where to start? head exploding

Sephnroth · 19 October 2014, 18:12

Hi guys! Sorry I'm sure these sort of questions asked ALL the time but I have been browsing around, reading facts, hunting google and youtube.. and all I've really managed to do is confuse myself.

I have just been given an amiga 500 - I was hunting around for a 1200 but I was offered this for free (in box with a bunch of disks, two joysticks and the ram upgrade etc!) so I was not going to turn it down! The only pain is the lack of an IDE port inside.

So I'm trying to figure out the best way, for me right now, to get ADF files from PC to Amiga. My first stop was on ebay to see if I could pick up all the old games I owned when I was younger and I was completely gutted by the prices. £40 for turrican 2 etc.. unghhh. Gutted because I simply cant afford that and also gutted because I own all these things boxed and near mint but would of been thrown out of my parents attic years ago when they did renovations! >_< I never owned an amiga, my brother did so I bought some games for it.

Anyway I owned:

Turrican 2
Venus the fly trap
Miami Chase
Lotus esprit turbo challenge (I think it was that one, had a cheat code DUX at title screen to play dynamite dux?)
Castle Master
and finally Pinball Fantasies (which my brother forbird me from playing because he was convinced I would break the ? and z keys...)

Anyway as I paid for all these games I figured i'd grab the adf's from the net and start with those. I also own amiga forever 2006 edition (as an eletronic download) and the amiga I have just aquired has the 512k ram upgrade, the RF modulator and disks for workbench 1.3.

I know I cant do the CF thing as I dont have IDE on the 500 (..right?) unless I buy a SCSI thing but they are so expensive now. I have old laptop with a serial port and 9pin serial cable, but no 25pin end for the amiga. I have idly considered cutting the 9pin wire, stripping it back and trying to wrap the ends around the correct pins of the amiga serial port and doing the null modem thing - or is that asking for trouble? XD

Alternatively I have a USB floppy drive I can plug into any pc and a stack of original amiga floppys that came with the machine if there is anything I can do with that combo.

Half the things I found online seemed to be for amiga 1200+ which is why im a bit stuck. What do you guys recommend?

Sorry long post!

ajk · 19 October 2014, 18:19

Hi and welcome!

Creating Amiga compatible floppies remains a problem without a cheap solution. You can write them easily on a PC if you get a special floppy drive controller, such as a Kryoflux, but it will set you back about £80 or so.

As you mention, since the A500 does not natively have any means of connecting a hard drive, that way is ruled out too (with the A600 and A1200 it's relatively simple).

You could use a serial connection, but it's very slow, and it'll be problematic if you only have 512k-1M of memory.

You could get a Gotek floppy emulator. These are probably the cheapest option at the moment. It acts as a floppy drive but you load the floppy images from a USB stick. If you have both that and the original drive connected, you can even make physical copies of some floppies (depending on how copy-protected they are).

Only use the RF modulator if you absolutely must, the image quality on that is terrible compared with the proper RGB port (you can get a SCART cable for about £10).

Sephnroth · 19 October 2014, 18:23

ah! I had heard gotek floppys mentioned but didnt really understand what it was until now. I take it that it replaces the amiga floppy drive and just plugs in using the same wire? Its affordable on ebay too! Might have to wait until payday, but seems like best solution by far!

And thanks for the welcome!

ajk · 19 October 2014, 18:25

Yep, you just need the replacement firmware for it so it works with the Amiga

See the link in my post and also search the forums for related threads.

Sephnroth · 20 October 2014, 00:05

I have another question and it's so related I figured i'd tack it on the end here rather than make a brand new thread

I'm wondering if you or anyone else can recommend any "must try" things for the amiga? Like any stuff that is relatively new that I would not of known about in early 90's/late 80's?

I have some inclining that there is an updated amiga OS or something but i'm also aware that I only have a 500 so i'm not sure if I can do anything particularly fun with it. Maybe someone is still making games that I would never of seen before that are worth a look? I know there have been some C64 releases this year!

Arnie · 20 October 2014, 12:20

Kipper2k makes an 8mb board with an IDE CF HD for around $74. It plugs into the CPU socket. You would have to upgrade the Kickstart to at least 2.04 to use the IDE, but if it was my A500 I would do that anyway as 1.3 sucks for WB use.

http://kipper2k.com/amigaforsale/

Storm · 20 October 2014, 12:24

I can vouch for Kipper's board as I have one in my A500 Plus. It's a fantastic bit of hardware and the autoconfig fast ram is a real bonus.

