My new years resolution. Amiga only for as long as I can

[runequester]

So I am giving myself til January to get this done, as we're a bit cash strapped right now, and there's quite a few trinkets Id need.


When the new year comes around, I want to see how long I can go with my 1200 as my main computer. Not out of religious reverence or anything. Just a fun experiment to do, and to learn as much as possible about my machine.

Might make for an interesting blog or something. We'll see.


The list of stuff to acquire as opportunity and cost permits:

USB interface, mainly for CD rom but itd be nice to have in general. Seems subway is the way to go there.

Wireless PCMCIA internet card. Pretty cheap.

Faster accelerator card. It seems that you can get 030's in the 40/50 mhz range with 16 or 32 megs of ram for not an arm and a leg, through softhut or amigakit.
An 060 would be nice but cost might be prohibitive.

Some sort of printer. Can source an old one so probably wont be too expensive.

I am imagining that a copy of the 3.9 workbench / OS might be a good idea as well.


What are my computing needs?

Web browsing
I've been messing around with ibrowse in UAE and it seems most of my internet needs would be fine as far as that goes. Its mostly message forums really.
Im prepared for it to be pretty slow, and things to look funny. Figure thats part of the experience.

IM
What are the best options for instant messaging ? I am particularly looking for things that are aim and msn compatible. IRC is obviously well covered.

Gaming
Most of my gaming is old amiga games anyways, so no fuss there.

Word processing and other "office" stuff
I rarely need to do work stuff from home, so not too fussed. My main needs here are basic handouts for some of the tabletop gaming I do, maybe some data base stuff. Should be well served by the old amiga apps here.

Creative stuff
Plenty of fun old graphics and music apps here, that I want to do dig into again.

[runequester]

So putting my thoughts together a bit, before starting any sort of blog.

Instant messaging: Looks like MSN and ICQ won't be an issue. Still poking around to see if there's a client for AIM or Yahoo out there.

I imagine gmail chat will be nogo, which is too bad, but I have my phone for that, if all else fails.


For games, there's tons in a multitude of genres, so I should be able to keep entertained there. Particularly want to play through some of the great old adventure games and RPGs again, as well as play some that I never got around to.
A lot of great strategy games which is my preferred genre of games, too.


Booted up Final Writer and spent some time getting used to it. Its pretty slick, though the lack of a high resolution will take some time getting used to.

[Tenacious]

I think you can do it!

Despite what what you read, iBrowse is compatible with far more sites than not.

Don't forget streaming audio and Mp3s. MasPlayer or equiv.

IIRC, Final Writer and Final Data will promote to higher resolution including RTG.

Certainly the details of your blog with be an interesting read in terms of Amiga compatibility with modern computing.

[runequester]

I think you can do it!

Thanks!

Don't forget streaming audio and Mp3s. MasPlayer or equiv.

Until I can get some more RAM, I imagine MP3s might be rough. Any experience there ?

IIRC, Final Writer and Final Data will promote to higher resolution including RTG.

I assume Final Data is a spreadsheet app ? Is that what you'd recommend ?

Certainly the details of your blog with be an interesting read in terms of Amiga compatibility with modern computing.

Thanks! I imagine over the next week, I'll get it started as an actual blog. FOr now, this thread will do as a place to gather ideas and seek information.

[ElPolloDiabl]

Excuse me, but why bother? Use it as a games machine, there is hardly any development on classic Amiga.
Load it up as a backup computer.

[runequester]

Excuse me, but why bother? Use it as a games machine, there is hardly any development on classic Amiga.
Load it up as a backup computer.

Because it'll be a fun experiment.

[Iggy]

I enjoy experimenting too, but going that retro baffles me.

And I don't get the whole emulation thing. I mean using a more powerful system to run old software. Why?

I do agree with the one poster who claimed to be a Linux fanboy. I've loaded Unbuntu on to my Mac and I prefer it to OSX.

[marcfrick2112]

runequester: Ah, never mind the naysayers.... Do it 'cuz you want to... (Hey, how many people do a lot of 3D rendering on thier miggies anymore? I do.)

To elaborate on the software mentioned... First, many programs can be promoted using a tool like NewMode (aminet).

Final Calc is actually the spreadsheet
Final Writer (WP)
Final Data (database)

Which program is 'best'? No answer... it's all up to personal opinion. You could try searching the forums here for 'Best ______ program' (fill in the blank )

As for playing MP3's, RAM is important..... but an accel. is even more important. Personally, I would want an '060 to play MP3's decently. (My WarpEngine 40/40 4000 has trouble with many MP3's...)

My .02...

[runequester]

as far as emulation, I just wanted to test out the apps first before goign through the trouble of installing on my real 'miggy.

As to why Im doing it? Because it'll be fun. Im not selling my linux PC or getting rid of it or anything. It'll be there for whenever I decide the experiment has gone long enough.

[Matt_H]

@ runequester

AmigAIM

[mousehouse]

Sounds like a fun experiment... I guess most things that you'll miss will come done to being just nuisances (audio streaming. mp3, ...). To be two big missed things IMHO are the webbrowser and data exchange with office software. Most E-banking sites on this side of the ocean make heavy use of SSL (https) and Javascript.

[guest7146]

Until I can get some more RAM, I imagine MP3s might be rough. Any experience there ?

Back some years ago (maybe 10.... wow) I purchased an external MP3 decoder for my Amiga 1200 desktop.  I think it plugged into the parallel port but I'm not too sure about that.

Unfortunately it didn't work and I never did get it resolved with the Amiga dealer I bought it off, so it's long since been discarded.  However, mine was an isolated issue I think as the devices were known to have worked and been in use on other people's machines.  It might be worth trying to find one! Then you should be able to play MP3s no problem.  I'm not sure if it'd work on a stock machine (it might do) but certainly an '030 should cope I reckon.

Regards using the machine as your main computer, it wasn't actually all that long ago I gave up my Amiga as being my main machine.  Granted I had a fully loaded towered up A1200 with BPPC and Mediator with graphics cards, sound card etc etc so the experience was far more pleasant than you're likely to get from a slightly expanded desktop.  But the Amiga is still quite useable as a main machine to be honest.  I don't have any problem with anyone who says they still do use their Amiga as their machine of choice, even if it is an old classic! Amigas are fun.

I gave mine up as a main machine in the end because of software.  I do a lot of home programming for microcontrollers and I also do a lot of hardware design at home too.  All the software I need for these tasks is available pretty much exclusively on Windows (with the exception of my schematic/PCB CAD program which I think can be used on linux too).  So, in the end, it became necessary to demote my Amiga to purely a hobby machine.

Good luck with your experiment, it will be interesting to see how long you can go!

I reckon... < 1 week ;-)

[runequester]

My wife does most of our banking either on her powerbook laptop or my desktop, so I'll be able to cheat there

[Karlos]

Sounds like an interesting experiment.

Don't forget to update your amiga.org blog

[runequester]

Sounds like an interesting experiment.

Don't forget to update your amiga.org blog

yeah, going to try and get started on the formal blog tonight.