Amiga Emulation Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Amiga Emulation
Version 2.25
30/11/01
Maintained by Gary Harris
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Contents
1. INTRODUCTION.
1.1 WHAT IS THIS DOCUMENT ABOUT?
1.2 WHAT IS THIS DOCUMENT NOT ABOUT?
1.3 NAVIGATING THE FAQ.
1.4 OBTAINING THIS DOCUMENT.
2. BACKGROUND.
2.1 WHAT IS AN EMULATOR?
2.2 WHAT IS AN AMIGA?
3. WHAT'S WHAT?
3.1 WHAT EMULATORS ARE AVAILABLE?
3.2 WHERE CAN I GET THESE EMULATORS?
3.3 SO, HOW MUCH ARE THEY?
3.4 WHICH IS THE BETTER EMULATOR?
3.5 IS THERE ANYTHING THESE EMULATORS CAN'T DO?
4. GETTING STARTED.
4.1 HOW DO I GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD?
4.2 I DON'T OWN AN AMIGA, WHERE CAN I BUY ONE?
4.3 I DON'T OWN AN AMIGA, WHERE CAN I BUY THE CD?
4.4 I OWN AN AMIGA! HOW DO I TRANSFER WORKBENCH TO
MY OTHER MACHINE?
4.4.1 COMMAND SYNTAX
4.4.2 HOW DO I GET THESE PROGRAMMES TO THE AMIGA
IN THE FIRST PLACE?
4.4.3 HOW DO I TRANSFER FILES BETWEEN MY AMIGA
AND ANOTHER PLATFORM?
4.4.3.1 USING HARDWARE TO READ AMIGA DISKS.
4.4.3.2 USING A DISK FORMAT THAT BOTH MACHINES
CAN HANDLE.
4.4.3.3 USING A NETWORK.
4.4.3.4 USING A SERIAL TRANSFER METHOD.
4.4.3.5 USING A PARALLEL TRANSFER METHOD.
5. SPECIFICS.
5.1. EMULATOR SETUP AND OPERATION
Q5.1.1 How do I copy the Kickstart ROM to my XYZ
machine?
Q5.1.2 How do I copy the Amiga Workbench to my XYZ machine?
Q5.1.3 How do I copy my other software to my XYZ machine?
Q5.1.4 What if I don't have a copy of Kickstart, can I
do anything?
Q5.1.5 The files produced by transdisk won't fit on a
720K floppy. What's going on?
Q5.1.6 What if I don't have the original disks?
Q5.1.7 When I run WinUAE the prefs window disappears
off both sides of the screen
Q5.1.8 How do I create a blank .adf in UAE or Fellow?
Q5.1.9 How do I format a blank .adf/disk?
Q5.1.10 How do I create a hardfile?
Q5.1.11 How do I get files back out of an .adf file?
Q5.1.12 How do I transfer .adf's from my emulator back
to my Amiga?
Q5.1.13 Why can't I mount my PC's CD-ROM from WinUAE?
Q5.1.14 Why is the WinUAE Amiga screen only half normal
screen height?
Q5.1.15 What is the "Key-File" box for in
Properties Startup/Memory?
Q5.1.16 What is a disk image?
Q5.1.17 Where can I find more information about
specific emulators?
5.2. HARDWARE
Q5.2.1 Why can't I use high density floppies on my
Amiga?
Q5.2.2 I don't have any low density floppies, what can
I do?
Q5.2.3 Can I use my Amiga hard disk from UAE on another
machine?
Q5.2.4 Can I make my own null-modem cable?
Q5.2.5 My laptop doesn't have Insert or Home keys. How
do I emulate L- and R- Amiga keys?
5.3. SOFTWARE
Q5.3.1 What programmes are available to transfer files
between my Amiga and PC?
Q5.3.2 How do I obtain, install and run XYZ software?
Q5.3.2.1 How do I obtain, install and run CrossDOS?
Q5.3.3. Where can I get Amiga software on the net?
Q5.3.4 What is GZip?
Q5.3.5. How do I preserve my long file names when using
CrossDOS?
Q5.3.6 How do I import files from my Amiga word
processor?
Q5.3.7 Hasn't someone written software that handles .adf's?
Q5.3.8 What is this file with the .rom suffix?
Q5.3.9 What is this file with the .roz suffix?
Q5.3.10 What is this file with the .adz suffix?
Q5.3.11 What is this file with the .dms suffix?
Q5.3.12 What is this file with the .lha suffix?
Q5.3.13 What is this file with the .lzx suffix?
Q5.3.14 How do I get XYZ game to work?
Q5.3.15 What is Picasso96?
Q5.3.16 How do I install Picasso96?
Q5.3.17 Why do I get an error message about Picasso96
failing at startup?
Q5.3.18 Is it OK to make copies of Amiga software?
Q5.3.19 What if I download a copy of XYZ software?
Q5.3.20 Can I make .adf's available for download?
Q5.3.21 What other software should I get?
Q5.3.22 Are there any developer resources for dealing with
.adfs?
Q5.3.23 What's the difference between ROMs and Disk Images?
Q5.3.24 Can I use my Amiga MED and tracker files on other platforms?
Q5.3.25 How do I install Workbench 3.5 on my emulator?
5.4. GENERAL
Q5.4.1 Why can't I see any icons when I open a window?
I know the files are there.
Q5.4.2 I want to know more about getting the Amiga on
the net.
Q5.4.3 Where can I find more information about the
Amiga?
Q5.4.4 Where can I find a glossary of Amiga terms?
Q5.4.5 Where can I find an AmigaDOS command reference?
Q5.4.6 Where can I find help on...?
6. SUGGESTIONS AND CORRECTIONS.
7. DISTRIBUTION
8. CREDITS.
1. INTRODUCTION.
Top
1.1 WHAT IS THIS DOCUMENT ABOUT?
This is the FAQ for the alt.emulators.amiga newsgroup. alt.emulators.amiga is a
newsgroup for discussion about software that emulates the Amiga computer on any
platform. The FAQ attempts to answer most common questions appearing in the
newsgroup. The most common of these is how to get a copy of the Amiga operating
system or how to transfer the OS and other software from an Amiga to another
platform, so this is what we'll focus on.
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1.2 WHAT IS THIS DOCUMENT NOT ABOUT?
This FAQ is not intended to give you a detailed description of the Amiga. We
refer you elsewhere for more detailed information on the machine, it's history,
OS, etc. It is also not intended to replace the documentation for the software
described. You must take the time to read the documentation provided with the
software carefully. As with anything new and, in particular, a new computer
or OS the initial learning curve is fairly steep. Give it a little time, though,
and you'll find the emulators and Workbench intuitive and easy to use. Give
it a little longer and you might even find that Workbench makes some of the
other offerings out there look somewhat inadequate. :-)
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1.3 NAVIGATING THE FAQ.
The quickest way to find what you're looking for is to use the search or find
facilities of your viewer and search for key words relating to your subject of
interest. Alternatively, the questions are grouped logically at the top of the page so
that you can quickly find the area which interests you.
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1.4 OBTAINING THIS DOCUMENT.
You can get a copy of this FAQ in the following ways:
From these newsgroups: - alt.emulators.amiga
As of V1.33, this FAQ will not be posted directly to the group. Instead, a
pointer to the web site will be posted weekly or thereabouts.
From the world wide web:
http://jetjockey.fly.to/faq.html
At this sites you can access the on-line version and download a copy of it as HTML,
text or PDF. To download a copy of the FAQ, use your browser's "Save As..."
facility, shift-click on the link or right-click the link and select "Save Link As..."
or similar and select HTML or text, as appropriate.
