Amiga Forever!

[Gingerdilligaf]

On 10/9/2019 at 6:06 AM, Honosuseri said:

MS-DOS is an utter pig, I didn't bother with it in Hyperspin on the STV. I use Magic Dosbox and load it through Kodi's main menu,

I've never managed to work out Magic Dosbox since sideloading it to shield. First problem I couldn't get a mouse cursor to appear using the shield controller, i got a mini usb keyboard to solve that issue but then found i couldnt load games from an external hdd. 

[Honosuseri]

4 hours ago, Gingerdilligaf said:

I've never managed to work out Magic Dosbox since sideloading it to shield. First problem I couldn't get a mouse cursor to appear using the shield controller, i got a mini usb keyboard to solve that issue but then found i couldnt load games from an external hdd. 

I have a 1TB SSHD adopted as internal storage to expand the 16GB, never tried doing stuff from external drives. I barely use MDB or play MS-DOS games on the STV. I'm not one of those people that wants to "brag" that they have 300+ wheels in Hyperspin. The wheels I have are stuff I want to play and they're done well.

I'd love to help you out but it would drag this thread off topic and to be honest I'm pretty busy with this Amiga project and PC VR.

[PiperCalls]

This is very exciting stuff. Thanks for all the hard work. Love the Amiga & looking forward to this beast set.

[Honosuseri]

24 minutes ago, PiperCalls said:

This is very exciting stuff. Thanks for all the hard work. Love the Amiga & looking forward to this beast set.

Thank you!

Just so you are aware. Ransom is also busy covering the Amiga for the Raspberry Pi with Amiberry, although I do know he's helping some other guys out with an Android Hyperspin project. He did ask me nicely if I'd consider teaming up with those guys again (as I frankly know more about the Amiga than they do) but I've refused. It's possible they may finish before me as they are just concentrating on using UAE4ARM.

I want to sort Amiga emulation on PC first. I'm going to have to tinker with some Rocketlauncher modules as well as sort and create media, although to my knowledge I have more Amiga media than anybody else. This gives the Amiberry team time to complete the Android port and then I can turn my attention to uae files for that and the media I've done for PC can be used on Android.

[ransom1122]

You still holding your breath for Amiberry for Android? Really after all these years... ?

With no proof or any evidence the port to Android is possible. I've given up waiting. The dev is way to busy with supporting Amiberry on single board computers then to mess with an unfamiliar OS.

Uae4arm is the way to go forward on Android, and with any issues or hiccups, lubo is surely prepared to at least look at it and or solve it.

 

If or when Amiberry arrives on Android I'll then pay attention to it. Otherwise Ill spend my time elsewhere.

[Honosuseri]

12 hours ago, ransom1122 said:

You still holding your breath for Amiberry for Android? Really after all these years... ?

With no proof or any evidence the port to Android is possible. I've given up waiting. The dev is way to busy with supporting Amiberry on single board computers then to mess with an unfamiliar OS.

Uae4arm is the way to go forward on Android, and with any issues or hiccups, lubo is surely prepared to at least look at it and or solve it.

 

If or when Amiberry arrives on Android I'll then pay attention to it. Otherwise Ill spend my time elsewhere.

No I'm not holding my breath. My priority is to finally sort the Commodore Amiga out for Hyperspin! The best emulators (with cycle exact) are on PC and the Lion's share of Hyperspin users are PC based (because the PC version is superior). So that is now my focus and sorting the other Commodore computers that have been sorely neglected.

I'm well aware of the state of Android emulation (you know this). I don't think it was a coincidence that UAE4ARM started working again on Android TV, shortly after I sent the dev a crash log. I didn't see anyone else post one on github, I've done my fair share to help the Android side of things along.

There is already an Amiga set done for Android which was rushed and of poor quality. I'm not convinced the guys working on the new set using your updated hdf files will do it properly. No disrespect to them, the Amiga is a complicated system to emulate. I have my doubts they'll know the games are actually running as close to true speed as possible or know how to create a Workbench environment like I did for Android. I wish them luck with it, I do like seeing people excited about the Amiga which I do adore.

I know you're busy with the RPI, I'll focus on PC and will then turn to Android once that's complete. If Amiberry is still in Limbo come that time, I already have an impressive working set of uae files for UAE4ARM to use as a base to update. The media assets created for PC can be used on Android, I think I'm actually using my time wisely.

