amiga 500 and games.

hi all.
I have never used an Amiga before but own an Amiga 500 console (long story). I want to give it to a 5 year old kid.
I also got with the console about 20 floppies. some of them are games and most of them dont work.

My question. Where can I download games and how shall I load them to these diskettes.

I currently use Unix/Linux so  a program to transfer files in Amiga compatible format from that platform will be great help.

Also please suggest me some games for 5-6 years old.


thanks.

[kd7ota]

Maybe an Amiga 500 might be a bit too complex for a 5-year-old at start. It would be great if you had a Commodore 64 for start. Then give him the Amiga 500 when he turns 8 years old.  :-D Best thing to write disks is getting them from http://www.back2roots.org   .  You will need an Amiga to write the disks back orginally.  You might be able to talk to someone who can probably sell you original copies of games if they got any if you cant write the ADFs.

The kids these days are already used to complex devices.  The friend's son I mentioned already enjoys SSX  and other Rally games on my PS2.

Thanks for the tip about the ADF files.
Can I write them a floppy using Unix "dd"  command?
thank you

[Ilwrath]

The kids these days are already used to complex devices. The friend's son I mentioned already enjoys SSX and other Rally games on my PS2.

Very true, though the Amiga is a very complex machine...  In some ways, probably more so than a Linux box...

Thanks for the tip about the ADF files.
Can I write them a floppy using Unix "dd" command?

No, unfortunatly, Amiga used a proprietary hardware and interface on floppy drives.  (Amiga low density drives read/write 880kb vs 720)  This can't be emulated in any way, except with custom hardware.  Google for the "Catweasel" for more info...

The Amiga's disk images will be found as .adf or .dms (Amiga DiskMasher System)
As mentioned above Back2roots is a great source for legal Amiga disk images....  Though you're going to have a tough time getting those images to a stock A500...

[Phoenix]

Have a look at this link

Just click and smile

if you have WB 3.1 on that 500, you could use CrossDOS, just write the game or watt ever to a 720k DOS floppy (put ducktape over the second hole on a 1.44 and format it as a 720, or just format a amiga disk as 720 on the x86 then just mount the PC0 driver in Workbench:Storage/DOSDriver/PC0
good luck!!

by the way, the amiga is complex only if you make it complex, any one could use WB with ease!!

erik

[Ilwrath]

if you have WB 3.1 on that 500, you could use CrossDOS, just write the game or watt ever to a 720k DOS floppy (put ducktape over the second hole on a 1.44 and format it as a 720, or just format a amiga disk as 720 on the x86 then just mount the PC0 driver in Workbench:Storage/DOSDriver/PC0

Well, I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess that the specs of this 500 are probably more around the 1.3 ROMS and 512k (or, if you're lucky, 1meg) RAM, no HD, one (internal) Floppy...  

Now, you can still use Cross DOS on a system like that, but you're going to need an original CrossDOS disk, as well as an original Workbench disk, and a blank disk to make a bootable system with CrossDOS installed on it.  Then, after creating that disk, boot the Amiga with it, mount the PC0 drive, copy the disk image (provided it fit on a 720k disk) to RAM (provided there's enough RAM).  Also, transfer the ADF -> Amiga utility to RAM the 500.  Then, put in another blank disk, and write the image from RAM to the disk.  Then, provided that all of the disks involved were still usable, and the drive wasn't shot, you may be able to reboot and play that game.  Provided the Amiga and your display device both support the game's screenmode.  (You did remember to check if the game was NTSC or PAL, right?)

 

by the way, the amiga is complex only if you make it complex, any one could use WB with ease!!

Yeah, the above procedure sounds like it should be a snap.  Especially for someone who hasn't had the large amounts of experience tinkering with the old workbench configurations, etc...  Let alone the mentioned 5 year old kid....   :-D

The short of it is, yes, it's simple to point-click-drool in the Workbench.  This isn't one of those tasks, though...