Hi Guys !
Here is something for all of you. Enjoy the Engrish and some cool new games !
X68000 HDD image V4:
http://nfggames.com/X68000/Games/X68000V4.zip (http://nfggames.com/X68000/Games/X68000V4.zip)
========================================================
Eidis and Caius present
X68000 HDD image V4
========================================================
Today we have hit a milestone. Not only does this image
features new great games but also the following programs
have been translated to Engrish:
HUMAN.SYS - Human OS hardware interfacing routines
and the DOS initialization program.
COMMAND.X - Default operating system shell.
ED.X - Text editor
LHES - File commander
What this means for the user is that system error
messages are now being displayed in Engrish and a very
powerfull File commander with integrated archive support
can now be fully utilised. Please update your bootloader
with bootset.x in the included MasterDisk V2 image if
you are using a SASI machine.
The following LHES modules have been translated:
========================================================
LHES.X - Main executable
KDF.X - Key definition source file compiler
KDF.DOC - Manual for KDF.X
LHES.DEF - LHES environment definition file
LHESKEY.DEF - LHES key definition source file
LHESVIEW.X - Simple text file viewer
The hard disk image is optimized for X68000 systems
with 2MB RAM and games are divided into three categories:
Games - Can be launched from LHES
Games2 - Must be launched from pure DOS
Games3 - 4MB required
A new feature is added in V4 which makes launching
games very easy. Navigate with LHES to desired directory
and press Q key two times. This will exit LHES, unload
HIOCS.X driver and launch !Start.bat if it is found in
the current directory.
P.S. There is a special treat in Multimedia\Pictures
directory ;) Highlight file and press enter to
view.
========================================================
Change list since V3
========================================================
1) Fixed Games
========================================================
Afterburner2
Daimakaimura
PacMania
SupStreetFighter2
2) Games which require less memory
========================================================
Motos
Salamander
ArgosNoSenshi (former Rygar)
3) Games which were moved to Games2
========================================================
Algarna
BonanzaBros
Marble Madness
Namachuukei
Otoko Dama
Square Resort
4) Games which were moved to Games3
========================================================
Garou2
5) New Software
========================================================
Games
=====
Gradiusarcade
MrDo
NeuralGear
Ohimesama
Overdriver
PrinceOfPersia
SuperXadlak
Terradrive
Turbulence
Games2
======
Cynthia_v2
DieBahnwelt (RadicalR translation)
ExcitingHour
Genocide1
Genocide2
Jyotei4
SquareResort
Undeadline
Games3
======
Buster
Hatenkou
Tools
=====
Muterm
========================================================
Greetings to all GameSX forum members and X68000 users.
========================================================
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis (24.05.2014)
Folks, give a big thanks to Eidis!
Excellent work!
It is definitely time that I put this together so I can use it on my X68. =D
Fantastic work! Each image makes the x68k that much more approachable :)
Hi Guys !
Already found a bug in V4. The following games in Games2 got accidentally broken:
Algarna
Namachuukei
Square Resort
You can easily remedy the situation by editing their !Start.bat and making sure that SUBST command is pointing to Games2 instead of Games. Sorry for the caused inconvenience.
Update #1: Granada intro hangs
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Fantastic will try this later big thanks to all involved
Thank you! Excellent!! 8)
Awesome, cheers!!
Love this image its superb, could someone please do me a favour and try New Zealand Story for me runs fine in emulation on XM6 but I keep getting the message below on the X68000 Compact XVI running with 4mb expanded memory and it just sits there and nothing happens, don't think its a memory issue as Super Street Fighter 2 and other memory demanding games work fine?
Try the following bat file for NewZealandStory:
ECHO OFF
SUBST B: A:\GAMES\NEWZEALANDSTORY
SUBST A: A:\GAMES\NEWZEALANDSTORY
NLS
Make sure that no external devices are connected and that all floppies are removed.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Fantastic! now I have something worthwhile to restore to the mechanical clunker that someone jerry rigged into my XVI (that's if I ever get the damn thing running again.. mind you)
No still doesnt work :(
Quote from: eidis on May 26, 2014, 01:46:13 AM
Try the following bat file for NewZealandStory:
ECHO OFF
SUBST B: A:\GAMES\NEWZEALANDSTORY
SUBST A: A:\GAMES\NEWZEALANDSTORY
NLS
Make sure that no external devices are connected and that all floppies are removed.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Hurray!
Yes, confirmed, The New Zealand Story doesn't work also on my CompactXVI with 6MB of Ram.Something has broken in this new relese since it worlked in the past ones.Anyway, ASAP I will look into and troubleshoot it or install in a different way.Stay tuned.
Many thanks
Quote from: caius on May 27, 2014, 07:48:09 AM
Yes, confirmed, The New Zealand Story doesn't work also on my CompactXVI with 6MB of Ram.Something has broken in this new relese since it worlked in the past ones.Anyway, ASAP I will look into and troubleshoot it or install in a different way.Stay tuned.
Hi Guys !
Try this patched NZS main executable. It no longer requires SUBST and should start the game if launched without !Start.bat.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
I just tried the patched executable and I got still the same issue.I'm wondering if this games has ever worked in the old HDD image releases but I can't remember it.
P.S.
What HEX values did you patch?
The game worked fine on my ACE HD in V3. Have you tried it in 10Mhz mode ? The "B:\" references were deleted in the executable.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Yes, I tried both in 10MHz and 16MHz modes and got always same issue.IMHO it concerns only the Compact model.Lydux, where are you? :)
Do you think the SUBST command breaks something?
It is not related to SUBST because patched X file does not need it. So far we know that it works on ACE and does not work on Compact. Could it be related to SASI vs SCSI or SxSI ? By the way, try the following trick. Copy older version of COMMAND.X to the NZS directory and launch it by typing COMMAND.X NLS.X
Keep the scene alive !
EIdis
I tried different COMMAND.X version without success, as you said probably this issue is related to SCSI interface of newer X68000 model.I tried also 2HDBOOT method but it doesn't work.
I can confirm that NZS does not work on SCSI machines. Just tried it in emulator and got the same error as Caius.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Quote from: eidis on May 29, 2014, 06:33:48 AM
I can confirm that NZS does not work on SCSI machines. Just tried it in emulator and got the same error as Caius.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
I can't get to work SCSI emulation under XM6 Type G, I tried both SCSIINROM.DAT and SCSIEXROM.DAT but it doesn't boot.
NZS doesn't work on v3 HDD with SCSI either.
Yes, now we know for sure it's an issue related to SCSI.I think some ASM patches to main executable are needed.
I tried to burn on CF without success... what is the best method to burn this image on CF ? thx
Quote from: akumajo on June 04, 2014, 05:21:36 AM
I tried to burn on CF without success... what is the best method to burn this image on CF ? thx
You can use WinImage program and a memory card reader.
the image file is invalid, can you be a more specific about steps plz ?
Don't know about winImage.
I've used this, easy to use, went fine:
http://www.disk-image.com (http://www.disk-image.com)
Pick Trial Pro version. Lite version can't write raw images if remember correctly.
Quote from: akumajo on June 04, 2014, 05:50:22 AM
the image file is invalid, can you be a more specific about steps plz ?
Which option of WinImage did you use?You have to go 'Disk' menu and then choose 'Restore Virtual Hard Disk image on physical drive" , 'select a physical drive in the list' (your memory card reader) and then choose the .HDS image to write (turn on the option to see all files otherwise the program will see only .VHD ones).
ok it works with your method thx, writren on SD (not CF :P)
but now, how I'm supposed to write MasterDisk_V2.xdf ? My setup is X68000 Super (5.25 floppy drives) + External SCSI Enclosure + SD2ISO + 2 Gb SD.
Hi Akumajo !
Your X68000 Super has SCSI. SxSI driver is only required by older SASI machines. All you need to do is boot from Human 68k floppy disk, which hopefully came bundled with your system, run switch.x and select the correct SCSI ID of your device. The default is ID0. Try going through all available ID's, if you don't have the Human 68k floppy disk, until you find the right one.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
P.S. Check out Chapter 3 in the updated Wiki article:
http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:hard_drive_on_sasi_machine (http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:hard_drive_on_sasi_machine)
Ok I found an human 2 floppy and used the switch.x method, changed to scsi6 and now it works ! Thank you.
