User avatar
Nick

Posted Fri Jul 31, 2020 5:20 am

Hey all,

So how do I go from an ADF file that I can download here, to playing it on my Amiga 500, please?

My best bet is installing a harddrive in my amiga500, but how do you get the adf file on it?

And once I get it on, how do I play the game: straight from the HD or do I have to copy it on an old floppy first?

Thanks in advance :)

User avatar
3D-vice
Germany

Posted Fri Jul 31, 2020 7:31 am

One way to get ADF files running is by using a GoTek-Drive. You can run the ADFs directly from an USB-Stick, without the necessity of transferring them to a HDD or a floppy first. As far as I know, there are 2 variants of GoTek-drives available:

One has a standard 3,5" form factor and fits nicely into an External Floppy drive for the Amiga500. The are available in black and white.

The other one is intended to be built into the Amiga500 and replace the original floppy drive.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:10 am

@Nick Great question.

I can tell you how I do it (and how I create the ADFs in the first place, to put on the Library).

I do it like this , where I use a PC, a cheap null-modem cable and some cheap software.

To make the process as simple as possible it does require that your Amiga has a hard drive. That's the only caveat to the way I do it, and I know your A500 lacks one.

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Fri Jul 31, 2020 4:53 pm

There are a lot of ways to transfer the files. I have also done it with Amiga Forever like @intric8 does. It is easy once you get it set up. You can do more with this method then just making disk images too.

Probably the cheapest way to use ADFs is with the Gotek. You could even make it external then if you really want to use floppy disks you can copy from the Gotek to a real disk via any copier, IE X-Copy.

Other ways include:
1. Using a kryoflux and a PC/Mac with a 3.5" PC drive. This is mostly the way I do it these days since this method has the advantage of supporting copy protected images.

2. ACA500+ device that also gives you accelration, HD support via CF cards, Extra Memory and much more.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:56 am

You could even make it external then if you really want to use floppy disks you can copy from the Gotek to a real disk via any copier, IE X-Copy.
This is a really cool idea; but to be honest I didn't realize that was actually possible. I always thought the Gotek wanted to be set as the internal DF0:

If it could be changed, it's worth noting that if you went that route a ton of games simply won't load from DF1: because they were coded to hit DF0: (your internal floppy drive) by default. But you could have a Gotek as an external second drive and use a USB stick to put ADFs on there. Then, you should be able to copy the ADFs from DF1 to DF0 quite easily.

My god... maybe I should finally get a Gotek simply for this purpose, too!

Update:
So I went and researched how to make a Gotek DF1:
It's not an off-the-shelf slam dunk, but folks have indeed solved this challenge before. The issue is Gotek drives don't come as external drives; they were made to be internal replacements. What people have to do then is buy an external floppy disk drive, and replace the internals with a Gotek because external drives need their own disk controller, and the Gotek doesn't come with one.

Example:
For this we start with an external floppy-disk drive and replace the drive with the Gotek. Then we need to add an adapter on the Even CIA to swap the DF0 and DF1 signals to allow the Amiga to boot from the external drive whenever we want to.

User avatar
Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:12 am

I honestly think these are way too crazy of methods for somebody just getting into this all. This is how you scare them into abandoning a hobby before they have a grasp. You don't need goteks, you don't need a hard drive or a replacement CF card for a hard drive, you got the computer, you got a disk drive, god willing you've got a few floppies still...

Go for the free or as cheap as possible. Null modem cable, PC, Amiga, and ADF Sender Terminal. If you don't have a method of getting files over to your Amiga already, and you probably wouldn't, you will need to write an Amiga BASIC program which is shown on the page in order to get ADF Sender Terminal to your Amiga's Workbench disk or something. Then using a shell command you can transfer adfs from a PC to the Amiga's floppy drive. It was free for me since I had a null modem cable already.

I rarely use ADF sender terminal anymore, I use Amiga Explorer to transfer zip files of several ADFs to the Amiga where I then unpack them and write them on the Amiga with a graphical environment forgoing the shell. Amiga Explorer can also write direct to floppies, but that's at a price, and you're just getting into this stuff so I say keep it as simple and as cheap as possible.

http://adfsender.stoeggl.com
http://adfsender.stoeggl.com/adfsendert ... thods.html

User avatar
3D-vice
Germany

Posted Sat Aug 01, 2020 1:42 pm

intric8 wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:56 am
Update:
So I went and researched how to make a Gotek DF1:
It's not an off-the-shelf slam dunk, but folks have indeed solved this challenge before. The issue is Gotek drives don't come as external drives; they were made to be internal replacements. What people have to do then is buy an external floppy disk drive, and replace the internals with a Gotek because external drives need their own disk controller, and the Gotek doesn't come with one.

