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Remastering a 1541 disk from G64 Pirates images

For creating a working 1541 game disk from G64 Microprose Pirates images you will need the following: Required hardware: - Windows 2000/XP PC with parallel (printer) port - 1541 disk drive with parallel port (hardware addon; drive ID set to 8) - XAP1541 parallel cable for connecting the two (other cables or USB solutions may also work) - empty 1541 disk - optional: disk drive speed control Required software: - "nibtools 0.5.4" copy program for Windows 2000/XP - "opencbm 0.4.2" Windows 2000/XP drivers for connecting to the 1541 - G64 Pirates images (e.g. supplied) The main problem with remastering is the length of the tracks: The original G64 track images are longer than what actually fits to disk, thus overwriting themselves at normal 300rpm drive speed. What you can do depends on your drive's capabilities, especially if you can manually slow down the drive speed sufficiently to get all data onto the tracks. Some of the older 1541 drives have a factory built in potentiometer you can use to manually customize the drive speed with a screwdriver (must open the drive). Without such a manual drive speed control the track images inside the G64 images have to be shortened and you have to apply patches. >> My drive is equipped with a manual speed control >> My drive has no manual speed control (or I don't know)

Remastering Pirates with a manual speed control

----- Draft version - experimental track alignment ----- Our concern here is to slow down the drive motor sufficiently to write all tracks out to disk in their whole length. We can use the original G64 images here (with fixed Track 36 key sector, and -if you like- applied bugfixes). Before you start you must set the drive speed using "rpm1541.exe" from the "opencbm" package before each nibwrite run. You will have to play around a little with the drive speeds. For tracks 1-17 a speed around 295rpm should be ok and for tracks 18-36 around 299.8rpm. !! Warning !! rpm1541.exe requires to write a signature to Track 41 ! Never use rpm1541.exe with original disks ! I played with the nibwrite parameters and the following were my choice: -c: "disable automatic capacity adjustment". We do this manually with our speed control. -r: "disable automatic sync reduction". Prevents shortening of the long sync marks. -f: "disable automatic bad GCR detection". Do not write zeros instead of bad GCR bytes (gaps); does not change the original data from the G64 images. Make sure you have the zero area on Track 36. -G0: sets "manual gap match length" to zero. Don't change any gaps or rearrange whole track images, we do this manually with our speed control (at the track gap). Instructions: Connect your 1541 to your PC using the XAP1541 cable (turn them off before connecting!) and run instcbm.exe from "opencbm" to start the driver. Now make sure your empty disk is in the 1541 drive, open a Windows command shell (cmd.exe) and change to the "nibtools" directory. We remaster each track range separately and in only one pass. Type in nibwrite -E17 -c -r -f -G0 side1.g64 (at ~295rpm) nibwrite -S18 -E36 -c -r -f -G0 side1.g64 (at ~299.8rpm) to write disk side 1 (same with disk side 2 and side2.g64). You need to keep an eye on the nibwrite console output. You have to play around with the drive speed to avoid too many truncated bytes at the track cuts (e.g. "trunc:10" was too much for me) - but try to avoid too many off-bytes there as well. Track 36 should be remastered separately at exactly 300rpm. Finally run instcbm.exe -r to unload the driver. You should now have a working 1541 Microprose Pirates "backup" disk. Here is a complete sample console logfile of the remastering using the manual drive speed control. It happens that a remastered disk does not work: Make sure the disk is ok or try another 1541 disk - or disk drive. Tracks 37-42 are not used in Pirates, so there's no problem with them. Is the corresponding G64 image working in WinVice (with applied patches)? Problems with tracks 1-35: It's very likely a track was still too long and got (partially) overwritten by itself. Make sure your drive speeds are always ok and try slightly slower speeds. You can also create a G64 image from the non-working disk, use WinVice to track down the exact track(s) and sector(s) where the problem(s) occur, and/or use UltraEdit in hex-mode to see what's wrong with the G64/disk image at the track cuts. Always remaster each whole track range (1-17 and 18-36) separately and completely in only one pass, so nibwrite can track-align the tracks. Track 36 is not detected (head goes to Track 42 or so and bumps there): Reason: Track 36 is not recognized by the $0558 routine. Re-check Track 36 Key Sector length and remaster Track 36 again from the corresponding G64 image file, e.g.: nibwrite -S36 -E36 side1.g64 (at 300rpm). The location of the Key sector inside the G64 Track 36 image is not unimportant for remastering. If your Key Sector is located at the beginning or end of the G64 Track 36 image, then try moving the Key sector into the middle of the G64 Track 36 image, inside the track filling sync mark (using UltraEdit in hex-mode) and remaster it again.

