Converting disks to HDF https://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=4773.

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ssj Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« on: January 27, 2012, 10:10:58 AM »
SmallMember

Hi,
Posts: 8

I'm trying to convert multiple disk games into a single bootable HDF file (1 HDF
per game). There are some available on the web like SSF2, Akumajou Dracula,
etc.
I thought this would just be a matter of creating an empty hdf file and then use
disk explorer to extract the files from each of the disks and import them into the
blank hdf, probably it's not so easy. I tried doing that and the games usually
boot, but after a little bit they hang with some message on screen, since I can't
read japanese I have no idea on what it says. Maybe some sort of copy
protection?
I tried searching about this, but couldn't find much about the subject on another
forum someone mentions autoexec.bat needs to be edited, but doesn't explain
exactly what needs to be done. If someone could give me some hints I would
greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

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eidis Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2012,
ThrobbingMember
01:08:25 AM »

Hi SSJ and welcome to our forum !

First you will need to create SASI hard disk image with XM6. Click on Tools ->
Make a new SASI Fixed Disk. Select the appropriate size for the disk image and
Posts: 1201 make sure that check box "Do Logical Formatting" is enabled.

Then go to Tools -> Options -> SASI. Increase "Drives" parameter to "1". Cick
on the No.1 drive and select the newly created HD image. Make sure that you
unmount any, if mounted, SxSI and SCSI images so that they won't interfere.

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Right now the X68000 is unable to boot from it, because there are no system
files. COMMAND.X and HUMAN.SYS are mandatory for X68000 to boot into
command prompt. It is not advisable to copy them from different images by hand
because IMHO HUMAN.SYS is somehow linked to the sector where it resides.

You will need to download Human 3.02 floppy image file. Get it here:
http://retropc.net/x68000/software/sharp/human302/HUMN302I.LZH

After booting from human302.xdf into command prompt type:

sys c:
copy command.x c:\command.x

Eject the XDF file and reboot. If everything worked, you hould be greeted with
the following message:

http://foto2.inbox.lv/eidis/X68000/SASI.png

After that you can import files in the newly created image but be sure not to
overwrite HUMAN.SYS and COMMAND.X. Upon booting X68000 executes
config.sys file which usually loads drivers into memory and autoexec.bat which
loads DOS programs. Take a look inside the famous HD image and after some
tinkering you will be able to write them like a pro.

Download the image here:

http://nfggames.com/X68000/Games/X68000v2.zip

More info on installing games to hard drive:

http://www.gamesx.com
/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:installing_games_to_hard_drive

Best of luck and feel free to ask any questions !

Eidis

P.S. It could be that those games that you are trying to install are already present
in the image

« Last Edit: January 28, 2012, 01:12:58 AM by eidis » Report to moderator Logged

X68000 personal computer is called, "X68K" or "no good good" is called, is the PC that are loved
by many people today.

ssj Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2012,
SmallMember
07:35:13 AM »

Posts: 8
Thanks eidis!

I'm aware of your hard drive image project, fantastic work you are doing there
looking forward to see v3
I use your image all the time, but what I wanted right now was to create
standalone hdf files for some of the games so I can use them seamlessly on XM6
through a frontend, which would be something really hard to do using your image
since I need to navigate through a few menus until I reach the desired game.

I was simply copying all the files from the floppy and not getting anything from
the Human disk so that might be what was causing the problems, I can only test
within some hours when I get home, I'll tell you if that did the trick.

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Just one more question, if I want the games to automatically start after booting
the machine I don't need to rename autoexec.bat to !start.bat right?

Thanks again for your help, I hope I'll be able to get these going tonight.

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eidis Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2012,
ThrobbingMember
11:01:26 AM »

Hi !

Please note that Caius was the main inspiration and driving force behind HD
image v2 and he already has contributed many awesome hd installed games for
Posts: 1201 the upcoming v3 so the image is a joint effort. Thanks again Caius for your
contributions and sorry for the big delay. I have some special plans in mind for v3
to take it to the next level

Autoexec.bat file is the same as any other bat file except for the fact that it is
executed upon each reboot automatically. You will need to learn some basic DOS
commands to feel more comfortable with editing it. Here are a few of the most
often used ones:

CD
DIR
COPY
FORMAT
MKDIR
DEL
SUBST (the best)
MEM
VER
SWITCH (very important. aka BIOS setup)

You can use these reference manuals with a grain of salt:

http://www.sophos.com/support/knowledgebase/article/13195.html

http://www.lsi.upc.edu/~robert/teaching/foninf/doshelp.html

Many games rely on being executed from floppy disks so they need to be fooled
with the "subst" command which basically maps directory to a device letter. This
method is very popular with two floppy games. Check out Example 2 in the
tutorial which link I mentioned in my previous post.

