Workbench on CD32

[StevenJGore]

IIRC from the days when I owned a CD32 with SX32 Pro, the BB2 ROM update totally breaks CD support for the CD32. Best to stick with WB3.1 for the CD32.

I may have remembered that incorrectly, though.

Steve.

[Rochabian]

Thanks, i just have to return to 3.1.
But this mean that i will be unable to use my 40Gb harddisk (just the first 4Go )
I'll try

[Rochabian]

I've tried with Classic WB Full and it doesn't work
Perhaps another filesystem could resolve this

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Rochabian

But this mean that i will be unable to use my 40Gb harddisk (just the first 4Gb )

There are plenty of solutions for A1200 that might work...

IDEFix97 + SFS?

[alexh]

Originally Posted by StevenJGore

eBay. Be prepared to pay anywhere between £150-£300 for one though, particularly if it's got lots of memory and a hard disk.

SX32 (non pro) is not that much. More like £50-80. I just bought one.

[cosmicfrog]

Network CD (CD32) by Weird Science also boots to a functional WB.

Back to the roots have theses cds up now though cdpd vol1 boots to wb1.3 i think
http://www.back2roots.org/CDs/PD-Soft//20/

enjoy some good old ami cds

[MethodGit]

musashi, you think you might be able to up that freeanim program again? Was interested in seeing whether it was a unique tool you made or not...

[FOL]

Originally Posted by MethodGit

musashi, you think you might be able to up that freeanim program again? Was interested in seeing whether it was a unique tool you made or not...

its on nearly all cd32 discs, and its in the CD32 devkit

[MethodGit]

Are we talking about the FreeAnim/FreeAnimation command, or freeanim.library? I've been trying to work out where the original source for this came from, because it HAD to have come from somewhere for game developers to include it on their CDs.

And I've searched through the whole CD³² Development Kit and couldn't find anything, bar an alternate freeanim.library for 'SimCD32' which I think is supposed to emulate a virtual drive or summat?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by MethodGit

Are we talking about the FreeAnim/FreeAnimation command, or freeanim.library? I've been trying to work out where the original source for this came from, because it HAD to have come from somewhere for game developers to include it on their CDs.

And I've searched through the whole CD³² Development Kit and couldn't find anything, bar an alternate freeanim.library for 'SimCD32' which I think is supposed to emulate a virtual drive or summat?

Freeanim

Its used lots in games. Sure I seen it in CD32 Devkit.
Where did you get your devkit, cause some are incomplete. (i.e. missing make iso app).

[MethodGit]

I searched through all three Amiga Developer CDs, and the archives at CD³²-Allianz.

If those are considered incomplete then a proper development kit must be incredibly obscure.

I'm experimenting with a Workbench 3.1 compilation CD for my CD32. My goal was to make the AmigaOS experience available on a stock CD32 (controls with joymouse and onscreen keyboard). The CD will boot into OS3.1 + MagicWB, KingCON, MUI, MagicMenu, with various utils and apps. It will optimize the boot using the ramdisk, reaching much more faster boot than booting directly from the CD.

It will have a smaller collections of mods, sids, pictures, anims, cd32 related guides+texts, and also some whdload demos and a few games (I still have some problems with getting the WHDloadCD32 running correctly). You'll also be able to change the CD under WB, browse other disks, listen audio CD's with BCDPlay, etc.

Just wanted to ask if anybody would be interested here in such a project.

[a4k-oerx]

Maybe also helpful for these kind of projects, try to locate these files on EAB File Server or elsewhere:

- CD32-MegaGames1.7z (309MB)
- CD32-MegaGames1-Sourcecode.7z (434 KB)

You can learn a lot there how to get maximum out of a CD32 (stand-alone or with extra RAM, how to use an (if existing) external diskdrive as Nonvolatile Memory extension, how to boot WB, etc.).

Many tricks are hidden/used on this CD32 CD, it can even boot itself on a A1200 or A4000 via a temporary RAD, study and learn...

This removes the anim... (see Menu.S in sources)

	[...] more happes here in Menu.S
	move.l	$4.w,a6
	lea	freeanimname(pc),a1
	moveq	#40,d0
	jsr	_LVOOpenLibrary(a6)
	move.l	d0,a1
	tst.l	d0
	beq.b	.skip_free
	jsr	_LVOCloseLibrary(a6)
.skip_free
	[...] more happes here in Menu.S
	moveq	#0,d0
	rts
freeanimname
	dc.b	"freeanim.library",0

Find attached source (AsmONE) and executable (84 bytes), ready to run on any system, has effect only on CD32 with playing anim.

