Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: RedWarrior on August 15, 2015, 12:47:16 PM
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Hey guys -
Amazed and relieved this site still exists! So, for some strange reason I've decided to dust off my hardware and would like to try and get some things working- gaming & music making on the Amiga is something very different & I'd like to revisit that. My main issue centres around getting data/programs etc onto my Amigas in a usable way. I have a host of hardware, and most of it can't communicate to another machine or any part of the digital universe, because of old-school floppy drives.
My hardware: several Amiga 1200 machines with Hard drives, one with CF PCMCIA readability, 1 Amiga 500, and 1 Amiga 600 with CF compatibility.
I'd really love to play some of my old Amiga 500 games, but most of the floppy disks are toast now... and the floppy drive is hardly a reliable way to do anything these days. I've heard legends of being able to 'downgrade' an Amiga 1200 to run the Kickstart 1.3, but no idea how practical this is.
Most WHDLoad tutorials don't make mention of non-dos games... how does this work? (and how do you change disks mid-game?)
It would be really great if there was a way to play those oldschool 1.3 games from a harddrive an an Amiga 1200...
I don't know anything and WHDLoad, or what programs might allow this to happen, if any.
I watched a youtube clip of someone using a GoTek Drive on an Amiga500 - looks cool- but I don't want to buy any new hardware for this... I can't justify it.
Is there any way to play a 1.3-era game on a 3.x system? Is it possible to do via Hard Drive?? Is it simple? Does it involve adf files? or something else?
I wonder if this urge to revive these machines will pass in a day or two and I'll never get to see them in action...
Thanks in advance for any useful input. =)
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Have had some small success with the discovery of X-Banch & WHDload, though many of my original questions remain unanswered...
I'm hoping there's some way to play non-dos oldschool 1.3 style Amiga games, complete with cracktros etc... (how do you expect me to play lemmings without the trainer?!) ;)
Does Xbench need kickstart roms?
I'm not sure what I need to get this working... or what's actually possible.
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Hi! Sounds like you've got a healthy number of systems already, we should certainly be able to get at least one of them "up to speed" for you. ;)
If you just want to play games and you don't want to spend much money on the hardware, you've got pretty much two options, as you already surmised:
A Gotek or HxC-style floppy replacement: exactly what it sounds like. Typically replaces the internal floppy drive with a board that allows you to interface to a USB flash drive or SD card. You'd plug that flash drive or card into your PC, load it up with ".adf" files (Amiga disk images), and play-away. Logic in the unit is smart enough that for multi-floppy games, there's usually some option (such as a button on the device or a keypress on the system) that triggers it to "switch disks". This typically requires very little hardware expansion beyond the unit itself and there are many options available.
WHDLoad: my preferred solution, especially if you have an upgraded system. WHDLoad uses "install" packages to make many older programs compatible with more modern software. This would allow you to, for example, boot your Amiga to Workbench, double-click a game icon to play it, then press a quit key (usually F10) to return back to Workbench after you're done playing. WHDLoad is probably the more "sophisticated" of the two options, games load faster (because they're not relying on the floppy drive interface), and usually requires your Amiga to have at least a small amount of fast memory expansion. (the target system is something along the lines of an A1200 + one of the new ACA accelerators).
Sorry we can't point you directly to links for Amiga games to download, the copyright police here won't let us, but Google is your friend. The main WHDLoad support page (contains installers, but no full games) is here: http://whdload.de/ And here's a cheap link (among many) where you could buy a Gotek from a reputable Amiga vendor: http://amigastore.eu/en/323-usb-floppy-emulator-gotek.html
Good luck, happy gaming, and all that. :)
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The Gotek drive certainly works on any Amiga as a replacement for the internal drive df0: . Unfortunately, most games and demos seem to be written for an Amiga A500 with Kickstart 1.3, OCS, and 512K chip RAM, so this means either using Relokick, Skick, Degrader (on Amiga Format coverdisk disk 38), or WHDload. The first three can be booted from flopply disk or ADF file, while WHDload requires a hard drive installation of the software itself, as well as files to run each game or demo from hard drive, including telling each game or demo what version of Kickstart, which chip set, and how much memory of what type is required. My A1200 has recently been crashing a lot with my Gotek drive.
To install WHDload files for each game and demo, you need to copy them onto your Amiga hard drive. This can be done either with a USB CF card reader to plug in to a PC, probably running an emulator, or with a PCMCIA CF card reader to copy the files from the PCMCIA slot to your Amiga hard drive.
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The Gotek drive certainly works on any Amiga as a replacement for the internal drive df0: . Unfortunately, most games and demos seem to be written for an Amiga A500 with Kickstart 1.3, OCS, and 512K chip RAM, so this means either using Relokick, Skick, Degrader (on Amiga Format coverdisk No. 38), or WHDload. The first three can be booted from floppy disk or ADF file, while WHDload requires a hard drive installation of the software itself, as well as files to run each game or demo from hard drive, including telling each game or demo what version of Kickstart, which chip set, and how much memory of what type is required. My A1200 has recently been crashing a lot with my Gotek drive.
To install WHDload files for each game and demo, you need to copy them onto your Amiga hard drive. This can be done either with a USB CF card reader to plug in to a PC, probably running an emulator, or with a PCMCIA CF card reader to copy the files from the PCMCIA slot to your Amiga hard drive.
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@RedWarrior
HeHe... the only disconnect with WHDLoad is that it's still the best kept Amiga secret on the planet! I couldn't figure out what the heck it was all about and didn't really try for years. Once I figured out the real potential of WHDLoad, I bought an A1200 the same day just to have an AGA WHDLoad machine, That was in 2010! I'm convinced that a whole lot more people would be buying Amiga machines if there was a big 'ole button to click, prominately displayed on this site, explaining WHDLoad in simple terms and what it's capabilities are.
To accomplish what your asking for, you need 3 things.
1. The WHDLoad program itself here...http://whdload.de/whdload/WHDLoad_usr.lha
2. Legal ROM files...you can either create these yourself from your real Amiga machines or you can download and pay for them here... http://www.amigaforever.com/
3. Some game files.... I won't directly point to the files but, everything you need is right here.... http://www.lemonamiga.com/
There are alternatives, Google is your friend.
Follow the WHDLoad guide to install your ROM files. Create a folder on your A1200 HDD named WHDLoad games. Create subfolders named A B C etc.... and place game files corresponding alphabetically in appropriate subfolders. You really don't need iGame or any other launcher.
As far as unzipping files with a GUI, these two programs work great on my A1200....
http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/UnZip
http://aminet.net/search?query=gui+4+unzip
Explore Lemon Amiga! And, Have fun!
P.S.... You'll need an accelerator for best performance... these are available for preorder here....
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=43&products_id=1251
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Ok, for "legal" reasons I'll avoid using a game install as an example... Right now I'm just trying to get Rebels Megademo 2 running on my 1200 via whdload.
I downloaded a WHDLoad "version"- but that doesn't seem to actually contain the demo itself? Are WHDLoad files just config files or something? If so, where do I put the .dms or .adf?
