Old dog, new tech - possible?

[liamwhyoung]

Hi all,

I am new to the forums, so please excuse me if this question has been answered to death already.

Much of my childhood was spent in front of my Amiga 500 and later the 1200 playing Superstardust, Alien Breed 3D, Cannon Fodder, Chaos Engine, Monkey Island and all the other classics. I would like to relive some of these memories, but don't fancy emulation as I find WinUAE a bit clunky at times. Is there a way I can do this without buying original kit i.e. can the new AmigaOne boards, X5000 etc..., be stuck in a regular ATX tower and be loaded with Amiga OS 4 or something to play games natively? Also can this theoretical setup use TCP/IP and access modern Internet routers via wi-fi etc...?  And do basic USB peripherals work like a wired mouse etc...?  I'm after that native experience but using modern kit for a modern Amiga flavour. Can this be done?

Thanks,

Liam

[liamwhyoung]

Cheers for all the pointers guys. It sounds as though there are a couple of hardware options on the table with possibly AOS4.1 being the way to go for my desires.  I will go check out AOS4.1 in the first instance along with this catweasel contraption and see where that takes me. Thanks for the info all.

[liamwhyoung]

Hmm...I quite like the look of AOS4.1 final edition as it looks like a modern take on workbench which can realistically be used in the 21st century for basic tasks - mail, browsing, media playback etc...Is this a fair assessment? Also can AOS4.1 definitely play any original Amiga game using WHDload?

Can anyone recommend the best cost effective hardware for AOS4.1 and where to buy?

Thanks,

Liam

[liamwhyoung]

Thanks for all the info guys, it's been invaluable.  So a quick update, I purchased Amiga Forever and AOS 4.1 FE and it works brilliantly through AF - I have a spare Microsoft Surface with a nackered screen and keyboard interface so that is being repurposed as an emulated Amiga 4000 whilst I play test (emulation on this seems flawless so far).
 
 Whilst AF seems to run ADFs nicely, I would like to install them into AOS4.1 and am at a loss as to how to do this.  I gather I need to get WHDLoad installed inside of my AOS 4.1 virtual disk somehow and then install the ADFs which thus far appear as uninitialized disks under AOS 4.1.  Any ideas guys?  I have the WHDLoad lha file as it stands.
 
 Also, can AF auto run a system when Windows 10 boots up?  Surprisingly my knackered Surface is proving to be decent emulation hardware with no lag whatsoever.  If I can get Windows to load straight into AOS 4.1 full screen then I could be on to a winner.
 
 Cheers,
 
 Liam.

[liamwhyoung]

Thanks for that. The problem I have at the moment is that I don't know where to even find the RuninUAE installer. I have a presh install of aos4.1 FE but can't mount any disks or host windows directories/drives to even be able to import files into AOS4.1 - is this because PPC is selected perhaps? I also tried adding the AOS4.1 ISO to the media config, thinking RuninUAE might be on there, but the system keeps trying to boot the main AOS4.1 installer again from the CD even though it is not set to bootable and HD0 is. I must be missing a trick here as at present I can't even get files and installers into AOS4.1

[liamwhyoung]

I have managed to claw my way forwards a bit more with AmigaOS 4.1 FE.  Whenever I mount any Windows directories etc... from the Media tab when configuring the system, the system subsequently fails to boot and stops at an Amiga DOS screen - even putting the CyberStorm PPC into parallel mode does not allow the system to boot.  I did, however, manage to get RuninUAE installed along with WHDLoad from the original AmigaOS 4.1 FE ISO and have downloaded some WHDLoad games for testing to Windows.  The last remaining piece of the puzzle is trying to find a way of getting the games from Windows into AmigaOS 4.1 FE.  Any advice anyone?

[liamwhyoung]

Again thanks for all the advice guys.  At the moment I am experimenting with AmigaOS 4.1 FE on hardware which I already own before potentially moving forwards.  I like the look of AmigaOS 4.1 FE - it certainly feels like a modern take on WB which is what I was after.  Now I just want everything to run under it so I'm not flicking in and out of the OS.  Once I crack that part I will look at hardware, though I have to say the nackered Surface Pro 2 is doing a grand job.  I have some spare PS3 controllers too so am also thinking about hooking those up.  Either way, I will try and post a screen dump of my config tonight so you can see where I'm at.  As it stands I just can't mount any Windows storage devices.

[liamwhyoung]

As promised, here are the screen shots of my config.  Whenever I mount a directory to try and get files into AmigaOS 4.1 FE the OS fails to boot and gets stuck on an Amiga DOS screen.
 
 http://host.guide-to.net/misc/ebay_images/1.jpg
 
 http://host.guide-to.net/misc/ebay_images/2.jpg

[liamwhyoung]

Had to give up on this - think AOS4.1 FE shuts down 68k compatibility thus preventing host drives from being accessible. Got around it in the end by enabling Internet access in AOS4.1 and downloading files directly from online sources via http.