[OFFER] Temporal Acuity Products - GUIDO Ear Training v2.1 (1989)

elgibbons

GUIDO (Graded Units for Interactive Dictation Operations) was self-paced Ear Training instructional software designed by and for use at the University of Delaware. It was originally programmed on a Burroughs 6700 and later ported to the PLATO system, before it was redesigned for use on the IBM-PC/XT/AT.

Each student was provided with a copy that was supplied with a student key disk, which would not only store lesson progress, but launch the program as well. Upon the first launch of the program, the student's information and subsequent process was stored to the disk.

The key disk contains copy protection. It has been dumped via KryoFlux, written to a new diskette and tested as working on real hardware. It also runs on PCE, however mouse support must be enabled to use the program. I have not been able to get it to launch on 86Box, even using the modified HXC Tools. This would be useful for emulation as the user could have access to MIDI functionality & instruments, rather than just the PC speaker.

In addition, the University of Delaware designed a unique sound card for use with this software.

The link below contains KF dumps & IMA/PSI images (created with PCE tools).

Temporal Acuity Products - GUIDO v2.1 (1989) - (3) x 3.5"DD (720kB)

https://mega.nz/file/adVnhKYL#mszJsbg0lyFVYTtE8aOIy9x7_EzpXgaOFqxz5YFAi6w

SomeGuy

Great write up, thanks. And, as always, thanks for sharing this!

ibmpc5150

Thanks, disk sectors seem to be modified. But this is rare program.

elgibbons

Both the box and the disks within were sealed. Which disks appear modified? Is there an issue with the dump? Temporal Acuity Products may have gone out of business around 1995, and Musicware, which sold educational music software in the 90's must have acquired the rights to sell the remaining copies of GUIDO. The copyright year on these disks is 1996, so the data likely had one more refresh once Musicware got their hands on it.

ibmpc5150

@elgibbons

Thanks for inform me.
I understood.

SomeGuy

At a glance, disk 1 appears to be professionally masted and unmodified, as I would expect from an unopened set. I do see file dates of 1995 so it must have been released just before they went out of business. I would normally label such a release archive with a (1995) date, even if printed copyright dates are earlier.

Still, could you provide kryoflux dumps of the other two disks? While I don't always need to include KF images of non-protected disks, in this case I think it would eliminate any future questions about modifications. Thanks.

elgibbons

Will do! See the link below for Kryoflux dumps:

https://mega.nz/file/CMd0TBAY#HbGASY0biGLeFQRUidhtVAxgPFWFlqseAZYIq5K-IHE

ibmpc5150

@elgibbons

Thanks very much.

I converted all KF streams to PSI.
No bad dump seems not to be found.

tarlabnor

I have not been able to get it to launch on 86Box, even using the modified HXC Tools. This would be useful for emulation as the user could have access to MIDI functionality & instruments, rather than just the PC speaker.

Please try the image STUDENT1.86F from the archive in attach. Please keep in mind, that MFM files are read-only, so if the program needs to write any data, you need to use 86F images instead.

elgibbons

@tarlabnor

Thank you for attaching. I have attempted this previously with the same result. I did try on a variety of system configurations as well. Unfortunately, not all copy protected titles converted to .86F will function properly, even when using modified HxC. With this particular disk, that seems to be the case.

tarlabnor

Thank you for attaching. I have attempted this previously with the same result.

Could you please describe the whole sequence of actions that works on PCE but doesn't on 86box ? The problem might be not the copy protection, but something else.

Also, you use very old 86box 2.07. I'd recommend you to update it to the latest release (v3.1).

elgibbons

@tarlabnor

The update to latest version of 86box was on point. GUIDO has now been successfully tested and working on latest release of 86box. MIDI support also tested and verified.