Amiga.org
Amiga.org specific forums => New User Introductions => Topic started by: sweetface on November 12, 2006, 12:06:08 PM
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Het there
When I was very young I had a Commodore Vic 20(still have it in the attic), then I had a Commodore 64(the bulky one), then my dad traded it in for an Amiga 500+. After that we traded that in for an Amiga 1200+. I now have two Amiga 1200s and I want to get one up and running properly eventually. The last one I bought on eBAY was upgraded to ?GB can't remember how much and it came with and a cd rom drive, but with no cable.
Loads of games and I'm letting the kids get playing with it now.
It's good to be back - Amigas are the best.
Crystal. :-) :-? :lol:
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Welcome back :-)
Amiga is a lot of fun, and will keep you busy for the next 20+ years !! Ask all the questions you can think of, there is always someone with the answers, oh and have a :pint: with us :lol:
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Welcome!
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Hi and thanks. I do have a lot of questions. hmmm where shall I start? :lol:
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How do I check what the exact spec of my Amiga 1200 is?
Basic stuff like what OS, Workbench.... how much RAM, what size HDD?
I bought it on EBay 2 years ago and the kids have been playing games on it. I'd like to upgrade it a little but I need to start from the top (if you know what I mean). :lol:
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You can easily find out your Kickstart and Workbench version:
Start up to workbench (either from floppy disk or harddisk), right click your mouse button and go to the menu-option Worbench-About.
You'll probably have Kickstart 39.106, which is 3.0
How much RAM? Easy as well. Just click anywhere in the Workbench and look at the top of the screen. You should see around 2MB of Chip RAM (graphic memory). If you also have other memory, then you have some sort of RAM add-on.
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To get even more information on the machine you can use ShowConfig, it should be on your system. As I always keep forgetting where it is I normally start it using the AmigaShell (Press right Amiga and the E key together, a window opens where you can run a command, type NewShell, a new AmigaShell should open, from that AmigaShell type ShowConfig and enter... and you get all the info about the Amiga it can find).
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I had a look at the machine. First of all when it starts up I get a message saying
driver 3.2 "I can't find 4xEIDE Buffered Interface"
I click 'ok' twice and then everything gets back to normal.
ShowConfig gave me this information:
Processor: CPU 68020
Custom Chips: AA PAL Alice (id=$0023), AA Lisa (id=$00F8)
Vers: Kickstart version 39.106, Exec version 39.47, Disk version 40.42
RAM: Node type $A, Attributes $703 (chip), at $400 - $1FFFFF (~2.0meg)
Boards: None
At the top of the workbench screen: 1,521,272 graphics mem 0 other mem.
I delved into the drawers I could find and the Hard Drive says SCSI Toshiba MK1403MAV D3.0
Monitors drawer has in it icons for A2024, DblNISC, DblPal, Euro36, Euro 72, Multiscan, NTSC, Super72, VGA Only.
It seems the HDD is spilt into two:
1. 44% full 97M free 77M in use
2. 1% full, 1,189M free, 11M in use
There are some programs already on the drive but I'm not sure what they do:
Spectrum Emulator v2.0
XCopyPro
MagicWB v2.0
CygnusEd Professional v3.5
MountPC Ed 2.00
SpeedTester
MUI - Magic User Interface version 3.8
and Theme Park (although I couldn't get this to work)but I have my own disks for that game :-)
Is this a good setup? Could someone tell me how much MB the Hard drive has, and actually how much graphics memory as the long numbers confuse me a little. And also what the different progrmas are for.
Thanks
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For the size of the harddisk you just have to add the amount of used+free: 97+77+1189+11 = 1374MB, so somewhere around 1.3GB.
And as for RAM: Showconfig says it all: 2.0 meg - this is standard for the Amiga 1200.
Finally, you have Kickstart 3.0. I suggest that you upgrade to 3.1 if you want to expand your Amiga a bit further.
The programs:
-CygnusEd is a text-editor, with lots of functions (ideal for programming in quite a few languages)
-MagicWB and MUI are Workbench-enhancers: you can tweak the looks of Workbench in a lot of ways using these 2 programs.
-XCopyPro is a program to copy disks. Mostly used in the past for illegal copying of cracked games.
-Spectrum Emulator sounds like an emulator for Spectrum computers I presume :-)
However, if I were you I'd just format the harddrive and do a clean install of Workbench. You can get most of the programs from Aminet, or at least decent equivalents. This way you also get rid of a lot of (memory eating) junk that still might be on the harddisk...