Do you know if its possible to force some games to boot in 15khz instead of 31khz (exemple Akumajo Dracula)? I have a trisync monitor so no problem ;).
If yes, would it be possible to add this "tweak" on your image ?
Another cool feature could be the possibility to browse LHES with a pad ;) (so no more need a keyboard).
Most of the times the "tweak" is built into the game itself and can be used by holding HELP or OPT.1 key while launching the game. Sometimes these keys work when the game has already loaded and there are times when F1 - F12 keys work as well. You could try it with various games, take notes and then post your results. There are supposedly Easter eggs in some games as well.
Here is a small list which could come in handy:
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~debiddo/mygames.htm (http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~debiddo/mygames.htm)
Regarding LHES, there is already an open thred but unfortunately untill now no one has volunteered to help the great cause.
http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=5317.0 (http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=5317.0)
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Any workaround yet to get NZS working on SCSI machines other than using floppy disk version?
Quote from: eidis on May 29, 2014, 06:33:48 AM
I can confirm that NZS does not work on SCSI machines. Just tried it in emulator and got the same error as Caius.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Not yet. We need someone with asm experience and such people are usually not interested in debugging games.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Thanks a lot , Eidis ! ;D
And a huge thank you to all active members of this forum !
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Is there a reliable way to edit this image from a PC to add more games/files to it?
http://nfggames.com/X68000/uploads/X68000_V4_IL.HDS (http://nfggames.com/X68000/uploads/X68000_V4_IL.HDS)
And here is the V4 image with Illumination Laser added to Games3! The file is uploading, so give it an hour or two.
Quote from: cr4zymanz0r on June 15, 2014, 02:44:07 PM
Is there a reliable way to edit this image from a PC to add more games/files to it?
Pretty straightforward. transfer though Disk Explorer gave me lot of errors.
So i mounted the image with XM6, installed games/transfered from old image/whatever (Gotta love "No Wait(VM)"), raw image transfer to x68000 SD/CF/HDD with winamge or something like that.. That's it.
Late thanks for the image update guys.
By the way, i'd be honored you add my format translation to your image. GUI is bearable now. ^^ (Tested again and again on my hard drive)
Sitting at the end of this thread some time ago.. http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=5143.msg34286#msg34286 (http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=5143.msg34286#msg34286)
Plus if you need workforce for additional Human68k translations...
Could be a funny project btw...
Hi Neshek !
Your translation looks very good so it will definitely be included in the next image. Keep up the good work !
Eidis
Quote from: eidis on June 16, 2014, 03:39:54 AM
Hi Neshek !
Your translation looks very good so it will definitely be included in the next image. Keep up the good work !
Eidis
I agree, looks fine for me too.
Quote from: RobIvy64 on June 15, 2014, 04:18:19 PM
http://nfggames.com/X68000/uploads/X68000_V4_IL.HDS (http://nfggames.com/X68000/uploads/X68000_V4_IL.HDS)
And here is the V4 image with Illumination Laser added to Games3! The file is uploading, so give it an hour or two.
Can this be added to the /Games directory with the other HDD images?
It has IL added as well as fixing many of the directory bugs with V4.
It's not an ~~****OFFICIAL EIDIS RELEASE****~~ but it's an improved version ;)
Hi RobIvy64 !
Please be more specific about the directory bugs.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Quote from: eidis on May 24, 2014, 06:11:53 PM
Hi Guys !
Already found a bug in V4. The following games in Games2 got accidentally broken:
Algarna
Namachuukei
Square Resort
You can easily remedy the situation by editing their !Start.bat and making sure that SUBST command is pointing to Games2 instead of Games. Sorry for the caused inconvenience.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
^^ this
Hi Guys !
I would like to make a public announcement.
First of all I would like to say thank you to Caius and all who were involved in making HDD image what it is today. There has been a constant demand for frequent updates and that is why I would like to introduce a good, user-friendly and most importantly bandwidth-friendly solution.
From now on HDD V4 image will be used as a baseline and all further updates for it will be released as patches. V5 will be released when significant amount of changes have accumulated and the cycle will repeat itself.
It took a lot of work and effort to make the image what it is today and that is why I would like to ask you to let me be the one who decides which path it takes. Some of you might disagree with such decision, however until now it has brought great prosperity for all of us. If you want some specific changes to be done, please submit your requests in this thread and I will review them before releasing the next official patch. Please understand that some requests might differ with my intended vision and evolution of HDD image and might be rejected.
And now, finally I would like to present to you a revolutionary system which will make frequent updates a very real reality.
First of all download PatchOnClick V2.3.0.0 - Freeware Version
http://nfggames.com/X68000/PC_Tools/patchonclick-2-3-en-win.exe (http://nfggames.com/X68000/PC_Tools/patchonclick-2-3-en-win.exe)
This was the best which I could find and it is brain dead simple to use. Please respect Lawrence's server's bandwidth and do not upload the whole V4 image. Please submit only the patch, along with txt file which contains the list of changes and modifications. Make a single zip of both files and upload it to the FTP.
Thank you for your understanding.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
So we have to submit changes to you for approval?
That's a fast way to discourage anyone from submitting any changes :)
I can imagine that most people will just modify their own personal images and not bother with sharing.
The image should be an open source tool that is available for many different minds to shape as needed. If we funnel all content through you, then you are effectively controlling and possibly limiting the potential of this image.
RobIvy64,
Please try to see the whole picture. I received many submissions of games while working on V4 and only a small fraction of them were included. Slightly more than 120 were disqualified because they were bloody awful. I have very high quality standards and that is why I do not like the idea of multiple people managing the image. Don't take it the wrong way. Everyone can submit their requests. The hardcore users can submit the patches if they want to, but it is not necessary. A simple request will do.
The same principle is used in the Linux community as well. People submit either bug reports, requests or patches and maintainers review them and either approve or reject.
The image was never intended to be open source. It is a hobby which I do in my spare time and share with the rest of you.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
I understand, but a game that you might think is terrible could be fun for someone else.
Maybe I am the only person that this rubs the wrong way. Funneling all creativity and talent through one central "gatekeeper" will only stifle progress.
I only know of two revisions that have been submitted: My revision with Illumination Laser installed to the appropriate folder (Games3, 4MB game...), and Deadite's self-titled "baller" image. Both were improvements to the original images they were based on.
Admittedly, his image was sloppily thrown together and included a large selection of mediocre games, but the addition of a partition that allows you to boot SX Window was very much welcome. It's something i've modified back into the V4 image, as well as adding some of his games that were omitted at your discretion.
You can manage your creation as you see fit. It's your choice, but I wouldn't expect to see the queue filling up with requests. Most people will simply upgrade their personal images and be finished with it.
SEVERAL HOURS LATER EDIT: wow you have ninja-edited and overhauled nearly all of your original posts! This thread doesn't make much sense anymore.
Guess i'll have to quote you next time ;)
RobIvy64,
You just said it yourself. If you see that the image can be improved, just submit a request.
P.S. There were lot's of submissions by Caius. Kudos for his hard work and dedication.
P.P.S. Right now history is repeating itself. I had the same argument with SuperDeadite when he released his Baller image. Unfortunately I was not mature enough to handle that situation properly and for that I am truly sorry.
QuoteSEVERAL HOURS LATER EDIT: wow you have ninja-edited and overhauled nearly all of your original posts! This thread doesn't make much sense anymore.
That is correct. I do make a lot of grammar mistakes so I try to correct them later. Feel free to quote me in order to preserve the authenticity of the original posts and sorry for causing you inconvenience.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
You won't see any requests from me. I'm pretty happy with my modified version, and i'll refrain from uploading it for the community to enjoy at the request of the content creator.
RobIvy64,
Everyone has the right to release or not release his or her work. I respect your decision.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Hi Guys !
-= THE FUTURE IS NOW ! =-
I present to you the first Service Pack for HDD image V4
http://nfggames.com/X68000/Games/V4%20Patches/X68000_V4_SP1.zip (http://nfggames.com/X68000/Games/V4%20Patches/X68000_V4_SP1.zip)
The patch must be applied to unmodified X68000_V4.HDS
Get it here:
http://nfggames.com/x68000/Games/X68000V4.zip (http://nfggames.com/x68000/Games/X68000V4.zip)
X68000_V4.HDS source must have CRC: E20F691A
Patched X68000_V4.HDS must have CRC: 725DDCD7
Use QuickSFV (www.QuickSFV.org (http://www.quicksfv.org)) to verify.