You can download the PDF version here.
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2. BACKGROUND.
It seems that most people who want to emulate an Amiga have used one in the
past and either owned one previously or still do. Generally speaking, therefore,
intending users already have a reasonable knowledge of how to use an Amiga but
want to know how to get the emulation set up and running so they can use their
existing Amiga software on another platform, commonly a PC. If that's you, you
can skip this section.
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2.1 WHAT IS AN EMULATOR?
An emulator is a piece of hardware or software which performs the functions of
an alien system's hardware. In this case, the functions of the Amiga hardware
are emulated in software which then runs on another machine, for which it is
written.
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2.2 WHAT IS AN AMIGA?
The Amiga computer is a desktop machine which first appeared in the eighties,
produced by Commodore Business Machines. It was, and still is, noted for it's
multi-tasking and graphics abilities. Due to mismanagement by Commodore, Amiga
production stopped for about three years in the early nineties. The Amiga was
continued by Amiga Technologies and is now owned by Gateway2000, in the guise
of Amiga International. The persistence and enthusiasm of users for
"their" machine kept the Amiga alive during the period of
non-production and it is now enjoying renewed vigour in the shape of new
development by Gateway and a move to a new base processor bringing performance
up to modern expectations. For more information try the following web sites:
Amiga Inc.: http://www.amiga.com/
Amiga International: http://www.amiga.de/
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3. WHAT'S WHAT?
Top
3.1 WHAT EMULATORS ARE AVAILABLE?
There are now four emulators available, UAE, Fellow and the new Amithlon and AmigaXL. UAE is available
for MSDOS and Windows on PC, a range of UNIX and X11, Macintosh, Acorn, BeBox, NextStep
and for Amiga. Fellow is available for MSDOS and Windows. Amithlon/AmigaXL is a commercial venture and does
not require a particular operating system as it supplies its own. AmigaXL runs under QNX and
supports a wide range of industry standard hardware, allowing you to run, reportedly, up
to 10 times faster than other emulators on your existing hardware. Amithlon runs from CD and also supports
reading Amiga hard disks via an appropriate interface. Amithlon/AmigaXL is the hot new Amiga product of the moment.
"Did I hear correctly?" I hear you say. "An Amiga emulator which
runs on an Amiga?" Yes, that's right. UAE doesn't emulate the latest machine
specs, in fact, so it's useful to be able to emulate a lower spec machine on a
later model. It allows you to run older software which doesn't support the newer,
higher specifications, typically graphics.
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3.2 WHERE CAN I GET THESE EMULATORS?
UAE - The UAE Amiga Emulator:
Windows:
http://www.codepoet.com/UAE/
DOS:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/6524/uaefiles.html
UNIX/LINUX:
http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~uae/
Bernd "Bernie" Meyer's UAE-JIT - "a hack on UAE/linux that adds a JIT compiler to its CPU emulation,
giving a nice speedup in emulation speed.":
http://byron.csse.monash.edu.au/uaejit.html
Down and untraceable - 22/1/04 :-(.
Macintosh:
http://worldserver.oleane.com/ablancha/uae.htm
Acorn:
http://www.peter-teichmann.de/asofte.html
BeBox:
http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/BBMain.html
http://www.cs.uml.edu/~dsowsy/beos/BeUAE.html
NextStep:
http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~uae/
Amiga-680xx:
http://users.info.unicaen.fr/~devulder/uae/
Down and untraceable - 22/1/04 :-(.
Amiga-PowerUp:
http://www.ph-cip.uni-koeln.de/~jakob/
Fellow:
DOS:
http://www.fellow-amiga.de/
Windows:
http://fellow.sourceforge.net/old_version/main/index.html
Amithlon/AmigaXL:
http://www.amithlon.com
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3.3 SO, HOW MUCH ARE THEY?
The great thing about UAE and Fellow is that they are provided
absolutely free of charge to the Amiga user community. Amithlon is currently advertised
for US$140.00 and comes on three CDs including Kickstart 3.1, Workbench 3.9 and QNX
Top
3.4 WHICH IS THE BETTER EMULATOR?
Good question. That's up to you. If it's free software you're after then you'll want
UAE or Fellow. Fellow claims to have a speed advantage over
UAE as it was written specifically for DOS with some speed-critical code written
in assembly language, although it currently has fewer features. The Windows
versions of UAE and FEllow have a built-in GUI for setting your preferences whereas the DOS
versions may require you to do your configuration manually via command line
switches and a text file. WinUAE now has experimental AGA support whilst Fellow
supports processor instructions up to the 68060. I suggest that you try both
programmes and see which suits your needs better. If you're using a PC you might
like to compare the DOS and Windows versions, too.
If you are happy to pay for the commercial offering you'll get much greater speed and
support for hardware and peripherals, commercial quality, plus support and development. I've
certainly got my eyes on a copy of this in the future.
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3.5 IS THERE ANYTHING THESE EMULATORS CAN'T DO?
Yes. Neither UAE nor Fellow emulate the AGA chipset. AGA, Advanced Graphics
Architecture, is the 32-bit graphics standard used on the A1200 and A4000. This
means that any software requiring AGA won't run under the emulator. So, some
modern Amiga software, especially games, won't work under emulation. Check the
programme's documentation for requirements. Happily, while many programmes take
advantage of AGA if it exists, they will often run in a lower graphics mode, too.
The older graphics chip sets are known as ECS (Enhanced Chip Set) and OCS
(Original Chip Set). AGA can't currently be emulated because it requires the
Amiga's custom chip set, which doesn't exist in the emulating machine.
WinUAE 0.8.8 Release 1 and onwards contain AGA support.
Amithlon and AmigaXL require a Pentium III-class CPU, whereas you can get usable
results on a much lower specification machine with the other emulators. Both will,
however, emulate all Amiga screen modes as standard, whilst the free ones may not.
4. GETTING STARTED.
Top
4.1 HOW DO I GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD?
Now, here's the thing. To use UAE or Fellow you need to have copy of the Amiga's
OS, called Workbench. There are two options for getting Workbench. Either you
own an Amiga and copy the parts of the OS to the emulating machine or you can
buy the OS separately on CD. If you don't currently own an Amiga, you can buy
one from which to copy Workbench. That's not as bad as it sounds since second-hand
Amigas are available very cheaply these days and you get the Amiga to play with
as well.
Michael from Cloanto advises that "Users need to check the license that came
with their ROM and OS, to see if it allows for this. Licensing terms may vary
depending on country and model. If the license does not say anything, there may
be fallbacks to different local laws. Apple for example insisted that such
copying of ROMs was unacceptable".
**DO NOT ASK US TO COPY WORKBENCH FOR YOU** We won't!
Yes, you might be able to find pirated copies of the OS on the net but don't
ask us to help you find those, either. Our intention is to support and perpetuate
the Amiga, not contribute to it's downfall.
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4.2 I DON'T OWN AN AMIGA, WHERE CAN I BUY ONE?
I suggest that you start by checking the trading post-type papers in your
area. On the net, you can try the following newsgroups:
comp.sys.amiga.marketplace
comp.sys.amiga.marketpl
There are also web trading pages around the place. A quick search should find
some.
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4.3 I DON"T OWN AN AMIGA, WHERE CAN I BUY THE CD?
The CD mentioned earlier is known as Amiga Forever and is provided by Cloanto.
