trying to copy Pinball Dreams from 3"5 to 3"

[jbaudrand]

Hello, I'm trying to copy a working copy of pinball dreams from 3"5 disk to a 3", it doesn't work with magic disk, nor discology 6.0. Am I missing something?

[St-BeidE(DE/GB)]

Not sure, if it fits at all, but you may try supercopy...

Steven 

[roudoudou]

you need to enable GAP size option with disco to keep the "short" GAP of that special format
and of course you cannot use the double sized version

[Shaun M. Neary]

Isn't there a 3" image that you can just do a direct copy from?

If you're worried about high scores saved, just take a photo of them and edit them in a hex editor on the new disc?

[poulette73]

Did you try with Parados ROM ?

[Prodatron]

Is there no Amsdos/whatever DOS-independent mass storage version available for Pinball Dreams?

[poulette73]

Is there no Amsdos/whatever DOS-independent mass storage version available for Pinball Dreams?

Yes, there is also a special version for M4 Board 😉

https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&onglet=dumps&num=16736

[jbaudrand]

Thanks everyone for trying to help:
It's the dsk for two sides (it ask to switch B side after intro)

in disco: I select B: as source and A: as dest. (it does'nt work if B: is dest) Also I've tried with only A: as source and dest.

here's the actual settings, so Gap#3 is readed not calculated.

[jbaudrand]

I haven't got parados rom on my cpc.
Still trying to figure why it's so difficult to do it...

[poulette73]

For Parados rom, do you have any romboard (X-MEM, M4 Board, FlashGordon, ULIfAC, Megaflash, etc..) ?

This would really be the most practical solution for making copies from 3"1/2 to 3".

[jbaudrand]

I've got a xmem, but never used it because I never need it. After reading the manual, I'm not sure how to plug the card on X4 mother, is it correct on the pic?
And after that how do you connect it on the CPC? I mean the red ribbon cable is on the right like the external floppy disc? or on your left when you are facing the CPC? sorry if I look dumb, but I really don't want to destroy my cpc nor the card.

[SerErris]

As far as I can see you have the CPC expansion backplane 1.0 with 3 slots.

https://github.com/revaldinho/cpc_ram_expansion/wiki/CPC-Expansion-Backplane
You cannot view this attachment.

Is that correct?

If so as in the picture you should plug the CPC cable in the other way, so that PIN1 is at the red indicator cable, and then turn the edge connector into your CPC with the PIN1 red cable pointing to the left.

So the components side of the module (X-MEM) is supposed to look at you when you place the backplane in front of your CPC and then plug in the cable and just connect it to the edge connector without twisting the cable.

Looking at your cable, I think it is actually reversed ... so compare it to the image above shows how you put on the IDC connector on the cable.
(It goes first from the crimp piece to the back and then returns through the strain relieve back to the front).
But I am not sure if your IDC connector has a strain relieve. Without a strain relieve you would actually connect the IDC connector directly in a way, the the cable would point to the front with the red line to the left. This cable is somehow odd.

So if you do not want to change the cable orientation, then you just lay it in front of your CPC and then plug in the cable into the edge connector the only way it will fit in, which would be in your case the red cable pointing to the right.

But again standard is to have the red cable indicating PIN1 and that would be on the left, both on the backplane as well as on the CPC edge connector (left if you look from the Keyboard side as if you would sit infront of your CPC).

[SerErris]

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[jbaudrand]

Hi SerErris, thanks for trying to help.
It's the mother X4 card from tOTo, and I can't plug the ribbon cable as you said, ther's only one way to plug it to the X4 board,

[Shaun M. Neary]

Shouldn't that ribbon cable be connected to the pins on the other end of the board below the slots?

[pelrun]

Shouldn't that ribbon cable be connected to the pins on the other end of the board below the slots?

NO! It even says right on the picture that that is the pass-through connector.

@jbaudrand, it's basically impossible to get this connected incorrectly unless you plug the entire MotherX4 in upside down. Ignore the red wire, as long as you plug in the board as shown into your expansion port, and put any boards into the X4 so they face towards you, it'll be correct.

[SerErris]

It should be no problem. Just put it in the expansion port. there is literally only one way to fit it in. The marking for pin1 is on the wrong end, but that does not matter. You just need to remember that red = right. Then you cannot make any mistake :-)

[Shaun M. Neary]

Shouldn't that ribbon cable be connected to the pins on the other end of the board below the slots?

NO! It even says right on the picture that that is the pass-through connector.

Wow, that explains a lot. I had all sorts of problems with my MX4 that I couldn't figure out so it sat there gathering dust for years.

Turns out I'd been doing it wrong all that time!

[SerErris]

You learn something new every day 

[jbaudrand]

I will try this week end. thanks for trying to help, but frankly I understand that coders try to have best disk performance, but it's a dying disk, I have received a malfunction disk of revenge of trasmoz: I just had to use magic disk to repair disk and restaure it from dsk.
using a parados rom just to copy a public domain disk in 2023, it's completly nonsense...

[SerErris]

You could also use Kryoflux or Greaseweazle

[jbaudrand]

i need to check the Xmem card on another cpc, there's only a screen with rectangular black border and a light brown color on the center of the screen.
Maybe @TotO  knows the error code of these colors?

[ZbyniuR]

What are you talking about? There is no Pinball version for 3" and that's the end of the story. You won't fit 800K on 180K. The author of the game did not provide for such an option because he thought that most of them play on an emulator anyway and a handful of die-hard Amstrad fans already have a 3.5" drive, and for a few people it doesn't It's worth making the 3" version.
There is no device or program that will copy it to 3". If you are a great coder, you would be able to make a version that loads data in installments and tells you to change disks. But if you ask such questions, it means you are not one.
Although there may be some early demo versions with one table and no music, small enough to fit on 3".

[poulette73]

What are you talking about? There is no Pinball version for 3" and that's the end of the story. You won't fit 800K on 180K. The author of the game did not provide for such an option because he thought that most of them play on an emulator anyway and a handful of die-hard Amstrad fans already have a 3.5" drive, and for a few people it doesn't It's worth making the 3" version.
There is no device or program that will copy it to 3". If you are a great coder, you would be able to make a version that loads data in installments and tells you to change disks. But if you ask such questions, it means you are not one.
Although there may be some early demo versions with one table and no music, small enough to fit on 3".

Wrong.

Here you can find full official versions and complete of the game :

https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&onglet=dumps&num=16736

• 1 version 3" Pinball Dreams Preview
• 1 version 3" Pinball Dreams on 2 sides.
• 1 version 3"1/2 Pinball Dreams (double size).
• 1 version M4 Board.

The size of 3" and 3"1/2 of the game are exactly the same : 2x209 KB for 3" and 419 KB for 3"1/2

[ZbyniuR]

UPS.