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98PaceCar

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Posts posted by 98PaceCar

  1. Posted

    I think I must be not understanding something with the software. If I try to use the long filename option, it doesn't seem to be doing anything. I assume though that since this requires FAT16, that the 8.3 convention is required for files on the SD card so I'm not sure what long filenames should be doing.

     

    Also (and this comes from a Commodore user, I never had an 8 bit Atari before), is there any way to shut off the beeping while a program is loading? About to drive me up the wall! How did you guys deal with that all the time??!! :-)

  2. Posted

    I have a working HD (a real one), but I'm not sure how that helps. How would I get the new HDTools onto it?

     

    Tempest

     

    Ah, you can use an MSDOS transfer disk to move the archive over. I believe it's in the Storage folder (but it will depend on your setyp), there should be a device called PC0. If you move that into the devs folder, it will allow you to format and read floppies formatted for DOS. Then all you have to do is copy the lha file from your pc to the floppy and on to your amiga to work with it. To de-compress, lha x filename.lha. From there, you should be able to just copy the hdtoolbox over to a normal workbench disk and boot from that.

  3. Posted

    But I have no way to make an Amiga floppy. I don't have a Catweasel or anything fancy like that.

     

    Tempest

     

    Hmmm, I did my initial setup of the floppies while I still had a fully working HD in it. I can make one for you and send it over, but that will add some time to the process.

  4. Posted

    But how would I get it onto my Amiga if not via CF? Maybe through WinUAE?

     

    Incidentally I just found out that Ultima VII is playable on the Amiga via Exult. Freaking amazing!

     

    Tempest

     

    What I did when I built mine was setup a custom WB disk that had the new hdtoolbox on it. Formatted and setup the CF with that and then switched off to the normal disk versions of 3.1 and did just the install of the OS from those. Once it was set up the first time, everything else was normal.

  5. Posted

    Probably a stupid question.... but did you enable the boot flag in HDToolBox?

     

    --Zero

    I would if I could get HDToolbox to do anything on it. HDToolbox detects the card but it says it's of type Unknown. So when I have it get information on the card it comes back with some odd readings like negative space free and such. When I attempt to save the info I get some sort of error. So when I go back to the main screen all the options are shaded out except for the get info button.

     

    Tempest

     

    There's a later version of HDToolBox on Aminet that has support for CF drives. I have the info at home. Once I found that, it was a piece of cake to finish it out.

  7. Posted

    Sights were set too high. Come on, a video game console that also plays movies, using optical media? That'll NEVER catch on.

     

    He was about 10 years too early and $2500 too high to hit that market.

     

    Someone please answer ASAP: Did the football game for the Halycon come with a box and instructions? Pics appreciated. Need to find out within hours...

     

    Yes, it came with a box, instructions, keyboard overlay, laserdisk, and cartridge.

  9. Posted

    Dude, Pacecar, I LOVE your avatar!

     

    Thanks! A friend of mine got me hooked on Dr. Tran when it was at the Spike and Mike deal at Comicon a few years back. Been a huge fan ever since!

     

    There's a youtube video that display hundreds of assembled boxes. This video show the RDI building back in the day.

     

    I need find the video again to post here...

     

    Unless these boxes are empty, exist more than 10 units made.

     

    EDIT: Here's the video :

     

    And at 3:20, the boxes :

     

    RDI bought 1000 of the laserdisk units needed from Pioneer (a minimum order). The boxes you see are most likely just those units without the actual RDI components included. If there were that many around, a lot more collectors would be known to have them.

     

    But cool video to watch! I really think Dyer was giving all of the effort he could, but just had his sights set too high.

  10. Posted

    I want to use WinUAE and a CF card to move stuff from my computer to my Amiga (via the PCMCIA adapter). But I have some questions:

     

    1. Do I format the CF card in WinUAE as a hard drive or can I format it as a regular disk (of the correct size of course).

     

    2. If I do format it as a hard drive, will the Amiga recognize it if I already have another hard drive in there? Can the Amiga recognize two hard drives?

     

    3. If the answer to question two is Yes, how do I go about formating the card under WinUAE?

     

    Tempest

     

    I've seen some sites out there with info on this, but I've never done it. Always just transferred stuff via cd or more recently, pcmcia. I believe though that you will need to format the CF under WinUAE with an Amiga filesystem. From there, you can just copy directly to it from your pc.

     

    Not sure if the ide in the 1200 handles multiple drives. Would be interesting to know though!

