Getting back into Amiga - What way to go?

[d4rk3lf]

Be prepared,
Amiga games are pretty hard.
I forgot how hard they are, until I played them again, few years a go.

It's something I can understand, because, at that time, the games has price of something like... 20 euros.. so finishing them in one evening, was not an option.

[rabidgerry]

Games I completed without cheats, jeez a can only think of one, Street Fighter 2. Also. I finished races in indy500 never won or even came close to winning. Not sure if I finished a season in F1GP or not. Played it a lot. Completed the likes of golden axe with cheats, midnight resistance with cheats, final fight with cheats, and a few more with cheats. Got stuck on many games like all the shadow of the beasts. I'm going to have to skill up for the A1200.

[Shatterhand]

This is going off-topic, but I am very frustrated for having never finished The Chaos Engine. Reached World 4-4 so many times but that homing energy balls always get me.

I've finished a fair load of arcade games on Amiga without cheating... all 3 Turrican games, Jim Power, Speedball 2, Brutal Sports Football, Yo! Joe!, Parasol Stars, Lotus 3, Super Cars 2, Nitro, Chuck Rock, Road Rash, Darkman, Prime Mover, Indy Heat, Global Gladiators ...

If I did it, you can do it too. At least those are some you could try out

Yo! Joe! is a very nice game and *incredibly* easy, I remember I finished it on my first try. Nitro is also a very good game that's very easy to beat.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by Shatterhand

This is going off-topic, but I am very frustrated for having never finished The Chaos Engine. Reached World 4-4 so many times but that homing energy balls always get me.

I've finished a fair load of arcade games on Amiga without cheating... all 3 Turrican games, Jim Power, Speedball 2, Brutal Sports Football, Yo! Joe!, Parasol Stars, Lotus 3, Super Cars 2, Nitro, Chuck Rock, Road Rash, Darkman, Prime Mover, Indy Heat, Global Gladiators ...

If I did it, you can do it too. At least those are some you could try out

Yo! Joe! is a very nice game and *incredibly* easy, I remember I finished it on my first try. Nitro is also a very good game that's very easy to beat.

HAHA totally way off topic! But if I split the thread up now it would fragment into about 3-4 others and that would get complicated.

Never played the Turrican games, or Jim Power, Chuck Rock, Darkman, Primemover or global gladiators. Used to like Speedball 1 and 2 back in the day but don't remember getting too far in them. Think I completed Lotus Turbo 2 and Jaguar XJ220 games legit without cheats.

Ok I could give Nitro a go and Yo Joe. Never played either.

Games I did play, Naughty Ones, Bubba n Stix, BC Kid, Virocop, Ruff n Tumble, Deluxe Pacman, Alien 3, Cannon Fodder, Sensible Soccer, Super Cars...…………….jeez the list goes on. So I really intend to pickup on those games as well as check out a billion others I never played. Oh Putty I used to play as well and Flood (which keeps crashing in FSUAE for some reason).

Currently my CF IDE backplate and adapter kit has arrived. And I have successfully installed a virtual workbench in WINUAE and from this then made a 60gb MicroSD Workbench and then tonight a 8gb CF workbench which are both ready to plug into a real Amiga and boot according to the tutorial I have been following. I guess as soon as I get the CF kit installed I can test out the CF card workbench. It's strange but when I was copying the contents from one Workbench (the virtual one) to the CF card, I was getting all kinda of errors including bad block errors and some other things. However on my third attempt after setting it back up again using workbench system tools and then formatting it allowed me to copy everything from System on to it without any issues. Hopefully it is fine to use in the future. I only used the MicroSD to practice on, but perhaps if I used an adapter to turn it into a CF card it would also boot up as a workbench if plugged into my A1200. Watch this space!

[rabidgerry]

CF adapter back plate kit installed, and tested with the CF card. Seems to be working. Although I don't know if my mouse is working or not, isn't responding and I've no other way of testing. I had to use amiga key and arrow keys to get about. I need to follow last video of tutorial apparently to properly finish setting up my CF card. At least it works though and the adapter install went according to plan. It was a bit hairy at time, for example I couldn't get the keyboard ribbon back in to its place on the mother board and also when I was putting the rf shield back on I though everything was secured to the bottom of the amiga case. Of course it wasn't and the whole mother board and rf shield fell out from about 10-12inches height to the ground. I'm amazed I didn't ruin the computer. It appears I'm missing screws securing the mother board to the case so I think someone has be inside my Amiga somewhere along its lifespan. Anyways I got it back together and feel a lot more comfortable inside there now, removed the floppy drive no problem and reconnected without issue, so that bodes well for recapping.

[crazyc]

Now you have your CF card setup, and you may end up tinkering etc, you might want to think about imaging the card so you have a working good backup in case there are issues. I would usually have a spare blank CF card ready as well.
I use something called HDD-Raw copy (I think), and just save the image on my pc. Its not great for the CF card to write the images back to the card often as it writes even the blank space I think, but if you mess up your main card it does give you a way back.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by crazyc

Now you have your CF card setup, and you may end up tinkering etc, you might want to think about imaging the card so you have a working good backup in case there are issues. I would usually have a spare blank CF card ready as well.
I use something called HDD-Raw copy (I think), and just save the image on my pc. Its not great for the CF card to write the images back to the card often as it writes even the blank space I think, but if you mess up your main card it does give you a way back.

