Amiga.org
Amiga.org specific forums => New User Introductions => Topic started by: Gilthanaz on July 27, 2011, 10:03:48 AM
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Ahoi!
Today I'am 30 years old (ya... FML :P), but already registered here a while ago. How that relates? Well, I decided to wish for something I actually wanted when i was way younger, but could not afford: An Amiga 1200 :D
However, my knowledge of Amiga Soft- and Hardware is basically not existant; Except for games. Lots and lots of games. I think i still know most cheat codes for the games I had for my A500, which is a lot ;)
That said, I'am primarily here to meet people who also love Commodore machines. I'am sure I can learn a lot and will bathe in nostalgia to keep myself from thinking of how old I just turned :/ (subjective feeling, I'am not saying that anyone else 30+ is old or has to feel old just because i feel that way).
So on friday I shall get my new toy, an Amiga 1200 in great condition with a 4GB IDE-CF Adapter+Card, 030 Turbocard, ADF Transfer Kit and a lot of other things, together with a lot of original games - basically all my favourites from back in the earlier '90s.
I'am sure I'll ask a lot of questions and hope to find answers. Also i want to fix my A500 and C64 and hope for people with more hardware knowledge to help me find the broken parts.
Oh, and my first language is not english, but german, so please correct me if I have wrong spelling or grammer :)
KR,
- Gil
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Hi Gilthanaz... :)
Welcome to the happy place called Amigaland AKA the Nuthouse... :)
Sigh... I'd love to feel a 30 year old (but the neighbours would talk and I'd get arrested) and anywhoo I can't really remember that far back in time (think when I was that age we still had dinosaurs roaming about)... :)
Well hopefully on Friday when you get your nice new Amiga (good choice the A1200 by the way) we'll be hearing a lot more from you as you discover both the joys and frustration that only Amiga can bring... :)
I'm sure all your questions will be answered by the natives here, you may not like all of the answers but they will get answered none the less... :)
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grammer
grammar ;)
Welcome, and enjoy. The setup you have on the way sounds very nice.
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grammar ;)
grandad... :D
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Darn, I had it correct first and corrected myself wrong ;)
Well, the fun will definitly begin when I have to install the turbo board and CF HDD - however, i think the latter will not pose much of a problem. So far i could not find out yet if the A1200 IDE Bus allows for two IDE devices to be connected per Master/Slave, as known from PC compatible. Probably it can even fit two CF-HDDs then, if there's enough space :D
After I get all the hardware working, i'll try to install Workbench 3.1 on the HDD and get the machine to boot from it. So far i've read on many forums that a WB 3.1 installation to HDD can be pretty stressy :)
AmigaOS of the native 3.1 appears to be a lot like a *nix/DOS hybrid, so as a *nix Sysadmin and Oracle DBA I'll probably feel right at home once i've got the default device names memorized ;)
Yesterday I built shelves for the Original Games in my computer room. Right now I'am pondering how to protect them from smoke so they dont turn yellow over time - I guess some of those freezer bags to keep food fresh with ziplock should do a good job :D
Picture of my Computer/LAN Party room (sorry, its a mess - picture is pretty old, too). On the left side where the big CRT TV is, the Amiga will get his new home. The shelves would be on the left side wall which can't be seen on this picture - but i'll get some more when the Amiga is set up and the boxed games found their place :D
(http://www.das-werkstatt.com/pics/pv/K1024_bespassung.JPG)
I'am collecting a lot of machines and we're having LAN Parties quite often, so all of this eats a LOT of power :( But, well, there is a solution for every Problem :D SOLAR POWER! WEEEE! :D
(http://www.das-werkstatt.com/pics/pv/K1024_Panele1.JPG)
:D
KR,
- Gil
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So far i could not find out yet if the A1200 IDE Bus allows for two IDE devices to be connected per Master/Slave, as known from PC compatible.
