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Offline zeke1312Topic starter

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Re: New with Question
« Reply #14 from previous page: December 22, 2007, 04:29:34 PM »
I'm still pursuing this problem of mine. One item of interest (at least for me), when clicking on "Help" on the configuration screen, you'll see a  wealth of information that covers each item on the tree.

OK. My goal is to load files of any type, be it games, demos, audio, video and business to my WinUAE/AmiKit PC from the internet and use. What do I need to accomplish that?

I've been led to believe certain or maybe all file formats need to be converted by some mechanism be it unarc, unzip,etc type program. As an example ADF files, since they are images in a format that are written or read by a floppy disk, need to be "read" by the virtual "non-hardwre" floppy drive(s) that can be configured within the WinUAE framework. This will allow ADF files to run on the WinUAE platform.

At this point I'm no further along in my effort to resolve this problem of mine.

Is there anyone out there that currently has a working WinUAE/AmiKit PC based machine that does what I' trying to do? If so(and since I'm dense) please if you would, give me a step by step process of how I configure my machine so I can implement what I'm trying to achieve.

Thank you
 

Offline Flashlab

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Re: New with Question
« Reply #15 on: December 22, 2007, 05:17:22 PM »
I think you're mixing up some things here.

AmiKit/Winuae is an emulated Amiga. If you want you can just use it as you would normally a computer. So use a browser to download any files you want within Amikit. Just as on a PC. What you do with those files depends on what they actually are; just as on a PC. So archives (zip lha...) need to be extracted, video files played in a player, music etc...

As for adf files, they are images of floppy disks. You can mount them from within Amikit/Winuae in a virtual floppy disk (like Diskimage) or write them to floppy. Writing them to a real floppy can only be done on a real Amiga or a Catweasel card because the PC floppy drive uses a different format. Luckily Winuae offers virtual floppy drives itself. So you use an adf file in Windows and select it in the Winuae config menu in a drive. The emulation will then treat it as if it were a real floppy on the Amiga. A lot of adf files are images of floppies that are not AmigaDOS compatible. That means that they are not useable in Workbench (the OS desktop) but will work if you boot from the disk.
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Offline zeke1312Topic starter

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Re: New with Question
« Reply #16 on: December 22, 2007, 06:09:08 PM »
OK, do understand WinUAE is an application that runs on a PC based hardware platform and emulates the Amiga environment.

I have downloaded files such as .adf, .zip, .iha. I believe they are all of the type that when unpacked, unzipped, can  then be run in the WinUAE environment.

Now, step by step this is what I have done in this area. For an example, I select a file from an internet site, let's  say it is in .adf file format. When that type of file comes from the internet, it needs to be unpacked/unzipped before use(?)

Next, when the file is downloaded by me, it ends up in a drawer/cabinet/ labeled "Download" that is displayed on the Workbench.

Next (this what I've been doing), I drag the file from the "download cabinet" to another icon on the workbench that says "ram" where is "automatically" unpacked.

From there, I can read the text file (usually without problem but not always). I can run/execute maybe 1 of of 100 (well you know what I mean), files.

Now this is where I get confused. Some say I need to move the unpacked .ADF file to the pseudo floppy drive in order to read the file, and in the case of games as an example, it is read by the "floppy drive".

So this is where I get confused. What do I do and how do I do it when the file is now on/in the WinUAE platform?

How do I set up the environment in my WinUAE ("floppy drive" (non hardware type) so I can do this?

What is DiskImage? Where do I get it? How do I install it? Is there and can I use whatever "make a floppy disk drive" software that is included with the WinUAE software. Is it, as an example within AmiKit?

When I try to mount an .ADF file in a disk drive, it gives me a cylinder 0 error. Looking at system/devices/rad1,rad2, d01,d02, etc I see "not available". How do I make available? Once these files are unpacked, read by a floppy disk drive, where do they go? In a folder? Which one? On the Workbench as an icon?

Thank you
 :-?
 

Offline Flashlab

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Re: New with Question
« Reply #17 on: December 22, 2007, 06:27:44 PM »
First, adf files are not archives. They are images and don't need unpacking. It really depends on what is on the image how you should use it. A lot of adf files (especially games) won't work in a normal DOS environment. These are non-DOS filesystem floppies. Like I said you need to boot the virtual Amiga from these disks to use them. In that case only using them from the Winuae config menu would work.

If you are a Amiga newbie and don't really get the differences in all different aspects of emulation but do want to learn it I suggest you just use Winuae and start with a simple WB3.1 install to learn about how things work on an Amiga. Amikit comes with a lot of different patches to AmigaOS and that can confuse people. IMHO it's all a bit too much and I don't like using it.
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Offline zeke1312Topic starter

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Re: New with Question
« Reply #18 on: December 22, 2007, 07:48:26 PM »
WB3.1= Workbench 3.1? I'm using AmiKit 1.4.1 and WinUAE 3.9. I just have to keep reading and playing with thing until I understand the WinUAE emulation and the Amiga. Yes, I'm new at  the Amiga world.