Update Amiga 600

[AmiDude]

AFAIK, there's nothing in the kickstart that has anything to do with datatypes. There are all kinds of other issues when using a 2.x kickstart though. And regarding 3.9, there's no problem setting up 3.9 to be equally stripped down as 3.1 or 2.x, it just takes a little bit of effort.

I was only explaining that the only "new" feature of KS3.1 is the useless Datatypes.
And what other KS2.x  issues are you refering about?
There's indeed no problem of setting up 3.9 on an A600, but like I stated before;
it's very slow and with only 16 colors it's plain ugly. And what's the point of stripping it down? In that case, there's hardly any difference with KS & WB 2.x.

[AmiDude]

Some versions of KS2.0 doesn't have scsi.device build in and one version have buggy scsi.device, limiting hard drive size about 100mb

A600 is nice WHDLoad machine, I really don't understand why would anyone want to play with floppies.

PS. Is possible to get 68010 cpu for few euros. 010 will allow quit key with whdload

?! I didn't say anything about floppies...? I've KS 2.05 V37.350, and it recognizes my 2GB HD without any problems.
And believe me, 2GB is more then enough for a couple of hundred old games!

[Cammy]

AmiDude, maybe you should install a 3.1 Kickstart in your A600 yourself and see what benefits it brings! I assure you, Datatypes are NOT useless, and AmigaOS3 was the most advanced consumer operating system on the market back when it was released, I'm not sure why you're so adamant about trying to stop other Amiga users from installing it for themselves when there is no risk involved at all, and only benefits to gain.

Try programming an application that needs to use images some time and you'll see exactly why OS3 and the Datatypes system is superior!

[AmiDude]

AmiDude, maybe you should install a 3.1 Kickstart in your A600 yourself and see what benefits it brings! I assure you, Datatypes are NOT useless, and AmigaOS3 was the most advanced consumer operating system on the market back when it was released, I'm not sure why you're so adamant about trying to stop other Amiga users from installing it for themselves when there is no risk involved at all, and only benefits to gain.

Try programming an application that needs to use images some time and you'll see exactly why OS3 and the Datatypes system is superior!

I've allready got an A600 running with KS3.1 (I've got more than one). I really see no benefit if you're running only WB apps and games. I just can't see any benfit of using datatypes. I'm using all kinds of other text and picture viewers that are doing their jobs pretty good.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to stop other Amigans from using KS & WB 3.1 on their machines, I'm just saying that it's not really necessary to install a KS3.1 ROM and a kickswitcher. That's just gonna cost you extra $$$. For that money (and a couple of $$$ more) one could get a nice ACA630 for their beloved miggy and run their apps and games all the same with KS2.x!

[mfilos]

Kickstart 3.1 is one of least expensive investments one can make. If you want serious Hard Disk usage, even 37.300 isn't good and I really find hard to believe that you can find easily an 37.350 Kickstart without having to ask politely someone to burn it for you.

Keeping an old 2.x is just El'Cheapo cause Workbench 3.1 is by far superior to Workbench 2.0x. If you got an 2.1 then it's not that dramatic change but still... having Kickstart 3.1 is nice to have (especially if you intend to use an ACA accelerator despite it's awesome MapROM feature).

[brownb2]

one could get a nice ACA630 for their beloved miggy and run their apps and games all the same with KS2.x!

With an ACA630 you could software rekick KS 3.1

I use WB2.1 but then I only use my A600 for games.

[AmiDude]

...and I really find hard to believe that you can find easily an 37.350 Kickstart without having to ask politely someone to burn it for you.

Keeping an old 2.x is just El'Cheapo cause Workbench 3.1 is by far superior to Workbench 2.0x. If you got an 2.1 then it's not that dramatic change but still... having Kickstart 3.1 is nice to have (especially if you intend to use an ACA accelerator despite it's awesome MapROM feature).

