Jump to content

Daedalus2097

Members
  • Posts

    311
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Daedalus2097

  1. The 1084 uses composite sync for analogue signals, which is a separately defined signal from the digital sync you get with e.g. VGA and RGBI that has positive (active high) and negative (active low) variations. It doesn't need to be switched as a result.
  2. It's worth pointing out that GBS-Control is a hardware/firmware modification for the GBS-8200 that makes a dramatic improvement to its functionality. You can read it here: https://ramapcsx2.github.io/gbs-control/
  3. All Amiga keyboards use the same communication protocol, so you can use any Amiga keyboard with the A1000 once it's connected correctly. The original cable could form the basis of an adaptor - if you can fit a 5-pin 180-degree DIN socket to the other end through whatever connections you need, you could plug an A2000/3000 keyboard into that. Unfortunately, you can't plug a PC keyboard in directly, but there are many adaptors out there both DIY and commercial that will allow the use of PC keyboards. If you're handy with a soldering iron, there are various projects on Aminet from back in the day that use a PIC chip to translate from PS/2 to Amiga protocol, for example. As for the switch, I don't know what type it is exactly, but chances are it's a standard form factor part and an equivalent replacement will be easily available.
  4. Most of the existing solutions are a little bit niche, existing primarily on Github pages and in retro computing shops. This may well be the first time the author has seen such a device in relatively mainstream articles and so has latched onto it because of that. Also, while some SD cards do support very high speeds, it's only relatively recently that they can be maxed out without paying crazy money, and even then you need to go looking. I've got lots lying around the place, and it's only the most recent two I've bought that exceed the 80MB/s write speed a good SCSI setup is capable of, and even then, while my latest cards (Sandisk Extreme) are listed as 90MB/s write speed, they're also only classed V30, which means they're only guaranteed to sustain 30MB/s on continuous writing. Even Amigas can beat that at 40MB/s with the right upgrades. Having M.2 support makes sense from what was mentioned there too - plenty of them around as a result of upgrades so it's a nice touch that it supports them too.
  5. Green and red colours on the screen are normal for the boot process of DiagROM as it tests the chip RAM. The very slow output is strange, but given the text is coherent at least we know the bus between the CPU, ROMs and Paula is ok. Very slow output can be caused by a couple of things - bus errors/timeouts (no acknowledgement from addresses that would normally respond instantly) or a failure with the interrupts are my first two thoughts, so I would check both of those areas for damage.
  6. Yup, Amiga Forever is built on WinUAE, but the interface is different. It's a while since I used Amiga Forever (and then it was only briefly), but you need to add the HDF images in a "Media" tab or some such within the AmigaForever profile configuration. It should become obvious when you're editing the config - it's a pretty common feature to use.
  7. Also, are you starting the games from floppy? It could be that the game simply doesn't set a screenmode, so on boot it defaults back to NTSC and that's just what the game uses. The actual screenmode used for Workbench doesn't have any bearing on this, but using the early startup menu (holding down both mouse buttons) lets you select a PAL or NTSC mode for booting. It's worth setting that to PAL and then booting the game to see if it helps.
  8. Nice! Yeah, Psygnosis were known to use Amigas well after Commodore had gone bust and the Amiga disappeared from the mainstream, so there's an outside chance of some interesting finds on those disks. Later on in particular though, they used expanded, more powerful machines (A1200s, A4000s) for the main work so it's probably more likely the home / spare gaming machine. But enjoy!
  9. Yep, that's a very clean-looking machine, nice find! Now, heed the advice about checking batteries on the RAM expansion and enjoy
  10. What aspect of the desktop graphics disappointed you? ECS gives a couple of new graphics modes, but otherwise is very similar to the OCS chipset, including bandwidth. This means that it won't really give you any improvement in terms of graphics (speed, number of colours), and only helps if you want to use ~31KHz modes or super highres modes, both of which are *very* slow on ECS and limited to 4 colours. As for resolution, I tend to use 640x512 (PAL) interlaced when I'm using a native Workbench screenmode, and increase the overscan settings to mostly fill my display, giving a final resolution of 720x564 or something like that. The NTSC equivalent would be 640x400 (720x480 with overscan). Of course, that will flicker horribly on some displays, so it might not be a realistic option depending on the display you're using.
