Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: Moto on October 17, 2009, 06:43:48 PM
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I got my new Amiga 1200 system in yesterday and spent most of the night configuring and playing around with it. I am very impressed with what a great job AmigaKit did putting together a new system for me. It was only a few weeks ago that I was toying around with the idea of fixing up my original A500 and that lead to wanting to get a used 1200 and eventually ordering a new one from AmigaKit. I already have the B1260 card installed that tone007 was willing to part with. There's so much more to learn and configure but it's a real blast getting things up and running. I think the biggest challenge is finding up-to-date information. I'm thankful for this forum's search feature which has been a blessing.
I put together a little slide show of the unboxing and initial power up.
(http://public.fotki.com/Mototronic/amiga-1200-/?cmd=fs_slideshow)
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Awesome! You probably already know this but, the system will work fine left in PAL (better for games actually) since you have the indivision AGA. I never boot my (PAL) 1200 in NTSC anymore.
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Hm, is there a LED inside the PCMCIA slot, or is the red glow a reflex from the camera?
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yes, there is definitely an LED inside there. I've got quite a few extra bits installed inside this 1200 so it could be from one : CF/Card IDE, Indivision AGA, Subway USB
Amigakit did the installation, so I don't know exactly what the insides look like.
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Awesome! You probably already know this but, the system will work fine left in PAL (better for games actually) since you have the indivision AGA. I never boot my (PAL) 1200 in NTSC anymore.
Yes true, but one thing that sucks is the large gap at the bottom of the screen when booting NTSC games...
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Gratz on the A1200 Moto :)
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Congrats, enjoy your new computer :)
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I got my new Amiga 1200 system in yesterday and spent most of the night configuring and playing around with it. I am very impressed with what a great job AmigaKit did putting together a new system for me. It was only a few weeks ago that I was toying around with the idea of fixing up my original A500 and that lead to wanting to get a used 1200 and eventually ordering a new one from AmigaKit. I already have the B1260 card installed that tone007 was willing to part with. There's so much more to learn and configure but it's a real blast getting things up and running. I think the biggest challenge is finding up-to-date information. I'm thankful for this forum's search feature which has been a blessing.
I put together a little slide show of the unboxing and initial power up.
(http://public.fotki.com/Mototronic/amiga-1200-/?cmd=fs_slideshow)
Hi,
@Moto,
Smerf likes what he sees, better than stupid IBM, Penguin, and Apples.
Looks good on LCD screen, looks to run nice to, I have been thinking of getting wireless card for my A1200, also thinking of getting flicker fixer so I can put A1200 on LCD screen, I already have my accelerator card, it is a phase something or other with a 40 mhz 68040 chip and some sort of fancy accelerator that needs special software to run that costs an arm and leg (so I probably won't use it). It works for me though in 040 mode last time I had it plugged in 3 years ago. Hey enjoy your machine, hopefully Amiga be back someday, hey what part of Redneckville (Florida) you in, I used to be at Panama City, but due to job availability, I am now in pennsyltucky working with a bunch of dam yankees or crankees as I call them. I really don't know how the South lost the war against them. We should give Canada everything north of Maryland, it wouldn't be a loss at all.
Just to tell you how stupid these crankees are, the other day I was cruising my auto at about 70mph and got pulled over by a Pennsyltucky State Trooper, he told me I was doing 99 mph in a 55 mph zone, when I told him no way dude, he said radar don't lie, I then told him that the GMC Sonoma I was driving was governed at 93 mph and challenged him to try to go at 99 mph in my truck, he refused, went back to his car and then wrote me a ticket for "Not following the posted speed limit". So now when I drive to work, I follow the posted speed limit no matter what everyone else is driving at. Now get this the same dude stops me 2 days later and gives me a ticket, for doing 55 when everyone else is doing 75, I went to court showed the judge both tickets and said your honor since your state police can't seem to make up their minds at what speed I shoud drive at please inform me and in writing sir, at what speed I should drive at, when I drive like all the other drivers I get a ticket for not following the posted speed limit, and when I drive the posted speed limit I get a ticket for obstructing traffic.
