New to Whdload what's The crack?

[AmigaBruno]

I'm very sorry to have to say that I haven't been able to work out how to install WHDload and now I'm not sure I even remember how I was trying to do it. I bought a blank CF card and an IDE adaptor. I watched tutorial videos by the YouTube user retrosofer, then I inserted the CF card into a CF card to USB adaptor and tried to install the files from my laptop onto the card under Linux and/or Windows. I put the files in the root directory of my Windows partition and just couldn't manage to install them. I remember that the WHDload files had to be in the C: root directory under Windows. I couldn't understand what I was doing wrong.

Since then, I've only installed a few games and the BetterWB pack, which were all in .ADF format, onto my CF card hard drive. I've only worked out how to copy and install software which is on floppy disk, usually created with a .ADF transfer program. If only WHDload was available as a set of .ADF files then I could install it.

Can anyone explain to me simply and clearly how to install WHDload onto my CF card, or even onto a new blank CF card?

Alternatively, can anyone point out where I can still get a pre prepared CF card which already has WHDload, as well as lots of games and demos already installed onto it?

[AmigaBruno]

ebay, but that would be illegal in most western countries.

Unfortunately, it's not clear from the eBay listings nowadays which of these cards have any games or demos installed.

[AmigaBruno]

At first I would be tempted to say "that's because of all the people crying about 'piracy' they changed their descriptions", then I went to ebay and typed in "amiga cf" and found 14 listings right off the bat for CF cards loaded with WHDLoad games.  Search harder.

WHDLoad is a godsend, I can't imagine how or why people would want to use things like floppy disks or HxC readers/.adf files, when you can have a nice directory full of games that load easily just by clicking on their icon, and have a clean exit key to put you right back to Workbench when you're finished playing.  As much as I loved the '80s I don't have time to wait around for games to load anymore, too old for that, LOL.  

Various sellers say that the cards have WHDload, but don't say whether or not they have any games or demos pre installed. Of course, I've totally failed to install WHDload, so I could probably install the games and demos onto the CF card if WHDload was already installed, but it would take several hours or even a few days to install all the games and demos one of these cards may contain.

[AmigaBruno]

Search harder. It's seriously right in the listing description, dude. If this was a technical item I'd be glad to send you a link, but you don't need that. Just put in "amiga cf", and look at descriptions like:
 
- Amiga A1200 4GB CF hdd AGA whd 2014 Edition
- Amiga 1200 4 GB CF Hard drive whdload
- Amiga 600 4GB Games & Demos Hard Disk Drive A600 CF HDD for Amiga 600
- Amiga 1200 8 GB CF Hard drive whdload 2014 Edition AGA + Demos
- Amiga A600 4gb cf HD Whdload 2014 Edition
 
Those are all active listings on ebay right now.  Or you could just download WHDLoad and put the files in C:.

I've already sent one seller a message, explaining that I couldn't install WHDload, but that I don't represent eBay or any software houses. The seller admitted that it contained WHDload and games, but no demos. That's who I'll buy it from in the near future. It seems I have to waste some money by buying it complete with IDE adaptor, though.

Unfortunately, I can't work out how to install WHDload. I asked for a simple and clear explanation. You said "you could just download WHDload and put the files in C:." Does that mean I just transfer the WHDload files over to the C directory on the CF card? I think I confused this with the C: Windows directory. If so, what's the list of files I need? The YouTube videos by retrosofer have left me confused. He even seems to say that somehow you can replace the ROM already fitted on your real Amiga with another ROM image, which is probably Kickstart 1.3 to run most games, or even the CD32 ROM. Is this something WHDload can do?

[AmigaBruno]

AmigaBruno: This is the video that I was talking about

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd42RsKHm5Y

Most of the lists has info about the fact that they have games; just need patience to read them.

Searched right now and found 4 of them. BTW if you have already the IDE CF reader, just avoid to waste time with ebay and get a Sandisk CF from any shop around you; less hassle.

I've seen that video before, but it didn't help. I'll watch it all again later. I must repeat that I can't work out how to install WHDload! I'm also in danger of deleting my artwork which is saved onto my current CF card, because I couldn't find a way to copy it off there. I can only copy it onto Amiga formatted disks. I'd like to transfer it onto another device. I recently failed to find a way of formatting a disk to MS-DOS DD format on Workbench 3.1 with BetterWB, because I've forgotten how I used to do this years ago. I could only do it on an old PC from 2000 after I plug it all in.

[AmigaBruno]

What are you using? UAE or real hardware and when which model? You can integrate original roms in whdload but I do not think you could run AGA games on real hardware without AGA.

I'm using the CF card on an Amiga A1200. I wonder if I could use a Kickstart 1.3 image on this setup to run games off the CF card which require Kickstart 1.3 or even 1.2. I can't run "Balance of Power" 1990 edition on the A1200, for example. Perhaps I'd need a fixed version or some different degrader software.

[AmigaBruno]

I do not understand. Where are the WHDLoad games? on the CF-Card?

I'll repeat again. I can't work out how to install WHDload!