  11. Sometimes a connector pulls double duty on these monitors. For example, the Video connector probably does colour composite video, and also luma when the monitor is in Y/C mode (there's probably a switch somewhere to switch modes, and will put a colour composite signal in greyscale when Y/C is selected). Ideally you'd have both labelled on the same connector there, but hey ho. I've seen both the male and female variants of the DE9 connector on Commodore monitors, both supporting analogue RGB input but naturally you need the correct cable. You can also find them with a SCART connector for RGB input, and with the DIN connector that makes 4 different RGB connectors used on Commodore monitors. These monitors weren't made by Commodore themselves - they were loosely specced by Commodore and then built by companies like Philips and Daewoo, who presumably did whatever was cheapest that met the Commodore spec, and sometimes even to suit other machines too like the C128 and even the BBC Micro (some 1084 variants can be found with Acorn branding). So long as they also supplied the correct cable, it didn't really matter a great deal. As for digital RGB, yep, it was a simple output likely intended for compatibility with CGA-style monitors that were available at the time, but it was kept through all the models, including the AGA A1200 and 4000. Definitely, greyscale is a much better proposition... Still, I'm sure Workbench was perfectly useable with such a display - Windows had similar high contrast colour schemes for a long time.
  12. Yep, the 1084 is ideal for the Amiga, and with any look it'll come with a suitable cable. If not, order one from your favourite Amiga accessory dealer or make one up using good quality RGB cable. I can't remember if there are different connectors used on the -D but on the whole, the 1084 monitors came with a variety of connectors so it might be worth waiting to see what it needs before ordering one.
  13. Not trying to be too pedantic, but the Amiga also has digital RGB out on the RGB port. It's not pretty though... It's essentially CGA colour rather than a full digital representation of the analogue RGB output, and is hardly ever used. But the C128 also had that output so some Commodore monitors (e.g. the 1902) did support it.
  14. Yup, that's all correct. The "wedge" Amigas (A500, 600, 1200) only take DC voltages from the PSU, so the source of that power doesn't matter so long as the PSU outputs are correct. In general using RGB is just fine. Composite will be PAL-encoded, but the only difference with RGB is the 50Hz refresh rate instead of 60Hz. This shouldn't be a problem with most displays (all Commodore displays I've ever seen support both 50Hz and 60Hz), but there's always a chance there's a 60Hz-only variant out there.
  15. Okay, since it's emulation the entire library is open to you. Everyone's tastes are different and I find most platformers and shmups on the Amiga to be pretty unmemorable. The Amiga also frequently got poor arcade ports that fell far short of what the machine was capable of. But a couple of games that come to mind include: In the arcadey vein: - Pac-Mania, as an example of a pretty decent arcade conversion that didn't follow the pattern of a common codebase with other platforms. - Uridium 2, a decent shmup. - Banshee, a tough 1942-style shooter that uses the Amiga well - Zeewolf 2, a close-in 3D helicopter shooter using a Virus/Zarch-alike engine - Rodland, a cutesy single-screen platformer - Dynablaster, the renamed port of Bomberman In the more puzzly/strategy arena: - Lemmings, the classic - Settlers, the original of the strategy / resource management series - Cannon Fodder, strategy squad shooter - Dune 2, the forerunner of Command and Conquer and the RTS genre - Napalm: Crimson Crisis, a more modern RTS from the later Amiga years In a more action category: - Desert Strike, isometric helicopter shooter - Turrican 2, classic platform shooter (not really my thing but people seem to love it). Also available in a recent AGA-enhanced version. - Xenon 2, classic horizontal shmup - Payback, a latecomer during the Amiga's decline, excellent GTA clone with a great soundtrack on the CD - Aladdin, decent platformer tie-in for Disney's film In the multiplayer genre: - Worms: Directors Cut - Super Skidmarks - Sensible World of Soccer And some modern, recent releases that are well work checking out (some may be commercial: - Turbo Tomato, a fast-paced Psycho Pigs / Butasan-alike - Reshoot Proxima 3, a visually and technically very impressive shooter that really pushes the hardware - Cecconoid, a stylistic screen-flipping puzzler/shooter - Rogue Declan, a high-score-driven twin-stick shooter / roguelike - Knightmare, a port/remake of the Konami shooter - Inviyaa, another excellent looking horizontal shmup There are thousands of others, but those are the ones that come to mind within your preferred tastes. Enjoy!
