Amiga puzzle - disconnected worlds! help?

[RedWarrior]

Hey guys -
Amazed and relieved this site still exists! So, for some strange reason I've decided to dust off my hardware and would like to try and get some things working- gaming & music making on the Amiga is something very different & I'd like to revisit that. My main issue centres around getting data/programs etc onto my Amigas in a usable way. I have a host of hardware, and most of it can't communicate to another machine or any part of the digital universe, because of old-school floppy drives.

My hardware: several Amiga 1200 machines with Hard drives, one with CF PCMCIA readability, 1 Amiga 500, and 1 Amiga 600 with CF compatibility.

I'd really love to play some of my old Amiga 500 games, but most of the floppy disks are toast now... and the floppy drive is hardly a reliable way to do anything these days. I've heard legends of being able to 'downgrade' an Amiga 1200 to run the Kickstart 1.3, but no idea how practical this is.
Most WHDLoad tutorials don't make mention of non-dos games... how does this work? (and how do you change disks mid-game?)

It would be really great if there was a way to play those oldschool 1.3 games from a harddrive an an Amiga 1200...
I don't know anything and WHDLoad, or what programs might allow this to happen, if any.

I watched a youtube clip of someone using a GoTek Drive on an Amiga500 - looks cool- but I don't want to buy any new hardware for this... I can't justify it.

Is there any way to play a 1.3-era game on a 3.x system? Is it possible to do via Hard Drive?? Is it simple? Does it involve adf files? or something else?

I wonder if this urge to revive these machines will pass in a day or two and I'll never get  to see them in action...  

Thanks in advance for any useful input. =)

[RedWarrior]

Have had some small success with the discovery of X-Banch & WHDload, though many of my original questions remain unanswered...

I'm hoping there's some way to play non-dos oldschool 1.3 style Amiga games, complete with cracktros etc... (how do you expect me to play lemmings without the trainer?!)

Does Xbench need kickstart roms?

I'm not sure what I need to get this working... or what's actually possible.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Hi!  Sounds like you've got a healthy number of systems already, we should certainly be able to get at least one of them "up to speed" for you.  

If you just want to play games and you don't want to spend much money on the hardware, you've got pretty much two options, as you already surmised:

A Gotek or HxC-style floppy replacement: exactly what it sounds like.  Typically replaces the internal floppy drive with a board that allows you to interface to a USB flash drive or SD card.  You'd plug that flash drive or card into your PC, load it up with ".adf" files (Amiga disk images), and play-away.  Logic in the unit is smart enough that for multi-floppy games, there's usually some option (such as a button on the device or a keypress on the system) that triggers it to "switch disks".  This typically requires very little hardware expansion beyond the unit itself and there are many options available.

WHDLoad:  my preferred solution, especially if you have an upgraded system.  WHDLoad uses "install" packages to make many older programs compatible with more modern software.  This would allow you to, for example, boot your Amiga to Workbench, double-click a game icon to play it, then press a quit key (usually F10) to return back to Workbench after you're done playing.  WHDLoad is probably the more "sophisticated" of the two options, games load faster (because they're not relying on the floppy drive interface), and usually requires your Amiga to have at least a small amount of fast memory expansion.  (the target system is something along the lines of an A1200 + one of the new ACA accelerators).

Sorry we can't point you directly to links for Amiga games to download, the copyright police here won't let us, but Google is your friend.  The main WHDLoad support page (contains installers, but no full games) is here:  http://whdload.de/   And here's a cheap link (among many) where you could buy a Gotek from a reputable Amiga vendor:  http://amigastore.eu/en/323-usb-floppy-emulator-gotek.html

Good luck, happy gaming, and all that.  

[AmigaBruno]

The Gotek drive certainly works on any Amiga as a replacement for the internal drive df0: . Unfortunately, most games and demos seem to be written for an Amiga A500 with Kickstart 1.3, OCS, and 512K chip RAM, so this means either using Relokick, Skick, Degrader (on Amiga Format coverdisk disk 38), or WHDload. The first three can be booted from flopply disk or ADF file, while WHDload requires a hard drive installation of the software itself, as well as files to run each game or demo from hard drive, including telling each game or demo what version of Kickstart, which chip set, and how much memory of what type is required. My A1200 has recently been crashing a lot with my Gotek drive.

To install WHDload files for each game and demo, you need to copy them onto your Amiga hard drive. This can be done either with a USB CF card reader to plug in to a PC, probably running an emulator, or with a PCMCIA CF card reader to copy the files from the PCMCIA slot to your Amiga hard drive.

[AmigaBruno]

The Gotek drive certainly works on any Amiga as a replacement for the internal drive df0: . Unfortunately, most games and demos seem to be written for an Amiga A500 with Kickstart 1.3, OCS, and 512K chip RAM, so this means either using Relokick, Skick, Degrader (on Amiga Format coverdisk No. 38), or WHDload. The first three can be booted from floppy disk or ADF file, while WHDload requires a hard drive installation of the software itself, as well as files to run each game or demo from hard drive, including telling each game or demo what version of Kickstart, which chip set, and how much memory of what type is required. My A1200 has recently been crashing a lot with my Gotek drive.

To install WHDload files for each game and demo, you need to copy them onto your Amiga hard drive. This can be done either with a USB CF card reader to plug in to a PC, probably running an emulator, or with a PCMCIA CF card reader to copy the files from the PCMCIA slot to your Amiga hard drive.

[giZmo350]

@RedWarrior

HeHe... the only disconnect with WHDLoad is that it's still the best kept Amiga secret on the planet! I couldn't figure out what the heck it was all about and didn't really try for years. Once I figured out the real potential of WHDLoad, I bought an A1200 the same day just to have an AGA WHDLoad machine, That was in 2010! I'm convinced that a whole lot more people would be buying Amiga machines if there was a big 'ole button to click, prominately displayed on this site, explaining WHDLoad in simple terms and what it's capabilities are.

