Game Archive

[Unknown,Unknown]

Hi to all Sierra fans and collectors!

I’m new to collecting but a long time Sierra follower and already own a few rare games.The reason for my post as the title states is creating a personal archive.I would like to ask some of you out there cause i’m sure that alot of people use your wonderfull site for reference if you could tell me if there is a way to make perfect 5.25 & 3.5 Disk Images on HD.Since now days it’s full of emulators that will play almost any game and emulate any PC System on a modern PC.I have had great success with my own PC skills to run tons of old games on my System (maybe i should mention that it’s a multi-boot DOS-Win 3.1-Win95-Win98-WinXP).DOS is a hot swap drive.I’m trying to locate the required software to create those Image files so i can preserve the originals.Unlike some collectors i don’t like shrinkwrapped boxes.I’ve been badly surprised several times and i realy hate the dissapointment of finding a SLASH Release with Xeroxed manuals and bad Labels.Or several missing items in a sealed box…So i open all of mine, then i make 1 to 1 scans of all Doc’s and packaging.

I hope to get some interest on the topic.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: Game Archive) Welcome! Glad to hear from a fellow collector. As you may see around here, there are some archival projects underway. If you have some rare games, we’d love to see a list of your collection in case you can contribute high-quality box / manual scans to the Museum area of this site.
I’m not sure about creating disk images. This topic was also brought up recently on the forums of SpaceQuest.net as Frans is starting his SQL, Space Quest Library, to find out and have a copy of every single version of the Space Quest games (some games have a lot of different versions!) It’s a worthy effort on Frans’ part, to which I will gladly contribute. I wish all Sierra games could go online in a quality archive, but that won’t happen for legal reasons. Hopefully Frans will not get shut down for doing it… he’s definitely doing it very carefully, check out his site. As for this site, Ken has said he doesn’t mind links to sites offering the games, but the games themselves cannot be posted on this site.
The problem with creating disk images, if possible, is like creating any sort of image file – it may not be easily accessible to everybody. Personally, this is what I do – I create a zip file with the contents of each disk in it. Then I create a text file that shows the directory listing of the files from each disk, including the date they were made, the filesize, etc., including hidden files like on some of the early games. In this text file I also record all the information from the disk labels. Oh, and of course I specify whether the set is created from 5.25 or 3.5 floppies. Then I zip it all together into one file. I find this is a good way of creating an authentic archive while maintaining ease of use.
In any event, it’s good enough for me. I don’t really care about creating disk images. When do you go too far in archiving something? What is far enough? Good questions to ask. As for keeping boxes sealed, I don’t either. I open them, make copies of the contents, and then keep the contents protected in comic bags with backing boards and the disks in a disk case.
For example I have the archive SQ2.2.0C.Disks.zip which is version 2.0C of Space Quest 2. It includes SQ2 Disk 1.zip, SQ2 Disk 2.zip and Contents.txt. For later games that actually require installation, I create, for example, SQ5.1.03.Installed.zip as well. However these early games don’t require installation, you can simply unzip all the files to one directory and then play the game. The text file looks like this, and of course the opening text changes dependant on whether you are working from the original disks, a copy, or something you downloaded. I generate the listing part of the text file by simply using the command dir x: >textfile.txt. If someone knows of a simple utility that gives more complicated disk information in an easily text-output format, I’d be glad to know of it to have more information in this text file.
This release is copied from the original disks.
As such all information should be correct.
Also included is SQ2 Disk 1 Unprotected.zip with a patched SIERRA.COM.
3.5″
SPACE
QUEST [TM]
II
Disk One
[logo] SIERRA (R)
S2L-104
SIERRA ON-LINE, INC – COARSEGOLD, CA 93614 – (209) 683-6858
Space Quest is a trademark of Sierra On-Line, Inc. Sierra is a
registered trademark of Sierra On-Line, Inc. (C) 1987 Sierra On-Line, Inc.
K127J05
Volume in drive A is SQ2 DISK 1
Directory of A: CPC COM 8,048 19/09/85 16:47 CPC.COM [hidden file]
INSTALLH BAT 1,247 07/01/88 10:14 INSTALLH.BAT
_INSTALL BAT 1,010 07/01/88 10:15 _INSTALL.BAT
SIERRA COM 3,121 07/01/88 10:15 SIERRA.COM
AGI 39,424 07/01/88 10:15 AGI
AGIDATA OVL 8,192 01/12/87 8:49 AGIDATA.OVL
CGA_GRAF OVL 1,024 01/12/87 8:48 CGA_GRAF.OVL
JR_GRAF OVL 512 01/12/87 8:48 JR_GRAF.OVL
EGA_GRAF OVL 1,024 01/12/87 8:48 EGA_GRAF.OVL
HGC_GRAF OVL 1,536 01/12/87 8:48 HGC_GRAF.OVL
VG_GRAF OVL 512 01/12/87 8:48 VG_GRAF.OVL
IBM_OBJS OVL 512 01/12/87 8:48 IBM_OBJS.OVL
HGC_OBJS OVL 1,024 01/12/87 8:48 HGC_OBJS.OVL
MAKEPATH COM 74 22/04/87 12:05 MAKEPATH.COM
HGC_FONT 3,072 26/01/87 15:47 HGC_FONT
_SQ2 BAT 38 08/10/87 9:26 _SQ2.BAT
WORDS TOK 6,828 02/11/87 9:07 WORDS.TOK
OBJECT 331 15/10/87 9:48 OBJECT
LOGDIR 426 07/01/88 8:49 LOGDIR
PICDIR 444 07/01/88 8:49 PICDIR
VIEWDIR 720 07/01/88 8:49 VIEWDIR
SNDDIR 210 07/01/88 8:49 SNDDIR
VOL 0 70,302 07/01/88 8:48 VOL.0
VOL 1 161,203 07/01/88 8:48 VOL.1
SQ201088 QA 35 01/01/80 0:03 SQ201088.QA
INSTALLH 161,203 07/01/88 8:48 INSTALLH
26 file(s) 472,072 bytes
0 dir(s) 240,640 bytes free