It can but you'd have to keep the cable very short indeed to try and avoid problems... :)
Much better (and advisable) to get a buffered interface board for your A1200. I use both the 4xEIDE & FastATA MKIII boards in my various A1200's and they make adding CD/DVD ReWriters and HD's a breeze. The FastATA MKIII is the best and really speeds up HD/CD/DVD read/write access, but it's more expensive and I believe you can still buy it new from AmigaKit... :)
Love the Solar Panels by the way... neat... (just wish we had enough sunlight here in Scotland to make them cost effective)... :)
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Nope you spelt it right the first time. Wow how easily you just fit in amazes me. You truly are an Amigan! Welcome home buddy :)
http://www.amiga.org/forums/group.php?groupid=50
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grammar ;)
Welcome, and enjoy. The setup you have on the way sounds very nice.
Nope. Grammar is spelt grammer. See above.
http://www.amiga.org/forums/group.php?groupid=50
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Nope you spelt it right the first time. Wow how easily you just fit in amazes me. You truly are an Amigan! Welcome home buddy :)
http://www.amiga.org/forums/group.php?groupid=50
Such a warm welcome :D
Let's see... usually I start/go-back to a hobby, all easy in the beginning... to then get utterly insane with what I want to get to work up to really weird hardware modifications :P Like setting up a 286' Webserver or control all the light switches in my house via parallel control of a linux machine, triggering relays XD
Or I'll just get stuck playing A-Train, Apidya, The Clou and UFO: Enemy Unknown AGA for a loooong time...
- Gil
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You sir are going to be very popular here on Amiga.org :)
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Sigh... I'd love to feel a 30 year old (but the neighbours would talk and I'd get arrested)
Pure gold :D
Anyway, welcome Gilthanaz (boy is this hard to type right...), and enjoy your Amiga resurrection :)
My money's on UFO Enemy unknown :) You'll lose weeks with that one.
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Pure gold :D
My money's on UFO Enemy unknown :) You'll lose weeks with that one.
I do a complete playthrough of X-COM 1+2+3 at least once a year ever since they have been released :) Interceptor about every 3rd year, and Enforcer only in LAN Coop if I'am really bored. I also helped Scott with XCOMUTIL many years ago. I own every X-COM game several times, even from the pre-X-COM (when it was still named UFO) era :D That reminds me, I must complete my X-COM shrine soon.....
Hm, I guess I've literally spent months of my life playing X-COM 1 to 3 over and over and over again up to superhuman difficulty :P
I'am really looking forward to games that I couldn't play back then, tho. I never played Syndicate and other famous titles, and since they are supposedly incredibly good, I'll be busy with them for a while.
Well, given I get the Hardware to work together and can set up the sytem to boot from HDD and so on, I'am off work the next two weeks and might just waste all those free days with gaming ;) I'am just glad my wifey is a gamerchick and plays as much as I do, also cross-platform :D So no one will whine if I play a lot, heh! Except for me if she kills my highscores that fast again....
Maybe I even manage to resurrect the C64 and A500 :D (C64 boots but all keyboard input is garbled; The A500 stops before the "insert disc icon" appears, my guess is that the kick rom went *pfzfzfz*)
This appears to be a very nice community, I feel home already ;)
- Gil
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Hello and welcome to the Amiga!
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Pure gold :D
Anyway, welcome Gilthanaz (boy is this hard to type right...), and enjoy your Amiga resurrection :)
My money's on UFO Enemy unknown :) You'll lose weeks with that one.
Sad thing is, it's true... ;)
Guess I'm on another "ignore list", only one to give Githa.. Gilthza... (you're right it is hard to type) the new guy some advice on his IDE question and not a dicky bird in response... :(
Oh well, it means I can still talk about him anyway and he wont get upset... :D
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Hm, I guess I've literally spent months of my life playing X-COM 1 to 3 over and over and over again up to superhuman difficulty :P
Oh man, how do you do that? I get my ass kicked on veteran :) Still, I try to play "fair" and not use the save option.
