Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: New to emulation - Looking for tips  (Read 3150 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline trilobitepicturesTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2009
  • Posts: 13
    • Show all replies
New to emulation - Looking for tips
« on: May 17, 2009, 07:50:06 PM »
Hello and good afternoon (or morning or evening. Your choice. I'm easy.)

Very old Amiga fan here and I'm just now getting back into my old project out of a sense of nostalgia. I dug out my formerly-functioning 3000 only to discover what looks like catastrophic battery failure which makes the computer itself deader than disco. However the hard drive is still good and I have stacks and stacks of old project floppies and programs I'd like to go through.

So, here's the plan-- Emulate the 3000 OS on my MacBook and resurrect the now dead 3000 there by copying the contents to a CD-ROM and backing up all of my floppies to a memory stick or a second CD through the new faux-Amiga on the MacBook.

Now, the questions... Is this even possible? Users in other threads have suggested that simply taking the SCSI drive out and hooking it to a PC with SCSI capabilities to save the data from the dead 3000 on something compatible with the modern world, but will I be able to actually USE this data like I would if the 3000 still functioned? Sure the OS will be different, but will I be able to run the apps? Also, what of these stacks and stacks of floppies? Will a simple external floppy drive work if I accessed them via the emulated Amiga OS, or will I need to jump through more hoops?
 

Offline trilobitepicturesTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2009
  • Posts: 13
    • Show all replies
New to emulation - Looking for tips
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2009, 08:20:31 PM »
Quote from: RRunner;454719
I don't know about the floppies, but I had a bad HD which I managed to grab most of the files off of and restore them on my WinXP machine. I just pointed UAE at where I restored the files to and presto, I was able to boot and everything! Awesome!



What of ROMs? I have already downloaded Hi-Toro which, I'm guessing, is looking for a ROM of Kickstart. Any hints?
 

Offline trilobitepicturesTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2009
  • Posts: 13
    • Show all replies
New to emulation - Looking for tips
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2009, 08:22:18 PM »
Quote from: SamuraiCrow;454721
The floppy drive on an Amiga uses a non-standard decoder since it uses only one set of sync markers per track.  It allows reliable 11 sector-per-track usage but does not allow compatibility with PC-style floppy drives.



Crap. That doesn't sound pleasant. Shy of getting my hands on a second Amiga, filling up a HD with the contents of the floppies, then pulling the drive, then backing it up to a PC... any shorter ways?
 

Offline trilobitepicturesTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2009
  • Posts: 13
    • Show all replies
New to emulation - Looking for tips
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2009, 09:21:17 PM »
Quote from: Karlos;454728
As far as floppies go, isn't there a catweasel card for PC? Assuming you can get an amiga floppy drive as well.



I can probably use the drive from the dead 3000.

Catweasel, eh? Well, a Googling I shall go...
 

Offline trilobitepicturesTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2009
  • Posts: 13
    • Show all replies
New to emulation - Looking for tips
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2009, 02:31:38 PM »
Okay... I'm looking into what ways I have access to to get the contents of the floppies to a more modern medium and how to emulate Workbench on one of my current computers.

Now, the hard drive inside the dead 3000. That still works and has quite a bit on there that I want to save and transfer over to the new set-up. I have been told that it is a matter of taking the SCSI hard drive out and placing it into PC with a SCSI controller.

Surely, it can't be THAT simple. Won't the PC view it as unreadable?
 

Offline trilobitepicturesTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2009
  • Posts: 13
    • Show all replies
New to emulation - Looking for tips
« Reply #5 on: May 18, 2009, 06:32:18 PM »
Well, I'll be buggered. That makes sense.

Okay. Sounds like the hard part is getting a PC. Software fixes to take care of the format issues sound easy enough.

Looks like this won't be such a huge loss after all...

Thanks all around!