winuae woes....

[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

[desiv]

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

OK, finally tried AmigaForever...
First, I'm not sure what your looking at...
In the folder with the game files, I see the game names in the filenames.
They look like:
Cyberblast (Innerprise Software, 1992, Amiga).rp9
(I retyped that, so I'm not saying there's no typos!!)

I can easily tell what the game is based on those names.
(Older version didn't do that or )

Secondly, I'm impressed so far..
Not sure what I was expecting, but this appears to be a very nicely put together package from my few tests...
(Yes, it's based on a lot of Toni's work.  Not arguing.  Just talking about the AmigaForever specific bits.)
For the beginner/newbie, this looks really great (as I always thought it would be).

For the more advanced user, the configs seem to be fairly easily accessible and cover most options needed..
Again, only a brief look so far, but it's a nice looking package.
I really like the addition of AmiKit and AmigaSys (And AROS).  I haven't looked at those yet...  (Classic WB would be nice as well.  That's what I use on my Amiga 1200.)

I love the docs and VIDs being included.
Decent selection of games to start, some more popular ones included.

What would be awesome (not sure why I'm saying this now, other than it just popped into my head) would be an "app store" (tm) type of feature.
So, someone wants to sell an Amiga game (I know, but you never know.)
Say Babylonian Twins wanted to do that.
So, you have an "add" function, and there's a list of more available.  Some free, some not.  So you can select Babylonion Twins for $5.  Paypal checkout, and it DLs to your system.  (And for those that want to, they can export the ADF for their real Amigas...)

Just thinking out loud, but this looks to be a nice place to do that..
Maybe not..

Wish I had more time to play with it.  Hopefully this weekend..

desiv

[smerf]

Hi,

@desiv,

If you have a CD or a harddrive that you keep your adf files on, you can just click on a game and it will start up and run off that drive. Another cool thing is if you have a game that you like playing like Elvira (5 disks) AF see's it and loads it in on a 4 drive set up. It then asks you to eject a disk and insert disk 5 on the 5th one, sometimes it does all 5 but I haven't figured out why. (I do come to amiga.org you know, so I really aren't that smart).

smerf

[Iggy]

Cloanto must want some of us more vocal posters to give their product a whirl (since they gave me a free copy a few days ago).
I will say this, Amiga Forever has drastically improved since the last time I looked at it.
As long as you don't need any legacy hardware add-ons (like a Video Toaster), this package rocks!

So far, its worked with virtually everything I've thrown at it.
And the performance on my quad core PC is startling.

If running legacy software is your primary mission, then this package has an edge over running Amiga titles under an NG OS.

[kedawa]

I can easily tell what the game is based on those names.
(Older version didn't do that or )

Apparently.  I think the last version I tried was 2008.
After that, I just went with generic winuae and never looked back.

[haywirepc]

New woes...

How do i rename the kickstart roms or whatever so whdload works? I am either missing some, or as I recall, some of them need to be renamed or copied.

Also, I left for 7 hours and left the os3.x screen up. There's no screen saver built in. Blanker as I recall just blanks. whats a good screen saver I can use instead?

Steven

[Iggy]

New woes...

How do i rename the kickstart roms or whatever so whdload works? I am either missing some, or as I recall, some of them need to be renamed or copied.

Also, I left for 7 hours and left the os3.x screen up. There's no screen saver built in. Blanker as I recall just blanks. whats a good screen saver I can use instead?

Steven

Why doesn't your PC screen saver kick in Steven?

BTW - I didn't notice before how close you are.

When I attend rock concerts I usually go to Philly.

[mcb]

How do i rename the kickstart roms or whatever so whdload works? I am either missing some, or as I recall, some of them need to be renamed or copied.

You don't need to, as WHDLoad-ready ROM and RTB files are included:

http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/15-120

Mike

[haywirepc]

Don't these have to be copied into the os3.x install somewhere?

Iggy, Yes I'm in Philadelphia, right near center city...

Steven

[mcb]

Don't these have to be copied into the os3.x install somewhere?

They are preinstalled already (and so is WHDLoad), so there is no need to copy or rename. You can see the article linked to a few posts back for more details.