HDD image V4 Service Pack 1
=====================
Deleted Phalanx from Games3
Added Phalanx to Games (Now runs on 2MB machines)
Added IlluminationLaser to Games3 (Courtesy of Mr.TERRA)
Added bdif.x, bup.x, revdel.x, bdf2rx.x to Bin
Added windrv.sys to Sys
Added hcpkplay.x and two sample video files to Multimedia\Video
Fixed subst references for Games2\Algarna
Fixed subst references for Games2\Namachuukei68
Fixed subst references for Games2\SquareResort
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis (19.06.2014)
Eidis,
I have a question/scenario regarding modifying the HDD images ourselves. I can understand you not wanting several people editing the images and uploading to Lawrence's FTP. However, is there a real issue if someone edits the image, hosts it elsewhere, and just posts about it here with a disclaimer that it's not an "official" HDD image?
For instance, some games won't normally run from a HDD and do not currently have hacks to make them do so but the floppy disk images can be loaded to RAM to run. This of course requires more RAM and ideally the game could be hacked in the future to run off the HDD on a standard 2MB X68000. This is basically what superdeadite did with his "baller" image. Though some aspects of it are out of date now, it was a nice option for some of us who do have more RAM in our X68000.
I'm not trying to offend or start a fight, but I'm just curious about the specifics. Do you just not want the images modified and distributed because you don't want them hogging Lawrences's bandwidth/disk space, or is there more to it? I know you'd like bug reports and suggestions rather than someone silently "fixing" the image themselves and uploading. But other than that, is there a real issue with someone customizing the image and posting about it here as long as they're hosting it elsewhere and making it obvious that it's not "official"?
Hi Cr4zymanz0r !
Thank you for reaching out to ask. There was a time when many fine members of our forum were still playing games from floppy drives and connecting hard drive to X68000 was a very big mystery by itself. The thing is, only Caius helped when the image was in its infancy and we both made it what it is today. Now, when it has reached maturity, I get frequent requests from "helping hands" to take over the image.
The image caries a philosophy, that everything must run with as less hardware requirements as possible and be as authentic, optimized, clean and user friendly as possible. Think of it as an Apple product which makes hardware and software both run in harmony an gives that satisfying feeling when using. That is why there are not many 2HDBOOT games in it. The only ones are mostly one floppy games which have trackloaders or some kind of crazy protection. That is why I worked hard to translate the main system files and LHES to Engrish. And that is why I do not want "helping hands" to help ruin what took ages to build. If someone really wants to help then please submit either bug reports, requests or your work which you would like me to include. It will definitely be included if it does not conflict with the images vision and philosophy. People who are seriously interested in helping the image grow understand this and so far have been very huge help. Thank you to everyone who has contributed their time and work to this project. I seriously don't see the point of working on two separate images. Instead we should focus on making this the best one there is.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
We should create a standard for patch disks so people can apply them themselves easily without having to reflash their entire disk. I thought about doing this for the music disk too since I have a hand full of stuff that isn't on it.
Maybe something as simple as an NFO/HED file, 1 or more disks with spanned LZH or something and a command in the autoexec.bat that automagically installs the proper stuff to the proper location. Maybe a 'which disk [a]' prompt or something.
As an aside, it might be fun to do intros for these patch disks. Or to commemorate releases of the HDD. Could be good experience for people who want to learn to code for x68k.
Hi Neko68k !
Thank you for your suggestions. Most people want to apply the updates in a speedy fashion. I have tried your proposed methods while working on the images and found out that it is much faster to patch the baseline on PC and transfer it to physical media. Much less work involved and quicker results. I think that the newly introduced patch system is very good and efficient way how to distribute small incremental updates. You could try it on your Music image and post the patch file ;)
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
I assume the app you are using to create patches is just doing a delta between the base v4 and an upgraded V4 to build the patch file? That will certainly work, but as it's not possible to differentiate between the actual contents of the image, the entire image will be reset. That includes changes to configuration and saved games/scores.
Of course, replacing the entire image with a newer version will have the same issue, but if the possibility exists to update internally to a running image, that would be preferable, at least to me. Not to mention that patching the image requires opening up the system to get at the drive. Maybe this is not an issue for others, but I suspect it is. In my case, it would take a very impressive update to entice me to use it. In fact, I'd rather just receive instructions and an lzh of any changed binaries and deal with applying the changes myself.
I applaud you for your efforts and will state that your images are a big part of what pushed me over the edge in wanting an x68k. I think there are a lot of great opportunities to continue development on your image and look forward to v5!
Hi 98pacecar !
Thank you for your kind words. I have a firm vision where I want to take the image in V5. However, it will be a very major update so don't expect it to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, there is still much to do in the Human68k realm.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
The driving factor behind the patching system is to discourage any modifications to the source image. Many like myself re-add games omitted from V3 or the baller image (like the full version of Touhou Blue Phoenix, for example. V4 only has the demo).
For those of us who modify their images, I suggest you keep two copies: One for modifications and improvements, and one that is unaltered used just for "patching".
You can then copy the changes from one image to your personal image.
It's a lot of unnecessary additional steps, but hopefully this helps some of you :)
98pacecar brings up a valid point: game saves altering the image.
Do we know this "patching" system will work with an image that has modified data? re: game saves or high score saves?
When I tried to patch a PC98 image that only had an autoexec.bat change, it would not work.
Hi RobIvy64 !
The whole purpose for the newly introduced patch system is to save space and bandwidth. I strongly doubt that most of us would like to download large amounts of data only to find out that a few Mb of the original content was changed. The patch also makes deploying updates very fast, easy and convenient. I tested it and can proudly say that it will help in releasing more frequent updates. And yes, the patches only work with the baseline image and not modified ones. You brought up a good point. I should have included a CRC32 checksum for the source baseline image to avoid confusion.
; Generated by QuickSFV v2.36 on 2014-06-21 at 19:18:32
; http://www.QuickSFV.org
;
; 943718400 23:35.46 2014-05-23 X68000_V4.HDS
X68000_V4.HDS E20F691A
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Quote from: eidis on June 22, 2014, 02:26:15 AM
Hi RobIvy64 !
The whole purpose for the newly introduced patch system is to save space and bandwidth. I strongly doubt that most of us would like to download large amounts of data only to find out that a few Mb of the original content was changed. The patch also makes deploying updates very fast, easy and convenient. I tested it and can proudly say that it will help in releasing more frequent updates. And yes, the patches only work with the baseline image and not modified ones. You brought up a good point. I should have included a CRC32 checksum for the source baseline image to avoid confusion.
; Generated by QuickSFV v2.36 on 2014-06-21 at 19:18:32
; http://www.QuickSFV.org
;
; 943718400 23:35.46 2014-05-23 X68000_V4.HDS
X68000_V4.HDS E20F691A
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Why not release updates via a zip file, with the appropriate updated folders?
An extractable archive consumes as much space and bandwidth as a proprietary patching program image.
It's simple, and preserves high score and save data for the users.
I'm not trying to be difficult, I just don't understand why we have to travel around the block just to go next door, so to speak. :)
Hi RobIvy64 !
QuoteWhy not release updates via a zip file, with the appropriate updated folders?
Because some programs have Japanese characters in their file names and that can cause them not to work when imported back to the image due to differences in computers codepages. I had data corruption in the past due to this and was forced to thoroughly test the whole image because of that. However, I used DiskExplorer back then so it could be related to it. Let's test your proposal. Download the Temp.zip and try to import the contents using windrv.sys (also included in the archive). You will have to add the following line in config.sys "DEVICE = \SYS\WINDRV.SYS" \=Yen sign. I have included a few troublesome games which were victims of data corruption in the past. VBall and GenpeiToumaden should work or not work at all. AfterBurner might crash when Level1 is starting. R_Type can have corrupt graphics beneath the playfield. Try them and tell me how it went.
http://nfggames.com/X68000/Uploads/Temp.zip (http://nfggames.com/X68000/Uploads/Temp.zip)
QuoteAn extractable archive consumes as much space and bandwidth as a proprietary patching program image.
True, but what will happen if I release 10 updates ? One will have to go through all ten of them seperately ? I could integrate all previous updates in the next one but that would defeat the purpose of not using the patcher.
QuoteIt's simple, and preserves high score and save data for the users.
Very good point. The updating process will be a lot slower though.
