I have been able to recover some damaged floppies using VGACOPY (with retries=99) or Unstoppable.

post what you need - and we'll see what we can do

posting links to files or the files itself is illegal. So don't do it.

Qbix wrote:

posting links to files or the files itself is illegal. So don't do it.

He probably knows that.

He probably knows that.

Thanks for telling that you think he probably knows this.

wd wrote:

He probably knows that.

Thanks for telling that you think he probably knows this.

He probably is referring to Davros

Then he mis-quoted, which i don't assume.

I quoted the right person, since he was the guy who said it. whether the person who said it meant it to davros or not.

Heres a quick list of what I'm looking for:

KLAX: CATOR.LBM,DROP.LBM

Might and Magic Darkside of Xeen - Disk 5: Xeen.A04

Kyrandia, The Hand of Fate - Disk 1: Westwood.001

Unnatural Selection - Disk 1: Disk1.CN_ ; Disk 5 (FROM THE SAVE DIR) : Disk5.CN_

Veil of Darkness - Disk 2: Disk.002

James Bond the Stealth Affair - Disk 2: Unknown (I've got to go back and determine whats missing)

Darklands - Disk10 - Darkland.010

In case anyone has bad disks themselves here is my catalog of disk based DOS games I have available right now:

Unless otherwise noted these games are the 3.5" Versions.

Directory of L:\Archive\Vintage_Games

12/19/2007 06:02 PM <DIR> Ashes_of_Empire
12/16/2007 09:49 AM <DIR> Buck_Rogers_Countdown_to_Doomsday
12/16/2007 01:56 AM <DIR> Buck_Rogers_The_Matrix_Cubed
12/28/2007 05:18 PM <DIR> Darklands
12/19/2007 06:57 PM <DIR> Dragon_Strike
12/25/2007 09:27 PM <DIR> Dungeon_Hack
12/28/2007 02:20 PM <DIR> Dunjonquest-Temple_of_Apshai 5.25"
12/25/2007 09:29 PM <DIR> Elvira_Mistress_of_the_Dark
12/19/2007 08:14 PM <DIR> Fronteir-Elite_II
12/19/2007 07:14 PM <DIR> Future_Wars
12/16/2007 10:56 AM <DIR> Indiana_Jones_and_the_Last_Crusade
12/16/2007 01:50 AM <DIR> James_Bond_The_Stealth_Affair
12/19/2007 03:04 PM <DIR> KLAX
12/28/2007 03:17 PM <DIR> Knight_Force 5.25"
12/19/2007 05:38 PM <DIR> Maniac_Mansion
12/24/2007 03:12 PM <DIR> Might_and_Magic_Clouds_of_Xeen
12/24/2007 03:39 PM <DIR> Might_and_Magic_Darkside_of_Xeen
12/28/2007 05:16 PM <DIR> Might_and_Magic_II
12/25/2007 09:39 PM <DIR> Overlord
12/19/2007 05:55 PM <DIR> Police_Quest_Pursuit_of_the_Death_Angel
12/25/2007 09:40 PM <DIR> Pool_of_Radiance 5.25"
12/16/2007 02:52 AM <DIR> Quest_for_Glory_I
12/22/2007 01:23 AM <DIR> Realms_of_Arkania_Blade_of_Destiny
12/25/2007 09:44 PM <DIR> Reunion
12/16/2007 12:47 AM <DIR> Shadow_Sorcerer
12/22/2007 03:20 PM <DIR> Spirit_of_Excalibur
12/25/2007 09:22 PM <DIR> Star_Control
12/25/2007 09:23 PM <DIR> Tegels_Mercenaries
12/16/2007 12:02 AM <DIR> Temple_of_Apshai_Trilogy
12/19/2007 02:53 PM <DIR> The_Hand_of_Fate
12/25/2007 09:47 PM <DIR> The_Immortal
12/25/2007 09:48 PM <DIR> Ultima_Underworld_2_Labyrinth_of_Worlds
12/16/2007 03:39 AM <DIR> Unnatural_Selection
12/19/2007 08:15 PM <DIR> Veil_of_Darkness
12/25/2007 09:51 PM <DIR> WaxWorks
12/16/2007 10:03 AM <DIR> Welltris
12/20/2007 05:10 PM <DIR> Wizardry_Bane_of_the_Cosmic_Forge
12/20/2007 05:10 PM <DIR> Wizardry_Crusaders_of_the_Dark_Savant
12/19/2007 07:50 PM <DIR> X-Com_UFO_Defence

Most of these games were bought when I was a kid and I'm just now starting to collect some of the old games I played but never owned back then so as I buy games and find disks that don't work I'll probably continue to post requests to see if anyone has the files I need.

I hope to be able to also help anyone else out who might need to repair corrupted disks as well. Thanks for the interest.