  12. Posted

    No the person selling it didn't know what the hell they were talking about. The system is the LaserDisc player itself, that is what was sold. The desciption says something along the line of here's what you get, no console, no controllers... but the player is the console.

     

    The laserdisk player is only half of the console. What this person bought is a standard Pioneer LD-200 player with Halcyon branding. RDI had to buy a minimum number of units from Pioneer (1000 according to the guy that has the remainder of the RDI assets). The players were later bought out and sold as basic laserdisk players and come up from time to time. There is nothing Halcyon specific other than the branding on this one. The buyer paid about $1,050 too much for this.

     

    For info on what's actually required to make a complete Halcyon set and pics of a complete set, check here:

     

    http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg80-rdi.htm

  13. Posted

    I'm about halfway done converting my system over to run from CF. I have all of the files and such needed to do it if anybody else is interested. So far, it's been easier than any other HD install I've done on an Amiga. Seems like it runs a bit quicker than my old HD as well.

  15. Posted

    Scandoubler%20externo_r.jpg

     

     

     

    I also noticed that the colors on my monitor aren't quite right. For example if you look at this picture form DotC:

    http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/popup_scre....png&kuk=05

     

    You\'ll see that the background is supposed to be a brown color, but on my monitor it's black! Also the forest for Sherwood is supposed to be a medium green color but on my monitor it's a very very dark green. Are these issues due to the fact that my doubler isn't adjust correctly (there's a little dial you can adjust on the back but I never know which way to go), that my doubler doesn't support all the correct colors, or is it the monitor?

     

    I have an ISO for OS 3.9 so I figure I'll give it a shot once my CF adapter comes in. If it becomes too much of a drain on my system I'll fall back to 3.1.

     

    Tempest

     

    Hmm, this isn't one I've seen before. I will say I've always liked the idea of an external solution, but only because I have a large number of different systems I seem to swap between on a fairly regular basis. I'd have to assume that the image quality on the Indivision would be better than this one, but since you already have a way to make it work, it's a tough call.

     

    I'll have to defer judgement on this one to someone that knows more about the particular unit you have. It does look pretty nice though.

  16. Posted

    What is this Indivision you're talking about?

     

    Tempest

     

    Missed this one.. The Indivision is an internal flicker fixer/scanline doubler that gives you a VGA output. I haven't used one yet, but it is getting rave reviews among the community. I believe it's the first solution that gives a full 24bit color depth, which is necessary to get the full color spectrum that AGA Amigas are capable of outputting. The most compelling reason to get one is that it is the only "mass produced" solution available right now. A lot of ff/sd hardware goes for a lot of money on Ebay. If you check out amigakit.com, I believe they carry them.

  17. Posted · Edited by 98PaceCar

    If you have easy access to 3.9, you might try it out and see if you like it. I'm running it on my un-accelerated 3000 with no real issues. I do have a Picasso 2 video card in it, but I can't imagine that it would make up for the difference in CPU (030 @ 25mhz). I don't know that I would specifically seek it out though, unless you just like to tinker.

  18. Posted

    It certainly is. That's why I built what I consider an ultimate classic Amiga gaming rig :D (GVP 1230 Turbo+ / Jaws (68030 @40Mhz w/FPU) / 20MB RAM / 4GB internal CF HDD / Indivision AGA / Catweasel MK2 / PCMCIA Ethernet)

     

    Quick question about the Indivision... Did you have to remove the drive tray to use it? If so, how did you go about securing the IDE to CF adaptor?

     

    I stuck in the extra memory I had and it turns out it's 32MB and seems to be recognized by the Amiga (it played DotC 2 just fine for awhile).

     

    Tempest

     

    Glad you found some memory. I think 32mb will serve you well! Did you get your WHDLoad key yet? I'm curious how long it takes and how it works.

  19. Posted

    Most WHDload slaves will not write to the disk or save game data if you are not registered...

     

    You just solved a nagging problem for me! <runs off to register>

     

    It certainly is. That's why I built what I consider an ultimate classic Amiga gaming rig :D (GVP 1230 Turbo+ / Jaws (68030 @40Mhz w/FPU) / 20MB RAM / 4GB internal CF HDD / Indivision AGA / Catweasel MK2 / PCMCIA Ethernet)

     

    Nice setup! I have one of the GVP 1230s as well, but only 8 mb ram for it. I do have the SCSI addon though. Going to give my Blizzard 1240 a shot before I downgrade to the 030. Hoping it will be compatible enough, but I have the 030 to fall back on if I need it. I'm going to do the IDE to CF and plan on an Indivision as well. Does the Catweasel give you much benefit or do you just have it to have it?