Example:
For this we start with an external floppy-disk drive and replace the drive with the Gotek. Then we need to add an adapter on the Even CIA to swap the DF0 and DF1 signals to allow the Amiga to boot from the external drive whenever we want to.
Well, I got this DF0 Selector and it works flawlessly with my Gotek mounted into an External Floppy case.

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Sat Aug 01, 2020 6:00 pm

intric8 wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:56 am

Update:
So I went and researched how to make a Gotek DF1:
It's not an off-the-shelf slam dunk, but folks have indeed solved this challenge before. The issue is Gotek drives don't come as external drives; they were made to be internal replacements. What people have to do then is buy an external floppy disk drive, and replace the internals with a Gotek because external drives need their own disk controller, and the Gotek doesn't come with one.
Yeah it is pretty much as simple as swapping the external drives mechanism with the gotek and plugging it in to the ribbon cable. The external drives don't need a controller per se as the Amiga chips provide that but they do need to be interfaced to the correct pins on the 23pin external floppy connector. I can't remember exactly where I have seen it but there is a PCB that adapts an internal Amiga (or Gotek) drive to the 23-pin connector. Many of the third party external floppy drives for Amiga had a small board in there that served the purpose of adapting an off the shelf PC drive to work with an Amiga.

The third party drives would be a better fit for a Gotek then say the 1010 or 1011 made by Commodore since they have custom cases and don't use standard footprint drives with standard faces. I have an external drive that died and I saved the case for this very reason. Just have not gotten around to it.

User avatar
m4d

Posted Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:01 am

intric8 wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:56 am
Update:
So I went and researched how to make a Gotek DF1:
It's not an off-the-shelf slam dunk, but folks have indeed solved this challenge before. The issue is Gotek drives don't come as external drives; they were made to be internal replacements.
You could just get a cable from amibay and plug that straight into your gotek. I strongly advise to get a gotek with the FlashFloppy firmware installed if you can't flash it yourself. (Spoiler alert: to flash a gotek you have to solder a 4-pin header and have a ftdi programmer or clone at hand) This would enable you to copy adfs to the internal drive super easy. With an additional bootselector (get a ttl-switched one like the one 3d-vice linked to) you could make the external drive df0: and boot directly from the adfs on your usb media.

User avatar
walldog

Posted Sat Aug 29, 2020 3:52 pm

Shot97 wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:12 am
I honestly think these are way too crazy of methods for somebody just getting into this all. This is how you scare them into abandoning a hobby before they have a grasp. You don't need goteks, you don't need a hard drive or a replacement CF card for a hard drive, you got the computer, you got a disk drive, god willing you've got a few floppies still...

Go for the free or as cheap as possible. Null modem cable, PC, Amiga, and ADF Sender Terminal. If you don't have a method of getting files over to your Amiga already, and you probably wouldn't, you will need to write an Amiga BASIC program which is shown on the page in order to get ADF Sender Terminal to your Amiga's Workbench disk or something. Then using a shell command you can transfer adfs from a PC to the Amiga's floppy drive. It was free for me since I had a null modem cable already.

I rarely use ADF sender terminal anymore, I use Amiga Explorer to transfer zip files of several ADFs to the Amiga where I then unpack them and write them on the Amiga with a graphical environment forgoing the shell. Amiga Explorer can also write direct to floppies, but that's at a price, and you're just getting into this stuff so I say keep it as simple and as cheap as possible.

http://adfsender.stoeggl.com
http://adfsender.stoeggl.com/adfsendert ... thods.html
When I first got my Amiga 500 in early 2000's after my initial encounter of friends in early 90's I didnt know where to start. Somehow I encountered Amiga explorer and figured out with Null modem cable and PC you can write ADF's to floppy. That was a BIG DEAL and I gotta say something that got me going. I do believe and check me but you can also write the ADF's the other way from floppy to PC the same way. Just drag and drop!... Amiga Explorer so under rated...





Return to “Retro Corner”