Amiga.org
Amiga.org specific forums => New User Introductions => Topic started by: BongoJoe on September 10, 2007, 09:31:03 PM
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Heya guys, total amiga n00blet here. I had a 500 about 10 years ago for about a year and that was it, Until now. I Was at a bootsale (think mmo-yardsale without the online part) the otherday and saw an A600 there for 5 quid so I though what the heck.
I got it home only to realise that the mouse wasn't registering any vertical movement so I got to looking and realised how modd-able (or whatever the real word for modd-able is) the amigas were, uhh except for the A600 apparently.
But yea I've done some very minor modding with PCs xbox/ps2/Dreamcast etc and like the idea of having the A600 as my next little hobby.
I'm mentally prepared for my ego to take a serious ass kicking as I'm sure it'll be waaaay more complicated than any other mods I've done in the past.
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Welcome.
You'll find hacking the A600 is easier then adding a modchip to an x-box. However, there isn't that much hacking one can do with an A600 :)
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Welcome! :-)
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Sweet that's good news, though I didn't find the xbox hdd mod that difficult anyways.
I saw an adapter on ebay that allows you to use a standard pc mouse on amigas, is it possible to just throw an amiga mouse connection onto a ps/2 mouse or is the wiring completely different?
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Not only is the wiring different, so is the protocol. That's why you need one of those adapters. Same goes for the keyboard.
Ebay is a good place to look for certain parts, mice can be found new on ebay germany for about 10 euro's. Localy you can always check www.amigakit.com, probably the only store in the UK still actively supporting amiga.
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Welcome.
The Amiga to PS/2 adapter is called the Cocolino (http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=88) - great for adding a PS/2 scroll mouse.
Although there are still new Amiga mice (http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=174) available
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I was afraid of that. I didn't want to buy a mouse as it would be double what I paid for the amiga itself(£5/$10) lol.
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£5 is a bargain!
We have old second hand, but working, mice here that we dont sell on the webstore if this is any help.
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Ass, Cash or Gas no one rides ("mods") for free, that's the first lesson in the Amiga world, eh eh ;).
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Cool I'll look at those tomorrow. Most of my modding comes from cheap-ass sources I rarely pay a lot for components if I can help it. Travelling isn't out of the question if I really want something, but I try to give up as little ass as humanly possible whe it comes to getting the parts I need.
Late now so I'm outta here. See you guys tomorrow and thanks for the advice.
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Hi to you to Bongojoe. Where in the UK are you? you may have helpfull people close by with all sorts of Amiga related stuff lying about. ;-)
Nice to see you modded the XBox but What modding have you done to it? Mines chipped, 160Gb HDD, transparent blue case, ATA133 round blue cable, & 60mm fan. I still intend adding 2 USB ports & lights but I've been rather busy........still got a Viper USB mod to do on my NGC now I think about it. :evilgrin:
Anyway, I'm sure I speak for all in saying...welcome to A'org. :-)
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......and a big hi to pp1977 too. :-)
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Welcome to the fourm. I'm new here myself, but allready finding it a great community to be a part of.
Whereabouts in the UK are you based, if you don't mind me asking?
The A600 is a great machine in my opinion. It was the first Amiga I ever had, and I regret parting with it to get my 1200(although the 1200 is great itself)
Never did anything technical with it myself. I'd suggest getting a hard drive for it. Cheapest way I'd think would be to find an old PC drive that would fit. Needs to be 2.5" really, but 3.5" would be usuable with some work.
I think the 600 is often overlooked in favour of the classic 500 or the more powerfull 1200. But it really is a cool little machine.
Good luck with it and let us know if you do anything cool with it. I have a 600 I picked up cheap a while ago, just removed the floppy drive from it to replace my rusty 1200 one! But i'd like to put it to good use sometime.
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Hi everyone! I'm sorry I didn't properly introduce myself. Been an Amiga user for quite sometime (since 89 - my A500 still works flawlessly!), and finding a forum like this one was pure bliss, a hell of a community with people always willing to help, it's a rare find nowadays :-)
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@pp1977
Welcome
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I'm in Wales, about 20 min from llanelli to be exact.
I gave the xbox (softmodded) a 200gig hdd, upgraded to 80mm fan, changed to a better thermal compund for the cpu (made a big difference), added 2 more fans, usb and upgraded the dvd drive with a modded sd-616 (modded it myself, nearly killing it in the process with my woefull soldering skills), plus a couple of other little cosmetic things.