Yeah that makes sense. I would have looked into doing something like that anyways, but you've just made it easier. I will look that piece of software up and install on my pc.

Not sure I follow what you mean here

Its not great for the CF card to write the images back to the card often as it writes even the blank space I think

Do you mean it's not great to write CF card to CF card?

[Shatterhand]

Naughty Ones, Bubba n Stix, BC Kid, Virocop, Ruff n Tumble, Deluxe Pacman, Alien 3, Cannon Fodder, Sensible Soccer, Super Cars.

BC Kid isn't very hard, but needs some practice. I finished it back at the day, the boss rush at the last level gave me some trouble to beat as I remember. And Sensible Scocer... well, it's a soccer game

Everything else here is hard as nails. Super Cars, Cannon Fodder and Alien 3 in special are *VERY* tough games. No wonder you haven't beat any of them All of them are great games but very hard

[crazyc]

When it takes an image it takes everything including blank spaces. When it writes the images back it writes back the blank space as well as the data. Over the longer term it all eats into the lifespan of the card.
Not sure if I have explained that well....

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by Shatterhand

BC Kid isn't very hard, but needs some practice. I finished it back at the day, the boss rush at the last level gave me some trouble to beat as I remember. And Sensible Scocer... well, it's a soccer game

Everything else here is hard as nails. Super Cars, Cannon Fodder and Alien 3 in special are *VERY* tough games. No wonder you haven't beat any of them All of them are great games but very hard

Well there is plenty of time to work my way through them all again and discover a billion games I never played. Some other games I enjoyed and don't think I completed (but got quite far), Hunter, Prince of Persia, Desert Strike, Monkey Island, Death Mask (actually I completed that one), Wolfchild, Harlequin, Lionheart, Myth...…………...jeeezz so many!

@Crazyc so basically writing entire images onto CF cards will knacker them over a period of time?? And how likely is it I would need to do that?

Also hit a brick wall this evening, turns out that tutorial I have been following which has got me this far requires me to have a blank floppy for doing something on the actual amiga from the CF hard drive. I think I turn the disk into a workbench install disk. BUT I DON'T GOT NO FLOPPYS! So checking another tutorial out to see what way this guy has set up his.

[d4rk3lf]

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

Also hit a brick wall this evening, turns out that tutorial I have been following which has got me this far requires me to have a blank floppy for doing something on the actual amiga from the CF hard drive. I think I turn the disk into a workbench install disk. BUT I DON'T GOT NO FLOPPYS! So checking another tutorial out to see what way this guy has set up his.

Why don't you emulate exactly same Amiga, as your real Amiga, on your Winuae, and do "that thing", on the CF card from PC?
Just load blank disk in Winuae.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

Why don't you emulate exactly same Amiga, as your real Amiga, on your Winuae, and do "that thing", on the CF card from PC?
Just load blank disk in Winuae.

You see I was thinking that surely there was a way of doing that, so why has the tutorial guy opted for doing the real amiga from floppy? There is probably some reason for it.

I will try it out.

I followed another tutorial on 16gb CF installation card and got through that one also only for a DOS error to occur whilst trying to format the second partition that was to be the main storage partition. So ran into another there.

[d4rk3lf]

When I was first started to play with all these stuff, it was a lots of fun, for me.
Tat is why I don't like, for instance, Gotek solutions.
Where's the fun without workbench?

Not sure what's going on there with these tutorials, and I am not sure why it asks for the blank floppy. Installation should be pretty much straight-forward.
For example, in winuae I made a 2 presets, one for A1200 and one for A500, and I made them both HD (2 directories on my PC), and for both I installed Workbench 3.1, and WHDLoad.

You can do the same on your PC for A1200 (since you have that), just instead of using directory, you can use your CF card (but you can practice also on directory).
Basically this is how it work:
- Start Winuae and choose A1200 preset.
- In HD/CD options for HD choose either directory on PC (for practice), or your CF card
- Download Workbench 3.1 installation as adf, and put first floppy in DF0 (in floppy menu)
- Start emulation, and Workbech 3.1 should be loaded from that virtual floppy
- Start installation, and just follow the instruction (you only need to care where it is going to be installed (on your CF card).
- When installation asks you for another WB disk, Press F12, go to floppy, change the disk, and proceed.

And that's it. WB is installed... now all you need is to install WHDLoad, and you're good to go.

After you install WHDload, download bunch of games, just copy them to your CF card, and play them (they are already installed)

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

When I was first started to play with all these stuff, it was a lots of fun, for me.
Tat is why I don't like, for instance, Gotek solutions.
Where's the fun without workbench?