  16. Less cool but probably much cheaper if it's intending on a similar approach to the 500Mini, and more convenient for some use cases too.
  17. I'll ignore the rest of your poorly thought out drivel; you've already nailed your disinterested colours to the mast so there's no point. But I did want to point out that I have no plans whatsoever to buy one, which given the quote above demonstrates just how far off you are with your preconceptions. And, given how convinced you seem to be on this point, it might just illustrate (if not to you, at least to others) that your other preconceptions might be equally flawed.
  18. Also, maxing out an A4000 will probably cost you far more for far less stability and performance. And, just to point out, Amiga OS runs on it natively; it isn't an emulator. If all you want is an emulator to run old games, it's a ridiculous proposition - just pull an old PC out of a skip and use that for a far better experience. Thinking that's what it's for is entirely missing the point.
  19. If you're expecting a hobbyist platform to be able to compete with any of the big three, you're only going to be disappointed. And anyone who tells you that a modern Amiga platform can is just deluded. It's a hobby platform, it's intended to progress the Amiga with more modern features, which is something many users have always wanted to do. Those people who spend thousands adding accelerators, graphics cards, faster I/O cards, all just to bypass the ancient limitations of the precious hardware... Are they doing it wrong, just because it's not to your taste? Or is a fully decked out A4000 not an Amiga any more? Amiga OS4 and its hardware are a nice glimpse of what might have been - after all, Commodore were already planning to move away from the legacy hardware that had served them so well in the '80s but was really creaking at the seams by the '90s. Moving to commodity hardware was inevitable, and the PowerPC path was the natural progression of a 68k OS at the time. But at least you've included the very important point there: "For me at least". It's good that you realise that it's a hobby for people, which means you have absolutely no say in whether it's financially justifiable or not. Trying to compare to mainstream products is simply nonsense and shows a complete lack of understanding of the hobby aspect. If you really want a sensible comparison, why not compare it to another machine in its niche? These machines are intended as a follow-on from the tired old 68k classic platform for running Amiga OS that required many expansions to bypass all the legacy cruft of the classic architecture. So compare an X5000 to something like a fully-loaded A4000T. With a graphics card, Cyberstorm PPC, SCSI drives, network cards, USB cards, Zorro RAM cards and everything else. That's not a machine you would by to run A500 games, yet it's still an Amiga and people still build and buy such machines. The costs aren't that different, and the X5000 is *vastly* more powerful. It's the machine the A4000 wants to be. *slow clap* Well done for standing up for your rights and refusing to pay that much money. But... You say "refuse" as if someone was trying to make you buy it, when nothing could be further from the truth. You really have to actively look for one to even know it exists, let alone try to buy one. It's obviously not a product for you, so why does it even concern you? What are you so worked up about? I really don't get your problem, in my mind it'd be like me getting worked up and ranting on the internet over the cost of a designer handbag, when my £30 rucksack does a far better job in every practical way. Good lord, you'd actually pay that much money for a machine that has a price/performance ratio more than a *thousand* times worse than the X5000? See how easy it is? The Mega65 does absolutely nothing for me so spending that sort of money on one would be a crazy idea. But I think it's wonderful that it even exists and that people can go out, buy it and enjoy it. And I wish them the very best with it. You're giving totally mixed messages. For most of your rants you seem to be totally uninterested in anything other than the original Amiga hardware. Why do you want a modernised version of the OS then? There are also updates of the classic