Getting Amiga demos to run on WinUAE

[JimPlaysGames]

Hi Amiga folks,

I'm trying to get some Amiga demoscene executables running on WinUAE, but many of them come in formats I'm unfamiliar with. Usually an exe, which seemed strange to me since I didn't think that was a file type the Amiga uses.

This demo for example:
https://files.scene.org/view/parties...lkcutfinal.lha

Includes an exe and a large dat file. I've been hoping to show off what the Amiga can do and I'm not able to figure this out I'm afraid. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

[chip]

Hi !

You can run standalone exe via the Quickstart panel of WinUAE

Just select "Select Image File" button and choose the exe you want

For the multi file demos instead you need an Amiga + HD

Just use a system like Classic Workbench

http://classicwb.abime.net/

Hope this can help

[JimPlaysGames]

Thanks for the speedy reply! I have HD setup on WinUAE but I'm unsure where to put the additional files and how to run them from there. Any thoughts?

[Nobby_UK]

Additional Files ?
Like .DAT = Wherever the EXE is

" I didn't think that was a file type the Amiga uses."
Really Jim ?

Just ran the Silk Cut Demo = Not Impressed

[MagikGimp]

Hi Jim! Love the channel. As in I have been known to drop in every now and then over the years. And I am a fan of the Mercenary games too. Oh, I read somewhere the other day, some old archived site, that the games shipped with a bug right at the beginning of 2 and 3. Something like that anyway. Now where the hell did I pick that up at? If I jog my memory I'll be sure to mention it... but I digress!

Just watched the demo on WinUAE. You're talking out of your arse Nobby, although those doors shouldn't slide open sideways; I'll give you that.

Anyway, it's straight forward to get it going. Easier still if you use a pre-made setup as chip suggested. There are quite a few others too actually- AmiKit, AmigaSYS, this site that I just discovered. Probably a load more.

I don't know how you've set up your HD install but the important thing is those pre-mades above come with file archiving / compression software out of the box which is what you need as you should always extract LHA archives from within AmigaOS and not with a Windows app. Not only does the Amiga hardware deal with the idiosyncrasies of these files correctly but they allow you to put the extracted files where you want to on your virtual system easily. I personally used an older build of AmiKit just now which extracted the contents to RAM-disk which I could then drag and drop to my Demos folder. I don't need to know much about the impossible mission that is AmigaOS (very pretty but boy, talk about unofficial patches upon patches over many years) and AmiKit even implements right-click menus for this Windo$e scrub. Your mileage using other setups WILL vary though. Just be sure you've mounted a directory from your Windows box that contains your Amiga downloads in the WinUAE config that will appear as a drive on your Amiga desktop. Oh, and I don't know how to use FS-UAE, sorry.

Failing that, there's always YouTube... [ Show youtube player ]

[MagikGimp]

Best results will of course be through real hardware though, if you have it. Full monitor output etc. If anyone can explain the WinUAE scaler to me going from RTG I'd be much obliged. I watched it at original resolution in a tiny window which was fine but not ideal. Cheers.

[chip]

To launch multifile demos you must to have a directory on the PC where you put the demo and which is seen by the system

To create such directory use the "CD&HardDrives" panel of WinUAE

Just select the "Add Directory Or Archive" button and then the "Select Directory" button

Now you have a PC directory that works also on Amiga side

[AC/DC HACKER!]

Hello JimPlaysGames,

An .exe file isn't a big deal. The Amiga doesn't have extensions that Windows or Mac uses. So something crackers or scene, or some other people would use filename.exe just...because they could or wanted to laugh at MS-DOG...erm, DOS...

As long as the Execute flag is set and the program is an Amiga program, it'll run with almost whatever name you want to call it.

[JimPlaysGames]

Thanks for the help everyone, and thank you MagikGimp for the kind words.

Unfortuantely my noonishness has led me to failure again. I figured out how to get lha running on Workbench and extracted the files, but trying to run the exe file gives me the error "Program failed (error #8000000B). I'm just double clicking the exe to run it. Is there something I need to do in Shell to run it?

Regarding the scaling in WinUAE, I actually made a video about that: [ Show youtube player ]

[chip]

Perhaps you have to set the right amount of RAM

Personally speaking i have two configuartions, both have 2 MB of chipram

One config have 8 MB of Z2 fastram, another config have 64 MB of Z3 fastram

Another thing that can make the difference is the chipset .... try also 68040

Just experiment a little

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by JimPlaysGames

Thanks for the help everyone, and thank you MagikGimp for the kind words.

Unfortuantely my noonishness has led me to failure again. I figured out how to get lha running on Workbench and extracted the files, but trying to run the exe file gives me the error "Program failed (error #8000000B). I'm just double clicking the exe to run it. Is there something I need to do in Shell to run it?