Also Syndicate is a top top top game. You'll really enjoy it. And when you finish it - there's the American Revolt mission pack, yaay :laugh1:
MFG
Aga
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Hehe Franko :P
I have to google a lot of the long, complicated words you used for different pieces of Amiga hardware that I'am not familiar with. Need some easy words explaining ;)
However, I'am pretty confident I can fit in two of those CF-HDDs into the trapdoor slot, and I know of at least one IDE cable (of the hundreds I store in plastic bags) that is only like 4 inches (~10 cm) with 3 IDE connectors that might be perfect for the job. However, so far I'am not sure if I ever need more than 4GB of storage on the A1200 :)
I just read some threads about Aladdin 4D tho and since I also do some 3D modelling, I might check it out. For the native Amiga feeling, I guess I need AmigaOS 3.x+ and stronger hardware, so there might be a project.
Well, that happens if I get a rendering software in my hands and about half an hour of time. It's not that good but it was my first time ever to try Blender 3D:
(http://stuff.das-werkstatt.com/DrgnHead.PNG)
Sometimes I wonder why almost everything I waste my time with is computer related - except for my ant colonies :D
- Gil
Edit:
@Lord aga:
Well for X-COM 1 it boils down to explosives - lots and lots and loooots of explosives, basically bomb away the whole map using fast runners (Agents with many time points and only explosives equipped). X-COM 2 is almost unbeatable on superhuman if you insist on never reloading even on a catasrophic fail-cascade of events ;)
X-COM Apocalypse ... basically you have to know the research tree inside out, don't waste agents on not very important missions, raid the cult of sirius over and over and over again for cash, and pay the Gravball league (more human agents in recruitment), S.E.L.F. (more androids) and the mutant alliance (more Alien hybrids) for perfect standing. That way you get enough agents until you've researched heavy disruptors and personal + vehicle shields. Oh, also: Explosives + personal teleporter are your best friend later on :)
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Hehe Franko :P
I have to google a lot of the long, complicated words you used for different pieces of Amiga hardware that I'am not familiar with. Need some easy words explaining ;)
However, I'am pretty confident I can fit in two of those CF-HDDs into the trapdoor slot, and I know of at least one IDE cable (of the hundreds I store in plastic bags) that is only like 4 inches (~10 cm) with 3 IDE connectors that might be perfect for the job. However, so far I'am not sure if I ever need more than 4GB of storage on the A1200 :)
Even google won't help much trying to understand me (heck I can't even understand half the things I say)... ;)
The problems you'll have with fitting 2 devices to the Amigas built in IDE header is all to do with the fact it's not buffered & not designed to cope with anything more than 1 device at a time and only on a very short cable (generally no more than 5 to 6cm Max to be reliable)... :(
From the method you describe you are going to try then 10cm may be just too much and cause errors in reading and writing, you can give it a try but from experience somewhere along the line you will most likely start having read/write errors... :(
If you do and it works fine with 2 devices connected then at least that will save you having to buy a buffered interface board and if 4GB is enough for you then those CF devices should suit you just fine (prefer HDs myself and use 2 500GB drives in my main A1200)... :)
Any problems just ask, as folk here will only be more than willing to help out. It's always nice to watch someone discover the Amiga and help out where possible and see how they advance with this great machine over time... :)
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Ah, cannonballs ! I was hoping to use a longie cable (about as an A1200) with two cards. Can I use it with at least one card without problems ? Or will the length be an issue here also ?
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@Lord aga: As I understood Franko, yes ... I'll check on that issue in more depth if I ever decide i need more than 4GB HDD space ;) Right now I wonder how I'll get the PCMCIA ADF Transfer Kit to be recognized by the hardware, since the 030 turbo card has 8MB of RAM; As I understood that is all the address room the A1200 can handle, so the PCMCIA Device might not get the necessary ressources. Weee! I like hardware problems and to solve them :D
@Franko:
You can't do/write anything that surprises me much. Why? Because I'am used to people who totally lost it, as I worked for a year in an institute for the mentally handicapped and insane. Besides that, I tend to have friends that are by no scale "normal" (tho, harmless). I myself get told often enough that I should get my mental state checked, and in fact I'am one of the very rare people in this country that have a letter from a psychatrist, explaining that I'am sane :P I'am pretty battle-hardened and a seasoned traveler on almost all continents, so even "weird" local cultural rituals don't shock me much. I like haggis ... that about sums it up I guess :P Also, I like your humour, and people like you are usually the heart of community forums (can tell from post count + special rank + location comment and some other hints) :D
Ohhh insane people! Me likey! :D
- Gil
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Ah, cannonballs ! I was hoping to use a longie cable (about as an A1200) with two cards. Can I use it with at least one card without problems ? Or will the length be an issue here also ?
