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Alternate Image Versions of Issues 45-74

Kevin

Code Monkey 🐒
Staff member
Recently @gumpy gave me a heads up that there are different disk image versions of issues 45-74 out there. There is a question of which version is the original version that was originally used on the physical disks and some folks are reporting issues running the different versions.

Below are screenshots showing the main menu as included in the Compleat collection with Fender versus the VCSWeb collection from Dave.

Anybody have insight on the different image versions and which version has less issue?

From the Compleat collection with Fender Tucker...

1737926138902.png

From the VCSWeb collection with Dave Moorman...

1737926089752.png
 
The bottom screen is the original menu system. The above is using Jeff Jone's menu system (introduced in 1994).
Do you have a copy of both to try to see if both have the same issues you mentioned in the FB post?
 
I have them.

Pressing H on the top screen version (the Jeff Jones 1994 menu mentions CMD partitions which there wasn't even CMD devices in 1987 when issue #45 was published)

CMD.png
 
So does using the original version give you the same issues as the updated version?
Using the disk image from the Compleat Loadstar uses the new menu system.

Using the disk image that I got from Dave Moorman uses the original menu system.
 
Using the disk image from the Compleat Loadstar uses the new menu system.

Using the disk image that I got from Dave Moorman uses the original menu system.
Yes, but does the original version from Dave's collection have the same issues that you were mentioning on FB?

1737927812160.png
 
02.png
Dave's image has the original 1988 menu system, as the it's supposed to be. (Issue #58 from Dave)

The image from Compleat uses the new menu system Loadstar menu system from 1994. (Issue #58 from Compleat)
01.png

(Also, the images from Dave are not from online, they are are ones that I got from him years ago when I asked if he had images that used the original menu systems.)
 
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View attachment 153
Dave's image has the original 1988 menu system, as the it's supposed to be. (Issue #58 from Dave)

The image from Compleat uses the new menu system Loadstar menu system from 1994. (Issue #58 from Compleat)
View attachment 154
Yes, but you said there were problems with the disk image that uses the newer menu systems. Does the disk image you have with the original menu system have the same problems?
 
Yes, but you said there were problems with the disk image that uses the newer menu systems. Does the disk image you have with the original menu system have the same problems?
Menu system is good, but USR and REL files are still messed up.
03.png
So as far I know, there's no 100% perfect images of issues 45-74 archived.

I just purchased a lot of Loadstar issues 1-85 on 5.25 floppies from eBay. I just need to find someone with the correct hardware who is willing to help archive them. 🙂
 
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Menu system is good, but USR and REL files are still messed up.
03.png
What is the issue in the screenshot? I just want to make sure I'm looking at the right thing to understand the problem. 👍
 
Screenshot (621).png
Ok... I noticed that the GEOS USR files are only corrupted in the .d81 images (both from Dave and on the Compleat Collection). They are OK in the .d64 images from Compleat. I just ran GEOSid from #64 and it ran fine. Also the two text adventures that use REL files work on the .d64 images (Lost Crown of Queen Anne from #57 and Murder in the Mediterranean from #71) but glitch up on the .d81. I tried copying Murder in the Mediterranean from .d64 to .d81 using DirMaster and it still wouldn't work... REL files are a pain.
 
01.png02.png

For Issue #71 and Murder in the Mediterranean, I've managed to copy correctly (as far as I know!) the REL files off of the 1541 disk image over to the 1581 image and it seems to working! I used CMD's FCopy program to do this.

I'm going to see about fixing #57 with Lost Crown of Queen Anne and #74 with Dungeon
 
Hey all! It's interesting to know about the REL file issue with the 1581 disk images, it made my attempt to get David Caruso's Dungeon packaged up for people challenging. It uses REL files heavily, meaning the game is tied to the 5 1/4 disk format.
 
I managed to successfully copy the REL files from the .d64 images (which the REL files from them aren't corrupted) to .d81 images. I used CMD's FCopy program.

I uploaded the fixed .d81 images (that have the correct menu as well) to Archive.org.


Dungeon (from 74) should work.
 
There are other things that Dungeon does that might still get in the way, it watches the drive to check if the right disk is in, and has a two drive move that seems buggy. I'll test it and see how well it works, I sell a stand-alone version of Dungeon with Fenders permission, it'd be nice if I could get it to work better.
 
Dungeon was republished on Loadstar #167 - and includes info about the 1581. It looks like the program won't work from a single 1581 with the dungeon program and the adventure on the same disk. But it looks like the program will make use of multiple drives so that you can use drive 8 and 9 and eliminate disk swapping.

167.png
 
My experience trying it without disk swapping was that it was very buggy. I'd get a dungeon made in two-drive mode, spending like half an hour to do it, then when it comes time to save it to disk I'll get DISK ERROR over and over, and lose all my work. This happened consistently, and I lost a lot of work because it. It happened so many times in my tests that it's made me anxious about trying it again, and to start thinking about a re-implementation.
 
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