To accomplish what your asking for, you need 3 things.

1. The WHDLoad program itself here...http://whdload.de/whdload/WHDLoad_usr.lha

2. Legal ROM files...you can either create these yourself from your real Amiga machines or you can download and pay for them here... http://www.amigaforever.com/

3. Some game files.... I won't directly point to the files but, everything you need is right here.... http://www.lemonamiga.com/

There are alternatives, Google is your friend.

Follow the WHDLoad guide to install your ROM files. Create a folder on your A1200 HDD named WHDLoad games. Create subfolders named A B C etc.... and place game files corresponding alphabetically in appropriate subfolders. You really don't need iGame or any other launcher.

As far as unzipping files with a GUI, these two programs work great on my A1200....

http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/UnZip

http://aminet.net/search?query=gui+4+unzip

Explore Lemon Amiga! And, Have fun!

P.S.... You'll need an accelerator for best performance... these are available for preorder here....

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=43&products_id=1251

[RedWarrior]

Ok, for "legal" reasons I'll avoid using a game install as an example... Right now I'm just trying to get Rebels Megademo 2 running on my 1200 via whdload.

I downloaded a WHDLoad "version"- but that doesn't seem to actually contain the demo itself? Are WHDLoad files just config files or something? If so, where do I put the .dms or .adf?

The Windows one-click universe has made me lazy... =D

Thanks!

[giZmo350]

DMS and ADF files are images of packed files. To unpack a  DMS files use this first. WHDLoad only uses Slave files.   http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/diskimage.m68k-aos  Also, interesting read on disk images...  http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41711

[RedWarrior]

"WHDLoad only reads "slave" files..."

The Megademo2 WHDLoad version that I downloaded has a Megademo2.Slave.asm file in the Install/Src/ folder.... but it's only 6k.

There are no files large enough in that WHDLoad "version" to suggest the whole demo content is there...

what am I missing?

[RedWarrior]

Questions remain above regarding "degrading" a 1200 to run A500 content via CF or HDD... (anyone?)

With regard to the CF internal drive I had another question.
Has anyone tried one of these?: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-SD-TF-SDHC-To-Type-I-1-Compact-Flash-Card-CF-Reader-Adapter-UDMA-S9DS-/271841081961?hash=item3f4afdba69

Seems like a cheaper way to get a CF card... (they're crazy expensive for some strange reason!)

Thoughts?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

The Megademo2 WHDLoad version that I downloaded has a Megademo2.Slave.asm file in the Install/Src/ folder.... but it's only 6k.

There are no files large enough in that WHDLoad "version" to suggest the whole demo content is there...

what am I missing?

You are missing the demo file itself.  

The WHDLoad .slave file itself only fixes it for compatibility with hard drives and "modern systems", you still need to install a copy of the demo - from Aminet, or where ever it's hosted.    Look for a .readme associated with the WHDLoad installer.

Not sure which "Megademo2" you're trying to watch.  A search on Aminet and the WHDLoad site turns up several different results.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Questions remain above regarding "degrading" a 1200 to run A500 content via CF or HDD... (anyone?)

Yes, WHDLoad.  

With regard to the CF internal drive I had another question.
Has anyone tried one of these?: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-SD-TF-SDHC-To-Type-I-1-Compact-Flash-Card-CF-Reader-Adapter-UDMA-S9DS-/271841081961?hash=item3f4afdba69

Seems like a cheaper way to get a CF card... (they're crazy expensive for some strange reason!)

Thoughts?

A MicroSD to CF adapter?  Why in the world would you want that?  You can buy 4GB and 8GB CF cards all day long on amazon.com for under $20.  And really, how often do you see an Amiga needing more than 4GB or 8GB of "hard drive" capacity?  

[RedWarrior]

Attached is a screenshot of the folder contents...

I downloaded the megademo2 dms separately...
Can someone tell me the usual rule for where the dms file is meant to go? or do i need to do something to the dms file?

Thanks!


the readme isn't super helpful either...

"Rebels Megademo II HD INSTALLER V1.1 by MiCK
              --------------------------------------------

             Release date : 20.02.2008
                       -------------------------



 That install applies to "Megademo II" © 1990 Rebels - 1 disk
 Slave requires WHDLoad V10+.
 Demo needs 512Kb Of Chipmem & 1Mb of Fastmem (for preload option)

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 FEATURES
 --------

 - Full Loading from HD
 - Cool NewIcon (created by Frank)
 - Quit Option (F10 is default key)
 - Decrunch routine relocated in fastmem
 - Music player fixed
 - CUSTOM1=1 tooltype actives Hidden part

 HISTORY
 -------
 v1.1 (20.02.08) by Wepl
 - taglist fixed to make it work with newer WHDLoad's
 - new install script

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

      You can download the demo from :

      http://ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/amiga/demos/Rebels/
      Rebels.Megademo2-#?.dms


      for problems, don't hesitate to contact me.

      for full WHDLoad package and other installs refer to:
         http://www.whdload.de/
      or   aminet:dev/misc/whdload#?
      and   aminet:game/patch/

 MiCK.

 "

[RedWarrior]

It's not about the capacity, it's about saving cash... I have a few microSD cards of about 4 gb capacity... but finding a CF card for a decent price is very hard. Adaptor would be cheaper...

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Try writing the .dms image to a disk and then run the "Install" file located in the WHDLoad archive.  It'll be a lot easier for you when you find sites that already have ready-to-go games, just unarchive and click the icon.  Google, man!  I'll take a look at that particular demo tomorrow and see if I can't figure out a walk-through, if you haven't gotten it squared away by then.