Modded PC floppy disk drives

[amigasith]

Cheers, folks! I recently started to spend quite some time converting PC floppy disk drives into Amiga drives. I cannot really say why I think I am just fascinated by all the different drive mechanics, different possibilities to mount the track 0 sensor, different eject mechanisms, different ways to convert them, etc. I simply find it worthwhile to tinker with...

There is one thing, however, where I haven't really found an answer yet, maybe somebody here knows. It seems to me that in order to test whether a PC floppy disk drive works "properly" like an Amiga drive, only testing for track loader compatibility is not enough. Most people seem to use the Sanity / Arte demo in order check for track loader compatibility. All my converted drives pass this test without any problems

I have found one (original) game, however, that really only works in some drives. This is "Flood" by Bullfrog and it really causes nasty noises when it loads Interestingly enough, this game also doesn't work on at least one real Amiga floppy disk drive (a Citizen one) that I bought way back in the 90s brand new when my good old Chinon broke in my A500. This makes me think that there is more to just check for track loader compatibility...

So for example, I just converted a TEAC FD-235HF 6291-U and it works just fine except when testing Flood. I don't think that it's heads are misaligned, since it loads literally dozens of other floppies without any single issue. And what's more is that disks that I write with this drive can be read without issues in 4 other floppy disk drives

So what could be the culprit here? Tiny controller incompatibilities? Any other idea ?

[cpiac64]

i have 20 different floppy for pc modded for amiga and 10 original in my amiga, but i don't have flood for test
i suppose a copy protection in sector 80 or 81 extra trace, you need copy with xcopy with dongle

[amigasith]

i have 20 different floppy for pc modded for amiga and 10 original in my amiga, but i don't have flood for test

Wow, nice Seems that there are more people than just me enjoying tinkering with floppy drives

i suppose a copy protection in sector 80 or 81 extra trace, you need copy with xcopy with dongle

Hmm... I only have XCOPY, but not the dongle. But how would a copy of the floppy help?

[kipper2k]

Flood has very picky track protection and will only work with the "better" of the floppy drives, Samsung and some panasonic drives. Another one is "Magic Lines" that is a real bitch to find a drive that will load it. I actually use Flood to determine just how good a specific drive is once i mod it, if Flood loads then it will pretty well load anything.

[zyonee]

I remember Alien Breed not loading on my Amiga 500 original drive while it did load perfectly on my brother's Amiga 2000. When I connected my external drive to my Amiga 500 motherboard, the game booted. And this wasn't even an original disk.

[amigasith]

Flood has very picky track protection..

Hi kipper2k, thanks for this info! I suspected something like this - thanks for confirming

I actually use Flood to determine just how good a specific drive is once i mod it, if Flood loads then it will pretty well load anything.

That's really funny I do the exact same thing. When I figured out that Flood is really picky, I always used it ever since to determine if the drive is a "good one" or not.

...not loading on my Amiga 500 original drive...

Hi zyonee, also a big "thanks" to you for posting So it seems there are even more games that are really picky. This makes me sleep better

[TomCrazy]

Pinball Dreams is another interesting game to try. I don't know if this applies to the cracked version though. I think it was the original that I noticed this with if I don't remember it wrong.
What happened was that while it loaded fine on a Panasonic JU-series drive, it wouldn't load from a modded PC drive, even though these modded PC drives did have the ready signal there as well. These modded PC drives did load every other game I tested it with, although I never tried it with Flood or any other game mentioned in this thread.

[JanciB]

Pinball Fantasies cracked by Skid Row. On modded Sony MFP 920, after the cracktro the drive does not start reading. On modded Mitsumi D359T6 it is ok.
But Sanity Arte is working on Sony too. Everything I tested on Mitsumi worked.
I does not have original Flood.

[Foul]

I have 3 differents moded PC drives, will test asap this Flood game and report if it's working or not.

[Hewitson]

I'm assuming that its the copy protection in Flood which causes it to not work on many drives? Or is testing a cracked version still useful?

[ElectroBlaster]

So far I have only converted one drive which is a Sony MPF920. Stuffed that into an external drive case.

I will eventually do more.

I seem to be fixated with repairing and restoring old amiga drives at the moment!
Saved 3 so far that had fubared capacitors and then cleaned them inside and out, oiled/greased etc.

This Flood issue has me a little worried but then again its one game, hardly ever played it tbh.

[kipper2k]

there is one ADF of flood (can't remember which one off hand) that also refuses to load too (Purple screen after a while) I think it has something to do with the track loader that it doesn't like

[Overdoc]

Probably a mechanical issue, some drives cannot reliable read past track 81, but there might be copy protections that ask for some checks on track 82 or beyond ?!
Also, I can imagine some stepper motors not being fast enough on some drives, resulting in copy protection failures ?

[Foul]

Originally Posted by Foul

I have 3 differents moded PC drives, will test asap this Flood game and report if it's working or not.

Flood Test : (Flood (1990)(Electronic Arts)[cr Angels][t +3 Angels].adf)

ALPS ELECTRIC CP., LTD. DF354H(121G) : Working
ALPS ELECTRIC CP., LTD. DF354H090F : Not Working
ALPS ELECTRIC CP., LTD. DF354H090F (other) : Not Working
Real Amiga Floppy Disk Drive (FDDAMI001) Sold by amigakit : Not Working

[cpiac64]

Flood Test : (Flood (1990)(Electronic Arts)[cr Angels][t +3 Angels].adf)

working on chinon fb354
not working on epson smd300, sony mpf 520-1, sony mpf 920 and more

[hooverphonique]

do these mods use a real 'ready' signal, or is that just hooked up directly to sel/mtr?

[JanciB]

Mitsumi D359T6 is using real ready signal.

J.

Originally Posted by hooverphonique

do these mods use a real 'ready' signal, or is that just hooked up directly to sel/mtr?

[zyonee]

Originally Posted by Foul

Flood Test : (Flood (1990)(Electronic Arts)[cr Angels][t +3 Angels].adf)

ALPS ELECTRIC CP., LTD. DF354H(121G) : Working
ALPS ELECTRIC CP., LTD. DF354H090F : Not Working
ALPS ELECTRIC CP., LTD. DF354H090F (other) : Not Working
Real Amiga Floppy Disk Drive (FDDAMI001) Sold by amigakit : Not Working

I've ordered a ALPS ELECTRIC CP., LTD. DF354H(121F) (not 121G). Hopefully this'll work well with trackloaded games. It's pre-modified, so it should just plug and play. Will this fit properly as a replacement of the internal drive in an Amiga 1200?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Foul

Real Amiga Floppy Disk Drive (FDDAMI001) Sold by amigakit : Not Working

Got a picture of the drive?

[Foul]