User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sun Mar 26, 2023 2:47 pm

Later today I will fire up the Mac/Amiga and double check the sizes of things just to be sure. Regardless, the posts above hopefully inform more about the overall process than the specific detail you're lacking.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Mon Mar 27, 2023 8:27 am

I confirmed that my AXO partition is 250MB.

So I believe it was indeed 250MB (hidden from the Amiga), 50MB (WB, DH0) and then all the rest of the 1GB card for the "Work" partition (DH1).

User avatar
dankcomputing

Posted Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:09 pm

On your advice I rearranged the partitions - AX0: was 200mb and the first partition, then DH0: was the second, and after backing everything up and restoring it A-Max was able to successfully format it! After that it was just a matter of copying over everything from the Mac Classic drive.

Thanks for the help!

It's incredible that this info wasn't out there already because this problem is way too easy to stumble into.

So far compatibility is interesting. There's random crashes every now and then which I guess are inevitable. Tried some games - Crystal Quest, Glider, Shufflepuck, Mission Starlight - they do run though the sound is glitchy. After Dark seems to work.

I tried to make some A-Max format disks using Disk Copy but it throws an error when using the native Amiga drives. Any workaround for that?

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:55 pm

For games, anything that tries to hit the Mac's custom chips things will fail. That's most games. I imagine the sound chip isn't 1:1, either, and is why is sounds like garbage. I've mostly been enjoying productivity software, and for that A-Max really is sensational.

I've only got a couple of games on mine right now: Quarterstaff, which I've mentioned before, and Spaceward Ho!

When I'm in the HD experience, with floppy drive attached, it really does look and feel like a massively beefed up MacPlus. For disks, I've been making everything Mac disks. I have a 2nd Mac (Quadra 700) that I sometimes create and move files/disks around before bringing over to the "Mac Plus". Having a "bridge" machine is very handy along the way. I also sometimes will pop on a FloppyEmu so I can load software I get off the internet. But to be 100% honest, I much prefer getting original boxed versions of what I want and load it like the real deal.

Word, Mac Draw II, Hypercard... there's a lot of very cool stuff out there.

P.S.
Don't forget about CrossMac. Just be careful you don't create conflicts.

User avatar
jdryyz

Posted Sun Nov 19, 2023 8:20 pm

I'm revisiting Mac emulation on my Amigas inspired by your A-Max review video from a year ago. This is a better thread to post in since it concerns troubleshooting as well.

I dug through my Amiga floppy archives and found an appropriate Amax 2.5x disk (cracked, of course). I never owned any A-Max hardware in the past. The installation went smoothly on my Parceiro-II and Rejuvenator-equipped A1000 (1MB chip, 8MB fast) running Workbench 1.3. I knew booting the Mac system would be a challenge since I recently discovered that I erased my set of A-Max formatted System 7 disks. I also seem to have misplaced my original Apple System 7 disks in HD format. Sigh.

Then something stood out in my "amax" archive directory. It was two files called strt605a.wrp and strt605b.wrp. I only vaguely recalled what this .wrp extension was so I had to look into that further. At first I thought the "a" and "b" meant two full disks but it turned out to be part 1 and 2 of a single disk that ended up being in the A-Max format. The Amiga "unwarp" program was used to write "strt605a" to a blank diskette (the first 40 tracks) then unwarp strt605b to write the remaining part. Not sure what the reason behind this was. Perhaps this was how to retain the A-Max format but still have it in files. I should try making an .adf out of the resulting bootable A-Max System 6.0.5 since .adf was not a format that existed back then but could perhaps handle it today.

Moving on-- A-Max booted up this disk just fine and I was surprised at how responsive the Mac emulation was on a non-accelerated 68000 Amiga. My testing concluded quickly here since I have no other A-Max disks to try and no drive partition I can create. Yes, I too would love an A-Max driver for Parceiro. Alas, even if David was free to investigate this, I am skeptical that it can be done since the storage interface on the Parceiro is not a true SCSI implementation. I forgot how David described it exactly. Since A-Max expects to speak the more common drive interface language, this could be an issue.

