Amiga 500 help !!

wozzizname · 26 Nov 2006 at 15:59

I've just dug my old Commodore Amiga 500 out of the loft, but can't find the workbench 1.2 disk that it needs to work. Anyone know where I can get hold of one, haven't much luck via Google... ?

Nacho Master · 26 Nov 2006 at 16:13

Google Amiga ADF

pumaz · 26 Nov 2006 at 16:20

Nacho Master said:
Google Amiga ADF

That won't do him much good i'm affraid, what you need is to get old of a copy of the disk from some kind sole or a auction site mabe

Good luck

DailyGeek · 26 Nov 2006 at 16:53

You should find plenty on ebay mate, its pretty much the only place you'll get one.

I have a copy here but I have no amiga formatted floppies to make you some :/

silversurfer · 26 Nov 2006 at 17:02

My amiga senses are failing me in old age but did you really need workbench anyway. I thought it was only the 1000 that had to have it to boot up.

I think I made several of my own custom disks, you just had to format it in a certain way (boot sector and a couple other things maybe). I guess you dont have anything else at all to use with it though

wozzizname · 26 Nov 2006 at 17:05

I've tried just shoving in the game disks , but it won't work - looks like it needs the o/s installing via the workbench 1.2 disk first. Typical that I've lost the one disk I need to get the thing to work

Amidar · 26 Nov 2006 at 17:06

I have an Amiga 500 with both 1.2 & 1.3 workbench discs but you dont need them to play games.

silversurfer · 26 Nov 2006 at 17:09

Well I do remember my version was 1.3. I do know there are lots of retro amiga sites online though I dont use them much myself.
I've sold my 500 disks with the amiga now so cant help really, it was close to 20 years old in its design but still worth a third of its purchase price, impressive to the end :cool:

wozzizname · 26 Nov 2006 at 17:28

Amidar said:
I have an Amiga 500 with both 1.2 & 1.3 workbench discs but you dont need them to play games.

Hmm, must be doing something wrong then, it starts up and displays an icon showing a workbench 1.2 disk - if I just insert the game disks I can hear it start to read the disks but nothing further happens.

melchy · 26 Nov 2006 at 17:41

Very few games needed the workbench disks to start up. The games should just load up when you put the disks in. If you've tried a few games and none are working i suspect your Amiga may be faulty. How long did you wait for the games to load ?

unKle · 26 Nov 2006 at 17:41

Sounds like you're drive is faulty. IIRC the earlier Amiga 500's floppy drives weren't all that reliable, my mate had to change his when it did the same thing, boot up, disc in, clicks and a buzz, nothing else. Altho this was in 1990!

pumaz · 26 Nov 2006 at 19:10

Yeah it does sound like your disk drive mate, open your amiga up locate the DD head and use a cotton bud with some alcohol based cleaner

ic1male · 26 Nov 2006 at 19:35

There are some games that did need to be started from Workbench. Only one I remember for definite is Hired Guns.

AtreuS · 26 Nov 2006 at 20:47

Didnt the earlier revision models need the workbench disk first in all cases? 1.2 rings a bell that it does?

I had a later model 1.3 a500 and that didnt need a workbench dick to play games, they just autobooted.

pumaz · 26 Nov 2006 at 21:09

AtreuS said:
Didnt the earlier revision models need the workbench disk first in all cases? 1.2 rings a bell that it does?

I had a later model 1.3 a500 and that didnt need a workbench dick to play games, they just autobooted.

No

All Amigs 500's and onwards will boot games from the off.

I'm not sure about the Amiga 1000's though, but there really old and i don't think many games would have worked on them at all

MadFruit · 27 Nov 2006 at 11:51

Yeah, you defo don't need to put Workbench in to run anything else on a 500.

It may not be the drive that is faulty. Don't forget, these are magnetical data. If you haven't used them in years, and they have been stored with other disks, or not in ideal conditions, it is possible the data on the disks is corrupt.

acharris · 27 Nov 2006 at 12:34

Definately, you don't need WB disks to start games on a Amiga 1.2 up. Could be like said the floppy drive is dirty/worn or the games have gone bad. Have it been stored in damp conditions or dry.

Also, try blowing some compressed air into the floppy drove and see if that helps, as I did that on a drive once and it worked. Other take it apart and clean with alcohol as mentioned above.

Also are the games backup of the originals you own or originals, as Amiga drives and High density disks don't work very well, especially on the the drives upto Escom made the A1200. Double density 720k disks work best on those amigas.

Anthony

threedee · 4 Dec 2006 at 10:56

First of all - all standard amiga disk drives are somehow physically different to any MFM drive (that would be PC). The standard format is 880 not 720 as per old MFM format. The physical allocation of tracks/sectors is different. Therefore there is no way to actually boot any amiga from downloaded ADF image to disk thing. Unless of course you have a hacked drive/workbench (afaik). I still have my hacked MFM floppy drives on my A600 and A2000 with 68030 (@25MHz). Hacking includes some waving with soldering iron and you have to get certain models Nec MFM FDD drives(if memory still serves), because not all MFMs are hackable. And getting original amiga drives is becoming increasingly difficult.

I had very similar situation and some kind soul from argentina helped me out for free. He just sent me WB1.3 and from there it went smooth as babys bum

Installed my 2 HDDs, 68030, IDE controller, CDrom, CDRW. And WB3.0

All i needed was that one WB1.3 disk

Id say go for eBay. Its the easiest way to fix your problem.