Re: SAM Software Archive
On Nov 25, 2004, at 3:10 pm, Simon Owen wrote: I added basic FDI support to SimCoupe last night, Cool! I've yet to create any SAM images in the format, working with some downloaded sample images instead. I assume there are some standard PC programs already written which will transfer floppy disks to and from this format? Google shows some hits which look promising, but I don't have a PC to test any of them, so... Cheers, Andrew -- --- Andrew Collier http://www.intensity.org.uk/ --- -- Have you lost your Marbles? http://www.marillion.com/
RE: Domain name - voting ends Fri night!
This all sounds like a great idea, and worldofsam.org gets my vote. In case it helps, I'll certainly not complain about anything I still hold copyright to going up - although all the Fred magazines are already up, there were some other mags I got in the end (Enceladus, SCPDU, Outlet), and of course, all the commercial software - although I should point out that certainly the copyright to the code of those will have reverted to programmers long ago, but design, art, audio and other rights to most of the titles probably still rest with me. What about the paper mags, does anyone still have those? C. PS : Mr Cooke, that's a yes ;) Good luck! -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Gavin Smith Sent: 25 November 2004 21:59 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Domain name - voting ends Fri night! Just a reminder that I'd like to get the domain name for our archive sorted out tomorrow night so if anyone hasn't voiced their opinion, can you do so ASAP? In an attempt to avert a stand-off similar to Ukraine's, I've listed the votes so far below - if I've got any wrong, can you let me know by tomorrow evening, thanks! IMHO, the SAM isn't a Spectrum and we therefore shouldn't be copying a Speccy site ;) We should proudly have its full name in the domain name of a site that is intending to archive all the software (and thus our memories) of the machine. To me, samcoupe.org sounds great - we didn't demand a new name for SimCoupe in case people got confused between SAM Coupe and SimCoupe, did we? ;) Each to their own though, majority rules, so speak your mind while you have the chance! :) worldofsam.org Andrew Collier Geoff Winkless Ian Spencer Matthew Craven Simon Owen Wolfgang Haller samcoupe.org Calvin Allett Dan Doore Frans van Egmond Gavin Smith Johnna Teare samcommunity.org Adrian Brown Colin Piggot
Re: Domain name - voting ends Fri night!
Here's my vote then. Let's have all of them. We can redirect to the actual content anyway, and it's basically fiddling while Rome burns. Cheers Howard
RE: Domain name - voting ends Fri night!
Any chance we could get the 'book' published on the new site? This is the last chnace we get to make a fuss of our little machine. Pray, tell us what went on behin the scenes Col. We are so unimportant in the eyes of eveeryone else apart from sam-users lets set the world straight. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Colin Macdonald Sent: 26 November 2004 00:33 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: RE: Domain name - voting ends Fri night! This all sounds like a great idea, and worldofsam.org gets my vote. In case it helps, I'll certainly not complain about anything I still hold copyright to going up - although all the Fred magazines are already up, there were some other mags I got in the end (Enceladus, SCPDU, Outlet), and of course, all the commercial software - although I should point out that certainly the copyright to the code of those will have reverted to programmers long ago, but design, art, audio and other rights to most of the titles probably still rest with me. What about the paper mags, does anyone still have those? C. PS : Mr Cooke, that's a yes ;) Good luck! -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Gavin Smith Sent: 25 November 2004 21:59 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Domain name - voting ends Fri night! Just a reminder that I'd like to get the domain name for our archive sorted out tomorrow night so if anyone hasn't voiced their opinion, can you do so ASAP? In an attempt to avert a stand-off similar to Ukraine's, I've listed the votes so far below - if I've got any wrong, can you let me know by tomorrow evening, thanks! IMHO, the SAM isn't a Spectrum and we therefore shouldn't be copying a Speccy site ;) We should proudly have its full name in the domain name of a site that is intending to archive all the software (and thus our memories) of the machine. To me, samcoupe.org sounds great - we didn't demand a new name for SimCoupe in case people got confused between SAM Coupe and SimCoupe, did we? ;) Each to their own though, majority rules, so speak your mind while you have the chance! :) worldofsam.org Andrew Collier Geoff Winkless Ian Spencer Matthew Craven Simon Owen Wolfgang Haller samcoupe.org Calvin Allett Dan Doore Frans van Egmond Gavin Smith Johnna Teare samcommunity.org Adrian Brown Colin Piggot
RE: Domain name - voting ends Fri night!
My vote is for samcoupe.org... ray
RE: Domain name - voting ends Fri night!
From: Colin Macdonald What about the paper mags, does anyone still have those? I've got all ... Erm... 2 issues of BOAI that I can put up, provided that there are no objections from the Rookyards. (I lost touch with them a while back... I need to get back in touch). C. PS : Mr Cooke, that's a yes ;) Good luck! Unfortunately, when it came to the in-person interview my 3D math was rusty. Everything else, they liked. 3D Math being rusty? Even though I could look it up in a pinch, and be up to speed in 2 weeks? They didn't like that. Slightly annoying really. So I'm on a mission to improve my 3D math skills (which I mostly did the evening after the exam, so now I'm pissed at myself about the lost opportunity). I still might make it down to E3 - one potential plan is to start my own business, or go work with someone else's. I may just show up regardless because I want to go :) Simon
Re: Domain name - voting ends Fri night!
