Blit-A-Copy Version 2.0 ------------------------- Copyright (C) 1991 By Matrix Distributed & Manufactured By SLIPSTREAM Productions Inc. Welcome to the wonderfull world of HARDWARE copiers......BLIT-A-COPY 2.0 With this product you will be able to make backup copies of any 3.5" floppy diskette. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS: Turn off your computer and remove your external drive cable from the rear of your computer. Replace it with your ready made BLIT-A-COPY hardware or if you have the Super Card Ami (tm) hardware you may use that aswell as both of these forms of hardware are compatible with this product. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* HOW DOES BLIT-A-COPY WORK? BLIT-A-COPY works by "stealing" the signal that comes from your internal drive (DF0:) and converting it into the signal necessary for writing the IDENTICAL data READ from the SOURCE (internal) drive. This process called "JUPITER" (Patent Pending), gives you an exact copy of the SOURCE disk. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* SO WHY DOES BLIT-A-COPY WORK WHEN OTHER HARDWARE COPIERS DONT? Our competitor's products either change the clock rate (the rate at which you can write data to a diskette) EXTERNALLY via plugging into the VIDEO PORT, or they do similar to what BLIT-A-COPY does...except, they just "force feed" the read signal into the write line with NO conversion factor at all. By using this process, a lot of data can be shifted and lost. Losing data can be particularly important when a check is made for a specific number of bytes that are written to a commercial software disk. When data is shifted, the track length will change causing erroneous results. The end result is that it may take MANY attempts to make a backup of this kind of disk protection, it is also possible that you would never be able to do it at all. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* DOES BLIT-A-COPY HAVE ANY LIMITATIONS? Well, yes and no. The HARDWARE itself has none. The software is where ALL of the limitations are. An explanation of copy protection schemes found later in this documentation file will help you understand why we are "at the mercy of the software". USING THE SOFTWARE: *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* Menu Choices: Default: Range: F1 - Copy Diskette F2 - Starting Track 00 0-83 F3 - Ending Track 79 0-83 F4 - Side to Copy BOTH HEAD 0, HEAD 1, BOTH F5 - copy mode AUTO AUTO, INDEX, DOS, SPLICE F6 - Destination Drive DF1 DF1 or DF2 (Amiga 2000 only!) F7 - offset length 25 0000-FFFF F8 - utilities menu *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* Utilities Menu F1 - Track Scanner 0-79 0-83 / select with starting \ F2 - View Buffer 0-79 0-83 \ and ending track / F8 - Options Menu *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* (F1) After selecting your STARTING TRACK, ENDING TRACK, and other options. Pressing the F1 key will prompt you to insert your SOURCE diskette (original to be copied) into DF0 and to insert your DESTINATION diskette (to be copied on to) into DF1. You MUST have the WRITE PROTECT tab in the OPEN position on your original. The program will NOT continue unless the SOURCE diskette IS WRITE PROTECTED. This is a safety feature, even though NO data is EVER written to the SOURCE drive. Press the ESCape key to abort the F1 option. Pressing the LEFT MOUSE button will abort the copying procedure once it has started. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* (F2) After pressing the F2 key, the STARTING TRACK number can be increased by pressing the RIGHT CURSOR key. The number can be decreased by pressing the LEFT CUSOR key. Once the desired number has been achieved, press the RETURN (or ENTER) key. If you selected this option by mistake, simply press RETURN (or ENTER) to exit. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* (F3) After pressing the F3 key, the ENDING TRACK number can be increased by pressing the RIGHT CURSOR key. The number can be decreased by pressing the LEFT CURSOR key. Once the desired number has been achieved, press the RETURN (or ENTER) key. If you selected this option by mistake, simply press RETURN (or ENTER) to exit. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* (F4) Each time you press the F4 key, the SIDE value will change. The three possible choices are: HEAD 0 (bottom head), HEAD 1 (top head), or BOTH (both heads 0 & 1). You probably will never need to change this option. However, it has been provided in case you are aware of a software program that uses only one side of the diskette. By selecting only one side, the backup time is one half of the normal time. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* (F5) Each time you press the F5 key, the MODE value will change. The four possible choices are: AUTO, INDEX, DOS, or SPLICE. These are the different copying modes available. The INDEX MODE will backup ALL software that was created with a commercial disk duplication machine that uses the INDEX mark to START and END the track data. The DOS MODE will copy unprotected and light protected DOS disks only. It was designed to be a high speed copier that needs certain circumstances found only on AMIGA DOS formats that won't normally be found on copy protected software. *(see end of docs for new info on dos copy)*. The SPLICE MODE attempts to locate the START and END of the track through intelligent scanning routines. The AUTO MODE is the MOST powerful of all and should be tried before other options. This mode looks at a track and figures out how it should be copied. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* (F6) The DESTINATION DRIVE can ONLY be DF1 for the 500/1000's and DF2 for the 2000/2500's using the blit-a-copy. This is designed for EXTERNAL drives only. The version coming shortly for the AMIGA 2000 & 2500 with two internal drives WILL be able to select DF1, DF2 or BOTH. