Short: DVD-RAM FFS/SFS/CrossDOS/FAT95/Allegro Driver Maker. Author: sndev@bigfoot.com (Steven Norburn) Uploader: sndev@bigfoot.com (Steven Norburn) Type: disk/misc Requires: DVD-RAM drive. Version: 0.80 Yes, you can use DVD-RAM drives with your Amiga. This will allow 2.6 GB and 4.7 GB per side DVD-RAM discs to be fully used with your Amiga. The 2.6 GB per side Version 1 DVD-RAM discs DOSDrivers have been tested. I have also tested multi-partitioned Version 1 FFS discs with DiskSalv2, this also works, DiskSalv2 however cannot handle a full sized disc partition because it's larger than 2 GB. This released is still a beta version, even though it still works well, this is to allow for any unforeseen improvement or changes that maybe needed, which could make these current drivers incompatible with a future release. Features: --------- · MakeDrivers, DOSDriver or MountList Creator and Installer. Support for disc Versions 1 & 2 (2.6 GB, 4.7 GB), with, Multiple FileSystems and up to 8 partitions per side. · Uses 100% of the storage available on a DVD-RAM disc. · Obsolete DVD-RAM Version 1 DOSDrivers are still included. · This is still [Freeware] ! MakeDrivers Supported Drives: ----------------------------- · DVD-RAM 5.2 GB (2.6 GB per side) Version 1 Drive (Tested). · DVD-RAM 9.4 GB (4.7 GB per side) Version 2 Drive (Not Tested). MakeDrivers Supported FileSystems: ---------------------------------- · 'Fast' FileSystem. · 'Smart' FileSystem. · *New* 'CrossDOS' MS-DOS compatible FileSystem. · 'fat95' Win95/98 compatible FileSystem. You will also need aminet/disk/misc/fat95.lha It can only currently be used with the whole disc ! · *New* 'Allegro' CD/DVD UDF (read only) FileSystem. This Distribution: ------------------ DVD-RAM/Installer/MakeDrivers ; This will now Make your Drivers. This Installer Script should now be used instead of manually creating and copying DOSDrivers or Mountlists. It's hopefully really easy to use and does all the hard work for you by just answering a few hopefully simple questions. This is still a beta and may have some bugs that I've missed, but the more time I take trying to find bugs, the longer it takes to get released. Any reported and confirmed bugs will be corrected in a hopefully quickly released next version. If you have any suggestions or improvement you would like to see included in the next released version, please feel free to contact me. DVD-RAM/Installer/Driver_Icon ; This is MakeDrivers default Driver Icon. Tool Types or changes set here, will be copied to all the created DOSDrivers Icons. DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM.doc ; This file. WARNING, the following files are now OBSOLETE, but are still included while the MakeDrivers Installer is still a beta version, these may be removed in a future release. This gives you 1 full disc SFS partition, 2380.8 MB. DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM_2.6/SFS_DOSDrivers/DVD_SFS This gives you 1 full disc FFS partition, 2380.8 MB. DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM_2.6/FFS_DOSDrivers/DVD_FFS These split one disc side into 2 FFS partitions, 1190.4 MB each. DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM_2.6/FFS_Partitions/2_DOSDrivers/DVD1of2_FFS DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM_2.6/FFS_Partitions/2_DOSDrivers/DVD2of2_FFS These split one disc side into 3 FFS partitions, 793.6 MB each. DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM_2.6/FFS_Partitions/3_DOSDrivers/DVD1of3_FFS DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM_2.6/FFS_Partitions/3_DOSDrivers/DVD2of3_FFS DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM_2.6/FFS_Partitions/3_DOSDrivers/DVD3of3_FFS These split one disc side into 4 FFS partitions, 595.2 MB each. DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM_2.6/FFS_Partitions/4_DOSDrivers/DVD1of4_FFS DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM_2.6/FFS_Partitions/4_DOSDrivers/DVD2of4_FFS DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM_2.6/FFS_Partitions/4_DOSDrivers/DVD3of4_FFS DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM_2.6/FFS_Partitions/4_DOSDrivers/DVD4of4_FFS DVD-RAM/DVD-RAM_2.6/TrackSize ; An REXX program to show good track size values. I hope you can see the problem with the above, this is just the number of files needed to make up to 4 partition with just 1 filesystem. With the introduction of 4.7 GB drives, and support for up to 8 Partitions with lots of different filesystems, you would need (16+24) 40 DOSDriver files for each supported filesystem ! This is why I have written MakeDrivers, to simplify these current needs and allow for any future needs (CrossMAC, PFS3, 125 GB disc's etc.). About DVD-RAM: -------------- DVD-RAM is great if you want a cheap way to optically store information, it can re-write each disc block about 100,000 times with access times and data transfer rates compatible with DVD-ROM (about 