The Windows one-click universe has made me lazy... =D
Thanks!
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DMS and ADF files are images of packed files. To unpack a DMS files use this first. WHDLoad only uses Slave files. http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/diskimage.m68k-aos Also, interesting read on disk images... http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41711
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"WHDLoad only reads "slave" files..."
The Megademo2 WHDLoad version that I downloaded has a Megademo2.Slave.asm file in the Install/Src/ folder.... but it's only 6k.
There are no files large enough in that WHDLoad "version" to suggest the whole demo content is there...
what am I missing?
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Questions remain above regarding "degrading" a 1200 to run A500 content via CF or HDD... (anyone?) ;)
With regard to the CF internal drive I had another question.
Has anyone tried one of these?: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-SD-TF-SDHC-To-Type-I-1-Compact-Flash-Card-CF-Reader-Adapter-UDMA-S9DS-/271841081961?hash=item3f4afdba69
Seems like a cheaper way to get a CF card... (they're crazy expensive for some strange reason!)
Thoughts?
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The Megademo2 WHDLoad version that I downloaded has a Megademo2.Slave.asm file in the Install/Src/ folder.... but it's only 6k.
There are no files large enough in that WHDLoad "version" to suggest the whole demo content is there...
what am I missing?
You are missing the demo file itself. ;)
The WHDLoad .slave file itself only fixes it for compatibility with hard drives and "modern systems", you still need to install a copy of the demo - from Aminet, or where ever it's hosted. ;) Look for a .readme associated with the WHDLoad installer.
Not sure which "Megademo2" you're trying to watch. A search on Aminet and the WHDLoad site turns up several different results.
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Questions remain above regarding "degrading" a 1200 to run A500 content via CF or HDD... (anyone?) ;)
Yes, WHDLoad. ;)
With regard to the CF internal drive I had another question.
Has anyone tried one of these?: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-SD-TF-SDHC-To-Type-I-1-Compact-Flash-Card-CF-Reader-Adapter-UDMA-S9DS-/271841081961?hash=item3f4afdba69
Seems like a cheaper way to get a CF card... (they're crazy expensive for some strange reason!)
Thoughts?
A MicroSD to CF adapter? Why in the world would you want that? You can buy 4GB and 8GB CF cards all day long on amazon.com for under $20. And really, how often do you see an Amiga needing more than 4GB or 8GB of "hard drive" capacity? ;)
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Attached is a screenshot of the folder contents...
I downloaded the megademo2 dms separately...
Can someone tell me the usual rule for where the dms file is meant to go? or do i need to do something to the dms file?
Thanks!
the readme isn't super helpful either...
"Rebels Megademo II HD INSTALLER V1.1 by MiCK
--------------------------------------------
Release date : 20.02.2008
-------------------------
That install applies to "Megademo II" © 1990 Rebels - 1 disk
Slave requires WHDLoad V10+.
Demo needs 512Kb Of Chipmem & 1Mb of Fastmem (for preload option)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FEATURES
--------
- Full Loading from HD
- Cool NewIcon (created by Frank)
- Quit Option (F10 is default key)
- Decrunch routine relocated in fastmem
- Music player fixed
- CUSTOM1=1 tooltype actives Hidden part
HISTORY
-------
v1.1 (20.02.08) by Wepl
- taglist fixed to make it work with newer WHDLoad's
- new install script
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can download the demo from :
http://ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/amiga/demos/Rebels/
Rebels.Megademo2-#?.dms
for problems, don't hesitate to contact me.
for full WHDLoad package and other installs refer to:
http://www.whdload.de/
or aminet:dev/misc/whdload#?
and aminet:game/patch/
MiCK.
"
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It's not about the capacity, it's about saving cash... I have a few microSD cards of about 4 gb capacity... but finding a CF card for a decent price is very hard. Adaptor would be cheaper...
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Try writing the .dms image to a disk and then run the "Install" file located in the WHDLoad archive. It'll be a lot easier for you when you find sites that already have ready-to-go games, just unarchive and click the icon. Google, man! I'll take a look at that particular demo tomorrow and see if I can't figure out a walk-through, if you haven't gotten it squared away by then. ;)
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It's not about the capacity, it's about saving cash... I have a few microSD cards of about 4 gb capacity... but finding a CF card for a decent price is very hard. Adaptor would be cheaper...
$13.79 for a 4GB CF. $15.99 for an 8GB CF. If you have Prime you get free two-day shipping. That's pricey?
http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-133x-CompactFlash-Memory-TS8GCF133/dp/B000W05O5O
Or, try the adapter. Let us know how it works out! ;)
Edit: that adapter is "Item location: Hong Kong". Have fun waiting a month for it to arrive! :lol:
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I tried the installer icon in the WHDload package... "Unable to open your tool "Installer"
"Try writing the .dms image to a disk and then run the "Install" file located in the WHDLoad archive. It'll be a lot easier for you when you find sites that already have ready-to-go games, just unarchive and click the icon. Google, man! I'll take a look at that particular demo tomorrow and see if I can't figure out a walk-through, if you haven't gotten it squared away by then. "
Believe me, I am Googling the hell out of this, and apparently failing miserably so far.
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@OldsMobile Mike - thanks for the link. When I tried Amazon earlier it said it wouldn't post to Australia! Some good deals on there! =)
Am looking at reviving about 5 of these 1200s... of a collection of 9. No idea what to do with them all... Maybe I can start some uber-nerdy band ;)
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You need kickstarts with appropriate name in DEVS:Kickstarts
(see WHDLoad manual).Giving you links to those would mean
my execution :rtfm:
You can only install ADFs of original games as far as I know.
Games are out there in pre-installed form (usually in .zip format) to
save you the trouble.
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finding adf files and kickstart roms is the easy part... getting WHDLoad to do anything at all is the tricky bit!
Typically, does WHDLoad look for an adf, a dms or something else? Should it be in the SRC folder? Should the name match up with the .slave.asm file? ... These are things I'm trying and failing at. Anyone use Xbench/WhdLoad?
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Whdload looks for .slave file.Some games are unpacked and
have Data directory while others have diskimages but those
are not ADFs.
If I was looking for Whdload games I would Google "whdload games
download".Maybe you can find some games that way :) If anyone
thinks this is a bit too much I won't mind my post being edited.
You are looking for zip files that are mostly about 1-3 Mb large.
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"WHDLoad only reads "slave" files..."
The Megademo2 WHDLoad version that I downloaded has a Megademo2.Slave.asm file in the Install/Src/ folder.... but it's only 6k.
There are no files large enough in that WHDLoad "version" to suggest the whole demo content is there...
what am I missing?
AFAIK, here's what you do, although I haven't actually managed it myself yet, but I hope to achieve it later this week with a PCMCIA CF card reader and a new USB CF card reader.
You are missing the file or files which make up the actual demo itself. You have only got its custom config files written by a WHDload user. You could download the files for the demo by searching for "Amiga downloads" or "Amiga downloads ADF" (without quotes).
The files you've got already just allow the demo to be loaded and run from hard drive, may load a particular Kickstart ROM image, and tell the Amiga how much RAM of what type it should have, as well as which chipset to use.
