N64 + 64DD TapeDrives pre-release Software (DDS Tapes) [need help]

Hey everyone,

I got 6 DDS/DAT tapes with Development/Prelease/debugger data on it,
I thought I could easy find a reader for it with usb but its harder then I thought, some are or way to expensive (1k+) or its not for the right tapes,

I wonder if you guys know how to read (and take out the data of) these interesting tapes, Maybe there is some great stuff on it!

Any suggestions?







I PREFER having an easy USB drive but Paralel is ok as well, I don`t have the equipment to install new hardware in my PC, the tapes what I know about them is on the pictures, and to be honest I`m not even sure its legal to dump what could be on there (like personal details)

Ofcourse I`ll share everything when its known what is on there


Many thanks
-Don


EDIT: DUMPED!!!
____________________________________________________________

We managed to get 5 out of 6 tapes done, we recall that the " n64_lib_files_and_debugger_2.0h" is empty
We did not get 1.8 GB out of these tapes but a totall of around 130 MB!

AND HERE THEY ARE Please use them for whatever reasons. but credit me and Scize for owning/dumping them.

I have named the following folders to the tapes they where on

64dd_library
isv970924
n64_lib_files_and_debugger_1.0h
n64_lib_files_and_debugger_2.0h (empty)
prerelease_software
software_for_irix_tape

PS: All RGB files are converted to BPM.

Thank you all for offering your help. Lets hope you can get some more wisdom in this =) any questions/comments lemme now.

 

very nice found! I can offer help to dump the tapes. Have a scsi reader for that.

edit: oh my drive is DDS-2, im not sure DDS-2 can read DDS-1 tapes?
But i think so, depending on that list: http://h20566.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=81997&docId=emr_na-lpg50457

 

Oh, very interesting. I'd really like to know what the 64DD pre-release software is especially.

 

It's all supposed to be backwards compatible - so a "DDS x" drive can also read "DDS {1..x-1}". That's in theory, anyway. in practice it might not work so well, and some of the drive vendors used their own compression methods so compressed tapes might not work on any other vendors drive.

My guess is that those tapes were probably created on an Indy, so they will most likely be in tar or cpio format.

 

Interesting. These could potentially have some very useful information on them? Why didn't they use CDs?

 

internal backup strategy, an usb solution is not really good way.
As EU based i offered help.

 

Thanks for the info and help,

@Jackhead I do want to accept your help please contact me if you can (i pm'd you but no respond, could be your inbox is full)

could there be a CHANCE that they are just empty? .. I see the "tape" at the left side

 

Maybe one of those contains Ura Zelda! haha

Well good luck guys, im really curious to know what files they contains.

 

Hello,

Excellent find ! One is for RCP1.0 4 months before the release of the machine, that's pretty impressive . If I remember correctly RCP 2.0 was already here in february 1996, but not all developper where maybe equipped with an RCP 2.0 based u64 indy board at that time.

As Trimesh says, I think it was made on a sgi, like an indy with an external scsi dds drive (irix 5.x era).I don't even know if // based DDS exist. I can also provide help if necessary (many indy and dds drive). You are in Netherland, many big sgi fanatics are present near from you, don't hesitate to get help here (u64 subject are always welcome on sgi forum..) : http://forums.nekochan.net/

Regards

 

superb!!! the info contained in those tapes are certainly very interesting to dig in!!! I wish you could find a way to dump the data !

 

Would be interesting to see what state the 1.0 64DD stuff was in. It should differ from the 2.0 series significantly. From disassembling SM64DD it looked like it used either an incomplete library during development or that the drive's final specs were not set yet. Actually seeing the code would answer more than a few questions.

 

Thanks for all the info! And thanks for all the offers about helping out.
so much information.. I knew I was at the right place

There is someone I know close to me who knows guru-coding and maybe he has a setup for this stuff, I`m also contacting Jackhead about reading the tapes.

The issue with these tapes, as for the shipping to people who can read/dump them, I had NIGHTMARES with it, They where actually marked as "lost" during shipment and took them a full month to get here. so you maybe see where I`m going at, I don`t want those tapes away from me ever again. I prefer travel to the person who can help me.

 

You might call me crazy, but I think I got hands on these tapes many years ago. Maybe I still have a dump of them somehwere. Let me check once I am back home.

 

BUMP. No luck with the tape dumps yet; it appears they were not in my NAS anymore.
IIrc correctly, they had nice an early version of the LEO library on them which was interesting; as well of course as an ultra library for the RCP 1.0 - which is also quite rare
I might have the tape reader somewhere. That should be easier to find

 

thanks for the update!
quite a small world! that you also had those tapes

There are 6 tapes in totall, any info about the 64DD Pre-release software for this?

 

what are these tapes n64dd dev stuff?

 

As Mentioned, the leo library in there is a pre-release one ( I do not remember which version exactly);
then IIRC there is an early version of the SGI N64 SDK (with support to develope for 64DD over LAN).
I do not recall anything else, tbh.
EDIT : ah yes and a version of the ultra library for the RCP 1.0 of course

 

So you're sure these are the exact tapes you had?

 

well anyhow as the data was apparently not dumped by kammedo, it would be the right thing to get those information preserved. Vinyl should be able to read those data with a DSS1 compatible reader.

 

Yep. I think I might even have the tape reader somewhere