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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: chaozz on February 19, 2023, 08:16:07 PM
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I found a floppy disk that said:
Amiga 500
MS-DOS Emulator
Copyright Commodore 1987
See attached image for a photo of the disk.
I can not find any information about this disk. Also, my Amiga 500 does not want to read the disk.
So I have two questions:
1. Can anybody give my any more information about this disk? And possibly how to get it running?
2. Can I get a simple MS-DOS emulator running on my A500? If so, which should I try?
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Hi
My guess is that it is a version of Transformer first released for the Amiga 1000
https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_august18/scuzzblogdaugust18_1602.htm
KCS released a PowerPC board for the A500 which works fine but you need the board.
https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_august18/scuzzblogdaugust18_1402.htm
Either way you need a version of DOS and a way to be able to read the disk.
The best emulator involves the A1060 expansion for the A1000. Took me a while to customise a Workbench disk but works just great. Needs the 5.25" DOS disk.
https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_march18/scuzzblogdmarch18_1602.htm
I guess there are emulators on Aminet. Just do a search.
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1. Can anybody give my any more information about this disk? And possibly how to get it running?
It looks like a joke, commodore usually used disk labels.
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Back then I used the Transformer a lot.
It was the main disk and a DOS one with GWBasic also included.
It worked only on A500, I think even real fast ram was a trouble.
A few days ago, I tried to replicate the memory and had no A500 with me.
I managed to do that with WinUAE and a DOS disk from a bridgeboard which I converted with the disk custom setting.
Transformer (if this disk is in your case) play with 360K DOS disks.
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It looks like a joke, commodore usually used disk labels.
Doesn't the word 'usually' imply that they sometimes used unlabeled disks?
Anyway, I bought a Greaseweazle V4 and will attempt to rip the disk and run in it in an emulator.
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Doesn't the word 'usually' imply that they sometimes used unlabeled disks?
Anyway, I bought a Greaseweazle V4 and will attempt to rip the disk and run in it in an emulator.
It implies that I didn't personally witness every disk they ever shipped.
AFAICT they were still shipping Transformer by 1987
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1987/09/07/slow-selling-commodore-amiga-tries-for-better-ibm-compatibility/50a472dc-b99e-4aba-96d2-3d98c818acd3/
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I used Transformer when I was in college in the fall of 1986. I used it to do my Turbo Pascal stuff, perhaps some C as well. It was slow as a dog but it got the job done. I don't remember what the disks or labels looked like though. Down the road a bit I had an A2000 with a Bridgeboard and it worked much better.
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I used Transformer when I was in college in the fall of 1986. I used it to do my Turbo Pascal stuff, perhaps some C as well. It was slow as a dog but it got the job done.
At some point I want to take a look at transformer, and figure out how good their code is.
PC task, with it's dynamic recompiler, would leave it for dust. But that came around when people had far more ram.
While transformer seems to only work on 68000 Amiga's with up to 512k of ram. So they might have had a scarcity mentality and written the code badly, or missed some basic optimizations.