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Amiga 500 questions


DistantStar001

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I finally got my Amiga 500 to work!  It only took me 2 years to find a working power supply.  Long story.  I had been using a PC PSU, but there was smoke.  Several American ones never showed up, and the British one I got died seconds after I plugged it in.  Now I have European one, and it works great (even if I have to use a step-up transformer with it).

 

In any case, the computer works!  I installed a Gotek, and finally figured out how to set up my flash drive.  But I've run into one problem.  When trying to load the C64 emulator, it tells me I need to write protect the disk.  So, how do I do that?

 

Also, at the moment, I'm limited in displays.  I've been using a composite, and it works fine, but I'd like to see some color at some point.  Any recommendations for adaptors?  Most of my displays are composite, VGA, and/or HDMI, but a few have component capability as well.  Would I

 

On joysticks/Controllers:  Can I use a Genesis/Mega Drive or Master System controller?  Are there specific controllers I should avoid?  I have a tank-mouse. So I'm good on that end.  

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Monitors: you need something which will support 15kHz screen, unless you use Productivity Mode, which is not available for games played natively, and really hard on the hardware (not dangerous, just has some effects.)  Otherwise, you can get something like an Indivision ECS which provides flicker-fixed (for interlaced modes) and scan-doubled (31kHz) output via SVGA and DVI, or other similar device.  The Amiga puts out analogue RGB video, so converting is easy with the right device.  I use a number of different native FF/SD devices, most of which are not available new.

 

Genesis controller: not recommend as using some buttons may damage the Amiga.  SMS controller might work, but I have never looked at doing so nor read about them.  You want to avoid most console controllers, even if they are 9-pin.  All Atari 2600-compatible joysticks work, as I believe the 7800 controller's second button is recognized by some games.  You may want to get hold of a CD-32 controller.  It will work with all games without the use of the additional buttons, but if you run modern games which launch from Workbench, you can use the CD-32 compatible libraries (nonvolatile.library and I believe another for the controller, IIRC, been a long time since I had to do this.)  Some games will recognize the additional buttons.  I have a CD-32 controller attached to my 4000.

 

Also, I cannot think of any C64 emulator which is worth bothering with on a stock A500.  I tried The C64 emulator a long time ago.  It was horrid.  You need an accelerated machine to get any good speed out of even Frodo, and best experienced with an RTG video card.

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Yep, generally good info there on the display. Productivity mode is very slow without AGA (and arguably still slow *with* AGA, but more colourful :p ), and isn't even available on the OCS A500. Another option is an external RGB-HDMI converter. These can be cheap or expensive, but even the expensive options like the OSSC are similar money to Indivision scandoublers and similar. These external converters typically take a SCART RGB signal, so you'll also need an Amiga SCART RGB cable (and not composite), and give as good a quality image as you're going to get from an Amiga's native RGB output.

 

Regarding controllers, the Megadrive / Genesis controller isn't fully compatible (the pinout isn't standard and the pad's chips end up being powered by one of the Paula chip's I/O pins), but the risk of damage is low. Sometimes it simply won't work though due to the game, and fancy controllers (e.g. wireless Genesis controllers, arcade sticks with lights) don't work because of a lack of power. The MasterSystem controller is different though and is 100% compatible with the Amiga - it's wired for standard 2-button Amiga use.

 

CD32 controllers can be read with lowlevel.library (which is supplied with Workbench 3.1 and above), but most games that support it read it directly by banging the hardware so you don't usually need to worry about that aspect. CD32 controllers have a notoriously poor D-pad, and can be expensive because people want the original, and the Honeybee 3rd party controllers (which were considered the best back in the day) go for crazy money too, but there are better options. First, there are adaptors that take standard USB controllers and map them as CD32 pads. Then you've got modern recreation pads like the KTRL-CD32 pad, which takes a generic SNES-style USB pad and replaces the innards to produce a CD32-compatible pad with some excellent extra features like being able to remap buttons, e.g. mapping up to a button.

 

The C64 emulation is indeed going to be poor. It might work fine for a few things, but accurate emulation requires more horsepower. But, to answer the question, write-protecting with the Gotek depends on the firmware. If you use the FlashFloppy firmware, there's a small pop-up menu that lets you set an image as write-protected. But you need an OLED- or OSD-equipped Gotek for that.

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Hi all, and thanks for the responses!  Sorry I didn't reply sooner, but your advice is appreciated. 

 

On 4/1/2023 at 6:25 PM, OLD CS1 said:

Monitors: you need something which will support 15kHz screen, unless you use Productivity Mode, which is not available for games played natively, and really hard on the hardware (not dangerous, just has some effects.)  Otherwise, you can get something like an Indivision ECS which provides flicker-fixed (for interlaced modes) and scan-doubled (31kHz) output via SVGA and DVI, or other similar device.  The Amiga puts out analogue RGB video, so converting is easy with the right device.  I use a number of different native FF/SD devices, most of which are not available new.