Visit their website at:
http://www.cloanto.com/amiga/forever/
and follow their instructions to install the OS. The CD also includes UAE,
Fellow, Cloanto's file transfer programme Amiga Explorer, Picasso96 (mentioned
later) and a swag of other stuff.Every version of the Amiga OS from 1.0 to 3.0
is provided. Although the disc is set up to run on Windows, if you use another
OS all of the Amiga OS' and software (almost everything) are still useful.
Also have a look at the Amiga Forever Online Edition. This has less content than
the CD but allows you to pay over the net and download imediately. This edition
only includes versions 1.3 and 3.0 of the OS but still contains Amiga Explorer,
Personal Paint, plenty of other good stuff and is configured and ready to run
"out of the box". The two OS versions should be enough to run almost every Amiga
programme. At a bargain price, this is an excellent way to get yourself
up and running on a Windows platform in no time.
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4.4 I OWN AN AMIGA! HOW DO I TRANSFER THE AMIGA OS TO MY OTHER MACHINE?
The Amiga stores part of the OS in a ROM and the rest on hard disk. You need
to transfer both of these parts to the emulator in order to run software that
uses the OS. The component held in ROM is known as Kickstart. The rest of the
OS is provided on floppy disks with the Amiga, or perhaps already installed
on a HD if you bought a second-hand one.
Both UAE and Fellow provide the same utilities to copy the OS from an Amiga
to floppy disks. The programmes provided are transdisk and transrom. You should
read the documentation provided with your emulator on how to use these programmes.
Read the section entitled "Tools / Transferring files" in the UAE
docs or section 3 "BEFORE YOU WILL BEGIN - ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS"
in fellow.txt.
Creating the required files on the Amiga, ready for transfer, is not difficult.
Both are shell programmes so you'll need to run them from the CLI. Transrom
copies the contents of your kickstart ROM to a file, which you can then take
to the emulator. Transdisk copies the contents of a disk in your floppy drive
to a file, allowing you to copy software to your emulator.
See also section 5.1.4.
Top
4.4.1 COMMAND SYNTAX
Both use the '>' command to redirect their output to a file rather than
the screen. The transdisk command line
transdisk >ram:df0.adf
instructs the computer to run the transdisk programme and send the output to
a file called "ram:df0.adf". The "ram:" component denotes
the address of the file as the device called "ram" i.e. your ram disk.
The ".adf" component is the standard suffix given to these files meaning
"amiga disk file". The "df0" is the name of the file, so
called because it reads from your floppy disk, whose device name is DF0:. So,
the command line means "run the transdisk programme, which reads the floppy
disk in DF0:, and send the contents of the floppy disk to a file called df0.adf
in RAM:". You then save df0.adf somewhere as it is not saved to disk in
this case, it is simply living in memory, so if you turn off the machine it's
gone.
You can change the destination file by substituting the desired path and name
for "ram:df0.adf". E.g. "transdisk > DH0:MyDir\MyFile.adf"
sends the data to a file called "MyFile.adf" in the directory called
"MyDir" on DH0:, your first harddisk. "transdisk >df1:MyFile.adf"
sends the file to your second floppy drive.
Spaces either side of the ">" are optional.
transdisk >ram:df0.adf
transdisk > ram:df0.adf
transdisk>ram:df0.adf
all produce the same result.
If you forget to redirect the output, both programmes will send their output
to the standard output device, your monitor. You will see screensful of
unreadable characters scroll by as the binary data is sent to your screen. This
is unhelpful and takes a while to finish so you can abort the process by
pressing the CTRL-C keys on your keyboard. That's the "ctrl" and
"c" keys together. This is the standard shell process user abort key
sequence. There is no help message displayed as with other shell programmes. No
harm is done, just retry with the redirection.
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4.4.2 HOW DO I GET THESE PROGRAMMES TO THE AMIGA IN THE FIRST PLACE?
This is where things start to come undone. You can either transfer them from
the emulation platform somehow or download them separately from somewhere else,
directly to your Amiga.
If you intend to transfer them from another platform, read on.
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4.4.3 HOW DO I TRANSFER FILES BETWEEN MY AMIGA AND ANOTHER PLATFORM?
And now things can get decidedly sticky. The answer depends on the platform
and the facilities you have available. There are a range of options:
Use hardware on the non-Amiga platform that will read Amiga disks.
Use a disk format that both platforms can handle.
Use a network.
Use a serial transfer method.
Use a parallel transfer method
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4.4.3.1 USING HARDWARE TO READ AMIGA DISKS.
This is not possible on most platforms due to the fact that Amiga floppy drives
contain custom hardware. This means that the drive can not be emulated in
software. If you are prepared to get your hands dirty, there are instructions
for building your own interface to an Amiga floppy drive at:
http://metamonk.com/afr/
This is a do-it-yourself project complete with circuit diagrams and picture of the finished project.
If you try this approach, let me know how it went so I can include the details here.
Another approach, the Amiga Disk Reader project , is available at:
http://home.t-online.de/home/ChristianK./adfreade.htm
There is a file system for Linux that allows you to read Amiga hard drives
directly. All versions of the Linux kernel above 2.0.x support the AFFS as
a loadable module or compiled into the kernel. For more information on this
check the documentation that came with your Linux distribution. You will
probably need to re-compile the Kernel to support this filesystem. If you
installed the Kernel source look in /usr/src/linux/Documentation. If not,
obtain the Kernel Source package from your distributions homepage or from
http://www.kernel.org/
You can buy the catweasel device controller for Amiga and PC. On a PC, it will
allow you to connect an Amiga floppy disk drive and use it directly. Software
for Windows, MSDOS and Linux is included. Find details at:
http://www.jschoenfeld.de/indexe.htm
Finally someone has managed to come up with a method for creating adfs from original
disks directly on a PC. It's called Disk2FDI and it operates under DOS and uses 2
floppy drives to create an image of the original disk directly. These images are saved
as .fdi files, which are supported in the latest versions of WinUAE. There are specific
requirements and you can check them for yourself at:
http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi/
There is also an Amiga-on-a-card, called Inside Out, available for PC's that, I
believe, allows you to interface an Amiga floppy drive but if you have that you
don't need an emulator, do you?
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4.4.3.2 USING A DISK FORMAT THAT BOTH MACHINES CAN HANDLE.
This is the most common means available for users to transfer the required
files between machines. You may be able to use the destination disk format
directly on your Amiga. For example, there are a number of programmes available
that will allow an Amiga to read and write PC disks. Then you only need to take
the disk to the destination machine and use it normally. It is also possible to
read and write Mac disks on an Amiga, using one of these programmes. If your Mac has PC
Exchange, you can write 720K PC-formatted disks using CrossDOS and read them on the Mac
with PC Exchange.
Alternatively, you might be able to use a third format as a stepping stone.
If you have a programme that allows your Amiga to read some superduper file
system and your destination machine has software that allows it read superduper
file system, you're in business.
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4.4.3.3 USING A NETWORK.
There are a number of network solutions to this problem. Software is available
to connect an Amiga and a PC, via their serial ports, as a network. The Siamese
system allows both Amiga and PC to open the other's screens, via an Ethernet
or serial connection. These sorts of products probably aren't the sort of thing
you're considering if you're going to emulate an Amiga.
A simple solution, if you have both machines connected to the internet, is
to send the files to yourself as mail, receiving them on the destination machine.
This is cumbersome for large file transfers but if it's all you have you might
leave the transfers to complete overnight. You may, similarly, be able to ftp
files between machines or store them somewhere for later download.