There are some videos about WHDload on YouTube, but they're mostly about installing a pre prepared HDF image file. These files may be missing particular games or demos you want.
The easiest way to run most games and demos now seems to be a Gotek USB floppy emulator connected as df0: to an A500.
Once more, the pieces of software to make older software run on an A500 Plus, A600, A1200 or some other model (apart from the Kickstart boot menu) are Skick, Relokick, and Degrader (Amiga Format coverdisk No. 38). My Amiga A1200 has been crashing a lot, as well as displaying corrupted logos, bobs, or sprites, blank red or yellow screens, even after running the boot menu followed by one of these pieces of software.
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Whdload looks for .slave file.Some games are unpacked and
have Data directory while others have diskimages but those
are not ADFs.
If I was looking for Whdload games I would Google "whdload games
download".Maybe you can find some games that way :) If anyone
thinks this is a bit too much I won't mind my post being edited.
You are looking for zip files that are mostly about 1-3 Mb large.
It looks like I accidentally posted my last reply without reloading the page since yesterday!
Thanks for this information.
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I tried the installer icon in the WHDload package... "Unable to open your tool "Installer"
Gah! Unfortunately this is a common, common problem. You need the "Installer" tool to be able to install anything! Right-click and get the properties of the "Install" file. Look for a default tool, it should be something like "C:Installer". If it says something else, change it to that. Then drop down to a shell prompt and type "version C:Installer". Sometimes people have Installer stuck in Utilities, or all kinds of other random places. But generally it should be in C:, that's where most programs look for it.
You should be able to find a copy of Installer on your OS disks or CD, depending on which version of the OS you're running.
Here's a link to one version: http://aminet.net/package/util/misc/Installer-43_3
Here's a link to another: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=21788&styleid=1
Both of these are just ones I googled up real quick, but you want to take that file, Installer, and dump it in C:. Then you'll be able to point installs to use it, and go from there. :)
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Also since you have an A1200, you might want to consider this beautiful little piece of kit:
http://kipper2k.com/cfadapters.html
http://kipper2k.com/cfextender/CFguide.pdf
Great for transferring files between an A1200 and a PC running WinUAE. Of course there are many other options. ;)
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Hey bud!
About that demo. Got it installed, working great. Honestly this is the first time I've used an installer for a demo, so it was good practice for me. Here's what I did:
- After faffing around with the "part a" and "part b" files available here: http://ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/amiga/demos/Rebels/ I found a better source. What that is with the A & B, is each is half of the image of a floppy disk. Part A is tracks 1-40, part B is 41-79. A really annoying way of distributing something, IMHO.
- Eventually found a complete DMS copy of that demo, here: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=2742 Use this file, instead.
- Next use DMS to write a copy of that file onto a blank floppy disk. If you do not have DMS installed, you can download it here: http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/dms111 Stick the program file itself ("DMS") into your C:, then use the command "DMS write [filename] to DF0:" (without the quotes) in a shell prompt. There are GUI-based tools for using DMS, but I use it so infrequently I don't have one installed.
- Next download the WHDLoad installer from here: http://www.whdload.de/demos/Rebels_MegaDemo2.html (http://www.whdload.de/demos/Rebels_MegaDemo2.html)
[/URL]
- Extract the LHA archive of that installer to RAM:. If you do not have LHA, you can download a copy of it from here: http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/lha Same as with DMS, extract the main program file ("LHA") into your C:. There are also graphical tools for using LHA available.
- So now you have two things: a floppy disk with the uncompressed DMS file of the demo, and a directory in RAM: containing a readme and the Install file. Double-click the install file (you did fix your copy of Installer per my previous comment, right?) and follow the instructions (see screenshots):
(continued in 2nd post)
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...And, done! Just stick that new directory wherever you plan on keeping your demos. Double-click the icon whenever you want to watch the demo. Press F10 to quit. Works great on my A2000, but I had to reach for that 'quit' key pretty fast, otherwise I'd probably get strange looks from folks walking by my office and hearing the music, haha. ;)
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Thank you very much for that detailed response! Your efforts are much appreciated!
It would seem the missing crucial ingredient for my situation is the "Installer" tool- which still remains elusive.
On my version of workbench 3.x (not sure) there's a tool called "Install" in the C directory... When I modified the .info (icon) file for the Install Megademo2 - to direct to "Install" instead of "installer" - it crashed. :(
So I guess "install" is not the same as "installer".... Many people have said this is a definite feature of the Workbench OS... can you confirm? (which directory & which version does it feature on? I've searched everywhere)
Also- I don't understand why you went to all the trouble with the dms extraction to floppy etc... this demo is available as an adf already (I noticed your Installer gave you an adf option)? I have the adf, the DMS, the WHDLoad files, all the hardware, and determination... but still my efforts are in vain!
Are you allowed to share a copy of "Installer" on here?
Thanks =)
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It would seem the missing crucial ingredient for my situation is the "Installer" tool- which still remains elusive.
So I guess "install" is not the same as "installer".... Many people have said this is a definite feature of the Workbench OS... can you confirm? (which directory & which version does it feature on? I've searched everywhere)
You missed a post - two different links to download it, here: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=794164&postcount=24
Generally I would say "just go with the latest version". I have 44.10 and have no problems. But I'm using 3.9. If you're still using 3.1 you may need the slightly older version from the first link. But try 44.10 first. ;) You need it, it needs to be in your C:, and all your install files need to point to it, and you'll never have this problem again. :)
Also- I don't understand why you went to all the trouble with the dms extraction to floppy etc... this demo is available as an adf already (I noticed your Installer gave you an adf option)? I have the adf, the DMS, the WHDLoad files, all the hardware, and determination... but still my efforts are in vain!
Because I didn't take the time to find an adf version of the demo. I found the dms version and went with it. Obviously you can save yourself a step if you have it as an adf. ;)
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I hope to do all of this later this week, possibly starting today.
I have used various emulators with CF cards, but I'm worried in case one or another emulator won't read a CF card. I most recently used FS-UAE under Linux on a PC I built which only has Linux installed.
I'm using Workbench 3.1, while Oldsmobile_Mike was using 3.9. I hope it works exactly the same way.
My USB CF card reader didn't seem to work anymore, after trying two CF cards, although I only tried them under FS-UAE, so I bought a new USB CF card reader and a PCMCIA CF card reader from eBay just to make absolutely sure I can get files onto my CF card. I'm waiting for them to arrive. I hope this doesn't prevent me getting ready for a night out. Perhaps I should buy another CF card as well just for copying files from a PC to an Amiga CF hard drive without removing it. I also hope to read my data from a CF card which will no longer boot or be recognised on my A1200.
