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[offer] Wordstar 3.01 for CP/M (5.25, SCP)

callmejackcallmejack
in Offers & Requests
Unfortunately the disk has bad sectors and I don't know if this impacts the files as I don't have a CP/M system to test it.

I included a scan of the manual.

https://mega.nz/file/eHAmBbCY#E0VkXCktoePDDakmmqAxqaTcGOqatC1gTL1g_u3OU6E

Comments

  • ibmpc5150ibmpc5150
    Thanks, Yes, a few of sectors seems to have bad sector.
    Unfortunately I don't know about CP/M.
  • SomeGuySomeGuy
    Uh, that is pretty bad.

    What is the physical condition of the disk? Scratched? Warped? Dirty? Visibly perfect? Did you clean it before reading it?

    At least looking at the multiple dumps, it did not seem to get worse.
  • hampahampa
    I think that this is a double density 80 track disk. Could you redump it using 80 tracks?
  • SomeGuySomeGuy
    Good catch - looking at the track numbers read, only every other track is present. That is indeed an 80 track, 96tpi disk, and must be dumped with a 1.2mb (or quad density) drive.

    callmejack, is there anything at all with this that indicates what manufacturer's system this is intended for? (I know, often they don't label it)
  • callmejackcallmejack
    @hampa Bingo ! with 80 tracks there are no more bad sectors

    https://mega.nz/file/zPJDjAAb#CIqRxqy3rT7FjDrbt8Pg4589nGsTqr2z0qB7YcCjFSc

    I tried to read it with 22disk but with no success (tried all 98 tracks formats)
  • SomeGuySomeGuy
    Great, that looks like it read everything.

    Looking through the data, I don't see any clue what system it is for.
  • callmejackcallmejack
    One of the PDF file in the first 7zip contains the list of compatibility. Maybe it could help determine the disk format
  • hampahampa
    I was able to extract the files using cpmtools and the following diskdef:

    diskdef ws300 seclen 256 tracks 160 sectrk 16 blocksize 2048 maxdir 128 boottrk 3 skew 1 os 2.2 end
  • callmejackcallmejack
    Excellent! Thanks 😊
    Just for my knowledge, how did you manage to find those parameters?
  • ibmpc5150ibmpc5150
    @hampa

    Thanks for information of it.
    Yes, there is no bad track.
  • hampahampa
    Just for my knowledge, how did you manage to find those parameters?


    Educated guesses. The seclen, tracks and sectrk parameters are determined by the disk geometry. In the raw image it is easy to find the start and end of the directory, which gives us boottrk and maxdir. The directory also tells us how many blocks are allocated to each file, allowing a guess at blocksize (trial and error would work, too). The sector skew is almost always 1 for 5.25" disks.
  • callmejackcallmejack
    @hampa thanks for the explanation. It's interesting, and realize I still have a long way to go to be able to do that :)
  • SomeGuySomeGuy
    Unfortunately, that compatibility document only talks about terminal types, not the actual system types.

    Just searching by those parameters, I don't see anything known out there that matches exactly. Could have been something totally custom.
  • callmejackcallmejack
    @SomeGuy they state that “in general Wordstar may be run on any 48k z80 8080 or 8085 microcomputer system that runs un cp/m mp/m or one of it derivating OS”
    It could well be that this version is generic and runs on many systems.
  • SomeGuySomeGuy
    Yes, I do believe the binary itself should be identical to any other unconfigured 8080/Z80 Wordstar 3.01 copy.

    Back then it was fairly common, and often required, for users to go directly to their local vendor, who would have a machine that would copy between formats. So if a title was not released specifically for a specific system model or implementation, the vendor would just convert the format. I'm thinking that is likely what happened here.
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