My frst action with the A600 is to clean the bloody thing, it looks pretty much perfect all except for one little melted spot (looks like whoever had it before me accidently touched it with a soldering iron (I've done that myself a few times) but that doesn't matter it's nothing a little bit of filler won't fix, and I plan on giving it a (tasteful) paint job anyway, sorry to the people who consider that sacrilege hehe.
I had a look inside, looks good, Much less dust that I was expecting. Board V1.5, I believe that's a good thing If I want to upgrade the cpu, which I will do in the future.
The only concern I have is that until I get a mouse, I can't get any text editor up to see if the keyboard is working properly. But that's not a major problem I'll just carry on with the assumption that it does work, I hope that doesn't come back and bite me on the ass later.
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BongoJoe, Welcome !
actually, yer wrong - you dont say which OS version you are running - 2.x or 3.x ?
you could try pressing Right Amiga + E keys to get the Execute Command Menu. if you have the manuals with the machine, its listed in there - there are also key combos to move the pointer using the cursor keys !
welcome to pp1977 too !
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20 mins in which direction lol
where do you actually live ?
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BongoJoe wrote:
changed to a better thermal compund for the cpu (made a big difference).
mmm...Good idea, I should give that a go. It's worth changing the IDE cable to a faster one too, speeds up loading times on SOME games a lot, not all of them but it's a cheap enough mod. Amiga emulation works well enough on the XBox too but I prefer the real thing. :-)
Don't forget, if your looking for an Amiga mouse many 3rd party Atari ones were Amiga/Atari swichable (switch on side or bottom of the mouse) and for joysticks and pads Sega Megadrive ones work for direction (with the A button giving you a single button). The other buttons don't do jack but it's still a cheap joypad/stick and most Amiga games use only one button.
Have fun.... :-D
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Yea I have the manual, I'll have a look at it soon, haven't had the time so far. the amiga is running Kickstart v 37.350
& Workbench v 37.71 *edit:: the workbench floppy disk is v 2.05, if that's of any significance.
Thanks for the tip Agafaster, just found the combo for the pointer movement, gonna have a play around with 600 later. bwt it cleaned up really nice. I took it all apart and game it a good scrub with some jif and a toothbrush, even the individual keys.
jj im in a little town called pontyates, it's right in between carmarthen and llanelli, where abouts are you?
I was wodering if I could do that with a megadrive pad too, I could have sworn that that's what I did with my old 500.
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live in the rhondda valleys. Work in cardiff. and spend quite a lot of time in kilgetty which is near saundersfoot
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As you seem to be quite comfortable with modding you should have look at Aminet/Docs/Hardware (http://aminet.net/search?f=2&path=docs/hard&start=0)
A few that stuck out were;
http://aminet.net/package/docs/hard/Maps1
It contains info you should read before plugging in a Sega joypad.
http://aminet.net/package/docs/hard/S-Video_A1200
Handy for connecting to LCD TVs and PC capture cards.
http://aminet.net/package/docs/hard/2HDsOn1200
It shows you how to connect 2 ide devices using modded cables, this should apply to A600s as well, you have to keep cable lengths to a minimum though, the on board IDE interface is unbuffered.
Personally I'd recommend spending some money on a buffered 4 way splitter as it's safer and opens up a few more options.
A popular mod for A1200s at the moment is to fit a laptop drive indside the case, this can also be done with an A600.
Laptop to IDE adapters can be bought on ebay and take power from a floppy power connnector. They don't have a master/Slave jumper though and as far as I know they default to slave.
Another popular mod at the moment is to use Compact Flash cards as hard drives. You can buy single and dual bootable CF to 3.5 IDE adapter, they are powered from a floppy connector and have a Master/Slave jumper.
I recently added a 4GB card and a dual adapter to an A1200 for about £30 including postage.
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Take a look at this beauty from tnt23, superb mod:
http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=1921 (http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=1921)
:-D
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@Tripitaka
You reminded me that I meant post a link to the Red Button Agency gear.
http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?u=1010
(http://www.amiga.org/gallery/images/1010/small/1_2791.jpg)
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Hello to both of you fellow UK Amigans :)
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Rob wrote:
@Tripitaka
You reminded me that I meant post a link to the Red Button Agency gear.
http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?u=1010
(http://www.amiga.org/gallery/images/1010/small/1_2791.jpg)
A pleasure......and damn I whant a MindEYE!! :-D
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WOW lot of great info there guys, seems to be more helpful documentation than with most console modding. Those modded amigas look freakin sweeet, loving the red button agency one.
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Welcome :-)