Gotek and HxC working together - Page 12

Jeff_HxC2001 · 08 April 2016, 00:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by turrican9

Edit2: Found some info that the original HXC floppy (not Gotek with HXC firmware)

Both can support this (SD HxC and HxC-Gotek).

Quote:

Originally Posted by turrican9

Edit2: Found some info that the original HXC floppy (not Gotek with HXC firmware)
emulators could assign upto 250 slots on the Amiga. This is still far from the 999 on the Gotek Cortex but much better than only 15 slots for the HXC Gotek. But even 250 slots is not enough for me at least.

A question : How many time are you spending to setup/assign 999 images ? This seems totally crazy to me

.
I also wonder how many time and memory it take to load the 1000 file entries to the memory (all of this through the slow floppy interface...).

Anyway if this is really needed i can change the file selector to support 999 files.
But this sound not very practical and in this case i recommend you the LCD+button add-on

.

turrican9 · 08 April 2016, 16:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff_HxC2001

Both can support this (SD HxC and HxC-Gotek).

A question : How many time are you spending to setup/assign 999 images ? This seems totally crazy to me

.
I also wonder how many time and memory it take to load the 1000 file entries to the memory (all of this through the slow floppy interface...).

Anyway if this is really needed i can change the file selector to support 999 files.
But this sound not very practical and in this case i recommend you the LCD+button add-on

.

It took me probably an hour to assign over 500 ADFs on my Gotek. I then made a list in word (I didn't need to write each ADF, I had all the ADFs I wanted in a folder and just copied their filenames and pasted them in a word document and then activated numbering) which shows what ADF is in which slot. They are also alphabetical sorted so it's not hard to use the list. I printed out this list and find it very practical. On the Gotek when you hold the forward/backwards buttons it starts to count really fast. So going to a certain slot does not take many seconds. Having most of the good/known ADFs assigned to slots is much more practical than having to boot up the menu to assign. Also, with a list like I made one don't need a display that shows the filename of the ADF. Having 500 ADFs a display showing the name of the files doesn't help much as you have to cycle through everything anyway. Having a list with all the slots and what is assigned to what slot is much more practical. Oh, and with over 500 slots assigned there will be a small delay if I boot up the ADF selector. Not very long though. Other than that, there are no delay or slowdowns. But I rarely need to boot up the selector because of how many slots I have assigned.

Look at my thread here.

Jeff_HxC2001 · 09 April 2016, 00:18

Ok. I think that what you need is not an Amiga file selector, but a simple pc tool to make this list automatically in some seconds.

PortuguesePilot · 09 April 2016, 01:22

Well... I must say that I also have a pre-selected list of games assigned from slot 31 to slot 457 on my Cortex Gotek. It's easier than assigning a game each time you boot. It's one of the main advantages of the Cortex firmware (I have two Gotek drives, one Cortex and one HxC, so I can compare both directly). I must say that it's very handy to have many slots (the more the merrier) for this purpose.

gorky · 09 April 2016, 07:59

Dears,
I have just registered to this board. Dear Jeff, I need 999 slots in autoboot.hfe too. I have bought 2nd hand gotek with your firmware and was very disappointed that only 30 slots could be used. We have plenty of storage space and our amiga's aren't that slow. If we could print a list of games and then select the number we chose. Jeff, maybe you should enable users to select 999 slots? You could beat the competitive cortex software by this. Another solution is config file to txt conversion - where we could print the list of games with ease. I do not want to buy LCD display , scrolling through a thousands of adfs seems unpractical as for me using selector software.
Thanks in advance

Jeff_HxC2001 · 09 April 2016, 10:25

Interesting. Well, then if you prefer to assign 1000 images at a time to avoid to use the file selector, this means that the embedded file selector idea just totally sucks finally.

