Winuae WHDLoad - Please help

[ksdomino]

Hi

I managed to get an WHDLoad game (downloaded from the zone) working in amiga forever 8 by making a new configuration and setting the model as WHDLoad. The game worked perfectly but I couldn't get 2x screen size working in fullscreen mode (and I wanted more control over sound and more) so I downloaded Winuae and am using the same WHDLoad kickstart roms but the option to set the model to WHDLoad isn't available and all I get is an amigados prompt, or the old amiga disk inserting (workbench?) screen.

Same problem in FS-UAE

I spent 5 hours googling this stuff yesterday to get as far as I have, I feel like I just need the last (hard to find) piece of the puzzle.

Can anyone help please.

[BippyM]

You need a wb environment setting up.

[solarmon]

See the diagram I drew up to summarise how to set up (Win)UAE to mount the WHDLoad boot partition and a WHDLoad game:

https://github.com/solarmon/WHDLoad-Game-Launcher/

This is geared towards my WHDLoad Game Launcher solution, but it might help you enough figure out what is missing/wrong with your setup.

[solarmon]

Some questions to help me help you!

What is the type of your WHDLoad game - i.e. a .zip or .lha file, or it has already been extracted to a directory?

How are you trying to mount it to WinUAE?

Describe your WinUAE setup - in terms of kickstarts and drives mounted.

You also need the Cloanto rom.key in the kickstart locations - see diagram above.

[ksdomino]

Thanks for responding! Some answers and notes:

The type of WHDLoad Game : an extracted directory. Couldn't get the lha working so I extracted it.

The working amiga forever 8 configuration that needs to be replicated in Winuae is:
(in the media tab) built-in boot is set to workbench 3.x
then hard disks:
Drive : Location : Volume Name
DH0 : Built-in boot : System
DH1 : c:/games/lethalweapon :LethalWeapon
DH2 : Built-in WHDLoad : WHDCommon

Thanks again for your help so far.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by solarmon

You also need the Cloanto rom.key in the kickstart locations - see diagram above.

...only if you use the Cloanto KS ROMs and not the original Commodore ones.

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by DamienD

...only if you use the Cloanto KS ROMs and not the original Commodore ones.

Yes - that is correct.

I just assumed ksdomino was using Cloanto kickstarts in WinUAE since it was mentioned that 'Amiga Forever' was used in the original setup.

[ksdomino]

Originally Posted by BippyM

You need a wb environment setting up.

I think this is maybe what I'm missing because when I removed the built-in boot and left the other 2 "Drives" I get that amigados prompt (when booting via amiga forever 8) so somehow I need to set up a workbench thingy preferably in windows so I can then just apply it to each game I want to load.
If someone can pm me the files I need (or tell me how to copy them them from Amiga Forever 8 to Winuae.

Or If there's another solution..I'm willing to try anything at this point

[ksdomino]

Originally Posted by solarmon

Yes - that is correct.

I just assumed ksdomino was using Cloanto kickstarts in WinUAE since it was mentioned that 'Amiga Forever' was used in the original setup.

I think I have both sets so am happy to use whatever's needed for a simple setup..ie just duplicating a working configuration file in Winuae and changing the game volume (and any game specific settings).

I've found the rom.key file, now I need to somehow replicate the setup shown in solarmon's diagram.

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by ksdomino

Thanks for responding! Some answers and notes:

The type of WHDLoad Game : an extracted directory. Couldn't get the lha working so I extracted it.

The working amiga forever 8 configuration that needs to be replicated in Winuae is:
(in the media tab) built-in boot is set to workbench 3.x
then hard disks:
Drive : Location : Volume Name
DH0 : Built-in boot : System
DH1 : c:/games/lethalweapon :LethalWeapon
DH2 : Built-in WHDLoad : WHDCommon

Thanks again for your help so far.

What is "DH0 : Built-in boot : System" - I assume this is a built-in boot image used by Amiga Forever?

You either need to use this in WinUAE or use another 'WHDLoad.hdf' image/solution.

So it looks like the Amiga forever setup makes use of WHDCommon:. This is where the kickstarts (and any key.rom required) can be located. Either that, or they can also be in Devs:Kickstarts (of DH0 - so then you don't need a (DH2 WHDCommon: volume.