1385 KB/s or x9 in CD terms). DVD-RAM discs come in cartridges like a 3.5" floppy or a ZIP disk, with a handy sliding write protect tab. If you have ever had any experience with DVD discs, you will know that this is a good thing, however they only look cool when the cartridges are transparent. Because the discs are in cartridges, they will not play in a standard DVD-ROM player, there are supposed to be players in the future that will be able to read these discs. Version 1 Single-Sided (Type 1) DVD-RAM disc = 2.6 GB (1218960 Blocks) Version 2 Single-Sided (Type 1) DVD-RAM disc = 4.7 GB (2295072 Blocks) Version 1 Double-Sided (Type 1) DVD-RAM disc = 5.2 GB Version 2 Double-Sided (Type 1) DVD-RAM disc = 9.4 GB You currently have to eject and turn over the Double-Sided discs. You can also get Single-Sided (Type 2) DVD-RAM discs which can be removed from the cartridges, but these may still cause problems to some DVD-ROM drives that don't understand the DVD-RAM format. These discs are not MO (Magneto-Optical), but are the direct descendant of the Panasonic Phase-change optical PD discs. Panasonic DVD-RAM drives can also read and write 650MB PD discs. It also uses virtual blocks, if a block is bad or has be re-written about 100,000 times so it can no longer be used, it's added to a bad block list and another spare block is mapped into it's place. This is done with all the blocks on the drive and is transparent to the computer so there are always the same number of good blocks available. This is probably why not all the blocks on the disc can be used by the filesystem, the others are spare blocks and are used as replacements when bad blocks are found. When all the spare blocks have been used, the disc will become read only. This shouldn't be a problem as there are lots of spare blocks. A better kind of filesystem for this type of drive would reduce the number of times each block is changed. Most filesystems are designed for magnetic storage and therefore use the same blocks for storing things like the bitmaps, these then have to be changed every time a new file is written or deleted. About the Amiga and DVD-RAM: ---------------------------- DVD-RAM is a good low cost, large storage and backup device. To the Amiga it's just like a slow SCSI MO drive or removable HDD with a 2048 byte block size and a Version 1 total of 1218960 blocks per side. I have found no real problems using the SCSI version with the Amiga 3000. You can not currently use HDToolbox to make it auto boot with a RDB as it doesn't understand that you can write to it ! About MakeDrivers: ------------------ This installer script will create customized DOSDrivers or Mountlists. It's fairly safe to use because it just creates Drivers which are just text files of instructions for the chosen filesystem to use. Just follow the instructions and remember you can use the help button if you don't understand what to do, if you are still having problems then feel free to contact me and I'll try to help. It does NOT Format any of the newly created partitions, for probably the same reasons that HDToolBox also doesn't. The risk of accidentally destroying something important would be too high. So, you will still need to manually mount each Driver (or re-boot if you place them in DEVS:DOSDrivers) and then manually quick format each Driver when you are sure your settings are correct. See, 'Setting up the DOSDrivers:' for more Information. This script should work with any Installer version, but I can't really fully test every one, So, if it fails with yours, you could try upgrading it or contact me stating which Installer version you are using. I will then try to make sure it works with that Installer in a future release. It has been tested with the following installers and adapted to work with all types. Installer 1.24 (1.9.92) Installer_2 2.17 (13.2.93) OS 3.1 These above work, but you have *Ignore* any options without text ! Installer 44.10 (01/10/1999) OS 3.5 No problems with this, it should also be true for any version above 42.6. InstallerNG 1.4 (Nov 10 1999) With this I did get Enforcer Hits, which could cause crashes, even though this should never happen with any type of script. I have with the help of the author (Jens Troeger) found a way to fix this problem by changing my script. This problem should however be corrected in future versions. InstallerNG 1.5 (Sep 29 2000) I've found no major problems with this version. Setting up the DOSDrivers: -------------------------- You will probably need to customise some settings in each of the drivers to your own system. I have used the device 'scsi.device' and unit '3' as the default settings. For a DOSDrivers OS (3.0 and above) ... *** This should now be OBSOLETE but can still be changed ! The Device name is simply the name of the DOSDriver file, if you want to change it just rename it, e.g. DVD-FFS to DVD. To change the 'device' and 'unit', select the driver