Total Amiga NEWB

[8bitugy1]

So I've had this A2000HD sitting in my closet for awhile...and I've just set it up and it seems to work good, but I"m not sure of how to use it....or what it can do.  I do know its got a hard drive, SCSI CD-ROM and 6MB Ram.  I put in an audio CD and though it shows a nice file listing, it doesn't play them or I can't make it go in anycase...so a few questions...

1) Will it play Audio CD's.
2) Is Kickstart 40.63 current or close to it?
3) same question for WB 40.42 and 3.1Rom
4) What are the general recommended upgrades for this thing?
5) The desktop seems bland, any way to change that?


I think its fair to start with that...I've been looking around this site but I can't seem to find much newbie material...if someone can point me to it...that'd be great (I don't mind doing my own homework).

[brianb]

This site doesn't have a lot of getting started, but a lot of really knowledgeable people if you get in a bind...  Your best bet is doing some Google searches, and searching here or asking questions if you run into problems..

This might be useful to you...

Tweaking workbench...
http://www.amigau.com/amigarealm/thisoldworkbench/html/contents.html

General guides..
http://www.amigau.com/

[KatManDEW]

I'll take a stab at some answers, since I've been asking so many myself recently :-)

You can't play audio CD's without some upgrades.
Your Kickstart and WB are current.
You probably will want to get WHDLoad to play games from the hard drive.
You can use apps like MUI, Newicons, and ClassAct to dress up the desktop, but I personally think OS 3.9 is the best way to dress it up. You can also use ClassicWB or AmigaSys to dress things up.

You can get tons of apps at http://aminet.net Check Lemon Amiga for game info and links to places to download them.


I'm gonna watch this thread myself to see what recommendations the Guru's give you.

Have fun!

[KatManDEW]

I highly recommend a file manager utility, like Directory Opus

[8bitugy1]

Well that will definitely get me started...Thanks.

Couple of follow ups...how do I transfer files from my PC to Amiga....

And my HD is really small 30 Megs...can I easily put a New SCSI drive in? (I'm not worried about keeping any data on the existing drive).

[Methuselas]

8bitugy1 wrote:

And my HD is really small 30 Megs...can I easily put a New SCSI drive in? (I'm not worried about keeping any data on the existing drive).

Make sure you've got a working set of Workbench disks or a copy of OS3.9 before you remove that drive. You might regret it otherwise.

As for the transferring of files, I'd recommend AmigaExplorer and a null modem cable to start. You can get AE of the Amiga Forever CD. Good program.

[KatManDEW]

If you have a CD burner in your PC, that's probably the best way to do it.

You can use CrossDOS to read PC floppies with the Amiga, but they will need to be formatted to 720k if you don't have a high density floppy in your Amiga (most don't).

You can connect you Amiga to your PC with a null modem cable and use apps like Twin or Amiga Explorer to transfer files.

[KatManDEW]

Make sure you've got a working set of Workbench disks or a copy of OS3.9 before you remove that drive. You might regret it otherwise

That's very good advice.

SCSI drives like you need are not common now-a-days. And you can't use any more than 4 gig unless you do some upgrading. You can use a drive that's bigger than 4 gig, but you will only be able to access the first 4 gig on the drive.

I've been doing lots of upgrading, and I still can't access any more than the first 4 gig.

You're pretty much in the same situation I was in a few weeks ago.

[Tenacious]

@ 8bitugy1

The 2000 was designed in about 1987, before most computers had CD drives.  (It's truely amazing how the Amiga can be updated to modern needs.)  The motherboard does not have connections to patch thru the audio output (left, right) from the CD drive.  Your drive is internal, right?

If so, I think Amigakit sells a backplane cover that includes hardware for mixing Amiga audio with CD audio.

There are a number of CD playering utilities on Aminet. At least one is included with OS3.9.

Does your machine have retargetable graphic boards or an accelerator?  If not, you may want to acquire these before moving from OS3.1 to OS3.5 or 3.9.

[8bitugy1]

Yup it's internal.  I put in a CD with PC Files on it, just to see if I could pull a directory...and though the system pulled the name of the disk, the files didn't show up....but they are all in sub directories...perhaps they can't be?

I'm so new at this...lol.  But its fun.  (I'm a whiz with the 8-bit's....Atari mostly).  Okay so no, I do not have any Accelerator or Graphics cards...please make suggestions...

Ultimately...I'd like to use this for games mostly, but I'm a spreadsheet addict and I'd like to play around with whatever spreadsheets exist for this thing too...  Being as its games mostly though, any recommendations on keeping the compatability would be helpful.  I do have a A500 as well.

Thanks for everyone's help thus far...I'm sure I'll have more questions too....

[KatManDEW]

If you're looking at the CD contents with Workbench, go to the Window menu and select Show - All Files.

[marcfrick2112]

8bitguy1: Well, I second the vote for Directory Opus. I think version 4.16 or so can be downloaded from Aminet.
For games, I really recommend getting and registering WHDLoad,   should let you run almost any game, regardless of what accel./RAM you get, etc. I confess to not knowing much about spreadsheets, but I imagine they would benefit from more RAM, accelerator, etc. There are a number of spreadsheets for the miggy, Professional Calc, Turbo Calc, etc....

[Tenacious]

Final Calc and ProCalc were probably the 2 best (commercial) spreadsheets available.  They show up from time to time on eBay.

Your 2000 will run spreadsheets and most classic games and OS3.1 just fine as is. The accel and RTG were to let os3.9 run at it's best.  OS3.9 was mentioned to prettify and extend your Workbench experience.

You might be better served getting some books ("The Amiga Companion", "Denny Atkin"s Best Amiga Tips and Secrets") and more experience with the OS first. Aminet has an enormous selection of free files (Directory Opus, PPaint, Hippoplayer, Ordering, Play16, PlayCD, Textview, Visage, NoteIt!, Yam, NComm, all kinds of games) for Amiga.

OSes 3.5 and 3.9 are largely OS3.1 configured with standardized (and attractive) eye candy and updates.