i have just aquired a 1200 and i need help

[ste182]

ok so what operationg systems have i the chance for with out a ppc? thanks

[DoogUK]

0S3.9 and under....os3.9 and 3.5 realy require an 030 or faster.

[Homer]

I'll have a go at answering these too  :-D

1. If you got the list of compatible wifi cards from Aminet, then you will find the driver files there too.
2. Best OS for A1200 depends what you are doing. If its a game machine then OS3/3.1 will suffice. I run OS3.5.
3. You can use another CF memory card (with PCMCIA adapter) in the side slot to move files between pc and Amiga. Search the forum - you format the CF as a PC card.
4. Various games were designed for the A500(+) and so you have a few early boot options (hold down both mouse buttons at boot up) to disable your A1200 extra's, or can get a floppy disk such as "Degrader" to allow them to run.
5. CPU will be standard 68020 unless you have a card in the trapdoor slot underneath, memory is also added on the trapdoor card - If no card then you have 2Mb.
6. If it is for games, you ideally want a 68030 accelerator with 32Mb RAM, a hard drive (or internal CF as you are doing), WHDload for running games from your hard drive. Note that faster accelerators (68040/60) are much faster, but will decrease the number of games that will play.

Just to make it more complicated, some simple RAM expansion boards, and cheaper accelerators will block the PCMCIA slot, which will prevent your wifi card from working ! Check first.

Keep asking and we will try to help  :idea:

[ste182]

wow thanks homeer great help.

Ive just got a floppy disc drive for my pc to get games and play them(id prefer to use this method) so is there any formatting programs i need or anything like that?

And what is 030? how do i know if i have this?

[Daedalus]

Two ways:
1) If you have a Workbench floppy, boot from that, go into the Workbench:System/ drawer and double-click on Shell or CLI to open a shell window. Type "CPU" and press enter and it will tell you exactly what you have.

2) Turn the A1200 over (Be careful!). Open the trapdoor on the bottom gently with a flat screwdriver or similar. If there's a circuit board in there, you have some form of add-on. Looking at the chips and/or the name printed on the board will tell you which one it is. If it's empty, you just have the standard 14MHz 68020 that all 1200s are fitted with.

[ste182]

no i dont have any add-ons so could i run 3.8 or 3.7 well any apart from 3.5, 3.9 and 4.x?

thanks

[Daedalus]

Well, there aren't any versions other than the ones already mentioned. You can run 3.0 and 3.1 on yours without adding anything, and by adding a modest accelerator card and a CD-ROM drive you can run 3.5 or 3.9. TBH, for old games you don't need 3.5 or 3.9 and would be best off just sticking with whatever it has and getting a small accelerator/RAM card.

[ste182]

Okay that wil be something to look into next month when its payday again :-D
thankyou

Ive just realised something aswell. Right so im getting my wireless card, and to install it i need the program like prism 2 but i have no way of moving this software from my pc to my amiga other than floppys and ive been reading around that its near imposible to create a floppy in your pc that will run on amiga. So how do i overcome this?

[DoogUK]

AmigaOS includes a ultility called crossdoss that lets you read and write 720k pc formatted pc disks, it's ok for transfering smaller files.
Another option is to get a 16bit pcmcia memory card reader then use compact flash/sd/memory stick duo etc to transfer files.

[ste182]

DoogUK wrote:
AmigaOS includes a ultility called crossdoss that lets you read and write 720k pc formatted pc disks, it's ok for transfering smaller files.

but floppy discs are 1.4mb so how can i do it so its 720kb

[Amiduffer]

That's OK, just format them at 720k even if they're 1.4m.

For transfering larger files, you can use a few options.

One, is to use AmigaExplorer and a special null modem cable 25/9 pin and you can transfer stuff very easily between your PC and Amiga. I found my cable in a local electronic store, but they show up on ebay occasionaly.

The other is to get yourself a PCMCIA Compact Flash card adaptor. Amigakit has them.

Workbench versions for the classic machines ran from 1.2, 1.3, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.5, & 3.9. This PAGE has more info on that.

Oh, to format 720k PC format on your Ami, look in the Storage folder for a PC0 labeled icon. Move it into your DEVS:DOSDRIVERS folder. When you insert a floppy, a floppy icon with ? will appear, click once, choose format from the menu and that will format it so that PC's recognize it.

[ste182]

ok kool, where is the storage folder? i dont have any hdd at the moment so i run wb 3 from the floppy disc, all i have is workbench 3 ram and ? when i put another blank floppy in.

edit:
and also dont i need a ppc accelorator for os3.5 as someone mentioned?

[DoogUK]

PPC accelerator is for 0s4.

Edit: SOme parts of os3.5/3.9 provide support for A PPC accelerator but you cannot realy utilise it unless you have 0s4 and software specificaly designed to run on it.

It all boils down to what you want to do with your amiga.

If you just want to play games, listen to mods and some light surfing then a fast 030 and 3.1 is ideal.

The most important thing is extra ram, the stock A1200 virtualy doubles in speed just ny adding a ram expansion card with 4 or 8mb on.

[Daedalus]

Ah, without a hard drive you won't be able to use 3.5 or 3.9 either. On a floppy sustem, storage is on a separate floppy. Workbench consists of a set of 5 or 6 disks:

Workbench 3.0
Extras 3.0
Fonts
Storage
Locale
and an optional Install disk.

You'll need to copy the PC0 file from the Storage:DOSDrivers/ directory to the Workbench:Devs/DOSDrivers directory and reboot to make the driver available.

[ste182]

i do have a harddrive, it came today, its a compact flash harddrive 4gb i think it comes with 3.1 installed so i might stick with that ive read around that you can change the gui and add better icons is this true?

[taunusand]

Daedalus wrote:
You'll need to copy the PC0 file from the Storage:DOSDrivers/ directory to the Workbench:Devs/DOSDrivers directory and reboot to make the driver available.

I would recommend that you make a backup set of your workbench disks and make changes on the backup disks, instead of messing around with the original disks ;-)