  20. Posted

    Hmm, maybe I'm getting lucky and my bag-o-ram happens to have the right stuff in it. Could also be that my accelerator is just using the ram as it needs to and not getting any benefit from being EDO. I'll have to dig into that a bit. Have you tried any of the sticks you have yet? Maybe pull the Cobra and see what's in it now. That might help you figure out what you need.

     

    I agree with you on WHDLoad. I need to register it myself, just to support the team behind it.

     

    One thing I just thought of. On some accelerators, there can be a conflict when a pcmcia device is plugged in. Most of the time, it just prevents the extra ram from being used but I've also heard it can cause the system to not boot. It's easy enough to manage by temporarily pulling the accelerator while transferring data from pcmcia, but you might want to research that a bit before your kit shows up, just in case. Has something to do with how the memory is mapped.

  21. Posted

    Yep I have WHDLoad but it's the non-registered version. What does registering get you other than being able to bypass the start up screen?

    I'm still using the free version myself. I think it's more of a donationware model with this one. There's no extra functionality given for paying that I'm aware of.

     

    I have a scanline doubler (one of those odd purchasaes I made back before I was even really into Amiga) so I'm currently using a 20" VGA monitor with the Amiga and it looks great. Oddly there appears to be some color bleed in Workbench, but not in any game I played.

    Very nice! One thing to watch out for is the PAL/NTSC issue with some of the games. A lot of the WHDLoad packs and patches only support the PAL version. Hopefully your monitor and doubler can handle the 50hz signal. Not sure what would cause color bleed in Workbench. You may be able to switch screen modes and clear that up.

     

    What kind of specs do I need to look for on the memory? I have tons of old PC memory sticks laying around, but I don't know if they're compatible.

    It should be just a standard 72 pin SIMM, 70ns or faster, non edo. A lot of that will depend on your accelerator though, so you may want to grab the manual for it and check there. If you can't find one that works in your pile, let me know. I have a few extra that I can test here.

     

    I have Miami on my hard drive (I saw the folder anyway). Are there instructions somewhere on how to use it?

    I just did a quick google to see where the author's website is now and it appears to be gone. I know that he was upset about something with the software and dropped support at some point in the past, but maybe it's completely gone now. I'm pretty sure I have an install set for it at home, so I'll check for any docs it came with.

     

    I might try OS 3.9 since it looks pretty spiffy, but will I run into any game issues if I use it? I assume WHDLoad would take care of that anyway.

    I ran this config on my 4000 for a while and it seemed to be pretty stable. There were a few games that would lock up after some time, but I never tracked it down as being a problem with either WHDLoad or the Workbench. I'm thinking it was my accelerator, but never spent the time to figure it out for sure. There are a number of tooltypes (settings basically) that you can use to help WHDLoad run better on more advanced machines, so 3.9 shouldn't be a problem with it provided you are willing to fiddle with the settings.

     

    So I guess my gameplan here is:

     

    1. Get a new mouse (the left button is shot on mine)

    2. Get some more memory (16 MB stick)

    3. Get myself a PCMCIA to CF adaptor so I can move stuff back and forth between my computer and Amiga.

     

    Later on I'll...

     

    4. Upgrade to Kickstart 3.1

    5. Flash my Cobra card so I can use Kickstart 3.1

    6. Upgrade to OS 3.9

    7. Look into a CD drive (or just use the PCMCIA to CF adaptor).

     

    Those later games look interesting, but I don't really feel like dropping money on all the stuff I need to play them (new accelerator, external graphics card (if that's even possible on a 1200), CD drive, etc.). At that point you're getting into 'Amiga extremist' type stuff. :) All I want to do is play some good games and maybe DotC 2 (assuming there's a WHDLoad for that).

    That should get you a very usable system for gaming. Most of the games won't take that much hardware to run and there is a large amount of really good stuff. The later games always looked interesting to me, but not so much so that I wanted to build a system to run it. By the time you build up a good 4000 to run them, you've spent what a modern PC would cost.

     

    I'll check my packs to see if I have a DotC 2 setup. I know that the first one is there (ran a demo at a show with it).