My dual boot A3000 is up next for the A-Max install. It will be installed on both sides and a single AMAX drive will be shared. To this end, a small virtual drive file was created and placed on my ZuluSCSI SD card. I also stuck with less than 250MB. At first A-Max did not automatically detect it but then I caught a step I missed in HDToolBox. You gotta "save" any changes that show up...even on other drives you are not presently configuring. :) The drive (not partition in this case) was detected by A-Max now. When I booted from my System 605 disk, I was able format the A-Max drive just fine. The contents of the boot floppy was copied over and I was able to boot from it! A-Max is even better with an '030 and fast storage.

But there's a snag-- I have something going on that I believe is related to RAM but it is only affecting the OS 3.2.2 side. You see, I have 4MB on the A3K motherboard and then a 128MB GottaGoFaZt3r RAM in a Zorro slot. Despite lowering the RAM amount, A-Max crashes on launch. I may need more motherboard RAM since it has priority over bus expansions. The Workbench 1.3 side only sees 2mb chip and 4MB fast and doesn't have any problem starting the emulation. Not a big deal at the moment but it could explain some other weirdness I have with regard to the Zorro RAM.

Thanks to the info provided here, I think I have everything I need to create some System 7 disks for A-Max. I will get cracking on that soon.

Also be on the look out for a future post about my ShapeShifter problems. More gory details to amuse and confuse you.
Last edited by jdryyz on Mon Nov 20, 2023 9:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
jdryyz

Posted Mon Nov 20, 2023 9:08 am

No go with the img2amax utility. It says the size of the image file is incorrect.

I can see how that might be a problem since the floppy image files I located come up as 839k instead of 800k. I figured that was due to overhead or some such thing.

Here is where I found the image files (#4 on the list):

https://www.macintoshrepository.org/598 ... ystem-7-x-

Perhaps I need another source for the floppy images? Conversely, are there any other options for converting the images on the Amiga side?

I wish I could recall how I did it in the past. Most likely I had direct access to the original diskettes using a floppy adapter and then used a Mac-based utility for the conversion.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Mon Nov 20, 2023 10:23 am

You really went down the A-Max rabbit hole. Love it!
For the A3000, it seems like the later version of A-Max would be ideal paired with the Zorro-II card. That's what I hope to do some day if/when I ever get my A3000 back from Retro Rewind (that's a very long story). My dream is to some day use that machine to sync my Newton - because I'm crazy!

Let me look around. I am pretty sure I have some disk images. Can you explicitly state which specific disks you're looking for, and in which format? It gets confusing fast...

:disk: :disk: :disk: :disk:

User avatar
jdryyz

Posted Mon Nov 20, 2023 11:02 am

I saw more A-Max install floppy images on the A-Max Home Page. "AMAX4_HACK.ZIP" sounds interesting. Maybe it doesn't require hardware? If not, I could try that on the OS 3.x side. There are still other options on that page, most I was unaware of. Good to see the A-Max Utility disks as I do not appear to have those in my archive (but should have).

Thanks for looking. I would specifically like System 7.1 800k floppy images in A-Max format (since that is the only option I can read with my current hardware). I do not know if A-Max format floppies can exist in downloadable files or can only be created in physical form. Those .wrp files I mentioned before proves it can be done but the splitting into two parts is a mystery. I also have the Amiga "warp" program so I could try experimenting with trying to create a single .wrp file image from my System605 disk.

intric8 wrote:
Mon Nov 20, 2023 10:23 am
You really went down the A-Max rabbit hole. Love it!
For the A3000, it seems like the later version of A-Max would be ideal paired with the Zorro-II card. That's what I hope to do some day if/when I ever get my A3000 back from Retro Rewind (that's a very long story). My dream is to some day use that machine to sync my Newton - because I'm crazy!

Let me look around. I am pretty sure I have some disk images. Can you explicitly state which specific disks you're looking for, and in which format? It gets confusing fast...

:disk: :disk: :disk: :disk:

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Mon Nov 20, 2023 11:54 am

Maybe it doesn't require hardware?
Technically, if I remember correctly, none of the A-Max versions require any hardware. It's possible to run w/o the physical cartridge. Having the cartridge, though, makes your overall experience just a lot better/cooler.

Same is true for the Emplant.

User avatar
jdryyz

Posted Mon Nov 20, 2023 11:56 am

What about the ROM file requirements? I thought some A-Max versions would check for them or wouldn't let you start the emulation.





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