Overview
ADF and other similar files, such as the ones available for download
via the Amiga Forever Games page, contain an image of
the contents of an Amiga floppy disk. Disk image files are both a
necessity and a convenience, because Amiga floppy disks
cannot be read on PC floppy hardware, and
because files are easier to use and organize than physical disks.
Different types of disk image files are used in the Amiga
emulation community:
- ADF is the open source Amiga floppy disk image format
introduced with the first emulation applications. It is not
compressed by itself, and supports very few copy protection
schemes. Games in ADF format are usually "cracked" variants
which had their copy protection removed. ADF is a simple and
robust format that is widely supported, and can be compressed
well by the file system.
- ADZ is a compressed version of the ADF format. ADZ files
occupy less space than ADF files, but are not as widely
supported as ADF files.
- DMS (the Disk Masher System) is a proprietary Amiga disk
archiving format that was widely used to store and distribute
disk images before emulation became widespread. It supports
built-in compression, and a few copy protection schemes. DMS is
supported well on original Amiga systems, but remains less
popular than ADF in the emulation community.
- IPF (Interchangeable Preservation Format) is a proprietary
media archiving format maintained by the Software Preservation
Society (SPS). It offers excellent support for copy-protected
disk images.
- HDF and HDZ are the hard disk equivalents of ADF and ADZ.
- RP9 is a packaging format which supports all of the above.
Amiga Forever Player
All floppy disk image formats are supported directly by the Amiga
Forever player for Open (menu) and double-click purposes. The player
also supports these formats in its handprinting and configuration
heuristics algorithms, which are used to preselect a suitable
configuration for a game. This means that after Amiga Forever is
installed, a double-click on an .adf file, for example, opens a
dialog with a preset Amiga hardware configuration, where further
adjustments may be made, or more disks can be added, and the disk
content can then be launched.
The Amiga Forever player provides different levels of support for
each format:
- ADF and ADZ are processed directly by the Amiga Forever
player, with support for Open, drag-and-drop, autoconfiguration,
write and final commit/undo
- DMS and IPF are recognized by the player for Open,
drag-and-drop and autoconfiguration purposes, but all read/write
operations are performed directly by the emulation engine (read
only or immediate writes only, no undo)
- FDI disk images are not processed by the player, and all
read/write operations are performed directly by the emulation
engine (read only or immediate writes only, no undo)
- HDF and HDZ are supported internally by the player for
preinstalled games (no Open or drag-and-drop), with support for
write and final commit/undo
- RP9 packages are processed directly by the Amiga Forever
player (version 2008.0.12.0 or higher), with support for all the
features that are supported by the individual images in the RP9
package
ZIP files are not supported. ADF, ADZ, DMS, IPF and other disk
image files found inside a ZIP archive must be extracted first.
When a game or demo is running, click the Previous or Next
buttons in the player controls to swap disks as necessary, if there
are more disks than drives.
Storage of Disk Image Files
Amiga Forever stores preinstalled and otherwise recognized games
and demoscene production disks inside "Games" and
"Demos", inside "Amiga Files".
When manually downloading disk image files from the internet, you
may save them anywhere you wish. You can always open them from the
player, or with a double-click.
There is no need to store the image files on a
"real" floppy disk, which would only slow down access.
It is however possible to transfer images in ADF format from a
PC to a "real" Amiga
computer, if so desired, by using Amiga Explorer.
Using Disk Image Files in WinUAE
While the Amiga Forever player was designed to shield from the
more complex configuration options of the underlying emulation
engines, it also supports manual WinUAE (and WinFellow) operations
from the System tab of the player. Additionally, disk images can be
"inserted" and "ejected" like normal disks by pressing F12 (a dialog
with a Floppies tab appears) while the emulation is running.
In general, Amiga disk image files are best used from the Amiga
Forever player, either via a double-click on them, or fia the
File/Open menu. However, you can also use WinUAE manually:
- Open the Amiga Forever player. On an English language
system you can do this by clicking on the Start menu and
selecting Programs/Amiga Forever/Player.
- Go to the System tab and select WinUAE Configuration
- Select a configuration, using either the Amiga Forever
configuration files, or the WinUAE options. For most older games which run from
floppy disk the correct configuration is the one named "1.3+".
If specific configuration options are mentioned in the download
site, and the "1.3+" configuration does not work well, then
select "WinUAE Configuration" instead of "1.3+", and proceed as
instructed on the download site. For newer games requiring 3.0
or 3.1 Amiga ROMs and supporting RTG video modes try the "3.X+"
configuration.
- While the emulation is running, press F12, which will give you
access to the Floppies tab of the emulation settings dialog, and,
under the entry for drive DF0, select the appropriate ADF file
from the location you saved it to. If the game consists of
multiple disks, insert the first disk image in drive DF0, the
second in drive DF1, etc. If you only wish to eject a disk, rather
than inserting one, click the desired Eject button.
Games on Multiple Disks
Some games come on multiple disks, but only support one drive
(DF0). If you configured the game in the Amiga Forever player,
click the Previous or Next buttons in the player controls to swap
disks as necessary.
If you prefer to use WinUAE directly, use F12 to "insert" the disks, one at a time, in drive
DF0, then close the dialog and press F12 again to insert the next
disk when the software running in the emulation prompts you to do
so.
Games that Require Booting from Disk
Some Amiga programs (usually games and demos) require a boot or
reboot from their floppy disk in order to run properly. If you
manually insert a game (or demo) disk and its icon appears on the Amiga
Workbench screen with a title like "DF0:NDOS" and/or when opening the disk content window there
appears to be nothing useful inside to launch the game, this is
normally a sign that the game was meant to be booted from, rather
than started from the Workbench. In this case, after the insertion
of the disk as described above, the Amiga can be "rebooted" by
pressing Ctrl+Amiga+Amiga (Ctrl+Windows+Windows).
Some disks use a custom data structure and work fine if booted
from, but if you try to open them from the Workbench, they look
like bad disks. If you cannot access anything useful from a disk
after you inserted it while the emulation was running, simply
reboot from it (press Ctrl+Amiga+Amiga or Ctrl+Windows+Windows).
Even in manual playback mode, the Amiga Forever player
automatically detects whether a disk is bootable or not, and
proposes an optimal initial arrangement of disks and drives,
including an additional bootable disk, if required.
IPF Files and SPS Plugin
The Amiga Forever player will prompt you with instructions if you
try to open an IPF disk image and the SPS DLL is not found. You will
need to:
- Download the SPS User Plugin for Windows from the
SPS (formerly CAPS) site
- Extract the content of the archive, including the
CAPSImg.dll, to the "Common Files/Software Preservation Society" directory (e.g.
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Software Preservation Society" on
x86 systems, and "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common
Files\Software Preservation Society" on x64 systems)
- When using IPF disk image files, enabling the turbo floppy
feature may disrupt certain copy-protection mechanisms, so use
the standard floppy speed if in doubt
Additional Information
For additional information please refer to the WinUAE ReadMe from the Emulation page in the
Amiga Forever documentation.
Related Links