I'm guessing an RGB Breakout or VGA converter are my best options.  But I'll have to research my available screens.

On 4/1/2023 at 6:25 PM, OLD CS1 said:

Genesis controller: not recommend as using some buttons may damage the Amiga.

On 4/2/2023 at 1:05 PM, Daedalus2097 said:

Regarding controllers, the Megadrive / Genesis controller isn't fully compatible (the pinout isn't standard and the pad's chips end up being powered by one of the Paula chip's I/O pins), but the risk of damage is low. Sometimes it simply won't work though due to the game, and fancy controllers (e.g. wireless Genesis controllers, arcade sticks with lights) don't work because of a lack of power.

Good to know!  I won't use one.

On 4/2/2023 at 1:05 PM, Daedalus2097 said:

MasterSystem controller is different though and is 100% compatible with the Amiga - it's wired for standard 2-button Amiga use.

Also good to know, since I have those!

On 4/1/2023 at 6:25 PM, OLD CS1 said:

Also, I cannot think of any C64 emulator which is worth bothering with on a stock A500.  I tried The C64 emulator a long time ago.  It was horrid.  You need an accelerated machine to get any good speed out of even Frodo, and best experienced with an RTG video card.

It was just something to play with.  I wasn't thinking of making it my primary 64 experience or anything like that.  I have several real Commodore 64s, TheC64, and a Commodore 128 for that.  But I'm guessing that the ZX Spectrum emulators I've found won't be much better.  I'm told it does a pretty good Mac though... (or do I need additional hardware?)

On 4/2/2023 at 1:05 PM, Daedalus2097 said:

Yep, generally good info there on the display. Productivity mode is very slow without AGA (and arguably still slow *with* AGA, but more colourful 😛 ), and isn't even available on the OCS A500. Another option is an external RGB-HDMI converter. These can be cheap or expensive, but even the expensive options like the OSSC are similar money to Indivision scandoublers and similar. These external converters typically take a SCART RGB signal, so you'll also need an Amiga SCART RGB cable (and not composite), and give as good a quality image as you're going to get from an Amiga's native RGB output.

Wish I had a SCART capable TV.  Sadly, not very common where I live.

On 4/2/2023 at 1:05 PM, Daedalus2097 said:

The C64 emulation is indeed going to be poor. It might work fine for a few things, but accurate emulation requires more horsepower. But, to answer the question, write-protecting with the Gotek depends on the firmware. If you use the FlashFloppy firmware, there's a small pop-up menu that lets you set an image as write-protected. But you need an OLED- or OSD-equipped Gotek for that.

My Gotek is running FlashFloppy 3.33 and OLED-equipped...  So how do I access the menu?  Even if the C64 thing's a bust, it might come in handy for other programs.  Side question: Can I add a tag to the file so the Gotek knows it's locked from the start?

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6 minutes ago, DistantStar001 said:

But I'm guessing that the ZX Spectrum emulators I've found won't be much better.  I'm told it does a pretty good Mac though... (or do I need additional hardware?)

Because the Amiga and pre-PPC Mac use the same CPU, emulation is actually pretty good given the right emulator.  I used one BITD running System 6, but I cannot remember what emulator I used.  I do have an Emplant which I ran in an 060-accelerated 2000 -- beautiful.

 

Irrespective of the emulator, you cannot go wrong with an accelerator.  Some systems are more difficult (thus require more horsepower) to emulate due to the original system hardware complexity.  There are a lot you can try from AmiNet.  I am pretty impressed with Apple2e, for instance, but it has been sooooooo long since I ran a stock 500 I could not tell you how it will run there.  Really, nothing hurts to try.

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Yup, Mac emulation using Shapeshifter or Fusion is impressive, mainly because the code runs natively on the host CPU, making it more of a virtual machine than an emulator. This means that if you have a 50MHz '030 in your Amiga, you can expect performance roughly on par with a 50MHz '030 Mac. I used it extensively with System 7.5 or 7.6 back in the day on my '060 Amiga to run games like Settlers II, Sim City 2000 and more. Basilisk is a different story though - that also emulates the CPU, so give that one a miss unless you've a stonking fast (i.e. emulated) CPU to begin with.

 

As for the Gotek, on mine you click the rotary control when an ADF is "inserted" and it gives an Eject menu. One of the items in there is to write protect it. I don't know how that is stored, but I doubt it's in the ADF itself as that's just a raw image, so there's probably a config file on the USB drive that you could have a look at. If you don't have a rotary encoder and just have the two buttons, I don't think you can do it that way. Maybe using the boot selector image on the USB drive instead might give you that option on-screen.

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