I've been thinking about this for some time. There is a way to help people with problems like this without posting files (which would be illegal). In most cases, the file damage is very local. Does anybody see any problems with posting 10% PAR2 checksums? That should be enough to fix even the worst damaged floppies. On the other hand, 10% is low enough so it is very unlikely that it can be used to convert demo to full game.
The ideal case, if anybody would start a public archive of "known good" checksums. 10% for floppy versions and, say, 2% for CDs should be enough for even really bad cases.

The thing is, a lot of these games have different versions. Take Cannon Fodder: you got the version which includes the intro but also one without the intro. Checksums wouldn't do you much good there unless you got the exact same version.

I personally don't bother with fixing my corrupted floppies - I have all the games on my hard drive and am just glad to have the box, manual and disks in physical form. Floppies will start degrading no matter how hard you try anyway - unless you store them on the moon or something 😉 - and having to fiddle with copyprotection (even if it's an authentic experience) gets annoying when it means digging out the manual and potentially damaging it. So I'll be happy to use the "authentic" warez versions which are clean releases except for the crack.

For example, I received Waxworks in the mail this week - it comes with a codewheel that doesn't look that strong. Not as strong as the Monkey Island kind anyway. So do I risk damaging it?

This is why I've started backing up all my floppies, unfortunately I didn't get to them soon enough before a few floppies got damaged. I'd like to restore them to working order, archive the disks on my HD, then store them away so that the next time I pull them out to install them if they don't work at least I can have a backup that does.

Also I was able to restore my copy of Ultima Underworld 2 because I had made backup copies of that game. After I formatted the 2 original disks that weren't working and copied the 2 backups over them I was able to install from the original disks again. I realize this won't work indefinately but I bet they will last till I die, and it makes me happy.

I understand that its a lot of trouble to do this but I think the experience of a working box copy is just as exciting to experience as the day I first opened the game many years ago.

The thing is, a lot of these games have different versions.

Correct, but nobody says that there should be only one set of checksums per game. It should definitely be per version. Some people actually care about differences between versions -- just look at Infocom or Sierra collectors. Heck, I can tell you all about different versions of Legend Entertainment games.
As for copyprotection, not much help there anyway. IIRC, SPS was going to deal with PC disks at some point. They are silent now but there is some hope still. They've done incredible amount of work on Amiga games, PC should be piece of cake for them. The relative number of copyprotected floppy games for PC was actually quite low compared to other platforms.

Vasyl,

I'm aware of a checksum being used to verify a file is sound but I'm a little daft on how it could be used to restore damaged files. If you have the time could you explain a little about how this would work, and also about how secure it would be so that people couldn't turn them into illegal copies.

I'm very interested in your idea.

It's not just a checksum, it's quite a lot more. PAR2 uses Reed-Solomon error correction codes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed-Solomon) in addition to simpler CRC. The way it works, you can create smaller set of files, let's say, 10% of the size of your files. Now, if you have both your files and this set, and there is some damage somewhere, you can use special software (par2cmd, QuickPar, etc.) to repair the damage as long as it occurs in no more than 10% of "blocks." If you are dealing with a single HD diskette and the block size is one track, you can have 8 tracks damaged but still recoverable with this technique. With 20% you can probably recover small caliber bullet hole in the diskette 😉
On the other hand, the security of this is practically guaranteed. If you only distribute PAR2 file set it is equivalent to more than 90% total block loss (there is no big technical difference between blocks in data and in correction code), way beyond repair. You cannot recover even a single bit from the data set. The only potential danger is that there may be some game somewhere that is so close to its own demo version that demo will be recognized as a damaged game and "repaired." This risk is very low, most demo versions were modified and crippled by significantly more than 10%.

I like the idea of PAR2s to recover files. I don't know about the legality of posting them, but I can't imagine any copyright holder complaining, as it would do no one any good that doesn't already have the majority file to begin with. If more than the 10% is missing, it might be best to be looking for a replacement, anyway.

I like the PAR2 archive idea as well, I'm going to look into some options and see if I can get a site up and going in the next few months. I really think us game collectors could use a resource like this.

If anyone has any legal insight into this it would be great to hear from you right now.

If anyone has any legal insight into this it would be great to hear from you right now.

We couldn't really give you a really valid reply anyway 😀
But to me this sounds really great as well. I've been using Par2 for a while now, mostly as a safety net for CD-Rs but I really wouldn't have thought of using that in this context. Great thinking.

Im currently working on a site now where the files will be voted on and maintained by the userbase. Im a novice at this but i hope to have it up and running by the end of the year. Hopefully I can present the site in such a way that no one mistakes it for a warez site and it can become a resource for legit game collectors in the future.

If anyone has suggestions for the site post here and let me know.

Ill keep you all updated on my progress.