Regarding the scaling in WinUAE, I actually made a video about that: [ Show youtube player ]

Instead of double clicking the .exe file, open a CLI window, then CD into the directory you installed the demo and then typing the full exe name and hitting return.

It might be that running from Workbench doesn't give the demo the correct path to where any additional files are that the demo might need to load.

[JimPlaysGames]

Still no luck. I tried with 8mb of Z2 and then with 64mb of Z3. Tried the 68040 and 68060. I must be missing something. Thank you for the help though. There's probably something weird and strange about my setup. I'll probably need to do a completely new setup from scratch following a guide for this to work.

[chip]

I don't know if it's the case, but some demos needs the FPU too

[JimPlaysGames]

Is CLI the equivalent of AmigaShell in this case? Tried running it from there and it gave the same error.

[Nobby_UK]

Indeed, just tried 2 with a 32 Meg [040] set up (Standard OS 3.0):
One ran with glitches the other would not ---
but at least it told me it wanted 64 Meg.

On a 128 Meg [040] set up (AIAB [Scalos] OS 3.1)
They both ran fine.

[AC/DC HACKER!]

CLI is run from the Shell Icon.

To get it to run, extract the contents of the lha keeping into a directory of the same name. WinRAR does that very well, "Extract to Filename". WinUAE isn't reading the lha correctly as a floppy, so the data file isn't be found. Once extracted, boot an Amiga 4000 CyberstormPPC config (which is what I have..) with that directory mounted..read/write but not bootable as the demo needs the 68040/060 libraries to be loaded. So you need a full install.

Once at Workbench start it from Shell/CLI by CD-ing to whatever you called the "hard drive". Type the name, and all should be good. Remember to have those libraries accessible or it'll error. I've not come across this demo before. I like the graphics a lot, but lowered the volume.

OR...a much easier method, mount it like a Hard Drive. From "CD & Hard Drives". Click on "Add Directory of Hard Drive" and then "Select Archive or Plain file". Now choose the archive. You're going to have to have an A4000 CyberstormPPC config with the CPU or something 68040+ equivalent. Once Workbench is installed, CPU files are in place..start demo. You don't need to use Shell/CLI.. Workbench + CPU libs are what you're missing.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by JimPlaysGames

Still no luck. I tried with 8mb of Z2 and then with 64mb of Z3. Tried the 68040 and 68060. I must be missing something. Thank you for the help though. There's probably something weird and strange about my setup. I'll probably need to do a completely new setup from scratch following a guide for this to work.

SilkCut can be run safely from the Workench, no need to start it from Shell/CLI

Recommended requirements for Demo SilkCut:

From WinUAE QuickStart choose:

- A4000/040 Better 060 (you must have the required libraries)
- RAM 32 MB Better 128/256
- No JIT -> With JIT enabled the demo is faster but in the middle, the demo quitting for RAM problems
- FPU
- OS 3.9

A4000/040 OS 3.9: Test Video Demo SilkCut

Amiga uses .exe files for some motives, for example it happens that to start an executable you have to create a script that usually has the same name, then you decide to give the .exe point to the real executable.

Another reason seems that on Amiga the .exe protected better the executable from viruses.

[AC/DC HACKER!]

Safely from Workbench? Did you expect viri in your tests? Giggling.

What are you typing about with ".exe"?? It's an extension that doesn't matter to Amiga OS. Are you attempting to confuse very basic users?? Anti-Virus programs don't rely on .exe to know if a file is infected. The executable code is within the file.

For scripts ".exe" is just a way to rename a file to be accessible. I typed about that above. I think you didn't read it or understand it. If you didn't understand...ask.

[Foebane]

After a few years of trial and error, I discovered the best way of running demos, both low-end and high-end, on WinUAE, was the "drag-n-drop" method:

Dragging and dropping ADFs and EXEs that you know are for plain A500s is simplicity itself.

Same for A600.

With plain A1200, it's best to drag-n-drop only ADFs into the purple start screen, and leave the exes for ClassicWB on HD.

Beyond that, just use ClassicWB for everything else, and just drag-n-drop the LHAs and ZIPs straight into WinUAE and the ClassicWB desktop, and then look for the readme to find out how to run it. ClassicWB should make it easy to read them.

I've included the eight configurations I use for all Amiga demos. The hardest part was testing each demo on each one of them, to make sure they ran in the most stable and optimal sense.

[JimPlaysGames]

Thank you all, I finally got it working thanks to your help! I'm still such a noob but I think the thing I was missing was the FPU. I don't know what that is, but enabling that makes it work. Thanks again!