Advanced Disk Writing

As of Applesauce 1.70, the disk analyzer has a new disk mastering feature. This allows you to write out practically any disk image, including copy protected ones. Originals disks were produced in lots of different ways: some were done on professional disk copiers like Trace machines, and others (especially in the early days) were simply written on normal personal computers running copying software. Many platforms are pretty straightforward in how disks were produced and even copy protected. Other platforms like Apple II are complete and utter insanity. There are also some copy protections that used things like fat tracks which were written in special drives that are simply not going to be possible to write out on typical consumer drives.

With all of the crazy things that can be done with copy protection, writing out such disks isn't a simple “press one button” affair. It takes knowledge of how disks are structured and if applicable, an understanding of how a particular copy protection functions.

The process of mastering and writing a disk is this:

1. Load a disk into the Applesauce disk analyzer.
2. Check the log messages to determine if the disk has any issues/protection.
3. Add the appropriate markers to the tracks.
4. Send the image to the Disk Writer and write the disk.