What do you all think of the Catweasel MK4 Plus?
I've been considering buying a PCI Catweasel for quite some time now to put into my emulation PC, so that I can access Amiga and ST disks more easily, without having to do ADF conversions on a real system and then transfer those over.
But what do you all think of this hardware? Is it worth buying in your view?
I would be looking to use it with Windows XP SP3. Does the drivers/software work OK with XP?
And what can the catweasel actually do?
I want it to be able to access real Amiga floppy disks directly to convert them into ADF's, and also to convert ADF's back onto real Amiga floppy disks. Does it do this OK? Or are their success rates depending on the ADF being used, and the floppy drive being used?
Can you use the Catweasel directly in WinUAE as if it was a real Amiga floppy drive connected to the emulated Amiga? i.e. with WinUAE running, put a disk in the drive connected to the Catweasel and it will boot in WinUAE. Is that possible?
I also want to use it to convert my complete collection of floppy disks into ADFs for safe keeping. I know the Catweasel doesn't work well with copy protected disks like games. That is correct isn't it? I would mainly be trying to convert coverdisks, demoscene and PD library disks, and backups of games into adfs. Would it work for all of this?
Does anyone here actually own a catweasel? And what is your personal experience with it?
I do know about the Cyclone20 project, but that seems to be dead. Or is it still going? Are any other similar projects still in development?
Finally SID. How can you use a SID chip if it is connected to the Catweasel? Does it just allow you to run SID tunes though the SID player programs that support the card? Or are there any emulators that will emulate the C64 audio through the real chip during emulated games and demos?
Sorry for so many questions. But I was about to order a MK4 Plus, but then suddenly thought it might be a good idea to check if it is actually any good first.
I've been considering buying a PCI Catweasel for quite some time now to put into my emulation PC, so that I can access Amiga and ST disks more easily, without having to do ADF conversions on a real system and then transfer those over.
But what do you all think of this hardware? Is it worth buying in your view?
I would be looking to use it with Windows XP SP3. Does the drivers/software work OK with XP?
And what can the catweasel actually do?
I want it to be able to access real Amiga floppy disks directly to convert them into ADF's, and also to convert ADF's back onto real Amiga floppy disks. Does it do this OK? Or are their success rates depending on the ADF being used, and the floppy drive being used?
Can you use the Catweasel directly in WinUAE as if it was a real Amiga floppy drive connected to the emulated Amiga? i.e. with WinUAE running, put a disk in the drive connected to the Catweasel and it will boot in WinUAE. Is that possible?
I also want to use it to convert my complete collection of floppy disks into ADFs for safe keeping. I know the Catweasel doesn't work well with copy protected disks like games. That is correct isn't it? I would mainly be trying to convert coverdisks, demoscene and PD library disks, and backups of games into adfs. Would it work for all of this?
Does anyone here actually own a catweasel? And what is your personal experience with it?
I do know about the Cyclone20 project, but that seems to be dead. Or is it still going? Are any other similar projects still in development?
Finally SID. How can you use a SID chip if it is connected to the Catweasel? Does it just allow you to run SID tunes though the SID player programs that support the card? Or are there any emulators that will emulate the C64 audio through the real chip during emulated games and demos?
Sorry for so many questions. But I was about to order a MK4 Plus, but then suddenly thought it might be a good idea to check if it is actually any good first.