QuoteI'm not trying to be difficult, I just don't understand why we have to travel around the block just to go next door, so to speak.
The answer to your question is data integrity. X68000 is notorious for damaging data on its storage, especially on MO-DISKS and SASI hard drives with earlier SxSI drivers which did not have the DMA patch. That is why I am extremely cautious about preserving data integrity.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Quote from: eidis on June 22, 2014, 03:26:23 AM
Hi RobIvy64 !
QuoteWhy not release updates via a zip file, with the appropriate updated folders?
Because some programs have Japanese characters in their file names and that can cause them not to work when imported back to the image due to differences in computers codepages. I had data corruption in the past due to this and was forced to thoroughly test the whole image because of that. However, I used DiskExplorer back then so it could be related to it. Let's test your proposal. Download the Temp.zip and try to import the contents using windrv.sys (also included in the archive). You will have to add the following line in config.sys "DEVICE = \SYS\WINDRV.SYS" \=Yen sign. I have included a few troublesome games which were victims of data corruption in the past. VBall and GenpeiToumaden should work or not work at all. AfterBurner might crash when Level1 is starting. R_Type can have corrupt graphics beneath the playfield. Try them and tell me how it went.
http://nfggames.com/X68000/Uploads/Temp.zip (http://nfggames.com/X68000/Uploads/Temp.zip)
QuoteAn extractable archive consumes as much space and bandwidth as a proprietary patching program image.
True, but what will happen if I release 10 updates ? One will have to go through all ten of them seperately ? I could integrate all previous updates in the next one but that would defeat the purpose of not using the patcher.
QuoteIt's simple, and preserves high score and save data for the users.
Very good point. The updating process will be a lot slower though.
QuoteI'm not trying to be difficult, I just don't understand why we have to travel around the block just to go next door, so to speak.
The answer to your question is data integrity. X68000 is notorious for damaging data on its storage, especially on MO-DISKS and SASI hard drives with earlier SxSI drivers which did not have the DMA patch. That is why I am extremely cautious about preserving data integrity.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Ahh interesting, thanks for the explanation!
I've been adding to and modifying my images for years. I haven't run into the data corruption issue, but I guess I have been really lucky all of those times!
This is interesting. What OS are you running Robivy64?
Hi Neko68k !
QuoteWe should create a standard for patch disks so people can apply them themselves easily without having to reflash their entire disk. I thought about doing this for the music disk too since I have a hand full of stuff that isn't on it.
Maybe something as simple as an NFO/HED file, 1 or more disks with spanned LZH or something and a command in the autoexec.bat that automagically installs the proper stuff to the proper location. Maybe a 'which disk [a]' prompt or something.
I gave it a though and here is what I came up with. There is a program called copy2.x which comes bundled with Human OS, it is in the HDD image by default, and allows creating and restoring spanned files to and from multiple floppy disks. In theory, I could create an LZH archive with all the updates and span it to multiple floppies. I suppose that it would work very good with small updates in the range of 5Mb, but what about if there will be ~12mb, like in the SP1, or larger updates ? The procedure would involve copying all floppies to hard drive, provided that you have enough free space to store the archive and unpack it, and unarchiving them.
Another option to avoid being a hardcore DJ would be using MuTerm to transfer the data from PC to X68000 via serial interface.
So here is the dilemma. I think that the DJ option is far more time consuming and unpractical than applying a patch and doing a quick restore to physical media. People who are concerned about saves can backup them to floppy disk and restore them afterwards. I think that it would be a lot faster and easier.
There is another option. I could release small updates, which feature single file utility programs, as a patch and as an LZH archive.
QuoteAs an aside, it might be fun to do intros for these patch disks. Or to commemorate releases of the HDD. Could be good experience for people who want to learn to code for x68k.
That is an excellent idea. Unfortunately I do not know how to code in fetish torture X68000 asm. Some while ago I tried to reverse engineer the floppy disk protection of Bomber Man and failed miserably so xBasic here I come. A very nice book was bundled with my ACE-HD which has excellent information and examples. However, it is in Japanese so I guess that it will need to be translated before xBasic scene will kick off.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Just an idea, might be silly though.
Lots of restrictions concerning partitions, sizes...
But in my trials and errors, i had 2 partitions at a time on my x68000 hard drive. a: and b:
Cool to store MDX files. But not sure if that was safe so reverted to just one active partition at a time.
So, would it be possible to add a small fat32 partition respecting the limits of the system to the image and gain access to it through a driver on the x68000 side? It could be easier to maintain SD cards and hard disks this way. b:\update.bat and that's it.
If that partition shows up correctly on both systems, then it would be a piece of cake to put the SP on fat32 partition then update the real system.
Stumbled upon this driver so worth a try. I'll try to make some tests on emulator next week out of curiosity. Then i'll try to wipe my x68000 hard disk once i get back a SCSI card for the PC and see what happens :)
http://retropc.net/x68000/software/disk/scsi/fat32aig/index.htm (http://retropc.net/x68000/software/disk/scsi/fat32aig/index.htm)
By the way Eidis, your message box is full ^^'
Hi Neshek !
The FAT32 partition idea is very good and I think that 50Mb could be enough for the updates. This will probably be included in V5 which will be released in a distant future in a galaxy far far away.
The message box problem has been solved. Please everyone, whom I sent messages during the past two days, resend me the answer.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Gentleman,
Time for another update. Neshek and Eidis proudly present HDD V4 image Service Pack 2
Get it here:
http://nfggames.com/x68000/Games/V4%20Patches/hddv4sp2.Lzh (http://nfggames.com/x68000/Games/V4%20Patches/hddv4sp2.Lzh)
Copy it to root directory, boot LHES, press x, type
"lha x -c hddv4sp2" without brackets and press enter.
Neshek has contributed a vast amount of awesome translations.
Thanks to him we can finally enjoy English versions of LHA,
ED.X help file and many other common system tools.
LHES was slightly modified and now can extract archives with
directory structures and without any annoying queries.
MMDSP now uses Rydeen and MXW driver which fixes previous
problems with PCM clashes and improves performance.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis (28.06.2014)
Bah, humbug! Humbug I say. I see now the problem with my oh so neat Compact XIV internal CF solution.
The darn thing is an absolute bitch to disassemble, and every time I do it I do so with my heart in my throat in fear of breaking something fragile, like those damn plastic tabs.
Barring an easy solution to getting V4 into my Compact without taking apart I fear it will never grace it.
Hi Kamiboy !
QuoteBarring an easy solution to getting V4 into my Compact without taking apart I fear it will never grace it.
Actually there is an easy way and Caius pioneered it a long time ago. Mount the CF card in one of the I/O slots, if it is free, and the problem will be solved.
X68000 CompactXVI and Compact Flash card: a successful story!
http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:internal_scsi_and_cf_card_mod (http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:internal_scsi_and_cf_card_mod)
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Guys,
I want to play Akumajo Dracula, isn't this game included on V4.
Is there an image with the patches already installed, I'm not very good at using patches and such :o
Thanks
X-Col
Hi X-Col !
Everything is all right. Akumajo Dracula can be found in Games2\Dracula directory. Fully HDD compatiple, this includes saving as well.
Have fun and ....
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Cool!!
Thanks again Eidis!!! ;D
Quote from: eidis on May 24, 2014, 06:11:53 PM
Hi Guys !
Already found a bug in V4. The following games in Games2 got accidentally broken:
Algarna
Namachuukei
Square Resort
You can easily remedy the situation by editing their !Start.bat and making sure that SUBST command is pointing to Games2 instead of Games. Sorry for the caused inconvenience.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
How do you edit files?
Hi X-Col !
Highlight one and press "E" key.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Quote from: eidis on October 01, 2014, 06:40:14 AM
Hi X-Col !
Highlight one and press "E" key.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Done that Eidis, how do you save the changes?
Sorry for the newbie questions!
Hi X-Col !
Press "Escape" and then "X"
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Just wanted to say thanks for this. My cf setup is almost ready. Can't wait to dive I to this...
hello there,
I'm a new and happy x68000 user !
Since 1 week now, i have a X68000 Ace
After playing with some very old school 5 1/4 floppies, i used a scsi2sd interface.
Thanks to the great information and tutorials i found here, it was (near) a piece of cake :)
i was able to put on the sd card the hdd image v4, but now, i can't figure out how to apply Hddv4_sp1 and Hddv4_sp2 ? :P
How i'm suppose to aplly the 2 patch ?
they seems to be 2 differents method ?
thanks for your help, and continue this very good works !