OS available (which incorporate several features backported from OS4 as it happens). And people like to wave this whole open-source thing around like it's a magic wand that will suddenly solve innumerable problems and somehow make Amiga OS viable again. But that's ridiculously optimistic at best, and probably closer to delusional. There's nowhere near the coderbase available for that sort of project. And besides, even if it did magically happen, what then? What software would you run? And why would you pick it over AROS? Brand loyalty? Why hasn't AROS taken the world by storm? Why aren't you just happily using AROS instead of moaning and ranting about Amiga OS? Or, on a smaller scale, look what happened when extremely popular pieces of software like DOpus 4 and DOpus 5 were open sourced... There were all these wonderful ideas about all the new features they'd gain, how they'd evolve continually and be used by every Amiga user every day... But what happened? We get 2 or 3 different versions of each scattered in various corners of the internet, all stagnated, each with different bugs and limitations and no consensus as to what should happen next. If the community who were so vocal about open-sourcing them can't pull together an update for a file manager, what hope does a whole OS have?
  20. You can install it from any CD drive, even a virtual one. But there's a particular order of installation that you should respect. First, you need a working 3.1 installation with CD-ROM support, which will be the basis of the OS 3.5 installation. Next, you need to do the "pre-installation" to prepare the 3.1 partition to later install 3.5. This copies over some critical files needed for the installation to succeed. Next, you reboot and install OS 3.5 properly.
  21. If you're going for hardware, the A500 is probably the cheapest option and easiest to find as it was by far the best selling model. But it does have its limitations, which might or might not influence your decision. If you just want to run A500 games from floppy disk or a floppy emulator like a Gotek, then that's probably fine. But if you want some more power and/or convenience, the A1200 is probably the way to go and would be my personal choice. It's also the most expensive of the options, and to get the most out of it usually requires some further add-ons. But if you fit a hard drive (it has an internal laptop-style IDE port, and there are plenty of cheap CompactFlash- and SDCard-based hard drive alternatives that fit directly) and some extra RAM, it becomes a new machine. Instead of loading from floppies, you can run almost any game from the hard drive, even older / poorly-coded games that would be otherwise incompatible with the A1200, and often with patches to improve controller support, add trainers etc. This is using software called WHDLoad, and virtually every Amiga game ever released is available as a WHDLoad archive. The A1200 also has a PCMCIA port, which lets you use a cheap CF adaptor card to read and write PC-formatted Compact Flash cards and thus simple transfers to other platforms. It also has the AGA chipset mentioned above, which allows for more powerful graphics. There are relatively few AGA-only games since most games were released for the OCS/ECS chipsets found in the A500, A500+ and A600, but many games have AGA versions (some simply have more colours on-screen, others are vastly improved), and amongst the few AGA-only games there are a few absolute gems that simply can't be played on an A500 or 600. But, to start with, I would suggest using an emulator like WinUAE or FS-UAE, a WinUAE spinoff with a TV-friendly user interface. You can buy Amiga Forever from Cloanto too, which is based on WinUAE and includes licenced OS files including Kickstart images. You can set up a hard drive image in *UAE and build up your operating system, and then if you later decide to move onto real hardware, you can easily transfer the setup onto an SD or CF card. Aside from options like the MiSTer, it's also worth considering is the FPGA remake TheA500, which is a mini-console version of the Amiga. It comes with a few built-in games, but hacking it to take almost any sort of Amiga setup is pretty trivial and there are plenty of guides around. And, despite being called TheA500, it also