winuae woes....

[Kooler]

Amiga Forever still has a lot wrong with it, like the obfuscated adf images and encrypted ROM files.
It's just another example of how piracy can get you a more usable product than paying can.
Cloanto should know better.

"know better", like becoming pirates themselves?
 
The ROM files are not encrypted, they are just encoded. All Amiga emulators support that ROM encoding, because it was the way to be legal and accepted back in 1997. What do you have against that?
 
And what are "obfuscated adf images" please?

[Kooler]

WinUAE is, AF specific bits written by Cloanto are not.

What's wrong with those parts?
 

(if you own even a yellowed dead A500 you can legally download KS 1.3/2.04 and use the FREE WinUAE emulator they are charging you for)

This is an urban legend. You have to obey the law (and the license, if one came with the Amiga systems). By default, copyright laws do not allow copies unless authorized. Where does it say that you can copy the copyrighted software from one place and use it somewhere else? Even laws written to allow for backup copies do not cover such a case.

[Kooler]

This system is out in my garage. No internet...
 
I managed to get it fixed using an older copy of winuae. Apparently somewhere along the upgrade path they require sp3 or newer direct x than that machine had...
 
I hate windows.... :rant:

"No internet" is a good strategy to avoid malware. You wouldn't even need updates (if you also avoided installing new software). The problem in this case is that Microsoft dropped support for older versions of XP (without the service packs) in Visual Studio, which is the compiler used to build WinUAE and Amiga Forever. That's why new software requires SP2 or SP3. It's not the developers' choice, it is Microsoft imposing it.

[Kooler]

I can't even tell what game is what from the filenames that they assigned.

What's so difficult or "retarded" about names like "Rage (Mark Sheeky, 1994, Amiga).rp9"?
 
I find these quite easy to understand.
 

It's retarded, and so is encrypting the ROMs that can be found on google in seconds.

If you have Amiga Forever, these ROM files are right in front of you (select Open Amiga Files from the menu), with a rom.key file. They are not trying to hide them, Amiga Forever has a menu command made for accessing these files! There are even instructions:
 
http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/15-110
 
So they are giving you a command to access the ROM files, and instructions for the same, and you are claiming that they are hiding them from you?
 
Also, there is no "encryption". You can use these files in any emulator like (Win)UAE and (Win)Fellow, as long as you also copy the rom.key file. This may seem "retarded" to you, but it's what made Amiga emulation legal and accepted, and all emulators since 1997 support it.
 
And there is also a special set of ROM files for WHDLoad use in the Workbench 3.X configuration. What would you want more? Do you know what you are talking about? Because it doesn't seem like it.

[Kooler]

Are you sure you can't just disable the update module so that AForever doesn't look for updates?

Indeed:
 
Options/Check for updates on startup