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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: loz on November 08, 2024, 06:38:28 PM
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Hi Everyone , I am a newbie on here . A coupe of weeks ago I was searching my loft for some speakers and i came across my old A1200 and all its stuff and got nostalgic ! So i brought it down , cleaned near 30 years of muck and grime off everything . Only one disc out of the games i have still works ( sadly not disk 2 though ) but it was enough to show that both the computer and disc drive still work . I have found several sites with downloadable amiga games so ive bought a usb floppy drive ( to plug into laptop ) and some new discs . Formatting them was a bit tricky , doing it through windows didnt work - format failed , so done it through Dos - doesnt specify what file system is - presuming FAT ?? Downloaded games , unzipped into ADF files and copied onto new discs . When i put them into the Amiga it has a quick look then goes back to 'insert disc' Am i doing something wrong ? Any help or oppinions greatly appreciated , Thanks Loz
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First of all. A normal PC floppy drive can't read or write Amiga format disks. I imagine you're using HD floppy disks as well, something the Amiga most likely cannot read unless you have a rare HD floppy in your Amiga.
Second. ADF's are image files. This means you need to write them to the disk, not just copy the file for it to work.
So, a copy of the ADF file on a HD floppy will not work because of these reasons.
You have no harddrive in your 1200 I gather. That makes it a bit trickier. There is a solution to make it possible to write ADF's on a PC floppy but they do cost a bit. I'd say the easiest solution for you is to get a Gotek drive and put inside your 1200 instead of the floppy, or an external one in the external floppy port. That way you can save the ADF's to an SD card on your PC and then move it to your gotek drive and load them that way.
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Thanks for the reply ,, oh dear i wasnt expecting that , seems like a lot of bother for a bit of nostalga , looks like ive wasted 26 quid already and even the 50 floppys ive bought are useless . maybe i'll look into it , thnks again , Loz
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It is a bit of work, and some money, to get things going. Though, it's in some ways easier today since there are many alternatives to use that didn't exist 25 years ago.
If you know someone that has a fully working amiga that can write those ADF's to disk for you it's an easier, and cheaper, solution of course.
There's also the PCMCIA slot on your 1200 of course, but since I've never had a computer with one of those I have no idea what choises there is for that.
But the rabbit hole can get very deep, and expensive, if you start getting things for it.. :)
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Your best bet is just replace the internal floppy drive with a Gotek drive and buy something like a 8GB USB pen drive formatted as FAT32. Copy over the .adf files to the OneDrive and off you go…
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Yup, Gotek, or Goex
https://centuriontech.eu/product/goex_sd/
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Here are the range of Gotek drives for the Amiga:
https://www.amigakit.com/amiga-gotek-drives-c-182_28_198.html
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Thanks , Ive just had a look at the gotek drives on last post , not too expensive and can get it with the appropriate USB Flash Memory Stick . At the risk of sounding a bit dopey , does this mean i can download , unzip and drag the adf files onto the memory stick using my pc , then just stick it in the gotek drive and games will work (simples !)
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Thanks , Ive just had a look at the gotek drives on last post , not too expensive and can get it with the appropriate USB Flash Memory Stick . At the risk of sounding a bit dopey , does this mean i can download , unzip and drag the adf files onto the memory stick using my pc , then just stick it in the gotek drive and games will work (simples !)
Simple answer is yes. You just use the select buttons/dial. A lot of games rely on the drive being DF0: so why the replacing of the Floppy drive.
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There are alternatives, but it's of course another thing that cost a bit, to make it possible to use the external port as DF0:
Like this:
https://amigastore.eu/485-df0-selector.html
Personally I wouldn't want just a gotek because there are disks around and with only a gotek you can't do anything with them. If you never plan to ever use disks then just a gotek is fine of course.
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A lot of games rely on the drive being DF0:
Another term im not familiar with , what is DFO: ? I can always reconnect the disc drive should i need it , the gotek just seems the easiest way to make use of the vast amount of downloadable games available
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It's not the letter O, but the digit zero (0), i.e. D F Zero colon.
DF stands for Disk, Floppy, zero is the first one and colon always ends a device or volume name in AmigaOS.
So DF0: is the first, i.e. tyhe internal floppy drive in an Amiga. The next one, normally the first external one (unless you have a big box Amiga), will be called DF1: and so on.
Best regards,
Niels
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There are alternatives, but it's of course another thing that cost a bit, to make it possible to use the external port as DF0:
Like this:
https://amigastore.eu/485-df0-selector.html
Personally I wouldn't want just a gotek because there are disks around and with only a gotek you can't do anything with them. If you never plan to ever use disks then just a gotek is fine of course.
That will not work on the OPs A1200 😉
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That will not work on the OPs A1200 😉
You're right of course. There are probably similar solutions for the 1200.
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Thanks everyone, I just wanted to double check that the gotek option works and without problems I'm not aware of before I spend about £50
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I have just been looking at the possibility of using amiga explorer and a null modem cable and wrighting the adf files to disc on the amiga . Bit of a learning curve here , my lap top only has usb ports not 9 pin data connector , I can get usb2 to db25 connector ( calls it a printer cable ) Whats the chance of it working ? doesnt seem to be many pins in a usb . Also would the amiga be able to use the HD floppys i bought , just regard them as standard size ?
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According to the Cloanto website (https://www.amigaforever.com/kb/13-204) you can use a USB serial cable but you will then need to get a DB9 to DB25 serial adapter and all should work fine. Just make sure you get the proper orientation of connectors - Male/Female.
Regarding the floppies, yes they will work in DD (double-density = 880kb= normal) mode. Back in the day we used to buy HD floppies because were cheaper than DD floppies and they worked fine on normal Amiga floppy drives.