WHDload help

[olliethebasset]

Hello! I am having some trouble getting started with WHDload. Is there a place to download the installer and game packages that streamlines the process? I have a clean install of BestWB on my a500 running a aca500plus and I’d like to add some games. I’m fairly new to amigas and I don’t find whdload.de very helpful. Any help is appreciated.

M

 

[miggygossip]

There are quite a few WHDLoad download tool options for downloading pre-installed game packs. You will need to have installed WHDLoad from the WHDLoad.de site first, added kickstart files to SYS Devs/Kickstarts and if you wanted to install from disks also, installed libraries xfdmaster from Aminet.
One of the latest download tools which lets you select pre-installed games for chipset, language etc is: https://github.com/MrV2K/WHDLoad-Download-Tool

 

[olliethebasset]

Hello! Thank you for responding. Yesterday I installed WHDload. I believe the install was successful but I wasn’t able to find it in my hard drive. However, when I typed WHDload in shell, it did provide some info. Is there something else I need to do to “start” WHDload? Or is my next step to drop the kickstarts in the drawer you named and try to download a game from WHDload.de or use one of the tools?

 

[fragment]

You don't launch whdload directly, each game install will have the shortcut to launch it. In the user's perspective you just launch the game.

 

[miggygossip]

IIRC WHDLoad is installed in SYS:C or SYS:S drawer, or both. You have called WHDLoad in shell so it may as well be in SYS:C.
To function, WHDLoad requires kickstart rom file in a folder aptly named in the SYS Devs folder - SYS Devs/Kickstarts. The kickstart roms need to be the right version and named according to WHDLoad spec. An online guide may help with that.
To run a game in WHDLoad it needs to be somewhere in your system directory accessable to the program. IE: HDD location SYS:Games/Gamename or DH1:Games/Gamename etc.
You can run a game from shell using the WHDLoad command line syntax but a better idea is to have the game folder somewhere accessible in Workbench with nice icons.
If you download an install from WHDLoad.de that's to manually create a slave install from an original disk in your machine. Downloading a pre-installed game(s) from WHDownload.com or the Retroplay packs is the other option, copying them to folders on your hard drive.

 

[fragment]

If you want to create new installs yourself from your original floppies, download the _dev package and installs from whdload.de.

If you want to play pre-made installs, download and install the _usr package from whdload.de and the games from elsewhere, unpack the games and click the game icon to run the game.

 

[Boing-ball]

@olliethebasset Your best bet is to watch YouTube videos on the subject to get a clear idea. Stu over SHG does some good ones to follow:

 

[olliethebasset]

Thank you!!!

 

[olliethebasset]

Okay thank you for the recommendations. I watched the first video. It was quite detailed and included installation of ClassicWB. Can someone explain to me what skick does?

 

[olliethebasset]

Can someone tell me what Skick does and what I need to do with it?

 

[Boing-ball]

Can someone tell me what Skick does and what I need to do with it?

You don’t need to do anything with it. Skick if I recall is a Software Kickstart Rom program that loads a particular kickstart ROM version to allow a particular Amiga Game to work correctly. For example games like “Shadow of the Beast” were released when the first Amiga A500 was sold with Kickstart 1.2 or 1.3. Therefore this game when launched with WHDload will skick the 1.3 ROM into RAM for it to work. Latter ROMs on later Amigas would cause compatibility issues with older games back in the day. Even the latter A500+ machines caused incompatibility with older A500 games, due to ROM and to the 1MB Chip RAM (Original A500 only had 512KB Chip RAM).

 

[miggygossip]

skick on aminet has a folder of rom-sets that, for WHDLoad are to be added to the Devs/Kickstarts folder on your system.

 

[olliethebasset]

I just created the devs:kickstart directory, copied the correctly named kicks to that directory and downloaded skick. I also copied several whdload game packages to a separate partition named “games.”

Two questions. Where should I locate the skick files? Second, where should I put whdload so my games can get to it when I start them? Same partition? Or SYS:? Or C:? Thank you in advance.

 

[keropi]

all you need in DEVS/Kickstarts are these files:
kick34005.a500
kick34005.A500.RTB
kick40068.A1200
kick40068.A1200.RTB

as for WHDLOAD location you should really use it's installer and let it install like any other program , then it will just work when you launch a whdload game