What games wont boot on an A500 from an external drive?

[Fuzzball]

I have read that some games will not boot on the A500 from an external drive even when using a boot selector switch. Is there a list of these games anywhere?

[kremiso]

i suppose many included in this list, multi-disk game wise :

https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...75&postcount=1

plus, many single disk games too i believe

[SkulleateR]

Almost none of the older games work when booted from DF1/2/3 due to the Bootloaders or Hardcoded DF0: Parts

The List would be shorter when looking for working games

[Fuzzball]

Does a boot switch in an A500 solve this though and make the external look like df0? I've read a lot and am confused

[Nor Bert]

If the external floppy drive is seen as DF0 (bootselector), then all games will work from it.
But if as df1: then only some will launch, provided the Amiga has a minimum kick 2.x

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by Fuzzball

Does a boot switch in an A500 solve this though and make the external look like df0? I've read a lot and am confused

The hw boot selector should make it completely transparent, i.e. it should work.


One thing is that each additional disk drive causes some chip memory to be allocated (kickstart <2), and thus there's not enough memory to run the game in some cases with more than one drive. This could be the issue you're seeing. A boot selector with a feature to disable df1 could solve that.

[stx2199]

not even on the A1200 in which you can choose from which drive to boot ....99% of the commercial games will not run from DF1
fact is that most of them boots but crash after

[Photon]

Originally Posted by Fuzzball

I have read that some games will not boot on the A500 from an external drive even when using a boot selector switch. Is there a list of these games anywhere?

Whoever wrote that probably doesn't have one, or has a faulty one.

Originally Posted by hooverphonique

The hw boot selector should make it completely transparent, i.e. it should work.


One thing is that each additional disk drive causes some chip memory to be allocated (kickstart <2), and thus there's not enough memory to run the game in some cases with more than one drive. This could be the issue you're seeing. A boot selector with a feature to disable df1 could solve that.

On 1.3, setting the external drive to DF0 disables the internal one. The internal drive is only mounted as DF1 on higher kickstarts.

I've had no issues.

The boot switch in the ACA500/Plus menu works the same as the hardware switches.

[LordCrass]

I have a software-selectable boot drive switch which works by hitting ctrl+amiga+amiga 3 times quickly to swap the boot drive, but it's flaky on my system. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

Eventually get it to swap, play a game for a while, then hit ctrl+amiga+amiga once to reboot for another game, and it swaps on you, even though you didn't do it 3 times.

Might be because I have a pistorm in this system? Anyone else have similar issue? For my other A500, I got one that uses a physical switch to avoid this.

[Retro1234]

As others have written 99% of Games need to boot from DF0 - I believe something like this makes the external drive appear as DF0.

https://retrolemon.co.uk/amiga-upgra...-selector.html

[Photon]

Originally Posted by Retro1234

As others have written 99% of Games need to boot from DF0

Yeah, and this is actually great for both devs and users! No question how to start a game and un-confused disk swapping with reliable code (well, game design).

It's ONLY because we don't want to mod our Amigas and put a floppy emu inside the case that you need a floppy boot switch. A fairly recent phenomenon, and games can't be rewritten (and arguably shouldn't, from the K.I.S.S. rule).

[stx2199]

the list of games that works from DF1 surely is bigger than 1%

ie these ones work ok and boot from DF1 on the A1200

Alien bash 2
Alfred chicken AGA
Arabian nights
FIre and ice xmas
ikari warriors AGA fixed by galahad
Extrial

[Photon]

stx2199 I agree (although that list out of 3000+ is less than 1%) but I think if you want to boot from an external drive, just get the floppy boot switch. No soldering required. I think it's a no-brainer and peace of mind. No magic hold two buttons and stand on one leg while rebooting and no needing to know which games work and don't.

[stx2199]

Originally Posted by Photon

stx2199 I agree (although that list out of 3000+ is less than 1%) but I think if you want to boot from an external drive, just get the floppy boot switch. No soldering required. I think it's a no-brainer and peace of mind. No magic hold two buttons and stand on one leg while rebooting and no needing to know which games work and don't.

the list is bigger than 1% perhaps 5% or so,I just tested those games on my A1200 but Im sure there are many more

btw,

which floopy boot switch are you talking about?

plz note on the A1200 you insert a booteable disk in DF1 and will boot on the fly , there is no need to enter to early startup menu

[Photon]

Originally Posted by stx2199

the list is bigger than 1% perhaps 5% or so,I just tested those games on my A1200 but Im sure there are many more

btw,

which floopy boot switch are you talking about?

plz note on the A1200 you insert a booteable disk in DF1 and will boot on the fly , there is no need to enter to early startup menu

^ yeah this has to do with WB2+, not really with A1200 - I would say many unfixed games have issue with accel and AGA tho! (Sometimes even if Early Boot chipset is set to OCS.)

More than 75% of games are OCS, and mid-90s OCS and "all" AGA games ofc work fine on A1200, so that's why A1200 boot switch is rarely needed. A1200=get some RAM and run WHD OCS games is better.

I mean of the type Retro1234 linked. Mine is this one, but they should be in many Amiga stores. (For A1200 you need a different one e.g. this.)

[stx2199]

Originally Posted by Photon

^ yeah this has to do with WB2+, not really with A1200 - I would say many unfixed games have issue with accel and AGA tho! (Sometimes even if Early Boot chipset is set to OCS.)

More than 75% of games are OCS, and mid-90s OCS and "all" AGA games ofc work fine on A1200, so that's why A1200 boot switch is rarely needed. A1200=get some RAM and run WHD OCS games is better.

I mean of the type Retro1234 linked. Mine is this one, but they should be in many Amiga stores. (For A1200 you need a different one e.g. this.)

ah ok thanks for the links
the link for the A1200 is a switch for the internal drive and the gotek when they are connected to the same floppy connector
for real external drives I never found a switch or hack that really worked, anyways I really don't needed, my external floppy drive is always stored
and I rarely connect it, I connected it today just for curiosity just to test to see what games I had that ran from DF1