Commodore Galore!

[Gunstar]

Well, this past week I bought a bundle of Commodore stuff off a dealer that had it all tucked away in the back room. I was also supposed to get some Atari stuff, like an 800XL and 1010 and such, but they "mysteriously disappeared" I may get them later. Anyway, I did get an Amiga 2000 (less the keyboard, but tested and works otherwise), an Amiga 500 (tested, drive doesn't respond), and two external Amiga drives, one works, one doesn't. The 2000 has a built in hard drive, which is nice, and full of software! I also got two C128's and two 1571 disk drives, and one C64 with two program recorders and four 1541 drives and a modem&parallel interface. Tons of software for both the 8-bit's and 16-bits. Lastly, I also got a 1084s (?) Commodore monitor, which is now hooked up through RGB to the Amiga 2000 and through s-video to my 1200XL (looks good). Replacing an Apple color composite monitor that will soon be hooked up to one of the C128s instead. I got it all for 50 bucks!

But, there was a lot missing too. I have no serial cables for hooking any of the C64/128 drives up to the computers, only one power cord for all the drives, and I need an Amiga 2000 keyboard or compatible.

Does the Amiga 2000 use a standard XT style PC keyboard or a special Amiga only one? I ask because it has the standard XT din port on it, but I tried to use a PC AT style keyboard (with an adapter for mini-din to standard), with no success. But I'm still wondering if a PC XT style with the standard din connector will work?

I'm going to keep one of the C128's and the two 1571 drives, but I'll clean&repair the other C128, Amiga 500 and C64 and the four 1541's and put them up for sale or trade. so I'm looking for a keyboard for the 2000, and a bunch of serial cables (at least six) for the drives. Can anyone help me out?

 

By the way, if anyone is looking for never used, complete C64 or Apple II Printshop software, I have it. I have a few other Apple programs and some IBM stuff too, I'll post it all up for sale/trade once I go through it and see if it works. But the Printshop stuff was never used, still sealed.

[Ze_ro]

Does the Amiga 2000 use a standard XT style PC keyboard or a special Amiga only one?

 

I'm pretty sure it's Amiga specific... even if you could hook up an XT keyboard, you'd be missing keys like the Amiga keys and the Help key and such, so I'm not even sure that you could get a proper adaptor (although I could be wrong).

 

The good news is that all Amiga keyboards are compatible, so the keyboard from any other Amiga (except the 500 and 600 of course, they're built-in) should work.

 

As for serial cables, I don't know of any really reliably source for them. If you have an electronics store nearby, you might want to ask them if they have anything like that, since it seems like a pretty basic cable. However, you might want to look through thrift stores and such. I've found quite a few of the cables at the Value Village stores around Winnipeg. There's also probably online places that still sell Commodore equipment... do a search on Google, and I'm sure you'll find somewhere that sells them. And of course, the 1541 uses standard PC power supply cords...

 

Don't suppose you found any C-128D's, did you? I found the keyboard for one a while back, but never found the actual system

 

--Zero

[Gunstar]

Nope. No C-128D's, just two of the usual. I'll be checking back in with that dealer this coming week, to see if he may have the Amiga keyboard and some more cables around that showed up, and also the Atari 800Xl&stuff I saw. He had a couple more C64's and VIC20's, boxed, that he didn't include and one of the later model TI99/4a's (the grey styled case instead of brushed metal) and a few other odds and ends. He's just finally cleaning up twenty years of "old junk" he's had laying around, he only cares to keep and sell classic and modern consoles now. He just wanted to unload all the old computer stuff. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a C-128D though, for you.

[Retro Rogue]

Well, this past week I bought a bundle of Commodore stuff off a dealer that had it all tucked away in the back room. I was also supposed to get some Atari stuff, like an 800XL and 1010 and such, but they "mysteriously disappeared" I may get them later. Anyway, I did get an Amiga 2000 (less the keyboard, but tested and works otherwise), an Amiga 500 (tested, drive doesn't respond), and two external Amiga drives, one works, one doesn't. The 2000 has a built in hard drive, which is nice, and full of software! I also got two C128's and two 1571 disk drives, and one C64 with two program recorders and four 1541 drives and a modem¶llel interface. Tons of software for both the 8-bit's and 16-bits. Lastly, I also got a 1084s (?) Commodore monitor, which is now hooked up through RGB to the Amiga 2000 and through s-video to my 1200XL (looks good). Replacing an Apple color composite monitor that will soon be hooked up to one of the C128s instead. I got it all for 50 bucks!

