Hi from the biggest Newbie ever

[kiniki]

Is it a case of unscrewing it to get at all the insides? Or is there something that pops open.

I had a look at it last night an opened a door at the bottom, but it revealed an empty space

[carls]

kiniki wrote:
Superb. This is going to be great.

Managed to get Wing Commander and Elite 2 running last night.

So excited being at the beginning of a new (yet old) adventure.

Some older games may not work so well on the A1200 but you can make most of them work by using the Early Startup Control.
By pressing both mouse buttons while booting the computer you should be presented with this screen:
http://www.gregdonner.org/workbench/images/wb_30_1.gif

In Boot Options, you can then disable the CPU Caches (this slows down the computer somewhat to make older games run at a better speed):
http://www.gregdonner.org/workbench/images/wb_30_2.gif

In Display Options you can turn off AGA by selecting "Original" (A500) or "Enhanced" (A500+/600/3000) graphics:
http://www.gregdonner.org/workbench/images/wb_30_3.gif

These settings will be restored to normal the next time you reboot your computer.

[motorollin]

Just undo the screws and the top will come off. Remove the keyboard (you don't need to disconnect it just move it) and you will see the hard drive bracket. It was included in all releases of the A1200.

--
moto

[drewz21]

Welcome aboard!

[carls]

kiniki wrote:
Is it a case of unscrewing it to get at all the insides? Or is there something that pops open.

I had a look at it last night an opened a door at the bottom, but it revealed an empty space

To fit a hard drive you have to unscrew the case. The little trapdoor on the bottom of the case is for fitting accelerator cards or memory expansions.

Actually, I'd strongly recommend you to get at least a memory expansion because just adding some extra memory (fastmem) makes the computer about two times as fast and you'll have more sound and graphics memory (chipmem) available.

[kiniki]

I will have to look for one on ebay I guess... or Amigakit!  ;-)

I ran Lemmings last night and it said something about "Using expansion" just before the game went to the menu screen.

Any idea what this could be?

[carls]

kiniki wrote:
I will have to look for one on ebay I guess... or Amigakit!  ;-)

I ran Lemmings last night and it said something about "Using expansion" just before the game went to the menu screen.

Any idea what this could be?

Lemmings is a rather old game, from the A500 time. The A500 came with 0.5 megabytes of memory but most people expanded it to a full 1MB. Since your A1200 has 2MB of memory Lemmings just thinks it's a memory expansion and lets you know that it's making use of that whopping extra 0.5MB!

[Oliver]

Hi,

Welcome from me, too.

How are you enjoying those old games?  IMO, Lemmings is a classic.  Just a good game, no matter how old.  I mostly like the simple and creative games for Amiga.

btw, is your interest in Amiga mostly just for games?

[kiniki]

It sounds like a Memory expansion is a good plan.

What other expansions can I fit to make the machine run better?

[kiniki]

Hi Oliver,

To be fair I know very little about the Amiga apart from the games. But I really would like to find out more about what it can do.

I have heard of people using them for the internet and all sorts. Sounds interesting...

As for Lemmings, I played it a lot on the PC but want to play it again on the Amiga.

However I have a problem with the mouse that came with the machine. I have to press stupidly hard to get the buttons to work. So until I have sorted that out I might not be playing it too much!

[swift240]

Hi an welcome, if there ia anything I can help with, let me know.


Mike.  ;-)  ;-)

[amigakit]

May be worth opening the amiga mouse and checking the two mouse button contacts, they may be worn out though.  

[carls]

kiniki:
I hadn't hard of AmigaKit.com until I saw it in this thread, but you can probably buy a new mouse from there. Another option might be to get a PS/2 adapter which lets you use cheap PC mice on the Amiga.

Regarding expansions which makes the computer go faster, I'd recommend you to try to get ahold of a Blizzard accellerator. If you'd like to surf the web, fool around with image processing and even play MP3 music or emulate a classic Macintosh I'd recommend you to get an accellerator with either an 040 or 060 CPU. The 060 CPU is the fastest processor available for "classic" Amigas and a Blizzard 1260 card will fit in your A1200 without any modifications. With an 060 CPU you'll even be able to play MP3 music on your Amiga.

Until then, I'd recommend you to get a copy of Personal Paint (from Aminet), or even better Deluxe Paint AGA if you can find it. They are both classic graphics programs of the kind that were used to create graphics for all the old Amiga games. They're very fun to play around with.

[amigakit]

The PS/2 adapter is made by Elbox and is called the Cocolino. Its a good way of using your favorite PS/2 mouse with the A1200.  Also supports scroll wheel as opposed to the official Amiga mouse that is two-button (no scrollwheel)

[kiniki]

I was looking at the mouse adapter. Especially as I have about 7 pc mice at home!

As for the 060 CPU is that part of the Blizzard 1260 or something that plugs into it?



Is this it? If so its pretty expensive! But maybe something for the future.

I think I have paint on one of the disks... will have to have a look at it.

Can I tell which Kickroms I have just by opening it up?

[Morax]

Lemmings is a rather old game, from the A500 time. The A500 came with 0.5 megabytes of memory but most people expanded it to a full 1MB. Since your A1200 has 2MB of memory Lemmings just thinks it's a memory expansion and lets you know that it's making use of that whopping extra 0.5MB!

But on the other hand, you can see that Lemmings was well programmed, since a lot of ancient games require the second 512KB to be slow mem, because of bad/short-minded programming

EDIT: I'm was too slow  :crazy: