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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- Some enterprising Amiga fans have modded the very cheap USB Floppy Drive emulator, the Cortex Gotek!
This nifty little device allows you to play Amiga games, software and more from USB sticks for a very low price.
Set up info: cortexamigaflop...
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Beautiful. I've yet to try one of these out. If it could emulate the sound of the floppy loading as well, I'd be soo sold.
I got one that does, though the sound is rather quiet and yet when turning it on, the beep wakes up my neighbours
i love that feature in fs-uae and amiga forever
very interesting hardware. love how it is modern yet tricking the amiga into thinking its real. No more read errors yay!
0:45 I went from owning a ZX Spectrum to an Amiga 600: Floppy Disks were a maahoosive upgrade. It wasn't really until mid 90's and Windows 95 came along that they really started seeming too small.
Yep - the /Drive Select signal for floppy drive 0 (DF0:) is wired only to the internal drive in the A600 / A1200 I believe.
You can do a minor mod to the motherboard, but it means cutting tracks I think, which is a bit evil. hehe
Cool piece of tech, keep those gadgets coming! My Amiga 1200 and 2000 thank you!
Great video Dan. Been looking at the Gotek device. I've seen some people hacking the side of the case to see the LEDs on A500s which is sacrilegious!
Nice to have the option though. Would be better to use the 'stubby' USB flash drives so you don't have a diving board hanging out of it!!
"Some enterprising Amiga fan" = Hervé Messinger.
I got my first Gotek in Feb (£16.58) and a second in April (£13.00) and Flashed them myself --- No problem.
Some USB sticks were a bit fussy with them,
but now I have SD and Micro SD card adapters working fine.
img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/Nobby_UK/STUFF/Dsc00051_zps6cae6e1f.jpg~original
The SanDisk Cruiser Fit (4 and 8 GB) flash drives work fine and are Tidy
and not to expensive --- Though massively over-sized !
Great i got one of these today...im sick of all my disks failing :-(
Use a super strong magnet to erase the disk and get rid of most errors, and there's something really cool still about using original media on an Amiga or C64 - I notice you have a 1541 there.
Great video Dan. .. Brought one from eBay they great piece of kit but for nostalgia use floppies win till they die .. Great over view
It has always seemed like exchanging one hassle for another with flash drive solutions on classic computer systems. I’m all for cartridge solutions like the EverDrive for consoles or for computers that used mostly carts, like the Vic-20. It’s incredibly smooth and easy to go through the menus, select a cart, and be on your way. But that’s just one game with one cart. I’m still not impressed when it comes to computers that used floppy disks like the C64 or Amiga. For one thing, there were just so much more software released on computers vs. consoles and digging through menus will be slower than digging through disks. Most Amiga users had a second floppy drive so there’s added time with the pretend swapping. What if you wanted to use Workbench and needed different disks you hadn’t planned on when you started the system? With the C64 if you had smaller games you could put a bunch of them on one disk, flip the disk over, put some more. Even the bigger games didn’t really use more than both sides of two floppies. I’m just as much into the hardware and useful business type software (word processors/directory management/Music/Paint programs) as I am games and not only does this seem like at least, if not more of a hassle than floppies, but being into the hardware you’re losing a lot of the nostalgia by getting rid of the floppy drive. Especially with the Amiga, which had such a unique sounding drive. I would see a use for this as a hard drive, though you’d probably need to add a little memory in that case. I got one of those expensive GVP hard drives/8 mb of memory (that 8mb of memory makes it faster than a A1200 according to my speed tests) and I have just as much fun screwing around in Workbench as I do playing games. There was so much freeware on the BBS’s back in the day and it’s quite fun finding those and transferring them over. Not to mention just how much easier it is to install bigger games rather than swapping 12 floppies.
