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I've got a game on Apple II 140k 5,25" floppy that does not exist in the archives yet. I would like to read it into an image. But ADTpro just shows read errors on all sectors in spite always reading the same content.

Now I saw a NIB image somewhere... Isn't a NIB image what I want? So there must be a way to create one. But how?

PS. I got a virtual hard-drive using Apple2-IO-RPi.

Jean-François Fabre
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JPT
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    ADTPro can also create a NIB image, but the modern solution is a WOZ image because NIBs can't specify half-tracks, quarter tracks, weak bits, track sync, etc. – Nick Westgate May 28 '23 at 19:52
  • Thank you very much for all your answers. I am currently creating a list of game images and realized the game actually did exist already. but there were more copy protected disks... So i am going to try your suggestions. But it may take a while. – JPT May 29 '23 at 16:30

4 Answers4

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There are various approaches using modified hardware, such as https://applesaucefdc.com/, that yield excellent results. WOZ files can handle all copy protection formats, including the fancy ones like synchronized tracks and E7 bits, and are supported by a variety of emulators.

The older NIB approach was often done with Saltine's Super Transcopy (https://macgui.com/kb/article/75), which used software based on a modified version of EDD to generate .NIB files. These work for some copy-protected disks, but any that use a moderately sophisticated approach are likely to fail, because they only record octets as they are read from the disk by a standard drive.

So you can try SST (available here) and see if that works. Once you have transferred the two generated files to a desktop computer, you should be able to use the CiderPress "Merge SST Images" tool to recombine them into a .NIB, instead of using emulated software to do so.

fadden
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Partial answer:

(1) To see if a NIB image would do the job, try to copy the floppy with one the Apple II nibble copy programs (Locksmith etc) to another floppy. If that works, a nibble image will likely work.

(2) After a quick look, it seems like Apple2-IO-RPi doesn't support full drive emulation, so unfortunately you can't just nibble copy to it as a destination drive.

(3) The usual way to create a nibble image is to use something to connect an Apple II Floppy drive to external hardware, and use that to make the nibble image.

(4) In your situation, if you don't have any way to attach the drive to external hardware, I'd probably write some custom Apple II code that reads all the nibbles in a track, and then uses the Apple2-IO-RPI block commands to write it out. No idea if someone already made something like this, and you need 6502 assembly skills and understanding of the Apple II Floppy hardware to write it.

dirkt
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Might be worth trying passport from a2_4am

https://github.com/a2-4am/passport

It cracks a lot of copy protection schemes.

PeterI
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The Kryoflux hardware is reported to be able to read the magnetic transition timing directly off the Apple II floppy disk media, so might be able to read data from disks written with very non-standard timings (e.g. not just nibbles), or even recover some data from partially erased or damaged tracks (etc.)

There may also be at least 2 other hardware projects (one open source?) to read magnetic transition timings of off floppy discs (e.g. the stuff standard controllers can't read or just see as errors.)

hotpaw2
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    As mentioned by @fadden, the tool of choice for flux images from Apple II hardware is Applesauce. It even generates pretty pictures of the disk layout from which you can discern track use and even some protection types. – Nick Westgate May 31 '23 at 03:26