Atarimania missing PASTI-dumps masterlist

[Marakatti]

List is now updated with subcategories for slightly easier browsing:
-Retail (English language)
-Retail (Non-English language and localizations)
-Retail (USA)
-Re-releases
-Compilations, bundles and doublepacks
-EDOS

If you find errors let me know and we'll fix them.

http://www.atarimania.com/phpBB3/viewto ... 1&p=33066&

[Mug UK]

Modified to a Sticky to make it easier to see.

[Marakatti]

Thanks

[Methanoid]

Retardant pants on; Whats an EDOS title?

[dlfrsilver]

Retardant pants on; Whats an EDOS title?

Electronic Distribution Of Softwares. Retailers had back in the day a PC dedicated with a hard drive (containing games masters), and a special drive able to write any copy protection on disk on demand.

That was the point of this system

[DarkLord]

I can't get to the Pasti image list now, I get a 404 error.

New URL maybe? Thanks.

[Methanoid]

http://www.atarimania.com/atari_forum/v ... =8&t=17781

Obviously looking for the revised URL was a large challenge!

[DarkLord]

Thank you for the updated link.

[Marakatti]

Added also a link for partially missing titles.

[Stefan jL]

Electronic Distribution Of Softwares. Retailers had back in the day a PC dedicated with a hard drive (containing games masters), and a special drive able to write any copy protection on disk on demand.

Was not the "the 16 bit pocket power collection" done the same way?

[Marakatti]

Electronic Distribution Of Softwares. Retailers had back in the day a PC dedicated with a hard drive (containing games masters), and a special drive able to write any copy protection on disk on demand.

Was not the "the 16 bit pocket power collection" done the same way?

Don't think so. At least where I lived they were already boxed like any other budget games. Disk labels also looks factorymade instead of hand written ones on EDOS disks.

[Stefan jL]

I was at a computer fair back in 1990/1 (i think) and you could buy these "pocket power" games... you picked a game and then they had a huge machine they put the disk in and i presumed they were writing the gamedisks in it... but maybe they printed the text also?

There is an text at the back of the pocket power cases wich says you are supposed to cut them open if they are security sealed... i would just guess they had the option to seal them cases also and sale them "normaly" without writing disks.

[Ian]

With news that ipfs will be supported in the.next steem sse, do we envisage a time when no one cares about pasti images?

I don't the the sps guys are going anywhere.

[AtariZoll]

It is hardly possible that we will see ever even half of what exists in Pasti format in IPF format. Pasti has big benefit that no need for special device - ST and PC is enough for imaging. Not much people have Kryoflux, and it will not change, for sure.
Of course, it is always good to have more choices, formats. Pasti development stuck some 6 years ago, while IPF is still under development.
The real problem here is not what formats we have or what will use in future. We just don't use it in proper way. Important part of preservation is missing: verifying of images.
There are bad dumps online, and it would be good that people give more feedback and play in some kind of testing in mind.

[Ian]

Sps verify everything. Every release has been verified with at least 1 other dump.

I have been testing some pasti images that have modified high score tables which is the sort of thing that shouldn't be happening.

Why should we care 'bob' scored 56453 on a game.

I think Batman has already got 5 versions of the one Disk version in tosec.

Now sps is not without it's [a] 's but they are different versions that were released.

I am not against pasti but the way it's being used is just as another format not anything special to preserve originals.

[AtariZoll]

I don't blame users for saving high-scores on original disks. There were even some games not playable if original was write protected (Sundog FI) .
If other parts of floppy are intact, why is problem that there are highscores ?

Pasti may be not true preservation format, but I'm sure that it has future, despite flaws and lack of support (from author in first place). Future is in emulation - after some years we will have not good working floppy drives and Atari machines.

We need to sort out really bad dumps, and not caring about irrelevant things like high scores.

[Ian]

They are not irrelevant though which is the point. Why have 4 versions of a game, one with original score table and 3 with modified ones?

But if pasti is not a preservation format then it doesn't really matter, when it came onto the scene I had moved away from my interest in st's and was enjoying the 'dark side' with the Amiga.

So currently I think of pasti as the St version of caps as it was. If that isn't the case then we'll just carry on as is and hope sps sort something out so St games can be imaged from the St.

Anyway it matters not to me, I just'll just rename the stuff I have and work on the current tosec dats to correct errors and stuff like that, obviously I am going to be testing all pasti images I have so will eventually correctly mark all the bad dumps.

[AtariZoll]

Pasti format and whole concept is not real preservation - it is not intended for writing copies of originals onto floppies, but for usage in emulators. But It may be considered as some kind of preservation - since you can play practically in same way as on real HW, unmodified games.

I don't think that any archive should hold 4 versions of same game, just with different highscores. It is not big deal to choose some of them. But having multiple dumps is always good - to check, compare, and may serve in case of partially damaged data on some - then can combine flawless one from diverse damaged ones. What is already done in couple cases.

Pasti is not version of caps - caps is intented for writing onto floppies too. By me, the real preservation would be if authors, copyright owners would make available unprotected versions of older SW - what unfortunately happened only in rare cases, and certainly it will never be much.

Now, I'm curious how you plan to test all Pasti images you have - and in case of Tosec there is several hundreds, I guess ?

[Ian]

There's well over a 1000 images in tosec plus about 2 to 3 hundred more to rename. Testing is a bit of a ball ache, but it will be done. Not a complete play through because I ain't that good at games but certainly making sure at least the first level loads and it isn't corrupt like crazy cars 2

[AtariZoll]

Well, that would be my point - playing some levels of game is still not enough. Errors may appear in later stages. Or even at final stage - where sometimes is some additional protection too. The problem with Pasti is that it can not determine in many cases is some CRC error protection or damaged sector. If it is CRC error, then game may crash,work badly or there will be graphic/diverse errors. It was case for instance with STX of Kid Gloves posted here - somewhere at level 4 graphic had corruptions because couple sectors were not readen correct. And this is where Kryoflux is certainly in advance. Although, I'm not sure that their sophisticated SW can really determine in exactly all cases reading errors. Another possible problems with Pasti are delayed protections activating at later stages - combined with not enough tolerant detection in game, where it can detect original as copy because some track imaging was not made as they expected.
All in all, without knowing details of some imaging format, and it's possible errors, we can not perform validation without thorough playing - what is of course too time consuming. Then, there are manual protections, and if you don't have copy of it, you need someone to crack game.

So, the real problem here is how to coordinate validation of images, how to spread informations about formats, possible problems. What currently goes, and what was in past too is that some people start some project, collect images, and then publish them. Usually with minimal testings. The result is that bad images just drag over diverse archives. So, there are numerous bad images in GameBase ST for instance. Not to mention cracks - not that there are just some bad, incomplete cracks, but I saw even corrupted ZIP files and similar.

All this is huge task, and can success only if many people will do testings, in proper way. Validation of Pasti images was planned right at start of it - look in Pasti txt. files attached. But as many other good and necessary initiatives it failed. And I think that only chances that something like will success is much better support from people with chance/ability to motivate masses. + better cowork between people dealing with. So, I think that you should contact Marakatti and exchange some experiences. Maybe to start some initiative for motivate people that combine playing with testing .... I think that it is the hardest part - with people is always harder than with technik.