You can find some Amiga to NT4 networking instructions here:
http://home6.inet.tele.dk/pahrmann/
They should work for Win95 as well. Please let me know if you have success
with this or otherwise.
If you have your machines networked, simply send the files across.
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4.4.3.4 USING A SERIAL TRANSFER METHOD.
It is possible to connect two machines via their serial ports using a null-modem
cable. You can then run a terminal programme on each machine and send files
directly. For details on these methods see
Ami-PC_FAQ.txt
by Ben Hutchings.
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4.4.3.5 USING A PARALLEL TRANSFER METHOD.
It is also possible to connect two machines via their parallel ports using
a laplink cable. You can then run a file manager to access files on the PC
directly from the Amiga. For details on these methods see
Ami-PC_FAQ.txt
by Ben Hutchings.
PC2Am, mentioned therein, can be found here:
http://starlord.net/amiga/
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5. SPECIFICS.
5.1 Emulator Setup And Operation.
Q5.1.1 How do I copy the Kickstart ROM to my XYZ machine?
Use transrom as described above and in the UAE or Fellow documentation.
Save the resulting rom file and copy it your emulation machine using one of
the methods discussed.
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Q5.1.2 How do I copy the Amiga Workbench to my XYZ machine?
If you have the original distribution disks, which you should if you own
an Amiga, use transdisk to copy each of the disks to your HD in turn, naming
them uniquely. Then use a transfer method to send the files to your
destination machine.
You could also use transdisk or another method to progressively transfer the contents of
the Workbench partition from your hard drive to the destination machine, copy them to a
directory or hard file and boot the emulator from that.
Another method is to copy the files from a magazine cover CD. Most of the English
magazines which are now demised had Workbench 2.0, 2.4 or 3.0 on the CD. Copying this can be
a lot quicker and easier than transferring files from an Amiga. The CDs are readable by
any CD-ROM drive. You can even boot the emulator directly from the CD, using its path
in the relavent preferences. You will, of course, still need a copy of Kickstart for
this to work and, technically, I believe you should own a copy of the version of
Workbench in order to use it other than on the CD. There were several magazines that
did this, such as CU Amiga, Amiga Computing and Amiga Format. There are still a few
magazines in production, although I haven't seen them, and these should be better still
as they may have later versions of Workbench and be more up-to-date.
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Q5.1.3 How do I copy my other software to my XYZ machine?
You can use the same method you used to transfer Workbench to transfer any other
software. In addition, once you have the emulator running, you may have some other
options. One such option is to make use of the excellent HFMounter (HFM) software. Someone
recently pointed out in the newsgroup that the files produced by HFM are, in fact, adfs by
another name and that they could be used directly as adfs themselves.
HFM uses a device driver to create virtual floppy disks on your hard drive, that is, it
creates a copy, or image, of a floppy disk. It allows you to manage up to twelve such
disks, as long as you have sufficient hard drive space and WB 3.0 or higher. Since an adf
is also just a disk image, the two are interchangeable. Each virtual floppy requires 901 120
bytes for a maximum of 10 813 440 bytes, or about 11 MB, for all twelve.
The beauty if this interchangeability is that you can simplify the process of
transferring files from your Amiga and avoid transdisk completely. You can also access
the files from within your emulator, or another amiga for that matter, without using the
emulator's disk drives. If you include those four drives, you can now have a total of
sixteen disk images open at once on Workbench!
Here's how. You'll need to refer to HFM's documentation for an full understanding of it
but you'll find it straightforward. HFM mounts its "drives" using the names HF0:
to HF11: When you mount a "drive", HFM creates a file in your WB System/Devs
drawer. These files are named Unit0 to Unit11. To use an adf as an HFM
"drive", simply copy the adf to the emulator's System/Devs drawer using your
preferred transfer method and changing the name to Unit0 for HF0:, Unit 1 for HF1: etc.
Then mount that "drive" using HFM and you're under way.
Note that you can't run NDOS disks from HFM. You can copy them to an HFM "drive"
and then from there to an emulated floppy disk and run the program from there by
booting that disk. An easier way is as follows.
You can use an HFM "drive" file as an adf by reversing the process. Copy the
required "drive's" Unit* file from the emulator's System/Devs drawer and rename
it to a suitable name ending in .adf. Now you can load the adf into your emulator's floppy
drive using the normal procedure. The adf will still have the name that HFM gave it
e.g. HF0 but you can rename it as you wish. If you install HFM on your real Amiga, you
have a means of transferring disk images between it and the emulator, using HFM itself
as the front-end on both platforms. All you need is to transfer the files between them.
How cool is that?!
HFMounter is available from:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/misc/HFM2_2.lha
Get up to 32 virtual floppies with this extension:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/misc/VF2000.lha
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Q5.1.4 What if I don't have a copy of Kickstart, can I do anything?
Yes, you can. Some programmes that are provided in non-standard disk
formats will boot without Kickstart. A common type of programme that will do
this is the "demo", a graphical and musical demonstration for which
the Amiga is famous. You will just have to try your luck with other
non-standard offerings. Not all demos will boot this way. The biggest source
of demos is:
ftp://de.aminet.net/aminet/dirs/tree_demo.html
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Q5.1.5 The files produced by transdisk won't fit on a 720K floppy. What's
going on?
A standard low-density Amiga floppy disk has a capacity of 880 KB. Since transdisk copies the
entire disk structure, it copies all 880 KB, or 901120 bytes, regardless of whether
the disk is full or not. The (inferior :-) standard low-density PC floppy only holds
720 KB and you probably need to transfer at least Kickstart and Workbench using this method,
so you have a few choices. You can compress them using a programme for which you have
copies for both machines, e.g. Zip or LhA, then copy the compressed version
to your floppy disk, transfer it and decompress it on the destination
machine. Once your emulation is up and running, you can decompress the files
under emulation using the same Amiga programme you compressed them with.
Better still, some versions of UAE support gzipped .adf files, so you can
compress the .adf on your Amiga with GZip and leave it compressed on the
emulation machine. UAE will decompress it on the fly as long (NOTE CAREFULLY)
as you have a copy of GZip in the command path of your emulation machine.
Make sure that you use transdisk from a shell. Double-clicking on the transdisk
icon will open the "Execute Command" dialogue box. It seems that running
transdisk this way can result in a different file size to when it is run from
a shell. See section 4.4.1 for the correct command syntax.
Sometimes an ADF still won't fit in 720k even after compression. Another solution is to create
the adf in smaller parts with transdisk e.g.
transdisk > df1:a.adf -s 0 -e 39
transdisk > df1:b.adf -s 40 -e 79
and join them together on the destination machine. The above command uses transdisk's -s and
-e flags to specify the starting and ending tracks for the segment to be copied. The number following
the flag is the track number. There are 80 tracks on a floppy disk, numbered from 0 to 79. You can
break the disk up into any size pieces you wish. Just make sure you don't miss any or the resulting
adf will not work. This is very useful if you have less than 1 MB of Amiga RAM, no harddisk and only 1
floppy drive, as you can use RAM: to store each part before copying it to a floppy.
Once you have transferred the pieces to the destination machine you can re-assemble
them with the following commands run from a shell. They assume you have all the parts in
the same directory and have changed to that directory within the shell.
