Newbie Amiga questions

[jnordness]

Hey there. I was wondering if there was any way to hook up a hard drive to my A1000. I finally have a line on some software for it. Also, I may be getting an A2000 soon too. While browsing for games online, I noticed a lot of them say "for AGA". Do I NEED to have the AGA chipset to run them, or can I put a graphics accelerator in the 2000 to run them? Thanks!

Joel

[mpiva]

jnordness wrote:
Hey there. I was wondering if there was any way to hook up a hard drive to my A1000.

  Technically, yes; it's possible, but you'll need to get a harddrive controller for it.  I can't recall the name of any at the moment but they'll probably be next to impossible to find anyway.  So practically, the answer to your question is No.  Sorry.

While browsing for games online, I noticed a lot of them say "for AGA". Do I NEED to have the AGA chipset to run them, or can I put a graphics accelerator in the 2000 to run them? Thanks!

You NEED to have the AGA chipset, a graphics card will not do the job.  In fact, a graphics card won't even do OCS/ECS so if you have a graphics card you'll need to either have two monitors or a switch to swap your monitor's incoming signal from the graphics card to the Amiga's RGB port. (some graphics cards have a passthrough for the Amiga's video signal but not all so be aware of that.)

[darksun9210]

Hello!  :-)
yes there is a few ways you can hook a hard disk to your A1000, either:-
internally on a CPU adapter/accelerator, AdIDE, or viper520/530. these were designed for the A500, so for the viper you may have some case/space issues in an A1000.

externally.
various possibilities. usually a box that bolts on the side to give you Zorro2 slots to allow SCSI/IDE cards
check
amiga resource.cx
and
amiga hardware book
for stuff to do what you need it to do.
with the A1000, you'll need to be a sharp eye'd ebay'er or keep an eye on amibench for A1000 bits and pieces, as they are rare and hard to come by...

For AGA games, you need an AGA amiga, either the A1200/4000 or CD32. you can put a graphics card in your A2000 that would blow AGA away for workbench and utilities, but it won't play AGA games.

have fun!

[jnordness]

Alright, thanks for the info! One other question though. I see a few A500/A2000 accelerators out there that plug into the CPU socket. Could I use any of these accelerators on my A1000 with a socket extender?

Joel

[SamuraiCrow]

There is ONE way to get AGA games to run on a graphics card:  UAE.  The UAE emulator will run AGA games on any capable hard drive but this method has its downside in that it requires a HUGE amount of processor speed.  You'd need a PowerPC accelerator or a Pentium III+ PC to get realistically decent AGA emulation without the AGA chipset.

[motrucker]

Not only are there hard drive interfaces for the A1000, but many of the A500 boxes can be used on the A1000 (You just need to support the unit)
If you are getting an A2000 soon, it would make much better sense to upgrade that machine, rather than the A1000. Keep the A1000 for playing the really old games.......

[Argus]

You might want to first look into getting a DKB Kwikstart II to add a real 512K bootrom (1.3, 2.0, 3.1, etc.) to the A1000, so no need for the kickstart disk.  Internally, the best option for just a hard disk has to be the ICD AdIDE with a 2.5" ide harddisk.  You'll still probably just have the original 512K RAM, but all of it should be addressable with the Kwikstart board in there.

Of course, depending on the particular A1000, various external harddisk + fastram boxes designed for the A500 may work on the A1000.  There are many of these. You simple plug the box in backwards in the A1000 (i.e. left to right, front to back).  Since the A1000's 86-pin expansion slot is physically higher than the low-profile A500, use some books or something to prop up the side expansion box.