You said that is the Amiga Forever setup that needs to be replicated. What is your actual WinUAE setup you are trying? Just want to compare the two.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by ksdomino

I think this is maybe what I'm missing because when I removed the built-in boot and left the other 2 "Drives" I get that amigados prompt (when booting via amiga forever 8) so somehow I need to set up a workbench thingy preferably in windows so I can then just apply it to each game I want to load.
If someone can pm me the files I need (or tell me how to copy them them from Amiga Forever 8 to Winuae.

Or If there's another solution..I'm willing to try anything at this point

You need to setup a .HDF and install Workbench 3.1 from the .ADFs that you have.

[solarmon]

The mimimum drive setup you need in WinUAE is:

DH0 : WHDLoad bootup (Dir or HDF)
DH1 : WHDLoad Game (Dir, LHA or Zip)

I recommend using Directories for both.

Your kickstarts need to go in to DH0evs/Kickstarts. You probably need to copy this from your WHDCommon location in the Amiga Forever setup.

So all you need now is a 'WHDLoad bootup' .hdf or Directory solution.

You can use the following guides on how to create one:

https://www.reddit.com/r/miniSNESmod..._snes_classic/

http://lindqvist.synology.me/wordpress/?page_id=182


Or, if you are desperate, and not wishing to self promote, but I've used the above guides and created my own WHDLoad boot up solution which can be found at the same location as the diagram I referred to earlier:

https://github.com/solarmon/WHDLoad-Game-Launcher

The latest (beta) release can be found at:

https://github.com/solarmon/WHDLoad-.../tag/v0.8-beta

Just download the .zip file, extract it, add your kickstarts and mount as DH0:.

Good luck!

[solarmon]

For reference - WHDLoad Support in Amiga Forever:

https://www.amigaforever.com/kb/15-120

[ksdomino]

Thanks so much guys, I'll put together that launcher and give it a go.
Thank you again.

[Anubis]

For new users FS-UAE is much easier to setup and run WHDLoad games.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by Anubis

For new users FS-UAE is much easier to setup and run WHDLoad games.

It depends, with WinUAE you simply need to go to QuikStart and choose A1200 + 4MB Ram, that's all, all games WHDLoad will work great if you have everything you need at WHDload.

[ksdomino]

Thanks for the tips guys:

Originally Posted by solarmon

WHDLoad boot up solution

I set it up (renamed kickstarts, etc) and now am getting as far as the "press a number" screen of tiny launcher (which is much further than the disk or amidos screen I was getting earlier with both FS-UAE and Winuae) but now it wont see the (WHDLOAD) game (directory) I've loaded into DH1 so a bit more tinkering is required. Any tips?

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by ksdomino

Thanks for the tips guys:



I set it up (renamed kickstarts, etc) and now am getting as far as the "press a number" screen of tiny launcher (which is much further than the disk or amidos screen I was getting earlier with both FS-UAE and Winuae) but now it wont see the (WHDLOAD) game (directory) I've loaded into DH1 so a bit more tinkering is required. Any tips?

If you are getting to Tiny Launcher, then the boot up script is not finding the game file - so it is putting you through to Tiny Launcher.

The startup script expects the .slave file to be in the root of DH1: - so your game directory structure is important.

Taking your Lethal Weapon game as the example, if you have extracted the LethalWeapon_v1.3_0814.zip file (use 'Extract Here') you should have the following:

[DIR] LethalWeapon <---- Mount DH1: to this directory
+---[FILE] Disk.1
+---[FILE] LethalWeapon.info
+---[FILE] LethalWeapon.Slave
+---[FILE] ReadMe
+---[FILE] ReadMe.info

You need to mount DH1: to that root 'LethalWeapon' directory.

I hope that helps.

[solarmon]

Here is an example of my setup - see attached pictures.

Note: I've used LethalWeapon.slave as the Volume name so that I can target that slave file directly. This is only really useful with WHDLoad games that have multiple slave files (for differrent versions of the same game).

[ksdomino]

Awesome! I'll test with that and see how it goes..

The Loader also mentions having a collection of games to choose from so in that case do you need a DH(number) drive for each game with a .slave in each root?

And then what would be the maximum number of games in a collection?

I'll be happy to get it working with even just one game per configuration but it might be useful to have a list to choose from.