From the statement above, you should realise that I haven't got any games installed under WHDload. The only games installed onto the CF card in my Amiga A1200 are games copied from floppy onto the CF card which are compatible with installation onto a hard drive. There are no games on it which were designed to run ONLY from floppy.

[AmigaBruno]

That should be possible. You need original roms (either grabkick from original hardware or get them from Amigaforever)

Manual in german:
http://www.whdload.de/docs/de/need.html

Basically copying the ROMs in Devs:kickstarts and renaming them.
For example A500 ROM would be Devs:Kickstarts/kick33180.A500

And as far as I can remember you do not need a complex installation, just copy the directories on a original AmigaOS install f.e. "C" in Sys:C

OK, I'll read that manual. Luckily, I do speak German. BTW, the abbreviation is e.g. for the Latin "exempli gratia", meaning for example, not f.e.

[AmigaBruno]

Did you read the manual? Did you read all the posts on this thread? Did you spend any time googling to find the answer? Because it's all over the web, in forum posts, youtube videos, etc.
 
I'll try one more time.
 
To install WHDLoad download the archive WHDLoad_usr_small.lha from here:
 
http://whdload.de/
 
Use your favorite file manager (DirWork, Directory Opus, etc.) or LHA to unpack the archive. I typically extract archives into RAM: on my Amiga.
 
Double-click on the icon for "Install".
 
Alternatively you can manually copy the files. Copy the contents of WHDLoad/C into the SYS:C directory on your Amiga. There are five files, but really you only need four of them: DIC, Patcher, RawDIC, and the main WHDLoad executable itself. Copy all of these files into C: on your Amiga.
 
Any games that you install should point to the main executable, C:WHDLoad.
 
Next, if you've chosen not to use the installer script, manually copy the contents of WHDLoad/S into your SYS:S directory (the same directory where your Startup-Sequence and other startup files reside). There are three files: WHDLoad.prefs, WHDLoad-Cleanup, and WHDLoad-Startup. Copy all three of those files into the S: directory on your Amiga.
 
Last, you can copy the contents of WHDLoad/Docs where ever you choose. I usually stick them in the Trashcan. Just so they'll be around if for some odd reason I ever need them, but I consult the docs so infrequently it's not worth it to me to have a separate directory for them.
 
That's it. There's only three directories in the WHDLoad archive. Use the installer script or copy the files manually. The advantage of the installer script is that it will check for older versions and prompt you before over-writing them.
 
Your last, and very last part of the install, is if you want to install any additional Kickstart ROM's, such as 1.3. These are only required for some very picky games, but will ensure a greater level of compatibility. As already mentioned above, those would typically go in the directory Devs:Kickstarts/, or SYS: Devs/Kickstarts/. The Kickstart images aren't included in WHDLoad (copyright, blah blah blah), but I didn't have any reservations downloading them from The Pirate Bay website, since I already own many legal ROM's and this is easier than extracting the image from one yourself.
 
That's it, now just download some games and play! Remember, check the icon properties to make sure it's pointed to C:WHDLoad, and all you'll need to do is click on the icon to load the game.
 
I seriously don't know how to make this any easier for you, it's only seven files that need to be copied into two directories. Someday you'll look back on this and laugh about how much trouble you were having with something so easy. Good luck! :juggler:

There are a few things that could go wrong, which I still don't understand. I'm afraid you've assumed that I would download it in the same way as you. I think I should download it onto my laptop running Windows or Linux. My real Amiga A1200 isn't upgraded to connect to the Internet. This may not be what you advise. Instead of this, I could download it onto a desktop PC with a serial port and a transfer cable connecting it to my Amiga A1200. After this, I could use a Linux based or even a Windows based utility to unarchive the WHDload files. I think I should remove my CF card from my Amiga and plug it into my laptop using a CF card USB reader. I should probably prepare a new blank CF card, in case I lose my data. I think that to get the laptop to read the CF card I have to use WinUAE, or under Linux UAE, or E-UAE. All of these are installed. I then have to mount the WHDload directory on my laptop's hard drive, so that it can transfer the WHDload files to my Amiga CF card. After solving these issues, I should be able to install it, either under WinUAE, UAE, E-UAE, or on my real Amiga A1200.

I hope you can advise me on the issues above.

[AmigaBruno]

Why would you use a Windows-based utility to unarchive the WHDLoad files? WinUAE, Linux UAE, E-UAE... it seems like you have every tool available at your disposal except the ones you actually need. Just get WHDLoad_usr_small.lha onto your Amiga. It doesn't need to be connected to the Internet. Copy it to a floppy disk. Burn it to a CD. Transfer it via a serial cable. Put it on a FAT95 formatted SD card. Something. You are making this much harder than it needs to be. WHDLoad_usr_small.lha *IS* WHDLoad. Once you get this file onto your Amiga, through whatever means you have to transfer files, all you need to do is use LHA to unarchive it to ram: and click on the Install icon.
 
If you do not have any method of transferring files between PC and Amiga, I would suggest you research that first before worrying about installing any games.

