How to turn a Macrosystem/Draco Casablanca into an Amiga?

[orb85750]

Yes, this is a rather crazy question, and it may have been asked by someone in the past -- not sure.  The Macrosystem Casablanca is the successor of the Draco, which was essentially an Amiga compatible.  Both have a 68060 and run OS 3.1, but the Casablanca OS is somehow patched and it also uses a different file system, so that Amiga floppies are not compatible with it.  Furthermore, I do not know if there is any easy way to get past the "friendly" user interface, which is designed solely for non-linear video production and nothing else.  Does anyone have a feel if/how this system could be hacked into and modified somehow to be an Amiga-compatible like the Draco?  It does accept a serial PC keyboard (for titling and shortcuts) and serial PC mouse.  Given that the Casablanca is often available on eBay for under $200, it seems that it could make quite the inexpensive high-level Amiga machine if it could be done.  I certainly don't have the expertise.

[orb85750]

Hmmm... I found this rather discouraging 6-page thread on Amibay about this very topic:

http://amibay.com/showthread.php?t=5917

Seems rather daunting on more than one level, and I assume these guys simply gave up.

[orb85750]

So, if you can get a Draco or Casablanca to run RTG 3.1 apps you've got about as much compatibility as a MorphOS system (w/o the additional capabilities of a PPC system).
Don't get me wrong, its a neat idea and I really like the idea of a cheap '060 system.
But without chipset compatibilty with other Amigas, we already have better systems that can do what this would, faster, and at a lower price.

Well $150 is pretty cheap for an 060 running OS 3.1.  I don't think you're going to get any cheaper than that, given that MOS alone costs close to that amount.  But the idea of an Amiga Casablanca is looking rather unlikely anyway.

[orb85750]

Do these machines have actual Kickstart ROMs on their boards besides the DraCo custom ROM?

I'm wondering if it would be possible to swap these with proper Kickstart 3.1 chips to make "Amigafication" a bit easier?

IIRC, there is both the Amiga rom and another rom.  I'll have to dismantle the machine to find out for sure.