How do you Launch a game from an Amiga Environment?

[mancity]

Hi guys,

New to Amiga and these forums

I bought, downoaded and installed Amiga Forever Plus edition last night and im now playing some of the classics I used to love as a kid (namely Turrican I & II ), however I never had an Amiga, always the C64 and then consoles so I missed the Amiga.

Anyway, I have a quick question on Amiga Forever and I cannot find an answer on the official Amiga Forever site.

Basically I understand how to use everything more or less and I can launch all games I want from the 'player' easily.

However, when I launch into a workbench (3.x for example) and virtually insert a floppy or say, Cannon Fodder, all I get is a 'RAM' (might be 'ROM') icon appear on the desktop. When I open that and click the contents I always get a 'checksum failure'.

As iv'e never used an Amiga before Im guessing im doing something wrong? Please can somebody enlighten me?


Regards

[ajk]

Many, if not most, games don't use a normal file system on the floppy to store the files. This can be for copy prevention purposes, fitting more stuff on the disk, or whatever. In any case they are intended to be booted from directly and this is why you can't access them in Workbench normally.

The way to get around this is to use WHDLoad, which is a tool for patching and installing these games to the hard drive. Have a look at the documentation on that site for details.

"RAM Disk" is a virtual drive used to store temporary files. Usually non-standard games disks will appear as DF0:NDOS or something similar.

[mancity]

Thanks alot for your help. I think I understand what you are explaining.

Basically, most games prevent you from inserting a floppy to start a game when the Amiga is already on and need you to have the floppy in first and boot straight into that?

Therefore that program you mention will allow me to virtually install the game disks onto the virtual Amiga HD and load them directly from there?

[ajk]

Yes, you got it exactly right. Installing with WHDLoad is also advantageous in other ways, since it often fixes compatibility bugs (not usually a problem with emulators though), removes copy protection etc. If you search on this forum there are lots of threads about how to set it up and stuff like that.

[mancity]

Thanks alot I will have a read through the link over the weekend

[seuden]

I hate you mancity!

Good luck with WHDLoad, you'll love it!

[mancity]

Im not at home to try it, but...

Could I start the virtual Amiga, mount the floppy of the game I want, then reset the Amiga and it would load as if it was real hardware and load straight into the game?

As im not at home I cannot try it and not sure if there is a reset option there?

@ Seuden - Lol, a United fan, from down south! typical

[MrCheese]

Originally Posted by mancity

Im not at home to try it, but...

Could I start the virtual Amiga, mount the floppy of the game I want, then reset the Amiga and it would load as if it was real hardware and load straight into the game?

Yes it should.

[seuden]

Originally Posted by mancity

@ Seuden - Lol, a United fan, from down south! typical

Haha, it is typical. I won't bother defending myself either.

Big game on Monday.