hello :) could do with a hand dusting some cobwebs off an A520

[nesbitt]

hey people.

got my a520 out of the attic a few weeks ago and finaly got round to plugging it in this week.

it's definatly a 520. Standard 500 unit with the C= symbol and no other writing. and a working expansion for rgb colour. It also has a switch that runs into the trap door on the underside of the unit..

the problem i have is i have no idea where the workbench disks are.

I'm been asked by kickstart for workbench 1.3 and have located the files on the net (i think) however i only have a p.c and can't seem to work out how to write the disks in 800K format. The switch connected to the trap door doesn't affect the boot either.

any help would be apriciated.

[PaSha]

Huh?
The A520 (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=725) is a RF-modulator (and also provides Composite Video output) primarily meant for the A500, but also works on any other Amiga. Won't do you any good on it's own, so I'll assume you also brought an A500 down from the attic.

The switch that runs to the trapdoor is most likely a switch to enable/disable a RAM expansion card (usually 512kB, but larger expansions are also around). The purpose of disabling the RAM expansion is for compatibility with a few games that can't handle anything more than the A500s built-in RAM.

As for Workbench, this is not required for playing games, just stick any game disk in the drive and the game will boot. The files you found on the net would AFAIK technically be piracy, and the only option that is 100% legal is to actually buy a set of disks from someone. (but you'll probably find I kind soul living in your area/country willing to mail you a set for the cost of the disks and postage).

-Paul

[nesbitt]

yeah sorry dude it is an A500 with the doobie that plugs into the back

if games will run without workbench thats awsome as i only want it for a gaming machine... I hopefully have an A1200 comming from freecycle ( bidding permitting). and that should have all it's disks and manuals with it.

I still have 1 of the original 1.3 disks! it's just not te right one! Still I couldn't get the disks to write the images so there's not a chance of piracy!


How would i check to see if i had the extended ram?

[Cyberus]

nesbitt wrote:
How would i check to see if i had the extended ram?

1) Open the trapdoor, if there's an expansion plugged in, its probably a 512k ram expansion

2)Find a game that you know requires 1MB. Prince of Persia?

3)Get a Workbench disk and boot

[nesbitt]

yup does have 1Mb of ram... superfrog complained when i had the switch disabled!

so the specs are

A500
A520
1MB Ex ram
external FDD

I don't think it has a HD as there all external i think on the a500's however i have a nice 10Gb scsi sat about if i get the a1200! should be able to do a cut and shut on it, and failing that i have a 2Gb ide sat about as well


many thanks for your help thus far.

Currently my girlfriend is playing superfrog with a bewilderd look on her face... Something on the lines of wow that looks realy nice! I think she was expecting monochrome or something!

[Robert17]

A1200s won't take a scsi drive straight off, a 2.5 inch laptop style hdd less than 4gb is ideal though  :-)