In DOS:
copy /B a.adf b.adf ab.adf
or
copy /B *.adf ab.adf
or on a Unix(-ish) system:
cat a.adf b.adf > ab.adf
or
cat *.adf > ab.adf
The first version takes the files a.adf and b.adf and joins them to make ab.adf. The
second version takes all files ending with .adf and joins them to make ab.adf. This
form is quicker if you have a lot of parts to join, rather than listing them all
manually. The will need to use the first version if you have parts of several adfs in
the one directory as you don't want them all joined at once.
Once the emulator is running, you might consider some coolness with HFM for subsequent
transfers - section 5.1.3.
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Q5.1.6 What if I don't have the original disks?
Transdisk only operates on floppies so you could copy the parts of the OS
progressively to a floppy and use transdisk to save them to HD as .adf's,
then transfer as before or see section 5.1.3 for how to use HFM.
.
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Q5.1.7 When I run WinUAE the prefs window disappears off
both sides of the screen.
You need to get an updated version of comctl32.dll, the dynamic link
library that contains many of Windows' GUI components. You can get it from
Microsoft at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6f94d31a-d1e0-4658-a566-93af0d8d4a1e&DisplayLang=en
The installation will place the file in the right place but if you're doing
it manually, it goes in your Windows/System directory.
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Q5.1.8 How do I create a blank .adf in UAE or Fellow?
The programme MakeADF, provided with Fellow, will create a blank .adf. In
WinUAE, hit F12, select the "Floppies" tab then "Create blank
"Floppy"". MakeDisk, supplied with UAE will create a file the
right size if used with the "df" argument. The problem is that it doesn't
have the .adf suffix and is, therefore, not recognised as a disk file. Adding
the suffix results in a blank .adf that you can format and use. You can also use
one of the third-party programmes the will read and write .adfs, such as
ADF Opus.
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Q5.1.9 How do I format a blank .adf/disk?
Create a blank .adf. Load it into a drive. Single-click the drive icon to
highlight it. Press and hold the right mouse button and select the
"Icons/Format Disk..." menu item. The name you enter here is the name that will
appear on Workbench as the disk's name. You can give it a descriptive name or
the same name as the disk image to avoid confusion.
Another option is to go into the DH0:System directory and run the Format
programme, select the drive you want formatted from the list and press continue.
Q5.1.10 How do I create a hardfile?
MakeDisk, provided in the UAE Utils directory, will create a blank
hardfile for you if used with the "hf" argument. Fellow handles hardfiles from
it's configuration screen.
In WinUAE 0.8.8 Release 1 or later (and possibly earlier), go to the
"Hard Drives" tab of the prefs dialogue and select "Add
Hardfile...".
You can also use one of the third-party programmes the will read and write
hardfiles, such as ADF Opus.
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Q5.1.11 How do I get files back out of an .adf file?
The ReadDisk utility, provided in the UAE/Utils directory, will unpack an
.adf into a directory. ReadDisk may not be available for all platforms.
Please advise if it is not provided with the implementation of UAE you are
using.
Adf2disk is an Amiga utility that will unpack .adf's to floppy disk as well.
Get adf2disk at:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/misc/adf2disk11.lha
For another, more elegant solution using HFM, see section 5.1.3.
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Q5.1.12 How do I transfer .adf's from my emulator back to my Amiga?
Compress the .adf with a compressor that you can use on the Amiga. You
can do this from within the emulator if you like so that you can use an
Amiga compressor directly. Transfer the file to your Amiga using the reverse
of the method you use to transfer files from the Amiga to the emulation
platform e.g. CrossDOS. Now, working on the Amiga, decompress the .adf to
RAM: or somewhere suitable. Use adf2disk to unpack the .adf to a floppy.
Copy the unpacked files wherever you wish.
For another, more elegant solution using HFM, see section 5.1.3.
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Q5.1.13 Why can't I mount my PC's CD-ROM from WinUAE?
When you enter the configuration in the GUI's Hard-Drives/Add dialogue make
sure that you select "Directory" as the "Volume-Type", don't
check the Read/Write gadget under "Settings" since you can't write
to a standard CD-ROM and don't enter a trailing backslash in the "Mount
Directory" path. This is the most common problem associated with mounting
CD's. If you use the browse button to find the path to your CD-ROM, WinUAE will
automatically insert the trailing backslash. Delete it! I.e. you want
"D:" not "D:\". If the CD you're using is not an Amiga disc
and therefore doesn't hold Amiga icons, you will have to select the
"Window/Show/All Files" menu item in order to see the files.
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Q5.1.14 Why is the WinUAE Amiga screen only half normal screen height?
It's producing an Amiga screenmode which has a lower scan rate than a PC
monitor. Fix it by entering the Properties Display/Gfx dialogue and selecting
the "Scan Double" checkbox.
Top
Q5.1.15 What is the "Key-File" box for in Properties Startup/Memory?
This is where you enter the path to the keyfile if you have an encrypted
kickstart.rom file. Most people will not need it, leave it blank. Fellow has
a keyfile option for the same reason.
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Q5.1.16 What is a disk image?
A disk image is a complete copy of a floppy disk, including it's track and
sector details, stored in a file. It allows you to store all of the data
relating to a particular disk to a file and reconstitute the original disk
exactly, at a later time. Amiga emulators use disk images, .adfs, to store
a disk's information and use that disk image as if it were the original
floppy disk. That is, within the emulator a disk image is referred to as
a floppy disk, inserted and ejected like a floppy disk and read from and
written to as if it were a floppy disk. The only difference is that the I/O
is actually occurring to or from a file. You can think of the image as a
"virtual" floppy drive, if you like.
When you're using Workbench, forget all about disk images. As far as Workbench
is concerned it is accessing a floppy disk drive! This is a common misconception
amongst emulation and Amiga newcomers. When you've finished emulating, the
virtual drive can be found as a .adf file in your emulation directory or
wherever you created it. For example, if you create a floppy called "test",
the disk image "test.adf" will be created. Note that this is not the name that
will appear on Workbench, it's only the name of the image. The "virtual" floppy
will still appear on Workbench as the name given to the disk itself. This name
is assigned when you format the disk. One is the "internal" Workbench name for
the floppy disk, the other is the "external" file system name for the image of
that disk. Got it?
Top
Q5.1.17 Where can I find more information about specific emulators?
WinUAE FAQ online:
http://www.codepoet.com/UAE/FAQ.htm
Ralf Steines has developed a very nice on-line search engine that covers a
wealth of available FAQs and other resources:
http://www.metamonk.de/uae/
or use the simpler interface:
http://hosted.back2roots.org/emufaq/
The Amiga Emulation Zone has info, configs, files, and more:
http://www.amigaemulation.com
Try the UAE Discussion Board:
http://amiga.nvg.org/uae/
Peter Hutchison also has his own UAE FAQ available on-line:
http://www.pcguru.plus.com/uae_faq.html
Amiga Emulation World
http://come.to/arfman
Amithlon/AmigaXL:
http://www.amithlon.com
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5.2 Hardware.
Q5.2.1 Why can't I use high density floppies on my Amiga?
The standard Amiga floppy drive has 880K capacity. A high density PC
floppy holds 1.44MB, which the Amiga can't deal with. A low density PC
floppy, however, holds 720K which the Amiga can cope with so utilities such
as CrossDOS will write 720K on a disk as standard. If you have a high
density FD attached to your Amiga then you can use the HD floppies and
CrossDOS etc will write 1.44MB.
Top
Q5.2.2 I don't have any low density floppies, what can I do?
Don't panic. Put a small piece of tape over the left window in your HD
floppy, the one without the read/write tab, and the Amiga will recognize it
as a low density disk. It's not ideal but it works.