Hi Ericb59 !
Welcome to the forum and thank you for your kind words. This threads page #2 post #8 explains how to apply X68000_V4_SP1.zip and the hddv4sp2.lzh contains a readme.txt file with instructions.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Thank you Eidis.
In the huge flow of informations i missed the Patch tool.
About the SP2. I read the "readme.txt", I understood I have to copy the archive file on the root of my SD card and unpack it directly from the X68000.
But, how am I supposed to transfer the file on the SD card ? My PC doesn't recognize it ... :-\
Sorry if it seems trivia, but i'm new on X68000 and have a lot of things to learn...
About the HDD Tutorial. There is one missed thing I want to say you...
As I 'm using a SCSI2SD Interface, I set it to ID3 like it is recommended.
But the Master disc don't activate the HD Drive because the config.sys is set with id=0
So, if you use a SCSI2SD, you must ED config.sys and change ID=0 by ID=3, save, and reboot...
;)
Hi Ericb59 !
Quotehow am I supposed to transfer the file on the SD card ?
Thank you for bringing up a good question. Here you go !
Editing and adding files to hard disk images
http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:editing_and_adding_files_to_hard_disk_images (http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:editing_and_adding_files_to_hard_disk_images)
QuoteAbout the HDD Tutorial. There is one missed thing I want to say you...
As I 'm using a SCSI2SD Interface, I set it to ID3 like it is recommended.
But the Master disc don't activate the HD Drive because the config.sys is set with id=0
So, if you use a SCSI2SD, you must ED config.sys and change ID=0 by ID=3, save, and reboot...
The story of X68000 SASI and massive hard drive
http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:hard_drive_on_sasi_machine#chapter_3preparing_the_master_floppy (http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:hard_drive_on_sasi_machine#chapter_3preparing_the_master_floppy)
Quote from Chapter 3: "Now set your SCSI device to ID0, copy the MasterDisk_V2.xdf disk image to a high density 5.25" floppy disk and boot from it."
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Ok tahnk you very Much ;)
Your scsi2sd must be configured by USB to scsi ID 3, and your x68000 should look for an ID 3 device.
Quote from: famiac on December 08, 2014, 05:55:53 PM
Your scsi2sd must be configured by USB to scsi ID 3, and your x68000 should look for an ID 3 device.
Yes, that's what I 've done. And it works very well.
I just had to modify the config.sys of the master disk...
Sorry for my noobs question...
But... I now have a Sacom XS-68m II board in the X68000 with good Midi cable and a SC-55 box.
It works with Castlevania game, and Phalanx (Only 2 games tested for now)
How can i use this set up with MMDSP (Multimedia folder of the HD image) ?
All sounds comes from the X68000, I can't find how to set up output to midi ... ? :o
If you use MCDRV instead of MXDRV you can get MIDI support also. However, the MXDRV music included on the disk only plays internally. If you want to listen to MIDI files, there are better ways than using an x68000 :D On the other hand, ZMUSIC supports MIDI and mixed mode and some other stuff but that's another format entirely.
I modified the start.bat and changed the driver with mcdrv but sound always comes from the X68000...
Another idea what to do ? ::)
Also, some games seems to not enable MIDI output by default, is there a list of supported game or things to do, to enable Midi when there is no menu option ?
Please can you tell me how I can listening .MDX file with SC88 expander... ?
All i tried doesn't works.
You can't. I already said the music included on the disk will not play over midi. It is strictly designed to play on the internal FM chip. Sorry.
ha ! I 've not understood...
sorry :(
no problem :)
I seem to remember reading somewhere that there is a patch to allow you to chose a game using the joystick instead of the keyboard but I can't find it.
Or maybe I dreamt it... :P
Does such a patch exist?
Hi X-Col !
Here you go !
HDD V4 SP1 Frontend
http://nfggames.com/x68000/Games/V4%20Patches/HDD_V4_SP1_frontend.zip (http://nfggames.com/x68000/Games/V4%20Patches/HDD_V4_SP1_frontend.zip)
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Hello Eidis.
I remember that I have used EX68 there by 2000 gone, but as my hardware at the time was a meager Pentium 200 MMX ended up leaving aside, although guy loved the X68000 which was already known by ads in the MSX Magazine (japanese magazine) published by ASCII Corporation that created the MSX standard.
Of course I did not understand japanese. I was like a child just looking at pictures and drawings and trying to mount an image based on the meager technical information used terms in english.
For being a fan of the MSX (reason for my nickname) and also be passionate about X68000 I ask to you to include a game that exists on both platforms and which if are not entirely identical include the opening, is very similar.
I mean the game Illusion City, made by Micro Cabin, the same that produced Xak and Fray.
Congratulations on the effort of all of yours.
Only regret not afford to have money to get a "XVI", and even get a Panasonic FS-A1ST or GT (MSX turbo R).
I will turning me with the double WinX68K and OpenMSX.
Regards!
Hello!
I wanted to thank Eidis and the others who did a great job to put this image together, with software and so on, I finally managed to put together a scsi external box with a compactflash in it and I'm wandering through all of this software... it's something I didn't even imagine 1 year ago when I started to move in the X68k scene!!!
Thank you again!!!
please new release new version v5 image, please XD
in v4 falte
aquales
dragon knight4
naious
and strider is perfect patch and work in x68030 but gradius2, detanatiwn bee, final fight, not work XDDD
Infinite thanks image v4...
Thanks Rob!!!
Eidis, thanks for this excellent work.
I'm testing this image days ago on a PRO HD working flawlessly and enjoying so much. Soon I'll test it on a XVI for enjoy a lil bit more.
I sucess with the installation of DeathBrade. How can I share it if it is possible ?
Thanks for your work again !
Bosconian has an issue when it is not booted from floppy disk.
The issue is that appearing a lot of meteors, bombs and objects arround that makes it a lil bit unplayable.
I used 2HDBOOT to use the game properly, but the problems is that it eats 4MB RAM and it's excessive for people without expansions, so another thing to take a look and fix, eidis.
Thanks for your work again !
Quote from: PepAlacant on July 27, 2015, 05:06:10 PM
Bosconian has an issue when it is not booted from floppy disk.
The issue is that appearing a lot of meteors, bombs and objects arround that makes it a lil bit unplayable.
I never realised that, I will try it from floppy to see the difference.
Whilst we're on the subject, Spindizzy 2 only works properly from floppy. There are graphical problems on the HD installation.
Quote from: X-Col on July 27, 2015, 10:58:46 PM
Quote from: PepAlacant on July 27, 2015, 05:06:10 PM
Bosconian has an issue when it is not booted from floppy disk.
The issue is that appearing a lot of meteors, bombs and objects arround that makes it a lil bit unplayable.
I never realised that, I will try it from floppy to see the difference.
Whilst we're on the subject, Spindizzy 2 only works properly from floppy. There are graphical problems on the HD installation.
Try it. The game becomes SUPER HARD ( unplayable for that amount of rocks and mines )
Hey guys,
I know that this thread has been dead for a while, and I hate necro-bumping things, but this seemed like the relevant place to put this. I love this disk image, but I just wanted to report a small bug that I found today. I was playing around with the V4 image today and noticed that "Granada" crashes during its intro. Everything runs fine until the tank fires into the air. The game then hangs with garbled explosion graphics while the music continues in the background. I've replicated this behavior on both patched and unpatched V4 images, and on a real X68000 Expert HD with a SCSI2SD, as well as on XM6-Pro. Thanks!
Well known issue. Granada is a very timing sensitive game, and cf/sd drives load much faster then the floppy drives do, this breaks the timing and is enough to crash the game. If you simply skip the intro, the game itself runs fine, but if you want to watch the intro, you need to use actual floppy disks.
Okay, cool. I have some 68000 assembly experience, so I might try patching the game to work on HD when I have some time. Any pointers on where to look to look, or is my best bet just to fire it up in XM6 and see where it's hanging?
If you have game hacking skills might I suggest you look into providing a 15khz hack for R-Type and Akumajo Dracula?
I can look into those, but it might be a while since I don't currently have a means of displaying 15KHz video, although I'm currently working on acquiring one.
That would be great. Once I get my monitor recapped I can test for you, or if you are using a digital screen it might tell you the frequency of the incoming signal even if it cannot sync with it.
