Creating Floppies from ADF files!

[cwhaley]

Hello, was hoping for some help getting some old games running on an Amiga 600! Not the best machine in Commodore's history I know, but I grew up running all sorts on this machine and it's a part of my childhood. Hasn't been used properly in years and years, but still works with it's 1MB RAM extension and is now sporting a 4GB CF card as an internal HD.

I have a null modem cable and I'm able to transfer all of the ADF files I have over to the A600's new CF card, but once they are there and on the machine I'm not sure how to get them working. I'm aware they are essentially disk images and need to be written back to an 880k floppy in order to be booted from, but doing that seems to be beyond my knowledge.

I have downloaded 'tsgui' which seems to sport a decent GUI, but before I send it over to the Amiga what is it I need to do to get the program running and copying ADFs to all of my blank Amiga floppy discs? I can't remember what to do with LHA files and I can't seem to find any guidance on getting this program going.

Hoping somebody can help me get back into gaming on the Amiga!

[spudje]

Using tsgui is an option. I'm not sure anymore if this is just a frontend for a command/executable you need to download separately.

However, you could also opt for a very recent and great adf tool: GoADF: https://bitplan.pl/goadf/

Also note that you can also just mount the adf files within Workbench (with a.g. GoADF) and not write them to a physical floppy. So in case you need to run Workbench native software (or install a game to HDD for example) no need to write them to a floppy.

[Jpor]

Get the adf files over to the Amiga. Depending what they are? Are they games? Or Software drivers/programs?

Anyways try using DiskimageGUI from Aminet if you want to open the ADFs directly.

Program can be gotten from Aminet;

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/DiskImageGui

Ideally get a Gotek and usb stick.

If you want to transfer to floppy then I use transadf and transadfgui;

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/TransADF

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/TransADF-GUI

[AMIGASYSTEM]

@cwhaley

If you have CF as your HD you don't need any special cables or software, connect the CF to the PC and with WinUAE (Emulator) copy everything you want quickly.

The LHA archives can be unpacked from Amiga OS with the LHA command you can find at HERE, use the 68k version, you can also unzip LHA archives on Windows with WinRAR.

After that start TSGUI or ADFer write ADF images on Floppy, I attach an old video of mine that shows how to write an ADF from HD to Floppy:

[ Show youtube player ]

[Kin Hell]

Getting .adf files to Disk via a decent interface has always been a pain in the proverbial for most of us.

As spudje also mentions, I'd like to endorse....

I recently registered with GOADF

Loving it. - Extract .adf's to Floppy:, RAD: drives & even it's own virtual drives.

Any Amiga 68k with:
CPU 68000 (68020+ is needed to use virtual drives)
1Mb RAM
Kickstart 2.0+
HDD
xvs.library
reqtools.library v38+ (download it from Aminet)

Works great & easy to understand. - Even for OAP's like me.

[Nobby_UK]

I use ADFBlitzer:
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/adfblitzer

[cwhaley]

Hi all, first of all thanks a lot for the replies I'm very impressed that there is still such a following for Amiga.

I only suggested writing ADF to floppy disc as I thought it was the only real way of getting software to run on the Amiga. To give a bit more context to my set up, I only have a Sony Vaio laptop running Windows 2000 and as this has a serial port, the null modem cable I have was the perfect solution. I've never really used PCs as I was initiated into Apple as a teen (initially using a Power Mac 7200).

Spudje -- GoADF sounds like the perfect solution! There will be ADFs I do want to write, but as the Amiga has a large HD storing them in a few drawers and running directly by mounting images sounds good. For games with multiple discs, does it handle changing the discs virtually while a program is running?

Jpor -- vast majority are games but there are some applications in there too. Thanks for the recommendation on writing to floppy as I will still want to do this.

AmigaSystem -- I don't have a way of connecting the CF card up to the PC unfortunately. However, I do have WinUAE which I bought with a copy of Amiga Forever a long while ago. So I think it'd be worth investing in an adaptor to read the card. Thanks for the video also; I'll have a look at this when I next boot up.

Kinhell -- (been saying that a lot while faffing around with the dodgy RF cable I have...) thanks for the +1 on GoADF. I think I meet all of those specs although I'll have to check the CPU (think it's ShowConfig to do this?). I installed a copy of WB 3.1 so should be okay from the software side of things.