If you mean connecting it directly to the IDE header on the motherboard then long cable are a big no no... :(
It may not be as much of a problem for those CF card thingies (I don't use them personally) but for proper HDs and especially adding two, then you really have to use the shortest cables possible to prevent read/write errors (even then this is not guaranteed to work with 2 drives)... :(
If your going to use just one CF Card adapter try and keep the cable length to the minimum possible you can, it may seem to be working fine but you will most likely notice sooner or later read/write errors or worse creeping in... ;)
Like I said earlier, it's best to get hold of a buffered interface board from either ebay or Amigkit as these will allow you to add up to 4 devices, eliminate read/write errors, allow you to use much longer cables and best of all speed up reading and writing times... :)
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Well... I already have a long cable, and a CF card. I guess I'll just try it when I get hold of the IDE/CF adapter, and if it acts up I'll just have to get me a shorter cable :(
I know that the buffered boards are great stuff, but too expensive to justify right now :(
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@Franko:
and in fact I'am one of the very rare people in this country that have a letter from a psychatrist, explaining that I'am sane :p
Ohhh insane people! Me likey! :D
- Gil
I'm the opposite I've got a certificate from my psychiatrist explaining that I am insane... :)
I met some of the sanest people ever back in 2002-03 when I was in me nice institution...(best holiday I ever had was that place, they even let me have one of me miggies to keep me amused, well that's when the doctors and nurses weren't playing with it, they loved Lemmigs)... :)
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Thread is moving fast... answer to your last post is above your newest post, Franko :) <== Outdated again. Thread moving even faster! ZOOM! If this continues, we get the price for "Longest New User Introduction Thread Within 24 hours" :D
Also, why would you not want to use CF-HDDs? After all they are more reliable than old-school-platter-rotating-mechanically-fast-dying 2.5" HDDs :)
Also I've heard that Amiga supports SFS, which should be capable to also allow way bigger partitions (given that the boot partition is on the first 200-or-so sectors of the HDD, if its anything like LILO was in earlier linux days), so having 32/64GB CF Disks running as HDD shouldn't be much of an issue, mmmmh?
Impatient and in agony of not-knowing the answer already, I await thine post, full of sparkling wisdom in these dark ages of lost knowledge, Franko!
- Gil
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Well... I already have a long cable, and a CF card. I guess I'll just try it when I get hold of the IDE/CF adapter, and if it acts up I'll just have to get me a shorter cable :(
I know that the buffered boards are great stuff, but too expensive to justify right now :(
If you need a short cable just let me know and I'll send you one... :)
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Also, why would you not want to use CF-HDDs? After all they are more reliable than old-school-platter-rotating-mechanically-fast-dying 2.5" HDDs :)
Also i've heard that Amiga supports SFS, which should be capable to also allow way bigger partitions (given that the boot partition is on the first 200-or-so sectors of the HDD, if its anything like LILO was in earlier linux days), so having 32/64GB CF Disks running als HDD shouldn't be much of an issue, mmmmh?
Impatient and in agony of not-knowing the answer already, I await thine post, full of sparkling wisdom in these dark ages of lost knowledge, Franko!
- Gil
I need lots more storage space than CF cards can offer that why I use HDs. My main A1200 has two 500GB HD's attached and I've only got about 180MB of free space left on them... ;)
I've been using SFS for quite a number of years now and found it to be the best and only files system for me as it's the only one that can cope with single files sizes of greater than 4GB which I need for storing and burning DVDs... :)
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If you need a short cable just let me know and I'll send you one... :)
Thank you for your kind offer :) I might indeed need help... but if it comes to that, we'll arrange the details :)
I have this cable:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=608
Maybe I can connect it where the shorter distance is (monkey brain at work) :D
Also... maybe I can cut it and leave the shorter end, but I would feel really bad about butchering such a fine cable :( It's brand new and unused.
