There is a new app in the Amiga town that lets you read ADF files like a pro on a real Amiga. There are several apps on Aminet, but this one puts this service to a totally new level. GoADF makes the use of any Amiga Emulator together with a real Amiga to a play rather than pain. So, lets introduce you to GoADF!

Reading Amiga Disk Format never been Easier

The game looks like a platformer, but it is a combination of platforming and a puzzle game. Aim of the game is to get a potato to a hole with golf-like style. You are invulnerable, but the potato is not. Because of the weak RedPill engine performance, the game needs an accelerated Amiga (bare A1200 with 14MHz is not enough). Accueil Amiga Commodore Amiga - Games - ADF (0.29) P 0-9 A. Puggles (1991)(Amiga Power) 303 Ko Puggles (1991)(Amiga Power)t +5 LGD 320 Ko.

Now in these modern times, the Amiga software that is available online comes in ADF format that was introduced with UAE emulator.

ADF file format stands for Amiga Disk Format are in short Amiga’s disks put together, byte after byte, into a one file.
Such files are commonly known as floppy disk images that replaces floppies which is getting less and less available. No one produces them anymore and so this file format was made to save Amiga`s content.

The content of the adf file disks does not matter. You can use it fully legally or illegally like torrent files are. But be aware that piracy wont save the Amiga so support those that support Amiga today. However there are tons of abandonware titles for Amiga which isn’t for sale anymore. So, ADF file format together with the famous hard drive installer WHDload package helps the Amiga content to survive and we want it to live forever.

Amiga content from Emulator to real Amiga with GoADF!

Any Amiga disk can be transferred to the ADF format. This means that any content can be transfered to UAE aka Unix Amiga Emulator. But to bring that content back to AmigaOS been a headache. There are some nice tools on Aminet, but theres never been a complete suite that does this transfer from pain to pleasure!

ADF files are very convinient ‘substitutes’ of physical media as they can be easily shared online or used along with all of the UAE emulators out there. This app allows even the novice users of Amiga computers to acquire data from the ADF file in an easy and intuitive way.

But thats not all. You can also mount ADF drives with full control in a nicely made GUI environment. Often you need several apps, but with GoADF you get an all in one app which is great for every Amiga user to have.

So now you can buy or Download any Amiga game or app that can be sent to you in ADF format and get it to your Amiga hard drive. Even to Amiga’s with floppy drives that doesn’t work anymore. A real Amiga saviour app for AmigaOS. Recommended!

Main features of GoADF!

The feature list for this ADF app for AmigaOS is not small. All is in system friendly GUI which lets you really have full control.

• Reading information about the ADF file through reading and interpretation of all types of Amiga’s disks blocks OFS/FFS:
  • is bootable
  • is DOS disk (or NDOS)
  • type of filesystem (OFS / FFS (INTL/DC/LNFS))
  • disk label
  • dates of modification and creation disk
  • disk size
  • disk usage
  • and many others
• File exploration mode –(only ADF from DOS disks)- allows to browse the content of the files in ADF file, similarly to the file manager apps. Also, details about files and folders (type, date, size and properties) are viewed. It is possible to enter deep into folder’s structure and extract the files directly from ADF file to the hard disk.
• Block exploration mode – based on disk editors, allows to browse content of the ADF file, block after block – each block of the disk is presented as HEX and ASCII board.
• ADF files to physical disks recording mode – intuitive GUI with drive choice and disc formatting options. The operation is presented on the original graphical and logical floppy disk image (based on XCopy).
• ADF files to one of four virtual drives (ADO to AD3) mounting mode – allows to mount DOS and NDOS disks to the virtual drives. In this way ADF files appear to the operating system as normal disks put into the disk drive, from where they can be operated, for example, by the Directory Opus.
  In order to operate virtual drives, adf.device packet is being used, with the permission of the author – Bjørn Fuglsang. The packet (included in GoADF!) is also available at: http://bfugl.dk/Download.asp
• Quick access to all ADF files in one folder – easy access to ADF stored on the hard disk by uploading the list of ADF files from the selected folder to the list in GoADF! app.

Only lib that you need is reqtools.library v38+ (download it from Aminet) Other than that this app requires almost nothing. 68000 CPU, 1MB RAM, Kickstart 2.x and a hard drive connected to your Amiga.

So now you can get more software to your Amiga that might only be in ADF format to find. GoADF is a perfect tool for creating AmigaOS 3.1.4 ADF files for personal use on your PC or Mac with UAE installed there or make ADF files readable on AmigaOS this software got it all. This is a perfect tool for beginners and novice users of AmigaOS.

Download GoADF from BitPlan site here

Amitopia will do a full review of it soon.

Source: Amiga.Net.Pl, BitPlan

Lets say you don’t have a GoTek drive or Compact Flash card, how on Earth do you transfer data between your Amiga and a PC?

In the days before the GoTek there was another go-to tool for transferring data between an Amiga and PC: Amiga Explorer by Cloanto. Using this application it was possible to transfer not only data between the systems but also create Amiga Disk Format (ADF) images from Amiga floppies, apply ADF images to Amiga floppies, and even copy the Amiga Kickstart ROM.

In this article I’ll run you through how to install and use Amiga Explorer with a standard Amiga 500 (512MB of RAM) connected to a Windows 10 PC using a null-modem cable over the serial ports of each system.

Section 1: Installing Amiga Explorer on Windows

1. Download the Amiga Explorer installation file from the Cloanto website (https://www.amigaforever.com/ae/).

2. Double-click on the Amiga Explorer installation file.

3. On the Amiga Explorer Setup Wizard window, click on the Next > button.

4. Accept the license agreement by choosing the “I accept the terms in the license agreement” option and click on the Next > button.

