Request: an Amiga disk help network

[Amiga1992]

I didn't know where to put this, so feel free to move it where necessary!

I've had this idea for a while and damn it all to hell, how did I not think to try to start it here before?

I'll cut to the chase.
There's a ton of new users of Amigas nowadays. For whatever reasons that drive them to purchase that A500, A1200 or else on eBay or a car boot sale, they are usually faced with one big initial problem:

"There's so much stuff on the Internet for my machine, but how do I get it into my Amiga?"

The easiest way is to get a diskette with some tools that will help the new user connect his machine to another one and transfer some files over, at least the very first ones that will leave him or her up and running for the rest of the life of its Amiga. We know how this is, we've all done it in a myriad of ways.

I know you can go to Amigakit and buy a solution there, but you know you can get the tools for free and someone's help. And it would be nicer.


I would like to test run a community effort here and set up a network of disk-swappers that would help people acquire diskettes to help get their AmIgas running. This is like the old diskswapping days. Who knows, after a while, you might start swapping other materials on disk like in the good old days (for example, artwork or music), but for now, my intention is to help some people out who don't know what to do with their new Amigas and don't have as much expertise as some of us do here.

Perhaps someone doesn't want a way to transfer stuff, maybe only wants Deluxe Paint, or some trackers. Whatever it is, I know we can make a world wide network of people offering the service for those in need.

At the same time, it'd be a nice requirement for people who received this help, to be a new node of distribution that can help someone else. The more people cross more locations means local mailings, which are cheaper and more reliable, are a possibility. Extra brownie points for those who send back something in exchange for the help. It's a very gentleman thing, it has codes an honour.

Besides the idea, I would like to contribute with the creation of a couple of "Master Disks", containing a variety of solutions for different people. Anyone is free to amend, change or create new ones. One requirement though: all of them have to include a copying software that will allow the recipient to extend the network. I can post these disks as soon as I see interest in this project.

We might also need some sort of web presence for this, which could be easily sorted. I think this is like the "Hospitality Club", only about Amiga diskettes .

I remember I sent a couple of disks of this type around in the good old times of the "Amiga Forum" on Network54!


What do you people think of this, and how generous do you think you are? I know it takes some of your time and money (disks and mailing, not much, but hey...), but it could be fun. I can only dream, I am very utopian some times.


Try not to insult me back too much for this tl;dr post :P. Cheers!

[Retro1234]

I think one disk should contain Cross-Doss and something like TransDisk.

Originally Posted by Akira

I'll cut to the chase.

There's a ton of new users of Amigas nowadays. For whatever reasons that drive them to purchase that A500, A1200 or else on eBay or a car boot sale, they are usually faced with one big initial problem:


The easiest way is to get a diskette with some tools that will help the new user connect his machine to another one and transfer some files over, at least the very first ones that will leave him or her up and running for the rest of the life of its Amiga. We know how this is, we've all done it in a myriad of ways.


I know you can go to Amigakit and buy a solution there, but you know you can get the tools for free and someone's help. And it would be nicer.

Although I half agree getting the very first files to get them up and running I fully support AmigaKit and there solutions

[Cammy]

YESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll send Hombre or a network boot disk or any kind of floppy full of drivers and handy software to anyone trying to set their Amiga up!!!

I've wanted to do this for ages and was just waiting for someone else to make the thread about it! I can send to anyone in Australia... overseas I can too but it'll take ages from here. I'm unemployed, poor, but very willing to help out fellow Amigans, or Amiga newbs with a floppy disk in the mail.

[T_hairy_bootson]

Great idea I have sent certain disks to people in the past, without these certain disks an a1000 is completely unusable and nobody provides a legal way to purchase these certain disks new.

[Amiga1992]

This is starting to take shape.
I'll start setting up some sort of web or something.
I always get asked about this by people who just got an Amiga and are only interested in music making.