My Vote ( if valid ) is for samcoupe.org . Dumitru Florin . - Original Message - From: Simon Cooke [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Friday, November 26, 2004 6:28 AM Subject: RE: Domain name - voting ends Fri night! From: Colin Macdonald What about the paper mags, does anyone still have those? I've got all ... Erm... 2 issues of BOAI that I can put up, provided that there are no objections from the Rookyards. (I lost touch with them a while back... I need to get back in touch). C. PS : Mr Cooke, that's a yes ;) Good luck! Unfortunately, when it came to the in-person interview my 3D math was rusty. Everything else, they liked. 3D Math being rusty? Even though I could look it up in a pinch, and be up to speed in 2 weeks? They didn't like that. Slightly annoying really. So I'm on a mission to improve my 3D math skills (which I mostly did the evening after the exam, so now I'm pissed at myself about the lost opportunity). I still might make it down to E3 - one potential plan is to start my own business, or go work with someone else's. I may just show up regardless because I want to go :) Simon
Re: Domain name - voting ends Fri night!
My Vote goes to: samcoupe.org When having problems with mixing it up with Colin's samcoupe.com then use bookmarks. Edwin
Re: Domain name - voting ends Fri night!
On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 21:59:26 + Gavin Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: samcoupe.org me. -Frode -- ^ Frode Tennebø | email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ^ | Ericsson AS | Isebakkeveien 49 | | N-1788 Halden | Phone: +47 45 24 99 39| | with Standard.Disclaimer; use Standard.Disclaimer;|
RE: Domain name - voting ends Fri night!
As I said, I own samcoupe.co.uk - that will forward over, and ill make sure the others all forward correctly. On the subject of paper magazines - ive got a lot of format mags, now depending on copyright etc. I could scan the ones that are sam related and create pdf's of them. Adrian -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Howard Price Sent: 26 November 2004 01:02 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Domain name - voting ends Fri night! Here's my vote then. Let's have all of them. We can redirect to the actual content anyway, and it's basically fiddling while Rome burns. Cheers Howard
Re: Domain name - voting ends Fri night!
My vote goes for worldofsam.org Cheers Andy Gavin Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 25/11/2004 21:59 Please respond to sam-users To:sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no cc: Subject:Domain name - voting ends Fri night! Just a reminder that I'd like to get the domain name for our archive sorted out tomorrow night so if anyone hasn't voiced their opinion, can you do so ASAP? In an attempt to avert a stand-off similar to Ukraine's, I've listed the votes so far below - if I've got any wrong, can you let me know by tomorrow evening, thanks! IMHO, the SAM isn't a Spectrum and we therefore shouldn't be copying a Speccy site ;) We should proudly have its full name in the domain name of a site that is intending to archive all the software (and thus our memories) of the machine. To me, samcoupe.org sounds great - we didn't demand a new name for SimCoupe in case people got confused between SAM Coupe and SimCoupe, did we? ;) Each to their own though, majority rules, so speak your mind while you have the chance! :) worldofsam.org Andrew Collier Geoff Winkless Ian Spencer Matthew Craven Simon Owen Wolfgang Haller samcoupe.org Calvin Allett Dan Doore Frans van Egmond Gavin Smith Johnna Teare samcommunity.org Adrian Brown Colin Piggot __ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email __ ** This message is confidential. It may not be disclosed to, or used by, anyone other than the addressee, without the consent of the sender. If you receive this message in error, please advise the sender immediately. A list of trustees and directors of Macmillan Cancer Relief is available for inspection at our registered office, 89 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7UQ Registered Charity number 261017 Isle Of Man Charity number 604A A company limited by guarantee Registered in England number 2400969. ** __ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email __
Re: Domain name - voting ends Fri night!