I also hope all this will enable to finally transfer my artwork onto the Internet. So far, it's all been stuck on Amiga formatted floppy disks and CF cards. I've never connected my Amigas to the Internet, because I feel that if I did, then they could just become more Internet connected terminals, then I might use them for that a large part of the time. When I used Amigas as my only computers, I used to connect to BBSs some of the time, but I never upgraded enough to connect to the Internet. I used to visit cybercafe's where I saved webpages and files to MS-DOS formatted floppy disks, then read them back on my Amiga with CrossDOS, but now I can't even remember how to use CrossDOS anymore! Also, I don't currently have a PC with a floppy drive, but I do own one with a motherboard that supports a floppy drive. USB drives aren't 100% compatible and probably wouldn't work for the purpose of reading DSDD MS-DOS format disks created on an Amiga, while an Amiga floppy drive may not be able to read DSDD MS-DOS disks formatted on a USB drive either.
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The "fun" never ends it seems...
2 steps forward, 1 step back...
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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand finally!!!!!!!!!!!! =) =) =) =) =)
Thanks to everyone who helped out there... that was quite an ordeal!!
How I've missed the smooth scrolltext... can't do that on WinUAE ;)
Nor the "Swedish Meltdown" from the demo below (see pic) - seems to crash WinUAE (some whacky video overscan stuff going on)
THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand finally!!!!!!!!!!!! =) =) =) =) =)
Thanks to everyone who helped out there... that was quite an ordeal!!
How I've missed the smooth scrolltext... can't do that on WinUAE ;)
Nor the "Swedish Meltdown" from the demo below (see pic) - seems to crash WinUAE (some whacky video overscan stuff going on)
THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm glad you've succeeded in your goal. I can even read Swedish, German, Danish, and Dutch scroll text.
As for my latest news, a USB CF card reader arrived yesterday. I inserted my old CF card which I can no longer boot my A1200 from and the A1200 can't even detect it, then I plugged it into a Pentium 4 HT CPU computer running Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca".
I found I got different readings for what the device or card was called depending on which USB port I plugged it into. I only had the FS-UAE emulator and couldn't find another emulator to download. I found that FS-UAE recognised it but wouldn't boot from it, default to a floppy df0:. It showed the card as about 4Gb and half full, but didn't show any files on it, no matter how I changed the options such as Show all files, as Icons, etc.
I also tried under the Linux Mint desktop and the formatter GParted. It appeared as a 2.1Gb device on the desktop, while GParted said something like 2Gb, but 4Gb used and that the format was FAT32, but I had formatted this card some time ago as Amiga FFS with 3 or 4 partitions. I don't know what this all means, but it doesn't encourage me to try reading my new card from Amigakit, which was preformatted with WHDload installed. All I did with this card before was trying to read it in a USB CF card reader which has worked in the past. It couldn't read it, so I tried to plug it back into my A1200 and bent a pin on the CF IDE adaptor.
I hope someone can suggest whatI can try next with my old CF card. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for a PCMCIA card reader to arrive.
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Ok, in keeping with the journey so far.... another road block.
The Select File button does nothing. nothing at all.
Is this the fault of installer or WHDLoad or.... something else? good times.... :-/
Thanks again!!
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You have the latest WHDLoad and Installer installed? Could just be a bad install script. Do they all do this or just Turrican 2?
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@RedWarrior
I can't remember when I used installer from WHDLoad for something
but as I said I think it expects real floppy (original) in floppy drive
to create WHDLoad install of it.
You can use UnADF from Aminet to write ADFs to floppy drive and then
insert floppy and use WHDLoad intstaller.Most ADFs out there are not
originals though and won't work with WHDLoad (Demos should work).
Maybe stupid comment but I think you need that select button only
when floppy has been read to save raw image , really not sure.
Doing it this way will take you (Amiga :roflmao:) forever.Look for pre-installed
WHDLoad games , all are there.If you take WHDL and download and make one word you get word WHDownload.Then you add .com to it and all you need is there pre-intstalled (demos too).
@AmigaBruno
Option I used was WinUAE and real PATA hard drive connected
to PC motherboard.Then selecting "real hard drive option" there and it would work fine.Add another Directory from PC
as drive and copy files there.I don't know if CF-IDE should
work this way but I think it's very likely it should.
Other option is to use PCMCIA card on Amiga (Again there is Aminet driver for those larger that 4 Mb) and copy files there
and read them on PC (PCMCIA is FAT formatted so you should be able to read it on any Windows , Linux).
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I'm running the pre-packaged WHDLoad script thingies... One worked (Rebels Megademo)
And 2 failed so far... it's weird they won't let me choose a source for the adf file. The Lemmings one said that I had to choose "expert mode" if I was loading from adf.... which I did... and it made no difference.
The Amiga world really is just held together with stickytape & faded dreams isn't it... ;)
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To be sure- I just verified I have the latest WHDLoad (from WHDLoad.de) - and the 44.1 installer... ( I had 43.3 or something...) no difference.
Also the WHDLoad Lemmings file came directly from the WHDLoad.de site... so one might assume they are the best ones to use?
Yay computers. >:-S
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Lol :)
Well I'm guessing that newer installers support ADFs while older
ones require floppies.I didn't really have much luck either with manual
installing.
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What's a RAWDic? ... if that's not a rude question?
I installed that megademo, and it's older than Lemmings...
Any solutions very much welcomed. It would seem that the very first game I try to install is the one with a legacy of issues... only 1 actual install file on the whole internet that I can find...
Curious that the same thing happened with the Turrican install... Could it be that RAWdic thing? I'm out of options...
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What's a RAWDic? ... if that's not a rude question?
I installed that megademo, and it's older than Lemmings...
Any solutions very much welcomed. It would seem that the very first game I try to install is the one with a legacy of issues... only 1 actual install file on the whole internet that I can find...
Curious that the same thing happened with the Turrican install... Could it be that RAWdic thing? I'm out of options...
Just get what you want from here:
http://whdownload.com/
Much quicker...
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I've visited that site already... it doesn't offer any Install files. ... I don't know how to manually rig WHDLoad to search for a specific adf etc...
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I've visited that site already... it doesn't offer any Install files. ... I don't know how to manually rig WHDLoad to search for a specific adf etc...
You don't need the install files. Simply find the games you want, unzip them and they're ready to run. :)
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"Ready to run" in what sense? I've downloaded these... I couldn't get anything useful to happen.
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"Ready to run" in what sense? I've downloaded these... I couldn't get anything useful to happen.
That would indicate a software issue with your Amiga then. These files once unzipped contain an already installed game or demo. There is the icon for the game or demo to double click to load it.
Perhaps on the ones you tried they needed kickstart files that you may not have in your 'DEVS:Kickstarts' drawer. Or, some games/demos may need a 68020 or above (sorry, can't remember what Amiga you're trying to run these on).
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I think the reason I'm banging my head against this brick-wall is that I really want to have some sense of a reliable procedure to work across all the adfs I have... I'm quite set on replaying the games as I had them on floppy disk- not just "any version"
I'll try these again and see if I can swap out some files somehow...
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RAWdic is a command which is supposed to convert an NDOS ADF image into a format that can be used by WHDload. I've tried it recently and got an error message saying something like the files wasn't in AmigaDOS format!
