Tag Archives: IECHost

IECHost GUI client updates

While I was checking the recently integrated directory listing preview in CBM Flux Studio, I noticed that a few characters were not displaying properly. After checking things in CCS64, I came to the conclusion that I was not using an … Continue reading

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IECHost Tools updates

A few days back I was working at a few updates to the IECHost NIB Tools, as requested by Mads from The Transfer Team. Let’s have a look at the changelog: The directory listing decoding I added in version 1.4 is quite … Continue reading

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Fat tracks on Commodore disks: myth or truth? Investigating the case of Maniac Mansion

Maniac Mansion, the 1987 version, is protected against copies using what is often referred to as a “fat track”: data perfectly identical and aligned across multiple tracks and half tracks. As Pete Rittwage’s website suggests, Maniac Mansion uses a fat … Continue reading

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Another donation from Ruben: a custom IECHost enclosure!

I can’t overstate how much effort Ruben has put into helping me to get the IECHost project to the next level, i.e. nibbling protected disks with a 1571: donations, testing, motivation, and now even a cool acrylic enclosure for my … Continue reading

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Flux Studio: an evolution of my recent work on NIB Display

I decided that due to the circular nature of track data in G64 files, these are most suited to be drawn on a circle. I also figured out that, in order to be able to resolve flux reversals in a … Continue reading

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NIB viewer: circular display

After work today I was putting together the components that I will need to display nibbled data on a circular surface. I have all bits drafted so I thought to just generate a preview image for the NIB file I … Continue reading

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NIB viewer: track alignment option

As I prepare to add horizontal scrolling for my NIB viewer tool, I thought it would be useful to have an option to align tracks for visual comparison. At the moment the operation is rather simplistic and doesn’t take into … Continue reading

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NIB file viewer in progress

Looking at NIB files for custom formats in a hex editor can be a little bit alienating at times. Therefore I decided to code a viewer that should make it simpler to recognize custom formats. Here’s a screenshot of what … Continue reading

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More on Vorpal

I got a few G64 files from SLC today, including the ones for Summer Games II, which uses the same version of Vorpal used in Boulder Dash Construction Kit. There are slight differences in where the drive code is laid … Continue reading

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Examining disk protections: Vorpal

Ruben had offered to help with nibbling protected Commodore disks, so today he sent me a NIB file that he saved using my nibbling software for IECHost and his Commodore 1571 disk drive. The protected game he nibbled is “Boulder … Continue reading

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