Top
Q5.2.3
Can I use my Amiga hard disk from UAE on another machine?
There is a filesystem available for Linux that will read Amiga HD's. See
Ami-PC_FAQ for more info. There is no known support for other OS's. If you
have Linux running on your emulation machine alongside another OS, you may
be able to read the HD in Linux and then make the files available to the
other OS on the same machine. There are plans to implement Amiga HD support
in UAE to allow it to access Amiga formatted HD's directly.
Top
Q5.2.4 Can I make my own null-modem cable?
Absolutely! Download the instructions from:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/hard/hack/SerialCable.lha
As usual, if you try this let me know how you go.
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Q5.2.5 My laptop doesn't have Insert or Home keys. How do I emulate
L- and R- Amiga keys?
The default replacements for the left and right Amiga keys are "Insert" and "Home". Attilio
Scifoni advises that his laptop was without these keys but he was able to use "FN +
Page Up" as a replacement for "R-Amiga". It sounds like the general solution is to
find your machine's substitute for "Insert" and "Home". If you have a Windows keyboard,
the left and right Windows Logo keys will work, too.
As usual, let me know how you go.
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5.3 Software.
Q5.3.1 What programmes are available to transfer files between my Amiga and PC?
If you have Workbench 2.1 or higher, you have CrossDOS as part of the OS.
Otherwise, you can get:
MessyDOS:
http://au.aminet.net/pub/aminet/misc/emu/msh-156.lha
MultiDOS:
http://au.aminet.net/pub/aminet/misc/emu/multidos1_12.lzh
You can also buy versions of CrossDOS that will run on WB1.3 and 2.0. Go
to:
http://www.dtu.com.au/index.htm
Warlock's Transfer Programme is an AmigaBASIC programme which you can use to
transfer files from a real Amiga from within UAE.
http://www.marksplace.f9.co.uk/amipctools.html
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/comm/misc/WarTrans.lha
ADF Sender Terminal - Allows you to transfer files between an Amiga and a
PC without a terminal program. Free.
http://homepage.uibk.ac.at/homepage/c725/c72578/amiga/
ADFTransfer - Replaces the terminal programme at the PC end of a serial
connection and provides file-specific options. Free.
http://emul8.bydnet.com.pl/pliki/amiga-emul/adf_transfer12.zip
Amiga Explorer - Provided by Cloanto with their Amiga Forever CD. Allows
Amiga-PC serial or TCP/IP connection. See the screen shot at:
http://www.cloanto.com/amiga/forever/
AmigaTRANS uses a null-modem cable to transfer files between Windows and an Amiga.
http://www.ntware.com/workstation/terminal.html
TransAmiga - Transfer files from your Amiga via one of 3 different methods.
http://homepage.uibk.ac.at/homepage/c725/c72578/amiga/adfsenderterminal/methods.html
On the WB1.3 Extras disk , and perhaps other early versions, you will find an
AmigaBASIC programme called terminal.bas that can be used for transfers, if
you're desperate.
Top
Q5.3.2 How do I obtain, install and run XYZ software?
Rather than reproduce a wealth of specific information here, refer to the
Ami-PC_FAQ mentioned in 4.3.3.4 & 5 above. It covers in detail many of
the requirements for different transfer methods, software and hardware,
including links. You can get the Ami-PC_FAQ as
Ami-PC_FAQ.txt
by Ben Hutchings.
Top
Q5.3.2.1 How do I obtain, install and run CrossDOS?
If you have Workbench 2.1 or higher, you have CrossDOS as part of the OS. For earlier
versions, there are several other options.
CrossDOS drivers are found in the Storage/DOSDrivers directory as two icons named PC0: and PC1:.
(CrossDOS is not included with the net edition of Amiga Forever.) These drivers allow
the use of 720K PC-formatted disks in your Amiga floppy drives, DF0: and DF1:
respectively. If you have a high-density drive(s) in your Amiga, CrossDOS will allow you
to use 1.44 MB PC-formatted disks as well.
You have two options for activating CrossDOS. For ocassional use, you can simply double-click
on either icon when you want to run CrossDOS. The driver will run until you next shutdown the Amiga.
If you would like to have CrossDOS run automatically whenever you start up, copy the icons to the
Devs\DOSDrivers directory.
Once activated, CrossDOS places one icon on the Workbench for each driver. The icons
are black floppy disks marked "PC" and should be obvious. The icons will be inactive until a correctly
formatted disk is inserted into the appropriate drive. Once active, you can use the drive and its icon
just as you would an Amiga drive.
You can also format disks on your Amiga with CrossDOS. To do this, make sure that CrossDOS is active
then right-click on the appropriate drive icon and select "Format". Select the desired
disk format in the list which appears in the Format programme and proceed normally.
Here's an on-line guide to CrossDOS:
http://www.l8r.net/technical/t-crossdos.shtml
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Q5.3.3 Where can I get Amiga software on the net?
The definitive web site for Amiga software is Aminet:
ftp://de.aminet.net/~aminet/
but there are many others. A simple web search will return enough hits to
keep you busy for weeks.
Ralf Steines has developed a very nice on-line search engine that allows you
to search web and ftp sites, Aminet and more:
http://www.metamonk.de/amiga/
The Nth Dimension contains stacks of cover disks from the big Amiga magazines, now
gone. Bucket-loads of software:
http://nthdimension.emuunlim.com/
Top
Q5.3.4 What is GZip?
GZip is the Free Software Foundation's zip compression implementation. It
is freely distributable and versions are available for most platforms.
Amiga:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/pack/gzip124x2.lha
MS-DOS:
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/gzip-1.2.4.msdos.exe
UNIX:
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gzip
Most implementations of a Unix or Unix-ish OS will include gzip as standard, as
will replacement Unix-style shells. If not, see your distribution web site.
Top
Q5.3.5 How do I preserve my long file names when using CrossDOS?
CrossDOS' drivers only support the 8.3 filename format so, when you copy
your files from Win95 to the Amiga, or vice versa, longer filenames will be
truncated to 8.3 by adding ~1, ~2 etc to the first six characters of your
original filename and preserving the suffix. The last number differentiates
between names that have the identical first six characters. You can avoid
this by archiving the files, with their long names, with Winzip, LhA or some
other suitable programme before transferring via CrossDOS. When you
unarchive the files the long names will have been preserved. Alternatively,
you can buy Version 7 of CrossDOS which supports long file names internally.
Go to:
http://www.cucug.org/consultron/crossdos.html
for more details, a demo version and the CrossDOS FAQ.
Note: The Consultron web site is no longer available and I am unable to
trace them. I have left these links here for now in case they pop up again. You should
still be able to find copies of CrossDOS available for sale at Amiga dealers on-line.
Top
Q5.3.6 How do I import files from my Amiga word processor to a word processor
on another platform?
If you're very lucky, the word processor on the parent platform will have the
ability to import files in the original WP's format. The next best option is to
use a file format that's common to both WPs. Failing that, save the
files as plain text in the original WP. All WPs can import plain text.
You'll lose any formatting but at least you can get the data into your new WP
and reformat it. If you no longer have the generating programme or only have
formatted files saved on disk, you can try any import options available in
the new WP but you're probably out of luck. All is not lost, though. If you
ask in the various news groups and mailing lists, it's not unlikely that
you'll find someone who has the original programme and can convert the files
to plain text for you, if you send them by email.
