I have a few questions about running the games which are found under the game downloads. I am very new to OpenVMS, having had my emulator running for a week now (Yay).
A/
My operating system is debian linux & I have the simh/vax running openvms. I have downloaded the various games here and tried to get them to run with no success.
To take one game as an example, I have,
1/ downloaded the 'dungeon.zip' to the linux.
2/ run under linux, 'unzip -a dungeon.zip' to get a file 'dungeon.bck' (I'm not sure if the -a option was needed but I read somewhere that it was)
3/ placed this in a directory calling it 'GAMES' and made a small .iso file
4/ mounted this .iso file in the openvms simulation.
5/ and copied the dungeon.bck into a user directory (on openvms).
At this point I dont really know what I am doing. The 'BACKUP' command shows the following:
$ BACKUP/LIST DUNGEON.BCK/SAVE
Listing of save set(s)
%BACKUP-F-NOTSAVESET, DUA1:[ROOT.GAMES]DUNGEON.BCK;1 is not a BACKUP save set
$
My question is what am I doing wrong ? What else do I have to do ?
B/
I have tried a few times to download the 'Battlestar' game, but it does not download. I likes this one and it would be great to get the openvms to run it. It has such a dramatic begining.
..... The floor shudders and the sounds of dull explosions rumble though the room. From a window in the wall ahead comes a view of darkest space. ..... r ..... These are the executive suites of the battlestar. Luxurious staterooms carpeted with crushed velvet and adorned with beaten gold open onto this parlor. .....
Any assistance would be much appreciated.
Peter.
Edited by marla on April 03 2010 20:26
Backup savesets use a number of 'extended' filesystem attributes to store their record size, file format etc... When you copy a backup saveset to a non-OpenVMS filesystem (e.g. ext3, ntfs), these attributes are lost because these filesystems do not have the necessary fields to stores this information.
If you unzip the file on the VMS system (using InfoZip), the saveset will probably be created with the correct RMS attributes because the zip file will (likely) have been created to store these.
The other option (and probably the quickest in this case) is the use the 'fix saveset' command file available on the HP website:
OpenVMS Backup Save Sets become "corrupted" during FTP copies. In binary mode it sets the MRS and LRS attributes to 512 bytes which is illegal for Backup Save Sets.
This script reads the first record (in 512 byte format) and looks at byte 28. That is the original blocksize that the backup saveset was created with. Look at this script
$! Fix_Backup_Saveset_Attributes -- Fix Backup save sets sds 15-may-2010
$!___________________________________________________________________________
$!
$! When Backup Save Sets go through an FTP transfer, typically the record
$! attributes get mangled to be a maximum record size of 512 and the
$! logical record length of 512.
$!
$! When Backup Save Sets get created, the range of allowable record lengths
$! range from 2048-65535. The BACKUP command has a /BLOCK qualifier that
$! specifies this value. The default is 8192 for distination tape drives, and
$! 32256 for destination disk files.
$!____________________________________________________________________________
$ Gosub Setup
$ previous_file = current_file
$ loop: current_file = f$search(P1)
$
$ If current_file .eqs. previous_file .or. current_file .eqs. "" then exit
$ previous_file = current_file
$ old_mrs = f$file(current_file,"MRS"smiley
$ old_lrl = f$file(current_file,"LRL"smiley
$ old_rat = f$file(current_file,"RAT"smiley
$ old_org = f$file(current_file,"ORG"smiley
$ if f$file(current_file,"SHELVED"smiley
$ then
$ say f$fao("!23AS !AS","Skipping shelved file:", current_file)
$ goto loop
$ endif
$ set file/attrib=(ORG=SEQ,RAT=none,MRS=512,LRL=512) 'current_file'
$
$ open/read/share/error=put_it_back file 'current_file'
$ read/nolock/error=eof file rec
$ close/error=put_it_back file
$
$ bbh_l_blocksize = %x28*8
$ BlockSize = f$cvui(bbh_l_blocksize,32,rec)
$
$ Say f$fao("mrs:!5UW,lrl:!5UW old !AS", old_mrs,old_lrl,current_file)
$ set file/attrib=(MRS='BlockSize',LRL='BlockSize'smiley 'current_file'
$
$ new_mrs = f$file(current_file,"MRS"smiley
$ new_lrl = f$file(current_file,"LRL"smiley
$ say f$fao("mrs:!5UW,lrl:!5UW new !AS", new_mrs,new_lrl,current_file)
$ goto loop
$
$ eof: close file
$ put_it_back:
$ set file/attrib=-
(ORG:'old_seq',RAT:'old_rat',MRS:'old_mrs',LRL:'old_lrl'smiley -
'current_file'
$ goto loop
$
$ Setup:
$ pgm = f$parse(f$environment("procedure"smiley,,,"name"smiley
$ quiet = %x10000000
$ on control_Y then interrupt\'pgm'
$ on warning then exit $status .or. quiet
$ say := Write Sys$output
$ current_file :=
$ return
malmberg August 04 2022 No more VAX hobbyist licenses. Community licenses for Alpha/IA64/X86_64 VMS Software Inc. Commercial VMS software licenses for VAX available from HPE.
ozboomer July 20 2022 Just re-visiting.. No more hobbyist licenses? Is that from vmssoftware.com, no 'community' licenses?
valdirfranco July 01 2022 No more hobbyist license...sad
mister_wavey February 12 2022 I recall that the disks failed on the public access VMS systems that included Fafner
parwezw January 03 2022 Anyone know what happened to FAFNER.DYNDS.ORG? I had a hobbyist account here but can longer access the site.
gtackett October 27 2021 Make that DECdfs _2.1A_ for Vax
gtackett October 27 2021 I'm looking for DECdfs V2.4A kit for VAX. Asking here just in case anyone is still listening.
MarkRLV September 17 2021 At one time, didn't this web site have a job board? I would love to use my legacy skills one last time in my career.
malmberg January 18 2021 New Hobbyist PAKs for VAX/VMS are no longer available according to reports. Only commercial licenses are reported to be for sale from HPE
dfilip January 16 2021 Can someone please point me to hobbyist license pak? I'm looking for VAX/VMS 7.1, DECnet Phase IV, and UCX/TCPIP ... have the 7.1 media, need the license paks ... thanks!