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* (F7) This option is for setting up the BLIT-A-COPY hardware to work with disk drives that have speed differences or variations between them. The default is 25. If you copy a disk in the AUTO MODE and disk does NOT boot (because of an error on the boot block), try changing the OFFSET LENGTH. Generally, a SMALLER value will be necessary, however, a little trial and error may be required. Once you find a value that does work for your drives, remember it! This is the value that you should always use for YOUR system! *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* (F8) This key toggles between the OPTION and UTILITY menu. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* (DEL) This function, though not listed in the menu, is very handy for those of use that are a bit on the lazy side. By pressing the DEL key, ALL of the Menu Option settings are returned to their DEFAULT settings. This is an easy way to save some time. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* (F10) TO EXIT BLIT-A-COPY however normal drive operations will not work. Just reset your Amiga. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* COPY PROTECTION..HOW DOES IT WORK? The way in which the Amiga hardware was designed has left the copy protection industry open to virtually do anything. Unlike the 1581 disk drive for the Commodore 64/128 computers, the Amiga does not have a drive controller chip limited to a specific disk format. For this reason, the Amiga will read and write other disk formats such as IBM, Apple GS, and Atari ST. The disk controller chip PAULA, can also read GCR formatting by adjusting the timimg "window" to allow a slower data rate to be written. With all of the nasty things that protection companies are doing, blit-a-copy does very well. When copying a disk in the INDEX MODE, a perfect copy can be obtained. You might wonder why this wont work for a disk that was produced with NON-INDEXING. Let's explain how a disk is layed out: There are 80 tracks per side, two sides, a total of 160 tracks...for normal Amiga Dos format. It is possible to access all the way up to track 83. However, not ALL disk drives will reliably read the outer tracks because of the physical limitation of the drive mechanical section. Put simply, the head hits the INNER STOP before it can actually reach the track(s). When a disk is said to be "INDEXED", all of the tracks are aligned, or lined up in a row. An example of a INDEXED disk would be: *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* Track #: 1 2 3 4 5 6 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* The "*" represents the START and END of the track, known as the TRACK GAP area. This is a section of the track that is not used by normal Amiga Dos. Some protection schemes actually place their protection in this area. As you can see, all of the "*" are aligned together, and start at the exact same place on the disk. This is very easy to duplicate. The Amiga disk drives have an INDEX HOLE SENSOR built into them. A simple check at the sensor port tells the blit-a-copy's INDEX MODE to turn on the WRITING for the DESTINATION drive (DF1) and to start reading the data. Once the sensor detects the hole again, the write is turn'd off and the the process is repeated for all tracks until the backup is finished. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* Now, if the data was NOT INDEXED, it might look like this: Track #: 1 2 3 4 5 6 * ! ! ! ! * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* Notice that Track #2 isn't even visible. That is because it is 180 degrees off of the INDEX mark. Notice also that Tracks 3 & 4 are INDEXED, but not intentionally. Occasionally you might end up with a few tracks that appear to be INDEXED. A VERY simple way to tell if a diskette is TRUELY INDEXED, is to use option F8 (Track Scanner) of the software. Pay attention to the WFS display. If you see wild, inconsistent changes in that value, then the diskette is probably NOT INDEXED. If you see a consistent display with only a few bytes changing occasionally, then the diskette was DEFINATELY INDEXED. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* To get around the problem of NON-INDEXED diskettes, intelligent scanning routines are used to try to determine where the TRACK GAP area is. Due to the complexity of the routines and various methods, they will not be discussed. Copying a disk in INDEX MODE merely makes the copying process EXTREMELY fast, and is NOT necessary. The AUTO MODE should also copy a disk that IS INDEXED. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* While copying thousands of disks, I noticed something of interest. Nearly all of the older style protection schemes (weird or long track on only one track) can be copied using the DOS MODE. When the DOS MODE encounters an abnormal format, the software then selects the AUTO MODE to take care of it. So, MANY titles can be backed-up very quickly using the DOS MODE. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* *** IMPORTANT NOTICE *** The single most important thing that will assure good copies is to use GOOD QUALITY double sided double density 1meg disks (3M, Fugi, Basf, Kalleens, Etc)!! Or use good quality 2meg HIGH-DENISTY (made for IBM 1.44 DSHD) disks. These can be purchased from your local computer dealer. If you are having difficulties copying software with a late model version 1.2 Kickstart on an Amiga 500...or versions 4.3, 4.5, 6.0 (circuit boards) on an Amiga 2000/2500, you will have to wait for new software that will correct a processor timing problem with these units. *---------------------------------------------------------------------------* CREDITS ------- Design & Programming -------------------- Matrix Graphics -------- Guru Special Thanx To The Following People ------------------------------------- Kid Video . Damaxx . Skol *---------------------------------------------------------------------------*