EDIT: Oh wait, is this what I need ?
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=42&products_id=532
If so, this is not that expensive.
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@ Lord AGA
If your going to be adding extra HDs or want to add a CD/DVD ReWriter then a buffered interface is a must have... :)
I can't speak for the 4 way one Amigit is selling at £19.90 as I've never used that one...
The FastATA MKIV that they are selling is the best money can buy when it comes to IDE boards for the A1200 (I use the MKIII version myself) but if your not bothered about CD/DVD burning at the best speed possible on an Amiga and fast HD access on your Amiga then the cheaper ones would be much better suited for you... :)
FastATA MKIV @ AmigaKit (http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1052)
Even on eBay you'll pay around £70 for an old second hand FastATA MKIII (If you can find one) and at least £25 for an old second hand 4xEIDE Elbox board (these show up more often)... ;)
The cheaper boards wont give you 6.5MB/s speed like the FastATA boards do (more like 2.3MB/s) but I don't suppose most users will notice this unless your handling big files like me of greater than 4GBs and you can still burn CD/DVDS with the cheaper boards all be it at lower speeds... :)
The reason I use the Elbox 4xEIDE boards in my other Amiga's is I don't really use them for burning CDs or DVDs (just reading them) and it's design is far better, it stands up right and doesn't sit on the metal shielding like other boards do. I have an old EyeTech 4 way buffered interface lying about somewhere but I don't use it cos you have to stick it to the sheilding with double sided velcro sticky pads and unless you insulate it properly it can be quite dodgy....:)
I guess it's down to your budget and just what you need to be able to do, if you want the best and need speed/ big HDs and are willing to pay for it then the FastATA is the one to go for. If you simply want to access & use HDs & CD/DVD drives reliably then the cheaper boards are the way to go... :)
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Here's a couple of pics of one of my A1200's that I modified using just the 4xEIDE board to allow me to easily add an external CD/DVD Writer (or HD) along with of course an internal 2.5" HD... :)
(http://www.amiga.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=102&pictureid=550)
(http://www.amiga.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=102&pictureid=551)
This is my main A1200 in a custom built (MDF) tower... :)
A1200 Blizzard060/PPC 60Mhz/240Mhz / 256Mb Ram / 2 x 500GB HDs / 2 x DVD Burners / FASTATA MKIII / SubWay USB / Cocolino Wireless Mouse / Custom Built Audio Amp/Fader
(http://www.amiga.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=102&pictureid=548)
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Well that's a nice explanation :)
I don't need to burn disks. And only wish to have a CF drive and and CD/DVD drive on a long cable. So I guess I can go with an El cheapo board. Same goes for our new friend Gil perhaps ?
The biggest woe here is actually a large chunk of work I have to get rid of first before I get to fiddle around with my Amigas. So it's few more weeks and then we'll dance :)
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@Gilthanaz
You said your '030 accelerator can't address more than 8 MiB of RAM. Some accelerators will address memory independently of the internal bus of the A1200 and can therefore access more than 8 Megs while still allowing the use of the PCMCIA slot.
I've got a 64-Meg SIMM card waiting to go into my Blizzard 1230. The ACA series of '030 cards are even better in some ways since they use faster memory that comes built-in to the accelerator. They come with 64 Megs hard-wired to the accelerator.
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Nope. Grammar is spelt grammer. See above.
http://www.amiga.org/forums/group.php?groupid=50
LOL! Yes, it's on the Internetz so it must be correct. LOL!
We'll have to notify Webster's that they got it wrong. 8^D
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grammar
Seriously, though - his English is fine. He has no reason worry about it one bit, you should see how bad/nonexistent my German is.
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Seriously, though - his English is fine. He has no reason worry about it one bit, you should see how bad/nonexistent my German is.
