swapper-scene disk gallery

va!n · February 10, 2011

As some guys may know, in young years i was long time active on the amiga computer as swapper with worldwide contacts too! Since i am trying to clean up old collected stuff (clothes, hardware and so on) i taked a look to my extreme boxes of amiga disks with scene related stuff! Due fact of my worldwide swapping contacts in the 90th i have here a lot and some really very cool and rar swapper-signed disks (maybe some of may know of what i am speaking off)

However i even have some very rar original disks (originally labeled or printed by its groups) of scene productions like Sanity Demo, ASMpro, The Party 3 DK PartyVoteDisk and so on

While me no longer want to collect all this old (a bit dusty) stuff, i will try to sell some old amigas with packages of disks on ebay and so... But before doing so, i got a small idea and i would like to know what you think of...

So my idea is to scan some of this (in some case) special disks and create a galerie of this scene related disks and some very well known original amiga disks! I know it would be a lot of work... Even i have sorted out about 100 disks of amiga releases not available at pouet yet!!! I think there are some really very rar releases in my collection! I stopped counting my disks when i reached 2000 (yes, five thousand disks++)... holy shit

So what do you think about such a gallerie?

Dr.Death · February 10, 2011

Great idea i would love to see what you have got mate

I was around that time too but i sold ALL my stuff stupid me i really wish i had kept them now...LOL

Shockwave · February 10, 2011

To release these images in a production would be auite a nice idea I think and give a link to the past.

A lot of groups had some really cool stickers too, this type of memorabilia could be included in such a production if you have it

LittleWhite · March 12, 2011

Hope some are still following this.

If you have some 'Lethal Injection demopacks on amiga floppy disks?' I will be very happy to be informed.
I have one contact looking for them and they seams to be very rare

.

Thanks you.

(PS: Volume 1 and Volume 4 are common ... but others not ... so if you have them ... it would be really really cool to upload them

(somewhere))

va!n · March 13, 2011

Atm i have the big problem that i dont know how to move the amiga disks over to my PC! I have some old amigas here and i have to check if they are still working. Sadly i dont have any amiga monitor anymore to connect with the amiga to get a screen.

So i have really to think and find a way how to check most or maybe even any of my old amiga disks! Maybe something like an PCMCIA extension with SD card would be a way! But then i need a ready to use system on the card, to read track 0-79 or maybe even up to track 81, a tiny filecommander (i was very familar with FileMaster and DosControl). So i could read the disks as ADF images and save on the SD card and then i can drive to a friend with a notbook (sadly i dont own myself a notebook) and transfer stuff from SD to my USB stick! Then back at home i could upload all the stuff to the web (pouet)! It all would really take a lot of time but atm i still have some time, due fact i have some health problems and i am ill since beginning of this year. But that isnt so important here...

I must see if i get a working A1200 with a SD-Card and Monitor and the needed Tools (FileManager and Tool or AsmOne to read full disk and save as ADF. A good friend of me who is living in Münster/Germany is still an old amiga fan and i hope i can meet with him very soon and maybe he would help me if his wife agree

Raizor · March 13, 2011

Va!n, I'm sure there are methods to read the amiga disk on PC. I remember reading about Catweasel, which is a device to allow PC to read multiple disk formats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_Computers_Catweasel

You might also want to ask on the English Amiga Board, they're a very friendly and knowledgable bunch: http://eab.abime.net/

Sorry if those links aren't formatted correctly, I'm writing this on an iPad and it's a bit of nightmare for things like this.

I'd certainly be very interested in seeing the disk scans too! Viva la amiga

va!n · March 13, 2011

@Raizor:
Yes i have heared too, that there is a way to read amiga disks when having an very old PC with two 3,5" PC disk drives inbuild. But the way to transfer a disk is a) very complicated b) very time consuming and c) at least who has such an old PC that supports two disk drives? ^^ I am not really sure if catweasel would be a good solution... Even i dont really want to spend to much money in something i will complete give off (selling away or at least giving it probaly away for free)

I think before spending money in catweasel, it would make more sence to buy a PCMCIA compatible SD adapter for the A1200, with FileMaster and a Tool to read AmigaDisks to SD card. At least i am sure its even a lot sheeper as the catweasel thing. I will see what i can do! Because i am really very happy when all my amiga stuff is away and having some more money and even some more space here for my future plans.