For the most stubborn ones there is the 2HDBOOT method which loads floppy
image file into RAM and boots it from there. I'm not a real fan of this method
because it requires at least 2 or 3 MB for a single floppy game which would
otherwise run fine with 1MB. Check out the guide here:

http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?action=printpage;topic=2081.0

You can copy games from the HD image file to your custom image files, just
make sure that paths in bat file are correct and that all mentioned files are
present. Sometimes the files will be executed from "path" which is defined in
autoexec.bat. Most of the times "path" files reside in "BIN" directory. Every game
on floppy, except some rare ones, has config.sys and autoexec.bat files. View
them in text editor to get a better understanding of how they are being executed.

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Once again, a good understanding of how MS-DOS works will come a long way.

P.S. You can use Abby Finereader to extract error messages in written form and
then make friends with translate.google.com

Best of luck !
Eidis

« Last Edit: January 28, 2012, 11:24:22 AM by eidis » Report to moderator Logged

X68000 personal computer is called, "X68K" or "no good good" is called, is the PC that are loved
by many people today.

ssj Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2012,
SmallMember
04:04:33 PM »

Posts: 8
Thanks again for helping me out eidis, I'm old school so I have good knowledge of
MS Dos, I'm new to Human OS though and the first thing that surprised me was
actually how similar to DOS it was.
Looking forward to see that v3, I'm sure it will be something and thanks to Caius
as well for helping in such a great project.

I think after your tips I'm getting somewhere, I managed to get a few of the
easier 1 disk games to run like Arkanoid or A-Jax. 2 disk games, the ones that
require usage of SUBST are giving me issues. Lets take After Burner 2 for
example, your !Start.bat begins with:
SUBST B: A:\GAMES\AFTERBURNER2
SUBST A: A:\GAMES\AFTERBURNER2

I understand why, but on my hdf file since I have everything at the root I don't
know what I should use instead of these, I tried:
SUBST B: A:
SUBST A: A:

Or just
SUBST B: A:

And the game does boot and I see the main title screen, but after that the music
keeps playing and all I get is a black screen and I can see on XM6 that the FDD is
being accessed even though I don't have anything there. Any idea on how the
mapping should be done on this case?

The 2HD method worked like a treat for the same After Burner 2 though, so
thanks for pointing that! I understand RAM might be an issue on real hardware,
but since I'm running it through XM6 I'm setting the memory to 12MB so I
suppose I won't have any problems with that.
Still, would be nice to get it running without 2HD as well.

At least thanks to your valuable tips I'm much better than I was a couple of days
ago

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eidis Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2012,
ThrobbingMember
02:16:03 AM »

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Hi !

You need to subst only B: if the game files are in root. Please note that for best
Posts: 1201 compatibility you will need to make sure that your custom images load the same
files from config.sys which are present in the root config.sys of master HD image.

I'll make it real simple for you. In your case config.sys file should look like this:

Code: [Select]
FILES = 30
BUFFERS = 20 1024
LASTDRIVE = Z:
USKCG = USKCG.SYS
DEVICE = FLOAT2.X

Copy USKCG.SYS and FLOAT2.X from "SYS" and SUBST.X from "BIN" to root.

The autoexec.bat for Afterburner2 should look like this:

Code: [Select]
SUBST B: A:\
ABIPL.X
ABRAM.X

Quote

And the game does boot and I see the main title screen, but after that the music
keeps playing and all I get is a black screen and I can see on XM6 that the FDD is
being accessed even though I don't have anything there. Any idea on how the
mapping should be done on this case?

This is a fine example what happens when the path has been incorrectly mapped
or the protection kicks in.

Best of luck and keep us posted !

Eidis

« Last Edit: January 29, 2012, 02:18:19 AM by eidis » Report to moderator Logged

X68000 personal computer is called, "X68K" or "no good good" is called, is the PC that are loved
by many people today.

ssj Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2012,
SmallMember
11:24:22 AM »

Posts: 8 You're the best Eidis!

That worked great, even though After Burner 2 hangs just a bit after the game
starts, but the exact same thing happens if I run it from your HDD image so I'm
guessing this has something to do with the RAM and CPU model I'm using on
XM6. Not sure if that makes a difference or not.

I hate to keep bothering you, but I came across even another different scenario,
After Burner 2 has no config.sys on his dir so I could just use the main one, right.
So I was trying to convert Arcus Odyssey now and this one does have a config.sys
on his dir, so what should my config.sys look like?
If I leave the main one and simply ignore the one on the game folder, the game

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boots, but it's missing some sprites right on the title screen. If I use the one from
the game folder it won't boot at all, I also tried combining both, but no luck.
Here's the example:

Code: (My root dir. Config.sys) [Select]

FILES = 30
BUFFERS = 20 1024
LASTDRIVE = Z:
USKCG = \SYS\USKCG.SYS
DEVICE = \SYS\FLOAT2.X

Note that I ended up creating a SYS directory on my image root instead of pulling
everything into the root, looks cleaner this way. So USKCG.SYS and FLOAT2.X are
on the SYS directory.
SUSBT.X is on the root though.

Code: (Game Config.sys (not used??)) [Select]

FILES=15
BUFFERS=20 1024
USKCG=OP_GAIJI
ENVSET=512
SHELL=COMMAND.X

And my autoexec.bat looks like this:

Code: [Select]
SUBST B: A:\
NuHO OFF
M_DRV
IPL
OPENING_LOOP
OP4
ARCUS_O
ED1

Thanks!