Thank you, fine Sir :P I shall inform you that I've learned all me english from scotsmen on the internet. I did not have any real english courses at school, but had internet when I was still pretty young; That caused me to find the wonders of IRC and hang out in a newbie channel where - seriously - people taught me english basically by linking pictures to words I did not know, and after I had acquired quite some vocabulary, correct my grammar over and over again :)
Later on, when VOIP came up with the first early tools, the same people went on voice chats with me to correct my pronounciation. The funny side effect is, that they were irish, scotsmen, aussies, british, americans (US) and some other countries - the outcome is that I can talk in several slangs now :D
And the part I like best is, that out of hundreds of people, I got the job of my dreams simply because I knew all the necessary technical stuff, but primarily because my english was the best XD Then again, thats not so great given that like, 90% of the people in this country can't even ask for directions to the bathroom without using international sign language and the must-go-potty-dance :P
In case someone did not notice yet: I really like to write on forums if I feel welcome, and for some weird reason I feel right at home here...
- Gil
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I can say slut and s**t in German. Both very useful words to know. Admittedly it make meeting new Germans somewhat awkward...
I also know thankyou and left.
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I can say slut and s**t in German. Both very useful words to know. Admittedly it make meeting new Germans somewhat awkward...
I also know thankyou and left.
DON'T GO ON HOLIDAY TO GERMANY KESA... :eek: You'll start bloody World War III... :nervous:
German Native: Da Hello, Howz arze zyou dooinks... :)
Kesa:G'day mate, I've just left Australia and I'm here for a holiday thank you, is that slut you're with your grannie, my she is as lovely as s**t... :)
3 Minute Warning Sounds... :eek:
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Well, the madness beings - yesterday my first acquisitions of old computer magazines (Amiga Joker, ASM) and the first old boxed game (The Patrician) arrived, all in mint condition :D Also my wife found perfect protective see-through bags that I can pack the nice stuff into, and have them on display without degrading much. Of course there is also no sunlight in that room - it hurts the colors :P
Tomorrow.... soon..... MUAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH! Can't wait to unpack that A1200 ... I'am eight years old again and waiting for Santa, s'bout the same feeling :/
- Gil
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Heya Gil, great to see another fun and interesting Amiga user joining the forum! I love your LAN room, and I think it's awesome that your wife is into alternative gaming too, maybe if you resurrect the A500 you can serial-link it to the A1200 and play some 2-player linked games together. In any case, I think she needs her own Amiga too. :p
I'm envious of your solar panels, I sure could do with some myself!
So you're an IRC user? Have we chatted yet on IRC, I'm in all the Amiga channels on a bunch of servers, if we haven't you should drop by. There are plenty of other Amiga enthusiasts and fellow gamers still hanging around on IRC too.
Hey Franko, it's nice to finally see some photos of your A1200s. I didn't know you used a towered one as well. I love your external IDE solution, I've been trying to work out the best way to go about it on my A1200 myself.
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Hey Franko, it's nice to finally see some photos of your A1200s. I didn't know you used a towered one as well. I love your external IDE solution, I've been trying to work out the best way to go about it on my A1200 myself.
The towered one is my pride and joy, I've posted the pics before & they've always been in my alum in my user profile with a few more... :)
I like to add the 4xEIDE and an external connector like that to all my spare A1200's as it come in handy for testing new HD's or CD/DVD drives first without having to open up the tower to install one... :)
It's very easy to do as it only requires a small cut out on the side of the Amiga or the back if you prefer and all the cables can be bought ready made from Amigakit... :)
That reminds me someone asked a while back for me to post some pictures of all my A1200s after I had given them the RetroBright treatment, they all came up like brand new, I'd better do that today... :)
PS:I've always meant to ask, I notice you use a lot of FlatsScreen LCD monitors in your vast collection, do you notice a lot of blurring with scrolling games on them, as every flatscreen I've tried have been unusable due to the blurring on them and I've never found one that I was happy with... :)
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PS:I've always meant to ask, I notice you use a lot of FlatsScreen LCD monitors in your vast collection, do you notice a lot of blurring with scrolling games on them, as every flatscreen I've tried have been unusable due to the blurring on them and I've never found one that I was happy with... :)
The LCD/TFTs I bought in the last 18 months or so don't have that problem anymore. They have reaction times of 3 - 5ms so there can't be much of a blurr :) Tho, problems might arise if you run them in non-native resolutions, as the interpolation isn't that good on the cheaper models. Even on the expensive models you might get pixely artifacts and a general blurr over the whole picture..