SPACE
QUEST [TM]
II
Disk Two
[logo] SIERRA (R)
S2L-105
SIERRA ON-LINE, INC – COARSEGOLD, CA 93614 – (209) 683-6858
Space Quest is a trademark of Sierra On-Line, Inc. Sierra is a
registered trademark of Sierra On-Line, Inc. (C) 1987 Sierra On-Line, Inc.
Double Sided W161779
Volume in drive A is SQ2 DISK 2
Directory of A: OBJECT 331 15/10/87 9:48 OBJECT
VOL 2 411,093 07/01/88 8:49 VOL.2
VOL 3 0 07/01/88 10:03 VOL.3
SQ201088 QA 35 01/01/80 0:03 SQ201088.QA
VOL 0 70,302 07/01/88 8:48 VOL.0
5 file(s) 481,761 bytes
0 dir(s) 245,760 bytes free

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: Game Archive)

When I get a new game on floppy, 5 1/4″ or 3 1/2″, I immediately copy the contents to hard drive and make ZIP archives of them. I will also check if there the disks have lables (software, not printed) and include that in the ZIP file name. For multiple disks I will copy the contents of each disk to its own folder and ZIP all folders into a single file. This way, I can recreate any of these disks as well as to check that there are no corrupted files (you will not be able to copy a file if it is corruped.) It is best to make a copy on some other media than floppy as  data on a floppy is so vulnerable. I burn all of these archives onto CD, even multiple copies, each on different discs. I can also archive any relevant patches/updates or PDFs, etc. that I have made of manuals with these ZIPs.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: Game Archive) I just wanted to say (and this seemed the best place to mention it) that I have significantly updated my personal collection page.

Link: http://www.sylpher.com/relight/sierra.htm(http://www.sylpher.com/relight/sierra.htm) 

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: Game Archive)

Hi everyone,

I can only but recommand Disk2FDI.
http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi 

I have created this utility precisely to be able to make perfect images of original games on floppy disks. With it, you should be able to image any original Sierra game on floppies for any machine (Apple 2, PC, Amiga, ST, to name a few).

It will even be possible to play Amiga games imaged to the FDI 2.0 format with the upcoming version of WinUAE.
http://www.winuae.net 

Vincent.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: Game Archive)

Brandon, I do much the same as you do, but for convenience I made the following batch file:

@echo off
dir %1/-p /o:gn> “%temp%\directory.txt
notepad “%temp%\directory.txt”

I named it “Print Directory.bat” and dropped it in my “SendTo” folder. Now when I need to generate a file list, all I have to do is right click on the floppy drive -> Send To -> Print Directory.bat and automatically get my text file.

[Author]

Posts