's isn't publicly available, you can however use ADFFS to create a JFD file which will capture the protection. There's instructions in the !Help file on how to do this:
Imaging floppy discs
--------------------

Requirements: At least 1500KB in the Next slot
At least 64KB in the Free slot

1. Clean boot the machine (this is to ensure the floppy has not been seen by ADFS)
2. Load !ADFFS
3. *ADFRecord adfs::4.$.Fiiiiidd
Where:
iiiii - is the ID from the table below
dd - is the disc number (eg 01, 02, 03 etc)

eg Flashback disc 1 would be F1015901
4. Insert the floppy and copy all files to a temporary folder on your harddisc. You may delete them as soon as the copy has finished, this step ensures all used sectors are seen by ADFFS.
5. Run the game, once its fully loaded or prompts for another disc, press SHIFT-CTRL-F10. If there's no protection or you're imaging disc 2 onwards, you can skip both this step and step 6.
6. Reboot machine (if you've had to run the game)
7. Open !ADFFS.ConvRec.ConvRec in an editor and change the following settings:
in_file$ = "adfs::4.$.<file name from step 3>"
out_file$ = "adfs::4.$.<file name from step 3>/jfd"
title$ = "<title> (<year>) (<publisher>)"
discs_in_set = <number of discs in the game set>
this_disc = <this disc number>
official_id = <ID from ID table>

If the floppy is an HD floppy, also set:
floppy_is_hd = 1

If you're unsure of <year> or <publisher> again, JASPP will correct those. <title> is indicated in the ID table.

You can ignore all other flags, JASPP will test and set those.

eg. Imaging Flashback disc 2 the settings would be:
in_file$ = "adfs::4.$.F1015902"
out_file$ = "adfs::4.$.F1015902/jfd"
title$ = "Flashback (1994) (U.S. Gold)"
discs_in_set = 6
this_disc = 2
official_id = 10159
floppy_is_hd = 0
8. Make sure the floppy is in the drive
9. Run !ConvRec
If the JFD file is 0 bytes, its likely you don't have enough free memory
10. Send all of the JFD files and recordings to: jon@jaspp.org.uk or eMail for FTP submission details
Skip step 10, unless its a title that we're missing JFD images of.
arcador
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 6:13 pm

Re: Creating APD Images

Post by arcador »

Thanks Jon, I didn't realise it wasn't available - that makes sense. I will try ADFFS. Thanks a lot!
GraemeScott
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2017 10:03 pm

Re: Creating APD Images

Post by GraemeScott »

JonAbbott wrote: Fri Jan 16, 2015 8:21 pm
arcador wrote:I am wanting to image my old floppies as I know some are starting to fail and have got through a large proportion but have no idea where to start with the protected originals, even after much googling.
The software to create APD's isn't publicly available, you can however use ADFFS to create a JFD file which will capture the protection. There's instructions in the !Help file on how to do this:
Imaging floppy discs
--------------------

Requirements: At least 1500KB in the Next slot
At least 64KB in the Free slot

1. Clean boot the machine (this is to ensure the floppy has not been seen by ADFS)
2. Load !ADFFS
3. *ADFRecord adfs::4.$.Fiiiiidd
Where:
iiiii - is the ID from the table below
dd - is the disc number (eg 01, 02, 03 etc)

eg Flashback disc 1 would be F1015901
4. Insert the floppy and copy all files to a temporary folder on your harddisc. You may delete them as soon as the copy has finished, this step ensures all used sectors are seen by ADFFS.
5. Run the game, once its fully loaded or prompts for another disc, press SHIFT-CTRL-F10. If there's no protection or you're imaging disc 2 onwards, you can skip both this step and step 6.
6. Reboot machine (if you've had to run the game)
7. Open !ADFFS.ConvRec.ConvRec in an editor and change the following settings:
in_file$ = "adfs::4.$.<file name from step 3>"
out_file$ = "adfs::4.$.<file name from step 3>/jfd"
title$ = "<title> (<year>) (<publisher>)"
discs_in_set = <number of discs in the game set>
this_disc = <this disc number>
official_id = <ID from ID table>

If the floppy is an HD floppy, also set:
floppy_is_hd = 1

If you're unsure of <year> or <publisher> again, JASPP will correct those. <title> is indicated in the ID table.

You can ignore all other flags, JASPP will test and set those.

eg. Imaging Flashback disc 2 the settings would be:
in_file$ = "adfs::4.$.F1015902"
out_file$ = "adfs::4.$.F1015902/jfd"
title$ = "Flashback (1994) (U.S. Gold)"
discs_in_set = 6
this_disc = 2
official_id = 10159
floppy_is_hd = 0
8. Make sure the floppy is in the drive
9. Run !ConvRec
If the JFD file is 0 bytes, its likely you don't have enough free memory
10. Send all of the JFD files and recordings to: jon@jaspp.org.uk or eMail for FTP submission details
Skip step 10, unless its a title that we're missing JFD images of.
I've been following the guidelines in the !Help file, as above, to try and create images of Galactic Dan and Zarch. However I am not seeing any file created in adfs::4.$ . It says to then run the game, but the game fails to start as if I'm just running it normally.

Am I just doing something daft? I'm using a StrongArm RPC with 64mb ram and RO4.02. I'm hoping to create adf's of very old disks before they fail, and some commercial games are among them.

Thanks;

Graeme
JonAbbott
Posts: 2938
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:13 pm
Location: Essex
Contact:

Re: Creating APD Images

Post by JonAbbott »

To create the recording file to then image a game, you must be able to run the game on the machine you're attempting to imaging it on. You also need a harddisc to save the recording file too and 4MB of RAM to create the image itself, so for the majority of games that will be a 4MB ARM3 based machine.
Post Reply