Superman · 20 October 2014, 18:39

+1 for the Gotek. It's cheap and works incredibly well. Just add ADF files to a USB stick and you are good to go.

Hewitson · 21 October 2014, 08:32

Kipper's board was an excellent suggestion. With one of those you could play all your games via WHDLoad and not have to worry about disks or loading.

If purchasing one of these is not an option at the moment, upgrading to KS/WB 3.x will allow you to read PC formatted diskettes.

Sephnroth · 21 October 2014, 09:53

Big thanks again for everyone responding and giving advice

kippers board is a little out of my reach atm unless I want to risk sleeping on the sofa when the wife finds where the money is going xD (just slightly hard times atm) - so I think my first purchase is going to be the gotek and a usb key as I can probably swing that one

however kippers board or another accelerator is not out of the question in the future! The extra ram could open up alot.

I notice most accelerators are being created by skilled enthusiasts these days and not factories.. I wonder if there any info about diy boards anywhere?

Sephnroth · 29 October 2014, 20:53

Just wanted to hop in and say the Gotek arrived today - i've hooked it up and after eventually finding a usb device it would accept (wouldnt take my flash drives.. did take my card reader with an SD card though!) its all working and its AMAZING. Best thing I've bought in a while, totally recommend!

fitzsteve · 30 October 2014, 11:04

Glad to hear that, enjoy! If you decide to add storage to your A500 later, it wasn't mentioned before but there is also another option, the ACA500:

I wrote a review for my blog: http://www.fitzstevesamigaworld.co.uk/?p=119

Kippers board is great though, the main difference is the ACA you can plug in the side but the Kipper board needs installation internally.

The ACA does not need you to buy any Roms, it comes with 1.3/3.1 internally (legally licensed)

The ACA only has 2mb Ram, which can be a little low for WHDLoad.

I need to get one of these Gotek's, if nothing else just to test it out! I used to have a HxC Floppy Emulator which was pretty cool.

19 October 2014, 18:12	#1
Sephnroth Registered User Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: England Posts: 77	where to start? head exploding Hi guys! Sorry I'm sure these sort of questions asked ALL the time but I have been browsing around, reading facts, hunting google and youtube.. and all I've really managed to do is confuse myself. I have just been given an amiga 500 - I was hunting around for a 1200 but I was offered this for free (in box with a bunch of disks, two joysticks and the ram upgrade etc!) so I was not going to turn it down! The only pain is the lack of an IDE port inside. So I'm trying to figure out the best way, for me right now, to get ADF files from PC to Amiga. My first stop was on ebay to see if I could pick up all the old games I owned when I was younger and I was completely gutted by the prices. £40 for turrican 2 etc.. unghhh. Gutted because I simply cant afford that and also gutted because I own all these things boxed and near mint but would of been thrown out of my parents attic years ago when they did renovations! >_< I never owned an amiga, my brother did so I bought some games for it. Anyway I owned: Turrican 2 Venus the fly trap Miami Chase Lotus esprit turbo challenge (I think it was that one, had a cheat code DUX at title screen to play dynamite dux?) Castle Master and finally Pinball Fantasies (which my brother forbird me from playing because he was convinced I would break the ? and z keys...) Anyway as I paid for all these games I figured i'd grab the adf's from the net and start with those. I also own amiga forever 2006 edition (as an eletronic download) and the amiga I have just aquired has the 512k ram upgrade, the RF modulator and disks for workbench 1.3. I know I cant do the CF thing as I dont have IDE on the 500 (..right?) unless I buy a SCSI thing but they are so expensive now. I have old laptop with a serial port and 9pin serial cable, but no 25pin end for the amiga. I have idly considered cutting the 9pin wire, stripping it back and trying to wrap the ends around the correct pins of the amiga serial port and doing the null modem thing - or is that asking for trouble? XD Alternatively I have a USB floppy drive I can plug into any pc and a stack of original amiga floppys that came with the machine if there is anything I can do with that combo. Half the things I found online seemed to be for amiga 1200+ which is why im a bit stuck. What do you guys recommend? Sorry long post!