I have got my PCMCIA card reader now, but then I found out that my current laptop doesn't even have a PCMCIA slot. It was an older laptop, now broken, which had one. I would also have to install some files onto an Amiga formatted CF card before my Amiga A1200 can recognise it. This means removing the CF card from the Amiga and putting it into my new USB CF card reader. I hope this won't corrupt the new CF card, which is what seems to have happened to the other one.
If all of the above doesn't work, then I'll just give up and buy a device with WHDload as well as lots of games and demos preinstalled, then I'll never attempt to install any more onto it. This device may be called a "disco duro", but I can't tell you where to find it, because of the Copyright Police.
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RAWdic is a command which is supposed to convert an NDOS ADF image into a format that can be used by WHDload. I've tried it recently and got an error message saying something like the files wasn't in AmigaDOS format!
I have got my PCMCIA card reader now, but then I found out that my current laptop doesn't even have a PCMCIA slot. It was an older laptop, now broken, which had one. I would also have to install some files onto an Amiga formatted CF card before my Amiga A1200 can recognise it. This means removing the CF card from the Amiga and putting it into my new USB CF card reader. I hope this won't corrupt the new CF card, which is what seems to have happened to the other one.
If all of the above doesn't work, then I'll just give up and buy a device with WHDload as well as lots of games and demos preinstalled, then I'll never attempt to install any more onto it. This device may be called a "disco duro", but I can't tell you where to find it, because of the Copyright Police.
Corrupted your CF card? If you can't format it anymore it means the partition has been lost that is all. Re-create a partition and re-format (quick).
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Corrupted your CF card? If you can't format it anymore it means the partition has been lost that is all. Re-create a partition and re-format (quick).
What I mean is that I had the older CF card formatted and partitioned as FFS with 3 or 4 partitions. They were called Workbench, Work, Art, and Games. I originally planned to install WHDload on it, but I couldn't work out how. I wanted WHDload, as well as applications which run from hard drive. I didn't want to keep swapping between two CF cards to have this. I created and stored a lot of data on it, but unfortunately I didn't back up all of it. I don't want to reformat it, I want to retrieve my data.
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I really want to have some sense of a reliable procedure to work across all the adfs I have.
Yeah, this is an Amiga. That's not going to happen! ;) Trial & error, man. Trial & error. ;)
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As mentioned in the topic http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=69677 , I've been busy setting up reading my CF card and mounting a Windows XP Downloads directory, which is now done.
After that, I started downloading from pages such as http://whdownload.com/games.php?name=h&sort=0&dir=0 , but of course these don't contain the original games.
I'm not sure, but I assume I should look for these games wherever I usually find them, but that they must be original versions, meaning that it shouldn't say CR in the description. As for whether they can be ADF or must be DMS, I'm still not sure about that.
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SUCCESS! After several hours of downloading, unarchiving and transferring some files on my old Windows XP based desktop PC, I had what looked like some WHDload installation files for several games, but not the games themselves, apart from a couple of exceptions. None of them have the extensions ADF or DMS, though. I didn't put them in directories such as A, B, C, etc.
After all of this I tried clicking on all of the very small game icons, which seemed to be designed especially for WHDload and I was surprised to see them get as far as the WHDload registration nag screen. After that, I got error messages, which were usually that it couldn't find a Kickstart 1.3 ROM image. I think some of these games are capable of running from floppy disk without a 1.3 ROM though.
I didn't always try the games in alphabetical order, then was pleasantly surprised to find that Eye of Horus, Bloodwych, and Advanced Ski Simulator all ran! Eye of Horus had been cracked so the player didn't have to input anything from the manual, though.
Now I'm totally exhausted and looking forward to a good night's sleep! Later today I plan to install the Kickstart 1.3 ROM image which I think is on my Amiga Forever DVD and an accompanying file which is either on a WHDload site, and/or on Aminet.
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You need the Kick 1.3 image in your DEVS: directory to get past that error message. And if by "very small game icons" you mean "they look like little squares", that's because they're "NewIcons"-style icons. To view them correctly install the Peter K. icon library.
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Well you need Kick 1.3 but it has to have correct name.
Names as follows (in devs:kickstarts) :
KICK33180.A500
KICK33180.A500.RTB
KICK34005.A500
KICK34005.A500.RTB
KICK40068.A1200
KICK40068.A1200.RTB
These are from A500 and A1200 , all games will work with them.
Size of A500 ROMS is 256 Kb and A1200 512 Kb.Amiga forever has
encrypted Roms , I have no clue if they will work.
Few more hints : You need extra memory to run games in WHDLoad.
That can be cause of problem.Original games can hardly be found in
ADFs , you need IPFs and a way to get them on floppy.
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Well you need Kick 1.3 but it has to have correct name.
Names as follows (in devs:kickstarts) :
KICK33180.A500
KICK33180.A500.RTB
KICK34005.A500
KICK34005.A500.RTB
KICK40068.A1200
KICK40068.A1200.RTB
These are from A500 and A1200 , all games will work with them.
Size of A500 ROMS is 256 Kb and A1200 512 Kb.Amiga forever has
encrypted Roms , I have no clue if they will work.
Few more hints : You need extra memory to run games in WHDLoad.
That can be cause of problem.Original games can hardly be found in
ADFs , you need IPFs and a way to get them on floppy.
Unfortunately, although I already knew I needed the files above ending in A500 and A500.RTB, I'm not sure where to get them or how to install them. Recently, while using FS-UAE or WinUAE, I copied some ROM files over from my Amiga Forever DVD, then they complained that the ROM key file was missing. I found and copied another file called rom.key on that DVD, then it worked. I've also got a copy of SKick with three ROM files on an ADF, which enables some software loaded from my Gotek USB drive to run on my A1200.
Actually, I've now found out what to do with the Amiga Forever DVD as explained on http://www.whdload.de/docs/en/need.html
I've already heard that some games need more than 2Mb to run under WHDload, but eBay sellers say that there are ways to "bypass the OS" to get round this. I assume that I just need to press Ctrl D to stop Workbench loading, followed by a few commands such as DIR ALL , CD , etc. Apart from this, I haven't installed that RAM hungry launcher (iGame?) or "Classic Workbench". I'm seriously considering buying some extra RAM very soon, which may be in the form of the new ACA 1221 accelerator.
As for IPF files, I don't think I've ever heard of them before, so I'll have to investigate.
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When dealing with WHDLoad forget about ADF's or dms files... Each install is different, some retain the whole floppy images whilst others will utilise directories and files for the game data (dependent on the game).
As for the anti-piracy code booklets or code wheels etc, AFAIK all WHDLoad game installs have been programmed by their respective authors to remove such protection (to save us typing crap in and mucking around with code wheels).
http://whdownload.com/
The above site DOES contain the game/demo in its entirety. I have no idea why you keep saying it doesn't!
If you're running an A1200, you'll need 2mb fast ram or more in the trapdoor. I recommend 4mb minimum though. What would be nice is 8mb fast ram and a faster cpu, such as...well, any really...
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Unfortunately, although I already knew I needed the files above ending in A500 and A500.RTB, I'm not sure where to get them or how to install them
Oh for the love of...
http://bfy.tw/1WUO
And just stick them in Devs:kickstarts, as already mentioned above. :D
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When dealing with WHDLoad forget about ADF's or dms files... Each install is different, some retain the whole floppy images whilst others will utilise directories and files for the game data (dependent on the game).