icon, then use the Workbench menu 'Icons -> Information', remember to save your changes. After changing the device name and unit to that of your DVD-RAM SCSI device and ID number. *** You can now start the device by double clicking the icon or if it's placed in Devs:DOSDrivers drawer then just by re-booting. For a Mount List OS (below 3.0) ... *** This should now be OBSOLETE but can still be changed ! You can still use these DOSDrivers with an older OS's by converting them into a Mount List file, this can be done by adding your 'Device Name:', 'Device' and 'Unit' just above the 'FileSystem' entry with a text editor. After changing the DOSDriver into a Mount List, *** You can now Mount the device it by typing, 'Mount from ' from the CLI Shell or by adding that command to your s:user-startup or s:startup-sequence and then re-booting. The mounted Driver will now need formatting to make the storage available to the filesystem. This only needs to be a 'quick' format and unless you have OS 3.5 is probably best done from the CLI Shell like this, 'format drive name quick noicons' But if you have lots of time (over an hour) and want to give the drive a good test you could do a full format by removing the 'quick' option. Note, this will also work with SFS, but SFS has SFSFormat which has more setting and so would be better to use with a SFS device. It would also be a good idea after you've first copied a large number of files to the drive to check for any corruption. I would use a program called cmp V1.7 by ALeX Kazik which is also available on Aminet to do this, from CLI Shell type, 'cmp all checkd show=~q' This will show any errors in the copied data that where introduced by an unstable system, NO errors are acceptable ! *** This should now be OBSOLETE but can still be changed ! If you do have problems, I have included some safe values in the icons for MaxTransfer (0xFFFE) and Mask (0x1FFFFC) which should work on every device, just remove there brackets with Workbench menu 'Icons -> Information' of the DOSDriver to enable these values the next time they are mounted (see also About the DOSDrivers). *** If this does not help, then it would appear to be a problem with your hardware, connections or SCSI termination. About the DOSDrivers: --------------------- The only really important thing that the driver needs to know is the total number of blocks of the device. These examples are mainly based on a Version 1 DVD-RAM disc. TotalBlocks = Surfaces * BlocksPerTrack * Cylinders TotalBlocks, Version 1 (1218960), Version 2 (2295072), This is set by the drive and type of disc used. Surfaces(1), Well it only has one surface, the same as a ZIP drive, but I have seen ZIP drivers with 2 surfaces so that badly written program can still understand it ! I have not used 2 because if a program gets confused with 1 surface then it will probably not understand a block size of 2048 bytes. Some disk monitors also expect a device with 2048 bytes per block to be a 1 surface CD type device. BlockSize(2048), also later known as SectorSize, Each block has 2048 bytes, the same as used by CD storage. BlocksPerTrack Version 1 (60), Version 2 (78), Also later known as SectorsPerTrack. I have included a REXX program 'TrackSize' to show some good sizes. Their is no real right or wrong value, 60 and 78 is a compromise value after testing lots of different values to try and get the best results on the most amount of systems. Why not just use 1 ?, well, it would work but it's not very efficient as the filesystem may then only be handling a few blocks at a time. Too high a value and some programs will not work though lack of memory because they use a whole track at a time. This value was also chosen because it allows a disc to be split into a number of partitions, it's even a good value for using with a RDB. 1693 does seem to be good choice for the maximum number of partitions, but it was not chosen because of the possible memory usage and the large future RDB size. The RDB normally takes 2 cylinders, so, 2 * 1693 * 1 * 2048 = 6.6 MB just for the RDB ! With a value of 60, 2 * 60 * 1 * 2048 = 240 KB, a much better RDB size in my opinion. It's not even faster, when doing a full format with a value of 1693, a quarter of the disc take 17 Mins 30 Secs, but with a value of 60 it takes 16 Mins 22 Secs !, this is probably because 1693 is larger than the drives 2 MB internal cache. A DOSDriver with Blocks Per Track of 1693 could still work on a disc which had already been using 60 as long as the Total Blocks remain the same. Cylinders, Version 1 (20316), Version 2 (29424) This is just found by, TotalBlocks / Surfaces / BlocksPerTrack Because the Blocks in a Cylinder = BlocksPerTrack * Surfaces. The other entries are all standard values, I should just mention that some old controller devices can only use part of your memory, so they need to have a Mask set, 0x1FFFFC which should work with any device. If your using a IDE drive, you may need to reduce MaxTransfer to about 0x1FFFE (128K-2) or even 0xFFFE (64 KB-2) to make it work correctly. The SFS.guide from SFS_beta.lha has a really good explanation on how to set the best values for your device. Why is there no 'PFS' Support: ------------------------------ DVD-RAM needs a block size of 2048 bytes and PFS currently has a maximum block size 1024 bytes, this will not work ! There is still hope for all you PFS users. I have spoken to the author of PFS and he is considering adding 2048 bytes per block support in a future release. So, as soon as this happens or if a work around can found, support for PFS will be added. 