P.S

Thank you for the update about Rygar (AGA) that has now been ported to the Amiga (it's an awesome game). I'm sure PC users are excited to get a definitive Amiga set to add to their collection.

 

[ransom1122]

FYI.. I haven't turned my pi on ever since i released my last pi COLOSSAL 256gb Retro image months ago.

Android IMO is a better system to play with. Does far better in emulation and non gaming things.

As for advancing forward. I have a say in how amiga goes forward with HS, and yes, AGA and NON wheels will be implement. Optimized uae configs for each game etc etc. 

It looks like work on this will be doubled up from yourself and the "other side." It's a shame it was never worked "as a team" instead of divide and conquer approach.

Lucky for me, I have 4 other guys willing to help and advance amiga forward with HS and my new hdfs. So i dare say it wont take that long.

[Honosuseri]

39 minutes ago, ransom1122 said:

FYI.. I haven't turned my pi on ever since i released my last pi COLOSSAL 256gb Retro image months ago.

Android IMO is a better system to play with. Does far better in emulation and non gaming things.

As for advancing forward. I have a say in how amiga goes forward with HS, and yes, AGA and NON wheels will be implement. Optimized uae configs for each game etc etc. 

It looks like work on this will be doubled up from yourself and the "other side." It's a shame it was never worked "as a team" instead of divide and conquer approach.

Lucky for me, I have 4 other guys willing to help and advance amiga forward with HS and my new hdfs. So i dare say it wont take that long.

Well I have more faith that it will be well done then, if you aren't doing the RPI.

It's not a divide and conquer approach. The Amiga on PC needs sorting out, Rocket Launcher modules need adapting and of course the media sorting (which I've been chipping away at). I don't want to work with others and deal with egos, arguing why I want things done a certain way or teach people, for them to then want to branch off and go their own way.

I started this thread for my Amiga project. It's already helping others who want to do their own setups which is great. It makes no odds to me if people want to use the setup I will eventually release or another, as long as people are still enjoying the Amiga.

[jamestheking]

Hi, i was just wondering if some could post an amiga ini file that uses uae4arm? There were files posted before but they are no longer available.

Edit its ok sorted it myself.

[therourke]

Will you be kind enough to share your romset or even just .use files? I am having many headaches trying to get Amiga running on my Nvidea Shield with Hyperspin. UAE4ARM doesn't seem to like my .zip romset, and I can't find a full HDF set with the correct names. Why is Amiga so complicated!? All the other systems load in quite easily.

[sanchezmike01]

Have u tried the new puae core??...u should because it plays cdtv, cd32, and hdf,adf, and whdload games...give it a try and has full controller support for cd32/cdtv and keyboard and mouse and joystick for amiga

[bippym]

Will you be kind enough to share your romset or even just .use files? I am having many headaches trying to get Amiga running on my Nvidea Shield with Hyperspin. UAE4ARM doesn't seem to like my .zip romset, and I can't find a full HDF set with the correct names. Why is Amiga so complicated!? All the other systems load in quite easily.

The Amiga is so complicated because it isn't just a one size fits all system.

There are many many models, with differing memory, cpu configs. There's ocs, ecs, aga etc.. With games released for each. Amiga emulation as a whole is extremely complex and is not something for a beginner to easily pick up!

Then there is the complexity of different formats and ways to store games.. Firstly adf, which is simply a floppy disk image. Often these use cracks and as such a dodgy crack can fall over on different configs. There are then whdload installs, which are usually run from Workbench environment. These can be run as a hdf formst, which is basically a hard drive image, and is possibly the easiest way to get this done.

When everything is taken into consideration you can appreciate how complex this is.

I have been reading and catching up on this, and maybe it's time i got back into getting this running on my shield. I deffo managed to get a lot running a while ago, and right now i have been using arcbrowser as it is simpler to set up..

I might look into creating a pc tool specifically for Amiga hyperspin. A third Amiga project for me..

[therourke]

A Hyperspin tool would be great. I just am not having any luck. I need to find a good HDF romset I think. Or a way to convert these zips I have already.