As for the anti-piracy code booklets or code wheels etc, AFAIK all WHDLoad game installs have been programmed by their respective authors to remove such protection (to save us typing crap in and mucking around with code wheels).
http://whdownload.com/
The above site DOES contain the game/demo in its entirety. I have no idea why you keep saying it doesn't!
If you're running an A1200, you'll need 2mb fast ram or more in the trapdoor. I recommend 4mb minimum though. What would be nice is 8mb fast ram and a faster cpu, such as...well, any really...
I didn't think we were allowed to post links to copied games on here. Anyway, it didn't look to me like the actual games were included, except where I saw some files which were 880K.
Some games are already running and I've seen lists of games which will run in 2Mb. I'm planning to buy a RAM upgrade/accelerator soon.
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I didn't think we were allowed to post links to copied games on here. Anyway, it didn't look to me like the actual games were included, except where I saw some files which were 880K.
Some games are already running and I've seen lists of games which will run in 2Mb. I'm planning to buy a RAM upgrade/accelerator soon.
The games which are running will be the ones that don't use the Kickstart files.
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Oh for the love of...
http://bfy.tw/1WUO
And just stick them in Devs:kickstarts, as already mentioned above. :D
Of course, I knew there were Amiga Kickstart ROM images out there, but WHDload expects to have ROM images of specific versions and names. I haven't got a list in front of me, but I don't think all Kickstart 1.3 ROMs are the same version. For most purposes users only need to consider if the ROM is 1.2, 1.3, 2.04, 2.05, 3.0, or 3.1 though. They're all listed on http://cloanto.com/amiga/roms/
The link I posted later on in my message gives details that users can copy the images from an Amiga Forever DVD and then rename them, so long as the version of WHDload is at least 16.5. Fortunately, my pre installed version is later than 16.5. The system ROMs can be a bit difficult to find but are in Amiga Files\Shared\rom
AFAIK I just have to copy one of two of these Kickstart ROM files, as well as the rom.key file and the mysterious .RTB files from Aminet, then a lot of other games will run.
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You need more memory that's for sure , otherwise clicking twice
will do nothing.
Those names are only names.In reality that's Kick 1.2 1.3 and 3.0 as
extracted from real Amiga.
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I can now tell you that I've transferred lots more games, selected either because I played them before, or they sounded interesting, under WinUAE and tested them under WinUAE.
I found out that most of the games wouldn't run in 2Mb RAM. Almost all of them will run in 4Mb RAM, but I found that Dungeon Master 2, Eye of the Beholder 2, Galdregon's Domain, and Bloodnet wouldn't run even in 4Gb.
I also found out that my Kickstart 3.x A1200 ROM image is invalid!
I feel like playing around with SKick and various ROM images, which may then run ADF files from my Gotek USB drive.
I now plan to buy a RAM upgrade for my A1200, but I don't know how long one of those ACA 1221 accelerator cards would take to arrive because I don't know how many people have ordered one already. This means I'm not sure what kind of RAM upgrade to buy.
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Try playing around with the "Preload" option in WHDLoad. You might be able to save a little bit of memory that way. Also boot with no startup-sequence, etc. But you probably already know that, already. ;)
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Try playing around with the "Preload" option in WHDLoad. You might be able to save a little bit of memory that way. Also boot with no startup-sequence, etc. But you probably already know that, already. ;)
I've just read about the "Preload" option, which I assume comes under Information for each game's launcher icon, so I'll try that. Booting with no startup-sequence only seems to give me a full screen Amigashell window with a 1> prompt. I thought the next stage would be navigating to the WHDload games, but it didn't seem to work. I don't think it knew about WHDload at all. Typing LoadWB after this does bring up the Workbench, but doesn't allow me to run these games either.
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Dungeon Master 2 and Bloodnet at least can be installed without
WHDLoad (if memory serves) and you won't need more memory than 2 Mb.
As for accelerator card I'd say Blizzard1220/28/4-8Mb or Blizzard1230/56(
I really think it's 56 and not 50 , A1200 can only be something divided by
14 but not an expert)/8-16 Mb if you can find them anywhere.Or even just
regular 4 Mb Fast Ram Board (still gives 2 x speed and almost all works).
Booting without startup-seq is only needed if game needs more CHIP ram.
Try booting with this :
(DH0 should be your system partition)
C:Setpatch QUIET
C:Version >NIL:
FailAt 21
C:Assign C: DH0:C (just in case,WHDload is there)
C:Makedir RAM:ENV
C:Makedir RAM:T
C:Assign ENV: RAM:ENV
C:Assign T: RAM:T
C:Assign Devs: DH0:devs
C:Assign Fonts: DH0:Fonts
C:Loadwb
C:EndCli
Make sure you use 4 color Workbench to save Chip Ram.
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Now I've just tried editing the "Preload" under Information, but I found that in most cases it was total gibberish. I only found one game "Dalek Attack" where the Information ended with PreloadSize=. The number in this case was 1820479, which seems to mean more than the RAM left after loading Workbench. I changed this number to 10000, then I got the error "(object not found) on reading Disk.1". This was a game which I could run under WinUAE with 4Mb RAM. I also tried booting without startup-sequence again. I used AmigaDOS commands to navigate to the directories for some games and found that WHDload tried to run them. Unfortunately, I got errors such as "object not found" for AlienBreed3DDemoLatestAGA and "object is not of required type" for Defender Of The Crown. After this I checked I could run Defender Of The Crown from cracked ADF files using my Gotek USB drive.
So, it looks like I'm due for a frustrating few days at least until I can get either a 2Mb Melcard, or an ACA 1221 accelerator, unless I put up with using WinUAE in the meantime. Unfortunately, as well as the weekend, there's a public holiday here on Monday, August 31.
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Now I've just tried editing the "Preload" under Information, but I found that in most cases it was total gibberish. I only found one game "Dalek Attack" where the Information ended with PreloadSize=. The number in this case was 1820479, which seems to mean more than the RAM left after loading Workbench. I changed this number to 10000, then I got the error "(object not found) on reading Disk.1". This was a game which I could run under WinUAE with 4Mb RAM. I also tried booting without startup-sequence again. I used AmigaDOS commands to navigate to the directories for some games and found that WHDload tried to run them. Unfortunately, I got errors such as "object not found" for AlienBreed3DDemoLatestAGA and "object is not of required type" for Defender Of The Crown. After this I checked I could run Defender Of The Crown from cracked ADF files using my Gotek USB drive.
So, it looks like I'm due for a frustrating few days at least until I can get either a 2Mb Melcard, or an ACA 1221 accelerator, unless I put up with using WinUAE in the meantime. Unfortunately, as well as the weekend, there's a public holiday here on Monday, August 31.
The PRELOADSIZE is only a reference number for the load meter (aka progress bar) when you load a game from double clicking its icon. Altering this won't achieve anything.
