Basically, the "Lamer Exterminator" gets into the RAMs Boot Sector. Worse still, it's written to show up as a "Clean" boot sector. Every time it's "read", it overwrites a ton of more bootblocks, eventually resulting in every operation ending with a read-write error, also known as the "Guru Meditation" error (a precursor to the RROD, since the Amiga's red "Disk Activity" LED would flash predictably when a Guru Meditation was about to show) .

Imagine a virus that would get into a modern mobo's BIOS boot sector, and then worm it's way into the RAM and HD's boot sectors.

The C64 Forever package probably isn't as useful as the Amiga Forever package, because with the AF package you get legal copies of all known Kickstart ROMS and Workbench ADFs, as well as CDTV and CD32 files. As far as I know, most C64 software is compatible with the Amiga (at least I haven't yet run into a Commodore program that wouldn't run on the Amiga, though they may not have been compatible at first), so your best bet would be to get the AF package and just work on "converting" your Commodore software.

I've never had an Amiga, so i don't really know how stuff worked there. I've read the virus description. There's no way to unplug stuff, purging BIOS, and then work from there?


Well, with the C64, it's kinda wonky, i had one since 1985, collected a lot of games, which were cheap as hell, due to the way copyright laws worked here [they didn't] it was completely legal. After 1994, when a copyright law was introduced, all [now] illegal copies were proclaimed legal, paremia lex retro non agit, presto, all my games became legal. Now i just live off GB64. Hence such a package doesn't really interest me.

With the Ami, yeah, that was my first thought "mm, legal kickroms". Probably one day i'll invest in this. I didn't know c64 programs [games] we're compatible. If so, i don't know why people bothered to port some of the games, even botching some of them, beyond playability.

One question [ok, two], do I buy this once, and get free updates later on? Or are extra games being added later an extra cost? And, are they all set up separately in WinUAE?
As far as i've played around with that, i've came to a conclusion, that there were too many different KS, RAMs, CPUs and graphical chips for me, to figure out, how to launch a game, and make it playable. I usually ended up with a flashy red screen.
It would be cool, if this was something like GOG for the C64/Amiga.

I have had both C64 Forever & Amiga Forever for a couple years now. So far, there have been yearly paid updates that add new features to the emulators, but no new games. Will they ever add new games? I hope so, but almost surely at a cost.

Off the top of my head, however, there are some other sources of legal C64 & Amiga games:

Jeff Minter's retro collection has been willed to the public domain:
http://minotaurproject.co.uk/lc-8bit.php
http://minotaurproject.co.uk/lc-16bit.php

There is an inexpensive C64 emu for iPhone which contains a number of great ROMs not found in the Forever collection:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/commodore-64/id305504539?mt=8

Manomio is also working (not very fast) on an Amiga emu for iPhone so I am looking forward to mining that for ROMs in the near future as well.


As for WinUAE, I will let a Windows person field that one. The only issue I recall with my emulator is the fancy ø in Brøderbund was an invalid character so I needed to change it to a boring, normal o.

I see, though, C64 games are not really a problem for me. Amiga games are, since i've never had an Amiga.
Also, i don't have an iPhone, and i doubt, i'll ever have one. Not wanting one, may be one of the reasons.;)

Also, Jeff Minter rocks! Grew up mowing the lawn and shooting camels, and i didn't think those games were weird.;)

I'll wait for the project to be more interesting in adding more games, preferably some known ones, the C64 collection isn't that interesting in my opinion [didn't really check what AmiForever is offering, Fodders, Breeds, Ruff'n'Tumbles, stuff like that interests me, i guess]. I'll inspect it closer in the "morning", around 13PM, as it's 4:30AM now.

Thanks for the info guys!;)

You don't need one. I was only suggesting mining the ROMs and plugging them into another emulator of your choice.



You're very welcome.

The Amiga ran as a collection of co-processors, instead of today's "streamlined" PCs "Central Processing" method. Yes, there was a main "logic" co-processor, which is the closest match to a modern CPU, but there were others working at the same time. That has little to do with how the virus works, suffice to say that the damage the virus does is irreversible. The way it's written allows it to be detected (even then you have to be immaculately meticulous), but when it "senses" detection, it duplicates itself. Think of a book that reprints itself one hundred times every time someone looks at the cover. One can remove it temporarily from places like RAM buy turning off power and removing the button battery for a certain amount of time and allowing the capacitors to discharge, but when you turn the computer back on and start using infected sectors, it starts infecting RAM sectors again. Even reformatting couldn't get it out, since while the system was busy running the reformat, a full copy of the virus was residing in the RAM, where it would pop back into the HD. Anything short of zapping the HD with a cardiac defibrillator wouldn't permanently get rid of it.

Since Commodore had already gone bankrupt a few years before this happened to me, it was decided it would be easier to just get a PC. I thought about getting a Mac, but for some odd reason, my dad threatened me with disowning if I did (slight hyperbole, but not much). I never asked why and I never cared to.

@Darling_Jimmy
So far, all I've seen in the newer versions of AF are better WinUAE configurations and more up-to-date versions of Kickstart ROMS and Workbench ADFs. If you want games, the best way to go is to download the most complete version of TOSEC's Amiga collection. It's ~25GB, and there are multiple copies of multiple games, but that's in case one version cracked by one group works better for you than another, and some copies have built-in trainers and the like.

So is TOSEC actually distributing media legally or is it the victimless crime approach?

Eh. You'd have to look it up.