Hard to believe? There were standard 37.350 ROMs in 4 of 5 the A600's I bought in the past. You don't have to ask someone to burn it for you, the're not rare.
And explain why an A600 with standard 2.x ROM is " El'Cheapo"? That's a weird statement...
Like you stated yourself; "having Kickstart 3.1 is nice to have"...yeah, but it's not really necessary.

[mfilos]

True it's not necessary. It all depends on what you wanna do.
If you want a little something without investing much (alas the El'Cheapo statement) Kickstart 3.1 is the way to go.

[save2600]

True it's not necessary. It all depends on what you wanna do.

Totally. With "only" 3 Amigas setup in the house, I like having a variety of OS's to play around with. It's not a cheap thing at all.

A1000 runs 1.0-3.1 (68010 and OCS)
A2000 runs 2.1 (28mhz SupraTurbo, HD & CD-ROM)
A3000 runs 3.1 (25mhz 030, HD, Deneb)

...If I had only one system, I'd definitely want it to be 3.1 based though.  

[doctorq]

I'm with AmiDude on this one; I see no point in upgrading to Kickstart 3.1 either, unless the current Kickstart ROM is below rev. 37.350.

It might be cheap to obtain a Kickstart 3.1, but if the aim is just to play games, why bother? You would just have paid money for features that you don't need. For almost the same amount you can register WHDLoad instead; as I see it that's money better spent there.

[AmiDude]

I'm with AmiDude on this one; I see no point in upgrading to Kickstart 3.1 either, unless the current Kickstart ROM is below rev. 37.350.

It might be cheap to obtain a Kickstart 3.1, but if the aim is just to play games, why bother? You would just have paid money for features that you don't need. For almost the same amount you can register WHDLoad instead; as I see it that's money better spent there.

+1
Finally someone with common sence.

[TheMud]

Hi TheMud!

Although the A1200 is slightly better and more expandable, I think the A600 is still one of the best Amigas to have, maybe it's the second easiest to upgrade these days thanks to the ACA630, A604 and the ease of use of the PCMCIA port and standard 44pin IDE controller.

I do recommend getting some PCMCIA cards, like a CF or SD card reader. The one you linked to will be fine, but remember these parts are quite common and many people are trying to take advantage of Amiga users by selling these parts at over double the regular cost, so shop around. The driver software is available for free on Aminet, and I'm sure it wouldn't be too much effort for someone to send you the drivers on a disk. In fact I'm starting a global disk swapping network for this very purpose.

A PCMCIA ethernet or wireless card will also be very handy, as even a stock A600 can go online with one.

If you don't have a 1MB ChipRAM expansion already, you can't get anything better than the brand new A604, which is available at all the online Amiga retailers. Not only will it expand your A600 to a total of 2MB ChipRAM, but it will provide you with a battery-backed real-time clock, an adapter to plug in an Indivision ECS, and TWO clockports! One is a standard clockport, suitable for all A1200 clockport expansions like high-speed serial/parallel cards, sound cards, or the Subway USB card, which will perform almost twice as fast if it's used on the new high speed clockport which is also on the A604.

If you don't want to shell out for the ACA630 accelerator, which I HIGHLY recommend, you could get a simple PCMCIA SRAM card to bump up your FastRAM, and get a slight speed boost as well. 1MB, 2MB and 4MB cards are available, but they will cost you almost as much as an ACA630, and that has a 25Mhz 68030 and 32MB RAM on it. Also, if you have a SRAM card taking up the PCMCIA slot you can't go online unless you use a serial cable connected to a PC (for dialup-speed internet access, which isn't bad for IRC, Email, MUDs and stuff anyway).

I'm lucky enough to have two A600s, so I have a system set up both ways, and they both have their charm. One A600 is a powerhouse that can run the latest OS3 software, while the other is perfect for those older, simpler applications and great for classic games.

