Welcome to my 'Amiga Ramblings' Page!Be sure to check the Executive Updates at Amiga International for the latest Amiga developments! My latest ramblings. My Amigas' configurations (Amithlon/AmigaXL,A4000,A1200) My Amiga Links My Ramblings Note: My ramblings go in chronological order, so if you want to skip to the 'good stuff', Click here to jump to my latest ramblings... Ever since I bought my Amiga 500 in 1990, I was convinced that it was the best computer on the market. I just wish that Commodore knew a little bit more about marketing--- Even at it's introduction to the public in '85 it was superior technology to the PC's of that day! It had 4096 colors, Sterio sound, Multitasking, 3-1/2" 880k floppy, a Graphics Accelerator, auto-configure of i/o cards, and a 32-bit processor (16-bit bus). If C= had marketed the Amiga right, I think that the Amiga would be the machine on everyone's desktop now instead of the PC. I still think that the Amiga has superior hardware when compared to the PC or MAC. Even with the so-called "Plug-and-Play" technology that Windows95 has doesn't even come close to Auto-Configure on the Amiga. I still have my original Amiga 500, but I haven't used it in a while since my hard drive died. A couple of months ago I bought a used A1200 with a 25mhz 68030 accelerator. I upgraded the memory to 32mb, so now I've got an Amiga 1200 with 32mb Fast RAM and 2mb Chip RAM. The thing FLIES!!! I haven't had time to do much with it besides install a Hard Drive, Workbench 3.1 and a few programs and demos. It is amazing to me that my 25mhz A1200 boots in less than 10 seconds, and my Pentium II 400mhz machine with 128mb of RAM takes over 40 seconds to boot Windows98! 1/3/2000 My 1200's almost up to speed... I was even using it during the rollover to 2000 - and guess what? It's compliant!!! Even though it was made back in 1993! Actually, my PC did fine as well, but it was made in 1998.
2/18/2000 Just a few updates to my system... (See my hardware configuration at the end...)
8/19/2000 I upgraded to Kickstart 3.1 and OS 3.5, but I could not get my DataFlyer SCSI+ controller to work with OS 3.5 until I disabled the 'scsi.device' update in the 3.5 boot sequence - the command in all of the documentation is WRONG! The correct command is: C:SetPatch QUIET SKIPROMUPDATES "scsi.device" Note that the 'S' was left off in every document I found - wether printed, or in FAQs on the Web! So, that aside, my DataFlyer works again, but trying to use an IDE CD Rom hangs the startup on the Mount... Any ideas? I've also found a 'flicker fix' on Aminet that fixed the problem of my video flickering every time my CPU was in heavy use (which was every time the HD was accessed! -- My Motherboard is revision 1D). The fix involves soldering a single capacitor to two empty pads on the A1200 motherboard. It works!!! Here's the file to download if your A1200 has the same problem: flickfix.lha
3/11/2001 Just a quick update -- I have not done much with my beloved Amy for a while -- I just haven't had much time. I purchased a router, so I can now browse the web with my Amiga through my Cable Modem. Unfortunately, browsing the web on the Amiga is quite a bit slower than the Wintel box, so I don't use it in that capacity much. I mostly use it to connect with AExplorer via TCP/IP. For web browsing, I'm using a registered copy of Miami and the 'Evaluation' copy of Voyager. I have not purchased Voyager, because in most cases, web pages load very slowly, especially when there are several graphics on the page, so I don't use it. Maybe one of these days I'll upgrade my processor to an 060/PPC solution.
4/09/2001 With all the rain a few weeks ago, my basement was flooded with a couple of inches of water. My Amiga's power supply was on the floor under my desk and got fried in the flood... So after our cleanup efforts had completed, I converted another 'salvaged' PC supply for use with it. It's an old Dell 224 Watt supply. I've also played with my hardware configuration a little bit to try to get a working CDRom drive in Linux. (Linux doesn't know how to use my Dataflyer SCSI+ adapter, so I was trying to get an IDE CDROM connected... (See my hardware configuration for a brief overview of my predicament...) I hooked up an IDE CDRom, and I am able to get it working when booting without a startup sequence, then mounting the drive. However, I can't get it to work with Workbench loaded! Removing the DataFlyer SCSI adapter from the IDE port and commenting out the drivers in the startup sequence yield no different results. I would just keep the IDE drive on there and boot into Linux, but since my Linux HD is a seperate physical drive, I can't boot into Linux with the CDRom attached -- I can't have all three drives on the bus at the same time... Humm... This DataFlyer SCSI adapter is turning out to be more of a pain than it's worth!!! I think I should switch to a 4-port buffered IDE interface... What do you think??? Anyone want to buy an A1200 DataFlyer SCSI+ controller and a couple of NEC 6X drives?
