CiderPress Features

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Access to ShrinkIt Archives

Full access to ShrinkIt archives (.shk, .sdk, .bxy, .sea, .bse) is provided, including:

• View files without having to extract them first.  Special converters are provided for several popular file formats.
• Extract files and directories, optionally converting them.  File type information and resource forks can be preserved in Windows, using the method developed for use in NuLib2.  It's possible to extract all files from a GS/OS boot disk to Windows, add them to a new disk image, and then boot that image in an emulator.
• Add files, directories, and disk images.
• Convert the contents of a ShrinkIt file archive directly to a ProDOS disk image, and vice-versa.
• Re-compress entries with a different algorithm.  All compression methods defined in the NuFX specification are supported, as well as gzip "deflate".
• Rename entries.
• Test entries or whole archives.
• Delete entries.
• Add, update, and delete comments.
• Edit file type, aux type, and access permissions of archived files. 
• Print file listings.
• Copy & paste files between archives and disk images.

It's like having "ShrinkIt for Windows".  Viewing and extracting files from Binary II files (.bny, .bqy) and AppleLink Compression Utility archives (.acu) is also supported.  ShrinkIt archive access is provided by NufxLib, the library used by the NuLib2 archive utility since early 2000.  Archives created with NufxLib are nearly identical to those created with GS/ShrinkIt.

Disk Image Support

CiderPress has the ability to identify nearly all Apple II disk image formats automatically.  Supported file formats include:

• Universal Disk Images (.2mg, .2img)
• DiskCopy 4.2 (.dsk)
• Copy II Plus (.img)
• Sim //e HDV images (.hdv)
• TrackStar 40-track images (.app)
• Dalton's Disk Disintegrator (DDD v2.1+, DDD Pro v1.1+) (.ddd)
• Raw FDI images of 5.25" and 3.5 disks (read-only) (.fdi)
• Unadorned sector-format files (.po, .do, .d13, .raw, .hdv, .iso, most .dc6)
• Unadorned nibble-format files (.nib, .nb2)
• Any of the above compressed with gzip (.gz) or zip (.zip)
• ShrinkIt (NuFX) compressed disk images (.shk, .sdk)

The image file format, filesystem, and sector ordering are determined automatically for most disks.  The settings can be overridden if necessary.  Images larger than floppies, such as ProDOS and HFS hard drive partition images, are fully supported.

The recognized filesystem formats are:

• DOS 3.2/3.3 (13, 16, or 32 sectors, up to 50 tracks)
• ProDOS
• UCSD Pascal
• HFS (up to 2GB)
• CP/M
• SSI's RDOS (13-sector, 16-sector, and converted 13-to-16-sector formats)

DOS, ProDOS, HFS, and UCSD Pascal filesystems are fully supported.  You can view, add, extract, rename, and delete files, as well as create bootable blank disk images.  Change disk volume names and DOS volume numbers.  Create subdirectories and change file types on ProDOS disks.  Files on CP/M and RDOS disks can be extracted and viewed.  CiderPress also recognizes the following "meta-formats":

• UNIDOS / AmDOS / OzDOS (two 400K DOS volumes on an 800K disk)
• ProSel Uni-DOS / DOS Master (one or more DOS volumes embedded in an 800K ProDOS disk)
• Macintosh-style disk partitioning (for hard drives, CD-ROMs, flopticals, etc).
• CFFA-style partitioning (fixed-size 32MB/1GB volumes, for Compact Flash cards).
• ///SHH Systeme MicroDrive partitioning (allows up to 16 partitions on IDE hard drives).
• Parsons Engineering FocusDrive partitioning (allows up to 30 partitions).

Direct Access to Physical Devices

With CiderPress you can directly access physical devices on your PC.  For example:

• Read and write ProDOS-formatted 720KB and 1.4MB floppy disks.  If you have a SuperDrive or floptical drive connected to your Apple II, you can transfer files around without needing to use MS-DOS utilities.  [Works for PC-format disks.  Does not work with Apple-format 800KB and 1.6MB disks, nor 140KB 5.25" disks.]
• Read and write files on every ProDOS partition of a CFFA card.  4-part and 8-part configurations are automatically detected.
• Read files from ProDOS partitions of CD-ROMs.  If you have Apple II CD-ROMs with multiple 32MB ProDOS partitions, CiderPress will find every file on them.
• Read and write files on every partition of an Apple II hard drive.  Got an external SCSI drive connected to your //gs?  Plug it into a SCSI card on a PC and open it.

With the included volume copier, you can also copy partitions or multi-partition volumes to and from physical media.  This allows you to extract partitions from CFFA cards, CD-ROMs, and hard drives, and use them with an emulator.  Back up your hard drive to a block image file in seconds, and restore the whole drive, a single partition, or individual files quickly and easily.

All of the above requires appropriate hardware, and some versions of Windows work better with certain hardware than others.  See the Hardware Compatibility page for details about what you need and what you can expect.