But, there was a lot missing too. I have no serial cables for hooking any of the C64/128 drives up to the computers, only one power cord for all the drives, and I need an Amiga 2000 keyboard or compatible.

Does the Amiga 2000 use a standard XT style PC keyboard or a special Amiga only one? I ask because it has the standard XT din port on it, but I tried to use a PC AT style keyboard (with an adapter for mini-din to standard), with no success. But I'm still wondering if a PC XT style with the standard din connector will work?

 

No, the 2000 (I have one - upgraded it to use a SCSI hard drive and it has the 8088 bridgeboard) uses an Amiga specific keyboard and mouse.

I'll have it on display in the museum at the MWC, if you're coming down

bring your 2000 if you want and we can hook up my keyboard and mouse to it if you want to test your system out. Mine was a developer system, so I have a bunch of development software, games, etc. you can copy to your hard drive as well if you want.

 

I'm going to keep one of the C128's and the two 1571 drives, but I'll clean&repair the other C128, Amiga 500 and C64 and the four 1541's and put them up for sale or trade. so I'm looking for a keyboard for the 2000, and a bunch of serial cables (at least six) for the drives. Can anyone help me out?

 

There are still plenty of Amiga dealers selling old stock on the net, and 2000 parts (including keyboards and mice) regularly show up on ebay for pretty cheap. Same with the Commodore specific serial cables, although you might try posting to one of the commodore specific usenet news groups asking for them.

 

As far as that Amiga 500, is it the floppy drive that doesn't work? Or was it modded with a hard drive that's not working? I'd be interested in it for use if it works, or display purposes if the floppy doesn't work. Amiga floppy drives are Amiga specific as well, so they can become a bit pricey to replace.

[Gunstar]

the A500 does not appear to be upgraded in anyway and I don't think it has a hardrive (at least it doesn't work either if there is one, I haven't opened it to look), I turn it on and it just shows the "work bench" disk screen with the hand holding the disk. No lights, or noise or anything at all from the floppy drive. I didn't bother looking into it further yet, to see if it's a reletively simple fis or not, as I've been messing with, reading up on and testing out the A2000, even without the keyboard I can play some games and at least check out the workbench and what's on the hardrive. What I know about it is that it has about a 500meg hard drive, and I think one meg of memory...the workbench bar at the top shows: 934,080 for "graphic memory" and 3,000,000+ for "other memory." I'm assuming the "other memory" is the hard drive and I believe, if my math is correct, that the 934,080 translates to just over 900K, about what's left after the OS, workbench, etc. use some space. So I figure the memory hasn't been upgraded froom 1meg yet, though I intend to upgrade it to the max internal of 8 or 9megs(?). It has OS 3.1 chip installed. Will the 3.9 or later versions work in the A2000? I think I want to upgrade the 68000 to the highest the A2000 can use...68040? 68060? and any other upgrades I can get, maybe video etc.

Why is interlaced mode so "flickery"? is this just the 1084S monitor? or is interlaced mode like that no matter the display? It's horrendous! I thought PAL flicker was bad till I saw this!

I'd like to get some of that software off of you, maybe I will bring it to the MWC if I make it, I have to work Saturday morning, so it wouldn't be till afternoon when I make it, if at all. I'll bring along the A500 too. I have the mouse for the A2000, just no keyboard.

 

Lastly, anyone have any links to good Amiga dealers? I found two, but I'd like more, one wants $57 for a A2000 keyboard, the other about $39, I would have ordered it, but they have no way to add the used/refurbished stuff to your "shopping cart"...only new stuff?!?!?

[Gunstar]

Well, I was checking out the A2000 some more, just to see how it is equiped, and I have discovered that the HD is about a 500meg drive, and that the memory of the system seems to have been expanded to 4megabytes. It has an "8meg" card in it, but only half the sockets are populated by ram chips. But that's enough for now. When I took the card out and booted the system, it showed 730,500 (aprox.) of "graphic" memory and "0" for "other memory." With the card installed, the graphic memory jumps to about 940,000 (aprox.) and the "other memory" is well over 3,000,000+++ (aprox.) which I believe, if my math is correct, comes to about 4 megabytes of memory. Everything else seems stock, including the 68000. pretty cool system to start out with though...now I just need to upgrade it with an accelerator board and a new 68xxx chip to get it up to about 50mhz...maybe a better graphics board that allows VGA monitor and 256 colors, etc.

