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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: carvedeye on June 18, 2013, 10:50:27 PM

Title: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 18, 2013, 10:50:27 PM
I've just bought a Surf Squirrel from eBay (link to auction below) and I know I can add SCSI drives to it but what can I connect to the 9 pin serial?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251289525295?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 19, 2013, 12:01:25 AM
Will I be able to link 2 amiga 1200's together for multiplayer games?
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: Coolhand on June 19, 2013, 01:31:20 AM
cant you just null-modem 2 machines together using their existing serial ports? maybe with the additional port you could somehow link 3 machines?
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: Matt_H on June 19, 2013, 03:58:27 AM
The idea behind the serial port on the Surf Squirrel is that it's faster than the Amiga's built-in serial port. Important back in the days of dialup and modems, but not so important now.

Most games playable over serial are probably hardwired to the built-in port, so the Squirrel wouldn't work for them. If they do actually allow you to select which device to use, then, yes, you could use the Squirrel, but it wouldn't make much of a difference over the built-in port.
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on June 19, 2013, 04:00:46 AM
Man, you got a great deal! That auction would've gone a lot higher if they'd listed the Surf Squirrel in the title!
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: bbond007 on June 19, 2013, 05:14:36 AM
Quote from: carvedeye;738248
I've just bought a Surf Squirrel from eBay (link to auction below) and I know I can add SCSI drives to it but what can I connect to the 9 pin serial?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251289525295?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649



You could hook Surf Squirrel serial to an awesome retro ISDN modem, example:

 - Motorola BitSurfer.
 - MultiTech MultiModem

You could hook it to a fine retro serial printer, example:

- Diablo 630 (true letter quality)
- Okididata ML320
- Apple ImageWriter

With with proper NULL adapter cable, you could hook  your Surf Squirrel serial to your PC and use "Amiga Explorer" (included with Amiga Forever) possibly faster than with the stock on-board serial port.

Finally, and possibly the most exciting, you could connect Surf Squirrel serial via a NULL adapter to the on-board serial port for some real fun like running two copies of NCOMM and sending files over z-modem.
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 19, 2013, 09:38:34 AM
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;738265
Man, you got a great deal! That auction would've gone a lot higher if they'd listed the Surf Squirrel in the title!


Yeah that's what I thought :)
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 19, 2013, 09:39:27 AM
Hopefully I will receive it all by the weekend :)
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: spirantho on June 19, 2013, 03:39:31 PM
While I don't see much use for the Surf Squirrel, I would like to say that's a heck of a good score. Proof you can still get bargains on eBay!

Although the Serial bit of it isn't much use (unless you use Amiga Forever), the SCSI bit is worth many times what you paid for the whole lot!
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: AAACHIPSET on June 19, 2013, 06:05:33 PM
Quote from: carvedeye;738248
I've just bought a Surf Squirrel from eBay (link to auction below) and I know I can add SCSI drives to it but what can I connect to the 9 pin serial?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251289525295?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
what a great deal  wow..wouldve gone for  100.00  in ebay aust  for sure ..
maybe theres still hope for a mpeg  squirel.
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 19, 2013, 11:26:03 PM
Just got a push notification saying item has been posted so hopefully will be here by the weekend :)
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: desiv on June 20, 2013, 07:28:03 PM
Congrats..  Great price..
Love mine...
CD32 emulation isn't bad.

It's a bummer I can't leave it plugged in AND my network card at the same time, but it's not a huge deal.

I suppose I could not use the network card and use the faster serial port with a connection to my Linux box for Internet..  But I don't use the CDROM that often, so it's not a huge deal..

desiv
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 22, 2013, 12:43:55 PM
Well I received my parcel today...minus the surf squirrel, gutted as I wanted to get it up and running I have contacted the seller so hopefully it gets sorted :(
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 22, 2013, 01:00:29 PM
Well I received my parcel today...minus the surf squirrel, gutted as I wanted to get it up and running I have contacted the seller so hopefully it gets sorted :(
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: Thorham on June 22, 2013, 01:44:21 PM
Quote from: carvedeye;738533
Well I received my parcel today...minus the surf squirrel, gutted as I wanted to get it up and running I have contacted the seller so hopefully it gets sorted :(

Let's hope the seller just had a huge brain fart where they forgot to put the item in the package.
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: spirantho on June 22, 2013, 02:21:33 PM
I bet someone said he'd undersold it and offered him £20 or something, and he hoped you were after the software.
He's legally obliged to send it to you now, though, as he accepted payment for the goods - if he doesn't send it he'll probably get kicked off eBay if they find he sold it elsewhere.

