9.5) How can I make my commercial boot disk (tape, cart) into a load file or disk image?

Russ Gilbert, mailto:russg@en.com writes:

The disk image part is a matter of taking a copyable boot
disk and making an atr, xfd, dcm or other disk image type
file out of it, usually for use with an emulator. Before
emulators, the Bob Puff .dcm format was used to
store/archive/retrieve boot disk images.

Almost all commercial software for the A8 is/was copy
protected. For boot disks, this usually involved a large
number of special formatting that couldn't be copied using
ordinary sector copiers. Usually the boot process involved
checking to see if a certain sector error occurred, then
proceeding. If the error did not occur, the disk was a copy
and would not work.

For carts, usually the method of protection was to write to
the cart area of memory and see if the value changed. If the
value changed, the cart program was in RAM, not ROM and
would fail to operate.

For tapes, again a fair number of schemes were used. Some
varied the speed at which the tape loaded. I'm not familiar
with tape protection schemes.

With all software media (cart, tape, disk), there may be
program encryption, which must be decrypted before the
program can run. This to make more difficult disassembly of
the program.

There were/are a number of products to defeat copy
protection/allow copying of protected software for the A8.
The most common way to defeat copy protection was to
disassemble the software and revise sections of code so that
the copy protection was defeated. A software with defeated
copy protection is called a 'cracked' software. The basic
procedure is to understand how cart/tape/disk software
initializes, loads and runs. Usually make a file out of the
software and 'follow the code', starting with loading of
the program, to decryption to the actual running of the
program.  Today, it is unnecessary to copy original
commercial A8 software because it has already been defeated
and may be found at a few ftp sites. (Note umich archive has
no commercial/non-shareware software.)

Besides 'cracking' software, there were/are hardware devices
to copy commercial protected software. The Happy 1050 and
the Archiver, and probably other modifications to the 810,
or 1050 allowed 'bit image' copying and reproduction of the
special formatting that copy protected disks had. Using
these archiving disk drives, a copy of the original disk,
including all special formatting and the original code is
copied, thus making a copy protected copy, not cracked, just
like the original.

For carts, copying could involve cracking or again there
were/are products to reproduce the cart and simulate a ROM.
Or the cart might be copied and burned on the correct type
of eprom, to make a plug in cart. 'The Impersonator', the
'Pill' are two cart copy schemes copy the cart to a file,
then don't change the code, but use a 'dummy cart' to fool
the software into thinking there is a ROM present.

Basic tools for copying, then cracking, carts and disks are
a sector editor and disassembler. Carts are usually most
easily dumped using a special OS, like Omnimon, to interrupt
the cart and dump memory to disk. There are a few pd cart
copiers that have the user plug the cart in when the program
is running, I don't believe these pd cart copiers are very
good or very wise to use.

So, the basic answer to 'how do I make a copy of my copy
protected commercial software' is don't bother. Find it on
the net.

There is one exception, in that this 'solution' involves a
minimum of effort and is relatively safe. I refer to
'Chipmunk' and 'Black Patch' software to make cracked boot
disk copy of commercial disks. HOWEVER, even if you use
these two commercial archival tools, be sure you write
protect your originals, and be careful not to accidentally
write to the original disk.

Finally, I'll mention a very modern (I mean 1997) product.
The APE Pro system, by Steven Tucker, in the registered
version of this shareware allows making disk images called
'Pro' images. APE (Atari Peripheral Emulator) requires a
cable, called the SIO2PC cable, that connects the A8 13 pin
serial port to a serial port on the IBM PC clone. To make
'Pro' images, a special adapter cable is needed, not just
the 'standard' SIO2PC cable. The 'Pro' image can 'capture'
the copy protection of an original commercial disk. The
'Pro' image can then be loaded into an A8 using the APE
registered version software, thus backing up your original
disk software. Note the 'Pro' image will only be of use to
person(s) owning registered APE software and 'Pro' adapter
cable.