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Re: Renaming the downloads !
Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:51 am
by admin
I did finish - all of the ones still marked for under-dump are because they do not have the correct number of leader/sync bytes so will not load into a real dragon and thus cannot be considered to be a full dump of the game even if they load and work in an emulator.
Re: Renaming the downloads !
Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 10:12 am
by robcfg
Well, there are games that have the initial 128 lead bytes, and then only a lead byte between blocks, like Keys of the Wizard.
About my last uploads, I'll try them in the dragon and confirm they work ok or not.
Re: Renaming the downloads !
Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 2:51 pm
by admin
They are fine - its all the ones missing the 1st 128 bytes that I have automatically flagged as as they will not load into a real dragon. Some will have slipped through the net and need to be re-classified - happy to do this if people tell me which ones need to be changed.
Re: Renaming the downloads !
Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:37 pm
by Alastair
I will test the ones I uploaded that are marked with a
, though someone with a Dragon 64 will have to check "Perseus & Andromeda" to make sure that the graphics load (instructions are given in the text file included in the zip). But before I do this, Simon will you confirm that the CAS images found in the downloads section are the images I uploaded in the thread viewtopic.php?f=7&t=271 ?
Addendum.
I note that "Exploring Adventures on the Dragon" is marked with an "m" for modified. Given that I uploaded an unmodified image in the thread I mention above and that "Trivial Crosswords" is not in the Downloads section, I take it that at the very least that the Downloads section does not contain those files I uploaded on or after the 12th September 2010.
Re: Renaming the downloads !
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:55 am
by admin
Alastair wrote:I will test the ones I uploaded that are marked with a
, though someone with a Dragon 64 will have to check "Perseus & Andromeda" to make sure that the graphics load (instructions are given in the text file included in the zip). But before I do this, Simon will you confirm that the CAS images found in the downloads section are the images I uploaded in the thread viewtopic.php?f=7&t=271 ?
Addendum.
I note that "Exploring Adventures on the Dragon" is marked with an "m" for modified. Given that I uploaded an unmodified image in the thread I mention above and that "Trivial Crosswords" is not in the Downloads section, I take it that at the very least that the Downloads section does not contain those files I uploaded on or after the 12th September 2010.
Probably not - I have had very little time this year. Do you want an FTP account so you can manage the downloads section?
Re: Renaming the downloads !
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:30 am
by robcfg
We should have a wiki page with the instructions for getting correct dumps.
I mean, how tape dumps should be done, which format, the lead bytes, etc... Same for disks and cartridges. That would help a lot and ease the work.
Re: Renaming the downloads !
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:39 pm
by sixxie
For CAS files, I'd say if a simple CAS->WAV direct conversion loads on a real Dragon, that's good enough. So 128 byte leaders at least or it probably wouldn't work for real.
Re: Renaming the downloads !
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:01 pm
by robcfg
Ok, but if you use Fixcas, I don't know if it modifies the other blocks byte leaders' making it longer to load than it should.
That's why I would prefer a page in the wiki with precise instructions.
Re: Renaming the downloads !
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 5:21 pm
by geirhovland
Here is one pragmatic suggestion for creating CAS files with the correct byte leaders:
1. Start up xroar
2. Press CTRL+L and select a CAS file with or without the correct byte leaders
3. CLOADM
4. To find start address: PRINT PEEK(487)*256+PEEK(488)
5. To find end address: PRINT PEEK(126)*256+PEEK(127)-1
6. To find exec address: PRINT PEEK(157)*256+PEEK(158)
7. Press CTRL+W to save to a new cassette image
8. CSAVEM"FILENAME",START,END,EXEC (then press F12 to speed it up)
Re: Renaming the downloads !
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 5:59 pm
by sixxie
There's also the "tape rewriting" method:
Start XRoar with the "-tape-rewrite" option, select separate tape files for reading (C-l) and writing (C-w) then load as normal: whatever the ROM routines see while reading will be dumped to the output CAS file. It won't do everything properly, as it tries to be intelligent about where leaders go and if "protection" is picky about that, it might end up making things worse. But most of the time you'll end up with a file with good leader lengths and a byte-aligned bitstream.