Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Thought I'd separate the ToD topic from the baseball thread. Okay, so the issue has been that I was unable to use the ToD Editor in Classic99 due to the disk writing element of the editor. Codex sent me the attached file at one point and it's pretty cool stuff. I think you just need a ToD game to look through to use it properly. It's been years since I've messed with it. I'm looking for my copy of the ToD Editor in FIAD format... Can't seem to find it. Anyone have one? I remember converting it to FIAD format and saving it, but I may have erased it in disgust. =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Thought I'd separate the ToD topic from the baseball thread. Okay, so the issue has been that I was unable to use the ToD Editor in Classic99 due to the disk writing element of the editor. Codex sent me the attached file at one point and it's pretty cool stuff. I think you just need a ToD game to look through to use it properly. It's been years since I've messed with it. I'm looking for my copy of the ToD Editor in FIAD format... Can't seem to find it. Anyone have one? I remember converting it to FIAD format and saving it, but I may have erased it in disgust. =) I found 2 DSK images (tod.dsk and tod-edit.dsk) in the games directory on WHTech here. You may already know this, but you can use TI99Dir to copy the files from DSK images to a DOS/Windows directory. If the ToD editor is truly using sector writes, copying to FIAD won't work, however---at least, not for the game disk. ...lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Yea for sure... That's how I extracted the disk before, I think. The editor works in Classic99 until you try to edit, and then you get errors. I'm going to try again. Maybe I can get it working and then I'll unleash thousands of new Tunnels of Doom games on the TI nation. =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Alright... attached is a zip file. On this zip file are two files: 1) DSK1 (contains the TOD editor in FIAD format) 2) GAMDSK1 (contains the game to edit) I tried to run it and got several I/O errors. ***Come to think of it, I might not be running the newest Classic99... I'll have to re-DL and try again. Follow instructions and it will tell you to "insert game disk" or something of the like and all you'll need to do is rename the GAMDSK1 to DSK1. TODSKEDIT.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Yea, same errors...I/O error 1274 I believe it says. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Yea, same errors...I/O error 1274 I believe it says. Using the DSK images, I can get in and can noodle around; but, of course, I don't know what I'm doing. Is there a way to attempt to save any work without answering all 18 questions in the A program? ...lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 It's been so long since I've played around with it... I can't even get THAT far in Classic99. =) I do not know the answer to question. How are you accessing the DSK image? Are you using another emulator or am I THAT far behind the times and Classic99 can read DSK images too? =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Cool... just mounted it! How neat is that?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 It's been so long since I've played around with it... I can't even get THAT far in Classic99. =) I do not know the answer to question. How are you accessing the DSK image? Are you using another emulator or am I THAT far behind the times and Classic99 can read DSK images too? =) Classic99 has been able to read DSK images as long as I've been on this board (almost 2 years). It will not write to them except in sector-write mode, i.e., no creation of files and writing to them. ...lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 I'm messing with it now... I'll let you know my progress if any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 I'd better sign off, Owen...gotta get my beauty sleep. I'll catch up with you in the morning...er...later this morning. ...lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Well, it appears that the editor works to a point. You can go through the options and select stuff to manipulate, but it doesn't seem to want to write, as we thought. What I did was I started the editor, wrote a new game description and dungeon name, went through the process and whatnot... changed a few things. Then, I copied the game file from the dsk image to a FIAD disk... Ran Tunnels of Doom in Classic99 and tried to load the newly edited game. It showed no signs of being altered. I need to get my ToD editor manual out of storage and really give it a close look-through. One other thing I can try is changing the DSK1 path from the mounted DSK image to the FIAD DSK1 folder and editing from there... I have a feeling, however, that the results will not be pleasing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 So I allowed the editor to load into memory. Then it asked me to put the game disk in drive 1. What I did was change the DSK1 path from a mounted image to a FIAD DSK1 folder. THEN I attempted to edit (hoping maybe it would allow me to do this). It kicked out errors as soon as I tried to save