Another New/Old Amiga user

[KatManDEW]

I already posted a question in another thread, but I thought I would admit my retro situation here.

I started with a Timex Sinclair TS1000 many many moons ago, and progressed through the Timex 2068 and Sinclair QL, to a Amiga 1000, and then a Amiga 2000. Those were the days...

I have a GVP 030 card in my A2000, and a Flicker Fixer, and a Picasso card, and a Bridgecard. I got started programming MS QuickBasic on the Bridgecard, writing apps to use where I work. From there I went on a WinTel downhill slide, and ended up spending lots of time writing Visual Basic apps to use at work.

Back in my Timex Sinclair days, I scratch built a large multi-scene stage lighting controller, with a TS1000 computer in it. The old "One Aught" has 18 channel A/D and D/A converters for reading scenes fron the lighting controller sliders, and "writing" secnes back to the channel outputs on the lighting controller. I used an additional cross fader for switching between computer generated scenes, and scenes set with the sliders on the controller.

Anyway... I'm kinda interested in using my Amiga 2000 again. She still boots from HD, and has OS 3.1 installed. I take it from reading on here that I should check the battery?

I never really did much with my A2000 when I used it, except play games, and I couldn't get it to play many games once I got the 030 accelerator and OS 3.1. I also could only get one or two games to play from HD.

I think I played with the internet with a modem a little before I stopped using my A2000, because I have AmiTCP and Mosaic installed. I have cable internet now, and I'm wondering if I could get a Ethernet card for my A2000 and get on the net?

I'm also open for any recommendation for games and apps for my A2000. Is there an OS update I should get? Any suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[amigakit]

Welcome!

[KatManDEW]

Any suggestions for a ethernet card for my A2000?

[DoogUK]

First things first, whip that nasty battery out and inspect for damage!

[amigakit]

You may need a new clock battery to replace an old existing leaking one.

To reply to your ethernet card question, a new alternative is the X-Surf 3cc Zorro card with EasyNet software included here:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=250

[KatManDEW]

DoogUK wrote:
First things first, whip that nasty battery out and inspect for damage!

OK. Will do ASAP.

What is What is Minimig and the ACUBE?

I'm getting excited  :-D

[amigakit]

Minimig description, pictures and details are here:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=777

Hope this helps!

[Amiduffer]

Cool. Your Amiga came out of the closet.

When you switched to 3.1, you should have held down the two mouse button before booting in order to make your 2000 "compatible" with your older games. In any case, if you're going to play some, be sure to head on over to WHDLoad site and put your disk games on the harddrive so that you don't have to deal with the swapping anymore.

Unless you just happen to find an 68060 accelerator with a bunch of RAM on it in the attic too, stick with OS3.1

[KatManDEW]

Thanks for all the info and tips.

Is the battery that blue barrel shaped thing under the drive bays? If so, how do we get that puppy out? It looks like it's spot welded to the connectors that go into the motherboard.

[KatManDEW]

I connected an old VGA monitor to the Flicker Fixer output, and it works. Whoo hoo! Flicker free high res!

I found the user manual for the Picasso board. Now I've gotta dig around and see if I can find the cable to use :cry:

[KatManDEW]

Found the cable for the Picasso. Dug out a 21 inch monitor that someone was tossing, and hooked it up. The Picasso display looks good

Still can't do much with the old girl. The only game that will run off the hard drive is Megaball. I've gotta dig out a null modem cable and hook it up to a WinTel so I can get WHDLoad working. So far I haven't been able to format any floppies and read them in PC0: or PC1:  :boohoo:

BTW: Turns out my accelerator os a 33mhz GVP 68040, not an 030. Can I still get additional RAM for that thing, and would it be worth it?

What do you all do with your retro Amiga's? I've gotta get mine on the net.

Thanks to all for the help!

[stefcep2]

you have a very good machine there.  you probably can get more ram but is likely to be the annoying custom simms that gvp made and they tend to cost more.  4 meg is bare minimum i would say. you probably need 8 or more to get on the net.  pc0: is the dosdriver for ms formatted disks.  you probably have a file in sys:devs/dosdriver called pc0 or pc1.  move it to sys:storage/dosdrivers if you don't want to format your floppies to msdos.

the thing is with your picasso card plugged in, unless its a picasso 4 you won't see games on your monitor.  you may be able to take the output of your flicker-fixer IF IT SCAN_DOUBLES AS WELL AS FLICKER FIX and see them that way.

i mainly play games and do a bit with scala

[Amiduffer]

KatManDEW wrote:
Thanks for all the info and tips.

Is the battery that blue barrel shaped thing under the drive bays? If so, how do we get that puppy out? It looks like it's spot welded to the connectors that go into the motherboard.

Obviously, if the battery is soldered to the motherboard, grab your soldering iron :flame: and take it off. Looks like you lucked out. If you look at some peoples pictures, those type of batteries turn into fuzzy acid factories and ruin motherboards.

Be sure to give the floppy drives a super good cleaning.

[KatManDEW]

Should I try to remove the battery from the contacts, or remove the contacts from the motherboard? There are two "pins" going into the motherboard from each "contact", and it's a multi layer board with plated through holes, and that is tricky de-soldering... Should I just try to clip off the contacts?

[Amiduffer]

Depends on how skillful you are with the iron. You can clip them off if you don't want to risk it. The Amiga will run fine without the battery. You'll just have to set the date and time each time you turn it on.