So there is no technical/practical reasons to do this on the Amiga. A simple tool on pc/mac will be a lot more convenient to this job.

turrican9 · 09 April 2016, 12:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff_HxC2001

Interesting. Well, then if you prefer to assign 1000 images at a time to avoid to use the file selector, this means that the embedded file selector idea just totally sucks finally.

So there is no technical/practical reasons to do this on the Amiga. A simple tool on pc/mac will be a lot more convenient to this job.

The selector is still important of course. If I had let's say track 21 to track 800 assigned I probably left the 20 first empty because I wanted to assign/reassign images I wanted to test out on a regular basis. Maybe I also wanted to assign more than 800 tracks or change the list without the need to do it on a PC/Mac. The possibility would be nice as an extra feature, but keep the selector that can be used on a real Amiga too. So on a Gotek with HXC firmware, does it cycle faster and faster through the tracks when you hold the backward or forward button and also skip empty tracks, like on the Cortex firmware? This is essentsial if huge number of pre-assigned images are gonna be practical. On the Cortex firmware it's no problem having a huge assigned library because of the above mentioned function.

PortuguesePilot · 09 April 2016, 12:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff_HxC2001

Interesting. Well, then if you prefer to assign 1000 images at a time to avoid to use the file selector, this means that the embedded file selector idea just totally sucks finally.

So there is no technical/practical reasons to do this on the Amiga. A simple tool on pc/mac will be a lot more convenient to this job.

I don't think you understand. Why does the fact that we could save a list of games in their respective slots make the file selector a bad idea? I don't understand your logic there. Also, why does the fact that we want our Goteks - mounted on our Amigas - to be able to store games on slots on a somewhat permanent way - make a "simple tool on pc/mac" a better idea? If everyone is praising the Cortex firmware for this particular aspect, why do you resist the idea that it is feasible and practical and actually wanted by several individuals?

When I only had the Cortex Gotek, I used to hear everyone praise the HxC and diss the Cortex. "The Cortex is buggy. It's discontinued. HxC is much better. Handles extended ADFs and is more compatible." Once I actually got a HxC Gotek and could compare both, I came to realize that it's not true. For instance, my HxC Gotek doesn't boot from the menu. Whenever I need to restart the Amiga after selecting and saving an ADF, I have to Ctrl+A+A. That's a bug on my book. Also, and I'm running on v3.0.6.7a and it doesn't quite deal with extended ADFs, at least not with some of them. Also, the IPF support isn't there (or I could not enable it), so many of the improvements over the Cortex weren't there. Also, there was the disappointment of the number of slots available for pre-selection. I can only preselect 15, while on the Cortex I can go up to 999 (personally I use just about 300).

My Cortex Gotek, mounted on a A500, has a close-100% compatibility rate (only 2 to 3 games out of nearly 500 tried had some issue). No other bugs to report. It resets from the menu and can store up to 999 games on designated slots. These are the main highlights of it.

The HxC firmware has a few qualities too. It boots from Workbench (though once it does, there is no "quit back to Workbench" option, which means if we want to go back to Workbench, we have to reset the Amiga), it is slightly more compatible (accepts some extended ADFs) and has more options. But the little problems I spoke of above are keeping the HxC from completely obliterating the Cortex in terms of practicality.

The ideal firmware, for me, would:
1) Reset from the menu
2) Have some sort of search option, like pressing the letter and jumping onto games that start with that letter.
3) Have as many slots as possible (Cortex' 999 seem to be more than enough)
4) Have an option to sort the files by alphabetic order

And that's it. I don't think its that hard to implement any of these, but I could be wrong. In the end, this is YOUR software and we must respect your wishes and be thankful for what you give us. We're just highlighting things that we would like to see in a standard Gotek drive. There are no ad hominem attacks here. No one is dissing, criticizing or attacking you and - I believe - everyone is grateful for what you've done. We're only expressing some sort of wish list for our Goteks in the hope of making our beloved Amigas even more enjoyable. That's it. The final decisions, though, are up to you, naturally.

Jeff_HxC2001 · 09 April 2016, 14:11

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