Hi all,
First post!
So, the story goes - Bought A1200 in 1993. Spent over a decade upgrading and changing it until it was something of a beast for it's time - Blizzard PPC 160 / 060, BVision, Power Flyer Gold, Power Tower, Microvitec GPM 1701, 250Mg ZIP drive, dial up internet, OS3.9 etc... etc...
Then, in about 2003/4 I bought a PC laptop. Ran it alongside the Amiga until the Microvitec broke down on the Amiga. I spent an aaaaaage trying to find another GPM 1701. Finally got one, but for some reason it wouldn't display the signal from the BVision that my previous 1701 had. Tried to fiddle about within my hard drive through AGA to remove the graphics settings to no avail. Amiga goes into wardrobe, monitor eventually ends up uncovered in an unforgiving, cold and slightly damp garage (I didn't put it there and didn't realise until it had been in there for months!).
So, fast forward a good 4 years and I've moved house and brought Amiga and monitor with me. This time it all languishes in the attic (clean and warm, if nothing else!). Fast forward another 18 months and I dig it all out and try to get it all going again with a view to stripping and selling.
Had immediate problems of no BVision output at all and keyboard not working. After much scratching of the head, and very nearly giving up again, the soldering iron came out to the BVision/AGA switcher wiring that had come unsoldered and I re-seated A4000 keyboard adapter. Would you believe it (after a good hour of the monitor making odd crackly noises / screen being off colour/on colour over and over) the old girl only fires up again in CGFx for the first time in about 7 years!!
Whipped out an old 2003 Workbench backup CD and restored all the files to undo all my previous fiddling, hooked her back up to my old hi-fi (also enjoying a resurrection!) and she's back!
7 second boot times - a joy after Windows!!!
I've removed and sold the ZIP drive, as I've also removed and sold the Port Plus Junior' that was previously running the internet connection (sadly, my crazily expensive Alienware PC is solely running that now).
The aim all along was to make sure things work, then sell them. I'm going through my old games 5 at a time on eBay, but now she's working again I almost feel like a Doctor mulling over pulling the plug on a life support machine and I am not sure I can do it! The only saving grace is that at 5 games at a time it's going to take a long time before I am at the point of having hardware and serious software only left.
It certainly feels nice having her back - that was always the intention, but the no doubt decent money the components would make now is still tempting. Maybe you can all put me off before it gets to that stage!
I've been amazed at how much old hardware I've got kicking around. I've also got 2x CD32's (one with the FMV module!) and another 2 A1200's. With a semi-decent expansion card I could whip up another decent-ish A1200 set up as I've got an IDE adapter and IDEFix amongst stuff no longer used. Decisions, decisions! :lol:
