Dark Bit Factory & Gravity

GENERAL => General chat => Topic started by: va!n on February 10, 2011

Title: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: va!n on 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  ;D

So what do you think about such a gallerie?
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: Dr.Death on February 10, 2011
Great idea i would love to see what you have got mate  :updance:

I was around that time too but i sold ALL my stuff stupid me i really wish i had kept them now...LOL
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: Shockwave on 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 :)
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: LittleWhite on 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))
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: va!n on March 13, 2011
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: 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: 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 :)
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: va!n on 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 ^^
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: Moroboshisan on 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/
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: Moroboshisan 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!
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: padman on 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. ;)
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: va!n on 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.
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: Moroboshisan on 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).
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: va!n on 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 (http://www.secretly.de/vip/dbf/SwapDisk001.jpg)

One of my original 'ThePartyDK III' disks:
http://www.secretly.de/vip/dbf/SwapDisk002.jpg (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 (http://www.secretly.de/vip/dbf/AmigaDisks01.jpg)

Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: Moroboshisan on March 16, 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.

[...]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).
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: va!n on March 16, 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 :)
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: 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 ?
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: va!n on March 17, 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! ;)
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: hellfire on March 17, 2011
Why 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...


Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: va!n on 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 ;)
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: Moroboshisan on 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.
Title: Re: swapper-scene disk gallery
Post by: Shockwave on March 17, 2011
I can't think why you'd have to have the permission of a swapper to display a photo of a disk with their name written on it?

The watermarks I could understand if you were using them to advertise the website that they are kept on but putting copyright notices on the pictures seems odd to me.

I like the idea of these photographs being used in some production somehow, just for nostalgia - but the notion that this project and how you spend your time is in our hands is ludicrous. 

The disks belong to you and it's up to you if you release it, I won't have you blaming your fellow members of this community for stopping you doing a project, no way.