Amiga Forever purchase a mistake?

[Ral-Clan]

Since my real Amiga died I've started venturing into Amiga emulation for the first time ever.  My intention is to replicate on the PC, an exact copy of my dead A2000 environement (the OS, the apps, etc.) so I can continue some projects.  I mostly use the Amiga for productivity, not games.  Fortunately, I backed up my Amiga to CD-ROM shortly before it died.

I knew that I could just download UAE, as I already own the Amiga OS operating system and legal copies of the kickstarts, etc.  However, I chose to order the deluxe package of Cloanto's Amiga Forever.  This was because I had read it was a very polished package and because I wanted to support Amiga dealers for one last time.

I installed Amiga Forever, and was very impressed with the quality and speed of the emulation.  However, I'm not entirely sure it was set up with the intention of making a "productivity" Amiga.  It, along with the Amiga Player utility bundled with it, seems to be geared towards making it easy to start up ADF or DMS game images and demos, etc.  I want the full configurability of setting up a virtual hard-drive, installing all my productivity applications there, and essentially booting into what seems like my old A2000 again.  Amiga Forever seems to have a few limited, pre-set configurations (one for a 1.3 system, and another for a 3.1 system) that are great for running disk images and games, etc. but it doesn't seem it's easy to change these pre-set configurations.

Maybe I'm way off here.  I've only played with it for three days so far and am just getting things running.  But since I'm not really a games/demo user, would I be better off just installing UAE?

I do know that Amiga Forever uses UAE and Fellow as the engine for its emulation, but it seems you are using it through Cloanto's interface.

So what do people here think?  Which if more tweakable and configurable - UAE or Amiga Forever?  I

[Christian Johansson]

AF uses (Win)UAE so there shouldn't be any difference except for the preinstalled WB.

[AmiKit]

Try http://amikit.amiga.sk/

[Ilwrath]

So what do people here think? Which if more tweakable and configurable - UAE or Amiga Forever?

I don't have the latest Amiga Forever, so forgive me if something has drastically changed more recently...

But I think if you ignore the presets on Amiga Forever, you'll just be setting up WinUAE.  The Amiga Forever package just gives you some good baseline configurations.  Useful if you know nothing about Amigas, not as useful if you know what a good Amiga configuration looks like.  (ie, If you know why it's probably not a good idea to try emulating a 68000 and giving it 32 megs of RAM, you can probably safely ignore their presets and just make your own.)

[McVenco]

AmiKit wrote:
Try http://amikit.amiga.sk/

Amikit is even more useless in this situation.

@ral-clan: if you wish to have your own A2000 system (from your backup) I'd suggest using a bare WinUAE and set up all config options to your own taste. It's easier than altering the Amiga Forever package (I wouldn't say buying it was a mistake though).

[roguebeck]

 It's not a mistake. Your purchase furthered the Amiga movement.

 I use WinUAE to run a hard drive file image that I copied from my A500's side car, so I boot into the exact same Workbench that I did on the A500.

The power to do what you need is there, it just takes some tinkering.

[rednova]

Dear Friend:

I use amiga forever.Is good enough to run aladdin 4d in emulation...at amazingly fast speed, to make nice 3d animations. So, I would say, amiga forever is worth good and not a mistake. I can even run amos pro on amiga forever, and code for amiga.
Cheers!!!

rednova
-mobilis in mobile-

[T3000]

Just within the past few weeks started dinking around with the config settings and installing the applications with Amiga Forever 2006. I too want an exact duplicate, or as close to it as possible of my A3000 '040 environment running on my xpwinbox. (I actually quite like my HP a1250n AMD Athlon 3800+ 64 X2 WindowsXP) So far Im quite impressed with AF. The games don't really thrill me either, have more problems getting games to run although it is quite cool to see them running, than graphics programs and such. S.O.L. on the card based products, i.e. VT/Flyer, AD516, PAR, and video in grenral. Luckily most my Amiga hardware is still functioning.

Don't know why I didn't get AF years ago. Worth the effort.
and not a mistake.

[quarkx]

I bought AF thinking I would use it until I got a real Amiga. Then I got my A2000, and thought that was it until I found out about Amiga Explorer. Now I can easily download files and transfer them right to the Amiga's floppy drive. That alone (to me) was worth the price of the deluxe package. The DVD's also were very cool to watch all the video included. I would say AF has something for everybody, It is not just "Another Emulator".It has so much stuff in it that I have not even begun to scratch the surface of what it has. For the price (what $49.95 for the premium) is a small price to pay for what you get- and it's supporting the community.

[AmiKit]

@McVenco

Amikit is even more useless in this situation.

I don't agree as he said that "I'm not really a games/demo user" and "I mostly use the Amiga for productivity, not games".
If nothing more he can at least check how the things (and WinUAE) are configured in AmiKit.

[McVenco]

AmiKit wrote:
@McVenco

Amikit is even more useless in this situation.

I don't agree as he said that "I'm not really a games/demo user" and "I mostly use the Amiga for productivity, not games".

If nothing more he can at least check how the things (and WinUAE) are configured in AmiKit.

I *do* agree that Amikit is aimed at productivity (and very well done so), but as I presumed the topic starter more or less wants his own A2000 config back, then I suggest just using WinUAE. Amikit might just be far too expanded to his taste (but that's up to him :-))

If it weren't for DOpus 5, Amikit just might be the best Amiga software package ever. My God, how that program sucks.... :nervous:  :egad:

[AmiKit]

@MrVenco

If it weren't for DOpus 5, Amikit just might be the best Amiga software package ever. My God, how that program sucks....

Did you know you can turn off the DOpus5 easily and switch to good old Workbench? Simply use the MorpheuZ tool and turn AmiKit to "the best Amiga software package ever". :-)

[McVenco]

AmiKit wrote:

Did you know you can turn off the DOpus5 easily and switch to good old Workbench? Simply use the MorpheuZ tool and turn AmiKit to "the best Amiga software package ever". :-)

Yep, I know :-)
It's just the idea of having DOpus 5 around that makes my skin crawl... :lol:

[jmbattle]

Definitely not a mistake.

AF is undoubtedly the best commercial Amiga emulation package available, and is money well spent in my opinion.

Cheers,
James
x

[Ral-Clan]

Maybe I am just missing it (I can't find documentation to explain how to do this in Amiga Forever).  But I basically want to set up a new virtual hard drive and configure WinUAE to run as my A2000 did (040, 32MB RAM, ECS, graphics card, etc).  However, although Amiga Forever allows you to get to the UAE config window, I doesn't seem to allow me to "save" any of the changes I make.  i.e. if I set the UAE settings within Amiga Forever to run as an 040 machine, specify the MIDI and Parallel port outputs, joystick settings etc. they are all "lost" at the end of the session.

Also, it doesn't seem possible to add another "SYSTEM" (of my own configuration) to the SYSTEM list in the Amiga Forever "Player".

Is it possible to add my own .dms game images to the "Games" list in the Amiga Player?  When I start these .dms images up, they are listed temporarily in the "games" list until I close Amiga Forever, then the next time they are not there.

That's part of the reason I get the impression that Amiga Forever is not meant to be set up as a custom configuration, but rather just a platform for instantly starting Amiga games and demos from disk images with a single click.  I get the impression that the designers want you to use their two Amiga setups (the 1.3 version and the 3.1 version).