Original C64 Floppies, and GOG files

[TheRealAnubis]

Hi all,

I have been ripping all of my Commodore 64 floppies over the years to help preserve them. My question is - what's the preferred format for the disk images? I've been using CBMXfer with a 1571 drive to rip to .NIB files, which has worked well for me when it comes time to write an actual floppy to use. I also have a lot of .D64 images, etc.
I have a lot of original disks, but not as many boxes made it over the years..

Second question - I saw that GOG files are cleared for uploading, but not downloading (yet) - what's the recommendation for uploading those, simply zipping up the .EXE and naming it correctly?

Last question - is there a way to see what you already have from GOG so that I know what you might need, or do I need to take a screenshot of a directory of things I have and someone can pick which ones are needed?

Thanks again for this site - I hope to provide some useful software to the archives.

[mrpijey]

Hello!

1. If you don't have a flux device to read out the floppies then I guess any standard format will do, preferrably D64 and T64 formats. NIB should work, but not as familiar with the format. If CBMXfer can log the floppy dump then please include the log. Scans of disks and tapes are of course required as well.

2. Zip up the installer set (and optional bonus content) as is, without renaming any of the original files.

3. I will try to make a list, it's atm spread out on multiple volumes but I am working on consolidating it all and make a proper list with hashes. Remember however that almost all games (except for older indie games etc) comes in different editions and versions, so there's a big change I don't have what you have even if I already have the title in question, due to different versions etc. Ideally just start from the top and download all of it and upload lol. But that's up to you. But a list will be worked on, I am still in the process of organizing my set into a usable structure for archiving.

[Darkstar]

I have been ripping all of my Commodore 64 floppies over the years to help preserve them. My question is - what's the preferred format for the disk images? I've been using CBMXfer with a 1571 drive to rip to .NIB files, which has worked well for me when it comes time to write an actual floppy to use. I also have a lot of .D64 images, etc.
I have a lot of original disks, but not as many boxes made it over the years..

D64 is almost useless for archiving originals in a preservation-grade way. It fails even with simple copy-protections (which most commercial games had) or custom disk formats.

.nib is better, as is .g64, but to be honest, "preservation-grade" dumps are only possible with a KryoFlux/GreaseWeasle etc. And since many originals are double-sided, and dumping a double-sided C64 disk requires a physically modified floppy drive, I would say nib or g64 are probably good enough for now. nib is the "raw" nibble dump and g64 is the converted disk image in an "emulator-ready" format.

[mrpijey]

Very well then, NIB and G64 it is .

[TheRealAnubis]

Very well then, NIB and G64 it is .

That's fine! At some point I'll try and get something going with a flux or greaseweazel, but my time is limited and these things take time to tinker with and get working properly.

Also, an item that I downloaded from the database is labeled incorrectly - do I just send you a message with the specifics?

Thanks again!

[mrpijey]

It's best that you post it in the errata thread.

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