It would be kinda cool for them to add MorphOS, but i guess that is a paid OS

Paid or not paid, PowerPC or another CPU isn't really the issue. If the OS publisher/developer is open to distribution in Amiga Forever, and if there is an emulation engine that can be supported (e.g. PearPC), then anything is possible. Apple's Rosetta software demonstrated in 2006 that good PowerPC emulation on x86 is feasible. In the meantime Moore's law keeps working on the side of emulation. The RetroPlatform framework as used in Amiga Forever was written from the grounds up to interface with different emulation components, so having a 68K part and a PowerPC one is possible (although a hybrid might be more desirable).

The main limit I see is the small market. That's why our resources are so limited, and every customer, every word of support or piece of feedback, and even the occasional "sucks" post, can all make a big difference.

Another cool thing is if you have a game that you like playing like Elvira (5 disks) AF see's it and loads it in on a 4 drive set up. It then asks you to eject a disk and insert disk 5 on the 5th one, sometimes it does all 5 but I haven't figured out why. (I do come to amiga.org you know, so I really aren't that smart).

I am not sure about this. Given the Amiga limit of four floppy drives, I don't see how Amiga Forever could insert five disks at the same time. However, it could have used a hard disk to boot, while also using four non-bootable floppy disks in the respective drives. In any case, if the five (or more) disks are listed in the Media tab of the game's configuration (right-click the title and select Edit), then the disk images will be listed for easy insertion in the floppy drive menu (in the playback window).

Cloanto must want some of us more vocal posters to give their product a whirl (since they gave me a free copy a few days ago).

Yes, to the risk of encouraging more "Amiga Forever sucks" threads, I sent download links to some amiga.org friends who posted in this one thread. Feedback from actual users, especially highly proficient (and often critical) ones as seen here, is always welcome. The problem is when a "sucks" thread has little foundation in actual facts. That only hurts.

I believe that questions from previous posts have now been answered. If not, feel free to follow up, or to provide feedback. We've been working on this project for many years, and improving it is still a full-time job.

Mike

[haywirepc]

Oh I'm using the older version I think amiga forever 2009. I loaded a big whdload games collection. It keeps asking for different roms on some attempts to load games...

Maybe I can copy the folder from the 2012 install to my older xp install?

Steven

[haywirepc]

Also are there some usb joysticks that work well with aforever out of the box besides the competition pro usb?

I have an retroinc nes controller and I'm having a hard time getting the second button to work for some reason.

I used to have a competition pro usb (it broke and I tossed it), that worked with aforever right out of the box with both buttons. I suppose I should order another one?

Having a good time anyway with my new emulation station... But I'd have more fun if all the games loaded and the joystick worked for 2 button games.

Steven

[Lurch]

Got to try the latest thanks to MCB/Mike. Very good package all built around WinUAE really tightly.
Systems all listed and configured i.e. A500, Amikit etc.
I'm very impressed, stuck some photos in my gallery on here :-)

[Lurch]

Oh I'm using the older version I think amiga forever 2009. I loaded a big whdload games collection. It keeps asking for different roms on some attempts to load games...

Maybe I can copy the folder from the 2012 install to my older xp install?

Steven

The ROMS are all there it's just looking for a certain name. Happens with any WHDload game even on a real amiga.

Just need to copy the ROM into DHO : Devs/Kickstarts

Then name the ROM the same as the RTB file in that location
So for the Amiga 500 kick 1.2 you would name the ROM file kick33180.a500

Having said that haven't had that issue with Amiga Forever. Just worked straight out of the box, even my copy of 2009 :-)

[mcb]

Maybe I can copy the folder from the 2012 install to my older xp install?

After installation the WHDLoad ROMs are inside Amiga Files/Shared/dir/System/Devs/kickstarts. You can select Open Amiga Files from the Tools menu to access Amiga Files, which is inside your Documents on Windows.

As there are big differences in general usability and for power users between the 2012 version and any previous version, I'd encourage you to try and upgrade the existing installation (now that you have the links to the stand-alone SP3 and DirectX downloads). Just make a backup of the existing Amiga Files, in case you modified the default configurations.

I have to admit that I too started using Amiga Forever much more with the 2012 version. Before, complex configurations could only managed by using .uae files. But now I find it better with the Editor, which writes the changes as XML data into the RP9 manifest. It is easier, highly editable, and it takes into account portability and long-term stability.

Also are there some usb joysticks that work well with aforever out of the box besides the competition pro usb?

Any Windows-compatible joystick should work. What is the second button supposed to do (it's not autofire, is it?), and can you tell me one game where it doesn't work (and what it should do)?

Mike