[Coco] Run program by typing DOS

[Darren A]

On 3/12/09, Steven Hirsch wrote:
> On Thu, 12 Mar 2009, Darren A wrote:
>> Those sound like disk image files that use the DMK format.  The blocks
>> of $FF are unused sectors (formatting initializes sector data to $FF).
>> The $4E bytes are used in gaps between the sector data and ID fields.
>>  Following a run of $4E bytes you should see a run of $00 bytes, then
>> three bytes of $A1 and finally an $FE or $FB.
>
> Is there a tool I can use to turn them into proper DSK images?  Also, it
> would seem that they should not be using an extension of 'DSK' if that'
> not what they are.
>
--

VCC, MESS and David Keil's emulator all support DSK files in this
format.  It sounds like you want the JVC format (sector data only).
You could use one of these emulators to BACKUP the DMK disk image to a
JVC disk image.

Another method I have used to convert between formats is to download
the software utilities for the SVD (semi virtual disk) from this site:

<http://www.thesvd.com/SVD/pcsoftware.php>

You can use this utility to open a DMK format disk image and then save
it back out in JVC format (and vise-versa).  You don't need to have
the SVD device to use this feature of the software.

You should be aware that the main purpose of the DMK format is to
allow copy-protected disks to be used in an emulator.  Converting to
the JVC format will discard the data that encodes the copy-protection
details.  If the program(s) in the DSK file utilize copy protection,
they probably won't work when used from a JVC format file.

Darren