Catweasel Its Good And Bad

[Photon]

Toni's no-nonsense verdict seems to be the experience of many, and for some reason the buyers post support threads on here and other forums. When it comes to unique hardware and software developed by a smaller single manufacturer, maybe installing it in an older PC with XP SP2+oldest driver that supports your nVidia card would make sense? Stuff from before PC software/hardware took a turn for the worse :P

I've had at least a couple much-beloved programs and hardware where downgrading a little did the trick, and for software, just installing the ole XP SP2 made all problems go away

Then again, I already have an old computer capable of reading and writing ADFs - an Amiga with CF adapter

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Photon

Then again, I already have an old computer capable of reading and writing ADFs - an Amiga with CF adapter

That's fine for Amiga disks/images, but the MkIV Catweasel is capable of reading/writing many more formats, limited (so it is said) only by the programmer's resourcefulness.

[prowler]

There is one useful thing that is mentioned in the first part of Sven Harvey's Amiga Mart feature on the Catweasel - the URL for the Catweasel MkIV Plus User Manual:
http://siliconsonic.de/t/catweasel-usermanual.pdf

[8bitbubsy]

Originally Posted by Photon

Toni's no-nonsense verdict seems to be the experience of many, and for some reason the buyers post support threads on here and other forums. When it comes to unique hardware and software developed by a smaller single manufacturer, maybe installing it in an older PC with XP SP2+oldest driver that supports your nVidia card would make sense? Stuff from before PC software/hardware took a turn for the worse :P

I've had at least a couple much-beloved programs and hardware where downgrading a little did the trick, and for software, just installing the ole XP SP2 made all problems go away

Then again, I already have an old computer capable of reading and writing ADFs - an Amiga with CF adapter

Another tip: Run the 32 bit version of XP, even better support for drivers.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by prowler

The Amiga Mart column of this week's Micro Mart (Issue 1074, 24-30 September 2009) is entirely given over to Sven Harvey having some fun setting up his Catweasel MkIV in an Athlon 64-based Windows XP PC, and the theme is to be continued next week.

So far, it is very interesting. When the feature is complete, I will summarize his recommendations for a trouble-free installation here.

I now have Micro Mart Issue 1075. Unfortunately, Part 2 of the Catweasel feature is a bit of a cop out!

A disappointing three paragraphs tell us that the Catweasel is "damn frustrating" (although the difficulties he describes seem to be due to an incompatible floppy drive), and the best advice he can give anyone wanting to convert Amiga disks over to the PC is to use a real Amiga with a memory card reader rather than a Catweasel - at least on the basis of his experience so far.

There is no mention of whether there will be a Part 3.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by plankton

I'd rather send a polite mail to the developer than writing this but guess what, the website blows as well. Totally lost trying to find a way to contact.

http://www.jschoenfeld.com/home/impressum.htm
and follow the EMail link to:
http://amiga.think42.com/email/email.htm

Edit: Direct link to English eMail page:
http://amiga.think42.com/email/email_e.htm

[8bitbubsy]

I'm running Arch Linux, and it's almost hopeless to compile the 2005 MK4 driver for it.. Found an updated MK3 driver, but doesn't work with the MK4...

Gah!

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by Supamax

I don't understand it, too .

No one does. What's the point of a "software preservation" organisation that doesn't make the software they've preserved available? Surely they're not so stupid to think they will get sued for 15-20 year old games.

Anyone writing closed source crap that can't be ported should simply be ignored in my opinion. They aren't selling their product, they have nothing to lose and plenty to gain by making the source available. Maybe they're embarassed at their coding?

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

No one does. What's the point of a "software preservation" organisation that doesn't make the software they've preserved available? Surely they're not so stupid to think they will get sued for 15-20 year old games.

Anyone writing closed source crap that can't be ported should simply be ignored in my opinion. They aren't selling their product, they have nothing to lose and plenty to gain by making the source available. Maybe they're embarassed at their coding?

Hmmmm, no, I disagree with you.
I wrote I don't understand why we cannot swap/link ipfs, while we can do that with adfs.
Both are dumps of copyrighted material, so even adf's references should be banned from EAB threads/posts/Zone etc.

I'm not blaming the SPS team for not distributing the preserved material.
Preserving it doesn't mean it can be freely distributable.

[papa_november]

Boy I sure can't wait for those 64-bit drivers! After all, if I paid upwards of $120 for this thing I should have adequate driver support right?

Right?

We've waited over a year for 64-bit drivers (or any kind of driver update period) and I'm kind of at a loss as to how this is in any way acceptable. At this point I'd like to try and sell the bloody thing before the KryoFlux comes out and renders it totally worthless, but now I can't get the card's SID support working at all on my test machine. Is it bad drivers? Two completely broken SIDs in a row? Who knows!

I really don't get it. Individual's product line is actually pretty solid and well-supported with the glaring exception of this damned thing.

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by Supamax

I'm not blaming the SPS team for not distributing the preserved material.
Preserving it doesn't mean it can be freely distributable.

Well alright, what do you suggest is the purpose of SPS then? Seems like there is none to me.

Closed-source driver, unavailable software images.. I'm not trying to cause any offence here, but that attitude makes the guys come across as a bunch of tightasses unwilling to share anything with anyone but themselves.

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Well alright, what do you suggest is the purpose of SPS then? Seems like there is none to me.

Closed-source driver, unavailable software images.. I'm not trying to cause any offence here, but that attitude makes the guys come across as a bunch of tightasses unwilling to share anything with anyone but themselves.

I understand your point of view, really .
This subject has been discussed in another thread.
The situation is:

- SPS team can create .ipf files. Nobody else can (at present. With KryoFlux we'll see how it goes), and this is good because it assures the "quality" of the file itself

- SPS team sends a .ipf file to the mate who dumped a disk with their tool. This is good, because they do not encourage piracy or copyright infringement

- .ipfs can be found over the Internet, but this is our responsibility, not SPS team's. They can't be prosecuted by law, since they only gave the .ipfs to guys who owned the original games. This is good, so SPS team can go on with their preservation work without being hassled by legal issues

I agree with you about the closed-source driver, though.
Perhaps one day they will release one.

[Hewitson]

I was under the impression that anyone with an Amiga could create IPF's quite easily, and that the difficulty is with writing them back..

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

I was under the impression that anyone with an Amiga could create IPF's quite easily, and that the difficulty is with writing them back..

No... with your Amiga (68020 minimum) and SPS Team's dumping software you can create a raw dump of the original disk.
Then you send the raw file to SPS Team, and (when they confirm it's an unmodified original, based of the comparison with 1 or more dumps from other persons) they will create the .ipf file.

[Hewitson]

LOL.. 68020 required for ripping a disk??

Would hate to see what CPU you needed for an SPS CD-ripper :P

[Jope]

It's not the same thing as running transdisk.