If you're using Amiga Forever you're definitely in luck. Cloanto provides its AmiToRTF
programme with Amiga Forever. AmiToRTF can "extract text from a variety of Amiga document
formats, and save data in the Rich Text Format (RTF, ".rtf" file name suffix) or as
plain text (ISO 8859-1 "ASCII", ".txt" suffix). The resulting files can easily be loaded by
the most common programs under different operating systems." Bargain!
Furthermore, "AmiToRTF can extract texts from the following file formats:
- Amiga ANSI
- Amiga IFF-FTXT
- ASCII (Amiga, DOS, Mac, Atari, CBM, C-64, 7-bit ASCII and others)
- Cloanto Personal Write (FTXT, compressed, encrypted)
- Cloanto C1-Text (FTXT, compressed, encrypted)
- PowerPacker (compressed, encrypted)
- Documents created by ProWrite, FinalWriter and Wordworth
- Unrecognized formats"
The last item suggests that text can be dragged from any file so you should be able to
recover your data easily. AmiToRTF is automatically installed in
Amiga Forever\Emulation\shared\dir\Work\Software\AmiToRTF. Full documentation is provided as well.
If you're one of those folks we regularly hear struggling with recovering old WP data,
this alone could be reason enough to buy Amiga Forever and a cheap solution.
Top
Q5.3.7 Hasn't someone written software that handles .adf's?
Yup, several. Try these:
Windows:
ADF Opus - Previously known as ADF Explorer. An .adf manager which allows
you to open .adf's and copy and delete files therein. Also allows you to
create and manipulate hardfiles and their contents, .adz and .dms files. Free.
Maintained by me. :-)
http://jetjockey.fly.to/adfopus.html
ADF View - A Windows shell namespace extension allowing you to view AmigaDOS formatted image
files directly in the Windows Explorer.
http://www.viksoe.dk/adfview/
ADF-Suite - A disk manager and hex editor for .adf's. Allows you to copy
files into and out of .adf's etc. Shareware.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/7094/index1.htm
Down and untraceable - 22/1/04.
Amiga:
Adf2Disk: - Unpacks .adf's to floppy disk.
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/misc/adf2disk11.lha
Adf2FMS - Unpacks .adf's to FMS virtual floppy on your HD.
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/misc/adf2fms.lha
AdfBlitzer - Read/write .adf files.
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/misc/adfblitzer.lha
TransADF - Create compressed .adf files.
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/misc/TransADF.lha
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/misc/TransADFGUI.lha
UAE-App - Control .adf insertion, removal and compression from Workbench under
emulation.
http://hosted.back2roots.org/uae-app/
Other platforms:
Nil known. please advise.
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Q5.3.8 What is this file with the .rom suffix?
This is a copy of Kickstart saved as a file, usually called
kickstart.rom, by transrom.
Top
Q5.3.9 What is this file with the .roz suffix?
This is a gzipped .rom image. Some implementations of UAE will read these
directly as long as you have a copy of GZip in your path. You can decompress
it with GZip if you wish, if you want to retrieve the file or your emulator
doesn't support GZipped .rom's. Please let me know whether your
implementation of UAE supports GZipped .rom's.
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Q5.2.10 What is this file with the .adz suffix?
This is a GZipped .adf as mentioned before. Some implementations of UAE
will read these directly as long as you have a copy of GZip in your path.
You can decompress it with GZip if you wish, if you want to retrieve files
or your emulator doesn't support GZipped .adf's. Please let me know whether
your implementation of UAE supports GZipped .adf's.
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Q5.3.11 What is this file with the .dms suffix?
This is a floppy disk image compressed with DiskMasher, an Amiga disk
compressor. DMS, as it's known, is not supported directly by Fellow, that is it
can't read an .adf compressed with DMS. You can certainly use DMS from within
either emulator. Get it at:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/arc/dms111.run
A version which allows unpacking of DMS files under UNIX exists at:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/misc/unix/undms-1.3.c.Z
UAE will open disk images compressed with DMS if you have the programme xDMS
in the same directory as UAE. In WinUAE it is not good enough just to have xDMS
in your command path, it must be in the same directory. Please advise findings
with other versions. xDMS is a programme which will convert DMS files into .adfs.
DOS, Linux and Amiga versions are included in the distribution. Get xDMS from:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/arc/xDMS.lha
Another programme is available to convert .dms files directly to .adf format
under MSDOS, called dms2adf:
http://go-find-it.virtualave.net/Amiga_Utilities/dms2adf.zip
HFM virtual floppy disks are excellent for unpacking DMS archives without the slow
drive access delays.
HFMounter creates up to 12 virtual floppy drives on your hard drive:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/misc/HFM2_2.lha
or up to 32 with this extension:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/misc/VF2000.lha
Top
Q5.3.12 What is this file with the .lha suffix?
This is an archive compressed with LhA, an Amiga file compressor. LhA is
not supported directly by UAE or Fellow, that is they can't read an .adf
compressed with LhA. You can certainly use LhA from within either emulator.
Versions of LhA are available for most platforms which means that you can do any
decompression on your destination machine if you wish. Get it at:
Lha Homepage:
http://lha.warped.com/
Amiga:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/arc/LhA_e138.run
http://lha.warped.com/LhA.lha
(ex registered version)
MS-DOS:
http://lha.warped.com/LHA255E.EXE
Windows:
Note that the
DOS version of LhA will still truncate filenames to 8.3. A version of LhA
that supports long filenames is available at:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/arc/lhant.lha
For some reason this version doesn't work with Winzip but it works
perfectly well otherwise. Many other Windows compression programmes also
support LhA, either internally or by making use of the DOS version. Here are a couple:
LhA32
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~GI8S-
TKUC/
PowerArchiver
http://www.powerarchiver.com/
Un*x:
http://lha.warped.com/lha-114d.tar.gz
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Q5.3.13 What is this file with the .lzx suffix?
This is an archive compressed with LZX, an Amiga file compressor. LZX is
not supported directly by UAE or Fellow, that is they can't read an .adf
compressed with LZX. You can certainly use LZX from within either emulator. LZX
is not currently available for any other platform and Amiga development has
ceased. The full registered version has been released to the general public and
you can get it at:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/arc/lzx121r1.lha
You can now get utilities that will decompress .lzx archives under
Windows/MSDOS, Unix and others.
Windows/MSDOS:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/arc/W95unlzx.lha
WarpOS:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/arc/UnLzxWOS.lha
PowerPC:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/pack/unlzx.lha
Unix:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/misc/unix/unlzx.c.Z
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Q5.3.14 How do I get XYZ game to work?
There are problems with some games. You also may need to run a particular
version of Kickstart or boot with the disk in a drive rather than run it from
Workbench. To find out the requirements for a particular game, look at:
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/Members/gc.yuen/gamesfixes/
or Back To The Roots:
http://www.back2roots.org/
Also check out Back To The Roots' legal games and demos.
There is a problem with some games not saving a game in progress. First,
make sure that you have created a blank .adf, inserted it into a drive and
formatted it. If you have done all that and the game still won't save, you've
got one that doesn't work fully under emulation.
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Q5.3.15 What is Picasso96?
Picasso96 is the software which retargets the standard Amiga graphic display
to a Picasso or other add-on graphics card. WinUAE, and possibly others (let
me know) can emulate a Picasso96 compatible card with up to 8MB of RAM, allowing
the use of higher screen resolutions courtesy of Picasso96. The Picasso96
software is distributed freely and available at:
http://picasso96.home.pages.de/
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Q5.3.16 How do I install Picasso96?
