Amiga Floppy Emulators

[mistermsk]

Hi All,

 I am recently getting back into Amiga. I been back into the Commodore 64 community for awhile now and have a way of using a SD card instead of a floppy drive to load games, etc... . Since I am getting back into the Amiga and viewing difference sites I've seen a couple SD card reads now for it. One was the HxC Floppy Emulator and the other was the Mega Drive (Mark II).

Are there any more then these two and is one better then the other? I know on the C64 that some 'protected' disks or ones made for specific equipment (i.e.: 1541) did not work. Do these have the same problem? Also, are they still being produced (and in the case of the Mega Drive is it produced at all to where the pubic can buy it)?

Thanks,
MisterMsk

[alexh]

Megadrive never went on sale. Never did any protected formats at all.

HxC emulator is very expensive at approx £60. AFAIK the USB version can do almost any protected disks as the decoder runs on the host PC. Standalone SD one has limited support for IPF & Extended ADF.

Which Amiga have you got? The cheapest alternative for an A1200 is to fit an old lap-top 2.5" PATA HDD and use software to "emulate floppy drive". http://www.WHDload.de

[amigaksi]

Hi All,

 I am recently getting back into Amiga. I been back into the Commodore 64 community for awhile now and have a way of using a SD card instead of a floppy drive to load games, etc... . Since I am getting back into the Amiga and viewing difference sites I've seen a couple SD card reads now for it. One was the HxC Floppy Emulator and the other was the Mega Drive (Mark II).

Are there any more then these two and is one better then the other? I know on the C64 that some 'protected' disks or ones made for specific equipment (i.e.: 1541) did not work. Do these have the same problem? Also, are they still being produced (and in the case of the Mega Drive is it produced at all to where the pubic can buy it)?

Thanks,
MisterMsk

If you have a laptop with a fast parallel port, you can simulate the floppy drive with this item here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320555594678

It's read-only ADFs or MFM files but I don't know too many boot disks that write to original disk except for some high scores.

[XDelusion]

I picked this up:

http://www.mmj.pl/~lotharek/atari/www/hcx.html

It was cheap and works great!

[BooBoo1200]

Megadrive never went on sale. Never did any protected formats at all.

HxC emulator is very expensive at approx £60. AFAIK the USB version can do almost any protected disks as the decoder runs on the host PC. Standalone SD one has limited support for IPF & Extended ADF.

I think there have been a few Megadrive floppy emulators sold

- Not native ADF support (have to convert every ADF to HFE through software)

Is this true you cant just download some ADFs on a SD and use them?

Even so I think its still a great bit of kit and when I read people say it doesnt mount very well into the case -Who cares!

[mistermsk]

Which Amiga have you got?]

Hopefully, a 2000 if all goes well. I also have a 1000, but I know not to much is made for it (including games) since I use to own one back in the day. I remember everything needing ECS so I had to buy a 2500. Anyway, what I am looking for is a stand-a-lone floppy emulator for the 2000 with a SD or Compact Flash Card support. Really don't want to have to buy a PC as well. I like the on screen menus. But, compatibility is an issue as well.

[alexh]

If you don't already have one I think you'd be better spending your money on a second hand GVP HC8+ SCSI controller with 8Mbytes of RAM and a SCSI hard drive.

Should be able to get one for $50.

You could install WHDload and all the games onto the hard drive and have improved loading times and no messing about with converting floppy disk images or SD cards etc.

You'll struggle to do anything without access to a PC or a MAC. How are you going to transfer any files from the internet? Surely you've got access to one.

[alexh]

when I read people say it doesnt mount very well into the case -Who cares!

I do. A little thought and it would (and still could) fit as the replacement for any floppy drive.

The creator has listened though and has made some significant steps forward, especially on the Atari ST platform which no-longer needs the LCD screen. (Disk selection is done using the ST)

[BooBoo1200]

Fine I agree that a menu like on the ST would be VERY nice but to whinge about its apperance is a joke to me, considering what a great bit of technical kit it is
some people just seem to find fault with anything.



Anyways not to get distracted can anyone answear this

- Not native ADF support (have to convert every ADF to HFE through software)

If this is true and ADFs cant be used directly?-More Info Please?

[mistermsk]

You'll struggle to do anything without access to a PC or a MAC. How are you going to transfer any files from the internet? Surely you've got access to one.

I have a PC but that is in another room for the family. I am just looking for something to be out of the box solution, just like the Commodore 64 has. The Mega Drive looks the best but if you can not buy it, I might get the HxD Floppy Emulator with a SD Card. I just tested converting some of the ADF files I have and the convert works (but makes the files huge). So, I might just have to be choosy.

Thank you all for your help.

[som99]

If I where you I would put 8MB Fast RAM in a zorro II expansion then a total of 2MB chip and you should be set, that should be enough to run WHDLoad without much trouble

[amigaksi]

Fine I agree that a menu like on the ST would be VERY nice but to whinge about its apperance is a joke to me, considering what a great bit of technical kit it is
some people just seem to find fault with anything.



Anyways not to get distracted can anyone answear this



If this is true and ADFs cant be used directly?-More Info Please?

In the software version, I also convert all ADFs to MFM data which is the raw bits that the Amiga floppy port is expecting through the DKRD line.  It's >2X size of ADF because of sync information and redundancies/headers/checksums.  I do it on the fly from ADF->MFM so input file is always ADF.

[mistermsk]

If I where you I would put 8MB Fast RAM in a zorro II expansion then a total of 2MB chip and you should be set, that should be enough to run WHDLoad without much trouble

Is there an auto-load program so I can have it boot so I can select a game to load? I really don't want to go through clicking and opening folders to get to a game. The SD Floppy Emulator makes it so I don't have to deal with the workbench area.

[som99]

Is there an auto-load program so I can have it boot so I can select a game to load? I really don't want to go through clicking and opening folders to get to a game. The SD Floppy Emulator makes it so I don't have to deal with the workbench area.

You could allways use Green Alien Amiga version as it has GamesMenu to get a full menu of your WHDLoad games in WB, tho you will need kickstart 2.x roms for it.

If you do not want WB to load at all you could allways edit the startup-sequence and clear it and add:
assign ENV: RAM
assign DEVS:
cd hd0:"your game folder"
c:whdload slave: PRELOAD

im a bit rusty but i can try it out on my 600 when I get home from work, but its something like that to get it to load games without WB startup.

Then you got yourself a A2000 that boots games at startup, but remember you will need atleast 6-8MB of ram for many games to load from memory, but you can allways try to start multidisk games without Preload, works like a charm on my 600 with 2MB fastram and 2MB chip.

[mistermsk]

Actually, it appears the Hard Drive solution is going to be more so I'll just get the  HxD.

The Amiga I am, hopefully, going to get will not have a hard drive and I don't think it would have a floppy. If I just get the HxD SD Card Reader solution I'll think it will be cheaper and work for what I want to do, which is just to play games and nothing more.