anything. IO errors 1784 and 481 Yea, that's what's going on... It's just not possible currently. Unless I'm missing something... which is entirely possible. =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Night Lee... thanks for your help... hope we can find a clever work-around, but at this point, I just don't think Classic99 supports this software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 "When you get a disk error, look at the debug log. It will tell you exactly why the error was thrown." Try to guess as little as possible when you are diagnosing an issue. When you do guess, guess only to create a theory, and then a test to prove or disprove that theory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Always good advice. I'll run it again and grab the debug log. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Closing DSK1.FILE on drive type Image Releasing file buffer 58 Sector read: drive 1, sector 36, VDP >3CF2 Can't read file C:\Users\Owen Brand\Desktop\classic99\classic99\DSK1\., errno 2 Can't read file C:\Users\Owen Brand\Desktop\classic99\classic99\DSK1\.., errno 2 Detected C:\Users\Owen Brand\Desktop\classic99\classic99\DSK1\DARKER as a PC (headerless) file - read as DF128. Attempt to read not simulated sector 36 Sector write: drive 1, sector 36, VDP >3CF2 Sector read: drive 1, sector 36, VDP >3CF2 Attempt to read not simulated sector 36 Sector write: drive 1, sector 36, VDP >3CF2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 This was the log when I tried the above method of switching to FIAD from mounted after the editor is loaded into memory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 So the errors I get out of program A are attempts to read and write sectors not available on a FIAD emulation. The code there in the XB program is very obscure, but after a lot of research, I believe it's just reaching into where it ASSUMES there is a valid TOD program file, and directly modifying it. Because of this, as written, it can not work with FIAD files. A little research on the old Yahoo group brought up messages describing that your adventure had to be the "first file on the disk". I found that interesting, so I made a disk with TI99DIR containing just 'PENNIES'. THIS appears to work -- you can load this PENNIES file (note I only changed name and description - but you will see it if you start a new game!). It's a bit hacky, but it appears that the original program worked this way too. Be careful -- this program can and will corrupt the editor disk if you accidentally forget to switch disks! (the original probably had a write-protect tab). It would be a bit of work, but if that is all the editor does, we MIGHT be able to replace the sector read/write calls with file-relative sector access instead, which would make it safer to use and make it work on FIAD as well. I'm not sure if that's worth it, we'd have to fully reverse engineer the CALL LINKs first, and pretty much hope there's no copy protection to stop us. Anyway -- if you use this as your game disk (a disk containing only 'PENNIES'), it should work with the editor and you might be able to produce your game with it! TODWORK.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 (edited) Thanks alot Tursi... I'm still having difficulty getting it to function properly, and I did not see the changes you made when I ran PENNIES. It's the standard PENNIES AND PRIZES name and game description. Perhaps I am doing something incorrectly. In any case, I have attached the manual for the ToD Editor (by John Behnke) to this post. Please DL and read if you're interested in working with this very cool old software. ***Zipfile deleted. Corrupted *new one posted below*** Edited April 2, 2013 by Opry99er Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 This is a much better copy of the manual... TODEDITMAN.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 The zip I just posted contains the official Asgard manual AND the tutorial by John Behnke which takes a new user of the editor through a step-by-step walkthrough of doing their first edit. Quite quality stuff. =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 What I remember from using TOD back in '89 was, when you first booted up the program, it just locked up the computer. A function+reset, and booting it up again made it work. Never found out why(just assumed...TI). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Found this cool little gem... It's a "book" filled with checklists for ToD games, Adventure games, adventure/rpg style software made by third party companies, all for the TI. I'll do a new thread for it too. Adv-ToDguide.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Not sure why you can't view it, Owen, did you forget to mount it? I just downloaded it here at work: Make sure you mount TODWORK.DSK as DSK1 before loading PENNIES --- otherwise Classic99 will pull PENNIES off its built-in disk for Tunnels of Doom. Also make sure it's mounted as a disk image! Probably I should have changed the filename. But the point of posting it was to give you a work disk for the editor, rather than playing it in ToD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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