Oh, how I miss the South, no snow, no crankees, and no stupid cops.
smerf
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lighting up the PCMCIA is what i did sometime ago it looks fantastic,but i now have the following.
PCMCIA card detect,it detects proper insert of any PCMCIA card the LED will change colour if the card is compatible.
work has already started on the floppy LED project, some of it is already working.
floppy read/write access
floppy slot has LED,changes colour to RED when floppy is inserted,no floppy inserted yellow or green.
orginal floppy eject button has two LEDS green & red. /////// green=floppy protect // red=floppy unprotected but there's a long way to go as internal LED track counter is missing aswell as floppy HD mode.
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Looks great and have fun with it. BTW, I know its only money but have you kept a running total of what its cost so far. I reckon I could have bought a a kitchen including appliances if I counted what I'd spent on my Amiga addiction..
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Congrats on the A1200 Moto, I've got a simular AT beasty stitting just across the room. But with only a 030 and not the 060. Well done and enjoy..!
Gertsy
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Good for you, great isnt it, messing about with a new system learning what it can do.
I am happy for you.
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I'm really interested in joined the current Amiga community as I was once an Amiga 1200 user. What I'd like to know is can I get ALL the software I used to have years ago and hook up to the internet?
My software was XCadPro, Pagestream, Protext, DirectoryOpus etc
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Looks great and have fun with it. BTW, I know its only money but have you kept a running total of what its cost so far. I reckon I could have bought a a kitchen including appliances if I counted what I'd spent on my Amiga addiction..
At some point I had to say "ok, I have enough new toys now." I admit it can be addictive buying retro hardware. I actually had to stop myself from bidding on a minty 4000T that was on ebay but I managed to talk some sense into myself. I really like the 1200 system. My main goal was to have a small system that could run all my Amiga software plus all the post-1993 stuff that I haven't yet been exposed to. Since the 1200 fits on my desk without any problems it will get used. Once you put these things in the closet to make space for something else, they tend to get neglected for a bit. I work on Macs and PCs all day so switching over to the Amiga at night or on weekends is quite fun and a completely different experience.
* Some random notes so far:
* 250w power supply purchase probably wasn't necessary since my A500's power supply drives my fully loaded 1200 (1260, cfcard ide, cfcard reader, usb and indivision aga). It's also noticeably quieter than the ATX unit.
* Wireless PCMCIA card probably wasn't necessary since the PCMCIA CF Card reader is a great way for sharing files between all my other systems. I
* The Indivision/AGA is amazing! Worth every penny.
* The 1260 card with 128mb is also amazing!
So yes, I spent probably around the same price for my new/used A1200 that I did on my original A500 and 1084s back in 1989. But I am getting the exact same "wowie-factor" that I had back then. And besides, I don't need a kitchen at the moment. :-)
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Now get this the same dude stops me 2 days later and gives me a ticket, for doing 55 when everyone else is doing 75, I went to court showed the judge both tickets and said your honor since your state police can't seem to make up their minds at what speed I shoud drive at please inform me and in writing sir, at what speed I should drive at, when I drive like all the other drivers I get a ticket for not following the posted speed limit, and when I drive the posted speed limit I get a ticket for obstructing traffic.
Oh, how I miss the South, no snow, no crankees, and no stupid cops.
smerf
So what did the judge say? What happened? Still had to pay?
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Yes true, but one thing that sucks is the large gap at the bottom of the screen when booting NTSC games...
Well the good news is that the majority of the games you are going to get ahold of now are PAL unless you buy them used in a box from the states. Even then though a lot of PAL games didn't use the whole PAL screen either so they could easily port to NTSC so you still get the gap on some of those too. Just boot into whatever suits your games I guess but for the most part, having a "PAL" system when you have an Indivision is no big deal for someone in the states and I prefer it.
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Slideshows like that make me want to start all over again with a fresh 1200...
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I had no idea you could actually add USB to a desktop A1200. Had I known that, I would have added that when I ordered my amiga from amigakit a few months ago.
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There is a light in the pcmcia socket, this is from the internal cf to ide adapter. I done this to allow maximum air flow to the indivision.
Glad its all working great and that your enjoying it, :).
