Classicamiga Forum Retro Edition
Thread: A500 Gotek Mount Review
Starglider 22:18 10th July 2018
Here's my review of an interesting solution if you want to install a Gotek drive but don't want to damage your Amiga 500 case. 🔨👌💾 I hope you enjoy it!

https://youtu.be/aXgoLTdhAe0

Starglider aka ԹҽɾíƒɾɑϲԵíϲ
www.youtube.com/perifractic
[Reply]
J T 04:49 23rd July 2018
Typing as I watch (again, at work, natch):

nice music

Lovely little Psion organiser in the background (the Palm 3? we had those at school, given out to [for some reason, which escapes me] kids that had some special learning requirements). I like the background items, there was something last time.... *checks*.. ah yes, Terrorpods

Looks like a neat solution, even if TBH I have little interest in hardware these days, I find these videos somewhat relaxing and admire that enthusiasm.

Wait - does that do simulated disk sounds? I loved the Amiga loading sounds. True (sad) fact, my sister and I would sometimes play a game - guess what's loading without looking, by the sound of the disk loading. New Zealand Story had a particular stand-out sound.
[Reply]
Harrison 12:19 31st July 2018
As standard the Gotek can't do the sounds but you can modify them to add a speaker , which is quite a cool touch.

As you said, you have to admire the enthusiasm and dedication that people in the retro scene are still developing new hardware, as well as supporting the community with small projects like this.

I've got a Gotek in my A600 and it's a great device, especially as floppy disks are now getting 20+ years old and are going to all start failing at some point. Being able to have a usb stick full of adfs and trick the Amiga (or any other floppy based retro platform) into thinking its loading a real floppy disk is a life saving solition to futureproof the continued use of older systems. If there is one issue it's that the Gotek is a bit fiddly to operate.. having to create a list file of the disk images, so that when you reboot it loads it like a disk index so you can select the image number from the drive's lcd. This also means you have to manually update the list when adding new images, and you then have to remember which number each image is assigned to. For this reason I normally only have a few disk images on a memory stick at any time.. such as a few demos. Keep meaning to set up multiple sticks for different purposes, but I don't actually use real Amigas that much any more. Getting a bit lazy I'm more likely to just boot up WinUAE these days.

Regarding this adapter to fit the Gotek into an A500, it had a few manufacturing issues but still a nice solution. However I don't know if I could live with the plastic not matching the colour of the case! I might need to paint it. Lol.

This does highlight the temptation for getting a 3D printer though, but I'm waiting until thry are even more affordable (you can get them for just over £300 now), faster to print, and a process that produces slightly better end products (at the moment you can still see the layer banding). It's definitely a key future manufacturing process though for many different applications.. even sighted as a key technology for missions to Mars.
[Reply]
J T 22:15 31st July 2018
Does a Gotek load much faster than a real floppy?
[Reply]
Harrison 11:35 1st August 2018
A bit maybe, but not much really, as it's emulating the floppy drive loading process using the floppy drive controller.

So if it's available WHDLoad is a much better solution. However it's great for anything that isn't supported by WHDLoad.
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