I'am using Samsung and Hanns.G mostly, always been happy with their performance for the lower price range (the biggest one you can see is a 28" that I bought about a year ago for ~260 Euros).
Here at work i got BENQ G2420HDBL and also can not notice any blurr on native resolutions.
- Gil
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@ Gilthanaz
I've tried just about every brand and I aint found one yet that I was happy with (they seem to get worse on the more expensive models especially Sony & Panasonic)... :(
The last one I tested just before christmas was a Samsung model (supposedly 2ms response time) but was blurry as hell when I tried Alien Breed on it (Alien Breed's one of the simplest ways to test for blurring during scrolling)... :(
Some people say I'm just too fussy, but it's the one reason why I still haven't bought a flatscreen for my living room nor for use with my Amiga's, the blurring just drives me mental. Think I'll have to stick with CRTs until someone finally fixes this problem or invents a better technology.. :)
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I'd go and test my screens for you, but unfortunately the A1200 will be hooked up on a CRT TV, as I dont have a ... whats the thingy name... yarr... scandoubler/deflickererer..er.
@Cammy: Which servers/channels are you hanging out? I got pretty **meeped** about majority of IRC users on the bigger networks, so I'am hosting an IRC network for myself where I hang out nowadays. Pretty alone, but I can K-Line pricks :P
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Franko, I guess I somehow never saw those pics before, but I do usually browse with images turned off in IBrowse, and selectively load images when I need to and probably just never noticed those ones. As for my LCDs, they are Vivid LCD TVs, very cheap models with very good energy star ratings, which is very important to me, and also they have a native resolution of 1366x768 so my A1200's Workbench displays perfectly without interpolation (in 4:3 mode) in HighGFX 1024x768 with the Indivision through the VGA port. They also have S-Video, Component, HDMI, Composite, and RF for video input as well as an input for sound from the Amiga while it's using VGA (PC-in, which is just a headphone/microphone jack). I have never noticed any blur, and I play Alien Breed (mainly Tower Assault) a lot. I also have my Efika (running MorphOS), my PC (running Aros and Linux), and my PS2 (running games) all hooked up to the same monitor and they look fine. I think you just have to take your Amiga with you to the shop when you test these things out sometimes, I did that with my CD32 the first time I got one. I remember LCDs used to blur terribly, but I haven't noticed much blur on the later models thankfully.
Gilthanaz, these are some of the servers and Amiga channels I hang out on:
irc.amigaworld.net #AmigaWorld,#Amiga68k
irc.efnet.net #Amiga
irc.freenode.net ##Amiga,#Aros,#MorphOS,#AmigaE
irc.ecs.soton.ac.uk #Amiga
irc.superhosts.net #Team*AMIGA
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the blurring just drives me mental.
Franko after seeing your insane MDF work I think you're already past this...! :)
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Well, I'am here for some days now. Sooo, I'll show some pics of what has happened so far :)
Amiga 1200 on a rather large CRT:
(http://download.das-werkstatt.com/pics/20082011/IMG_1033.JPG)
And the collection of Amiga Games (Some PC Games there too, right now - they're place holders until I get my hands on Maniac Mansion, Zak Mc Kracken, Monkey Island and some other Games I'am missing in my collection.
Behold! The games I wasted my youth with, mostly:
(http://download.das-werkstatt.com/pics/20082011/IMG_1032.JPG)
I'am rather proud about the original Apidya ... was expensive enough, too :) Unfortunately it is hard to see as the protective foils reflect the flash pretty bad.. or good, depends on point of view, I guess :)
If you excuse me now, its time for some....
(http://download.das-werkstatt.com/pics/20082011/IMG_1034.JPG)
Cheers!