Alternatively I suppose you could use WinRAR to extract the individual files from the .lha archive on a PC (if your Amiga doesn't have LHA)... don't know what you'd do with them after that though, maybe force them onto your Amiga-formatted CF card through some kludge-work with UAE?  Dunno, good luck with that.
 

It seems like the main problem is that my Amiga A1200, laptop, and desktop PC don't have any kind of media they can both use, apart from CF cards. I bought a compatible CD drive for my Amiga A1200, but so far haven't managed to fit it. The instructions seem very complicated and I also need to buy an adaptor, but if I bought it, then I doubt if I could fit it to my A1200. My old desktop PC bought in 2000 has a floppy disk drive, but it's difficult to boot up at all anymore and for some strange reason, to get past the login Windows XP login prompt I had to use USB to PS/2 adaptors, because it seems its USB ports are no longer working. Another solution would be to convert the WHDload files into ADF files, because I can transfer these onto Amiga formatted floppy disks, then I could copy the files from the A1200 floppy drive directly onto its CF hard drive. I'm not sure how to do this, or if any of the files is more than 880K. Why didn't the developers of WHDload make it available in this format? This is just to copy the files onto the CF card, not to do anything else with them. The only problem is how to get these files onto the CF card.

[AmigaBruno]

Thank god they didn't. LHA is a standard Amiga archive format that's been used for decades. It's like .zip on the PC. You don't see PC users exchanging files by sending floppy disk images, do you? :biglaugh:
 
It shouldn't be too hard for someone to download the WHDLoad archive, write it to a floppy disk, then read that disk back as an 880KB adf. Should even be do-able with any of the versions of UAE.
 
However knowing you're having this much trouble just getting WHDLoad installed, what makes you think you're not going to have even more trouble when it comes to installing games? First priority should be working out an easy file transfer solution. A1200 has IDE, any cheap IDE CD drive will work on it, you can either get a buffered interface such as the Elbox 4xEIDE or even a long ribbon cable pulled outside the case (and a separate power supply) would work. :p
 
Alternatively get a PCMCIA-to-CF adapter plugged into the side of your A1200 and format a CF with FAT95. then you can keep your main CF hard drive plugged in internally, and when you want to transfer files from the PC to Amiga just eject your CF from the side of the Amiga, plug it in to your PC, copy the files onto it, and plug it in to your Amiga to read them back. Cake.
 
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=194
 
http://www.amazon.com/PCMCIA-Compact-Flash-Type-Adapter/dp/B0014C4UW2 (PCMCIA to CF adapter.  I'd get the one from Mechware but his site seems to be down at the moment)
 
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=438
 
I can't find a good link for it, but if you really want to go cheap, get a cable like this:
 
2.5 -> 2.5 -----> 3.5
 
A couple inches between the first ports, and about 12-18" between the second ports. Plug one end of the 2.5" into your motherboard IDE. Plug your CF adapter or whatever you have (I'm assuming it's 2.5") into one end, set as Master. Run the long end of the cable outside the edge of your case and plug into IDE CD drive and set as Slave. A cable like this can be made for <$10.
 
A better solution would be something like the Squirrel SCSI, an internal slim CD, etc.... there are sooo many ways of fitting a CD drive to an A1200, LOL.

Good news. I've made some progress! Of course, I know that lha is a standard Amiga archiver, which I first used in 1990. In those days I was downloading directly onto Amiga floppies from a dialup modem connected to BBS systems. The problem now is that my Amiga doesn't have a dialup modem and there are hardly any BBSs anymore.

I've just checked and found out that the smallest WHDload archive seems to be less than 880K, so I downloaded it. I unarchived it using Peazip for Windows, which even handles Apple DMG image files. The end result is probably larger than 880K, but I remember that I could add a directory to WinUAE. I clicked on "Hard drives", followed by "Add directory or archive". I booted up from an ADF image of an old Amiga Format magazine coverdisk and found that an icon for WHDload appeared on my Workbench screen! I clicked on it and was able to see some unarchived files. If I can add this unarchived directory, then I should be able to add the original lha archive as well. If I do this while my CF card is plugged in and has been added or mounted under WinUAE, then I should be able to copy it across. I plan to get a PCMCIA to CF adapter as well. At the end of the day, I'm looking for a solution that doesn't cost more than a CF card with all these games already installed.

I've recently been using Amiga Forever, but the results aren't as good as a real Amiga, especially when it comes to music. I turned down the screen resolution, ended some tasks and also tried playing without it being it full screen mode, but it just doesn't compare to a real Amiga. The files are all in a custom format and I can't see a way of converting them to ADF format.

There may be sooo many ways of fitting a CD ROM drive to an Amiga A1200, but I'm not as good at it as you and some other people. I can't make custom cables either. The good news is that I've recently attended events where I saw my laptop being dismantled, I even partly dismantled it myself, a fault was diagnosed, a USB socket was desoldered, then a replacement I'd bought was fitted. The bad news is that the replacement part wasn't identical and it doesn't work! I hope to use the knowledge I've gained to repair it myself after I buy another soldering iron, because I haven't soldered anything for years! After this, I think I'll try and solder a lot more things.