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eidis Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2012,
ThrobbingMember
11:40:49 PM »

Hi !

I have come up with even cleaner and simpler way to accomplish your goal.

Posts: 1201 http://foto2.inbox.lv/eidis/X68000/ArcusOdyssey.png

config.sys
Code: [Select]
FILES = 30
BUFFERS = 20 1024
LASTDRIVE = Z:
USKCG = \SYS\USKCG.SYS
DEVICE = \SYS\FLOAT2.X

autoexec.bat
Code: [Select]
ECHO OFF
PATH A:\;A:\SYS;A:\BIN
CD ArcusOdyssey
di

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Substitute "di" with "!start.bat" for other games.

ArcusOdyssey !Start.bat
Code: [Select]
SUBST B: A:\ArcusOdyssey
SUBST A: A:\ArcusOdyssey
NuHO OFF
M_DRV
IPL
OPENING_LOOP
OP4
ARCUS_O
ED1

As you stated, there are corrupted graphics during the intro sequence. The
graphics are fine if the game is launched through DI. Surely it's not as sexy as
booting straight into the game but this is a minor inconvenience.

Best of luck !
Eidis

« Last Edit: January 29, 2012, 11:50:02 PM by eidis » Report to moderator Logged

X68000 personal computer is called, "X68K" or "no good good" is called, is the PC that are loved
by many people today.

ssj Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2012,
SmallMember
09:30:33 AM »

Posts: 8 Thanks once again

I like that file organization better as well, cleaner indeed I'll use it from now on.
Your solution does work, just don't understand why I get corrupted sprites the
other way, actually you don't need to run di to get the correct sprites, this will
work as well:

Code: (autoexec.bat) [Select]

ECHO OFF
PATH A:\;A:\SYS;A:\BIN
CD ArcusOdyssey

And then I just type !Start.bat at the command prompt and the game starts
correctly, I have no idea why this happens as for me adding !Start.bat to the last
line of autoexec.bat would be the exact same thing or am I missing something?
Using 2HD worked fine for this one as well so I'll use 2HD for it as my idea would
be to have all games to start automatically, still would be interested on
understanding why those corrupted sprites appear.

Thanks to your help I've been doing some nice progress, and for those stubborn
games 2HD has been working like a treat since on an emulator I don't have any
RAM constraints this is a really good option to deal with those cases.

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caius Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #9 on: January 31, 2012,
ThrobbingMember
05:28:09 AM »

Posts: 612 Quote from: eidis on January 28, 2012, 11:01:26 AM

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Hi !

Please note that Caius was the main inspiration and driving force behind HD image
v2 and he already has contributed many awesome hd installed games for the
upcoming v3 so the image is a joint effort. Thanks again Caius for your contributions
and sorry for the big delay. I have some special plans in mind for v3 to take it to the
next level

Hi Eidis and pardon for my absence but there is aso a REAL life (job, mainly...)
besides the virtual one....
Thanks very much for your beautiful words!By the way, could you tell me what
was the last contribution (the name of the installed games) I sent you?I want to
start again from where I finished

P.S.

Do you know other good games that we never tried to installed?

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ssj Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #10 on: February 03, 2012,
SmallMember
05:33:42 AM »

Posts: 8 Do you guys know if there's any list with all x68k games ever released? I know it
can be hard with all the doujin games, but would be nice to have a list with at
least all commercial games. So far I've been using TOSEC as my base list, but I'm
sure there are some more nice games I might be missing.

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caius Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #11 on: February 03, 2012,
ThrobbingMember
06:56:39 PM »

Posts: 612 Quote from: ssj on February 03, 2012, 05:33:42 AM

Do you guys know if there's any list with all x68k games ever released? I know it can
be hard with all the doujin games, but would be nice to have a list with at least all
commercial games. So far I've been using TOSEC as my base list, but I'm sure there
are some more nice games I might be missing.

Hi,I know this list:

http://www20.atpages.jp/tkhr000/x68softlist/x68soft.htm

but I don't know if it's complete.

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ssj Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #12 on: February 04, 2012,
SmallMember
09:04:01 AM »

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Posts: 8
Thanks, that's a great site! Too bad it's all in japanese, but google translator will
help
Great thing it also has screenshots so I can check if a game looks promising from
those.

Do you happen to know any sites that have good quality scans of the boxart as
well?

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alestemsx Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #13 on: January 27, 2016,
Newbie
07:53:25 AM »

Posts: 1
Hi eidis i need your help in two things, first one is possible to make naious for use
via cf card? i try but dont work. Second i need galseed2 in xdf or dim to use on
my Xbox emulator for play in my crt 29 tv, but i dont find in any place, is possible
to help me?
thanks, regards

Alestemsx

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SuperDeadite Re: Converting disks to HDF

Quote
« Reply #14 on: January 27, 2016,
MassiveMember
11:54:49 AM »

Posts: 407 Due to the way the game accesses the disks, Naious will only boot correctly off of
floppies.

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