Those two games not having 15khz modes really was a crime against humanity.
Lack of 15khz is the least of R-Type's problems. Terrible port, absolutely embarrassing compared to what the system is capable of.
As for Dracula, it looks stunning on my 29'' monitor, so I don't really see the need personally, but to each their own.
To see a 15khz game run in line doubled 31khz with chunky pixels instead of scan lines sickens me. It is so violently revolting to my aesthetic sensibilities that I have to actively battle a gag reflex assault whenever I boot Akumajo.
It is nothing short of disgusting, sirs, nothing short!
But in all seriousness, a lowres game should be displayed in glorious 15khz, it is only proper. Or they should have at least given people the option to choose, like some x68000 had the decency to do.
I've actually often considered doing the unthinkable to remedy this wrong, buying the PSX port, oh the humanity!
Dracula isn't doubled though, it was meant to be seen in 31khz...
Super Hangon on the other hand is 15khz native and looks quite blurry when run in 31khz.
From what I have seen X68K does not line double. Instead it adds a big black box around everything to take up the extra space supplied by the higher resolutions meaning the sprite/pixel count is unchanged, the box is displayed off screen, so you can't see it with most games. Though it will depend on your monitor.
If you want to see this in person, it is most notable with the 24khz native games like Marble Madness.
If I run Salamander in 15khz as opposed to it's default 31khz, everything becomes 2x bigger in low-res then in high-res, meaning I then have to use the size adjustments on the monitor to shrink it all down in order to make it fully visible on the screen. However I do not have to make these adjustments on 15khz native games like Super Hangon. And I have had this same experience on both my 14'' OG Sharp monitor, and my much bigger 29'' arcade monitor.
31khz isn't doubling the pixels, it is instead putting them closer together, the empty spaces that make up the 15khz ''scanlines'' are being moved to the outside of the game's playable area to make up the border. The empty spaces are outside of the pixels as opposed to being between them.
I don't know about that. All I know is that the visible resolution of Dracula is 256x256 . It should be perfectly displayable in full screen at 15khz.
When setting resolutions in x68000 via IOCTS calls you have the choice of either displaying the same resolution in 15khz, or 31khz.
The project I am working on runs in 256x240@15khz. Changing a single line in code will switch it to run in 256x240@31khz. I have not tried it. But doing both on the real hardware should demonstrate whether everyhting is shrunk down in 31khz or is line doubled.
If x68000 just displays 256 resolutions in 31khz as a little window in a 512x512 resolution I do not understand how Akumajo manages to run in full screen in 31khz.
This warrants further investigation.
Oh and by the way, I saw your FM Towns deflowering video last night, thanks for the laughs buddy!
Well, I finally had a chance to poke through the Akumajou Dracula code, and things aren't as easy as they initially seemed. It doesn't use the CRTMOD call, and instead manually sets a bunch of the video control registers. I tried blindly replacing all values moved into video register 20 (0xe80028) with their previous value with bit 4 (zero indexed) clear, but it broke color, and also made the game run very slowly. XM6-Pro claims it's syncing at 13.5 KHz after I did the modification, so either that's a typo, or Konami is doing some very weird things with this game. I don't understand the video hardware very well, so I'm almost certainly missing something about how the registers control the signal.
You can set the registers in the CRTC and MFP to change things like front and back porch, h and v timing, dot clock and other things. In theory you can make it spit out any resolution you want with any shape pixels you want within the limitations of the hardware. That is almost certainly why Castlevania behaves the way it does.
You know, I had a funny feeling that Akumajo prolly was doing something funky instead of relying on standard calls. I did once try to find the IOCTS opcode in the .X image using a hex editor without luck, that kind of tipped me off.
Those timing registers are really heavy stuff, their function is described on the internet since much of it is universal to how CRT's work, but I never could wrap my head around it proper.
IIRC it also does a lot of drawing directly to graphics layers instead of using the tile hardware. Though this and other similar abuses are pretty common in commercial games.
Well, to be fair doing rotation effect without direct drawing to layers is kind of tough. The Akumajo devs were clearly wizard level coders, that much is clear without even having looked at the code. I am very impressed by their tile rendering engine at the very least, it is much more advanced than anything I could be arsed to come up with. Their rotation effects are also impressively smooth, and seemingly lightweight.
The stock 10mhz models are very capable machines, but as with anything you need the right person to draw out the true power of the hardware.
That tree in stage 1 is pretty slick. They seem to be double buffering that on a graphics layer all it's own and flip between the top and bottom half of the layer.
Anyone please create the V5 with many new games ;) if possible ALL principal games from this plataform... thanks!!
Heyy!,
First of ll I would like to say - what an amazing achievement we have made on this!! Thanks to Eidis and all involved in the project.
May I request you to bring updates to the HDD image? v5 or v4sp3 with more games and software.
Did you play all the games on the V4 HDD yet? No, then why ask for more?
All the best games are already on the image, what is left is bottom of the barrel doujin games.
...like Sim City and Populous.
Quote from: kamiboy on October 02, 2016, 05:02:29 PM
All the best games are already on the image.
Hummm... I think not all... forget: Daimakaimura, Final Fight, Gradius II Gofer No Yabou and more others.. but, i only say pleeeease if possible masters of programing save us!!
All 3 of those games are on there.
Exist the way to my self extract this games from this HDD image V4 released and convert in .hdf the 3 games? in 3 hdf?
No.
Yes you are right.. the image is already great enough!
I just picked up a X68000 Compact with a Compact Flash to SCSI adapter and HDD Image v4 is successfully installed on the 4gb CF. I tried most of the games from folders Games & Games2 and everything's working great. Unfortunately I wanted to play Cotton and Flying Shark, specifically, but they both require 4 mb (to load) of ram and my system only has 2.
So if I write backups of the games on 3.5 floppy disks, will I be able to run them on the system normally?
Thanks!
Any game that originally only requires 2mb, and has no copy protection can be run from floppies on a 2mb machine.
I know this might sound silly to most of you, but how can I edit my CF content? Whenever I insert my CF into my PC, the latter doesn't recognize it. So is there a specific software to explore the CF and add a few images?
Thanks!
Use the Edit Disk tool that is used for manipulating Japanese PC floppy and HDD images.
Thank you for your reply, but can you be a bit more specific please? Probably share a link for the tool? Thanks.
EDIT: Nevermind, I had it all figured out. That wasn't a very straight forward process I must say, at least for a noob like myself. ;D
Hello all,
Sorry for reviving this old thread, but didn't want to ask a question that has been asked before.
New member here, expecting my first X68000 ACE HD any day now. It comes already with a SCSI2SD installed and with loaded SD card. Still I was wondering the following, related to below quote. Is managing an X68000 HDD on a PC only possible via an image file in the multiple ways described in the tutorial(s)? Or can I, just like I do with my Amigas, put the SD in a USB card reader and mount that as a X68000 HDD in an emulator on Windows?
Quote from: Neshek on June 16, 2014, 01:58:31 AM
Quote from: cr4zymanz0r on June 15, 2014, 02:44:07 PM
Is there a reliable way to edit this image from a PC to add more games/files to it?
Pretty straightforward. transfer though Disk Explorer gave me lot of errors.
So i mounted the image with XM6, installed games/transfered from old image/whatever (Gotta love "No Wait(VM)"), raw image transfer to x68000 SD/CF/HDD with winamge or something like that.. That's it.
Other question: Are there tools on the image for dumping floppy disk image files to real floppies natively from the X68000? So my question above would also be about copying floppy images to the HDD image :)
Any news on a v5 image maybe?
No, you can't mount HDD images in any way. [edit] You can't mount physical drives either.
Yes you can write floppies natively, details in the link at the bottom. To write DIM images you need DIFC (https://nfggames.com/X68000/index.php/Mirrors/x68pub/x68tools/DISK/DIFC/) in addition to 9scdrv mentioned in the wiki article.
Link (https://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:creating_floppies_from_disk_images_on_x68000)
QuoteSorry for reviving this old thread, but didn't want to ask a question that has been asked before.
New member here, expecting my first X68000 ACE HD any day now. It comes already with a SCSI2SD installed and with loaded SD card. Still I was wondering the following, related to below quote. Is managing an X68000 HDD on a PC only possible via an image file in the multiple ways described in the tutorial(s)? Or can I, just like I do with my Amigas, put the SD in a USB card reader and mount that as a X68000 HDD in an emulator on Windows?