Of course, floppy disks (especially Amiga disks for some reason) tend not to last and the 3 ½ variety take up a lot more space than the 5 ¼ ones. I always seem to be running out of them, and I curse the developers that bypassed AmigaDOS with their games (when most of them really didn’t need to) to save a few bytes of memory, forcing the hard drive users to still have a massive collection of floppies. They’re not that hard to come by though, they still make the Amiga variety with the one tab brand new and you can get them online. Of course, it’s all going to end eventually, but by then so will the hardware most likely, so we’re all going to be forced to use emulators one day… Until that day though, I’m going to stick as close to the original experience as I can… Unless it gets better… Like I said before, screw nostalgia with the consoles, carts are bulky and take up way too much space… Everdrive all day there. But that Amiga disk drive sound… The joy, the anger/frustration, the heartbreak (thinking of the dreaded Read/Write Errors)… That’s too much of the experience for me.
mega drive1 with mega cd1 and 3do..
like it a lot!
People have also modded these to work with old samplers!
How about saving? High-scores.. or in a game like Civilization, adventure games... or even protracker, deluxe paint etc. If it read on adf images then I don't know how would it be possible to save.
I've seen a couple of tracker guys post that they are using goteks. So im guessing/hoping that you can save to the adf file, You can do that with winue.
It's tempting to dust out my old A500 from the loft and get one of these devices....but Winuae is just too convenient and reliable (and free!).
Interesting bit of kit though.
Hi, could anybody answer if save game functions works properly with gotek? Like playing some adventure game and want to continue it next day?
The gotek, I say, is best used in an external encosure (as FD1) so that an aca500plus (or similar harmless mod) can boot externally without affecting the internal drive. Personally I think the gotek (a great gadget) is often used in a way that is a wasted opportunity (internally). I don't think they are in their element when pluggedin as a replacement for FD0 (internal drive). It seems daft to sacrifice the internal drive and can risk harm to the motherboard when swapping a gotek for a real floppy drive back and forth. OK, sure, it may be used to replace a broken floppy drive but I still it seems better to get a real floppy. Then use FD1 as a gotek boot.
I have an Amiga 500, and I'm considering this usb emulator. Awesome Demo, Thanks:)
Hey, have you manage to make it work on CDTV? Mine is crushing 99 out of 100 times.
anyone with CDTV?
Jarek Jarosz red on Yeah works fine on my CDTV!
Dan Wood (kookytech.net)
what type of memory stick do you have if I might ask.
Wow that's awesome ! I have loads of old Amiga floppies from the day and it's very hit and miss to get them to load. Although I have a 1200 with hard drive I would also like to get my Amiga 500 plus setup. Thank you for the video I've just ordered one of these off eBay. Can't wait for it to arrive!
. I didn't knew anything like this existed before!
I’m just having my a1200 recapped and modernised. Got a cm8833 mk2 monitor. Can’t wait to get it going!
Thanks for the vid
We're are trying to use a Miditemp with a Gotek USB Floppy Disk Emulator. Now we have two problems: 1) We can't connect the Gotek in the proper way. We tried all possible solutions and variations with jumpers, flatcable or config files. Miditemp doesn't recognize the Gotek. 2) Even if the Gotek displays the correct number of images of floppy disks on the 4GB USB stick, Miditemp doesn't see the midi files in those images. Not sure what software (Windows 10) to us for making images and putting files in those images. Can anyone help us with (step by step) instructions, software, links or whatever? Thanks.
How would this work with regards to saving a game state while playing something like Cannon Fodder? Thanks.
never got 000 only --- even with the SELECTOR.ADF in the root folder. stock unmodified amiga 500. wont work for me. was bought preflashed for amiga 500/600/1200. sad fucked piece of hardware imo
Only one problem with the Gotek Floppy is if you put it in a A1200 not all games work so that where the WDHLoad comes in.
Hi Dan, when I download the ADF game files do I have to Extract them using the likes of ADF Opus, or just download the game files and copy to USB and insert to Gotek??? and also, have you a trusted Link to download Amiga Games? oh and thanks so much!!
