| Author: | hyper active (registered user: 296 posts ) |
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| Date: | Tue, Jan 18th, 2011 @ 23:10 ( . ) |
Hi there. Here are some games that might be able to be fixed with re-dumping with the current nibtools as of this writing version rev: 485. With any luck, this may mean that less patching is needed for some games. First let's go through all the v-max ones. Bop-n-rumble mindscape v-max Championship Baseball (Gamestar) (v-max) Circus Charley v-max Defender of the crown v-max Deja vu v-max Felony (v-max) Galaxian v-max. Infiltrator II v-max Into the eagle's nest (v-max Paperboy ntsc v-max Pole position v-max Side arms v-max star rank boxing v-max superstar ice hockey v-max Xevious v-max. |
 | Author: | Pete Rittwage (registered user: 558 posts ) |
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| Date: | Wed, Jan 19th, 2011 @ 08:20 ( . ) |
You can try, but I don't think you'll get a clean image of track 20 on those games. They have "bad" GCR on that track in a way that causes framing loss unless you use the integrated V-MAX loader. That's why all the copiers from back then have a custom copier that uses the V-MAX loader itself to read them and copy them to other areas of the disk. |
 | Author: | Lord Crass (guest: search) |
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| Date: | Wed, Jan 19th, 2011 @ 21:37 ( . ) |
I thought the problem with these titles was that they used that "secondary" v-max protection where there was some sync counting or other odd byte sequence that wouldn't duplicate properly that showed up later in the game. For example, in Defender of the Crown, I was able to get a working track 20 without too much trouble, and the game would load fine, but when you went to go jousting, it read something on track 11 or 12 of side 2 and then froze. All the cracks of the time would patch out this second check. I don't know of anything that ever duplicated it, even super-card+... Anyone got details on what exactly it was the game was looking for and why it wouldn't copy? |
| Author: | hyper active (registered user: 296 posts ) |
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| Date: | Wed, Jan 19th, 2011 @ 22:21 ( . ) |
Maybe now that nibtools has improved, this might mean that tracks 11 and 12 could be readable by now. |
| Author: | hyper active (registered user: 296 posts ) |
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| Date: | Thu, Jan 20th, 2011 @ 04:51 ( . ) |
Hi, I've been messing about with superstar ice hockey. It appears to use the same nasty 2 long track protection like Defender of the crown on tracks 12 and 17. After displaying the title screen, it attempts to load the rest of the game but as soon as it hits track 17, it jumps right back to track 12 and tries to load the same segment over and over again. I'd love to see how nibtools rev 485 would handle this situation. I tried using a really old copy of mnib with my original disk of express raider, the one with the George Heyward protection, and it thinks that tracks 38 and 39 are unformatted, however nibtools rev: 485 has no such problems reading it. So my thinking is: if rev 485 can read, and remaster a tricky protection like George Heyward, Maybe, just maybe rev 485 can read v-max long tracks. |
 | Author: | swolff (registered user: 26 posts ) |
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| Date: | Fri, Jan 21st, 2011 @ 03:29 ( . ) |
I investigated the Defender of the Crown jousting problems recently (2008/2009 I think), and sent my findings to Pete R. Unfortunately, I can't find the email and I don't really remember the problem. I believe it was related to the limited accuracy of remastered sync lengths. |
| Author: | swolff (registered user: 26 posts ) |
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| Date: | Sun, Jan 30th, 2011 @ 15:17 ( . ) |
Whoops, I just checked my notes, and they only briefly touch upon the "go jousting" problem. If I've investigated this problem, I have no notes of it (and no recollection either). I'll look into this some day. |
 | Author: | Fungus (registered user: 20 posts ) |
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| Date: | Wed, Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 00:47 ( . ) |
Many of the v-max 2 titles need to be re dumped anyways because they were copied with Maverick first before nibbing and bare little resemblance to the original disks. Maverick converted the V-Max format to standard GCR and replaced the loader entirely for most of the titles. I have looked at quite a few of them and they are no longer formatted as v-max disks. I can have a look at them again and report which ones have been completely altered and which ones have not. |
| Author: | Pete Rittwage (registered user: 558 posts ) |
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| Date: | Wed, Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 08:46 ( . ) |
All the V-MAX disks in my library are originals that I dumped myself (except PAL versions). There are a few that have a "patched" version, but the original is kept in those cases and the patched versions are marked as such. Remember that <= VMAX2 is normal CBM DOS formatted sectors. I try very hard to only have original images in the database. The exceptions are images that were sent in and the user "thought" they were originals. |
| Author: | Fungus (registered user: 20 posts ) |
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| Date: | Thu, Feb 24th, 2011 @ 22:33 ( . ) |
Hrm that's strange that some of the ones I have are nothing like the dumps... well anyways, I'm ordering a zoom floppy as soon as the money I transferred into paypal gets in there, and I am buying another drive from someone. So I HOPE I can start xferring around the beginning of next month. |
| Author: | Pete Rittwage (registered user: 558 posts ) |
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| Date: | Fri, Feb 25th, 2011 @ 08:03 ( . ) |
Many C64 games had different mastering runs since the platform was viable for so long. If you have different versions, that's great! :) |