You can't mount a image on pc but you can mount the image on a emulator and access a local pc directory using WINDRV and move things in and out through that virtual mountpoint.
You need to add the exchange directory path in the emulator configuration and load the WINDRV driver on the image just uncomment the line on the config.sys, when you are done just comment the line again and write the image into the sd using winimage.
I bought one of these https://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-TF-SD-Card-Extension-Cable-Adapter-Flexible-Extender-Car-GPS-DVR-DVD-LED/352194927795?hash=item5200741cb3 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-TF-SD-Card-Extension-Cable-Adapter-Flexible-Extender-Car-GPS-DVR-DVD-LED/352194927795?hash=item5200741cb3) works fine with scsi2sd and allows me to take the card from the computer without opening the case, I have the card holder fixed with double sided tape, so anytime I want to add something to the hd I just take the card from the holder, dump it with winimage, make the changes on xm6, dump it to the sd and plug it back.
Hello everyone
I play this game with X68000XVI have problem,
what can i do? plz help
That game won't run from the hdd. I vaguely remember this being a SCSI system issue, so it might work on SASI systems. Anyway, write the game images to floppy and play from there. It is the only way it seems.
That game works fine for me on my SCSI X68030 FWIW.
Did you modify the folder name for the game? The folder name "rivercityransom" could possibly be long enough that it would cause problems. Try shortening it to "rcransom" in the folder name and batch file as well, then try again.
Tried the game on X68000 with System Sacom SCSI Board and it works too.
Many many thanks for this image, I’ve just installed it on a 1gb micro sd card / SCSI2SD in my ‘new’ X68000 Super HD. :)
Just wanted to say THANK YOU to eidis and caius for this HDD image. It really makes playing games on the X68k nice and easy.
Many thanks Eidis and Caius! I've been enjoying this image on my Ace HD over the last few days. Played all the way through Galseed II and have been dabbling in various games I've never heard of before.
I'm looking forward to v5 whenever that might be :)
A few new games have been translated recently to English. Has anyone tried these or gotten them to work on a hard drive?
- Lagoon (https://www.romhacking.net/translations/4688/)
- Star Cruiser (https://www.romhacking.net/translations/4551/)
Quote from: dasfool on June 16, 2019, 12:54:07 PM
A few new games have been translated recently to English. Has anyone tried these or gotten them to work on a hard drive?
- Lagoon (https://www.romhacking.net/translations/4688/)
- Star Cruiser (https://www.romhacking.net/translations/4551/)
Star Cruiser I just ran the patch against the DIM's in the TOSEC then copied the disk contents over the stuff already on the GAMES 4 disk. Works fine. I'll check Lagoon later.
Quote from: neko68k on June 17, 2019, 01:46:07 AM
Star Cruiser I just ran the patch against the DIM's in the TOSEC then copied the disk contents over the stuff already on the GAMES 4 disk. Works fine. I'll check Lagoon later.
I didn't have Star Cruiser in my GAMES4 folder (not sure if I deleted it at some point or maybe you added it). So I spent some time researching how to get floppy games onto the hard drive and and after a ton of trial and error (lots of error) I finally managed to get it running, mostly.
Steps:
- Obtain and patch the XDF files to English using the patcher executable
- Use DiskExplorer to open the patched XDF disk 1 (plain image setting)
- Drag its contents to a folder on your hard drive named "StarCruiser"
- Use DiskExplorer to open the patched XDF disk 2
- Drag its contents to the same folder on your hard drive. No files were overwritten
- Follow the instructions here for creating your !Start.bat file (https://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:installing_games_to_hard_drive#example_2_-_installing_star_cruiser_and_running_it_from_hard_drive)
- Use DiskExplorer to open your hard drive image v4 (or whichever other image)
- Drag the "StarCruiser" folder into "Games2"
- Write your image to your SD card and test it out
The game runs fine, until you want to save or load. When saving it asked for a user disk. It specifically wants the disk inserted into the second floppy drive. I first encountered this while saving and I obliged, it saved, and once finished my x68000 ejected the user disk. Once ejected it asked for Disk B to be put into drive 2 and would not go any further until I inserted Disk 2 which, sadly, kind of defeats the purpose of installing. Loading has the same problem. When using the menu to load it asks for a user disk in floppy 2. Once you insert your user disk it will load, then spit out the user disk. You then must insert disk 2 for it to exit the load screen.
Any ideas on how to get saving and loading to use the hard drive as well or do we just need to finish the game in one sitting?
On some YT videos, a extremly similar image is visible, but with a number of additional games, such as Dancing Sword or Gikadiver (which of course cannot be found now on the web). Is this someone's private build, or what?
Perhaps you can find these games in my MiniV2 HDd image :
https://nfggames.com/X68000/Games/MiniV2.7z
Hi,
I am new to this, although I have a fair idea on 68000 emulation with winx68highspeed emulator. But can someone please tell me How to load these HDD images please.
I see these files
X68000.dim.001
X68000.dim
Not sure if its a Zip or not, I mount other HDD images which are HDF and HDS which work. But these packs confuse me.
Please help out a newbie ?
i play on android by px68k core retroarch , please someone convert this hds to hdf or extension px68k core suppport
https://docs.libretro.com/library/px68k/
anyone extract for me those translated program please : human, command, ed, lhes
I splited it to 15 HDFs builded on Sx-window (exclude Multimedia folder). You can launch games from LHES or sx-window UI
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1evjeHbMTUowda9mlkCriMGGRA3m9Zem9/view?usp=sharing
Are there any news to Newzealand Story ?
These days a friend of mine tried it on a slightly different image (added a 2nd partition) and on his Compact it doesn´t work. It also doesn´t work on my XVI - so like in some older posts here it seems a scsi issue.
But my X68000 (first Modell) has a system sacom scsi card and there it works.
Hi.
I also installed X68000_V4.HDS and I didn't managed to launch "Angel-Dive" (in "Games 2")
from HDD. He crashes again and again...do you know how to make it work please ?
Thanks you in advance !
Which Machine ? How much ram ?
On my XVI with 6mb of ram it works.
Quote from: RobIvy64 on June 22, 2014, 02:35:26 AMHi RobIvy64 !
The whole purpose for the newly introduced patch system is to save space and bandwidth. I strongly doubt that most of us would like to download large amounts of data only to find out that a few Mb of the original content was changed. The patch also makes deploying updates very fast, easy and convenient. I tested it and can proudly say that it will help in releasing more frequent updates. And yes, the patches only work with the baseline image and not modified ones. You brought up a good point. I should have included a CRC32 checksum for the source baseline image to avoid confusion.
; Generated by QuickSFV v2.36 on 2014-06-21 at 19:18:32
; http://www.QuickSFV.org
;
; 943718400 23:35.46 2014-05-23 X68000_V4.HDS
X68000_V4.HDS E20F691A
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis
Eidis,
I know this is a very old response. NOOB to the X68000 and have been setting up a friends newly acquired HD/SACI system. I'm using a RaSCSI and have an HDF image as ID 0 and HDS V4 image as ID 2. The system boots with the external RaSCSI. I can see A: and is says D: (V4) is available. We currently don't have a keyboard and are working on getting one but for now I saw that one of the updates to V4 allowed you to use a joystick instead of a keyboard.
When I read the instructions on how to use the patch I am guessing it is for a scsi2sd or ZuluSCSI where you just copy files to the root of the SD card. Really can't do that easily with a RaSCSI. I could and am probably missing something but that is what I'm guessing.
Is there a way or anyone reading this to get the fully patched files the will boot up the X68000 HD with the external RaSCSI?
Thanks
@Craftsman1234 I don't know what format the Patch is in. Is it a file or on a 'disk image'?
But you should be able to use a Windows X68000 emulator. Mount and boot the HD image then add the Patch files.
If the Patch is not on a disk you should be able to create a digital X68000 disk image and then add the Patch files to it.
It should be doable with a little bit of fiddling.
What we should be doing as a community as getting the V4 image updated with everything and then making sure all the V4 images available for download have the Patches installed.
A bit of work for one person helps everyone else.
I'm on and off working on this, trying to make a mix of the X68030 image with the HDD_V4.
I think the games on the X68030 image are better structured (removal of HumanOS files whenever possible, some patched to proper HDD install, instead of having a dozen FDD images in RAM (requiring 12MB of RAM to run), but that image has been subjected to the likes and dislikes of it's creator, and it's missing lots of games.