     

    BTW I've read that some people use a CF card or SD card instead of a hard drive on the Amiga. But then I've also read that those aren't meant to be hard drive replacements and burn out after a couple thousand write cycles. Is this true or is that old info (this was an article from around 01 or 02)?

    There is (or was) some truth to CF cards having issues after a fairly small amount of write cycles. I know the newer cards are better, but it's still a finite number (I want to say 1,000,000 plus). The nice thing about Amiga OS is it doesn't really need to write to the drive for it's normal operations. In a WHDLoad centric environment, most of what it will be doing is reading data and not writing, so it becomes less of an issue. I know one guy that has been using a CF in his 1200 for several years now and has had no problems at all. My plan is to just buy a nice brand name card (Sandisk seems to be a good one) and try it out. They've gotten cheap enough now that I'm willing to risk it. If you have Microcenter in your area, they seem to be a good source (4gb for $13 the last time I bought one).

  22. Posted

    Thanks for the information. I really appreciate it.

     

    Is the Kickstart 3.1 really all that necessary? As you pointed out I'll need to update the firmware on my accelerator to make it work and the roms themselves are about $30. I'll do it if needed, but is it really? Then again, OS 3.9looks pretty nifty, but I'll need a CD Drive to install it anyway.

     

    How much memory do I really need? As you pointed out I can go up to 128MB, but how much do I really need? All I plan on doing on this Amiga is playing games, nothing too complex. I do have a PCMCIA ethernet card that I'd like to use, but that's about as complex as I'll probably get.

     

    What do you know about external video cards? I see there are some games that support them (like Simon the Sorcerer II). Are there enough of them to worry about it or is it only needed if I want to play things like Hexen or Quake?

     

    Tempest

     

    No problem at all! I've been doing Amiga since it was new, so I've always had a soft spot for them!

     

    For a gaming platform, Workbench 3.0 is more than fine. If you were looking at doing more than that, I'd suggest the 3.1 Kickstart and 3.9 Workbench though. Especially since you already have an accelerator. To just play with it, save your money. The later Workbenches moved the platform closer to modern GUI design and added a lot of nice perks, but to run games the older ones are just as good. You may run into a partition size limit on 3.0, but off the top of my head I don't remember what it is. I've heard it is possible to install 3.9 without a cd, but it does require one of the PCMCIA to CF adaptors and a CF cart big enough to hold the CD. I haven't tried it first hand, but I don't see any reason it wouldn't work as I have run many Amiga apps from the PCMCIA slot.

     

    I wouldn't put any effort into going past 16 or 32 mb ram. Those are pretty cheap and easy to find. Personally, I've never had more than a 16mb stick in any of my systems and have had no problems at all. I haven't tried to break into the later releases though, so if that's your goal you may want to consider more. Truthfully, an 030 won't cut it on those games anyway, so you'd need to build something a bit more robust. For the bulk of the library, 16mb is more than fine. Most of the OCS and ECS games run in either 512k or 1mb, so even with the added overhead of Workbench and WHDLoad, 18 mb total is more than enough. You may even want to stick with your 4mb for the time being and see if you run into any issues. My guess is you will be ok on most things.

     

    You can set up a TCP stack under 3.0. I believe Miami is still somewhat available and I think there is even a freebie stack on Aminet. I've used Miami before and it seemed to work pretty good. If you want to use a PCMCIA card, make sure it's a 16 bit and 5v card. There are a few websites around that talk about the specific requirements. From my experience, the one to have is the 3CCE589EC from 3Com.

     

    The video cards that I'm aware of require one of the big box Amiga's (2000, 3000, 4000). This is another expense that unless you are REALLY into Amiga, you won't want to get into. The amount of titles that take advantage of them is pretty small. One thing you may want to consider is getting one of the new Indivision AGA add on cards. It's a flicker fixer/scan doubler and gives a nice VGA output on a 1200/4000/CD32. I haven't gotten one for my setup yet, but it's next on the list.

     

    Do you have WHDLoad running on your system yet? It's one of the single best things to ever happen to Amiga gaming!

  23. Posted · Edited by 98PaceCar

    Ok how do I go about upgrading the Kickstart and OS? You said the Kickstart is on roms? Once I upgrade the Kickstart I assume I can use a disk to upgrade the OS?