Australia needs some love, I know some friends over there that would appreciate the help Then again, you guys have Syntax Party! and probably know my friend cTrix

[Cammy]

I think sending out disks which enable people to start transferring ADFs and writing their own floppies might be easier than offering to send any disk someone requests. They should be able to find the ADF they want (Deluxe Paint, Protracker or whatever potentially copyrighted software they're looking for), and write it back to a floppy themselves once they've got a boot disk allowing them to access the ADFs and write them.

I'd feel more comfortable doing this than sending people copies of commercial software. Also PD disks and things, even though there are no copyright issues the person in need of the software should be able to learn how to make these disks themselves once they receive the appropriate bootable ADF writing disk.

To help people out, I think we should find the essential disks which will get someone set up enough to start providing for themselves.

Another thing I thought that might be cheap enough to make and send to people is a DVD full of tutorial videos. If you have a look on YouTube, there are heaps of video demonstrations people have made on how to do all sorts of things with the Amiga, including writing ADFs back to floppy. Maybe downloading a bunch of these (with the authors permission of course) and compiling them onto a DVD with a menu to select different videos would really help to explain to people how to use this software once they get the disk. There's plenty of easy to use software for making a DVD from video clips, so it shouldn't be too hard. Of course a list of links to the online videos would be good too!

Anyway, these are the disks I have found that I think we should all have copies of that we can send out to anyone who needs them:

Hombre: ADF Transfers via serial, parallel or PC floppy - http://wiki.abime.net/transfer:hombre
Network Boot Disk: Connect your Amiga to a PC network or the internet - http://jpv.wmhost.com/NetworkBootDisk/
Compact Flash Boot Disks: A couple of disks for transferring files and writing ADFs from a CF/SD card in a PCMCIA adapter - http://eab.abime.net/attachment.php?...3&d=1261530136

Does anyone else know some essential disk collections we could use?

[AmigaBoy]

I'm all for the idea. I constantly see posts by people that don't know, or can't transfer between machines. This would be a big step forward.

Could I could make a suggestion on how it's implemented? I think a dedicated web page is overkill. A constantly updated thread on here will do, or even an entry in the wiki? My preference would be a thread which only gets updated by moderators and the original thread creator. My reasoning is that it's part of the forum, so if a person has any further questions, everything's a simple search away.

The way I envision the thread is something like:

------------------------------------
Argentina
Akira - PM Link Goes Here
- Transfer Disks - CrossDOS
- Music disks, including ST-XX series
- All disks free
- Postage free everywhere.

Australia
Cammy - PM Link Goes Here
- Transfer disks - Hombre
- The latest homebrew Amiga games, all included on one CD with instructions on how to transfer back to your real Amiga
- Disks containing any Amiga games or software, provided it is legal and not currently sold
- Latest Icaros Live distribution
- All disks and CDs are free.
- Postage free within Australia. AUD $10.00 anywhere in the world, payable by PayPal.

T_Hairy_Bootson - PM Link Goes Here
- Transfer disks - CrossDOS, Hombre
- Anything from Aminet that will fit onto disks
- AUD $1/disk
- Postage AUD $3.50 anywhere within Australia. Does not ship internationally.

etc.
------------------------------------

Anyone that wants to contribute disks, CD/DVDs with TOSEC sets, etc. can reply to the thread with what they can provide, their location and how much it will cost. The original post will be updated and the reply removed from the thread, thus keeping it as a single post with all information.

Personally, that's how I would do things, but I'm sure others would see flaws in that system

[Photon]

Yes, solving the "chicken-and-egg" problem of getting the first files over to an unexpanded Amiga would be helpful to many.

I think we're mainly talking A500, A600 and A1200, and for the last two the solution is 40 Euro (CF-adapter+cable+CF card+card reader) and a WinUAE tutorial away - if the internet-capable machine is a Windows machine, that is. And that's a very good solution indeed - and it's not impossible to get an installed bundle of the above from eBay, regardless of whether we think it's evil or not

A1000, A3000, A4000 are scarce and those who buy them usually don't buy them for a quick romp in the TV sofa. Games I mean, what did you think I meant eh?

