mdvtool

[Popopo]

Right. I thought it was the program he used in his video.

In the video description you have the link to the MDVTool of the video.

[RalfR]

Ah, yes, thank you, that works. Interesting GUI, reminds me of the old DOS days.

[XorA]

Maybe the author of the new tool could consider using a more original name to save confusion?

[dilwyn]

Thank you XorA for the Windows binary of MDVtool. I've been playing with it, seems to work OK so far, once my brain is in gear to handle the command line command formats. Reading the generated .MDV image in QL2K seems to work, albeit very slowly, I get the impression that "Fast microdrives" in the QL2K setup screen doesn't seem to work on my Win11 system - the microdrive images seem to be the same speed as a regular BBQL microdrive cartridge (unless I'm misunderstanding how that's meant to work).

I hope I'm correct in thinking that the correct mdvtool format is generally based on:

mdvtool image_to_work_from.mdv command filename image_to_write_it_out_to.mdv

and that the input .mdv file and output .mdv can either be the same image or written out to a completely new image if you give different .mdv image names, e.g.

Code: Select all

mdvtool blank.mdv import test.txt write MyNew.mdv

Would take blank.mdv, add the file test.txt (without putting it into the original blank.mdv) and write it out as a new MDV image called MyNew.mdv

And if I wanted to add it to the original MDV image I'd need to do something like:

Code: Select all

mdvtool blank.mdv import test.txt write blank.mdv

I feel a short user manual coming on as I'm sure I'll never remember these commands!

[dilwyn]

Although it probably won't be needed if a command line dummy like me can master mdvtool, I did make a short 4-page manual for my own reference, with a few examples of how to use mdvtool (in case I don't use it for a while and forget all the commands and their syntax).

Happy to make any corrections anyone notices are necessary.

And XorA is completely free to add it to mdvtool if he wishes.

Note that it's written from a Windows user point of view. I've only used mdvtool to manipulate MDV images for QL2K so far, not any other emulator which uses the format.