[VanZan]

I've been trying to suss out Amiga emulation on Android for a long time and think I've finally got it sorted. I never owned an Amiga as a kid although I desperately wanted one. I've never used Hyperspin but I found this thread on Google and I thought it beginner friendly. Also the posted working version of uae4arm for the Shield was very handy (thanks Honosuseri). I just wanted to post my findings.

Initially I had numerous hdf files from another time when I tried and gave up. I didn't realise the ones for RetroArch and the Ransom ones weren't universally compatible. The Ransom ones wouldn't work in RetroArch (with PUAE) and the Retroarch hdf files weren't working in UAE4ARM (until I realised it needed a WhdLoad file as well). Also what was really causing me problems was if I tried to load the hdf from my sd card it wouldn't work at all. Again I realised that once I moved it to the internal storage and ran it from there I had no problem.

Basically I'm now wondering whether to use UAE4ARM or RetroArch? Would you guys have a recommendation? Bear in mind I'm not using HyperSpin. As for that maybe one day I'll take it on. What frightens me is the amount of time I'd end up losing to it!

Again thanks to Honosuseri for his Youtube vids and posting a link to a working UAE4ARM.

[Honosuseri]

On 2/29/2020 at 8:47 PM, VanZan said:

I've been trying to suss out Amiga emulation on Android for a long time and think I've finally got it sorted. I never owned an Amiga as a kid although I desperately wanted one. I've never used Hyperspin but I found this thread on Google and I thought it beginner friendly. Also the posted working version of uae4arm for the Shield was very handy (thanks Honosuseri). I just wanted to post my findings.

Initially I had numerous hdf files from another time when I tried and gave up. I didn't realise the ones for RetroArch and the Ransom ones weren't universally compatible. The Ransom ones wouldn't work in RetroArch (with PUAE) and the Retroarch hdf files weren't working in UAE4ARM (until I realised it needed a WhdLoad file as well). Also what was really causing me problems was if I tried to load the hdf from my sd card it wouldn't work at all. Again I realised that once I moved it to the internal storage and ran it from there I had no problem.

Basically I'm now wondering whether to use UAE4ARM or RetroArch? Would you guys have a recommendation? Bear in mind I'm not using HyperSpin. As for that maybe one day I'll take it on. What frightens me is the amount of time I'd end up losing to it!

Again thanks to Honosuseri for his Youtube vids and posting a link to a working UAE4ARM.

Sorry for the late reply, I haven't been on the forum much lately. I've been busy with PC VR with my Rift S, I got the old light gun games working with the touch controllers and launched through Hyperspin with Virtual Desktop. It's awesome but that's a story for another day as it's off topic!  No I haven't given up on the Amiga I did slog away at filling in the missing media for Hyperspin!

I'm actually incredibly impressed with what the guys have now done with the PUAE core on RetroArch. Yes it can now do all "Amiga systems" BUT what's most impressive is that it seems to do cycle exact emulation which UAE4ARM and Amiberry do not (last time I checked anyway). PUAE can also cope with zip files, lha (i.e Amiga zip files), hdf, adf, cue, iso (for CD32, CDTV obviously) etc. etc. It is quite fussy about what Amiga Kickstart roms you have though. Please do check the md5 checksum of your kickstarts to make sure they match and rename them as necessary, google it there are sites you can drop the file into and it will give you the md5. I'll link to the PUAE instructions page so you can see how they should be named and the md5 (https://github.com/libretro/libretro-uae).

I threw a handful of tricky games at Retroarch's PUAE with the lha file format. "It came from the desert" was a notorious game for not running at the correct speed on UAE4ARM, hence all that uae file nonsense to configure it to run acceptably. PUAE just ran it perfect first try, no uae file, just loading the lha file directly! Keep in mind I haven't tested every game as there are so bloody many of them, so yes some might need a uae file made. I'll investigate further when I can but yes I did try CD32 games too and they also played great!

What does all this mean for my project? Well I'm now potentially "free" of relying on Ransom's HDF files (which I'm incredibly grateful for all the work he put into and some people might want to still use them for the trainers/cheats) and quite possibly a metric **** tonne of uae files! My long term goal was to have one Amiga Romset for both PC and Android, since PUAE can do zip & lha, I can just use the original Retroplay files Ransom uses to make the HDF files. These Retroplay WHDLoad zips and lha packs get updated over time and their names change BUT I can just rename them to something more sensible so the Hyperspin media and database still matches. 