- Gil
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Looking good there, Gilthanaz! I love your game shelf setup, nice idea protecting them in plastic. I hope you find somewhere to move a few of those magazines to before they go curly. :p
As for your A1200, just a suggestion but it might look nicer if you centre the Workbench display on your screen using the Overscan Prefs (In the Prefs drawer). Also, if you don't want your Workbench desktop stuck inside a window, select "Backdrop" from the Workbench menu. Then the window will disappear and the icons will go directly onto the screen, like in other OSs. You can clean up or move around your icons, then make sure you select "Snapshot - All" from the Window menu, but make sure you have the Workbench screen selected, not another open window (because then it will snapshot that window). Snapshotting is the Amiga's way of saving the positions of windows and icons, so they always open exactly where you want them to, and if you move them by accident it won't save their position, unless you choose to Snapshot again.
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Hi Cammy!
Thanks for the heads up! Iam aware of the snapshot method used by workbench - I kind of had no other choice but to learn to use it after I've installed roughly a hundred WHDLoad Games and wanted to sort the Icons :) Then, I found out I can also just switch to "View as List" and Snapshot that. Easier to find things than with all those drawer graphics :)
Thanks for the hint with the overscan! I'll check on that soon. However, the picture on the CRT is pretty... 'wobbly', and since its also pretty large and the serial mouse / joystick / joypad cables are very short, I get a headache and hurting eyes quite fast. So, as you suggested in some other thread, I plan on simply getting a LCD/TFT TV - that should probably fix it for me :D
Also, thanks for remining me on getting protective covers for the magazines - those in that shelf are "only" from 2004 - 2009 and PC magazines, but I forgot to take pictures of the magazines I bought in mostly great condition :D And those are "ASM" and "Amiga Joker", two of the biggest back then. I've bought the issues that have the tests for my favourite games in them :)
Also, I found my first two computer magazines, from 1989. They're in great condition as well, I shall take care that they end up in protective covers and in some place where people can look at them.
Hm, my place is slowly transforming into a mix of computer museum and zoo ^^
Thanks,
- G
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@gilthanz
Nice pics of your setup and solar power, how much did that cost you? (In Euro is fine, I can convert it :) )
Two Amiga Shops in nearby countries to you are Vesalia and Efunzine, Germany and Poland respectively, Efunzine has very reasonable prices on Accelerators (Turbo-Karte, if my German is correct?)
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The photovoltaics was about 23.400 Euros. However, here you get back part of that money from the government, so in the end it was about 18k i had to pay myself.
I already got a 68030 in my A1200, thanks :) And i have a quite good private seller at hand who also offers quite good prices and a lot of support :)
- Gil
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Ahoi!
Today I'am 30 years old (ya... FML :P), but already registered here a while ago. How that relates? Well, I decided to wish for something I actually wanted when i was way younger, but could not afford: An Amiga 1200 :D
However, my knowledge of Amiga Soft- and Hardware is basically not existant; Except for games. Lots and lots of games. I think i still know most cheat codes for the games I had for my A500, which is a lot ;)
That said, I'am primarily here to meet people who also love Commodore machines. I'am sure I can learn a lot and will bathe in nostalgia to keep myself from thinking of how old I just turned :/ (subjective feeling, I'am not saying that anyone else 30+ is old or has to feel old just because i feel that way).
So on friday I shall get my new toy, an Amiga 1200 in great condition with a 4GB IDE-CF Adapter+Card, 030 Turbocard, ADF Transfer Kit and a lot of other things, together with a lot of original games - basically all my favourites from back in the earlier '90s.
I'am sure I'll ask a lot of questions and hope to find answers. Also i want to fix my A500 and C64 and hope for people with more hardware knowledge to help me find the broken parts.
Oh, and my first language is not english, but german, so please correct me if I have wrong spelling or grammer :)
KR,
- Gil
Take my advice.
Get out while you still can.
Sell your hardware and forget the Amiga ever existed.
It'll bring you nothing but torment.
Please take my advice.
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Take my advice.
Get out while you still can.
Sell your hardware and forget the Amiga ever existed.
It'll bring you nothing but torment.
Please take my advice.
Hi,
@tension,
now why would you say that, I have owned an Amiga ever since they came out. (Well actually two weeks after they came out) I have had more fun with the Amiga line then I have ever had with a PC. Now I know I just about use Cloanto's Amiga Forever more than I use my real Amiga's, but I consider that as just trying to save my real Amiga's when I have some jerk come over and tell me how good his PC is.
smerf