MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - a bit more regarding Apple II software images

Regarding 4AM 's tweet weeks earlier describing how various original Apple II diskettes are in process of being fully imaged from the actual, original media format..

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Aug 26
https://twitter.com/a2_4am/status/1033722440562737153
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...here are links to the explanations of the imaged formats in which Apple II diskettes are preserved.

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https://applesaucefdc.com/a2r/

A2R Disk Image Reference

On average, a 143 kilobyte floppy disk is represented by a 20 megabyte A2R file. The other difference is that an A2R file is what was read from a disk while a WOZ is what was originally written to the disk. This is where all the signal processing and such that I mentioned earlier comes into play.

The gist of all of this is that the A2R file is intended to be an archival backup of a disk. One that can be brought out and used for analysis or generation of WOZ files or anything else someone may come up with in the future. And it can be reused over and over again as the WOZ generation process matures, without potentially wearing out or causing further deterioration of the original floppy.

https://applesaucefdc.com/woz/reference/

WOZ Disk Image
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The fact that the images of the original Apple II diskette format (including the various copy protection methods) in which the image is still in a copy protected format and yet still be playable in an emulated environment is an impressive achievement.

Think of it like an emulator being able to emulate the hardware protection mechanisms used in arcade games such as Atari System I or System II hardware without the roms from the pcb having to be patched/hacked. Emulation of Apple II diskettes in original copy protected format, sans any patching, is now a reality.

Over 50 popular Apple II games from the fully original format are now preserved.

https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1039897128062078976

That's canonical copies of legendary Apple II games pulled from flux images of original disks, with all protection still enabled,

65 and eventually many more - https://archive.org/details/wozaday

Congrats to Apple II fans/users. I hope some similar success with IBM and Commodore diskettes will be possible later.