'Fast' FileSystem: ------------------ I don't know any real problems with this filesystem apart from the well know 4.2 GB size limit of the older versions. It's worth noting that a lot the older disk utility programs may still have a 2 GB partition limit and may not work correctly because the block size is 2048 bytes, the normal block size with most Hard Disk Drives is 512 bytes ! 'Smart' FileSystem: ------------------- You will need to have a working installation of Smart Filesystem by John Hendrikx for this driver to work, I used Smart Filesystem 1.84 (30/10/1999). It does seem to work quite well with DVD-RAM, but SFSalv does NOT work on DVD-RAM discs (and not currently that well on normal disks), hopefully a better salvage program will be written in the future, but for now, if you do get problem you risk losing all your SFS data. WARNING The Smart Filesystem is still a BETA -- this means it is NOT finished and is NOT intended for normal use. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK ! *New* 'CrossDOS' MS-DOS compatible FileSystem: ---------------------------------------------- This is a rather strange filesystem, but then it is MS-DOS after all ! From Version 7, it also has support for Windows 95 long filenames. It does work well with DVD-RAM but it can get confused and crash ! This can happen for example when the disc is formatted first with the 'fat95' filesystem. You can split a disc into partitions, just like FFS and SFS because it accepts my start block, but it likes to get the end block from the disc ! This means that if you first format the whole disk with this type of file system, then you want to split the disc into partitions, when you mount the first partition it gets the old values and still uses the whole disc. To overcome this problem, just create and quick format the partition you want to make with another filesystem like FFS, then change the filesystem back to CrossDOS and it should then mount and quick format correctly. From some old documentation, it stated that there are two types, 'MSD\00' if it was only formatted using PC 'FORMAT', I use this type. and 'MSH\00' if it was created with PC 'FDISK'. This does not format. With the later versions of CrossDOS, it seems to get the type directly from the disc, so the type is not that important. 'fat95' Win95/98 compatible FileSystem: --------------------------------------- You will need to have a working installation of the 'Fat' filesystem by Torsten Jager for this driver to work, The latest version should be available from aminet/disk/misc/fat95.lha I used fat95 file system 2.6 (26/07/2000) © Torsten Jager. This version can only currently be used with the whole disc ! If you try to split the disc into more than one Amiga partition the drivers all try to use the whole disc at the same time and so lock the system ! This is not something a PC can do anyway, only the Amiga makes it possible. *New* 'Allegro' CD/DVD UDF (read only) FileSystem: -------------------------------------------------- To the best of my knowledge this only UDF filesystem available, it's a commercial read only UDF filesystem see 'About UDF' for more details. From the information I have, it should work with any DVD-ROM or DVD-RAM which has been formatted in the UDF filesystem. I am not currently able to test if this works, but from what I know about other CD filesystems it should be fine. About UDF (Universal Disk Format) filesystem: --------------------------------------------- UDF is the standard filesystem for DVD movies and DVD-ROM data, this is very good filesystem when you need to store big files, but it's not so good when storing lots of small files. It was design to a modern replacement for the old ISO 9960 CD-ROM filesystem so it can also be used with CD-ROM's. To the best of my knowledge the Amiga only has only one UDF filesystem available, a commercial read only UDF filesystem called Allegro CDFS. You don't however have to use UDF, you can just format it with your favourite filesystem just like any normal SCSI drive, the only difference is it has to use a block size of 2048, a normal hard disk drive has a block size of 512 bytes. Note, with UDF you would be able to copy the data stored on a DVD movie disc but this data is still CSS