As a budget solution the Gotek is a fantastic device, however as someone that runs an A500 I personally consider my floppy drive to be part of what made the Amiga an 'Amiga' and don't really like the idea of removing it. Personally I run an ACA500 which allows me to use both FAT32 formatted and Amiga formatted CF cards at blazing speeds as well as adding 2mb of fast ram and a faster processor, considering all of this and the price the ACA500 really is a bargain. Of course I've taken things a little further and added an ACA1232 with a 68030 at 25mhz and 128 MB of fast ram and an Individual computers Indivision ECS enabling me to connect my A500 to an off the shelf LCD monitor (I'm a bit of an A500 junkie, my particular A500 is actually the second computer I ever owned as a teenager and I've fully restored it to as new condition). This combination running WB 3.1 as well as WHDload and iGame works brilliantly, however, as expected, all up the full setup was a little more than the Gotek floppy emulator. As always a great and informative video Dan, good job!
I agree with you. I wouldn't want to remove the trusty internal floppy. I wonder if there is a way to have one of these gotex drives externally and then use a switch so you can switch between it and the internal floppy drive of the Amiga, so you can use your disks and this :) Probably do-able by making up a splitter cable. I know you can use a cable to plug it in as DF1 from the external port, but I'm meaning so it'll mount as DF0 :) I would deffo get one of these for an Amiga 500.
can you tell me if the ACA 500 Acelerator just works with CF cards? there is a way to ACA 500 read SD cards? i prefer SD cards. Here where i live it´s easier to find SD cards than CF cards.
cool video.ive not long had my gotek and I'm having a problem when saving a game or career in SWOS it will work ok then suddenly after a while i get disk error come up for no reason. its happened twice now the first time was half way through my a season in career mode and the last time i had completed the full season in career mode saved it and the next time i came to play it the save disk said disk error. any idea's why? has anyone in the comments had this? or does any one play swos with a gotek and have it saving ok i cant work out why it does it
OK, so it's a HxC product that TSN uses from hxc2001.com/ which has been around for a lot longer. You haven't come across this one have you Dan?
God. . . remember playing flashback for hours. Purchased the original game
This bit of kit is a real game changer.
Just wondering how can you transfer all you games on floppy to the USB stick?
My amiga 500 drive now it´s with a lowering of the drive working noise and stoped reading floopy disks. Do you know why this happened?
Bit late on this arnt you Dan? :D
Btw these can be purchased with stock firmware for about £10-15 and are easy to flash via a USB-TTL cable, same as what you use on Raspberry Pi's afaik.
Just in case you're not aware there are (more expensive) alternatives called HxC drives that give better displays, sdcard useage etc. amigastore.eu
I currently have Gotek but may get one othe HxC's at some point.
Yeah I know it's been covered by others, but I just got sent this one so figured there were probably some people who didn't know about it :)
kookytech.net (techguruuk)
You seen the HxC drives? More expensive but much better :)
Amigastore.eu
AdamOutdoors Does the HxC drive also replace the internal floppy or is it connected through the external port?
grim reefa Thanks for the quick answer.
Great video Dan! Couple quick questions! 1) The copy protection on Flashback, did you remember the code? Or could you type anything? 2) In games like Cannon Fodder you could insert a blank Floppy and save your game, how would that work with the Gotek?
doesnt look like u got an answer so just incase you still need the answer - you can add blank floppy images which will allow you to save
can this be used on the Amiga 4000 as well?
TheShadowsNose has had a floppy emulator for years. No idea which or how and he hasn't been around in a while to ask. You don't know him at all do you?
A new vid! It's been a while. :p
btw, "Cortex" isn't the company that made the drive, it's made by Gotek.
Cortex refers to the ARM Cortex MCU chip it uses inside. ;)
Ah learn something new every day, cheers :)
We also thought it might have stored the "slots" / ADF filenames in the ARM chip too at first, but I had a look at the SELECTOR.ADF with a Hex editor, and it indeed stores it in there. ;)
I generally just reset and use the first few slots though, as I can't really see the LED display once it's in my A1200.
electronash I modded my case and moved the 3 digit LED display to the top of my case,
you only need some hot glue and a Dremel to cut the hole.