Hint: You can do many (non-graphic/non-audio) things in startup-sequence first with the anim still playing, no need to call freeanim as first command...

[Cammy]

neonlight, I think it's a wonderful idea. I think you should also include all the useful tools for backing up and transfering saved games to and from the CD32's NVRAM, as well as Serial networking so the CD32 can be linked up to another Amiga or a PC so the game saves from the NVRAM can be stored somewhere else.

You could put AmiTCP on the disc, and try to make it connect via SLIP through a nullmodem cable to the internet through a PC. Then you could include applications like Grapevine for IRC and MSN, and AmiMUD for online text-based gaming. All of these programs can run smoothly at the same time in 2MB RAM too (they do on my 68000 2MB A600).

I also think it would be great if you used a more modern iconset than MagicWorkbench, maybe Rebel's new 16 colour icons and skin/theme set. It would certainly make the Workbench look more like it was on a newer Amiga.

What would be even more awesome, is if you could find a way to save Overscan settings in the NVRAM, and assign Workbench to look for those settings there instead of on the CD/HDD. This way people could centre their CD32's Workbench and it would STAY there, and hopefully games that look for this information will be centred too.

[Cammy]

Oh, and if you do manage to get the NVRAM stuff going, how about this. Ask everyone with a CD32 if they can save off their best saved games, and include them all on the disc? People could browse through and choose a save for a game they could never finish a level of, or a saved game with heaps of extra lives. You know they've been doing this for Playstations since the beginning, but the CD32 has always had the capability, it's just a little trickier to transfer the saves back and forth at first, but once it's set up it should be easy enough.

[amigafan1200]

Originally Posted by musashi5150

Sorry fella... didn't check back here. (I guess I owe you some discs and a beer? )

Did the program you were making the discs with patch "CD32.TM" into the ISO? Without that file injected into the ISO at the right sector the CD32 won't boot the disc. The TM file is on the developer CD and I'm sure someone can upload it for you here. I always used the ISO making program on the developer CD too.

Where is the right place to inject this CD32.TM file.

Can I burn this disk using nero on the PC for a cd32 disk?

Or must it be burnt on a amiga?

Can I assemble the files on the amiga then make an iso using the BuildCD programe?

Cammy: It's a good idea, however unfortunately nowadays I have little free time, so I think it's better to finish it in it's current state with the MagicWB iconset, as it's nearly ready. The tools for NVRAM handling will be included. I will consider adding serial networking, think about NVRAM saving in future versions. The idea to solve the saving of overscan (and maybe screenmode) prefs is also worth thinking of..
Regarding the MagicWB, as the system will use 640x256 by default I think other iconsets will look ugly and large in this resolution. MagicWB has good small icon collections especially for this resolution. Anyway I like the retro look'n'feel of the MagicWB iconset, and this whole project is about retro AmigaOS experience.

Yesterday I figured out the WHDload issue. I experienced illegal instruction errors when tried to run some games/demos from Workbench, however they're running very well in no-startup mode. I found that this problem was caused by the "Addbuffers" in the startup-sequence. Adding buffers to the CD made WHDload crazy. (Maybe this is related to the problem others experienced here with WHDload working well on FFS but refusing to work on SFS).

(edited)

amigafan1200: You can add the trademark file to the ISO on amiga only. After the ISO is ready you can burn it with nero or any PC burner. For generating the ISO, I suggest to use Commodore's ISOCD included in the CD32DevKit. It's quite simple and fast. You can also try MakeCD, but it's a bit more complicated.

I've decided to release my Workbench compilation ISO in it's current state. You can download it from here: [copyrighted material download link removed]

The CD boots into a Workbench desktop with MagicWB, KingCON, MUI, ToolsDaemon (+option to switch on MagicMenu) and will leave you 1.5MB free memory. The boot is optimized by extracting a core system into RAM and booting from memory. The temporary bootfiles are deleted after the system is loaded. If you press and hold the RED joypad button during the boot, you'll have a basic shell window with an onscreen keyboard and about 1.8MB free memory. Useful for running whdload stuff with the "preload" option.
You can use shortcuts/aliases in the shell to save typing. "Menu" or "M" will open a quicklaunch menu in no-startup for running whdload demos or games. See the readme on the CD for more information. I may expand the ISO in the future with more apps and features, but if you don't want to wait, you're free to customize it for your taste.

Some screenshots: 1 2 3 4 5

[AmigaFriend]

Nicely done! I'll try this and give feedback!

Great work Neonlight.