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Thanks Technoid.
Ideally I'd like to be able to put some games and programs I already have onto the HDD. I'm not sure how to do this yet, and I'm thinking I'm gonna need a bigger HDD for that.
If there are any useful programs (there are a few more) on the HDD already is there a way I can save these before I format it?
Another question, it came with a CD-ROM Drive but without a cable. What cable should I get for it? I thought a SCSI Squirrel might do the trick, but as I'm not sure if this is the only option I haven't bought anything yet. Also, would I need extra software to play CD32 games on it?
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Normally, 1.3 GB should be enough to keep you busy the next couple of months. Remember that most Amiga games don't eat-up more space than 2 to 3 MB. There are a few that consume a little more, there are a lot that consume less.
Make sure the CD-ROM is working before getting any additional hardware to connect it to the 1200. If it's not working you might be cheaper to find a solution to hook up a bog-standard IDE CD-Drive.
Saving usefull software can still be done on floppies (yikes). You might investigate a Sernet solution to load the data off on your PC (assuming you've got one, a Mac should do as well too). There seems to be a flash-card reader/writer solution for A600/A1200 these days, but I'm not too sure what that's capable of.
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By bog standard ide cd drive, do you mean it's the exact same drives as pc ones? I may have a spare cddrive at my parents house if this one doesn't work. How do I test it?
I've seen a compact flash converter that plugs straight into the side but if I use that where would I plug the cd drive?
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I seem to have found a program installed called MountPC. It looks like if I get the right cable I can connect it to my PC. I have AIAB on my PC too. Is this what MountPC program is for?
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Yes, standard IDE drive (same for cd/hd).
You need to mount the cdrom, install some software to do this: idefix or AsimCFS.. Search aminet for this :)
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Sorry, lost track of this thread a little bit.
The A1200 has an internal IDE controller, the connectors of it are for direct connection to 2.5" IDE devices, the kind you'd normally find in laptops.
It is possible to connect 3.5"/5.25" IDE devices, the kind found in desktops and towers, to it as well, you'd only need an adapter cable (judging from the size of your internal Harddrive chances are you already have 3.5" harddrive and adaptercable to match).
Now, to test the CD-drive you've got, you'll have to find out if it's SCSI-flavour or IDE-flavour. The IDE ones normally are rather easy to identify due to the jumpers for selecting SL (Slave) MA (Master) or CS (CableSelect). The SCSI ones are not too dificult as they should have some jumpers for setting the SCSI adress (and sometimes it's even spelled out on the label ;-)). If it is SCSI you need access to a SCSI controller, if it is IDE you can easily hook it to a PC to check it.
If you've got a SCSI version you'd need a SCSI-controller, which are (hardly) available for PCMCIA-slots. Note that I vaguely remember that those controllers tend to get useless with certain accelerators, so if you're planning on getting an accelerator it's a nice option to no pick-up.
I'd put my money on getting an IDE CD-drive. The biggest dare would be hacking it into your A1200's case (near impossible) or do some nice DIY where you create an external IDE solution. (or you could do the same I did when I was still a student, runnning an A3000 and just route the ribbon-cable and powercable out of the case and leave the drive exposed to the environment).
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Its been a while since I've hooked an Amiga to a PC so I can't remember the details. However, if you have a look at Aminet you'll find a few solutions to hook your Amiga to a PC using a null-modem-cable (best way is to bake one yourself or get one that's pre-manufactured specially for Amiga to PC, a null-modem-cable made for PCs can cause serious damage) and Sernet. It's slow, but effective. If you've got a legal copy of Amiga-Forever it comes with AmigaExplorer which makes it easier to browse-around on your Amiga harddrive. It also states how the fysical connection should take place.
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Thanks for your patience in explaining all this to me :crazy: I've got an idea of what I want to do. I would prefer it to be IDE (less complicated) as you said.
When I open up the unit to check whats there, will I know if the HDD is SCSI in the same way like the cd drive?
I don't mind the CD drive being external, so would I be able to connect an external IDE cd drive like that?
I do want to get an accelerator (nothing too drastic) and more RAM but the thing is to find hardware upgrades that work with each other as I don't have much clue about compatabilty yet, but I'm starting to get the jist. :idea:
Actually ,my dad has a brand new IDE cd drive sitting waiting to be installed in his PC for nearly a year - I might nick for my own needs, he may not even realise it's gone :ponder:
When I look inside the unit and check out the cd drive, I'll get back on here. Any more ideas appreciated!