10:57 lol..that's awesome... It looks like the floppy drive is sticking it's tongue out.
Being an American I've been salivating over Amigas since I was a kid. I remember going to Babbage's (computer software store) and perusing the game boxes and always seeing the various screenshots on the back and longing for an Amiga. Don't get me wrong, once I got out of the CGA/PC Speaker era x86 gaming got a lot better, but I spent plenty of time in the depths of inferiority. Recently picked up a CD32 with a handful of games (and compilation CDs) and an Analogic Floppy Drive with a few disk games. May have to splurge for a proper 1200 at some point.... Great video as always.
I know I'm late to the party but Dan what was that cable you use to connected the gotek to the Amiga called, and where would I get it , usually I would of been running to Basildon town centre to maplins but that's no more :( lol
I have a 600, 1200 and CDTV (I know, lucky me but believe me I paid dearly for these things) and have a huge collection of floppy games, which I don't want to give up easy access to. I also have a couple of non-working external floppy drives and may convert one of them to the Gotek. My question is, is there some way to externally disable the internal df0: temporarily to make the system see the Gotek as df0: automatically? Then re-enable the actual df0: to use with actual floppies? The CDTV should see the Gotek as df0: right away as there is no internal floppy. I already did this with an external floppy and it boots to df0: with a workbench disk or games. (on CTDV) Both the 600 and 1200 are highly modified internally with extra mem, hard drives and accelerators but my buddy who did this had trouble even getting the case closed on the 600 and I don't want to create a new and critical problem cracking open the cases. Any suggestions? And he says virtually no games will run from df1:?
you could wire a cable switch. would take alot of soldering
Also, would Relokick still work as an ADF? Relokick was a disk you could boot in DF0 which would fool the A600 or A500+ into thinking it was running the old 1.3 kickstart so you could load older games that wouldn't work with Kickstart 2.05. Can you convert a real Amiga floppy disk to ADF using the Gotek?
I very luckily have the original Amiga 1000.
I really would like to get this to work on it.
But I would need a way for it to load the kickstart rom right away... since the 1000 had no chip on the board for it's rom...
Really wondering if this would work... I of course would need to extend the cables so the Gotek would sit on the outside nicely cause I would never want to mess with the 1000's case...
Time for some research!
I got no software just the kickstart floppy...
You can mod the A1000 to load kickstart from rom. I did that 25yrs ago so i don't remember how i did it, guess i found info somewhere about it (magazine?). I run a A500 kickstart switch so i can switch between 1.2, 1.3 or 1.3 and 2.04.
I have just bought a Gotekdrive to use in my A1000 (haven't tried it yet).
Anders Erlandsson Yes I am aware that you can make the Gotek work on the A1000 one day I was going to try it as well.
But I say one day cause I don't have a keyboard. the guy I bought it off of lost the keyboard so I need to hunt one down on Ebay... will cost a pretty penny but the whole system works fine tho.
If your do this to your A1000 and get it working I'd greatly appreciate if you made a video depicting how you got it done!
I'm sure it will get views from the small group of people who still have and use these!
God, the amount of fudging Amiga games that won’t let you install them!!!!
Could I save an IFF image in D-Paint onto the USB stick and then plug the USB stick into my PC and load that IFF image into Paint.NET? Related to that if I boot D-Paint from ADF in track 1 can I have an "empty disk" ADF in track 2 to save pictures or animation to and then load that ADF into WinUAE on the PC?
Nice video mate... but I was thinking of playing rpg like games such as "eye of the beholder" and then I thought that I need a blank adf file recognisable by Gotek for saving the game. Is that possible? Can I use blank adfs for saving games?
Thanx for your time
well yeah, i got one gotek thingie, still like the floppies better....pffff cant get away
Sadly, the Gotek doesn't work on my A1200, but works fine on my A2000. Strange, have you installed it on your a1200?
