[Coco] COCO to PC transfer and Using VCC

[J.P. Samson]

> The Player Disk copy that is
> already archived is the copy protected version because that initial  
> ASC
> character splash screen is the Sundog Copy protection screen.  That  
> screen
> does not exist on my versions which do not have floppy disk copy  
> protection.

Then I'm guessing that somebody has cracked the copy protection and  
has created an unprotected version, and this is what we've found in  
the archive.

> One other question I have is how is .dsk disk image created?   
> Assuming I am
> able to get Drivewire 2.0 working, it occurred to me that just  
> having the
> files on my PC will not really do it.  I assume for VCC to function
> correctly with the game, when you enter cities and when you exit  
> cities, you
> will have to pretend like you are flipping the disk by choosing the
> Cartridge menu, Drive 0, Eject and then Insert (then selecting  
> the .dsk file
> of the City Disk).

Unless I'm missing something, I haven't actually noticed a way to  
easily create blank disk images in VCC or in DriveWire Server for  
Windows.  Seems like an obvious function!
VCC and DriveWire can both use the same CoCo disk image format--that  
is, disk images are completely compatible and interchangeable between  
the two.

What I use to create CoCo disk images and copy files into them is a  
command-line toolset called ToolShed.  You can download this free  
software from here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7193&package_id=246657

Then I'd type a command such as:
decb dskini blank.dsk

This creates a blank, initialized CoCo disk image with the filename  
"blank.dsk".  You could now attach this disk image to VCC or to  
DriveWire Server.  Doing a DIR in VCC or on your CoCo hooked up using  
DriveWire would show the contents of the disk image (nothing at this  
point since it is an empty image).  You could now copy files, etc.  
into this disk image file using VCC or your real CoCo.

(Another option is to just take an existing disk image on your Windows  
PC, make a backup copy, attach this to VCC, and do a DSKINI.  Now you  
have a blank disk image to work with!)

-- JP