Not sure what's going on there with these tutorials, and I am not sure why it asks for the blank floppy. Installation should be pretty much straight-forward.
For example, in winuae I made a 2 presets, one for A1200 and one for A500, and I made them both HD (2 directories on my PC), and for both I installed Workbench 3.1, and WHDLoad.

You can do the same on your PC for A1200 (since you have that), just instead of using directory, you can use your CF card (but you can practice also on directory).
Basically this is how it work:
- Start Winuae and choose A1200 preset.
- In HD/CD options for HD choose either directory on PC (for practice), or your CF card
- Download Workbench 3.1 installation as adf, and put first floppy in DF0 (in floppy menu)
- Start emulation, and Workbech 3.1 should be loaded from that virtual floppy
- Start installation, and just follow the instruction (you only need to care where it is going to be installed (on your CF card).
- When installation asks you for another WB disk, Press F12, go to floppy, change the disk, and proceed.

And that's it. WB is installed... now all you need is to install WHDLoad, and you're good to go.

After you install WHDload, download bunch of games, just copy them to your CF card, and play them (they are already installed)

So I followed this tutorial today [ Show youtube player ] (and even though the person makes some mistakes that you actually need to keep watching in order for her to tell you what to do to correct them) it has actually gotten me to the point where I have installed it all correctly, updated the file system to work good with large CF cards and also WHD load. The youtuber has also provided a tonne of games demos and all kinds of other stuff which is excellent as it means (as I type this actually) when I plug in my CF card next time to the Amiga 1200 a lot of stuff will already be set up for me. I probably have a lot of the games already thanks to buying a DVD years ago with WINUAE and games copied on it but I am sure there is stuff in there I don't have and also saves me a bit of trouble putting them on there at a later date.

I believe this has left me at a cross roads now where I just need to wait on my ACA1230n @40 to provide me with all that extra ram and of course processing power. Tempted to try and run a whd load game anyways on the stock machine just to see what happens!

[d4rk3lf]

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

I believe this has left me at a cross roads now where I just need to wait on my ACA1230n @40 to provide me with all that extra ram and of course processing power. Tempted to try and run a whd load game anyways on the stock machine just to see what happens!

I think you shouldn't wait.
It's like 5% of the games (or less) that will use the additional processing speed and memory from the accelerator.
Million other games you can already play.

Did you find where to download whdload games pack?
I think there is a thread here on eab, but don't have time now to search for it.
Or just google for it.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

I think you shouldn't wait.
It's like 5% of the games (or less) that will use the additional processing speed and memory from the accelerator.
Million other games you can already play.

Did you find where to download whdload games pack?
I think there is a thread here on eab, but don't have time now to search for it.
Or just google for it.

Well, believe it or not, the accelerator arrived today!! I am very surprised. Such a quick turn over. I may get around to testing tonight, then again I may not. I will have a search around for the whd game pack link. I have a lot of games but not sure if I have everything.

I would really love to try the game Payback, so if anyone knows where I can get this it would be great.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

Well, believe it or not, the accelerator arrived today!! I am very surprised. Such a quick turn over. I may get around to testing tonight, then again I may not. I will have a search around for the whd game pack link. I have a lot of games but not sure if I have everything.

I would really love to try the game Payback, so if anyone knows where I can get this it would be great.

Payback will run a bit slow on an 030 I'm afraid

These should both run pretty well on an 030 @ 40 Mhz

http://aminet.net/package/game/misc/ScummVM_AGA_030

[ Show youtube player ]


http://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/AmiWolf_AGA

[ Show youtube player ]



plugged

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Payback will run a bit slow on an 030 I'm afraid

These should both run pretty well on an 030 @ 40 Mhz

http://aminet.net/package/game/misc/ScummVM_AGA_030

[ Show youtube player ]


http://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/AmiWolf_AGA

[ Show youtube player ]



plugged

Thanks for the recommendations!! Dam shame I wont be able to play Pay Back. I loved the original Grand Theft Auto back in the day.

As for everything else, got the ACA1233n-EC40 installed today. Turned the power on and nothing but a charcoal/black screen. Took it out again, Amiga booted to the please insert disk screen showing rom 3.1. Tried the accelerator again, same issue. Walked it out of the slot a little, still no picture. Tried installing and uninstalling several times and various depths into the slot and still no picture. So bang goes that balloon!!!

Also tested the CF card I created and put WHD load on. It wouldn't allow me to run iGame. I would click on iGame and nothing would happen. However when I click on iGame and the CF card is running through winuae iGame opens and I see a list of Games. Tried opening WBgames, would not open. Tried opening SYSINFO, this would not open either. So nothing opens in real Amiga but all works fine in winuae.

[crazyc]

Have you still got the metal top shield on? Make sure it's not touching the bit were the card plugs in.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by crazyc

Have you still got the metal top shield on? Make sure it's not touching the bit were the card plugs in.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Yeah I have the shield. I don't think it was touching but I will put it back in again tomorrow and see if I can see anywhere that it may come into contact with the shield. Thanks for that recommendation.