[tyranthraxus]

That 1084S monitor is a good find. The stereo version gets a good

price on ebay over the regular 1084 mono version. I am trying

to remember why you are getting that flickering but as I recall you

needed a different monitor for interlace mode.

[Gunstar]

Everything works fine when in interlaced mode, but it looks like it's refreshing at about 25-30mhz instead of 60 or even PAL 50mhz. Just think of a PAL display's flickering, if you've seen it and are used too NTSC, then double the intensity and annoyment and you have a very headache enducing display. Would it, you think, be because of the 1084 being 15hz instead of 30hz monitor? Maybe a multisync is required to have all the traditional Amiga modes work good on the same monitor? Did Commodore make a multisync for the Amiga themselves? There are two switches on the monitor, one in front, that I use to switch between RGB and composite, maybe the one on the back is for interlaced RGB/standard RGB? I'll have to look into that. I hadn't thought about that before, I assumed it was the same thing, just one in front and one in back...

 

I have another question, about the 3.5" floppy drives. The A2000 I have only has one internal floppy, which seems to work fine, but I also go two externals with it, one of which seems to work, it did seem to read disks yesterday, but not today...Anyway, my question is about installing the second internal drive. I am trying to use one of the external drives. I removed it from the case and put the dipswitch on "1" assuming the first drive is set for "0." I then plugged it in exactly the same as the first, using the second connector on the drive ribbon cable, and I also twisted the three or four lines 180 degrees just like on the first drive (lines near the red wire side). But when I did this, neither drive responded and the busy lights stayed on on both and it just booted from the hardrive instead of booting the disk(s) in the drive(s). I don't see why and external drive couldn't be used internally, it looks the same as the other internal drive and it seemed to work externally, so I figure I must have it hooked up wrong. Would the second drive be hooked up (ribbon cable wise) the opposite of the first? should I not have twisted the few ribbon wires the same as the first? I only see the one cable and no second mount for a second cable on the mother board, so I figure it must use the same cable, especially since the ribbon cable came equiped with the second drive IDE connector (or whatever it is, I get the IDE/scsi/etc. stuff misxed up still). Any help welcome. Maybe someone who has the A2000 with both internal drives can help? Thanks for whatever... :wink:

[Retro Rogue]

the A500 does not appear to be upgraded in anyway and I don't think it has a hardrive (at least it doesn't work either if there is one, I haven't opened it to look), I turn it on and it just shows the "work bench" disk screen with the hand holding the disk. No lights, or noise or anything at all from the floppy drive.

 

Well, the obvious question would be do you have the workbench disk inserted in the floppy drive? It needs the workbench disk to boot, and that's what that startup screen usually means. Your 2000 auto-boots because it probably has the workbench image on the hard drive already, which would also means it has a later kickstart rom (since the first couple of revisions didn't have auto-boot). Does the label on the front of the case say 2000 or 2000HD?

 

I didn't bother looking into it further yet, to see if it's a reletively simple fis or not, as I've been messing with, reading up on and testing out the A2000, even without the keyboard I can play some games and at least check out the workbench and what's on the hardrive. What I know about it is that it has about a 500meg hard drive, and I think one meg of memory...the workbench bar at the top shows: 934,080 for "graphic memory" and 3,000,000+ for "other memory." I'm assuming the "other memory" is the hard drive and I believe, if my math is correct, that the 934,080 translates to just over 900K, about what's left after the OS, workbench, etc. use some space. So I figure the memory hasn't been upgraded froom 1meg yet, though I intend to upgrade it to the max internal of 8 or 9megs(?). It has OS 3.1 chip installed. Will the 3.9 or later versions work in the A2000?  

 

That's a self mod the owner did and you will have one problem - older games and programs from the "heyday" of Amiga (the 80's) most likely will not run. If it's been upgraded to Kickstart 3.1 then that means the other chips on the board have been upgraded as well to as far along as possible. Don't confuse the Kickstart 3.1 rom chip with the actual OS (the 3.9), they're two different things that have a symbiotic relationship. 3.9 OS do require the 3.1 kickstart roms to be installed. But I'm not sure about the other hardware support chips (sound, graphics) that need to be installed as well.

 

I think I want to upgrade the 68000 to the highest the A2000 can use...68040? 68060? and any other upgrades I can get, maybe video etc.

 

OS3.9 supports PowerPC's. I will warn you, that's the most expensive part of the upgrade for a 2000. Acellerator cards (as the processor upgrades are called) are pretty expensive even now, and depending on the what it includes run from $150 on up. Most of the midrange to higher end cards include ram slots as well.

