The Sinclair QL Forum

I've been re-felting (thanks Chr$) my remaining games MD's and have a number that are either unreadable or have corrupt files (according to format ram1_mdv1)

I was wondering if there is any software I can try that might have a chance of recovering these MD's please?

Or if anyone could supply the missing files please? (happy to pay, and can provide proof of ownership) But it's a largish list

3D Slime (files: game_exe, 3DSlime_pic)
Bridge Player ONE (files: boot, BRIDGE)
Fictionary (All files)
Karate (file: CODE)
Knight Flight (file: KF)
The Lost Kingdom of zKul (All files)
Scrabble (files: "blank", "_", scrabble1_com, scrabble3_com, scrabble4_com, scrabble7_com)
Speedfreaks (file: speedfreaks)
West (All files)
QDraw (files: QDRAWC, PSION_PIC)

Many thanks

There was Cartridge doctor, by (I think) Talent

You could also try the MDUMP2 program which I think comes with the unregistered Qemulator. If it finds bad sectors, it does multiple attempts to read them.
You end up with a MDV image file, but you can use a floppy disk to get the files back into a QL.

Of you list, I should have 3D Slime, The lost kindom of zkul, and Qdraw. I will have a look and get back to you.

I don't know if you will run into any copy protection problems if you try to build new microdrive cartridges for these programs.

Thanks Martin, had forgotten about mdump2 (have used it before with some success) so will give it a try later

Many thanks

Tony - I can supply all of the missing files etc - yes, copy protection may be an issue

Speedfreaks (and several other great games by Damon Chaplin) can be downloaded from Dilwyn's site:
https://dilwyn.theqlforum.com/games/index.html

Send me a pm and remind me of what you need.

RWAP wrote: Wed Jul 03, 2024 12:31 pm Tony - I can supply all of the missing files etc - yes, copy protection may be an issue

Speedfreaks (and several other great games by Damon Chaplin) can be downloaded from Dilwyn's site:
https://dilwyn.theqlforum.com/games/index.html

Send me a pm and remind me of what you need.

Many thanks, will do

Just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone whose replied to the thread and/or offline

I think I'm all sorted now

Many thanks all!

This thread is like fresh water for summer time!
I am in the same point than you. So will be very helpful for me too.
Thanks

Btw, a tool I've used before is mdvedit (it's title screen actually says OPDEDIT). It can be found on Dilwyn's site here:

https://dilwyn.theqlforum.com/files/index.html

It's called In_Out_Kit_v1_05.zip and comes with a recover program too, though I've not tried it. What mdvedit does is look at sectors and it lets you dump those sectors to a file. So with just that you could recover some broken files. The recover program may automate that... I'll have to try it at one point.

It really seems that collecting original software for the QL, putting aside the stupid prices on eBay, is a minefield due to being on MDs

So even if you buy some original software on MD it's highly likely not to work (at least that's been my experience) unlike cassette tapes for my other systems

If it wasn't for the kind & generous people on here most of my small MD collection would just be eye candy rather than being able to use the software

The other issue is that some software, due to being programmed to particular memory addresses, won't run from, say, QIMSI due to memory allocation (at least I believe that's the issue). Had wanted to be able to run everything from QIMSI but have now accepted I'll have to run a few from MDs (or Floppy/vDrive)

Having been a big fan of the MD back in the day I now have to accept that they haven't aged well!


Back to topic though, does anyone know why the files for "The Blag 2" are completely different between the MD and Dilwyn's site please? I have 1 corrupt file on the MD but it's not in the PD zip (I'm assuming they are the same adventure of course)

Many thanks

bwinkel67 wrote: Thu Jul 04, 2024 1:49 am Btw, a tool I've used before is mdvedit (it's title screen actually says OPDEDIT). It can be found on Dilwyn's site here:

https://dilwyn.theqlforum.com/files/index.html

It's called In_Out_Kit_v1_05.zip and comes with a recover program too, though I've not tried it. What mdvedit does is look at sectors and it lets you dump those sectors to a file. So with just that you could recover some broken files. The recover program may automate that... I'll have to try it at one point.


mdvedit.png

Thanks, will take a look