So I'm trying to make a mix of both into a single image.
Quote from: HIggy on May 24, 2023, 05:14:59 PM@Craftsman1234 I don't know what format the Patch is in. Is it a file or on a 'disk image'?
But you should be able to use a Windows X68000 emulator. Mount and boot the HD image then add the Patch files.
If the Patch is not on a disk you should be able to create a digital X68000 disk image and then add the Patch files to it.
It should be doable with a little bit of fiddling.
What we should be doing as a community as getting the V4 image updated with everything and then making sure all the V4 images available for download have the Patches installed.
A bit of work for one person helps everyone else.
I had thought about attempting to do it this way might just work but a lot of work if there are already patched HD images out there,
It was looking like the patch files ran on the SD card as part of the SD2scsi software similar to how a firmware update would be done to the sd2scsi. The files would be outside of the HD.img files from what I could tell and would alter the disk image. I could be totally wrong though.
Quote from: amazin on May 24, 2023, 06:04:17 PMI'm on and off working on this, trying to make a mix of the X68030 image with the HDD_V4.
I think the games on the X68030 image are better structured (removal of HumanOS files whenever possible, some patched to proper HDD install, instead of having a dozen FDD images in RAM (requiring 12MB of RAM to run), but that image has been subjected to the likes and dislikes of it's creator, and it's missing lots of games.
So I'm trying to make a mix of both into a single image.
Would that work with both but contain some 030 games mixed in?
On the Amiga I dont think there are many games that call on specific 68030 instructions, they will just run quicker.
I dont know if that is the same on X68000. But it makes sense to make your software work on the largest hardware base.
Regarding the Amiga, the 68030 never officially made it into any consumer level hardware, the max was the 68020, with the faster processors being limited to the big box hardware which was intended for professional work, as on the 3000s and 4000s. So really there was not that much commercial software built for the latter processors anyway.
The 68020 is a lot like the 68000 but fully 32-bit, with an instruction cache and a short pipeline and the 68030 is a lot like the 68020, but with a (slightly wacky) MMU included and better supervisor/user mode separation, plus added a data cache.
Not really sure there'd be much to gain building specifically for these CPUs instruction sets, I think mainly larger multiply and divide instructions and more bitfield instructions. The main improvements are from the 32 bit data bus, the fully 32 bit ALU, the caching, pipelines and faster clock speeds.
Quote from: amazin on May 24, 2023, 06:04:17 PMI'm on and off working on this, trying to make a mix of the X68030 image with the HDD_V4.
I think the games on the X68030 image are better structured (removal of HumanOS files whenever possible, some patched to proper HDD install, instead of having a dozen FDD images in RAM (requiring 12MB of RAM to run), but that image has been subjected to the likes and dislikes of it's creator, and it's missing lots of games.
So I'm trying to make a mix of both into a single image.
I have an hdd image I just finished based off of the 030 hdd image by Shoometsu, with games from the other public images merged where I could, and added a lot of new games that are not in the other ones. I'm ready to share it but was waiting on approval from Shoometsu just because my image is heavily based off theirs. This was built with a xvi in mind but should work with other models as well.
Quote from: incrediblehark on June 03, 2023, 10:42:14 PMI have an hdd image I just finished based off of the 030 hdd image by Shoometsu, with games from the other public images merged where I could, and added a lot of new games that are not in the other ones. I'm ready to share it but was waiting on approval from Shoometsu just because my image is heavily based off theirs. This was built with a xvi in mind but should work with other models as well.
Is his image public? Because, I mean, there is no "his and hers", it's full of pirated games, we are not respecting anyone's copyright, to be quite honest.
Giving credit should be enough. If the person don't want to see his precious image being modified and/or spread, welp, keep it close to the chest, on a flashdrive, stored on a drawer. Once it's on the internet, it's public.
I don't think you need permission from anyone, as I didn't ask for anyone's permission to do whatever I wanted with them.
That's my opinion, of course. I'm full of respect for guys like Eidis, Caius, others who built the original HDD images before, but that's about it.
-Amazin
Good point! And credit is given to all of them in my readme. I also state any contributions I made are free to be distributed however anyone pleases as long as its not for monetary gain.
I have some final testing to be done today before making public, so give me a day or two to upload the image and I'll share it with everyone. I'm open to any feedback to make it better!
I'll be open to trying it.
Quote from: amazin on June 03, 2023, 11:09:57 PMQuote from: incrediblehark on June 03, 2023, 10:42:14 PMI have an hdd image I just finished based off of the 030 hdd image by Shoometsu, with games from the other public images merged where I could, and added a lot of new games that are not in the other ones. I'm ready to share it but was waiting on approval from Shoometsu just because my image is heavily based off theirs. This was built with a xvi in mind but should work with other models as well.
Is his image public? Because, I mean, there is no "his and hers", it's full of pirated games, we are not respecting anyone's copyright, to be quite honest.
Giving credit should be enough. If the person don't want to see his precious image being modified and/or spread, welp, keep it close to the chest, on a flashdrive, stored on a drawer. Once it's on the internet, it's public.
I don't think you need permission from anyone, as I didn't ask for anyone's permission to do whatever I wanted with them.
That's my opinion, of course. I'm full of respect for guys like Eidis, Caius, others who built the original HDD images before, but that's about it.
-Amazin
Looking forward to this. Has it been completed?
If possible it would be good to add:
1. Memory test and disk format programs, maybe other useful tools. NFG often mentions these programs in guides.
2. English translations of various games (also keep Japanese)
3. Some x68k'demoscene' demos. I don't think there are many.
I guess the 1GB image is not very full.
One thing I gotta try is to create a 2GB image, partitioned in two, and see if both "drives" are visible with GROVERHD on a SASI to SxSI machine (like my Pro), with an Aztec Monster SCSI->CF card, as it seems that it's the most limited one nowadays.
Using a ArdSCSIno (BlueSCSI V1) like I am right now is dead easy to have like 6x 1GB drives (i'm running my test with 3 virtual HDDs right now).
Probably we don't need to be confined to the 900MB of the HDD_V4 image anymore, mine is at the absolute limit of 1016MB and it works great...
Here's the 3 "virtual" "HDDs": (oh turns out I have FOUR virtual HDDs...)
Also the "drive /v" output is quite messy because you have to manually set the drive names. I saw someone releasing on twitter this week, a program that will FIX the A/B/C/D for the FDDs, no matter how many FDDs you have, so the first HDD will always be E:. I think it's a great idea. This thing the X68000 does of "the drive that booted the OS is the letter A:" infuriates me. Anyways, here's the picture:
IMG_20230604_122540_1.jpg
And here's the "test" X68000 Pro with BlueSCSI V1/ArdSCSIno:
IMG_20230604_122603.jpg
As for adding modern tools, you're absolutely right. It should have them.
-Amazin
Image is nearly ready, made some last minute fixes yesterday and will upload soon.
This is a 2gb partition, and has most of the tools you'll need. The common ones are there. Disk format tools are there, I even made batch scripts to make the format process super easy. Have some SX-Window stuff in there too.
As for demoscene content... not sure what you're looking for specifically but reach out to me separately for any requests/etc. I should make a new post when I share my image. There's a lot of content not in the other combined images, with some space left for more.
Quote from: incrediblehark on June 03, 2023, 10:42:14 PMQuote from: amazin on May 24, 2023, 06:04:17 PMI'm on and off working on this, trying to make a mix of the X68030 image with the HDD_V4.
I think the games on the X68030 image are better structured (removal of HumanOS files whenever possible, some patched to proper HDD install, instead of having a dozen FDD images in RAM (requiring 12MB of RAM to run), but that image has been subjected to the likes and dislikes of it's creator, and it's missing lots of games.
So I'm trying to make a mix of both into a single image.
I have an hdd image I just finished based off of the 030 hdd image by Shoometsu, with games from the other public images merged where I could, and added a lot of new games that are not in the other ones. I'm ready to share it but was waiting on approval from Shoometsu just because my image is heavily based off theirs. This was built with a xvi in mind but should work with other models as well.
In fact, you nor anybody else need any permission from me to use the x68030 HDD image in your personal pojects. Aside from environment settings itself (and some ingame tweakings), all tools and game disk images I've used were made or shared by other people, so I'm not that sensitive about this.