[Offer] Harvard Project Manager 1.16 (SCP, IMG) [5.25]

Harvard Project Manager 1.16

This is an early version of Harvard Project Manager, dated 1984.05.23.

Floppy images in SCP and IMG (from SCP).

https://mega.nz/file/uCxXXCRT#O9lKZMsD-ChtPZCYyurilFMCzDrP6DN293uOGXRdc00

I tried to run it on 86box emulator but I got an error message.



Don't know if it's a copy protection or an error. Can someone please check ?


Comments

  • edited May 2023
    It definitely has some kind of protection, but I was able to run it on 86box (IBM XT + MSDOS 2.10) directly from the 86f image (see attach):








    p.s. Btw this floppy is bootable, so you might try to boot the system directly from it.

    And again - thank you for another interesting (as always) release ! :)
  • @tarlabnor wow, excellent ! I was worried that it could also be a bad disk.
    I tried the .86f under 86box and it works fine so It's the .IMG that doesn't work.

    Which tool do you use to convert .SCP to .86f ?
  • Which tool do you use to convert .SCP to .86f ?

    A special old version of HxC tool for an intermediate conversion to 86f. It supports modified MFM format that stores some additional image info comparing to the 'standard' HxC MFM. Then you can mount such MFM image in 86box (as read only) and export it as 86f (read-write).

    I attach this tool for anyone who's interested.
  • @tarlabnor thanks for the tool ! It will be useful for other protected software.
  • edited May 2023
    @callmejack one should keep in mind a few things about it.

    1. Since all image conversion operations go through MFM, it won't allow to get some copy protected titles working, f.i. the one that use weak bits or physically damaged disk areas.

    Technically 86f (as a format) supports all of these, but there's still no utility that allow you to edit/change 86f images. It's been planned for a few years now and is still "on todo list" with unknown ETA. So I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it.

    2. There's an indirect way to convert KF/SCP/other formats to 86f, but not the other way around (unlike PCE floppy tools that do this job converting flux->pfi/pri/psi and back). For now 86f images can be used in 86box only, but you can not convert it back to flux formats and write back to real floppies. The HxC developer started adding early preliminary support to his tool a few months ago, but since then there's no progress either. Moreover, the current 86f format is still a subject to change in the future 86box versions, so...
  • Ok, finally got a chance to look at this.

    First of all, I didn't realize there was a version prior to Harvard "Total" Project Manager 1.0, so thanks very much for finding this.

    Digging around, it uses a similar protection scheme to TPM that hides data in the gap area. That makes it look like a totally normal disk, but fails when copied by a normal disk copier.



    It has the text "NN(C) HarvardSoftware 1983" in in the gap area after track 4 head 0 sector 8.

    So in PCE, when converting to PSI the conversion tools must be told to keep more data than the normal sector size.

    A quick and dirty method that works:

    pfi "Harvard Project Manager 1.1 [5.25].scp" disk1.pfi
    pfi disk1.pfi -R 1 -r 500000 -p decode pri disk1.pri
    pri disk1.pri -s mfm-min-size 8192 -p decode mfm disk1.psi -f -v
    psi disk1.psi -e crc-data 0 disk1.psi

    Ideally only the protected sector should have additional data instead of every sector.
  • Very interesting, thanks for your analysis and the conversion commands!
Sign In or Register to comment.