Saving Games (Minimig / ADF File)

[Stahlmotte]

Hello,

most probably a noob question. Nevertheless, i was not able to find an answer / figure it out:

Just startet my journey with Mister and installed some ADF-Files. I am strugelling with saving the game. For example Dungeon Master is asking for an Save Disk / an empty disk. How can i creaty such a disk? Do i have to prepare an "Empty" ADF File? And if yes, how.

Thanks in advance!!

Alex

[KnC]

can use winuae to make blank hdd's and disk's
or use this one i just made in winuae just make a copy of it so you always have a blank available

Blank.7z

Blank adf

(392 Bytes) Downloaded 466 times

[Stahlmotte]

Many Thanks.

I totally missed your answer! Will try on the weekend. Anyways sounds easy enough. *g*

[Washac]

Many Thanks.

I totally missed your answer! Will try on the weekend. Anyways sounds easy enough. *g*

Did the Dungeon Master save work using the blank adf, and if so did you have it in a designated drive ready to go or put it in
a designated drive when asked for ?

[Stahlmotte]

Many Thanks.

I totally missed your answer! Will try on the weekend. Anyways sounds easy enough. *g*

Did the Dungeon Master save work using the blank adf, and if so did you have it in a designated drive ready to go or put it in
a designated drive when asked for ?

Works like a charm! Blank Disk in DF1. In the Dungeon Master menu you have to format the disk first. After that you can save. Just tried it. Loaded without any problem.

[Washac]

Many Thanks.

I totally missed your answer! Will try on the weekend. Anyways sounds easy enough. *g*

Did the Dungeon Master save work using the blank adf, and if so did you have it in a designated drive ready to go or put it in
a designated drive when asked for ?

Works like a charm! Blank Disk in DF1. In the Dungeon Master menu you have to format the disk first. After that you can save. Just tried it. Loaded without any problem.

Thanks for that

[beardeth69]

Has anyone tried to save in Cannon Fodder? Like Dungeon Master, I think you have to format the disk first. But, I get an error code in the MiSTer menu when I try. I've tried using a few different blank .adf files including the one posted above to no avail.

[rhester72]

What 'error code in the MiSTer menu'? Can we see a screenshot?

[beardeth69]

What 'error code in the MiSTer menu'? Can we see a screenshot?

Sure thing! Apologies for the crude screenshot. MiSTer screenshots don't capture menu elements as far as I know.

IMG_20200813_200812copy.jpg (180.17 KiB) Viewed 8071 times

[robinsonb5]

Has anyone tried to save in Cannon Fodder? Like Dungeon Master, I think you have to format the disk first. But, I get an error code in the MiSTer menu when I try. I've tried using a few different blank .adf files including the one posted above to no avail.

Cannon Fodder's a special case - it uses a custom disk format for its save disks which isn't compatible with standard ADF format - hence the error 22. WinUAE can save scores but only using an Extended ADF format savedisk. (Also I think 1 meg of Chip is required to use the game's internal disk formatting routine.)

[rhester72]

Pretty sure you should be able to create the extended ADF in WinUAE and then bring it over to MiSTer

[beardeth69]

Thanks for your help! I was able to confirm it works in WinUAE using an extended .adf formatted disk. MiSTer just isn't having it. I'm not sure if MiSTer doesn't support the extended format or if Cannon Fodder's routines are just that atypical. I guess I'll just have to play it elsewhere or accept that I'll never beat it haha. Thanks again!

[robinsonb5]

Thanks for your help! I was able to confirm it works in WinUAE using an extended .adf formatted disk. MiSTer just isn't having it. I'm not sure if MiSTer doesn't support the extended format or if Cannon Fodder's routines are just that atypical.

As far as I know, none of the Minimig variants supports Extended ADFs yet. Normal Amiga formatted disks (whether or not they use an Amiga filesystem) have a standard structure after the sync word - starting with a 0xff byte, then the track number, the sector number, the number of sectors to the gap, then some unused sector label data. None of this is stored in the ADF, but it's generated on the fly when reading, and its used as a sanity check and to identify sectors in the datastream when writing to the ADF.

Cannon Fodder's save disk doesn't conform to this format, so the firmware throws an error because it can't identify the sectors within the game's save data, and so can't tell which part of the ADF it should be saved to.

[rhester72]

Just thought of something - perhaps saving from within a WHDLoad install of Cannon Fodder would work?

[robinsonb5]

Just thought of something - perhaps saving from within a WHDLoad install of Cannon Fodder would work?

I haven't tried it myself, but in theory that should sidestep the problem quite nicely.

[beardeth69]

As far as I know, none of the Minimig variants supports Extended ADFs yet. Normal Amiga formatted disks (whether or not they use an Amiga filesystem) have a standard structure after the sync word - starting with a 0xff byte, then the track number, the sector number, the number of sectors to the gap, then some unused sector label data. None of this is stored in the ADF, but it's generated on the fly when reading, and its used as a sanity check and to identify sectors in the datastream when writing to the ADF.

Cannon Fodder's save disk doesn't conform to this format, so the firmware throws an error because it can't identify the sectors within the game's save data, and so can't tell which part of the ADF it should be saved to.

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation! I'm new to the Amiga scene, so that helps a ton. I haven't ventured into the realm of WHDLoad yet, but it sounds like it might be worth it.