encrypted. About CSS: ---------- CSS encryption is used by the DVD-CCA (Copyright Control Authority) to control the DVD movie market. Each DVD movie player manufacturer has to be given a key to decrypt the movie data on the disc, The VOB files can be copied but the data is still CSS encrypted, so the DVD movies player software still needs a CSS key to decrypt the movie information. These keys can then be used by the movie industry to control the DVD player market as each DVD movie disc is encoded with a set of valid keys, so that only licenced players can decode the data. This is why the Linux people made DeCSS to decrypt the data, and are having to suffer court battles to see if the reversed engineered code is legal. Panasonic SCSI-2 LF-D101 Version 1 DVD-RAM 2.6 drive: ----------------------------------------------------- The following information is based on the Panasonic LF-D101 DVD-RAM 2.6, but most things should still apply to the 4.7 and other DVD-RAM drives. Power requirements DC +5V (1.4A Max.) DC +12V (0.7A Max.). The Panasonic LF-D101 supports most CD formats including CD-DA reading, so it also works well with MakeCD as a source drive. It has 2 MB buffer capacity and sustained data transfer rate of, DVD-RAM (1385 KB/s, x9 CD x1 DVD), DVD-ROM (2770 KB/s, x18 CD, x2 DVD), PD (518-1141 KB/s), CD-ROM (3000 KB/s Max., x20). Drive orientation can be either Horizontal or Vertical and it has a headphones jack with volume control. Applicable media, Read/Write (DVD-RAM, 640 MB PD), Read Only (DVD-ROM, DVD-R, CD-DA, CD-ROM with XA and PhotoCD Multisession, Video CD, CD-EXTRA, CD-R/RW MultiRead). The DVD-ROM part is RPC-2, so it will region lock after 5 changes (set by DVDRgn, a PC region number setting utility) to the last region set. Some drives have a hacked version of the firmware which will remove this fault in the drive firmware, it may be worth searching the web if this is important to you. The SCSI Interface: ------------------- The SCSI-2 (Fast SCSI) (Supports SCAM Level 1) drive has a 50 pin SCSI-2 internal connector (5 MB/s, 10 MB/s), stereo audio outputs, Termination and a set of SCSI ID jumpers. It has Active SCSI termination as with most modern SCSI-2 devices. I really do recommend making sure that your SCSI bus has Active termination at each end, especially with the A3000 internal SCSI bus. What is RPC-1 and RPC-2 with certain drives ?: ---------------------------------------------- DVD discs have built in region codes (1 to 8 and 0 for no code) which represents the country where that disc is allowed to be sold and used, US DVD discs should only play in US players because of the region number, 1 for the US, 2 for the UK and Japan etc. Before the year 2000, bare DVD-ROM drives could be sold RPC-1 (Region Protection Code 1) which meant a RPC-1 drive could read any DVD disc from anywhere in the world. The region code was set in the video player hardware (video card) or software player program, this was of course widely hacked to remove the region code. After 1999, all bare drives have to be RPC-2, this locks the region in the drive either by allowing it to be changed 'X' number of times (normally 5) or by locking after to the last 'X' number of DVD discs are loaded. Their now exists hacked drive firmware on the Web, so that some of these RPC-2 drives can be made region free by simply being flash upgraded. The drive manufactures are still fighting back, with things like stopping the same version of firmware from being re-flashed. To the best of my current knowledge (things can change each day), Panasonic DVD-RAM drives can not yet be hacked to make it them RPC-1. So, if you need a RPC-1 DVD-RAM drive, it may be better to consider a DVD-RAM from another manufacturer, like Toshiba, but try to find a hack from the Web for the drive before buy. Panasonic E-IDE (ATAPI) LF-D111 Version 1 DVD-RAM 2.6 drive: ------------------------------------------------------------ This is the ATAPI Interface version of the drive, I don't own one so I can't be sure these DOSDrivers will work correctly with a ATAPI type of drive, I hope they do. If you do own one of these drives and want to provide testing and feedback then please feel free to contact me. Who manufacturers DVD-RAM drives and media ?: --------------------------------------------- Matsushita/Panasonic: LF-D101U etc. Hitachi: GF-1000, G-1050, GF-1055. Toshiba: SD-W1001. *New* Panasonic LF-D201 Version 2 DVD-RAM 4.7 GB drives: -------------------------------------------------------- These have been available in Japan for some time, by the time you read this they should also hopefully be available in other parts of the world. Here are a few difference I know about between these and the old LF-D101 drives. It now uses a tray loading system like Toshiba DVD-RAM drives, this probably means it can no longer be mounted Vertical. The drives speed also seems to be double in real terms that of the old drive, for