Mr.Amiga500

Yep, at least there were two: the Taiwan and Hong Kong version(s) of the XE cart(s)... -Andreas Koch. Mine is the Taiwan version. I still have the box and manual... and the shrink wrap on the box... and the box that the box came in... and so on.

I've got the XE cart of Blue Max and the "bug" is still there.

I've got an Indy, but I think the NeXTstation looks nicer. Yes, that's a nice terminal. If we can start talking terminals, I'd also add the Lear Siegler ADM-3A.

Actually, I returned it to a friend I suspected was trying to rip me off. It was the late 80's and I had already programmed on the PET, TRS-80 Model III, CoCo 2, Atari 800XL, Commodore 64 and CoCo 3 - so after all that, TI-99/4a BASIC was a bit of a pain in the ass. If it was my first computer, I would probably love it to death. I must admit, I regret my decision to return the TI-99/4a, and I'm constantly on the lookout to find one in good condition.

I briefly owned a TI-99/4a back in the 80's, and it does look very nice (but I hated trying to program that thing, so I got my money back). I saw a Commodore SX-64 at a computer museum a few months ago. I never did see a Lisa (though I have the Byte magazine Lisa introduction issue), but at a base cost of $10000, I'm sure many people have never seen a Lisa. It's possible that the NeXT cube looks nicer than the NeXTstation, but I've never had a NeXT cube so I can't compare them.

Yes, I agree with those. (but I don't own any of them so I can't physically compare them to the others I listed)

I've seen lots of great looking computers in magazines that turned out to be disappointing in real life. I can only base my opinions on computers I've used or own (actually, I own all the computers listed). My favourites are: Atari 800XL (sleek, solid, nice cream & brown colours) Kaypro II & "New 2" (I own both and they look awesome side by side - different shades) Apple IIc with matching monitor (very cute, but I wish the keyboard wasn't grey) Mac Classic II (sleeker than SE, better keyboard than older models) Amiga 1000 (I wish case was metal though) Amiga 500 (though I wish it was more solid and two-toned like the 800XL) NeXTstation (the only "pizza box" that looks like a pizza box... but from a Borg ship)

I like the way you think. In the Amiga game "Firepower", I used to blow up all the buildings in my own base. Little guys would run out to be "rescued" and I'd run them down with the tank (splat!). Oh, happy days.

I have an original cartridge and the screen screw-up is still there. The best I've done so far is Squadron Leader 3rd class. Last week I was playing and I had hits on bombs, guns, manouvering and fuel. I had the plane as high as possible so I could drift farther when I ran out of fuel. The fuel went out and the plane lost altitude, but just then the runway came up! I barely made it and the plane basically landed itself. I went on to complete the game (4th class). That was weird.

That's right - it doesn't require a keyboard. Blue Max is an awesome game - one of my four favourite 8-bit games and still very playable today.

I've had Vista on my Amiga 500 years before it came out for x86. I'm not talking about the "Home Edition" either - it's Vista Pro!

Back in 1984, I knew a 14-year-old kid with a similar setup. The moment I saw it, I nearly killed him on the spot. Nobody deserves to be that spoiled. At the time, all I could squeeze out of my parents was a pathetic 16K CoCo 2 and I could only use the TV when nobody else was watching something. Then I met a guy who had a 800XL and 1050 drive and thought he was a lucky bastard. But that was nothing compared to this other kid who had a 1200XL AND 800XL, two 1050 drives, 1027 printer, 1030 modem and his own 19" Sony TV! That's when I cursed fate and swore vengeance on the universe. (...yeah, it's been 24 years, but my supervillain outfit is taking longer than expected to make - damn polystyrene muscles!)

Accelerators for the A500 are super-rare and then you need to get 2Mb Mini Megi chip to make it useful. I suggest you get an A3000. I just got one and it's great. I'm actually using a stock A3000 (but 3.1, more RAM) to post this. (...so ignore the misleading signature for this post;) Actually, Amiga is the only computer I've used on the internet since 2002. Unfortunately, you can't. I don't have a digital camera and the crap analogue Sony video camera I was using to take pictures (with DCTV on A500) died last week. You can see an old picture of my A500 setup by following the link in the signature (then in the post), but it doesn't show all the other Amigas and Ataris. I will say that my new setup has the 800XL and 1050 prominently in the centre, surrounded by A500, A1000 and A3000. (the unfortunately yellowed 1200XL, ugly A2000HD and faceless A4000 are discretely on the side. By the way, I've been all across Korea but never made it as far south as Ulsan. Someday I might go back to Korea to teach English.

Yeah, no need to choose - just get more desks. I put 3 desks together and now I have 7 classic systems (Amigas, Atari XLs and 4 monitors) all wired up and ready to go. Or you can do what this guy did, but that's pushing the boundaries of sanity.

Yes, that's very interesting. It looks like you put a lot of work into it. Well done. I'd rather keep the 1200XL keyboard though. It's the nice solid plastic of the old keys that I like. Without that, it doesn't quite make it for me. (...but that's me) The 1050 change is a neat idea too. (...except for the fact that I hate optical drives.. but that's my problem I'd probably put something else into the 1050 case and keep the floppy faceplate)

That is exactly what I was thinking of doing a couple years ago with my dead 800XL. I also wanted to have one of those video cards capable of output to TV so I could just hook it up to any TV - just like in the old days. Eventually I gave up the idea as an exercise in futility. After all the pain and effort, it would just be a boring Windows or Linux PC in a nice case. Edit: But now that I think about it again, maybe it would be a neat idea. You could have a whole bunch of different emulators on the thing (MAME, Atari, C64, Amiga, etc) and play the games on TV like they were meant to be seen (well at least better than VGA monitor). You could use USB joysticks like the Competition PRO USB. And you could always switch back to Linux (or..ug..Windows) and download more games. (or use it like a boring PC if you must) I think a problem is lack of function keys/control keys on the 800XL keyboard. There would be some OS functions you couldn't access.

