Most retro-gamers fall into one of two categories: original hardware and software fanatics or emulator gamers. For the first category, a god-send of software arrived in 1996 the likes unmatched by any other "retired" computer platform called WHDLoad.
WHDLoad allows a user to install a program onto a hard drive that was originally designed to only run off a floppy. Back in the mid-80s and 90s installing to a HDD wasn’t always a given. Oftentimes, games were coded by developers that assumed they would only be played only off floppy disks.
Games that offered the bonus of being installed onto a hard drive and launched from Workbench offered an exceptional experience. Many of the early machines were never equipped with hard drives. They were often expensive add-ons that many simply could not afford. Developer’s wanted to reach the largest market possible, so they developed for the lowest common denominator - the floppy.
Even if you had a hard drive, you couldn’t always install software to it (which was nuts!). Disk-swapping a game that has 7 disks will drive even the hardest gamers insane.
Enter WHDLoad.
For many titles WHDLoad went several steps further. It also could sometimes improve performance or use software enhancements that permitted more modern Amigas the ability to run software written for systems several years younger. The WHDLoad site offers a vast library of install packages of titles that have been rewritten to run using WHDLoad.
If you happen to have an older 500 without upgrades, you're probably better off with a floppy emulator due to WHDLoad’s RAM requirements. But if you have a 1200, 3000 or 4000, WHDLoad is the path to pixelated salvation. If you do have a 1200 but only a stock one, I highly recommend the affordable and powerful ACA 1221, which I'll describe in more detail in a future post, to give it some gas.
As of December 2015, WHDLoad became free. No more registering, no more key files. If you have the hardware, there's no reason not to use it. Cheers, WHDLoad team.