So, A500. Physical floppy and a proper cable, possibly with a serial to USB converter - and suitable PC (/Mac/Linux) software. Still needs help setting up and buying the right stuff. Catweasel. PC only, and user help likely needed.

So, sure. I'm all for it. Even getting new empty error-free floppy disks is not something you can buy in a store. I can see how getting ones with the stuff you want already at a cheap price could be attractive - and they wouldn't even need an internet connection/second computer.

And I agree Amigakit is excellent in resolving all of these transfer problems as well as giving user help, doesn't mean others can't help.

Me, I still think CF is a cheap enough solution, and surely everyone can visit the PC-owning neighbor if they don't have one and set it up with WinUAE. So I think the new IDE board for A500 (et al) will be an excellent and helpful addition.

[Jonathan Drain]

For A600/A1200 owners it'd be neat to have a disks with the drivers to use PCMCIA CF readers (fat95 and cfd from aminet), and instructions or an install script.

[Amiga1992]

I could make disks myself for start up. I agree with Cammy;s idea, perhaps we shopud start listing some ideas of disks weshouold have and what would be in them.

However, about the web: y idea is for this to exceed the scope of EAB. Most of teh people who usually ask me about this are musicians who want to use Octramed. They are not regstered here and i doubt they will, so the might loose out and also become unable to join the network! so lets give that a bit of a better look and try to find the better solution.

thank you guys for your support, many n00bs will be happy

[T_hairy_bootson]

Maybe it could be part of http://wiki.abime.net/

That way contributors could add/edit their details and what they offer easily enough. Its also a good place to look for n00b guides and links could be put in the guides to point people toward the disk help network.

Also you do not need to be a member to access the guide etc..

[lesta_smsc]

Just reviving the old thread to see if in light or LordNipple request for disk service this vision might be revived.

[Amiga1992]

I wish it was, I am still up for it.
Tried to make it work, but really didn't go far.
Can't offer services in Argentina anymore, at least not for free shipping.
I think a rule is that return shipping is included or something.

but yeah, copy that floppy. Make it oldschool.

[lesta_smsc]

Providing the service legally is key. Also cost of disk and postage & packaging to make the entire process viable.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

Providing the service legally is key.

Really?
By definition, this would not be "legal".
But I am not interested in the thread spinning off into a legality/morality issue.

[lesta_smsc]

Originally Posted by Akira

Really?
By definition, this would not be "legal".
But I am not interested in the thread spinning off into a legality/morality issue.

Well anything PD is fine... rather not be sending software which might be I TOSEC but not PD.

[Aughie]

I recently joined this board after finding an old A1200 and a couple of HDs in my garage. There were no leads mouse or disks of any kind nor even a PSU.

After buying a mouse and a Scart lead plus an old A500 PSU its now up and running as there was a fully fledged WB with magic WB plus Tools Deamon Wordworth 7 Final Writer DPaint 5 Directory Opus PSion Amiga etc etc on the 2.5" drive it turned out a breeze so far.

Now I have all that im left wondering what to do next. Theres no printers I can connect it to plus as my Win 7 PC no longer has a floppy I cannot use the floppy transfer method. The only other thing I can think of is to attempt to tower it up and add a CD rom. I have an old non working XP machine with 2 x IDE CD Roms and 40 pin leads unfortunately its a whisker not tall enough to house my a1200 MOBO.

In the meantime I would like a PCMCIA CF gadget and found the reference to fat95 and cfd elsewhere. The CFD file was downloadable but there is no longer a connection for the fat95 download file

You guys could be what I need to take this further

[Arnie]

Fat95......It's in the l dir.

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fat95

You could also buy one of these to help you.....

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...+Software+Disk