Imaging an Amstrad PCW Floppy

[Damian McMillan]

Hello everyone!

I have made a small writeup of my experiences in imaging a PCW disk with a Greaseweazle. I couldn't find any exact information out there on the web (most was for the CPC).

In any case - hope this is of use to someone: https://dmcmillan.co.uk/blog/imaging-an-amstrad-pcw-disk

[Gryzor]

Thanks for sharing, I'm sure someone will find it useful! 

[GeoffB17]

Yes, very interesting.

I'll have to dig out my copy of the game, so I can check up on some of the rules!

I got the .dsk file unpacked from the .zip, and had a look at that.   I note that this is NOT a normal .dsk file, it does not seem to have a normal directory, there is what looks like a lot of garbage there, and the XDPB into at the start of the first track is NOT normal.  Hmm?

But I put the file into JOYCE, got the emulator running, and loaded the image.

Loaded fine.   A DIR showed a single file ONLY, SCRABBLE.COM, 2k.  Hmm again?

So, I suppose that the file is merely a 'loader', and the vast bulk of the system is in non-standard files on the disk.  Seen that sort of thing before.

I ran the game.   Works GREAT.   The visual implementation seems excellent.   The graphics for the board, and the playing pieces, all looks wonderful.  Accidentally got into a situation where the game went off and played itsself at high speed (hence why I need to find the rules)!

Next step, I'll need to transfer the .DSK to my actual PCW and convert the image into a real disk.  The image here is an 'Extended' type which JOYCE can cope with, but the PCW utils I have will NOT.   Is the 'Extended' type actually needed here?  I think I have something that will convert Extended to normal?

Massive thanks for this.

Geoff

[JohnElliott]

I got the .dsk file unpacked from the .zip, and had a look at that.   I note that this is NOT a normal .dsk file, it does not seem to have a normal directory, there is what looks like a lot of garbage there, and the XDPB into at the start of the first track is NOT normal.  Hmm?

It's got 30 reserved tracks rather than the usual one. The actual game is in the reserved tracks, and only then do you get to the directory and the loader.

[GeoffB17]

Thanks John,

Yes, the data at the start looked more like graphics data.   I stepped through the tracks quite a way, but NOT 30 tracks worth!  One of the parameters in the XDPB data is MUCH bigger than usual, i.e. 1E (30) so that will be the 'reserved tracks'?

I think I've used SAMDISK to convert an Extended image to a normal image, but I've tried with this image but it still says Extended, so not sure if it's done anything.  File date does change however.  Both your progs I've got (DU54 and dskwrite) do not like Extended.  Does the image actually NEED to be extended?

The image file seems to be slightly smaller than the usual CF2 image.   A normal Extended image should be larger?

Geoff