But as i was a really great and still a tiny amiga fan too, i dont want put all the stuff into the trashcan, before saving probaly some very old and rar stuff, even not available at pouet yet. So my goal will be to find a way to create images and upload to pouet for amiga fans out there

Maybe i will make a photo of all my disks i have to check ^^

Moroboshisan · March 13, 2011

dump hardware to use without the need to hook up an amiga system:
http://www.kryoflux.com/

actually it works very well!

on the other hand you can find yourself handy an amiga hooked up with serial/parallel/network cable and using this marvellous Amiga Explorer http://www.amigaforever.com/ae/

Moroboshisan · March 13, 2011

Quote from: Raizor on March 13, 2011
Va!n, I'm sure there are methods to read the amiga disk on PC. I remember reading about Catweasel, which is a device to allow PC to read multiple disk formats.

I bought this interesting piece of hardware but, unfortunately, I was disappinted by it's poor reliability and lack of support (I had very big troubles with SID noisy output... so I was forced to take the card out of the PC).

When the Kryoflux was available I resolved almost 99% of my dumping needs (there is no direct support to read flip-side C64 disks... I need to modify the drive to add another index hole sensor)... Very handy tool!

padman · March 13, 2011

Go for the PCMCIA solution! I got one off Ebay for my A600 similar to this one: http://cgi.ebay.de/ADF-Transfer-Kit-CF-Compact-Flash-PCMCIA-Amiga-600-1200-/250785598795?pt=Klassische_Computer&hash=item3a63fc8d4b. It works like a charm and comes with drivers and tools on an Amiga formatted disk so you don't need to set it all up on your own. I'm completely happy with it.

va!n · March 13, 2011

Yes i think the PCMCIA solution is at least the best way! I am really not ready to pay 90 to 105 euro (without shipping costs) for Kyroflux just to create images of disks! (Thats again the amiga world as i know from the past... special hardware just overpriced.

Moroboshisan · March 13, 2011

AFAIK the PCMCIA is, actually, the best way (and the cheapest one also) to transfer anything from Amiga to the rest of the world and back.
Kryoflux aims to deal with most formats so I think it's price isn't that ovepriced as it may seem.

@Va!n: Amiga hardware became overpriced just after the CBM bankruptcy and nothing changed to present days (take a look at everything Amiga related) but this is a completely differen story than Kryoflux. I do not endorse in ANY way Kryoflux, I just use it and found it very useful (no need to use my Amiga Drives or 1541)... having such USB device that let me dump whatever format I'm in need of sounds very handy to me...
I must admit that Kryoflux is not that cheap and very limited (just floppies, you know) and I use the PCMCIA method on a semi-daily basis to transfer everything else from/to my A1200 (docs, sources, demos, updates and so on).

va!n · March 15, 2011

Quote
...Amiga hardware became overpriced just after the CBM bankruptcy and nothing changed to present days...

@Moroboshisan
Sorry but i dont really think so! I remember when CBM was not bankruptcy and i buyed for my A1200 the Prelude Soundcard connected on the clock-port (OMG)! Even at that time a simple and even better PC soundcard was a lot and i mean really a lot cheeper and had higher output quality! But you may be right, since all this CBM hardware will no longer produced and sold, all the old original hardware and today extension are for only a few amiga fans around there and so this things are really expensive! (its like apple ^^)

@all:
Since i told about my idea and the amount of disks, i have tried to scan two disks and taked a photo where you see only one big part (not all) of my amiga disks! What i would like to know from you guys... Is the pixel resoltution and quality of the scanned disks ok, or do you prefer to have all images in PNG instead JPG?

As you can see form my photos, i have really a lot of work to check all the disks, creating ADFs of some disks and to scan some signed SwapperDisks and original SceneDiskCovers.