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There is a light in the pcmcia socket, this is from the internal cf to ide adapter. I done this to allow maximum air flow to the indivision.
Glad its all working great and that your enjoying it, :).
You did a great job with my system, thank you! Sorry for all the last minute changes but I had to jump on that Blizzard 1260 card while the deal was there. The Indivision AGA and CF Card reader are my favorite bits of this system so far. I originally thought I'd be using the ethernet to transfer files but it's a lot easier swapping a CF card between systems.
In general, this system goes well beyond my expectations.
-daniel
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I want that setup now.
If I could get my hands on a 1260 card, I would do exactly what you did.
Congratz Moto!
Jason
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You should look into getting a mediator and some PCI cards now. Its not that hard to rig up a tower and fit it all in. You can get a lot of nice things for next to nothing now, making that 1200 max itself out.
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There is a light in the pcmcia socket, this is from the internal cf to ide adapter. I done this to allow maximum air flow to the indivision.
Glad its all working great and that your enjoying it, :).
@F0LLETT:
Does the 1200 come stock with the internal fan or is that something you added? I've seen a couple photos of other people taking apart their 1200s and haven't been able to tell if the fan is normally there. I really want to crack the case on this but don't want to void the Amigakit warranty. Maybe in a few months. :-)
Still really enjoying this system and as a result am going through my own private sleep derivation study.
-daniel
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No desktop A1200's ever came with a fan unless someone modded theirs. Doesn't get hot enough by itself stock and really doesn't even get 'warm' until you start adding HD's, Accelerators or Indivision AGA's :-)
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I would expect that our technician has added a small cooling fan (http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=666) (free of charge) to assist airflow as you notified us that you would be adding a Blizzard 1260 in addition to the other upgrades.
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congrats..I remember that feeling well :-)
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Nice set of pictures in your slide show. Your setup sounds very much like mine, except I have not yet removed the hard drive and replaced it with a CF card, or better yet, one of those industrial IDE flash drives. The only item I have that you do not is the SCSI-II module for the 1260 and an additional 128mb of RAM for a total of 256mb RAM.
I think that the A1200 will likely be one of the last Classic Amiga computers that I get rid of, as it has the most to offer and it is in a great form factor.
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I originally thought I'd be using the ethernet to transfer files but it's a lot easier swapping a CF card between systems.
In general, this system goes well beyond my expectations.
-daniel
It's even easier to swap files if you get a wireless card and join your Miggy to your home network using EasyNet, you can just map other computer's HD's to your Amiga desktop.
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I'm really interested in joined the current Amiga community as I was once an Amiga 1200 user. What I'd like to know is can I get ALL the software I used to have years ago and hook up to the internet?
My software was XCadPro, Pagestream, Protext, DirectoryOpus etc
I have the original of Pagestream and you can def get it from "other sources" quite easily. Directory Opus is also widely available (and comes free with Amiga forever I'm sure). Not sure about XCad and Protext. You can hook an Amiga up to the Internet with a bit of work (for instance an A1200 will need a PCMCIA network card and drivers and you will need to configure it through some TCP/IP software and then use something like AWeb to browse).
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By "other sources" I hope you mean from the Pagestream developer: http://www.grasshopperllc.com
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Protext 6 is available for download free of charge from http://www.tigerteam.co.uk/protext/
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That is interesting news! Thanks for the link.
Protext was a great Amiga word processor in its time.
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By "other sources" I hope you mean from the Pagestream developer: http://www.grasshopperllc.com
Sorry - I didn't realise it was still being developed. I own the box inc manuals etc of version 2.x. I'll pull my neck in now and go and purchase the latest version for the Amiga (can't wait actually to start reliving this piece of software!) although I'm not sure if my A4000 will cope for RAM. It's strange actually - when I was using Pagestream on my A1200 in Anger, my mate was doing the same on his Mac (Pagemaker with a Quadra maybe) and Pagestream was not too far behind it and in many ways better!
I use InDesign and Quark these days (I'm no longer a professional designer bit still have the odd opportunity to hone my skills) but find that I still want to use stuff like my Amiga and Pagestream as it just feels better...
Cant explain it - lol
Hey ho - long live Pagestream!
John