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19 October 2014, 18:19	#2
ajk Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 1,341	Hi and welcome! Creating Amiga compatible floppies remains a problem without a cheap solution. You can write them easily on a PC if you get a special floppy drive controller, such as a Kryoflux, but it will set you back about £80 or so. As you mention, since the A500 does not natively have any means of connecting a hard drive, that way is ruled out too (with the A600 and A1200 it's relatively simple). You could use a serial connection, but it's very slow, and it'll be problematic if you only have 512k-1M of memory. You could get a Gotek floppy emulator. These are probably the cheapest option at the moment. It acts as a floppy drive but you load the floppy images from a USB stick. If you have both that and the original drive connected, you can even make physical copies of some floppies (depending on how copy-protected they are). Only use the RF modulator if you absolutely must, the image quality on that is terrible compared with the proper RGB port (you can get a SCART cable for about £10).

19 October 2014, 18:23	#3
Sephnroth Registered User Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: England Posts: 77	ah! I had heard gotek floppys mentioned but didnt really understand what it was until now. I take it that it replaces the amiga floppy drive and just plugs in using the same wire? Its affordable on ebay too! Might have to wait until payday, but seems like best solution by far! And thanks for the welcome!

19 October 2014, 18:25	#4
ajk Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 1,341	Yep, you just need the replacement firmware for it so it works with the Amiga See the link in my post and also search the forums for related threads.

20 October 2014, 00:05	#5
Sephnroth Registered User Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: England Posts: 77	I have another question and it's so related I figured i'd tack it on the end here rather than make a brand new thread I'm wondering if you or anyone else can recommend any "must try" things for the amiga? Like any stuff that is relatively new that I would not of known about in early 90's/late 80's? I have some inclining that there is an updated amiga OS or something but i'm also aware that I only have a 500 so i'm not sure if I can do anything particularly fun with it. Maybe someone is still making games that I would never of seen before that are worth a look? I know there have been some C64 releases this year!

20 October 2014, 12:20	#6
Arnie R.I.P Smudge 18-08-16 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Leicester/UK Age: 66 Posts: 3,968	Kipper2k makes an 8mb board with an IDE CF HD for around $74. It plugs into the CPU socket. You would have to upgrade the Kickstart to at least 2.04 to use the IDE, but if it was my A500 I would do that anyway as 1.3 sucks for WB use. http://kipper2k.com/amigaforsale/

20 October 2014, 12:24	#7
Storm SYS64738 Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: Australia Age: 50 Posts: 118	I can vouch for Kipper's board as I have one in my A500 Plus. It's a fantastic bit of hardware and the autoconfig fast ram is a real bonus.

20 October 2014, 18:39	#8
Superman Super Member Join Date: Sep 2014 Location: Wakefield Age: 49 Posts: 1,335	+1 for the Gotek. It's cheap and works incredibly well. Just add ADF files to a USB stick and you are good to go.

21 October 2014, 08:32	#9
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,773	Kipper's board was an excellent suggestion. With one of those you could play all your games via WHDLoad and not have to worry about disks or loading. If purchasing one of these is not an option at the moment, upgrading to KS/WB 3.x will allow you to read PC formatted diskettes.

21 October 2014, 09:53	#10
Sephnroth Registered User Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: England Posts: 77	Big thanks again for everyone responding and giving advice kippers board is a little out of my reach atm unless I want to risk sleeping on the sofa when the wife finds where the money is going xD (just slightly hard times atm) - so I think my first purchase is going to be the gotek and a usb key as I can probably swing that one however kippers board or another accelerator is not out of the question in the future! The extra ram could open up alot. I notice most accelerators are being created by skilled enthusiasts these days and not factories.. I wonder if there any info about diy boards anywhere?

29 October 2014, 20:53	#11
Sephnroth Registered User Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: England Posts: 77	Just wanted to hop in and say the Gotek arrived today - i've hooked it up and after eventually finding a usb device it would accept (wouldnt take my flash drives.. did take my card reader with an SD card though!) its all working and its AMAZING. Best thing I've bought in a while, totally recommend!

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

30 October 2014, 11:04	#12
fitzsteve Professional slacker! Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Kent, UK Age: 44 Posts: 6,685	Glad to hear that, enjoy! If you decide to add storage to your A500 later, it wasn't mentioned before but there is also another option, the ACA500: I wrote a review for my blog: http://www.fitzstevesamigaworld.co.uk/?p=119 Kippers board is great though, the main difference is the ACA you can plug in the side but the Kipper board needs installation internally. The ACA does not need you to buy any Roms, it comes with 1.3/3.1 internally (legally licensed) The ACA only has 2mb Ram, which can be a little low for WHDLoad. I need to get one of these Gotek's, if nothing else just to test it out! I used to have a HxC Floppy Emulator which was pretty cool.