Nobby_UK -- Cheers, looks a nice and straightforward GUI. I'll give that a whirl should GoADF not work.

Thanks again all for helping me get going again. Just waiting on a new RF cable so I can have a more stable picture (can't use Scart or Composite as the only TV I have with these has a bracket on the back blocking the sockets...)

[Kin Hell]

@ cwhaley

Real Floppy Disk's are hard to come by these days & can cost a small fortune if you find any.

Writing to RAD: is so fast & also recoverable from Ctrl A-A. - I'm sure I use to write .adf to Rad: back in the early 90's, but for the life in me, can't remember what I used.

Not played with GOADF's own virtual drives, but both theirs & RAD: can be Mounted & Un-Mounted from the interface.

[deimos]

As a tangent, I've recently been writing real floppies with DrawBridge, writing ADFs to a USB floppy drive attached to a PC (with just a little bit of extra hardware).

Might not be the perfect solution, but it does feel the most real.

[davideo]

Originally Posted by Kin Hell

Writing to RAD: is so fast & also recoverable from Ctrl A-A. - I'm sure I use to write .adf to Rad: back in the early 90's, but for the life in me, can't remember what I used.

ADFBlitzer can write ADFs to RAD: as well as floppies

[cwhaley]

Originally Posted by Kin Hell

@ cwhaley

Real Floppy Disk's are hard to come by these days & can cost a small fortune if you find any.

Writing to RAD: is so fast & also recoverable from Ctrl A-A. - I'm sure I use to write .adf to Rad: back in the early 90's, but for the life in me, can't remember what I used.

Not played with GOADF's own virtual drives, but both theirs & RAD: can be Mounted & Un-Mounted from the interface.

I have a few hundred 880k floppies luckily, although I did just buy 50 of them from eBay for £1.20 with a few quid postage. Don't know if that was pure luck but they even came complete with content on them including the full WB 3.1 package.

Is writing to RAD writing an ADF to the RAM?

[indigolemon]

For those using ADFBlitzer, I suggest looking at ADFer: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/ADFer

Rob (Daedalus) took over the maintenance of the app a few years back

[indigolemon]

Originally Posted by cwhaley

Is writing to RAD writing an ADF to the RAM?

It is - it uses a section of the RAM to create a disk that you can boot from and survives soft reboots.

[Kin Hell]

Originally Posted by davideo

ADFBlitzer can write ADFs to RAD: as well as floppies

Not sure that was around in the early 90's tbh. - Good to know though!

Originally Posted by cwhaley

<snip>

Is writing to RAD writing an ADF to the RAM?

Pretty much, or at least an 880K slab of it, same size as a std Amiga floppy. - Basically a recoverable Ram drive. You will loose it with loss of power to the Amiga.

[cwhaley]

Thanks both, that extra 1mb chip I plugged in will come in hand should I ever write ADFs to the RAM chip(s). I'll have a play around with ADFBlitzer.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Kin Hell

Not sure that was around in the early 90's tbh. - Good to know though!

Introduced with WB 1.3

[Kin Hell]

Originally Posted by Jope

Introduced with WB 1.3

I use to have Dopus configured to "de" or "re-archive" pretty much most formats of compression & had an A1500 with C= 2630 at the time.

I've really got to stop lamenting....

[cwhaley]

Hi all, Happy New Year!

I only have the 68000 processor as standard with the A600, so I can't mount images and must write to disk. Not a problem as I have a fair few floppies knocking about. I got copies of the programs mentioned above, but cannot get the null modem cable set up!

None of the programs in the Prefs folder will open at all -- can't open Pointer, Screen Mode, anything.... it's the 'Serial' program I need to get files over. They are all there, but double-clicking them will result in a 'Attempting to Open Program xxxxx' for a split second and then nothing.

WB 3.1 was installed onto the CF card supplied by Amiga Kit. There was one error on the final floppy during installation, but clicking continue took me through the WB screen. Maybe a fresh install?

[solarmon]

I would recommend getting a Greaseweazle and do all your disk reading/writing on your PC/Linux/Mac machine.

[Etze]

Originally Posted by davideo

ADFBlitzer can write ADFs to RAD: as well as floppies

No, it can't. Though, at the moment I'm working on a better version of ADF-Blitzer with RAD-support. No fancy features, just KISS.