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Any way to image 8" CP/M disks or convert to 5.25"

B

Bill_Loguidice

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It would be awesome if someone had a way to image 8" disks either for use in an emulator or just copied over to another format 5.25" disks (it would take two to hold the contents of one 8" disk), say Kaypro format.

I recently came into possession of two very rare, complete CP/M games on 8" disk (Nemesis and Orbquest), and would love to make them available Web-wide. One is in an IBM disk format, and the other an unindicated format. The programs would work on any decent CP/M terminal, it's just getting them read by something and into a more usable format. The only 8" disk drives I have are for an S-100 add-on for an Exidy Sorcerer, which I have no software for.

Any thoughts/suggestions/assistance? Thanks.
 
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It's really easy to connect a standard 8" floppy drive to a PC. Slightly harder to find a PC/clone with a floppy controller that can read single density. But once you've done that, you can run Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk program and easily make usable disk images. In fact, ImageDisk comes with a test program that you can run easily from a 3 1/2" floppy to test the disk controller of any givin clone, so it's easy to sift through a pile of junk PC's to find a good one.

I've just got an old PC with a suitable floppy controller, 8" drive and homemade adapter card, it wasn't hard to piece together. The hardest part is finding a power supply that will power an 8" drive! They need 24v, which most computer supplies do not provide.

-Ian
 
kb2syd said:
Are they soft sectored or hard sectored? FM or MFM format?
The 1.2MB HD floppy is very close to an 8" floppy and can be used with a simple adapter. Simple directions are at: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img/index.htm
Click to expand...

Wonderful stuff, but well beyond my technical expertise. Certainly I at least have the 8" drives in the Sorcerer's external S-100 chassis.

I'll have to check at home what the exact disk formats are beyond what I said above.
 
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Bill,

As documented here previously and more graphically on my blog ....

8" disks are pretty compatible with 5.25 HD diskettes in terms of number of tracks, sectors per track etc.

Then we noticed that 3.5" tri mode drives are too. Since 3.5" media is just about available I documented the move to 3.5" format diskettes.

Procedure to user 5.25" HD diskette drives
http://majzel.blogspot.com/2009/03/cromemco-z2-now-using-525-hd-diskettes.html

Later Procedure to use 3.5" drives
http://majzel.blogspot.com/2009/04/converting-from-8-to-35-inch-floppy.html

And then most importantly when you have the diskettes in 3.5" physical format it is a lot easier to use an IBM PC XT (as I do) to imagedisk these diskettes using the Dunfield Imaging Software . Which of course is
http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img/


regards marcus bennett.
 
Wonderful information all, but is there a non-hack solution? Does anyone have a working 8" setup where they could transfer the files to 5.25" disk if I sent it to them?

EDIT: Someone on my own Website suggested this: http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html It's just a shame it's $40 plus supplies.

I'd just really like some type of guarantee that something will work, rather than just experimenting a great deal. I realize that's unlikely, though...
 
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Bill_Loguidice said:
It would be awesome if someone had a way to image 8" disks either for use in an emulator or just copied over to another format 5.25" disks
Click to expand...

With help from Chuck(G), I managed about a month ago, to get a setup working that will transfer data from 8" to 5 1/4" (180 or 360 KB), and 3 1/2".
Drop me a PM, if you haven't already found a solution.
 
What about for formats and systems that are a bit more wonky? The imaging and writing of 8" disks (via an adapter from an 8" drive to a PC) using utilities on a PC pretty much handle the raw data regardless of the format, right?
I got a TRS-80 Model II with two 8" drives but absolutely no software.
 
NeXT said:
What about for formats and systems that are a bit more wonky? The imaging and writing of 8" disks (via an adapter from an 8" drive to a PC) using utilities on a PC pretty much handle the raw data regardless of the format, right?
Click to expand...

As long as the format's fairly tame. GCR and other recording schemes, hard-sectored media usually require more extreme measures (e.g. a Catweasel).
 
Chuck(G) said:
As long as the format's fairly tame. GCR and other recording schemes, hard-sectored media usually require more extreme measures (e.g. a Catweasel).
Click to expand...

The model II is VERY tame. Standard is I FM Single Sided, Soft Sectored disk. I have a setup at home for making images for my model II.
 
kb2syd said:
The model II is VERY tame. Standard is I FM Single Sided, Soft Sectored disk. I have a setup at home for making images for my model II.
Click to expand...

I know that--I've got a Model 16 here--and I think I have samples from every other Tandy system in my library. But--and this is my point--not all systems are so mundane.

One gotcha with RS boxes are the disks for the Model I--the directory sectors used different data address marks that are pretty much lie within the domain of the WD1771 and no other commodity controller. Fortunately, there are patches available to remove the dependency of the software on this.
 
Chuck(G) said:
I know that--I've got a Model 16 here--and I think I have samples from every other Tandy system in my library. But--and this is my point--not all systems are so mundane.
Click to expand...
Yep. The model II = Mundane. Any thing else, may or may not be. Your mileage may vary. Fortunatly, everything I have is pretty mundane except for the Northstar machine.
 
Lorne said:
With help from Chuck(G), I managed about a month ago, to get a setup working that will transfer data from 8" to 5 1/4" (180 or 360 KB), and 3 1/2".
Drop me a PM, if you haven't already found a solution.
Click to expand...

Lorne has graciously agreed to help, so hopefully together we can make these things available to everyone. Thanks, Lorne, I'll get the disks out to you in a few days.
 
I know its an old thread, but did these disks ever get imaged or files extracted ? Are they available anywhere ? Google searching has resulted in zero so far.
 
Nemesis was successfully archived and you can get it here. It's a fun and challenging game, a little like Rogue but it runs in real time so you don't always have time to sit and ponder your next move. OrbQuest is not currently available online. It would be fantastic for vintage gaming posterity if Bill could get OrbQuest posted. Gene at retroarchive.org would likely host it since he is already hosting Nemesis.
 
We have Orbquest versions that run on Osborne and Apple-CPM now! Here's the usenet thread with links to both images and details on how to change the terminal params for other CP/M systems:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.os.cpm/mfTdhZttbTo

Let me just say, this game is hard! You have to be savvy about knowing when to exit the dungeon to heal and replenish. This isn't like a modern game where you can easily re-load from death. If you die, it wipes your character on disk. Also, I thought I would be clever and tried to hack my stats to make the game a little easier. It detected my changes and wiped my character - really well done and kudos to the developer.
 
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