Amiga 600 Uses?

[Flashlab]

Ok, first of all don't make any rash decisions; you'll regret them later.

I suggested an 030 with 8Mb of RAM because it will give you a fairly powerfull 1200 with which you can do a lot of stuff without too much trouble. Like gaming from HD and comfortable use of Workbench and other apps. It can run 3.9 too but you don't need that. So you don't need a buffered IDE interface, network card for 3.9 to work but you do need the OS3.9 CD and a way to get it on your HD. My advice is to just stick with 3.1 for now. Even with a 4Mb RAM card your 1200 will feel faster and can do more things.

What would you do with a PPC card if you don't even know what you want to with a stock 1200? Don't trade your Xbox for something you don't have a clue about what you're gonna do with.

Please first make up your mind about what you want to do with your Amigas.

[leirbag28]

@Gwion

 I am amazed that in this day, you being as young as you are, desire to use an Amiga.......it shows you have a cool factor built into you..............because Amiga's are Very very Cool.

I can help you alot to find uses for your A600..it was my main machine for a long time and I used it recently to perform at shows.

PMail me and I will give you many more ideas.

For one......get yourself a DSS8+ package..........there is one on eBay right now  (thats Digital Sound Studio 8+)

and get yourself a 512mb or 1GB Compact Flash card with PCMCIA adaptor so you can copy files to a PC or Mac very easily.

What you will be able to do is............record yourself into the Amiga extremely easy and in a fun way..........and produce your very own Pod Castings!  you can upload them to the internet through the PC. Its very very easy!  You can record a long time with 2MB if you lower the sample rate...........even if your memeory gets full...........save that recording onto the Compact Flash card............and then erase it from A600's Memory.....and continue recording..............Get both versions of the DSS software.the older version is more fun to use, but the 3.0 version lets you convert the files to WAV super duper easily so they can work on a PC...........from the PC you save them as MP3.

thats one use.

Another use is that you can record multiple drum beats and sound samples...and basically DJ with your A600 if you hook it up to a mixer and Stereo.  You can also add effects such as Echo in realtime as you talk through your DSS sampler.

Another use is you can make Crank calls to your friends on the phone..and have the Amiga's voice talk to them using the SAY program in the Utilities drawer................its fun.  Get a program on Aminet called Say2Sample, which saves the SAY sentences into 8svx/IFF samples.....you can then load 31 of those speaches from your Amigas voice and execute them at will!  so preplan what your friend will ask on the phone and have responses ready!  he will ask questions such as:  Who is this?  and you can say.......fill in the blank..................


I once used my Amiga 600 at a Play, where I executed the required sound effects that was needed in the story in front of a Studio audience.  effects such as Wind blowing........the sound of a cell phone ringing, Lighting and thunder, a door closing...........background music or theme music..............it was great fun!  this was on a plain A600 with 2mb only and a harddrive.
 I painted it black and added a little Sony Playstation LCD screen...............

If you want to see it, click on my name here on Amiga.org and look at my photo album!

the A600 has hundreds of simple cool uses.

I have alot of programs I can recommend...............PMAIL me.

[theformula]

Gwion you know what you need to do is get a
 http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=440&osCsid=130e6feef5c48c168858bc61aa1b4a6c
and then go to  www.lemonamiga.com and download some great games from the adf links. Try games like Syndicate, Cannon Fodder, Road Rash and other top rated ones. Explore the world of old skool amiga games (they are very addictive).

Also try to get your hands on some applications. I used to use a program when I was your age called scala. Its amazing and very simple to use. I would make my own point and click advertures by drawing the pictures in dpaint and then using scala with them. Another good thing to do is look for old magazines or disk on ebay for imformation and gudience.

I know amiga seems very complex and confusing and it is I have used it since the age of 10 and I am now 22. I still have a tiny knowlegde base :-P  I still get excited when I get some software working now that I could not get working when I was a kid. Amiga is about learning how your computer really works and how changing the smallest thing can make things run.

Having an Amiga is like somebody with a really retro sports car. They know it will not go as fast as a modern car but they still drive it and clean it becuase they love the feel.

[Flashlab]

Oh and just remember: the cheapest and fastest Amiga you'll ever find is Winuae. It's free and you already have the roms because you own a real Amiga.

Experiment with Winuae to see if you like it. Then you could always decide if you want to invest (yes "invest" because it's a very expensive hobby you've chosen) in more real Amiga hardware later on.

[Gwion]

I'm running OS 3.0 and i love WinUAE and it does everything i want it to do except feel like a Amiga
And i would trade my Xbox 360 for a PPC and BVision if possible anytime so I can run OS4.
Now thinking about it what i really wana do with my Amiga is use it for everything!

I may be 13 but each time i use my Amiga i get a tingling in my fingers and its way much funner to play on that my Xbox 360

[DigitalQ]

My advice for you would be to stay in school and learn all you can.  While the Amiga can be a fun hobby, or an interesting tool for an artist, make sure you don't let it get in the way of your studies of the fundamentals of life (language, arts, science, math.)  Eventually, you'll discover who you really are, and when you do, you'll know what to do with your Amiga.  Until that happens, asking people what you ought to do with your Amiga in this forum is rather like asking a stranger what you should eat for dinner tonight.

[DoogUK]

I love all my amigas,especialy my main machine the a1200, i often break out my 600 and just game with it.......fills me with retro nostalgia everytime.

Any amiga deserves what you can afford to add to it and improve it.

[Ral-Clan]

I really don't understand all you guys telling Gwion that the A600 is useless and that he should spend lots of money upgrading it (or even his A1200) just so it can do a bad job of the everyday drudgery jobs that any cheap windows box can do (web browsing, email, mp3 playing, etc.).

