Playing with MO drive

[netwalka]

Hello, forum members.


Recently I've got 2 MO drives from YAJ and spent free time playing with those stuffs.





I made some label designs with pictures from internet.

And MO disc looks much better.



Please refer attachments for detailed pics.

Then installed ch30_omake.sys to boot directly from MO drive.
(Without this driver, MO didn't start itself with XVI model.
Especially, with SASI based model like first X68000, I was able to set up SXSI driver and ZIP drive boots itself, but with this XVI - SCSI based model - it didn't)

This is a short video clip of MO boot. The X68000 logo is a secondary influence of ch30_omake.sys driver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJq5uRvTTg8

It feels like a single rom cartridge as you guys see - just insert MO disk and push power button then games starts. 

I've got help of V.4 game image file and those games in that file work like charm also in this MO discs.

Thank Mr. Eidis and other members tried to make this disk image set for your dedication to this forum.

If there is someone who wants this label files in high resolution, I'm gonna upload.

Anyway, this job is funny and pretty much enjoyable because I could suppress my desire to buy original X68000 game packages.   

[eidis]

 Hi Netwalka !

Thank you for your hard work and efforts. The detail and quality of those labels are amazing ! Please upload them to the FTP so they can receive a honorable directory. Would it be possible to resize them so that they can be used for floppy disks as well ?

NFGGames file archive
http://nfggames.com/X68000/upload.htm

Caius deserves enormous amount of credit for the success of the HDD image and without him there would not be as many good games in it.

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[costa]

Hi netwalka.

I am also playing with MO drives. First one I got is bad, but have more coming.
Would you share your config and autoexec - only the MO related entries are enough.

Also, to boot from them, how have you formated the disks? IBM or Human format?
Can we format in  640MB and boot from it, or should the disks be formatted in 230MB or less?
I am interested in info for both SASI and SCSI models.

Thanks.

[netwalka]

Hi Netwalka !

Thank you for your hard work and efforts. The detail and quality of those labels are amazing ! Please upload them to the FTP so they can receive a honorable directory. Would it be possible to resize them so that they can be used for floppy disks as well ?

NFGGames file archive
http://nfggames.com/X68000/upload.htm

Caius deserves enormous amount of credit for the success of the HDD image and without him there would not be as many good games in it.

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

OK, eidis.

I'm gonna upload label files sometime soon.

Also great thanks to Caius for his devotions.

[netwalka]

Hi netwalka.

I am also playing with MO drives. First one I got is bad, but have more coming.
Would you share your config and autoexec - only the MO related entries are enough.

Also, to boot from them, how have you formated the disks? IBM or Human format?
Can we format in  640MB and boot from it, or should the disks be formatted in 230MB or less?
I am interested in info for both SASI and SCSI models.

Thanks.

Hello, costa

I used same autoexec.bat files to the official V.4 HDD image.
(config.sys file is not used usually though...)
You just need to make same directory structures like....

E.g. A:\games\baraduke
      or  A:\games2\cotton

And copy files to game directory(baraduke, cotton...etc), then place autoexec.bat in the root.
Sometimes this may not work.
So, first, look into !start.bat before formating your dedicated MO media and check there are something like subst.x or drive.x commands.
These are about games consist of multi diskettes and drive swapping.
If that is so, it will be handy to format MO disk with more than 2 partitions this time and copy game files to the first partition.
The second partition do as a dummy & empty partition to prevent swapping over fdd drive. (that cause error sometimes)

To run some games like Detana Twinbee (naturally supporting HDD installation) request 'game A' disk inserted in drive 0 as a key disk.
In this case, you need to make 3 partitions and install game into the 3rd partition and copy files of Game A disk to the 1st partition.
(Just let the 2nd parttion be empty) This job will cheat game as like the key disk is inserted in drive 0 and game runs in HDD installation mode.

All this kind of partition trick things are not suitable for normal HDD installation and looks like wasting of MO space.
But, remember you have 1 dedicated MO disk per 1 game 
No matter what is inside MO media, that game just works. That's all.


Definitely I formatted MO media using HUMAN68K's format.x utility.
IBM-PC compatible formatted MO doesn't boot itself ever. Never heard about that..
And ch30_omake.sys driver is installed in internal S-RAM for self MO boot.
ch30_omake.sys is an enhanced custom driver for xellent30, but you don't need xellent30 board for this, this will just help MO boots.

I failed format 640MB MO media.
Format.x nor SCSIformat.x didn't make it.
I wasted almost 100 bucks spent buying almost 60 new 640MB disks T^T
I may make use of those disks, formatted in IBM-PC compatible mode and with the SUSIE.X driver installed, but, for me, that is meaningless.
'Cause they don't boot themselves by that method.
I already set up my 4G CF card perfectly and have enough space and all.  I need more bootable MO disks to contain games

So,  I used 128MB and 230MB media for my XVI model.

And I could boot MO drive (made by "I/O DATA") that supports just 128MB MO media with the first X68000(SASI based model, parity circuit added, SxSI driver installed) Also Zip100 drive boots itself with the first X68000. I didn't test MO drive that supports upto 640 MO media with SASI based model, 'cause my friend got back his stuffs.

That's all I can say.
I wish this might help you a bit.
Good luck!!

[caius]

Caius deserves enormous amount of credit for the success of the HDD image and without him there would not be as many good games in it.

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

Thanks for your praise, Eidis but you were the pioneer of the X68000 HDD image and not me!:)
Anyway, since I have no more free time to dedicate, in the next days I will release the Mini V2 HDD image with a lot of new games installed.Stay tuned on this channel!

[netwalka]

HELLO, FORUM MEMBERS~!!

IT IS A BIT LATE, BUT, I UPLOADED JPG FILES TO PRINT LABELS TODAY.

YOU MAY DOWNLOAD FILES AT FTP SERVER.

FILE NAME IS "X68000_GAMES_LABEL_FOR_3.5_INCH_MO_DISK_0x.JPG"

http://nfggames.com/X68000/Uploads/



AND BELOW ARE THUMBNAIL FOR THOSE.














JUST PRINT OUT 1 JPG FILE TO A4 SIZE LABEL SHEET, LIKE THIS.



THOSE FIT TO 3.5 INCH MO DISK.





AND MAY BE USED FOR 3.5 INCH FLOPPY DISK, EVEN THOUGH THE SIZE OF THE UPPER AND LOWER SIDES ARE NOT FIT THAT MUCH .

AND IF YOU RESIZE EACH LABEL'S WIDTH TO 6cm~6.5cm, THOSE COULD COVER 5.25 INCH FLOPPY.

THIS IS AN EXAMPLE.








IF YOU GUYS ARE INTERESTED, JUST GIVE IT A TRY.

THANKS.