Amiga 600 with gotek

owen2471

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I am going to fit a gotek floppy emulator to my Amiga 600. When running games I take it I won't suffer the same memory limitations of using whdload. Will all games run without problem on a bog standard 600 ?
 
I guess it should work exactly like a disk drive, so I don't think there will be any problems with a stock Amiga.
 
It just emulates a real floppy drive is if the game ram on the A600 for an original floppy drive, then it will run from the Gotek drive. Mine works perfectly with my A600.

To get the drive to fit properly in the original floppy drive bay you do need to modify the case otherwise the Gotek is too far inside the case, making it hard to see the LCD numbers or access the buttons. Alternatively you could pass a cable out through the floppy drive slot and mount the drive externally (if you didn't want to modify/damage the case).
 
Also, remember that many games are not OS2.x compatible. Use softkick disc to temporary go to OS1.x. Though, there will still be some games that won't work using this method.

One solution to avoid cutting the case is to strip Gotek's casing and customise it. This requires some patience and skill.
 
Is needing more memory really that much of a pain? Kipper2k's 4 MB boards are not much more than a Gotek, plus doesn't harm your shell. And with whdload, more games will likely work on your A600 than booting them from the Gotek (as many games originally aren't that compatible with ESC, >512k RAM and kick >1.2, all addressed and fixed by the various whdload slaves).
 
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IMHO Gotek is better and cheaper alternative, possibly even easier to use. I've only paid 15 EUR for Gotek and 2 EUR for programmer. Contrast this to the cost of FAST memory + secondary memory (CF card and IDE adapter).

Gotek has much bigger software library due to the fact that quite a lot of software has not been WHDLoad patched. That being said, WHDLoad really stands out when it comes to fast floppy loading times. Thus, I prefer using both. :)
 
Yeah, +1 for both. But if price is an issue I'd say it depends... Is there already a harddrive? If so, get a FAST expansion.

About the software library, I'd say you have more games working on an A600 with whdload than from floppy, because of compatibility issues. I have no statistics on it, but I know there are loads and loads of working slaves and quite many which won't load on an A600 from floppy. And you got other features with whdload such as bug fixes (hint: Moonstone).
 
I've played hundreds of ADFs on A600 with Gotek and found only 2 games not working with softkick (Double Dragon and Lost Patrol, though I have found working versions). What I am really missing with WHDLoad is the lack of trainers and cracktros before the game. :)
 
For cracktros etc floppy/gotek is mandatory. I was just talking about games. :) Now I think this thread is stuffed with all opinions and facts needed for making the right decision. :)
 
I'm about to do the same thing to my A600. I hate case modding, so I'm gonna dismantle a gotek in some manner, and have the LEDs and switches poking out of a hole somewhere.

I pondered whdload, but the price is prohibitive..

Gotek: £14
RS232<>3.3V TTL adapter: £2.50

versus

Kipper2k ram expansion: £32 (curse you, postage!)
CF adapter: £10
3.1 ROMs: £14

I might do that in the future if the gotek doesn't work out
 
@spatuluk: You don't need 3.1 ROM for WHDLoad / HDD setup. You can also softkick if needed. I find OS3.x nicer to OS2.x, too. :)

@owen: Kipper's RAM plugs onto CPU.

Oh, and don't forget, you would absolutely need 1 MB CHIP RAM expansion as well. Quite a lot of WHDLoad slaves (the most interesting ones anyway) need more than 1 MB CHIP RAM that is originally supplied with A600.
 
Regarding game compatibility, back in the day my only Amiga was an A600 and initially its spec was a 1MB chip ram expansion and external floppy drive. . No hdd.. and out of the 300+ games I had for it only 9 older early A600 games refused to run, and even these worked if i used a relokick 1.3 disk.

Off the top of my head one of the hardest to get running was Bubble Bobble, and Fire Force being another.

These days my A600 is the following spec:

1MB Chip ram expansion (2MB Chip ram total)
4MB Kipper Fast ram expansion
Auto switching kickstart rom switcher with 1.3 and 3.1 roms
4GB CF card hdd
Gotek Floppy drive emulator.

When booting from the Gotek I can switch the rom switcher to kickstart 1.3 for the older less compatible games, and also disable the fast ram if needed for some games which don't like it.

Alternatively I can boot into workbench via the cf hd and run whdload, so best of both worlds.

If only using a Gotek, for maximum compatibility, I would recommend at least a 1MB trapdoor expansion and a copy of relocking 1.3 adf included on the Gotek, then you can boot into 1.3 when needed for older games. Or alternatively a standard A600 with a rom switcher.
 
@spatuluk: You don't need 3.1 ROM for WHDLoad / HDD setup. You can also softkick if needed. I find OS3.x nicer to OS2.x, too. :)
I thought the 3.1 ROM would be needed due to drive size? Mine's a 37.300, which I think has a limit of 40MB.
 
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