ScuzzBlog: Diaries December 2024
Entry 28th December 2024: Post 1: PGA Golf - Fun and games with thirty year old disks.
PGA Golf - Fun and games with thirty year old disks.
Day two with PGA Golf on the Amiga.
I have spent most of the day recovering a couple of disks and man
was that tricky. Thing is I get more fun out of making the disks
work than playing the games.
First up if you want to know how I physically keep the drive heads
clean and what I do to the disks to get life back out of them you
better read one of my earlier blogs this month or one a called
head banging, if I recall.
Next up I hadn't intended making a blog out of this and so took
images of the screen without a tripod. This resulted in shaky pics
and also a colour variation due to the refresh rate on the screen.
The actual images won't make a whole load of sense, though I will
discuss now what I did and how I did it for anyone wanting to
recover busted floppy games.
Yesterday I discovered that the Program Disk was a little dodgy
and so I decided to track down some good versions. I have many of
the PGA disks and I feature at the end of the blog some of the
variants of the disk distributor labels to disks.
The disks generally worked including a whole load of copy disks.
However, the PGA Golf AGA version disks were shot to pieces. I
couldn't get the Amiga to read these at the beginning. And so I
was given the challenge of recovering them.
Both disks were unreadable and were 'whooshing' and 'wheeshing'
around and throwing up 'read' errors on the screen. First up
I cleaned the heads and then punched the disks through the HD XL
drive which pretty much will read any disk. Sure enough it was
able to recognise the disk and so with disk 1 I used DOpus IV
to create a file structure in RAM and identify all the missing
and or corrupt files. Files will register as missing or zero on
the file listing. Missing files are the hardest to find.
Next follows a slow tedious process of reading the disks and
cleaning the heads. I swap between internal and external drive
and work to copy all the busted files to RAM.
Eventually I made a full copy of all files to RAM so I now had a
complete set of files in RAM of disk 1. I then copy that to my
WORK games drawer on the hard drive. I then create a replica of
the faulty disk and used ADFBlitz to create an ADF image and then
generated a fresh disk.
I did the same for the second disk until I have full copies of
both disks contents and ADF created copy disks. I then tested my
disks. The first disk basically refused to boot. I sense some kind
of copy protection process. So I booted off my now working original
first disk and the game fired up and I used my copy as the second
disk. This worked fine until I went onto the course to play the
first hole. I then got a requester for Disk 2. My scuzzy senses
told me that this was a copy protection process.
I then tried to install onto the hard drive. The operation was
successful, but when I got to the first green I again was greeted
with a requester for Disk 2. I have a feeling that the copy
protection lets you make a copy on the hard drive but then makes
sure it can't be copied to another hard drive.
Thankfully due to the many repeated uses of the original disks
they were now working just fine and I was able to play the game
without any problem. I do have a working copy of the entire contents
of the disks. I also have ADF images of the same for what its worth.
The original game came with its own brand of copy protection in
the form of the referring to the manual for a code. There is no
such copy protection on the AGA version and so I minded to consider
a more elaborate method of copy protection.
Interestingly whilst compiling my little nest of disks I didn't
come across my very original disks. I sense they may be trapped in
their original box deep in tub storage territory.
Sadly one of my other program disks had been used by a previous
user as a save disk, and not for the game PGA Tour Golf. So annoying.
I have oodles more so not a problem.
I also found another review of the game in CUAmiga which appeared
to reflect positively on its qualities.
I was less enamoured by a review to a game that I will be quite
honest I have never seen before called ' Shaq Fu '. I thought
somebody was taking the 'P' or the 'Fu'. Don't think I will be
making efforts to play that.
Anyhoo I managed to burn all the daylight out today with little
effort. Good thing is it only 362 days to Christmas. Whoohoo !!
Going now.
PGA Golf - Fun and games with thirty year old disks.
'What the FU ?'
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Last updated 28th December 2024
Chandraise Kingdom
Keep the Faith
scuzzscink 2024