Remastering Pirates without manual speed control

We can't write the tracks in their whole length out to disk here, so we need to shorten them and patch out certain integrity checks. A safe method would be to apply the new patches to the G64 images (disabling the whole protection) and shorten the tracks sufficiently ourselves as described. I did this with the supplied patched and bugfixed G64 Pirates images, you can use them here. Instructions: Connect your 1541 to your PC using the XAP1541 cable (turn them off before connecting!) and run instcbm.exe from "opencbm" to start the driver. The drive motor speed is at the usual 300rpm as we can't adjust it here. Now make sure your empty disk is in the 1541 drive, open a Windows command shell (cmd.exe) and change to the "nibtools" directory. Then type nibwrite -E36 side1p.g64 to write disk side 1 (same with disk side 2 and side2p.g64). (side1p.g64 and side2p.g64 being your patched/bugfixed and probably track- shortened G64 images). Note: Remastering Track 36 is not necessary if you applied the new patches. Finally run instcbm.exe -r to unload the driver. You should now have a working 1541 Microprose Pirates "backup" disk. Here is a complete sample console logfile of the remastering at the normal 300rpm drive speed. If you intentionally use uncut/unshortened G64 images there will be truncated tracks in the nibwrite console output (e.g. "trunc:4" or so) and there will be no guarantee your remastered disks work. It happens that a remastered disk does not work: Make sure the disk is ok or try another 1541 disk - or disk drive. Tracks 37-42 are not used in Pirates, so there's no problem with them. Is the corresponding G64 image working in WinVice (with applied patches)? Use "rpm1541.exe" from the "opencbm" package to make sure your drive speed is close to the usual 300rpm (never let your original disk in the drive when using this tool!). Problem: There are truncated tracks listed in the nibwrite console log, -or- DOS formatted tracks cannot be read (Directory track 18, tracks 1-6 on side 1, tracks 1-9 on side 2), -or- a file loads endlessly (new patches applied), -or- you encounter errors with a $0415 routine addon: several head recalibrations onto track and black screen (old patches). Reason: It's likely a track was too long and got (partially) overwritten by itself. Solution 1: Cut the $7B extra sectors from all tracks, shorten all long Sync marks to (standard) 5 bytes length and remaster again. (Don't forget to adjust the two-byte G64 track lengths when cutting things). Every remastered disk with the new patches should work then. Solution 2 (problems with DOS formatted tracks): Apply your chosen patches to the D64 images and use them to remaster: nibwrite -E6 side1.d64 , nibwrite -S18 -E18 side1.d64 for side 1, and nibwrite -E9 side2.d64 , nibwrite -S18 -E18 side2.d64 for side 2. D64 images do not contain the $7B extra sectors and all Sync marks are 5 bytes long. The DOS formatted tracks should really be ok now. Problem: Track 36 is not detected (head goes to Track 42 or so and bumps there). Reason: Track 36 is not recognized by $0558 routine. Solution 1 (if you have the old patches applied): Re-check the length of the Key Sector (must be <253) and remaster Track 36 again from the corresponding G64 image file, e.g.: nibwrite -S36 -E36 side1p.g64 . Check your Key Sector location inside the Track 36 image. Solution 2 (if you have no patches applied): Re-check Key Sector and remaster Track 36 again from the corresponding G64 image file. Check your Key Sector location inside the Track 36 image. Solution 3: Use the new patches to circumvent Track 36 handling.