As you're new to the Amiga, you really should look into the EAB (English Amiga Board), they also have a file server for their members. It won't host Ransom's files as the HDF files include Workbench files which are copyrighted BUT browse the file server as it has lots of goodies for us Amiga lovers. As you're not a Hyperspin user I can recommend the Arc Browser frontend on Android, it will work on your Shield TV and an Android Phone. Yes it costs money but that single purchase covers any device using your google account. It's actively developed by Freelancer, he creates presets for systems and the emulators they use to make setup easier. It can scrape online to get the artwork for your games too, it's not as flashy as Hyperspin but it's incredibly good! I use both on my STV, HS is for show but AB really is more convenient as it supports voice search from the STV homescreen.

Hope this wall of text has helped you out. I'll return to the Amiga and Android when I can focus on it properly, I have some serious family issues to contend with at home currently. All the best with it VanZan

[therourke]

Still suuuuuuuuper keen to have a fully functioning Amiga setup on my NVIDIA Hyperspin. How is this coming along?

[Honosuseri]

18 hours ago, therourke said:

Still suuuuuuuuper keen to have a fully functioning Amiga setup on my NVIDIA Hyperspin. How is this coming along?

Getting there, I have a lot going on at home with family and friends dying from Cancer. It's done when it's done, I'm giving no release date. The information I share does help others who want to tackle their own setups though. I know Diskmach is working on redoing the wheelart for the Amiga and doing an amazing job of it too!

Much of the delay was down to the emulator to move forward with on Android. I will now be proceeding with the PUAE core and RetroArch, I explained why in a previous post. I have abandoned Ransom's HDF collection, I specifically told him we need static naming BUT he keeps changing the names. I wish him well with his projects BUT this just goes to show why I didn't want to work with and be dependant on others for my project. HDF files are also larger in size than LHA files that's just how it is. Ransom does put cheats and trainers into his files if you want that option, he has made unofficial collections (e.g Batman) which I deem unnecessary and a "waste of space". I have renamed the Retroplay WHDLoad LHA files, how they are named helps the PUAE core load them automatically and give other frontends a helping hand in scraping online for media and metadata.

If you are desperate to have the Amiga on your STV. You can always focus on doing your favourite games, say 20-30 of them rather than the full 3000+. It's not difficult to do an Amiga.xml database file and rename the latest LHA files and media for a few games. You don't need to worry about uae files with RetroArch, providing the game name is suitable. If it's an AGA game have (AGA) in the title, if it needs Fast RAM have (FAST) in the title. The lha files will have "_aga" or "_fast" in their name anyway to help you know.

[therourke]

Thanks for the update! 

I have found a pretty decent build, and managed to get it to work with retroarch. Where can I download Diskmach's build? Does it include videos? Not had luck finding it. If you have a link to the latest art and videos I'd really appreciate it.

[Honosuseri]

4 hours ago, therourke said:

Thanks for the update! 

I have found a pretty decent build, and managed to get it to work with retroarch. Where can I download Diskmach's build? Does it include videos? Not had luck finding it. If you have a link to the latest art and videos I'd really appreciate it.

I don't use "Hyperspin builds" releasing them or linking to them is against forum rules. When Discmach is done I'm sure his artwork will be available from here on the Hyperspin website, videos are from emumovies

[thatman84]

On 7/9/2020 at 9:20 AM, therourke said:

Thanks for the update! 

I have found a pretty decent build, and managed to get it to work with retroarch. Where can I download Diskmach's build? Does it include videos? Not had luck finding it. If you have a link to the latest art and videos I'd really appreciate it.

Diskmach is a content creator. He remakes/adjusts artwork to make it as high quality and authentic as possible. Also reworking/updating databases to the original hyperspin database guidance/naming.

He has been working off/on on Amiga wheel art for a year or 2 and releases his work here.

https://diskmach.wordpress.com

 

3rd party builds that include games are not discussed here as it's against the rules.

Most videos can be downloaded from emumovies.com but depending on your database will depend on how well you fair. Naming differences are a major issue with Amiga.

I tried and came up short on Amiga so left it to others that have more passion for it.

[therourke]

I have a fully working build for Commodore Amiga now. It took me a good while to get it up and running (on Retroarch, NVIDEA Shield).

I made a tutorial, so people don't have to repeat my mistakes, which you can find here.