emulates AGA machines so AGA games can be played. To answer a couple of points above: The Amiga doesn't output a non-standard video signal; like most retro machines, it will output a vintage-style signal that modern displays won't like, but its composite and RGB video signals are intended for standard TV displays of the time. If you have an RGB to HDMI adaptor already for your Atari gear, you're most likely able to use that for the Amiga too. One caveat is that the Amiga 500 outputs black and white on composite and needs an external block called the A520 to produce a colour composite signal. The A1200 and A600 output colour composite by default. But, of course, for the authentic experience a CRT is nice for Amigas and Ataris alike It's less a case of thinking the Amiga is the greatest machine in existence, but a massive resurgence in interest, just like every other retro scene. And there's only a finite supply of systems. For many of the reasons I pointed out above, the A1200 is quite sought after and commands a high price as a result. Also, as noted, the newer models (A600 and A1200 in this case) suffer from capacitor leakage that can damage the mainboards, but there are people all over the world who replace them, and some resellers even offer them recapped (though you'll pay more for a serviced model than a random untested from someone's loft). If you opt for an A600 or A1200 that hasn't been recapped, you should budget to get that done as soon as you can. But the A500+ contains a NiCd battery, which will almost certainly have damaged the motherboard by now, and while the A500 doesn't have the battery or leaky capacitors on the motherboard, it often has a RAM expansion (to bring it up to the 1MB required by many games) containing one, and in some cases if this leaks, the leakage can travel and damage the motherboard itself.
  22. Yep, the cost of new machines is why I was still using my trusty 800XL up into the '90s. Well, graphics were probably the main focal point for the Amiga (and a huge step up from Micro Illustrator), and that power was a good thing to show off in magazines. So good in fact that it was still used for doing pixel graphics well into the 3D era in games studios, where artists were using DeluxePaint etc. to draw textures for Playstation games. But there's lots of other software out there too. One of the other popular things is music, and the Amiga has some very good sampling and tracking software - OctaMED, ProTracker, Soundtracker and more. These often had sampling facilities for recording and modifying samples, but there was separate software for that too like AudioMaster. It can do MIDI too with a cheap external adaptor, and some of the trackers can use it as well as dedicated MIDI software like Bars & Pipes, but the ST had that sewn up by building in the ports so it wasn't as popular on the Amiga. Then you've got software development, with a number of different languages, compilers and environment available - Basic, C, Pascal, ARexx, and of course there are a couple of well known assemblers too for assembly coding - AsmOne comes to mind. You mentioned word processors already, and there were a few great ones on the Amiga, but there's also a range of other productivity-type applications - databases, spreadsheets and so on. Scala was, and still is, an excellent bit of software for making interactive presentations (though you might still class it as graphics software). There were also a few CAD packages, both 2D and 3D, and of course there were 3D modelling and rendering packages like Real 3D, Imagine, Cinema4D, Lightwave. Naturally, without a CPU upgrade these will be pretty slow if they run at all... Then you can look at the whole world of comms - there was plenty of software that could use a standard serial modem to connect to BBSes and other services, and later when ISPs were more common, you could run a TCP stack to access the internet for FTP, Telnet, IRC, email and whatever else you wanted. Web browsing was also perfectly possible at the beginning of the web (indeed, the Amiga even had browser tabs long before Mozilla / Chrome etc.), but you needed a faster Amiga to keep up with progress, and by the late '90s/early '00s it was no longer possible to keep up with the rapid pace of change in web browsing.
