Disk Keeper Review and Tutorial (FamicomWorld Exclusive!)

[chimyfolkbutter]

DiskKeeper Review and Tutorial (FamicomWorld Exclusive)


As the years go by, items such as wine get better with the passage of time.  However, this does not hold true for Famicom Disks.  As years go by, the magnetic information stored on Famicom disks degrade and eventually are unreadable by the famicom disk system (FDS).  It is bad enough that the FDS is not very reliable but the gradual decline of magnetic information stored on the disks is even worse.

Back in the 80s, pirate copy programs such as Disk Hacker and Kosso Date Gokko contributed to the FDS's commercial decline.  What is interesting is that the pirating programs used in the 80s actually may save the FDS from the tests of time.

This article reviews a program called Disk Keeper.  Disk Keeper is a hacked version of Hacker International's release of Disk Hacker version 1.3.  What makes Disk Keeper unique is that...it is an English translated version of Disk Keeper v1.3.  The biggest feature of Disk Keeper is that is overcomes the hidden files copy protection in games like Doki Doki Panic.  Older versions of copy programs couldn't copy these hidden files.  Thus a digital copy of the copy protected disk could not be written.  Disk Hacker v1.3 and Disk Keeper overcame the limitation.  In my opinion, these programs are superior since it also doesn't require the use of hard to get hardware like a Game Doctor.That is a big plus. 

I have evaluated Disk Hacker version v1.3 and it took me a while to figure out how to use the program because I couldn't read the Kanji. 

Below is the startup screen for Disk Keeper.  It's nothing special.  The programmer, World, created the English version. 



After a few seconds, the program asks for the game disk.





Once the user inserts the famicom disk, Disk Keeper reads the contents of the disk into the Famicom RAM cart's memory.  Once the ram cart's memory banks are full, Disk Keeper asks for the target or blank disk.  The contents are written to disk. 




Disk Keeper will repeat the process till the Famicom disk is full written to disk as shown below.



As a result, the Famicom Collector will have a perfect digital copy of the game.

But wait, what happens if the original game is unreadable? Now what?

Well, this is where Brad Taylor's program FDSLoadr comes into play.  I won't get into the details of Brad's program as an explanation for FDSLoadr deserves its own article.  If one has a 7201 Writeable FDS and an FDSLoader cable, it is possible to write an fds image to disk.

Luckily for the you, you probably made a back-up of your game to your PC.  Now you can write your backup to the famicom disk.

The technique described below is an innovative approach to solving the aforementioned problem.  This technique merely utilizes FDSLoadr to load the fds image into Disk Keeper or any other Famicom Disk copy program.  Disk Keeper or any other copy tool doesn't care where the data comes from.

Here is a step by step look at the technique:

1. First, boot-up Disk Keeper. Disk Keeper will ask for the game disk to be copied.



2. Now connect the FDSLoadr cable to the FDS Ram cart.



3. In the command line, execute FDSLoadr with the FDS image to be copied.  For this example, a Super Mario Brothers 2 FDS image will be used.  (Yes, I own the legit version)



4. Disk Keeper happily loads the fds image into the FDS Ram cart.

5. Disk Keeper then asks for the blank or target disk.



6. Disconnect the FDSLoadr cable from the ram cart and connect the RAM cart to the FDS.



7. Disk Keeper writes the contents to the target disk.

8. Now disconnect the Ram cart from the FDS and reconnect the FDSLoadr cable to the Ram Cart.

9. DIsk Keeper loads the remaining image bits into the Ram cart.

10. Repeat Step 6.

11. Now one has a complete "Digital" copy of the image written to the disk.





So there you have it.  This is the technique used to rewrite disks.  One caveat, this technique will NOT work with so called hidden file disks like Doki Doki panic.  If you do try this technique with a hidden file disk image, you will get the picture below:



If you copy a REAL Doki Doki Panic disk with Disk Keeper then it will copy!  If you copy a Doki Doki Panic FDS image , It just won't work with the FDSLoadr technique.  In order to overcome this problem, one will have to use another copy/backup technique.

Want to get started?  What do you need?  Read the list below:

1.  Famicom Disk System with 7201 chip or a Modified Famicom Disk System with 3206 chip.
2.  Copy Program such as Disk Keeper, Disk Hacker, Copytool etc
3.  FDSLoadr cable.  There are 2 cables.  You need the cable that loads FDS images into the FamicomRam Cartridge.
4.  Blank Famicom Disk
5.  Famicom Game Disk that needs to be copied.
6.  Optional: Backed Up Famicom disk image (if you are using the FDSLoadr technique)
7.  PC running DOS operating system and has a Parallel port operating system that supports FDSLoadr.  No, you can't run DOS in XP or VIsta! And No, you can't use a USB to Parallel converter!

Good Luck and give the above technique a try. 

Now, I have to get back to rewriting my dead or dying Famicom disks.

-ChimyFolkButter

[JC]

This is really awesome and will be very useful when I get around to trying this out. I'm a bit confused with when one puts in and pulls out the copy program disk (and the game disk), unless the copy program is on the PC or RAM or something. I'm having trouble seeing how the copy program works when you have the game disk in the FDS. My assumption is that the copy program is running from the PC through the FDSLoader cable?

Otherwise, everything's pretty clear to me.

[133MHz]

Excellent tutorial

I think it could be a good idea to upload the Disk Keeper FDS ROM, so people without it could write it to a spare disk and use it to recover their aging games .

[chimyfolkbutter]

JC,

The copy program , Disk Keeper,  loads into the Famicom's Memory once.  After that, you don't need the program disk anymore.  You take it out and put it on your desk.

Now you are ready to start the copy process by following the prompts to insert the game disk or insert the blank/target disk.

I hope this helps.  I wish I had a video camera, I would film the process then it would make total sense.

[hehaji]

Cool review and tutorial. But I don't have Copy Program such as Disk Keeper, Disk Hacker, Copytool etc and cable.  .

[JC]

Keep an eye out for copy programs. They aren't very common, but sometimes you'll find them on YHJ or for sale with disk lots.

[wolf9545]

Does anyone know if anyone ever uploaded the Disk Keeper program to this website?

[JC]

It's never been uploaded.

[Symptoms0fMercy]

Is it possible to use fdsloadr to load an image of disk keeper, then once disk keeper is running, have it load the same disk keeper image into ram as if it were a game and write it to a disk? If so, then we could make our own disk keeper disks using only fdsloadr and the dk image, right?

[133MHz]

Disk Keeper won't copy itself .

[Symptoms0fMercy]

awww thats no fun...    Is there any other way to get it onto a disk without some external piece of hardware (game doctor or something)?

Also, 133MHz, did you ever post your power board mods to bypass the write protection on the newer FDS's? I looked through the forums but didn't see them anywhere :-/

[Trium Shockwave]

So, the operation is completely identical to the Japanese version. I didn't really have a problem with that part though. Disk Hacker is entirely in katakana (no kanji), so you only need very basic Japanese skills to know what's going on. Actually, if you can recognize "ゲーム" (game), "ナマ" (blank) and "オワリ" (done), you're golden.

Also, DDP is one of the games with the copy protection? That's great, because I was able to copy that. That means my copy of Disk Hacker is new enough to be able to do it.

And yeah, it really blows that they won't copy themselves. Otherwise we could arrange to distribute copies and get these useful tools out there. Also, what happens when your copy program disk goes bad? You're SOL, that's what.

[133MHz]

I think it would be a good idea to try coyping Disk Keeper using Disk Hacker and viceversa, it could probably work.

[wolf9545]

You would still need one of them to write the other to a disk, right?

[nintendodork]

That's what he just said.