Amiga Forever contains different items which can be run from the
distribution medium, or installed. Additionally, the CD Edition of Amiga
Forever not only supports running the software directly from CD (without
installation, starting from within an existing host operating system),
but, thanks to the KX Light
boot subsystem, it can also be used to boot a PC.
This chapter includes the following sections:
Installation on
Microsoft Windows Systems
If you purchased the Online Edition of Amiga Forever and are now reading this, you probably already installed Amiga Forever.
If you purchased the CD Edition of Amiga Forever, the Amiga Forever
launcher window should appear automatically when the CD is inserted in the
drive. If however the Windows AutoRun functionality has been disabled you
can start the launcher manually, by opening MenuBox.exe, located inside the
WINDOWS/MenuBox directory on the CD.
To install Amiga Forever to hard disk select the Install to Hard Disk
option in the launcher, and follow the on-screen instructions.
During installation you will be asked to enter a license key (which may
also be referred to as "serial number"). This license key is either printed
on the CD jewel box inlay (on a label), or, if you purchased the Amiga
Forever CD from certain online resellers, it may have been displayed on
screen and emailed to you.
The Amiga Forever installer includes certain optional features, such as
Amiga Explorer and
Software Manager.
Amiga Explorer is a data sharing application which is normally used to
connect the PC to an Amiga and share data between the two. It is not
required to run the Amiga emulation. When installed, Amiga Explorer includes
its own documentation, which can be accessed from the Start menu
independently of the remaining Amiga Forever documentation.
We recommend to always install Software Manager, which allows you to
check for news and updates, and to easily install new versions of the
emulation software, as well as free Amiga Forever updates.
Optional features can be added or removed separately by running the
installer again, or via Add/Remove Programs in the system Control Panel.
Installation on Apple Macintosh
Systems
If you need to extract the cross-platform edition of Amiga Forever on a
Macintosh system, you can use a program like Aladdin StuffIt or Aladdin Expander, which
are available for free download from the
Aladdin
Systems web site.
It is extremely important that the Convert text files to
Macintosh format option in StuffIt or Expander be set to Never before unarchiving
the files. Otherwise, important Amiga files like the startup-sequence and the ROM key file
will be altered, and the emulation will not even boot.
Please note that the Macintosh version of the emulation software is not
as advanced as the Windows version.
Installation on GNU/Linux and Other
Systems
The Amiga ROM and OS files which are included with
Amiga Forever can be used on all Amiga emulation programs which have been
released since November 1998, when an agreement which was reached between
the Amiga companies, Cloanto, and the emulation software authors came into
effect.
The "Emulation/shared" directory contains
files which can be used on any platform. The Amiga ROM files which come
with Amiga Forever are encoded in a special format, and require that the
"rom.key" file (stored inside "Emulation/shared/rom")
also be installed together with the other ROM and OS files. The emulation
programs (e.g. Fellow and UAE for various platforms) include options to
specify the location of this key file.
The chapter on
Amiga OS Files
contains additional information about the different ROM and OS files.
In addition to the original Amiga ROM and OS files, which are included
with Amiga Forever, you will need the specific emulation software required
for your computer. This software is free. The "Archives" directory
on the Amiga Forever CD contains a variety of versions of the emulation software.
The best addresses for the most up-to-date software are listed in the
GNU/Linux and
Other Platforms
sections at the
Amiga
Forever web site.
Amiga Files
The Amiga Forever CD also contains an "Amiga"
directory with data and program files which are meant for access from an Amiga computer
(or from
the Amiga emulation environment). This directory contains Amiga-specific software and
documentation. Among other things, the Amiga directory contains the full
version of Personal Paint, inclusive of tutorial animations and extra
artwork.
The CD Edition of Amiga Forever also includes a set of Amiga files
which are designed to be run or installed not only from CD, but also from a
bootable
Amiga floppy disk, if necessary, in order to support Amiga computers without
CD
drives. These are the basic Amiga tools for cross-platform data
sharing, and are stored in the "Amiga/AF_Boot" directory on the CD.
From an Amiga computer you can copy the content of this directory to an
empty floppy disk (don't remember to make it bootable by entering the
Install command from the Amiga Shell). A bootable floppy disk image ("af-boot.adf")
with the same data is also included in the "Emulation/shared/adf" directory.
The Amiga Forever Plus
Pack also includes a copy of the same image.
Gallery Files
The Gallery section of the Amiga Forever CD contains files in the
following formats:
- PNG graphics
- JPEG graphics
- TIFF (multi-page) graphics
Most modern operating systems have built-in functionality to view such
files. Where this functionality is not preinstalled by default, it is
commonly available via free downloads.
Video Files
The Amiga Forever CD contains several videos encoded using the VC-9 codec. The following
articles explain how these files can be played back on different operating
systems, and why VC-9 technology was used:
- 5-105 - Playing Back VC-9 Videos
- 5-104 - Use of Video Codecs in
Amiga Forever
In addition to being supported by major operating systems, the videos on
Amiga Forever can also be played back by
HighMAT Video compatible DVD players.
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