Uh... yeah... I guess I did. I suppose I was thinking that way because on every OS I played DOOM - Windows, MS-DOS, BeOS, Linux, Amiga - I used the exact same set of wad files. I briefly forgot the hundreds of other game conversions which don't use a single similar file across platforms. So yeah, I guess my rule is stupid.

Well, DOOM still looks pretty good with 64 colours (as in Amiga Halfbright mode) - even 32 would be OK. Low-res 16 colour would look very crappy (especially in those levels with lots of browns, greens and reds). Even if that crappy mode was possible, it's still not really DOOM unless it uses the official DOOM wads right? The original DOOM wad is 12Mb. Is is possible to page parts of that wad into RAM when playing and still run the thing at a reasonable speed - on a 6502 with 64k/128k?? Yeah, you can make a "DOOM-like" game that doesn't use the DOOM wads, but then it's not really DOOM. So the impressive statement "I've got DOOM on my A8!!!!1" is really an impossibility. Still, if somebody ever did make even a single-level A8 DOOM (with stripped-down wad), I'd be very impressed and congratulate them as a hero of mankind. (...then I'd ask them to make Half-life for my Amiga 500 )

After the A8 DOOM is done, the next step is DOOM on the 2600. Then of course, I'd like to see DOOM on the Xerox line-plotter. Anything beyond that would just be silly.

I admire the insanity of trying to get DOOM on an A8, but is it really worth all the work? I think there's a point where the effort required far surpasses the usefulness. Sure... after a few hundred hours work you could say, "I've got DOOM on my Atari 800!!!1" but what you've really got is just an unplayable (or barely playable) DOOM-like demo. It's not really DOOM. I play DOOM regularly on my Amiga 500 (with 68020), and I think it's impressive to say, "I've got DOOM on my Amiga 500!!!1", but when you really think about it - so what? If I didn't have DOOM on my A500, I could just dig an old PC out of the trash and install DOOM on it.

Yes, I kept it and that's what I was going to use to replace the connector. It looks like a bastard of a job though. I'd have to unsolder the huge metal shield (covers half the monitor's circuitry) from both monitors, unsolder both connectors, then resolder the "good" connector and pray that I didn't screw anything up and that it was actually the connector that was defective. What if I ran wires from the cable to the connector pins and swapped red and blue to confirm that it is actually the connector that is defective? (...is that any less dangerous? ) Damn. I wouldn't have to go through all this if I could just buy another monitor. These monitors were pretty common just a few years ago. Now if I want one I have to get into a bidding war on eBay, then pay $150 to ship it. Maybe I'll just live without the blue. (and get yellow "burn in" on my eyeballs)

Thanks for your response. As I said, in composite mode there is no problem. I'm sure if it was a problem with the blue gun it wouldn't work for composite either. Because the problem is with RGB mode, I'd have to take my whole Amiga setup with me to demonstrate the problem to a TV repair guy. That's assuming there are still TV repair guys out there. I've noticed that these days people don't take TVs to get repaired. They just trash it and get a new one. I don't have any TV repair knowledge, but my theory is that the blue pin on the RGB connector has lost contact from wear. Visibly, the pins look fine, but I think internally it lost contact. If I move the cable up and down, I can make green disappear too and display only red (cable worked fine on other 1084, so cable is not the problem). Unfortunately there's no way to open the connector to check or repair. And it's blocked by a shield on the bottom of the circuit board, so it'd be a pain in the ass to solder in a replacement. Is there a way to repair broken connectors without replacing it? (cram some metal in there to repair connection?) (reminds me of the Airplane 2 quote: "Where am I going to find a piece of metal? Here? In Space? ... At this hour?)

In RGB mode (connected to Amiga), no blue is displayed. It is not a problem with the Amiga or the RGB cable - both worked fine with my other 1084 (which unfortunately died recently). I confirmed there is no blue at all by looking at the monitor screen with a magnifying glsss while displaying a palette. No blue elements were on. I tried opening the monitor and adjusting the knob for blue, but nothing happened. (red and green knobs work) In composite mode, there is no problem. This makes me think there is a problem with the RGB connector (or some circuitry related to RGB display only). My question is: what can I do to fix it? Is there a simple thing I missed? Is there any easy fix or am I just screwed? (Or is there anybody in Canada that has a 1084, 2002, 1080 or 2080 monitor they can sell me?)

Slightly off topic, but if anybody's looking for a great Tempest for the Amiga, try Vektor Storm. (I mention it because it took me forever to find because of the non-Tempest-like name) I play it with a trackball and it nearly replicates the "Arcade-feel". (well... better than a mouse, joystick or keyboard)

I'm confused. What does "Thorsten Karwoth" have to do with Synth_Sample.sid by Georg Feil? Did "Thorsten Karwoth" copy (make Atari version of) Georg Feil's music?