Mark the cable with a perm marker.
Where on Gods green earth can you buy a pre falshed one??? I've looked and no where is selling them like that
Preflashed Amiga goteks are all over ebay..
Hi,
maybe you can help me :). I got same Gotek with same Firmware Version. And the Gotek works well like in your video.
On Windows: i created about 60 Folders which contain each of them the adf-Files needed.Then I copied all on the USB-stick which is formated as Fat32 with the Option HDD-bootable (MBR).
The problem: The selector cant read any folder content after page 2 .. it shows me other folders instead of the adf-Files. It looks like that the Gotek mess up everything too. since when i read the usb-stick after in my windows 7 notebook, there is the same problem (Directories with Subfolders etc.).
Maybe i have to format the usb-stick otherwise . Do you have an hints or made same expierience as to this?
Enjoyable video as always. Tempted to get one of these for my A500 but might hang on and get the ACA500 instead. I'd like to keep the original floppy drive in the Amiga but from what you're saying it sounds like one of these could be about the same price as people are selling old external drives on eBay! Thanks for the video.
hello,
Is it possible to start in df1?
(I have an external drive to integrate the Gotek)
I ask this question because I am not sure all adf start on df1.
I have an Amiga 500plus 1.5mo v1.3/2.04
Thank you for your reply.
Google translation sry 😇
It is on 2.0 and higher, don't expect most games to work that way though. They bypass the OS and usually brute force df0.
Thank you for your answer, so I will install the drive in the computer.
this could solve my problem but I had so much trouble with the Amiga just stuck with the Megadrive and Mega Everdrive.
I have a A1200 and a CF card hard disk but no Workbench disks, but I have all the ADFs for Workbench 3.1. Could I use this to help install ClassicWB on the machine?
just a couple of questions to make sure that I understand. Selector.adf is part of the firmware and it loads when you have any .adf files on your USB stick?
also putting .adf files on the USB. do you just put your USB in your PC and copy it over to the USB stick?
I have a Gotek in use on my A600 now.
There is only ONE big disadvantage:
If you have an USB stick full of games, even sorted A ... Z, then it takes a LOT of time to scroll to a game, which second letter is near to Z. For example, I want to play "Arkanoid", then I have to scroll at least 1,000 files before I find it, at floppy disk speed. So, it's a nice device, but sadly it misses a search interface and you must have lots of patience. Best thing is to just copy your favorite games to the USB stick and let the rest be.
Cool video man. Where do you get ADF files from and how do you get them on to a usb drive (what format does the usb have to be)
I don't even own Amiga anymore, but out of curiosity. If you have HDD and this installed, you'd just have to unplug usb stick to boot with hdd?
does the off the shelf china $15 thing just work on the A500? and reason why I should get one from an "amiga retailer " asking $45 before shipping ?
What are my options if I own an Amiga 500 NTSC computer? Are there any sort of region patch software to make a PAL game display correctly in NTSC mode?
It sounds cool but selecting,loading and switching from and to file sections can be very confusing overtimes.
How easy is it to press the forward/backward button when the Gotek is in the drive?
Also, when you have this drive in the Amiga, hooked and powered on, can you still start Workbench using an internal flash drive?
The amiga thinks its a floppy, so you can still boot from hard drive or CF card into workbench unless you have a usb drive plugged in and you have chosen a slot number with a suitable .adf
The buttons are easy to click, although I did modify my A500 so that the LED display is on top of the amiga, otherwise you are trying to look into the side of you amiga, so I moved mine to the top of my case.
Also on the Amiga 600/A1200/A4000 and CD32 you can also choose your boot device by holding down both mouse
buttons on startup, you will get a boot device selection screen.
When you first use the Gotek you just need to run included menu system selector.adf that allows you to add the .adf
files into floppy number eg 1,2,3,4 etc
Selector adf is automatically mapped to postition 000, you can jump directly to selector menu by holding down
both gotek buttons at the same time.
