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From: rhood@pro-gsplus.cts.com (Robert Hood)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Ultima V, Dos 3.3 RWTS, and Vulcan 40 meger.
Message-ID: <2852@crash.cts.com>
Date: 28 May 90 08:56:11 GMT
Sender: root@crash.cts.com
Lines: 38
X-Local-Date: 28 May 90 01:56:11 PDT

In-Reply-To: message from risner@ms.uky.edu

I have a proposition that I hope some game companies will see on here.  Come
tothink of it, this applies to any company that produces copy-protected
software on 5.25" drives.
 
As we all know, a 3.5" disk holds over 5 times the data of an Apple 5.25"
disk.  The leftover room is what I'm counting on for this suggestion.
 
I suggest that, since Apple is apparently trying to shift over to the 3.5"
disk as a "standard" as opposed to the 5.25" format, companies that make
copy-protected programs should provide a way to put their 5.25" products on
3.5" diskettes.

The method I have in mind is simple.  The company makes a 3.5" disk that
effectively works as a small hard disk: it has five partitions, each 144K in
size.  144 times 5 = 720K, leaving 80K free for a menu program and a copier,
and/or extra room in the partition for 36 or 40 track disks.  The copier will
copy the games from 5.25" disks into the partitions in the 3.5" disk, and the
menu will select between partitions.  Ideally, one could select the number of
partitions to devote to each game: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy takes one
partition, while Ultima V takes (I think) 8 partitions (thus taking multiple
3.5" disks, a problem they could surely handle).  Since the company knows its
copy protection, it could surely alter or circumvent it for the new disk
format.

If you have a favorite company that issues protected 5.25" software, I urge
you to send them a copy of this message, or at least a summary of the overall
plan.  Perhaps they could even agree to a standard storage format that
different companies could follow, so one could put games from different
companies on the same disk.  (There may be a need to sell individual copiers,
though, due to space considerations....)}i

 
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