1/30/2002 Ok, Ok... I know it's been a while since I've updated this page. I've been busy and I haven't had much time to play with my Amiga... Anyways, I recently heard about AmigaXL and Amithlon (See Links below) and all I can say is WOW! Once I get the cash available, I am definitely going to buy the package! It's very interesting!!!
So, what have I done to my 'real' A1200 lately? Here's the latest: On a different note, I've been thinking about building an hardware device to use with UAE, AmigaXL and Amithlon that will allow Reading *and* WRITING to Amiga formatted floppy disks. I'm working out a few ideas in my head (and on paper)... So far I don't have anything to release yet. I'll let you know what I come up with... (And yes, I know about the CatWeasle controller, but it's $100, and can only write Amiga Disks when used in Amithlon - I want mine to be able to write Amiga format from ANYWHERE!, plus it wouldn't require a ISA slot!) What do you think -- is it a Worthwile cause??? I think so!
2/23/2002 Ok... I've done a couple of things... Since my A1200 was not a HD version, it did not come with the HD brackets. So, I set out to make my own mount to fit my 2.5" drive internally, and still use the 40-pin IDE cable. Click Here to see how I did it... I also updated my external Keyboard connector project to include a pictorial, and pictures for flickfix and PCMCIA reset... Alas, my Linux headaches were because my CD-Rom image *was* corrupt... So I downloaded the full ISO's for M68K (all three! Thank God for Cable Modems!!!), and got it to install most of the way, then I goofed up and hit the wrong key in haste... Now I don't know how to get back into that install screen from the linux command prompt... Maybe I'll just install it from 'scratch' again... Who knows... I'm just experimenting anyways...
6/5/2002 Lots of developments since February! I bought an Amiga 4000 Toaster/Flyer system on eBay. What an awesome system! It's just too bad that I can't expand the memory on it beyond 16MB fast ram without an Accelerator card (or Zorro) - so for the time being, my A1200 has more memory than my A4k... I bought the Amithlon/AmigaXL cd and have played with it a little bit. WOW!!! I LIKE THEM!!! I've also acquired some more hardware... Here's the list
9/18/2002 *** My Latest Ramblings... ***
I received the eBay SCSI controller - only to find out that it was not "The original one that came with the A4000" as described, but rather a DataFlyer SCSI interface. Oh well- I guess it's my fault for not asking the seller for more info as he didn't have a picture in the listing... I really wanted a 'real' Zorro SCSI adapter. Anybody want to trade??? My Amigas Here's my current PC configuration:
My current Amiga 4000 Toaster/Flyer Video Editing system: *NEW*
My current Amiga 1200 system:
Amiga hardware that I own, but have removed recently:
Other Amiga hardware that I own, but haven't used recently (IE: the last 2-3 years...):
The 'towerized' A500 mentioned above is my original Amiga 500. It's still in a box from when I moved THREE years ago. I just don't wan't to sell it!!! Too many memories!!! ** AMIGA LINKS ** Amiga International Haage & Partner Computer AMInet (HTTP Interface at us.aminet.net) AMInet (HTTP Interface at ftp.uni-paderborn.de) Workbench Nostalgia Page AmiMPC - Amiga based in car MP3 Player! Amiga.org David Ferguson's Amiga HomePage "Amiga Power User" Cloanto Amiga Forever (UAE Amiga Emulator on x86 hardware) WinUAE Home Page Back 2 the ROOTS Harv Laser's Amiga Zone AmigaZ.org Amiga Web Ring Amiga Web Directory {Retired} :-( Amiga Report Out of publication! :-(
(All links were verified on 6/20/2004 - Please email me if any are broken.)
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Jeff Artz Last Updated 6/20/2004 Back to TOP My latest ramblings. My Amigas' configurations (Amithlon/AmigaXL,A4000,A1200) My Amiga Links |
