ADF and IPF Variants

ADF stands for ‘Amiga Disk File’ and is a 880 KiB image of an Amiga floppy disk. In this image format only the real bytes on the disk are preserved, so any physical copy protection on the floppy can’t be saved in this format. This is why mostly only cracked games are stored in this format (or games that have no physical copy protection).

IPF stands for ‘Interchangeable Preservation Format’ and is a ‘low-level, representing the information as it would have been read by a drive head’ format. This format stores all the information on the disk and is able to reproduce physical copy protections. Mainly original (and physically copy-protected) floppy disks are stored in this format.

The online game database (and FS-UAE Launcher) supports floppy-based games in these file formats, as well as the DMS file format (less commonly used).

13 thoughts on “ADF and IPF Variants

  1. Some Problems with this ADF Versions to be recognized in the Database:

    Jump Em (Gamebase -> 1.6=NO 2.0=NO)
    Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 Modrobbert
    TV Sports Boxing (Gamebase -> 1.6=NO 2.0=NO)

      • 3 Kingdoms Modrobert:

        The Zone Files (Uploads):
        Romance of the Three Kingdoms II (1991)(KOEI)[f AGA BSC][f Build Fort modrobert][h Aeon] […for jedvard].zip

        The Zip Contains:
        Romance of the Three Kingdoms II (1991)(KOEI)(Disk 1 of 2)[f AGA BSC][f Build Fort modrobert][h Aeon].adf
        Romance of the Three Kingdoms II (1991)(KOEI)(Disk 2 of 2)[f AGA BSC][h Aeon].adf

        This is the ONLY Version i found.

      • – TV Sports Boxing was simple: ABC’s Wide World of Sports – Boxing (1991)(Data East)(US)
        Alternative Title – now found = check! (Used Tosec)

        – Jump Em – You removed empty config for a second “Gamebase” config. 1 is found = check!

        The Modrobert Version is still a miracle! …not that the definition of a “gamebase” config is too but (which mostly is a Tosec adf)

  2. I have *lots* of variants not listed in the DB (an example off the top of my head: I have 9 (or 5, ignoring minor sub-variants) Striders, none of which appear to be listed), but sorting through them is a daunting task; I have nearly 21,000 disk images and haven’t yet found an easy way of identifying the oddities. Any recommendations for tools/processes to automate it? Also how do I then determine if they’re of “general interest”?

    • Hi, I think it is more or less impossible to automate this. If you feel you have a disk set for a game which is better than the existing ones (for example if the existing ones contain errors), please let us know, and I can help you create a variant for the disk set. But this has to be a manual job based on actual needs, I’m afraid!

  3. I got a ADF variant of Alien Breed which has no cracks and doesn’t seem to be in the database. What should I do?

    • The question is if the variant is of general interest. Do you know anything about the source of the ADFs? Also, you can send a zip file with the ADFs to frode@oagd.net for (possible) identification.

    • Hi, I’ve looked up the disks in TOSEC, and there they have the following names:
      Alien Breed v1.3 (1991-10-14)(Team 17)(Disk 1 of 3)(Story Disk)[a].adf
      Alien Breed v1.3 (1991-10-14)(Team 17)(Disk 2 of 3)(Game Disk 1)[cr SR][bootable].adf
      Alien Breed v1.3 (1991-10-14)(Team 17)(Disk 3 of 3)(Game Disk 2).adf

      So the “problem” is that the Story Disk is an alternative [a] version of the Story Disk recognized by the game database. It is possible to add this combination of disks too, but I’ll think about it 🙂

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