Just purchased Amiga Forever... quick question

[ent0mbed]

Hello everyone.  I'm an A1200 owner and I just purchased a copy of Amiga Forever.  All of my games have been stored over the years in .DMS format.  I have these files on my PC hard drive and would like to use them on my PC with the emulation software.  Could someone give me some quick tips on how to start?  I'm fairly certain I will need to convert the .DMS format to something else?  I know a little about the WHDLoad program, but would appreciate some guidance to... at the very least, hopefully some websites that might have valuable information for teaching me.  I'm not asking for someone to spoon feed me everything, but I'm not really sure where to start looking.  Thanks for your patience... I'll try not to be a nuisance.

[ent0mbed]

Ok, so... I guess I've already learned that .DMS files are usable by the current version of WinUAE as is and I can just mount them as DF0: etc. and they show up in the AmigaOS.  Could someone confirm... something for me though... if a game is on two disks for instance and the disks are normally NDOS... is that when I would require a WHDLoad file to exist before I can use the game?  I really do appreciate your guys help and patience.  I am trying to figure this out as much as I can on my own at the same time.

[Effy]

If the dms games were originally NDOS discs then you probably can´t use them in WinUAE or Amiga4ever. If they were once normal discs then you can try to un-dms them to DF0 and other drives ...

[ent0mbed]

Thanks Effy!  I've been messing around with it for about 3 hours now and have learned quite a bit.  Sorry for jumping the gun with my questions instead of trying things first.  I've learned that I can use my .DMS archives "as is" and when I boot I can just assign each archive to a floppy drive (i.e. DF0:) and boot directly as if I had the floppy in my actual Amiga floppy drive.  It hasn't worked with every game, but I am happy to see it work with most so far.  I've tried Alien 3, Secret of Monkey Island, All New World Of Lemmings, and Zool with success.  I'm just trying to prepare for the day when my A1200 won't turn on again.  Too many good memories to lose... now I just need to start moving my thousands floppy disks onto the PC!  

[SamuraiCrow]

I'm just trying to prepare for the day when my A1200 won't turn on again. Too many good memories to lose... now I just need to start moving my thousands floppy disks onto the PC!

Good plan!  Since you'd need a Catweasel controller to get them to work on the PC or AmigaOne anyway and floppies wear out with use...

[SidVicious]

I just need to start moving my thousands floppy disks onto the PC! :)quote]

And that's the hard part! Becouse...PC floppy drives can't read Amiga floppy drives! The problem is in the hardware.
But, there's one way out. Start AExplorer on the PC and Amiga and copy all the *.ADF files that's shows in AExplorer on the PC when you have a floppy in the Amiga to the PC. But...it's damn slow! 10 floppies takes around 2 hours...if you're lucky...

[bloodline]

ent0mbed wrote:
I'm just trying to prepare for the day when my A1200 won't turn on again.

That day isn't far away, I'm afraid to say. I'm holding my breath for all my Amiga units now :-( I try to turn them on as infrequently as possible.

[4pLaY]

Tsk tsk Bloodline! they can still last for years if keept in shape then again someday it WILL die but that that isnt as close as you think.

[Holley]

@Bloodline - are we exempting military spec Amigas?  They'll outlast human beings on the planet ... thanks to their superior quality components.

Seriously though, all my Amigas still work fine; I do take care of them more than I used to though.

[leirbag28]

@ent0mbed

Dude!  Get WHDLoad!! Period!!!

Its silly to change a disk everytime you want to play a different game these days....WHDLoad gives you a Hardrive installed version of that game so you never have to do that!

unless its some sort of program or game not supported by WHDLoad.

Imagine clicking one button from the OS and loading any game you want from HD!

Thats WHDLoad..it basically makes many games that werent meant to be HD installed, Harddrive installable.

Also get JST as thats also like WHDload, but you need both!

and You can unDMS a disk from Workbench, then make it an ADF.

But Check Back2TheRoots.org and see if they already have an HD installed version first...then dont bother.just download the WHDLoad version and put it on your HD.

[Holley]

I've only found a need for WHDLoad, it rocks :-D

How many games are not supported by it? (I can't think of any)