  23. The interrupts are all active low, so if you're finding that the line is always low, there's a definite issue here. Since you've socketed the chip, what happens with that line when you power it up with the CIA removed? It won't boot obviously, but the INT line should still be high. The interrupts are open-collector, so the line should sit high and only be pulled low when something requests an interrupt. R954A is a pull-up, so even if it's measuring fine you should check it relative to the 5V rail. E.g., with the power off, check the resistance between pin 23 of the CIA and 5V at the floppy power connector. Also, if you've socketed both CIAs, you could swap it over and if INT2 is working with the suspect CIA in position U7 then you know the CIA itself is working fine and the issue lies elsewhere. Pin 23 on U7 can also be used as a reference for how the signal or pull-up should look as the circuitry in both cases is practically identical. Yep, the even CIA (U8) is the main source for INT6 on the motherboard, but that interrupt line is also available to other hardware on the trapdoor expansion port and on the internal clockport, and can also be driven by Gayle for PCMCIA hardware (IIRC the IDE port uses INT2). Are you testing with no other hardware attached at all, just the bare motherboard? Any signs of bent pins or damaged contacts on those expansion connectors? If the line is still pulled low with the CIA removed, and the pull-up is working as it should and has similar resistance to ground as INT2 at U7, it could indeed be a fault with Gayle or Paula. It's not a fault I've seen but anything's possible, and difficult to isolate without removing chips or cutting traces. Paula is the easier of the two to remove, and is the one actually responsible for handling interrupts, so if it came down to it, that's where I'd look.
  24. Yup, Mac emulation using Shapeshifter or Fusion is impressive, mainly because the code runs natively on the host CPU, making it more of a virtual machine than an emulator. This means that if you have a 50MHz '030 in your Amiga, you can expect performance roughly on par with a 50MHz '030 Mac. I used it extensively with System 7.5 or 7.6 back in the day on my '060 Amiga to run games like Settlers II, Sim City 2000 and more. Basilisk is a different story though - that also emulates the CPU, so give that one a miss unless you've a stonking fast (i.e. emulated) CPU to begin with. As for the Gotek, on mine you click the rotary control when an ADF is "inserted" and it gives an Eject menu. One of the items in there is to write protect it. I don't know how that is stored, but I doubt it's in the ADF itself as that's just a raw image, so there's probably a config file on the USB drive that you could have a look at. If you don't have a rotary encoder and just have the two buttons, I don't think you can do it that way. Maybe using the boot selector image on the USB drive instead might give you that option on-screen.
  25. Yep, generally good info there on the display. Productivity mode is very slow without AGA (and arguably still slow *with* AGA, but more colourful :p ), and isn't even available on the OCS A500. Another option is an external RGB-HDMI converter. These can be cheap or expensive, but even the expensive options like the OSSC are similar money to Indivision scandoublers and similar. These external converters typically take a SCART RGB signal, so you'll also need an Amiga SCART RGB cable (and not composite), and give as good a quality image as you're going to get from an Amiga's native RGB output. Regarding controllers, the Megadrive / Genesis controller isn't fully compatible (the pinout isn't standard and the pad's chips end up being powered by one of the Paula chip's I/O pins), but the risk of damage is low. Sometimes it simply won't work though due to the game, and fancy controllers (e.g. wireless Genesis controllers, arcade sticks with lights) don't work because of a lack of power. The MasterSystem controller is different though and is 100% compatible with the Amiga - it's wired for standard 2-button Amiga use. CD32 controllers can be read with lowlevel.library (which is supplied with Workbench 3.1 and above), but most games that support it read it directly by banging the hardware so you don't usually need to worry about that aspect. CD32 controllers have a notoriously poor D-pad, and can be expensive because people want the original, and the Honeybee 3rd party controllers (which were considered the best back in the day) go for crazy money too, but there are better options. First, there are adaptors that take standard USB controllers and map them as CD32 pads. Then you've got modern recreation pads like the KTRL-CD32 pad, which takes a generic SNES-style USB pad and replaces the innards to produce a CD32-compatible pad with some excellent extra features like being able to remap buttons, e.g. mapping up to a button. The C64 emulation is indeed going to be poor. It might work fine for a few things, but accurate emulation requires more horsepower. But, to answer the question, write-protecting with the Gotek depends on the firmware. If you use the FlashFloppy firmware, there's a small pop-up menu that lets you set an image as write-protected. But you need an OLED- or OSD-equipped Gotek for that.
×
×
  • Create New...