Instead, he should celebrate what the "stock" A600 CAN do.  Instead of trying to get it to do stuff it wasn't designed to do, use it for what it excels at.  I mean, that's why I still use my Amiga!  For the neat, quirky software and hardware that, while old, can still perform today.

Don't compare it to modern machines or expect it to do what a modern computer can do, ever.  You don't drive a VW bug expecting it to be a Ferrari.  You drive it because it offers its own, unique, special experience.  The same with the Amiga.

I am under no illusion that my Amiga will outperform a modern PC or MAC - but it can do some other things well if I approach it from a retro-computing point of view.

Heck, it can do a lot!  All an A600 really needs is to put an internal Hard drive in there and one can accomplish a lot.

If you put me in a cabin for a week with a stock A600, DPaint, Brilliance, and a tracker program I'd have an album's worth of music and all the artwork produced on this little bundle of fun.  Heck, I might even produce a cool retro-looking video on it in Anim format, superimposed over video with a genlock (cheap nowadays on Ebay).  To take a break I'd play some great classic ECS games.

Gwion is trying to learn what he can do with an Amiga - in this case the A600 is almost perfect.  A great starter system.  Cut your teeth on it, Gwion, and explore.  

To use an analogy: when you decided to learn guitar, you start on a decent economy model and see how well you do. You don't immediately go out and buy a $4000 deluxe Stratocaster (that comes later when you have gained your chops).  Those who do usually find that it's the player (or user), not the equipment, that makes the music sparkle.

If anyone thinks his or her A600 is so useless, please give it to me....I'll put it to great use.

[Gwion]

WoW you put it exactly right!
OMG i get 2 open it 2moz!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
It has a 80MB HD WOO!!!
And a bit of software
And when i have used that to the Max ill move on 2 my A1200 and then ill upgrade that.
Wow i feel special im probably the youngest Amiga User on the PLANET!
So excited it will be proudly placed on my desk!
Who cares what else i get 4 Xmas 2moz im most excited about the A600.
And none of your opinions have changed mine on the A600!
I Will love it 2 bits! and I might even spray the MJJ Productions Logo on its case someday!
(i have got the MJJ productions logo on my iBook G3)

[MASACREWILL]

..connect it to some big LCD TV and play Project X, run some demos with volume UP.. there is plenty to do with that nice tiny keyboard, pal!! :-)

[WotTheFook]

@ Gwion

I suggest you pop over to OldSkool UK (www.oldskooluk.org) and look up Zetr0's Project A600+ (if you Google that you should find it).

It shows what can be squeezed into the A600 case and expand the little Miggy without breaking the bank. PCMCIA SRAM cards are expensive these days, but the PCMCIA to CF adapter is a must-have, get this little beauty and a card reader for the PC and the Amiga ADF files are yours to explore, add a 3.1 ROM and you can run OS3.1 on the A600 and OS3.5 if you fit a laptop CD or DVD drive.

Cheers

WTF

[Gwion]

OMG! OS 3.5 on a 68000!
That would be slooooow (i think)
How much RAM does OS 3.5 need?
And i thought WHD needed a 68020/030

[DoogUK]

i thought os3.5 required an 020?

020 with 4mb ram is the base requirements.

mid range is 030 with 8mb

reccomended is 060/ppc with 32mb ram.

saying that my a2000 030 with 8mb ram runs os3.9 well and whdload is flawless.

[adonay]

Gwion wrote:
OMG! OS 3.5 on a 68000!
That would be slooooow (i think)
How much RAM does OS 3.5 need?
And i thought WHD needed a 68020/030

You dont need os 3.5 on your A600 but you could do well with os 3.1 on your amiga 1200 i use os 3.1 on my very powerfull amiga 1200 but i offten turn to use a stock setup for games "only a amiga 1200 with CF as HD and 8 mb ram card" ... Just make sure you have a hd, it will make your life alot easyer. The amiga experience can only be defined if you do not require it to more than it can do or you can make it do ... If you want to learn how to make music you download a few modules and use FT2/octamed to open the modules. Then steal instruments from them .. Study how they are built and try to copy it by re assemble the tune out of instruments found in module at first .Buy a sampler and sample your own instruments or even MJ tunes. Or even make your own sampler "easy" Aminet.net (i did this at the age of 12 a mono one) I can help you explain if needed.. If you want to make art pay atention in drawing class at school study outlines in drawn pictures again copy things done. Make your own version.. If you want to have a future in computing start compiling code with amos or other simple code ... Open premade code experiment study and play around ... These things is a torture to begin with but the more you learn the more fun you will have ... You are at a age were you learn very fast and easy ... Also if you want to make games get hold of the great "shoot em up construction kit" you can play for months with that app its damn easy... And all these things work on a sixty eight thousand`s.Get a cheap solder iron and try make small hacks that you can find on aminet such as sampler... You are asking this question i have a computer what can it do ?  Get a word prosessor and write your diary .. Read amiga os operation manual online and be impressed by all the small details this somewhat slow computer can do for you ... There is still a reason why the rest of us keep sticking with their old amigas they are so fun to play with and easy... All you need is time . Please be inteligent do your home work study details and try to improve things your own way..  

[Gwion]

How would i put stuff on my Amiga when it only has a DD Floppy Drive?
I have  "shoot em up construction kit" but i cant use it because my floppy drive wont write 2 disks

But 2moz i will have a A600 that can so :-D

[Flashlab]

You have a 1200 with HD. If that floppy drive is bust, you can try cleaning it and look for the pins that check for write protection. They can get stuck when dirty.

If that fails you can buy a replacement drive from Amigakit or just swap drives with the 600.