Best regards
Thorsten

SceneMag Essence ROM #1 - Swapper: Clever^TFD
http://www.secretly.de/vip/dbf/SwapDisk001.jpg

One of my original 'ThePartyDK III' disks:
http://www.secretly.de/vip/dbf/SwapDisk002.jpg

Here you see some of my amiga disks (boxes are full stacked with disks too)
http://www.secretly.de/vip/dbf/AmigaDisks01.jpg

Moroboshisan · March 15, 2011

Quote from: va!n on March 15, 2011
[...]I remember when CBM was not bankruptcy and i buyed for my A1200 the Prelude Soundcard connected on the clock-port (OMG)! Even at that time a simple and even better PC soundcard was a lot and i mean really a lot cheeper and had higher output quality! But you may be right, since all this CBM hardware will no longer produced and sold, all the old original hardware and today extension are for only a few amiga fans around there and so this things are really expensive! (its like apple ^^)

I said "bankruptcy" while I inteded the days after Commodore decided to put itself in "Voluntary liquidation" ... so it is circa 1994, first quarter.... sorry, my fault, but I do not consider post-1994 era as "Amiga-days".
BTW: Prelude and Prelude1200 souncards are dated 1997/8 but I never considered getting myself one... you know, I think that anything built on top of custom chips overriding them simply annihilate the Real Amiga Experience.
However every piece of Amiga related hardware post-1994 were simply overpriced compared to PC equivalent.

Quote from: va!n on March 15, 2011
[...]i have really a lot of work to check all the disks, creating ADFs of some disks and to scan some signed SwapperDisks and original SceneDiskCovers.

quite a lot of work indeed!
looking at the photo I noticed that you have some originals here and there: those disks are not easy to dump due to copy protection methods that might be present (if you want to preserve in their original completness).

va!n · March 15, 2011

Quote
quite a lot of work indeed!
looking at the photo I noticed that you have some originals here and there: those disks are not easy to dump due to copy protection methods that might be present (if you want to preserve in their original completness).

Yes, that will need some time ^^
Yes, i own a lot of original amiga software from very well known games like 'Shadow of the Beast I-III', 'Lotus I - III' and even Applications like 'Personal Paint', 'Deluxe Paint IV' and a lot more ^^ Btw, i dont want dump any original (comercial) software! Just only free stuff like a lot DemoScene stuff

hellfire · March 16, 2011

I'm wondering how a photo of Clever's disc containing Essence's Rom#1 can be (c) by Mr. Vain ?

va!n · March 17, 2011

Quote from: hellfire on March 16, 2011
I'm wondering how a photo of Clever's disc containing Essence's Rom#1 can be (c) by Mr. Vain ?

Why cant a photo be copyrighted, when i took it?
However final images will have no watermark, so ppl can use the photos in own prods!

hellfire · March 17, 2011

Quote from: va!n on March 17, 2011Why cant a photo be copyrighted, when i took it?

I would consider a signed swapper disc as some kind of graffiti, so your photo is creating a 1:1 reproduction of someone else's art.
And you seem to be afraid that anyone is stealing your photos, so you must have made some really bad experiences.
Both points felt somewhat strange to me but I don't want to start a discussion, I was just wondering...

va!n · March 17, 2011

I like that we can talk about what you feel and i have to agree with your arguments! So normaly i have to contact each of the old swappers to get his OK to scan the disk and put in a public online gallerie. However some disks are full with signs of more as just only one swapper and it would be hard to contact the ppl nowadays.

It least i hope it okay for everybody, when scanning and creating a online gallerie with scans (no watermarks) to the public! I know portals where even scans of disks and gameboxes are available and there are a lot!

Would be nice to know what you and all the others here think about just scanning and having a online gallerie without watermarks on the net. If there are some thoughts agains this project, i will just cancel it and save some sparetime ^^ Else i will spend my sparetime and will start this project soon. So its in your hand guys, and yes, let us dissucss

Moroboshisan · March 17, 2011

IMHO I'd go for the preservation of disks content before everyting else. Scans and photos can wait until there is something that really worth the extra effort.