Megablaster - Is a one disc edition possible.

[CraigsBar]

As much as I love this game, I dislike ittaking up 4 slots in my HxC, or forever disc swapping is I use the original floppies.


Has anyone ever tried to crack this game and loader to produce a one disc (80 trk double sided) 3.5 inch disc version? If batman forever and Midline process can do it, how feasible would it be for an existing game with 4 sides of 3 inch discs to be modified in this way.


Since Odiesoft now gives it away from free I cannot see him worrying if it is now cracked to enhance the loading


I am certainly not capable of doing this I guess it needs someone with an indepth knowledge of the disc loading system @arnoldemu as well as the ability to crack the game in the first place.


Just a thought I had whilst swapping HFE's around (again)


Craig

[tastefulmrship]

There is a one-disk "demo" version of Megablasters. It's the game minus all the cool intro/interlude stuff!
Attached here for your perusal.

[CraigsBar]

There is a one-disk "demo" version of Megablasters. It's the game minus all the cool intro/interlude stuff!
Attached here for your perusal.

And also minus the one player adventure mode, being just the battle mode. Not quite the same game at all really (although great fin for more than 1 player.


Craig

[Neil79]

I think it would be awesome if most of the 2-4disk games were converted into one..


Pirates for example, takes ages lol

[Gryzor]

...bump?

[Nich]

As much as I love this game, I dislike ittaking up 4 slots in my HxC, or forever disc swapping is I use the original floppies.

Has anyone ever tried to crack this game and loader to produce a one disc (80 trk double sided) 3.5 inch disc version? If batman forever and Midline process can do it, how feasible would it be for an existing game with 4 sides of 3 inch discs to be modified in this way.

I'm sure it could be done - although the game is so big that it would take a very long time to crack!

It definitely wouldn't be possible to fit the entire game on to one 3" disc, as the 4 disc sides take up 433KB compressed in the ZIP file on NVG (a standard 40-track data format disc holds a maximum of 356KB of files). 3 disc sides should be possible, though.

[CraigsBar]

I'm sure it could be done - although the game is so big that it would take a very long time to crack!

It definitely wouldn't be possible to fit the entire game on to one 3" disc, as the 4 disc sides take up 433KB compressed in the ZIP file on NVG (a standard 40-track data format disc holds a maximum of 356KB of files). 3 disc sides should be possible, though.

I was thinking of a 3.5 inch drive, using clever drive parameters both sides and 80 tracks are accessable without the need of swapping (like barman forever and midline process demos) this way a single 800k dsk file or actual 3.5 inch dd disc could be used and the game run with no disc swapping.  As more Cpc users get abba switches and or hxc devices as drive a then this makes sense no?

[TFM]

Talk to Odiesoft the coder. He has a nice homepage too. Check it out. 

[Nich]

I was thinking of a 3.5 inch drive, using clever drive parameters both sides and 80 tracks are accessable without the need of swapping (like barman forever and midline process demos) this way a single 800k dsk file or actual 3.5 inch dd disc could be used and the game run with no disc swapping.  As more Cpc users get abba switches and or hxc devices as drive a then this makes sense no?

That's beyond my capabilities! I could fit a crack on to a ParaDOS or ROMDOS formatted 80-track disc, but that would mean needing to have the appropriate ROM installed. I don't know how to write my own disc operating system!

[Nich]

Talk to Odiesoft the coder. He has a nice homepage too. Check it out. 

But does he still do any CPC programming nowadays?

[TFM]

Well.... let's put it that way... chances do exist.... 

[CraigsBar]

But does he still do any CPC programming nowadays?

or maybe provide the source to make porting to a one disc solution easier?

[Ast]

Try to ask Odiesoft...

[MacDeath]

actually you may just need a FutureOS compatible version so it could handle up to 8 disk drive... problem solved.



Jokes appart : is the author (oldiesoft ?) still active in the scene ?

[CraigsBar]

actually you may just need a FutureOS compatible version so it could handle up to 8 disk drive... problem solved.



Jokes appart : is the author (oldiesoft ?) still active in the scene ?

I think this line on homepage (odiesoft.de) provides hat answer

• Please also don't ask if I intend to finish any of the unfinished stuff or whether I want to create anything at all on the CPC, because I won't. I just don't have time for the CPC anymore and I also don't get enough rewards back from creating Z80 code to pick up programming on the CPC again.

• 
  Such a shame, a One disc 80 track Double sided version woudl be so much more user friendly.

[SyX]

My recommendation is about making amsdos file friendly cracks (more cleaner, better and you can release trainers or intros separately), not only because they can run perfectly under a 3" 1/2 Parados formatted floppy, but because you will be able to copy those version to your future mass storage device.

In a few weeks more or less, after i finish my tests, i will release a tool for testing those HD friendly versions