This is half an hardware issue and half a software question.
Here it is:
Let's say I've got a bare, unexpanded A500.
I want to run a demo (or whatever) on it, which is freely available for downloading, in the usual .mdf or .lha form.
So, I can download it on my pc hard drive, and...?
How can I create a floppy, possibly bootable, to feed to the Amiga 500?
Is WinUAE of any help?
thanks in advance
This comes up quite a bit and I realize the poster has since opted for an A1200. Not a bad path for a serious Amigan.
Here's another option, expand your unexpanded A500, at least moderately. As has already been said, add the 512K trap door ram expansion. Now you have the standard A500 for which most software was written.
Next step, add some FAST ram (like a Supra 500RX, it can take up to 8 Megs). With just 2 additional Megs of fast ram, the character and abilities of a lowly A500 changes dramatically. You can unLHA software to the Ram Disk and run it from there to try it out, without ever having to write to precious and rare 880K floppies. Serial cables and the required software to connect to your internet equipped PC are far more usable now. You will no longer need to use floppies as intermediate storage. A RAD: is now possible.
Take it to 4 Megs or more of Fast Ram and a RAD: becomes even more desirable. You could boot with 2 or more disks worth of all your favorite utils (unLHA, Amiga Explorer, Dopus, etc) and move it all to RAD. Now everything executes almost instantly and will survive a soft reset. Your Amiga can start to have a life separate from an internet connection!
Add a hard drive (even a small one, Amiga software is tight) in a side car, and your Amiga world opens even wider. Usually, these have some fast ram, too.
If you want to play an occasional game that doesn't like expansion, flip the disable switch.
In this day, with so much cheap hardware on eBay and elsewhere, there should not be that many unexpanded Amigas.
My 2 cents.