Read the documentation. Run the installation on your emulator and follow
the prompts. You can then run the ScreenMode programme in the Prefs drawer and
select a uaegfx screenmode from the list on the left. These are the new enhanced
modes. You can adjust the Picasso96 settings using the Picasso96Mode programme,
also in Prefs but it's better left alone unless you have a compelling reason
to change something.
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Q5.3.17 Why do I get an error message about Picasso96 failing at startup?
Another good question. It's believed to be a bug. Cancelling the requester
will still allow the emulation to start using the Picasso96 screenmode.
If you're comfortable with fiddling with prefs, there is a temporary fix.
You need to go into Picasso96Mode and change the DisplayIDBase entry at the
bottom left. The suggestion is to change it to $5010 which worked for me with
the following conditions. Make sure that you press return and then save the
new value. I suggest that you write down the original value so that you can
change it back if necessary. You will be prompted to reboot. After the reboot
I found that the emulation started at a higher resolution than I had previously
set. If this happens, run ScreenMode and change the selected mode to the one
you want. Notice that there are now more entries in the ScreenMode listing on
the left? Most are duplicated. You can remove some of these by disabling the
modes you are not using in Picasso96Mode. You can disable the unneeded
screenmodes in the "Resolutions" and "Modes" list by
double-clicking on them and saving when finished. In my case the error at startup
didn't disappear until I had removed some of these screenmodes. Hopefully the bug
will be fixed in the next version of WinUAE but until then this works.
The error here is apparently due to a problem with the Windows DirectX drivers.
There is another known conflict with DirectX which causes video problems. It
is recommended in the docs that sound be left disabled to prevent this problem
occurring.
UPDATE: I believe that this problem has been resolved in current versions.
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Q5.3.18 Is it OK to make copies of Amiga software?
This is a big question. If you own a copy of the software it is acceptable
to make a copy for your own use, so you can copy it to an .adf and use it in
UAE. This includes Kickstart and Workbench. Hence the previous statement that
you need to own an Amiga or a copy of the OS to use UAE legally. If you own
a copy of some software you can copy it even if your Amiga no longer functions,
it's the ownership that makes it legal. If you don't own a copy of the software
then it is usually illegal to posses a copy. Your own country or state laws
apply here, check them if you need to. Check the specific copyright conditions
for the software concerned as well, they may be limiting.
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Q5.3.19 What if I download a copy of XYZ software?
If you own the software but, for example, can't transfer a copy yourself
between your Amiga and the emulating platform, it is generally thought to be
legal to download a copy that someone else has copied to an .adf and use it.
It is not generally legal to download a copy of software that you don't own.
It is not my intention to examine the moral issues here. Again, check your local
laws if required.
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Q5.3.20 Can I make .adf's available for download?
Very big question! If you wrote the contents, absolutely. If the material
you want to make available is written by someone else and distributed freely,
then quite possibly. Some authors do place limitations on how you can distribute
their work. The best solution would be to contact the author and ask their
permission. If the .adf contains commercially available material then take care.
There is much debate on this topic and I don't claim to have an answer. Many
companies go to great lengths to stop this sort of thing. Most sites that have
.adf's available for download include a disclaimer in an attempt to transfer any
responsibility for use of software the user doesn't own to the user. A disclaimer
may have no basis in law. If you do it you may be liable to prosecution. You may
not. International law may apply. I suggest that you would need to be very clear
about the legal implications in your specific case. Your life. Your choice.
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Q5.3.21 What other software should I get?
Opinions vary. Here are some suggestions:
Amiga
Directory Opus:
Jonathan Potter's seminal file manager, released as freeware to the Amiga community:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/biz/dopus/DOpus412JRbin.lha
Directory Opus is so popular that it has its own section on Aminet, so continue on to Aminet's
Opus area for more add-ons than you can poke a stick at:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/biz/demo/index.html
HFMounter:
HFMounter creates up to 12 virtual floppy drives on your hard drive:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/misc/HFM2_2.lha
or up to 32 with this extension:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/misc/VF2000.lha
See section 5.1.3 for details on how to use HFM to transfer files between
an Amiga and an emulator.
KingCON:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/shell/KingCON_1.3.lha
NewIcons:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/wb/NewIcons46.lha
Magic User Interface:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/libs/mui38usr.lha
Master Control Panel:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/cdity/MCP130.lha
MagicCX:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/cdity/MagicCX12.lha
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/cdity/mcxp337.lha
Magic Menu:
http://fsinfo.cs.uni-sb.de/~cattaneo/magicmenu/
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/wb/MagicMenu_II.lha
Magic Workbench:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/wb/MagicWB21p.lha
ToolManager:
ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/util/wb/ToolManagerBin.lha
Windows
WinGuide:
WinGuide is a very nice utility that allows you to view AmigaGuide hypertext
files directly in Windows:
ftp://de.aminet.net/aminet/dirs/aminet/misc/emu/winguide.lha
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Q5.3.22 Are there any developer resources for dealing with
.adfs?
Laurent Clevy has developed ADFlib, the ADF library, available at:
http://come.to/adflib
The page contains a full description, developer documentation, linux and win32
binaries, and a basic utility to list the contents of ADFs. All of this is free.
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Q5.3.23 What's the difference between ROMs and Disk Images?
ROM stands for Read-Only Memory. ROM is data held on a chip. It can't be changed, as can
data in RAM, Random-Access Memory, and is therefore read-only. The term ROM has become the
common term for a programme, usually a game, which was originally held in ROM but has
been extracted to file. These are usually referred to as "ROM files". The original ROMs were used
in the old arcade machines, which you may remember, which only ran a single game over and
over. It later became popular to extract the game data to a file which could then be used
in a software emulator, such as MAME, on a personal computer. It has since become widespread
practice to copy data to files for cross-platform transportation and re-use and the term
has become almost universally used to refer to any programme data copied to a format
which allows this.
An Amiga only uses one ROM, Kickstart, which holds startup and other programme date.
Workbench and all other software is supplied and held on disk. The .adf files used by
Amiga emulators are not ROMs, they are, as the name Amiga Disk File suggests, a copy of a
floppy or hard disk. Hard Disk Files are usually known as .hdfs. A .adf copies not only
the programme data held thereon but also the underlying disk structure including track, sector,
bootblock, directory and other data. It is a complete copy of the disk and it's structure in a file.
As you can now see, it is correct to refer to a copy of Kickstart as a ROM file. .adfs
are not ROMs, they are disk images. People looking for illegally copied software are
often to be found asking for "ROMs" in newsgroups etc. Almost anyone who has used and supported
the Amiga, via emulation or otherwise, is quite aware of the distinction and how these
files are created and used. Amiga users sometimes get understandably cranky, therefore, at
being repeatedly asked for ROMs by these people as they clearly don't understand the
Amiga, are not interesting in supporting it and are viewed as contributing to the software
pirating problems which caused a large part of the Amiga's demise.
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Q5.3.24 Can I use my Amiga MED and tracker files on other platforms?
Yes you can. Try Octamed Player for Windows:
http://www.united-trackers.org/resources/software/octamedplayer.htm
and
or Winamp for mod and tracker files, available for Windows and Mac:
http://www.winamp.com/
Winamp plays files from Med/Octamed, Protracker, Screamtracker 2 and 3, Impulsetracker, Fasttracker 2, Multitracker,
Ultratracker as well as Mods and Emulated Amiga music files. Winamp does plenty more and
is one of those free software pearls you find occassionally, so get it either way.
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