This is a little FAQ for the disk image format provided on ftp.uni-kl.de:/pub/apple2/disk_images. I've found some of the answers in the FAQ of alt.emulators.ibmpc.apple2. Thanks to James Vera and Tom Baker for providing it. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What's the format of such a disk image? A: Disk images are 1:1 copies of a 35 track, 16 sector disk in a single file. Tracks and sectors are arranged as: Byte Track Sector 00000-000FF 0 0 00100-001FF 0 1 : - : : : 00F00-00FFF 0 F 01000-010FF 1 0 01100-011FF 1 1 : - : : : : - : : : : - : : : 22000-220FF 22 0 : - : : : 22F00-22FFF 22 F This is called the DOS 3.3 interleave. Such disk images have usualy a size of 143360 bytes. Q: Oh, the images seem to have a size much less than 143360 bytes?!? A: Then they are compressed, either with Unix' compress or GNU's gzip. uncompress (gunzip) them and you should get a file with exactly 143360. If not, it's possibly corrupted. Q: Can i use these images with Randy Spurlock's apl2-em emulator and with Peter Koch's Apple ][ emulator? A: Yes, they should work fine. Q: But i use applemu. What should i do? A: applemu uses a nibblized version with DOS 3.3 interleave. The files are 232960 bytes in size. There is a program em2emu, which does all necessary conversions for you. It can be found in /pub/apple2/ibmpc. Q: What's about other emulators? A: Rich Skrenta's Apple2Emul, Ben Koening's II+simulator and Randy Frank's ap2e (ap2egl) use disk images in ProDOS interleave. They are 143360 bytes in size too. You only have to rearrange the sectors on each track. There is a small programm called 'mapper' in /pub/apple/unix which will do the trick. Q: And what's with Mat Hostetter's zaniWok? A: The disk images for zaniWok are normal DOS 3.3 interleave, but with the following nine bytes prepended to it: ^D^ScY^@^@^@^I^B. This gives a total of 143369 bytes. Q: I use the STM emulator on the Macintosh. What can i do? A: If you have STM 0.851 and higher, you just have to set the Creator to "A2EM" and the Filetype to "DSK5". Q: Can i use the images with a real Apple ][ ? A: If you want to use this images with a real Apple ][, you can use the 'mapper' to convert an image to ProDOS interleave and 'nulib' (version 3.20 and higher) to put it into a ShrinkIt NuFX archive (use suffix .SDK). Then run 'bsc' with options "-t\$e0 -a\$8002" on the .SDK file and create a new file (with suffix .BSQ). Transmit this file to your Apple ][. With the help of BINSCII and SHRINKIT, you can restore the disk image on a floppy disk and use it. BINSCII & SHRINKIT can be found in /pub/apple2/archivers, 'mapper', 'nulib' and 'bsc' are in /pub/apple2/unix. My favourite transfer method is kermit (see /pub/apple2/communication/kermit3.87.bsq or /pub/apple2/disk_images/kermit.pro.dsk) Q: How can i transfer disks from the Apple to disk images ? A: Use the method described above the other way round. You can omit the encoding/decoding with BINSCII/sciibin, if you use binary transfer. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Peter (koch@informatik.uni-kl.de)