 

Why is interlaced mode so "flickery"? is this just the 1084S monitor? or is interlaced mode like that no matter the display? It's horrendous! I thought PAL flicker was bad till I saw this!

 

Unfortunately that's a problem of some of the early Amiga 2000 motherboard revisions. Later revisions (it was produced until the early 90's) had a flicker fix.

 

I'd like to get some of that software off of you, maybe I will bring it to the MWC if I make it, I have to work Saturday morning, so it wouldn't be till afternoon when I make it, if at all. I'll bring along the A500 too. I have the mouse for the A2000, just no keyboard.

 

No problem, the event is running until 8pm. I'll bring the big box of software I have and I can possibly take a look at your setup as well.

 

Lastly, anyone have any links to good Amiga dealers? I found two, but I'd like more, one wants $57 for a A2000 keyboard, the other about $39, I would have ordered it, but they have no way to add the used/refurbished stuff to your "shopping cart"...only new stuff?!?!?

 

It's called google.

[Gunstar]

Thanks for the tips. Of course I inserted the workbench disk when I booted the system, but it doesn't help much if the disk drive does not respond. As far as OS 3.1 rom is concerned, I hadn't looked for it, I just know the workbench and other related utility files on the hardrive are version 3.1, so I'd assume the rom chip is too. I can see nothing else that looks like an "upgraded" system except the memory card, the 68000 is original, and I mean ORIGINAL, this is probably the first version ever made, it's HUGE! I see no other "upgraded" chips, only two slots are filled, one with the harddrive and the other with the memory. Oh, and yes, the label say Amiga 2000, not HD, so i'm sure the HD was added later. About your program incompatibility concerns, I've tried several games from the 80's and 90's and they work fine. Although I do only have about 20 games for it so far. I haven't tried them all yet, but the only one that didn't boot up so far was Arctic Fox, and I realize that that is an early game, so you may have something there about compatibility issues, but then, it could be a bad floppy, it is about 18 years old after all, but I'll test further...but I'm really not concerned about the early games anyway, the majority of them I can get or have for my 1040ST and Atari 8-bits and the c128 and all the calssic consoles I have, I'm more interested in the post '90 software for the Amiga. I plan on upgrading the 2000 as far as I can, being that it's still a 16-bit model, as far as I know, I don't think I can upgrade it with 32-bit components can I? Can I actually upgrade the 2000 with PowerPC chips? My intensions for the system are eventual web surfing and graphic arts and stuff like MP3 players and AVI players etc. That's about it. I plan on doing the same with my ST too. Eventually I'll get the new AmigaONE with the G3 G4 CPU's and maybe one of the Atari TOS clones like the milan, and leave the Intel/PC world far behind as long as I can. I've always destested PC's and only use them currently as a neccessary evil. As soon as I can get away form it, I will, keeping just my laptop PC for a file server for my 8-bit and 16-bit computers. $150 or $200 for the best upgrade cards doesn't faze me at all, after all, I payed $50 for two Amigas, two C128's. a C64 and a bunch of drives, software and accessories, so I figure if I spen a few hundred to get the 2000 upgraded to what I want, that's really all I've spent on it. I got my 1040ST system for $20, and feel the same way about upgrading it. If you look at the prices that Amiga's and ST/TT/Falcons are still selling for at online dealers, I'll be way ahead of anyone who purchased one of these classics from a dealer, having only spent about as much as they, but having a FULLY upgraded system for the same price approximately. It's my passion anyway (classic systems) so spending a few hundred here and there is nothing to me. I do hope to make it to MWC though, and have you, an experienced Amiga user, look over mys system and tell me exactly what I got and what I can do to improve it the best way... Maybe I will keep that A500 though, if just to play the classic 80's games on that may not run on my 3.1 system...

[Gunstar]

Lastly, anyone have any links to good Amiga dealers? I found two, but I'd like more, one wants $57 for a A2000 keyboard, the other about $39, I would have ordered it, but they have no way to add the used/refurbished stuff to your "shopping cart"...only new stuff?!?!?

 

It's called google.

 

Uh...yes I'm aware of that, but it's still a LOT easier to get recommendations from people instead of searching pages and pages of links on a google search, and taking forever to discover which sites are the best, so why not ask for a good site addresses/links form people who alreay know? So PLEASE give me some good site links...

[Retro Rogue]

Here's an ebay auction for an Amiga 2000 keyboard that closes in about another day. It's only at $5.

 

Amiga 2000 Keyboard