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Dungeon Master 2 and Bloodnet at least can be installed without
WHDLoad (if memory serves) and you won't need more memory than 2 Mb.
As for accelerator card I'd say Blizzard1220/28/4-8Mb or Blizzard1230/56(
I really think it's 56 and not 50 , A1200 can only be something divided by
14 but not an expert)/8-16 Mb if you can find them anywhere.Or even just
regular 4 Mb Fast Ram Board (still gives 2 x speed and almost all works).
Booting without startup-seq is only needed if game needs more CHIP ram.
Try booting with this :
(DH0 should be your system partition)
C:Setpatch QUIET
C:Version >NIL:
FailAt 21
C:Assign C: DH0:C (just in case,WHDload is there)
C:Makedir RAM:ENV
C:Makedir RAM:T
C:Assign ENV: RAM:ENV
C:Assign T: RAM:T
C:Assign Devs: DH0:devs
C:Assign Fonts: DH0:Fonts
C:Loadwb
C:EndCli
Make sure you use 4 color Workbench to save Chip Ram.
OK, thanks! I'll try that startup-sequence. I'm using a 4Gb CF card from Amigakit and I'm not sure what the startup-sequence contains. I'm also using a 4 colour Workbench. Obviously, I should try and stop the Workbench using as much RAM as I can.
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The PRELOADSIZE is only a reference number for the load meter (aka progress bar) when you load a game from double clicking its icon. Altering this won't achieve anything.
In that case, I have no idea how to adjust it.
I've just seen something called X-Bench, which I may have heard of before, but I didn't know what it was. It seems to be a text based program selector, which obviously saves RAM, and seems to be able to run WHDload programs, according to the screen which appears briefly at 1:20 in to the video below, but you can still load Workbench when you want. I'll look into this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dThjTd8237w
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Just remove whole PRELOAD line from icon.
It tells game to load all game data in memory and start it from
there to avoid accessing hard drive (in case it's slow).
I think that might not be the problem , WHDLoad is smart enough
to know if you don't have enough memory so it ignores PRELOAD.
In case of bigger games it can take some time to PRELOAD (if a game
is say from CD32 version and has lots of data).
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Just remove whole PRELOAD line from icon.
It tells game to load all game data in memory and start it from
there to avoid accessing hard drive (in case it's slow).
I think that might not be the problem , WHDLoad is smart enough
to know if you don't have enough memory so it ignores PRELOAD.
In case of bigger games it can take some time to PRELOAD (if a game
is say from CD32 version and has lots of data).
In most cases there is no line saying Preload, it's several lines of obscure characters warning me not to edit them, with a lot of occurrences of the Icelandic Ð character. Am I supposed to delete all these lines?
I've just tried X-Bench as well. Unfortunately, it turned out to be V0.99 from around Christmas 2014, so not finished. I hope to find a later version. So far, I've only tried it running from Workbench, so that wouldn't save me the RAM eaten up by Workbench. Sadly, I found I was unable to click the names of the WHDload files I needed to run because those files didn't appear! I could only see the corresponding .info files. When I clicked these alone or in combination with RUN or EXECUTE, nothing happened. The documentation and videos talk about typically having 4Mb RAM, though.
I have now decided to get a RAM upgrade, but the question is whether it should be a MELcard or an ACA 1221 accelerator. There may be a delay in the ACA 1221 arriving, due to how much interest there is and how many pre orders have been made.
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Ah , those strange characters are newicon , if you are fine with seeing
little square instead picture of icon you can remove them or download
newicons workbench patch from Aminet.
Yes , 4 Mb is enough for most games.You can install some games with
just 2 Mb and play from hard drive.Mostly ones that are not NDOS and
have installer on first or last floppy in the meantime.
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Ah , those strange characters are newicon , if you are fine with seeing
little square instead picture of icon you can remove them or download
newicons workbench patch from Aminet.
Yes , 4 Mb is enough for most games.You can install some games with
just 2 Mb and play from hard drive.Mostly ones that are not NDOS and
have installer on first or last floppy in the meantime.
So far, I can only see little squares instead of proper icons.
I'm looking for a list of WHDload games and demos which will run on an A1200 with only 2Mb fitted, but at the moment I can't find one, so it's just pure luck that any of them work. Not long ago, there were some lists of these games under eBay CF cards, but now there are no lists saying 2Mb. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to which games work and which don't.
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So far, I can only see little squares instead of proper icons.
I'm looking for a list of WHDload games and demos which will run on an A1200 with only 2Mb fitted, but at the moment I can't find one, so it's just pure luck that any of them work. Not long ago, there were some lists of these games under eBay CF cards, but now there are no lists saying 2Mb. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to which games work and which don't.
As has already been suggested, install the Peter K. icon.library to correctly view NewIcons-format icons.
And for the love of god, get more memory! You know you need more memory. We know you need more memory. I do not understand why you are wasting so much time struggling with this and banging your head against a wall when simply adding more memory would solve 100% of your problems.
Well, maybe not 100%, but close to it, as far as your Amiga is concerned. ;)
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As has already been suggested, install the Peter K. icon.library to correctly view NewIcons-format icons.
And for the love of god, get more memory! You know you need more memory. We know you need more memory. I do not understand why you are wasting so much time struggling with this and banging your head against a wall when simply adding more memory would solve 100% of your problems.
Well, maybe not 100%, but close to it, as far as your Amiga is concerned. ;)
I'll explain how I see the situation and how I feel about it.
I don't think there's any point me installing the Peter K. icon library, because I can already see some icons I need to click on, but also because I think this would use more RAM.
Of course, I need more RAM, but I can't get any for at least a few days. Also, I'm not sure what kind of RAM upgrade to get, because a MELcard could be with me on Wednesday or Thursday, while the new ACA 1221 may take some time, depending on how many people have pre ordered one. The ACA 1221 is totally superior to the MELcard, but there was only a prototype at the Amiga 30th event in Peterborough. It is supposed to be available on September 1, so there may be a disastrous announcement that it's not available on that date, or sold out, waiting for more stock. According to the Vesalia website, this accelerator has facilities which you have to pay extra after buying it to unlock!
While I'm waiting, I'd like to play at least a variety of games which will run in 2Mb on my Amiga A1200, otherwise I can only play them using WinUAE, which obviously doesn't feel the same at all. I'm also exploring the possibilities of using more Kickstart image files under Skick, which may enable me to run more ADF games from my Gotek drive.
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I don't think there's any point me installing the Peter K. icon library, because I can already see some icons I need to click on, but also because I think this would use more RAM.