Built-in File Viewer/Converter

The file viewer can convert several formats for easier viewing on modern systems:

• ProDOS text with carriage returns to Windows "CRLF" format.
• DOS 3.3 "high ASCII" text to Windows text.
• CP/M text converted to Windows format (stops at first Ctrl-Z).
• UCSD Pascal editor text to plain text.
• UCSD Pascal code to a segmented hex dump.
• Applesoft BASIC to text (matches output of "LIST" command), with or without color syntax highlighting.
• Integer BASIC to text (matches output of "LIST" command), with or without color syntax highlighting.
• Apple /// Business BASIC to text (matches output of "LIST" command), with or without color syntax highlighting.
• S-C Assembler source files to text.
• LISA tokenized assembly source to text (versions 2.x - 5.x).
• Merlin assembly sources to properly-spaced text.
• 65C02/65816 code disassembly.  Output matches //e and IIgs monitor listings, with the addition of Nifty List annotations (descriptions of F8 ROM routines, softswitches, and ProDOS, GS/OS, and toolbox calls are shown).
• Magic Window / Magic Window II "formatted" documents to text.
• AppleWorks 3.0 documents:
  • Word processor to Rich Text Format (supports left/right margins, centering, bold, italic, etc).
  • Database to CSV (suitable for import into Excel or other applications).
  • Spreadsheet to CSV (for import into Excel or other spreadsheets; some formulas may not convert).
• IIgs text documents:
  • Generic GWP to Rich Text Format.  Converts non-ASCII characters, such as symbols and letters with accents, to Windows equivalents.  Non-English text converts correctly.
  • Teach documents to Rich Text Format (supports different fonts, font sizes, and style changes).
  • AWGS Word Processor documents to Rich Text format (supports different fonts, font sizes, style changes, and paragraph justification).
• Hi-Res graphics to 560x384 16-color .BMP (B&W or color with half-pixel shifting).
• Double Hi-Res graphics to 560x384 16-color .BMP (B&W or color).
• Super Hi-Res graphics to 640x400 256-color .BMP.  Supported formats include unpacked ($c1/0000), Paintworks ($c0/0000), packed ($c0/0001), DreamGrafix ($c0/8005), and Apple Preferred Format ($c0/0002) up to 1280x1024.
• 3200-color Super Hi-Res graphics to 640x400 24-bit .BMP.  Supported formats include unpacked ($c1/0002 or ".3200"), packed (".3201"), DreamGrafix ($c0/8005), and Apple Preferred Format ($c0/0002 with "MULTIPAL").
• Print Shop and Print Shop GS clip art to 88x52 .BMP.
• MacPaint image to 576x720 B&W .BMP.
• Apple IIgs resource forks are split into individual resources and displayed as hex dumps.

In addition, any fork of any file can be viewed in its "raw" state or as a hex dump.

Text and graphics can be cut & pasted from the file viewer to other applications, or sent directly to your printer.  The file converters can be applied when extracting files as well, allowing you to convert disks full of source code or images easily.  It takes the same amount of effort to convert one AppleWorks document or one hundred.

Unsupported formats with recognizable extensions, such as ".GIF" and ".JPG", are displayed in an external viewer when double-clicked.

Disk Image Creation and Conversion

The disk image creation tool allows you to create blank, bootable disk image for DOS 3.2/3.3, ProDOS, HFS, and Pascal disks.  ProDOS volumes can have arbitrary sizes up to 32MB, and HFS can go up to 2GB.  Resize volumes by copying & pasting between them, or use the one-step disk-to-file-archive and file-to-disk-archive features.

The disk image converter easily converts disk images to any other suitable format.  Use it to add or remove 2MG headers, or convert .PO to .NIB and back again.  Convert your 800K ShrinkIt disk images to and from DiskCopy 4.2.  You can optionally add gzip compression for reduced storage size.

If you have a large collection of images that you want to convert to a different format, use the bulk image converter to migrate them all in a few easy steps.

Additional Tools

CiderPress includes some other handy tools:

• Disk Viewer - Examine disk images as 512-byte blocks, 256-byte sectors or raw nibblized tracks.  Open and follow individual files and embedded sub-volumes.  Examine blocks on CF cards and other Windows volumes.
• Volume Copier - Copy data to and from Windows volumes, such as CF cards and floppy disks.  Extract ProDOS partitions from CD-ROMs and copy them to a hard drive partition.  Back up your Apple II hard drive directly.
• SST Image Merge - Combine SST-generated disk image pairs into .NIB files without having to run SST in an emulator.  Just generate the images on the Apple II, transfer them to the PC, and let CiderPress do the reassembly for you.
• 2MG Properties Editor - Change the "locked" flag, disk volume number, and edit the comment in a 2MG disk image file.
• EOL Scanner - Identify disk images and file archives damaged by ASCII-mode transfers.  Figure out what OS a text file is formatted for.
• Cassette Import - Capture your Apple II cassette tape in a WAV file, then use CiderPress to extract every program it contains.  Automatically identifies file type and length for most programs.  It can even decode some tapes that no longer work on a real Apple II.
• Import BASIC from text file - Convert a text listing of an Applesoft program into a BAS file on a disk image.  Handy for converting programs scanned from hardcopy.

Included as a separate application, Multi-Disk Catalog (MDC) allows you to generate file listings from hundreds of disk images with only a few mouse clicks.  Just select the images and the automatic format recognition does the rest.