As I said, I own samcoupe.co.uk - that will forward over, and ill make sure the others all forward correctly. I could forward samcoupe.kicks-ass.org too. Edwin
Re: SAM Software Archive
My current favourite to replace SDF is the Russian FDI format, as used by some Spectrum emulators. Like SDF it's relatively high-level, and covers all the usual custom formatting tricks that are required for protected SAM titles. Details can be found here: http://www.worldofspectrum.org/faq/reference/formats.htm#FDI Interesting Format. But when going through all the trouble of changing to a new disk image format (converting to FDI) its still pretty limited. I think diskimages should only contain a relevant data for minimum requirements and everything else optional (how many (zipped) dsks are around that contains junk filled 'empty' sectors, it should only be included optionally) . I don't know about gunzip but some compression algorithm that allowes sam to decompress on the fly and has some sort of crc to detect bad images are highly recommended. works in my existing MakeSDF utility (as seen by only a couple of you): Snip Maybe something to add for my B-Link Project the extra disk/sector info could be used to easely detect bad sectors in images. a. I don't have an IDE interface so I don't know exactly what the SAM will be able to read. Is there software to make it understand an ISO filesystem? Martijn added ISO CD-ROM support to B-DOS (most recent is version 1.7n right Martijn ?) Edwin
RE: SAM Software Archive
Edwin Blink wrote: Interesting Format. But when going through all the trouble of changing to a new disk image format (converting to FDI) its still pretty limited. There's no conversion needed, as existing SAM software can remain as DSK images. FDI images are only needed for non-standard disks that can't be represented in DSK format (they can also be used for general-use stuff too). FDI is still limited when you look at some of the heavier floppy controller tricks you can do, but it's enough for 99% of SAM disks I've seen. It's also a straight-swap replacement with SDF too, so just taking over that existing area rather than being introduced for a new purpose. I think diskimages should only contain a relevant data for minimum requirements and everything else optional Teledisk actually does it well, flagging rather than storing empty sectors - it's just a shame most other formats don't do the same. With FDI you can still have very small images by only storing the sectors used by the files on the disk, with blank tracks requiring only the 7-byte header. At a quick guess, a fairly extreme 5 track single sided disk would use: 14 + 5*(7 + 10*(7+512)) bytes, which is about 25K. Maybe something to add for my B-Link Project the extra disk/sector info could be used to easely detect bad sectors in images. Do you support transferring only the used sectors of disks, in the case where it's a SAMDOS-compatible format? It makes a big difference to the new SamDisk when transferring near-empty disks, and would be even bigger for your comms transfers! Si
RE: SAM Software Archive
Andrew Collier wrote: I assume there are some standard PC programs already written which will transfer floppy disks to and from this format? I've found a DOS MAKEFDI utility, though I've yet to try it out properly (will do when I get home). The docs are in Russian but the usage text from the program itself is in English (and shows some controller-level settings, as you'd expect). I'll create a W2K/XP version of it at some point, but there might not be quite the same hurry if there's a working solution already :-) Si
Re: SAM Software Archive
still have very small images by only storing the sectors used by the files on the disk, with blank tracks requiring only the 7-byte header. OK had a better look at the info. At a quick guess, a fairly extreme 5 track single sided disk would use: 14 + 5*(7 + 10*(7+512)) bytes, which is about 25K what's with the track header length? following your example. If you can have null tracks and sectors then the smallest diskimage of a singlesided diskimage that contains 1 directory entry (0,0) a single file of less then 502 bytes (4,1) could be 14+2*(7+(1*(7+512)) a little over 1K(1066 bytes) ? Thats not bad at all. But a full standard diskimage will have a overhead of more then 12K which makes it less interesting Do you support transferring only the used sectors of disks, in the case where it's a SAMDOS-compatible format? It makes a big difference to the new SamDisk when transferring near-empty disks, and would be even bigger for your comms transfers! Your right comms transfers could be a lot faster when those junk sectors are not send. Currently it just reads in a standard disk from a dsk image and send in two passes all done in basic. The transfering part is done in MC offcourse. I'm seriously about a new disk format. So any one having thoughts shout ! Edwin
RE: SAM Software Archive
I like the idea of a new format as well - definitely needs to be able to handle non standard sectors etc - compression. I can knock up a windows utility to convert to/from any format etc if needed. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Edwin Blink Sent: 26 November 2004 13:14 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: SAM Software Archive still have very small images by only storing the sectors used by the files on the disk, with blank tracks requiring only the 7-byte header. OK had a better look at the info. At a quick guess, a fairly extreme 5 track single sided disk would use: 14 + 5*(7 + 10*(7+512)) bytes, which is about 25K what's with the track header length? following your example. If you can have null tracks and sectors then the smallest diskimage of a singlesided diskimage that contains 1 directory entry (0,0) a single file of less then 502 bytes (4,1) could be 14+2*(7+(1*(7+512)) a little over 1K(1066 bytes) ? Thats not bad at all. But a full standard diskimage will have a overhead of more then 12K which makes it less interesting Do you support transferring only the used sectors of disks, in the case where it's a SAMDOS-compatible format? It makes a big difference to the new SamDisk when transferring near-empty disks, and would be even bigger for your comms transfers! Your right comms transfers could be a lot faster when those junk sectors are not send. Currently it just reads in a standard disk from a dsk image and send in two passes all done in basic. The transfering part is done in MC offcourse. I'm seriously about a new disk format. So any one having thoughts shout ! Edwin
RE: SAM Software Archive
Earlier I wrote: I've found a DOS MAKEFDI utility, though I've yet to try it out properly (will do when I get home). I've not had any success with MAKEFDI version 1.2 beta, which is dated 2002. I tried under FreeDOS beta 9, MS-DOS 6.22, and a Windows 98 SE boot disk - the disk did spin up but it reported read/controller errors for the first track no matter what I did. Ah well. Si
