Dungeon Master Amiga V2.1 availability?

[rhester72]

For me, this is the 'holy grail' release, as it's the version I bought and played many, many, MANY years ago (and thus no longer have).

IPF preservations of all other versions exist...but 2.1 is notably missing.

I've attempted to reconstruct it from an untouched ADF dump of 2.1 merged with the weak bitcell protection track from both 2.0 and 2.2 without success...the game loads and plays, but fails on the save check for reasons unknown.

If someone with 2.1 would care to create a raw dump of it, sell it to me, loan it to me for preservation...I'm open to any options. =)

[ChristopheF]

Sorry I don't have that version nor any raw dump.

[ChristopheF]

I saw your post on EAB about this version.
I found an email message that someone sent me a very long time ago about that version 2.1. It was in French, here is a Google translation:

Regarding the changes between versions, I would also very much like to know about them. Perhaps in some cases it relates more to the "system" than the game itself. For example, Amiga version 2.1 does not have "standard" floppy disk handling; if you remove a floppy disk from the drive (internal or external), it doesn't make any "clicking" at regular intervals as is usually the case on this computer. And if you reinsert the disk, there is no automatic detection either. In version 2.2, this was corrected. It also seems to me that this version 2.1 is one of the only ones I own that accepts loading a saved game even if the save disk is write-protected. Usually, DM always asks you to unprotect the save disk even for loading (I think this is so you can rename a "dmgame.bak" file to "dmgame.dat" when the disk only contains a .bak file). However, I have a doubt; version 2.2 might have the same behavior.

Maybe this can help in your quest and your tests.

I have not seen your home made IPF, but the method you have used should work and I doubt that the copy protection is causing the issues.

[rhester72]

I'm going to retest all three 2.x versions, but my vague recollection is that at least under emulation, all three behaved the same (with respect to diskchange and idle click at least).

[rhester72]

OK - I thoroughly tested all three, and behavior (in terms of auto disk recognition, clicking, etc.) are identical between the three releases except that 2.1 will format the save disk, however it will not *recognize* either the save disk or master disk after. Completely bizarre.

[ChristopheF]

however it will not *recognize* either the save disk or master disk after

Does that happen only right after formatting while the game is still running, or also after rebooting the game from scratch ?
If you format a save disk floppy with v2.1, is it recognized by version 2.0 or 2.2, with only version 2.1 failing to recognize it ?
If you format a save disk floppy with v2.0, is it recognized by version 2.1 ?
AFAIK, there is no difference in the floppy disk format code between 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2. So I suppose each scenario should show exactly the same behavior no matter which version was used to format the floppy.
Does that happen when using a single floppy disk drive or also two disk drives (one for the game, one for the save disk) ?
Don't you think that the inability of the game to recognize the floppy could be caused by an auto detection issue?

I've never played version 2.1 in an emulator because I only have a copy protected ADF of the original. Could you please share your custom made IPF ?