In reality what he'll probably do is claim it got "broken" and "thrown out" and offer a partial refund, in which case by law you can send what you got back and get _all_ your money back.
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 22, 2013, 04:24:02 PM
Quote from: spirantho;738539
I bet someone said he'd undersold it and offered him £20 or something, and he hoped you were after the software.
He's legally obliged to send it to you now, though, as he accepted payment for the goods - if he doesn't send it he'll probably get kicked off eBay if they find he sold it elsewhere.

In reality what he'll probably do is claim it got "broken" and "thrown out" and offer a partial refund, in which case by law you can send what you got back and get _all_ your money back.


Yeah that's what  I think aswell :(
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: Coolhand on June 22, 2013, 05:18:28 PM
did you get just the box with no hardware in it?
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 22, 2013, 05:59:31 PM
Quote from: Coolhand;738548
did you get just the box with no hardware in it?


I didn't even get the box, I got everything else. Got a message of him saying he would either refund me my money if I sent everything back or he would refund me £3, I told him no as the surf squirrel was the only reason I bided on the auction, Then he sent a message back asking how I would like this resolved?......So I told him by sending out the surf squirrel which I thought was the obvious way of resolving the issue. :(
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: ElPolloDiabl on June 22, 2013, 06:05:52 PM
He could have cancelled the deal straight afterwards if he wasn't happy. That is nasty trying to pretend the Surf Squirrel wasn't listed.

You should give him a really bad feedback even if he does cough up the Surf Squirrel.
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: Coolhand on June 22, 2013, 06:09:16 PM
makes sense that he might have realised he made a mistake with his listing.

but he made a deal with you, so he needs to supply the goods that were offered, not fob you off with crap.
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: paul1981 on June 23, 2013, 11:37:08 AM
Quote from: carvedeye;738550
I didn't even get the box, I got everything else. Got a message of him saying he would either refund me my money if I sent everything back or he would refund me £3, I told him no as the surf squirrel was the only reason I bided on the auction, Then he sent a message back asking how I would like this resolved?......So I told him by sending out the surf squirrel which I thought was the obvious way of resolving the issue. :(


I'm curious. What's his ebay ID? Someone here might know him. If not, then we all need to know who mucked you around for our own future reference.
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: spirantho on June 23, 2013, 12:15:25 PM
The seller is Warehousesales2010 - eBay auction listing 251289525295.
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 25, 2013, 12:51:22 AM
He has said that it is in the post 1st class recorded :)

Thanks everyone for your support on this.

@spirantho

Thanks so much mate I appreciate it :)
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: spirantho on June 25, 2013, 08:34:33 AM
Make sure you let us know when it arrives. We like a nice happy ending, here. :)
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 25, 2013, 09:12:32 AM
Quote from: spirantho;738796
Make sure you let us know when it arrives. We like a nice happy ending, here. :)


Will do :)
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 25, 2013, 01:24:39 PM
Well just a phone call of the wife saying a parcel has arrived so here's hoping its the surf squirrel, when get home from work I check and let you all know :)
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 25, 2013, 09:05:44 PM
Look what has arrived :)
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 25, 2013, 09:07:20 PM
Gonna get up in the loft tonight and bring down my other 1200 and get it hooked up, is it at all possible to link 2 a1200's together for multiplayer games with this kit?
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on June 25, 2013, 09:12:21 PM
Quote from: carvedeye;738862
Gonna get up in the loft tonight and bring down my other 1200 and get it hooked up, is it at all possible to link 2 a1200's together for multiplayer games with this kit?


Congrats!  I think that question was answered before - it would depend on if the game was written in such a way to take advantage of a serial port other than the built-in one.  Maybe so, depends on the game.  Would be more amusing if you linked your Amiga to itself, however.  Try that and let us know how it works out for you, haha!   ;)
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel what can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 25, 2013, 09:22:21 PM
think I will just purchase a parnet cable instead then :), how well do these work when linking 2 Amiga's together? Want to start playing some multiplayer games with my son as he often likes to have a play on the miggy tower, What are good games that can use a parent for multiplayer games and what games support it?
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on June 25, 2013, 09:36:59 PM
Looks like there's already lots of threads on this according to a quick Google search.  I can add "RoboSport" to this list, also.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-10214.html

What would be really neat is if you had two Miggy's linked via serial port, then added the extra joystick adapters for the parallel ports... 4 people per computer, 8 players total... now find an Amiga game that supports that!  ;)
Title: Re: Surf Squirrel waht can i do with it?
Post by: carvedeye on June 25, 2013, 10:08:42 PM
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;738869
Looks like there's already lots of threads on this according to a quick Google search.  I can add "RoboSport" to this list, also.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-10214.html

What would be really neat is if you had two Miggy's linked via serial port, then added the extra joystick adapters for the parallel ports... 4 people per computer, 8 players total... now find an Amiga game that supports that!  ;)


Excellent I will check them out when I have it all setup :)