Farb Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 Hi all, We're looking for the following original disks from Ariolasoft to dump for the preservation project. I believe these all came in the "LP-style" packaging. 0° Nord Atlantis Bundesliga Cavelord Cromwell House Déjà Vu: Eine Phantastische Geschichte Hotel Memo Box Mythos I Nibelungen Schreckenstein Slot-Machine Can anyone help out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Bacardi Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Coming back to this quite old thread: Is there a bug free version of the Axis Cavelord disk somewhere available for download? The version from Atarimania unfortunately has garbled graphics at the botton of the cave... I had a quick look at the version from Atari Deutschland but it looks like the data is completely different organized on this version. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 While we're on the subject, the following Ariolasoft programs are also missing entirely (they don't exist as cracks either): Softlearning Englisch - Aufbaukurs Softlearning Englisch - Grundkurs Terminal 800+ Tipp-Trainer (is this a re-release of the title by Atari Germany?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 yes but originals is subjective here... lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, Mr.Bacardi said: Coming back to this quite old thread: Is there a bug free version of the Axis Cavelord disk somewhere available for download? The version from Atarimania unfortunately has garbled graphics at the botton of the cave... This is one of the darn Ariolasoft titles which overwrite two random sectors every time you boot the disk. The Atarimania dump was overwritten twice. Try this version taken from an a8preservation ATX which seems unaltered: Cavelord (1985)(Ariolasoft)(DE)[cr CSS].atr Edited January 10, 2022 by DjayBee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Bacardi Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Thanks DjayBee, but this version crashes after the Axis intro while loading the main game... I tried with fastSIO on/off and BAsic on/off - any idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 (edited) You must disable it from writing to the disk and on Altirra make sure it uses accurate disk reads.. If you allow it to write to the disk it will corrupt it and you'll need to download it again.. Edited January 11, 2022 by Mclaneinc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Works for me. As Mclaneinc wrote: Some needed code probably was overwritten during an earlier try. This happened to me as well while I tried to find your problem. XL: BASIC does not care 400/800: no BASIC and the scrolling text shows complete garbage because the loader uses the international charset which only XLs have. Afterwards the game runs unless you run in NTSC. Accurate disk timing is not really needed but the game crashes if the underlying sector loading ends before the scroller because the code that holds the VBI scrolling code gets erased. Cavelord is a 2017 crack where I did not know all of this. If later today I find some time, I will release a fixed version based on my findings for Hotel which no longer tries to overwrite sectors and which disables the VBI before erasing its code. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 (edited) On Altirra I had to make sure every way to write to the disk was off or you got the screen garbage. Took me a while to realise that I that I had Virtual read write set in tools / options, media, and not just in the disk settings, putting all that to read only made it work properly. Sly little game Looking forward to your "no need to worry" crack DjayBee.. Paul.. Edited January 11, 2022 by Mclaneinc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrshoujo Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Cavelord... I seem to remember this being a German game and somehow I had some help translating it into English. I don't remember if I sector edited it or it had a BASIC listing which I edited. I do remember changing Schlussel which means Key. The translations made the game immediately playable. I don't think I still have the disk. It didn't have the problems mentioned here as it was a program and not a boot disk. I also seem to recall it was on a public domain or something disk. Maybe I'm thinking of a different game but having seen gameplay video on YouTube some time ago maybe not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhd Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 20 hours ago, DjayBee said: This is one of the darn Ariolasoft titles which overwrite two random sectors every time you boot the disk. Is this some bizarre copy protection mechanism? I cannot understand what possible purpose would be served by intentionally corrupting the disk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Bacardi Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 4 hours ago, Mclaneinc said: On Altirra I had to make sure every way to write to the disk was off or you got the screen garbage. Took me a while to realise that I that I had Virtual read write set in tools / options, media, and not just in the disk settings, putting all that to read only made it work properly. Sly little game Looking forward to your "no need to worry" crack DjayBee.. Paul.. Thanks Paul, indeed it was the RW switch which was not set to "read only"! Looking forward for a dummy-prooved version! - haha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 29 minutes ago, jhd said: Is this some bizarre copy protection mechanism? I cannot understand what possible purpose would be served by intentionally corrupting the disk. It's not really a copy protection but more some sort of revenge. The original disk is write protected, so it can only do bad things with copies. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Was just playing it and got to the second level (was testing a cheat out) and got to a part where the ground was corrupted, I checked all the media was R/O, which it was so wonder if he also protected the life code against dirty nasty people like me $609 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thorfdbg Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Fun fact: This is just an ABC-compiled Basic program, with some tiny machine language routines for player movement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Really, always thought it was pure code...You learn a little every day.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Phew, this was a lot more work than expected. Contrary to Hotel the disk is encrypted. The overwrite code exists twice and also runs twice. And finally I needed to find a place to deactivate the VBI because the loader differs a huge lot between Hotel and Cavelord. Please give it a try: Cavelord (1985)(Ariolasoft)(DE)[cr CSS]v2.atr It should no longer try to overwrite random sectors and with enabled SIO patch the VBI should get terminated before it gets overwritten by loaded code. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Bacardi Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, Mclaneinc said: Was just playing it and got to the second level (was testing a cheat out) and got to a part where the ground was corrupted, I checked all the media was R/O, which it was so wonder if he also protected the life code against dirty nasty people like me $609 thanks for providing the memory location for life I didn't complete level 2 yet, but at least the ground (water) looks okay and I couldn't see corrupted graphic data so far with the new version... Edited January 11, 2022 by Mr.Bacardi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 My pleasure... Glad to help one of the old guard.. Paul.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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