example, to copy a 337 MB file takes the old drive takes 13 minutes 11 seconds and the new drive takes only 5 minutes 14 seconds. The New double sided 9.2 GB or single sided 4.7 GB discs cannot be recorded or played in the old version 1 DVD-RAM drives, but because it has the same storage size as DVD-ROM and DVD movies you should, with the correct software (PC) be able to make DVD masters instead of using expensive DVD-R or DLT (Digital Linear Tape). Please Note, These DVD-RAM masters will probably not be able to play in the current generation of DVD-ROM drives and home DVD movie players, but because the DVD-ROM drive modifications needed to play the discs is only slight (maybe even just the firmware), this should all be about to change with future player and drives. Players and drives that say they are DVD-Multi should be able read DVD-RAM. This could at last mean a storage system you can use on your computer and in your living room. So to summarise, if you are thinking of getting the old drive, think again, unless you can get one really cheap, this is the only version to get ! Support for Version 2 DVD-RAM 4.7 drives: ----------------------------------------- These new Version 2 DVD-RAM 4.7 GB per side are now available. Panasonic have the LF-D200JD (JD for Japan) and the LF-D201JD, these along with other version 2 drives can record 4.7GB per side (9.4GB on a two sided disc). This is the same per layer storage size as current DVD-ROM and DVD film discs ! I have added support for these 4.7 GB version 2 drives with information from "Toshiba Technical Support" , but this has not yet been tested, I don't have a version 2 drive ! * USE AT YOUR OWN RISK * If you own one and would like me to improve the support or help to confirm that the drivers are working correctly, then feel free to contact me. Things to Do !: --------------- This is now getting a little bit complex and is still a bit of a rush job, I needed to get this out again as I don't know how much free time I may have in the future, so still lots ... I hope to add a few more Filesystems in the future. I think this really now needs to be made into a guide. History: -------- 0.50 (11.06.00) First Release. 0.70 (25.09.00) No problems have been reported since 0.5. *New* MakeDrivers, it's the first time I've written a Installer Script. Added 4.7 Version 2 (not tested) support. Added fat95.lha MS Filesystem support, more to hopefully follow. TrackSize, Improved and fixed a problem with the RDB size. Corrected Safe Mask (0x1FFFFC) and MaxTransfer (0xFFFE) values. Updated some of this documentation. 0.80 (01.10.00) Minor changes to the driver version format. Added CrossDOS Support. Added AllegroCDFS Support. Updated some more of this documentation. Thanks To: ---------- All the people who have sent encouragement, you know who you are :-). Phil Vedovatti - The nice NewIcons. John Hendrikx - For Smart Filesystem. Torsten Jager - For fat95 File System. Jens Troeger - For the fast InstallerNG bug fix. Some useful programs in my opinion ... DiskMonTools 3.13 (18/01/1999) by Jörg Strohmayer Some other great programs in my opinion ... DirII v3.3a © 1995 S.Davies [Freeware]. Visage 39.22 (31/10/1998) - By Magnus Holmgren. cmp V1.7 (25.01.00) © by ALeX Kazik. Some Final Thoughts: -------------------- I like to write programs but I really don't like doing the documentation ! I've have taken a lot of time and trouble to make these the best DOS Drivers I could and also to be as accurate as I can with all the information, taken from lots of different sources. If their is anything you could improve or know to be incorrect, please feel free to send any helpful information or corrections for the next update. This is all Freeware, so use it and I hope you enjoy it ! If you have any problems, also feel free to contact me. It would optionally be nice to receive any comments, help, or gifts. Best Regards, Steven Norburn Legal Stuff: ------------ License: -------- This is released under the concept of freeware. This means you are allowed to use and copy this archive freely, as long as the following requirements are fulfilled: All files are copied without any alterations or modifications. If any extra files are added, it must be obvious that they do not belong to the original distribution, and that they do not need to be included in any redistribution. Exception: So called "BBS ads" may not be added. The copying is done on a non-commercial basis. A small fee to cover media costs etc. may be charged. The copier is not claiming the copyright of this archive. Any exceptions from the above require a written permission from the author. If you want to publish this archive on a cover disk or similar, contact me first for approval (to make sure you have the latest version etc.). No Warranty: ------------ There is no warranty for the archive, to the extent permitted by applicable law. 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