You just select each .adf into a specified slot number, then save your config.
This firmware was created by Hervé Messinger, his website is linked below.
cortexamigafloppydrive.wordpress.com
Beneath a steal sky was a pain to play because of those floppys 😳
Great video. Thank you! Now bought one of these off ebay as much cheap easier way than having to upgrade your a1200 and use CF cards. :)
Can you copy from the external to the SD and run that way
I really don't see the advantage of this over whdload.... if you could use it as a usb drive like rapid road etc then I would probably get one, but at the moment not for me.
May i emphasize again that the *001* does NOT indicate track numbers! Flashback is in AmigaDOS, and in every standard Amiga floppy drive, it would first go to track #40, and then to various others! But this one will always stay at '001'. So that just _cannot_ be track numbers.
pianoman74 Not the track on the disk ofcourse, but the files can be put on tracknumbers, so each track is a complete disk, like selecting a disc on a car cd changer. Don’t confuse with the track of a disk.
Good Job John. Looks awesome sounds great. I knew you could do it. I got a bunch of Emulator 2 libraries I'm gonna link to you.
Wonderful solution!
Your video is verry helpfull in 2022 :D
Greetings from North America... thanks for the great Miggy vids...
umm.. I am still waiting mine from post, but can I somehow copy the .adf files to actual floppies with this? I have a external floppy drive in my Amiga. Or what would be the best way to get games to actual floppies?
+The_Viceman yes, use Transadf: aminet.net/package/disk/misc/TransADF
you can use xcopy. put xcopy on gotek. fire up xcopy. from gotek shoot to external drive.
Hey Dan!
Be sure to warn people not to brutalise the plastic where you would normally insert a disk. ;-)
11:00 HAHA priceless! Looks as if the Amiga is ill with fever or high temperature, with a thermometer sticking in her mouth ;)
These drives can also be used on musical instruments, like digital synths released by Yamaha that had floppy disk drives.
We had one game with a copy protection screen and you would need a special lens to see the code right. I am so glad that there is no other game like that because if you lost that lens you couldn't play the game.
Dangit, the Gortek is much too small for the slot on my Amiga, leaves a massive space open :S Well, at least it works
Wow I remember those days. One of my games used 12 floppy disks... pain the the arse! Good days those.
I've just bought one of these in a job lot with some other Amiga gear (waiting for it to arrive), are these limited to ADF images or will IPF files work as well?
IPF absolutely requires a special driver...so this would have to be integrated into the firmware first I'm afraid...
So the auction linked on that site would work fine on my Amiga 2000, right?
Could you use this to install Workbench on a fresh internal HD?
Hi, which monitor did you use to?
Great video as always! Finally solution for my A500+. Thanks!
Thank you for this!
Hmm it's either going to be this for me or the CF adaptor off amigakit
Seems to me you need a video camera with a much faster focus.
Thanks for the nice vido and a good explicaton. Could you please also tell how to change from one game to another?
You just use the Selector ADF on track 0 of the Gotek as shown in the vid and load them into the virtual drives. To load a new game, just put the track selector back to 0 and it will load up the selector again.
Dan Wood (kookytech.net) Thanks a lot for reply. I have found this:
To start again the special ADF you have just to select the position “000” and restart your Amiga. The menu appears in less than 10 seconds. In the software you can use the joystick or the arrows + enter at the keyboard to choose the images and save the selection...up to 999 images, it's magic!
got mine on order as fed up of faulty discs off ebay
Amiga broo PS 2 USB opl
Great Vid matey glad to see another Amiga one up. Very interesting !
What an amazing bit of kit. It makes me wish I still had my Miggy.
Did you say the H word..;)
Nice demo, was always interested in seeing how this worked.
How can I sort the games so with them A-Z
I was wondering when you was going to do this yesterday
doesn't it make the floppy noises ??
Oh my! I just got myself an Amiga :)
How do save games get handled?