     

    I appears I have Kickstart version 39.104 and Workbench 39.29

    Ok, the 39.104 kickstart is 3.0 and the Workbench should be 3.0 as well (going from memory). Kickstart is just a pair of roms on the motherboard and the workbench is stored on the HD (installed from a set of floppies for versions 3.0 and lower, CDROM for 3.5 and 3.9). I've seen both Kickstart and Workbench for sale on ebay before, but I did find an issue with your system that may prevent you from being able to upgrade easily. I wasn't familiar with your DKB Cobra, so I looked it up in the hardware guide. Turns out, it requires a firmware update to be able to address it's additional memory when used with 3.1 Kickstart roms. I'm sure if you check on the various Amiga forums, somebody has that, but it does add some complexity to the job.

     

    How do I go about upgrading the RAM? What kind do I need?

    This is where it's good that you have an accellerator (and an 030 at that!!). The DKB will take any standard 72 pin SIMM. Not sure of speed requirements, but I always try to stick with 70ns or 60ns (but in reality, I use whatever I have on hand). Looks like the SIMM slot is mounted on the back of the card, so as long as it physically clears you should be able to go up to 128mb on it.

     

    One button or two? I thought I read somewhere that Genesis pads work on the Amiga, is that true?

    I believe that a Genesis pad will work. I haven't run across enough games that need 2 buttons that I have ever even tried it though.

     

    Incidentally I have a DKB Cobra Accelerator installed. I know it had an optional SCSI card called the Ferret, but I've never seen one for sale.

    Since the 1200 has build in IDE and you can easily set it up to work with compact flash over PCMCIA or even network it via TCP, I've never worried about trying to set up a SCSI adaptor for the 1200. I do use the built in SCSI in my 3000 to have access to a CDROM, but that was for convenience in transferring files over. It does look like this is a pretty decent accellerator, so that should be a tremendous help with WHDload. Being that it's an 030 should keep compatibility high as well.

  24. Posted

    I'm in the process of building what I consider to be the ultimate gamers 1200. My plan is to run all of my games via WHDLoad from a compact flash card instead of a traditional hard drive. To do that, I have ordered a CF to IDE adaptor. That should cover my storage needs with a simple 4gb CF card.

     

    To get the full benefit out of WHDLoad, it's best to have an accellerator (the 030 series seems to be the most compatible) and you really want at least 4mb of fast ram, but depending on the accellerator you can cheaply add more than that. I currently have a Blizzard 040 with 16mb ram in it and have had no problems at all running any of the classic games.

     

    I'll address your specific questions below.

     

    1. From the color scheme I appear to be running Workbench version 2.x (no idea how you actually tell). Is this good enough for games, or do I need to upgrade to one of the 3.x versions?

     

    2. I appear to have 2MB of Graphics Memory and 4MB of Other Memory. Is this enough for games, or do I need to add more?

     

    3. My mouse appears to be flaky. It moves just fine, but when I click the buttons they only appear to work half the time. Is Do Atari ST mice work with the Amiga? Are there better 3rd party alternatives?

     

    4. Is a CD drive necessary for games? I used WHDLoad, but I know they made some games on CD.

     

    5. What kind of joystick do I need for games? Is the Amiga joystick unique or will an Atari ST one work?

     

    6. Can you write Amiga disks on a PC?

     

    Anything else I should know?

     

    Tempest

     

    1. All 1200's should have at least the 3.0 Kickstart in them. The later ones have 3.1. If you have 3.1 roms and an accellerator, OS 3.9 is a very nice upgrade. Of special interest to 1200 users, 3.9 added a built in TCP stack which you can use with certain PCMCIA network cards. If you really are running OS 2.x, I would say at least upgrade to 3.0 or 3.1, depending on your Kickstart version.

     

    2. The 4mb of fast ram should suit you fine on most WHDLoad games, but more is always better. 16mb to 32mb seems to be the sweet spot between cost and benefit.

     

    3. Some ST/Amiga mice are switchable or you can build an adaptor. The later Amiga Technologies mice seem to be very nice (just got my first one).

     

    4. A CD isn't really necessary. As someone above said, most of the CD32 games are slightly enhanced versions of disk based games. WHDLoad does support some of the CD32 and even CDTV games though.

     

    5. Standard Atari style joystick. Nothing fancy here.

     

    6. The only way I know of to write Amiga disks on a PC is via a Catweasel board, but if you get a Compact Flash to PCMCIA adaptor you can move .adf files to the Amiga and write the images out there easily. If you check out the www.amigakit.com website, they sell an adaptor along with software that makes this very easy. I think it's still less than $20 for the hardware and software to do it.

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