I have a link to a 4MB SRAM card for sale if you'd like to purchase one, I won't post it here because it'll very likely be gone by the time you see my post, there are too many lurkers here ready to snap things up cheap and resell them for profit. It's 85 Euro, where as you could get an ACA630 for around 160 Euro.

For internal storage you can't go past a Compact Flash adapter and a 4GB-8GB Sandisk CF card. The 4GB ones will work perfectly without requiring any patches, as long as you create your partitions smaller than 2GB, so just make two 2GB partitions if you get a 4GB drive, and you're set. For a 8GB or larger drive you'll need some patches and better filesystems, which can be a little tricky to set up at first.

As has been suggested, it's best to use WHDLoad and play games from the HDD/CF these days, it's much faster and trouble-free, especially when the data retention of HD media is bad for DD formatted disks.

Definitely get Kickstart 3.1. The first thing I do with my Amigas is upgrade them to 3.1, or at least stick in a ROM Switcher with 1.3 and 3.1 on it, since 1.3 is the best for running some old floppy based games.

Also, if you haven't got any good game controllers for it yet, these ones are only $4.55 each with free shipping, and are perfect for Amiga games - http://www.dealextreme.com/p/additional-gamepad-controller-for-sku-28970-30530

Thanks Cammy ... I already ordered 3.1 kickstart now :-) And I've ordered a harddrive. Will post when it's installed :-)

[orange]

the best way to expand A600 is to get or make that Russian 8Mb fast ram expansion (iirc, A608). it has best price/upgrade ratio. you can find it on amibay or similar.

[mfilos]

+1
Finally someone with common sence.

The fact that we have different views on certain aspects doesn't mean that some of us lack common sense!

I got 4x A600's over the years... and all of them had Kickstart 37.299 or 37.300 that sux!
Sure if you have 37.350 then you're set for Workbench 2.x and WHDLoad (if you have some extra memory (PCMCIA, A608, MTec, Apollo, ACA etc).

If you have some accelerator though... I find it really akward not to mention silly not to invest 15 euro for the 3.1 Kickstart.

Opinions are like a$$holes though... Everybody's has one


@save2600
+1

[doctorq]

If you have some accelerator though... I find it really akward not to mention silly not to invest 15 euro for the 3.1 Kickstart.

I guess I'm silly then, because even though I have an accelerator in my A600, I still don't have the need for upgrading my ROM to 3.1. I really don't see the point in doing soo, when I'm not taking advantage of the "features" it gives me.

I have always thought the advice of upgrading to Kickstart 3.1 was a bad advice, unless there is a specific need for doing so; most people don't.

[AmiDude]

The fact that we have different views on certain aspects doesn't mean that some of us lack common sense!

I got 4x A600's over the years... and all of them had Kickstart 37.299 or 37.300 that sux!
Sure if you have 37.350 then you're set for Workbench 2.x and WHDLoad (if you have some extra memory (PCMCIA, A608, MTec, Apollo, ACA etc).

If you have some accelerator though... I find it really akward not to mention silly not to invest 15 euro for the 3.1 Kickstart.

Opinions are like a$$holes though... Everybody's has one


@save2600
+1

About the "common sence" thing; That was not intended seriously. (hence the wink icon).
So, take it easy dude!

I've got at the moment 3 A600's, and each of them has standard v37.350 in them.
One A600 got an ACA630 build in and the other has a MTec630/40Mhz. They both run
W.B. 2.1. So, you think it's akward and silly not to invest in KS3.1?! Why?!
I can do with wb2.1 everything what with wb3.1 also is possible.
I think you're the one who's silly here to believe KS3.1 is so allmighty, but infact it gives you only the useless datatypes feature.
And it makes me sick to see that every time some poor new Amiga fan asks what he can do with his A600, then guys like you are shoving the poor sucker KS3.1 down the throat!
Or, even worse try to persuade people to run WB3.9 on their slow 030 systems.
What's the fun of that, huh?!
So stop terrorising people with your weird opinions!