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First of all when it starts up I get a message saying driver 3.2 "I can't find 4xEIDE Buffered Interface"
That interface was an add-on to give you 4 ide ports. With that message there may at one time have been that add-n in the machine, may not be there now. It's close to 100% sure that the hard drive in the machine is ide. someone in one of the other threads was saying they have OS 3.9 for sale, but you need a 3.1 kickstart for any OS 3.1, 3.5 or 3.9 to work. Try Amikit for the kickstart rom. you can get ethernet cards for the pcmcia port and there are various add-ons for the clockport. Any expansion card would be good, some are just ram, others have faster processors. You didn't say where you are located, I presume The UK, as it's a PAL machine. You don't say what kind of monitor, I assume you are using a SCART cable, but VGA adapters are available, but most VGA monitors don't sync that slow.
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I haven't had a chance to open the machine up just yet. At the moment I'm using an almost dead commodore 1084 monitor, but I've been doing some searching on net regarding lcd tv with rgb scart socket/amiga scart cable.
I'll have to take a chance as to whether that will work cos hubby won't let me bring the Amiga home from my parents house with the old monitor :madashell: I'm based in london uk so yeah it's PAL. I don't really want to shell out for scandoubler cos I can use that money for other important upgrades :-)
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Yeah SCART is totally non-existant in North America, damn shame really. Although now component video and HDMI connections are common on the new widescreen sets. Hmm, wonder if you could make an Amiga component video cable easily...anyone? :-?
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Mostly internal Amiga A1200 harddrives are IDE versions. For SCSI a controller is needed, but that one should also show-up in your ShowConfig result, and it didn't.
As to SCART or other ways to connect the A1200 to mothern display devices I'm in the middle of the same process, only my Amiga to hook up is the A4000T.
Best results for native Amiga signals without FlickerFixing/ScanDoubling are established using an RGB to SCART cable (not too expensive at eBay, forget building one of your own as the 23 pin RGB connectors are next to impossible to fine (AmigaKit won't agree on that I assume ;-)). Now I guess an LCD-TV with SCART connector should happily show the Amiga's RGB output. Now, there's another way of connecting the A1200, and that's using the A1200's composite connector. The image is less clear, less sharp but does a reasonable job for game-playing. Now, again, I don't know from experience what this does on an LCD-TV but it could be a way of connecting as well.
There are some boxes for sale aimed for use with Gamecubes, XBoxes and Playstations to hook them to bog-standard VGA monitors. These act as scandoublers and could be of help as well. While the image is not as crisp as from a dedicated Amiga FlickerFixer/ScanDoubler they are not over expensive.
On the A1084, I'm not sure why you're calling it 'Dying' but sometimes contact-cleaner on the connectors and [sh*t, forgot the english translation for pot-meter] ... 'resistors that change impendance depending on the position of a turning knob' improve quality dramatically. Sometimes re-soldering the connector for the RGB cable is needed.
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The thing with my old monitor is that the picture squishes into itself, so you can't see the display and will 'sometimes' get back to normal after pressing the power button on the front on/off 100 times. It's been doing this for years but turning knobs doesn't help. When I bring the unit home from my parents house(without the monitor), I'll probably hook it up to our big LCD in the living room temporarily. It has two RGB enabled Scart sockets, so shouldn't be a hassle.
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amiga_3k wrote:
Mostly internal Amiga A1200 harddrives are IDE versions. For SCSI a controller is needed, but that one should also show-up in your ShowConfig result, and it didn't.
I haven't had a chance to open the 1200 yet. ShowConfig did say that the HDD was SCSI. But I looked up that spec HDD Toshiba MK1403MAV and they are all IDE 2.5" laptop ones so the Amiga is confused. Can anyone shed any light on that?
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Ah, that's an easy one... ;-)
For one reason or another the IDE device on A1200s and A4000s is called scsi.device. Normally if the development of the A3000 followed the route of evolution the A1200 and A4000 should have come with SCSI controllers. But as the devices for SCSI are more expensive than for IDE late in the development process of both systems the SCSI has been dropped and replaced by IDE. In a rush to get the machines on the market (or trouble on the cash-flow of Commodore) Commodore decided to not change the name of the device. So, the A1200 / A4000D IDE controller is named SCSI. :-)
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Thanks. I'll never have to worry about that again then :-)