5. Fill in the customer information and license key (if you have one) and click on the Next > button.

6. Choose whether you wish to perform a Complete or Custom installation. For this example a Complete installation will be performed. Then click on the Next > button.

7. Choose the destination folder to install the Amiga Explorer application and then click on the Next > button.

8. Finally the installation is ready to start. Click on the Install button.

9. The installation will then start. You may be prompted by Windows UAC to allow the installation to start.

10. Once the installation is completed, click on the Finish button and this will close the Setup Wizard.

On the Windows desktop will be an Amiga Explorer icon.

Section 2: Serial Null-Modem Cable

A serial null-modem cable is required to connect the Amiga to the PC. If you choose to purchase a null-modem cable it’s critically important that the cable is wired for “full handshaking”.

Alternatively you can choose to make your own cable. Cloanto has done a great job at documenting the pin-out of the serial null-modem cable on their website (https://www.amigaforever.com/kb/13-105) which is required to connect the Amiga to the PC. Below are the pin-outs for the serial null-modem cable shown on the Cloanto website.

For this document, a DB-9 (female) to DB-25 (female) cable was constructed.

NOTE: Many modern PC’s don’t have serial ports anymore. USB serial port adapters will work just fine. For this document, a Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port adapter, similar to the one shown below, was used.

Section 3: Installing Amiga Explorer on an Amiga over a Serial Port

1. Connect the serial ports of the Amiga and PC together using the null-modem cable.

2. Open the Windows Device Manager to find out what COM# your PC’s serial port is.

In this example COM4 is the PC’s serial port.

3. Turn on the Amiga and boot Workbench. Workbench version 1.2 or higher is needed.

4. Once Workbench is up and running, right-click on the Amiga Explorer icon on your Windows PC and choose the Setup option from the pop-up menu.

5. Click on the OK button of the Amiga Explorer Setup dialog.

6. On the Workbench version confirmation dialog, click on Yes button if the Amiga is running Workbench 2.0 or higher, or click on the No button if the Amiga is running Workbench 1.2 or 1.3.

In this example the Amiga is running Workbench 1.3, so No was clicked.

7. The next window will describe the serial port preferences required for the Amiga.

On the Amiga, open the Serial Preferences application and ensure the settings are set to:

Baud Rate: 19200

Buffer Size: 4096

Read Bits: 8

Write Bits: 8

Stop Bits: 1

Parity: None

Handshaking: RTS/CTS

Once the Amiga Serial Preferences are set, on your Windows PC click on the OK button of the Amiga Explorer Setup dialog.

8. Follow the instructions described on the Amiga Explorer Setup dialog. On the Amiga, open a Shell and type the command “Type SER: to RAM:Setup” and press Enter.

9. Then on the Windows PC, click on the OK button of the Amiga Explorer Setup dialog and wait while the Setup program for Amiga Explorer is copied to the Amiga’s RAM: drive.

10. Once the copy is complete, as described in the Amiga Explorer Setup dialog, press Ctrl-C on the Amiga. Nothing will appear to happen, that is normal. Once you’re pressed Ctrl-C on the Amiga then click OK on the Amiga Explorer Setup dialog of the Windows PC. The word “**BREAK” should appear in the Amiga Shell.

11. As instructed, in the Amiga Shell type “RAM:Setup” and press Return.

Then click on the OK button of the Amiga Explorer Setup dialog on the Windows PC.

This will start copying the Amiga Explorer application to the RAM Disk of the Amiga.

Amiga Adf Roms

12. Once the copy of the Amiga Explorer application to the Amiga’s RAM Disk is complete, click OK on the Amiga Explorer Setup dialog on the Windows PC.

Amiga Adf Demos

That’s it! The Amiga Explorer application is now located in the Amiga’s RAM DISK. Feel free to either leave it there if you’re only using it temporarily, or copy to a floppy if you need a more convenient way to start it in the future.

Section 4: Using Amiga Explorer over a Serial Port

1. To start or stop the Amiga Explorer application on the Amiga, open the RAM DISK (or wherever you’ve copied the Amiga Explorer application to) and double-click on the AEplorer icon.

When you launch the Amiga Explorer application on the Amiga, an AExplorer window will appear showing the connection information. This windows will appear for only a few seconds and then it will disappear.

To close the Amiga Explorer application on the Amiga, double-click on the AExplore icon again. When you close the Amiga Explorer Application on the Amiga another AExplore window will appear indicating that it’s stopped.

2. Once the Amiga Explorer application is running on the Amiga, launch the Amiga Explorer application on Windows.

3. Below is what the main Amiga Explorer window looks like.

The application is pretty intuitive, but here is a short list of some of the key functions you can use:

• Navigate the RAM DISK, hard disks, and any floppies inserted into the drives by double clicking their symbol. The example to the right shows me navigating the Workbench 1.3.3 floppy.

• Copy Amiga Disk Format (ADF) images to a floppy inserted in the Amiga’s drive by dragging and dropping the ADF file from your Windows PC to the Amiga floppy symbol.

• In a similar but reverse fashion, create Amiga Disk Format (ADF) images for floppies that are inserted in the Amiga’s drives by dragging the ADF file symbol to somewhere on your Windows PC.

• Format floppies that are inserted in the Amiga’s drives by right-clicking on disk symbol and selecting format from the pop-up menu. (NOTE: This function requires Workbench 2.0 or higher).

• Copy the Kickstart ROM from your Amiga to your Windows PC by dragging the Kickstart ROM symbol to somewhere on your Windows PC.

There are probably a bunch of other functions part of Amiga Explorer, but those will probably be the main ones most will use.

Amiga Adf Creator

I hope this article is helpful.