Hey,
Is Abandonia interested in games ripped from the original floppy disks (uncompressed .ima (renamed to .img) ripped with winimage)? The games will then be 100% complete even with the copyprotecion intact (easily removed on the most popular games with Neverlock and similar programs, if user manuals not availible).

I collect floppy and CD-rom images from the original game media. If anybody is able to provide me with abandonware game-images from the original floppies I would love to get a PM

To make things easy I'm going to make a summary of this topic in this post:

I've created a "How To Create Floppy Images Guide". I hope that all of you able to contribute with your original floppy games from the good old times. When you have created the images, please PM me and I will give you upload details (to my own Floppy Collection FTP, if you add your name to the zip file like "radivx - My Game.zip", I will pass your name/information over to Kosta so that you recieve the proper credit).

If you want a directly to abandonia upload, please contact Kosta for information/approval. Please read the pinned FTP information.

http://www.vidiware.com/floppy.pdf - PDF Version of Floppy Image Guide
http://www.vidiware.com/floppy.doc - DOC Version of Floppy Image Guide

http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html - Virtual Floppy Disk Driver for Windows 2000/XP 32-bit (Graphical and Command Prompt)
http://www.acc.umu.se/~bosse/ - FileDisk (another Virtual Disk Driver, should be compatible with 64-bit Windows)

Contributors so far:

Wallymian from Abandonia
RKL from #Oldgames @ Undernet

Thank you so much!

I like this idea, myself.

Are more people interested in doing this? If enough people will help us gathering floppies, then the game collection will grow big quite fast. There could just be added another download link to the game profile here at abandonia marked with (Download Floppy Image) or something.

I am interested, but I think you should bring this to Kosta's attention (or to another one of the admins)

Good thought to have original images instead of .zips of the archives of the game. But that would also mean that I had to change my whole abandonware collection... ^_^

To get my imagination straight:
Are these images for the purpose of supporting the game (like Flashback CD version or TFX and similar games that have CD-support)

OR

are these images for replacing the downloadable ZIP-files that contain the main game-data?

I basically think it's a good idea! :ok:

I want to provide the game in two versions:

1. A regular zip file with game ready to play (as currently Availible)

2. A zip/rar file with the complete disk set in raw floppy-image format (.img/.ima; I prefer .img). This file should be a supplement to the original zip because the floppy images will keep everything like the original floppy was. So If the floppy was write protected from the beginning, the game will come to the end users in the original form. The reason for keeping the non-image version is removed copy protection, cracks, patches and other things that make them easier to use. But as a collector I prefer to have the original versions.

It is easy to use floppy images with DosBox (mountimg a "location" -t floppy), but it may be difficult to install multi-disk games.

The disks are easy to read (especially with WinImage, but it think there is freeware tools too) as long as you still have a floppy drive in your PC. I hope that the Abandonia Crew will concider this as a way to preserve the games even better.

Edit: A PM has been sent to Kosta about this topic.

comic book store is giving away games from laTE 80s to early 90s, i have a chance to get these floppies which i plan to do for free but its hard to find an old pc that will play them.

To bizarrejpeg:

You will ALWAYS find an emulator of some kind that plays most them, so that won't be a problem. If its a regular IBM/DOS requirement, then DosBox may help you. If its Amiga disks or something, then they may be difficult to read for regular PCs, but you can download the games from internet sites, and keep the original floppies as collectibles.

To Abandonia community:

I've created a "How To Create Floppy Images Guide". I hope that all of you able to contribute with your original floppy games from the good old times. When you have created the images, please PM me and I will give you upload details (to my own Floppy Collection FTP, if you add your name to the zip file like "radivx - My Game.zip", I will pass your name/information over to Kosta so that you recieve the proper credit).

If you want a directly to abandonia upload, please contact Kosta for information/approval. Please read the pinned FTP information.

http://www.vidiware.com/floppy.pdf - PDF Version
http://www.vidiware.com/floppy.doc - DOC Version

Well, not a bad idea at all. :ok:
I have been thinking and fiddling 'bout the same presevation process for quite some time.
However there are many games that need to be preserved with their manuals as a part of copy-protection mechanism (known as a doc check).
Does anybody here also scanning these manuals, or you're only into preliminary floppy images (I mean those who create the images, 'cause the probability they have manual is very high, hehe ^_^ ?

radivx, your tutorial is a nice starter for the newbies. Above the DOSBox you can also mount the floppy images in VirtualPC - however with some limitations.

-wally

If people are able to document the copy protections (the most games only uses around 16 different "page x line y word z" combinations), that would be very nice.

Manual scans are ALWAYS welcome to the community too.

For enthusiasts: http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html
Floppy drive emulator, sadly not compatible with my x64 but I think I've used it before upgrading. You will be able to use floppy images as the B: or other stations in Windows 2000/XP.

Maybe there exists a cure for your problem -- have you ever tried a freeware utitlity FileDisk? :D
It's not a perfect user-friendly (interface is a bit clumsy) but still it's worth a try (search for FileDisk):
http://www.acc.umu.se/~bosse/

or direct link:
http://www.acc.umu.se/~bosse/filedisk.zip
http://www.winimage.com/misc/filedisk64.htm

Thanks a lot, I will test them tonight. I've made a small summary with download links in the first post (so new readers may see what we have done on the topic so far). I will keep that updated.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(radivx @ Oct 8 2006, 05:07 PM) [snapback]260089[/snapback]</div>My pleasure, just one note... this utility has graphical interface but the using it is not the best - it needs so much clicking / floppy image handling but it's useful. :)

-wally

Please help us by contributing games. If you are unsure how to make floppy images, please PM me, and I will assist you in the process.

I'd love to help, but unfortunately all my original floppy disks have long since croaked.