Why, then, do you bother complaining that "I can only see little squares instead of proper icons" when you refuse to install the tool that would fix that for you? GAAAAAHH. I give up. :(
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I like squares , reminds me of 90s and KillNewIcons experiment :lol:
@AmigaBruno
There are games you can play on hard drive without use of WHDLoad as
I said.Dungeon Master II for example,Gloom,games that came on 7-8
floppies etc.They have option to install to hard drive without use of
WHDLoad and most of them were ECS games so you can play them
with 2 Mb without problems.Play with those in mean time.Deluxe Galaga
should be one of those games too.Or you can use WHDLoad to install
all games you will play in the future and then just transfer when card
arrives.Or just play Deluxe Galaga :roflmao:
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I like squares , reminds me of 90s and KillNewIcons experiment :lol:
@AmigaBruno
There are games you can play on hard drive without use of WHDLoad as
I said.Dungeon Master II for example,Gloom,games that came on 7-8
floppies etc.They have option to install to hard drive without use of
WHDLoad and most of them were ECS games so you can play them
with 2 Mb without problems.Play with those in mean time.Deluxe Galaga
should be one of those games too.Or you can use WHDLoad to install
all games you will play in the future and then just transfer when card
arrives.Or just play Deluxe Galaga :roflmao:
I don't really care about the small square icons anymore.
So, now all I can do is look on ADF download sites for games that came on a minimum of 7 floppy disks, then they will probably install onto HD. This would mean that Alien Breed isn't compatible and neither is Elivira Mistress of the Dark, but Elvira 2 might have an HD installer. It would be better to have a proper list of these games. Who can give me a list?
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This always works for me..... http://hol.abime.net/advsearch
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This always works for me..... http://hol.abime.net/advsearch
OK, thanks for that!
Meanwhile, I've just visited a well known download site which has lots of ADF files, spotted one game which said HD, then searched for and found a lot more ADF files which also said HD. I have now downloaded four games from there which all seem to be installable to HD. These are Elvira, Flashback, Champions of Krynn, and Gloom Special Edition 97. Next I'll copy these to USB and try to install them onto CF card from my Gotek drive.
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Unfortunately, I couldn't install most of those HD installable games, or they didn't work after installation. Gloom Special Edition 97 crashed my A1200, Elvira wouldn't install, while Legend of Kyrandia asked for a Disk 0.
Eventually, I decided it was time to order one of the new ACA 1221 accelerator cards from Amigakit, but then I found out that the date they were due to be in stock had been changed from September 1 to 3.
This delay, the pre orders, and the fact that they only had a prototype on display at the Amiga 30th event in Peterborough made me decide to go for a 2Mb PCMCIA MELcard instead. I should receive it on Wednesday or Thursday this week, so that will solve the immediate problem with WHDload on my A1200.
My main problem now is to avoid playing with my new RAM upgrade card too much if it arrives on Wednesday, because that could prevent me getting ready in time to go for a night out.
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Unfortunately, I couldn't install most of those HD installable games, or they didn't work after installation. Gloom Special Edition 97 crashed my A1200, Elvira wouldn't install, while Legend of Kyrandia asked for a Disk 0.
Eventually, I decided it was time to order one of the new ACA 1221 accelerator cards from Amigakit, but then I found out that the date they were due to be in stock had been changed from September 1 to 3.
This delay, the pre orders, and the fact that they only had a prototype on display at the Amiga 30th event in Peterborough made me decide to go for a 2Mb PCMCIA MELcard instead. I should receive it on Wednesday or Thursday this week, so that will solve the immediate problem with WHDload on my A1200.
My main problem now is to avoid playing with my new RAM upgrade card too much if it arrives on Wednesday, because that could prevent me getting ready in time to go for a night out.
The PCMCIA card will work, but it is slow when compared with trapdoor ram. But being as though you don't have any trapdoor ram card/accelerator then I suppose it's better than nothing.
So after installing the PCMCIA card, you should have 4MB ram in total (2MB Chip, 2MB Fast). 6MB would be far more desirable, but oh well.
Another thing, when you do buy a real accelerator card then don't continue to use the PCMCIA ram card, as doing so will slow your computer down as PCMCIA ram is only 16-bit.
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The PCMCIA card will work, but it is slow when compared with trapdoor ram. But being as though you don't have any trapdoor ram card/accelerator then I suppose it's better than nothing.
So after installing the PCMCIA card, you should have 4MB ram in total (2MB Chip, 2MB Fast). 6MB would be far more desirable, but oh well.
Another thing, when you do buy a real accelerator card then don't continue to use the PCMCIA ram card, as doing so will slow your computer down as PCMCIA ram is only 16-bit.
Of course, I knew this. However, as most games were written for the A500 with Kickstart 1.3 OCS and 512K or 1Mb of 16 bit RAM why should it matter? Perhaps the loading times will just be longer. According to the eBay seller, almost all games run in 4Gb, with only about 10 games requiring 8Gb. I wish I could find a current list of which games require how much RAM. Even by using Relokick and/or NTSC with ADF images from my Gotek drive, I'm getting weird effects with the speed and pitch of the music in Defender of the Crown, while under WinUAE parts of the game, such as the opening text featuring Robin Hood and setting the scene that it's 1149AD, whizz by too fast to read them as well as the trumpet players at tournaments going at a faster speed.
Another slight problem is that the WHDload (pre installed with permission from the programmer), on the card I bought from Amigakit at the Amiga 30th event in Peterborough on 02-08-15 is V16.9, which seems to be about 2 years old, but one or two games have demanded V17 at least. This means I could ruin the whole card trying to install a later version. After that, I may have to buy a new card and do a FitzSteve type installation with ClassicWB Lite. I think I should play it safe by not trying to upgrade WHDload.
BTW, it will be very interesting to read from anyone on here when they actually receive their ACA 1221 accelerator. I don't think this will be at least until September 5, but I'll be very busy on that day. I'm expecting another delay to be announced, but I could be wrong.
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Today I have received my 2Mb MELcard. I'm going to plug it in and see what happens. I read somewhere that I need to format it first. I'll search for some instructions before trying this.
That didn't take long! It seems I may either only need to insert the card or run Prepcard, which is supplied with Workbench, to set it up as storage or RAM.
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I thought I should let you know that I plugged in the 2Mb SRAM card with the Amiga A1200 turned off as advised, turned on the A1200 and found that my card was immediately recognised as 2Mb of "other mem".
One by one, I clicked all the little square WHDload icons and nearly all of the games I'd installed worked! These included Beneath a Steel Sky, Lure of The Temptress, Elvira Mistress of The Dark, Eye of The Beholder, and K240.
As previously under WinUAE with 4Mb, games which required the Kickstart image kick40068.a1200 wouldn't work. These were Der Clou, Der Clou AGA Profi Disk, and Eye of The Beholder II. I copied this image off my Amiga Forever DVD and have even tried copying and renaming it with the extension .A1200 as well as .a1200 with the .RTB file named accordingly, but this had no effect. Perhaps the image file got corrupted when I copied it off my DVD. I'll try to reinstall it.
Games which had some problems with RAM were AlienBreed3DAGAFixed "Can't allocate ShadowMem", and Dungeon Master 2 "Can't allocate ExpMem".
Unfortunately, while testing a lot of these games, I noticed that the screen often went black for about one second or less in the middle of the games. I suppose this is due to either the new 2Mb RAM not being ChipMem/Graphics Mem or it being 16 bit instead of 32 bit.
I'll try to tear myself away from WHDload now to get ready for a night out, but I could do some more with it while I'm getting preloaded (i.e. with alcohol), which is much easier than preloading with WHDload. :laughing: