Transforming old PC hardware into powerful classic Amigas

[alpyre]

Amithlon is another option to consider, if your oldie hardware suits its needs...

[salax54]

Wow! This topic is right on time! I hope we can soon have a guide or two for something like that, because it involves my new project. What i'm after is a multiple-personality machine, and i have a question: Does UAE (be it Win or E) support reading adf files from floppy? I mean having the file as data on a pc-formatted floppy instead of just transferring it. It would be cool if i can have a floppy drive reading the adf from disks instead of dumped to the hard disk.

[rare_j]

Have a look at what this guy did.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=49465

It's not PE but it looks fun. Although he does go too far and removes the F12 option, I would leave that in myself.

[Bloodwych]

salax54, that's an interesting request about adf's on floppies. Can't say I've ever thought about it myself. I'd imagine it's a waste of time as the adf would get read in one go then cached by windows rather than accessed like a normal Amiga disk.

rare_j, nice find!!!!! I too would leave in the F12 option. I'll have a read through. This could turn out to be a great project, or rehash of previous projects. I'd like to have it running off USB stick and hard drive ideally. radon_22, since you've already done this - have you got your old project available to help out too?

[Charlie]

Interesting project...

FWIW: I've always been v. keen on making Amiga's out of PC hardware. Sadly though it's not developed any more I'd say Amithlon still remains the 'most authentic' route to a x86-based 'classic' Amiga...
...wonderful though WinUAE undoubtedly is the underlying OS will always prevent it from 'feeling' like an Amiga. Amithlon is a pig to set up with modern hardware but if you're selecting older components for the purpose it's not difficult at all.

X-Amiga's another option, though again sadly not actively developed.

ReactOS could make an interesting basis for such a project - especially as it's free. I wonder if it's mature enough? And if it would cause the same 'un-Amiga like' feel in the 'emulation layer'..?

[Bloodwych]

Charlie, I hear what you and alpyre are saying about Amithlon - plus you wrote a fantatastic guide to it as well. If people are patient enough I'm sure it's a great solution.

Once WinUAE is full screen I don't really notice the emulation - the trick is getting it to cold boot into full screen emualtion without a hint of Windows XP.

I'd personally like to concentrate on a BartPE/small-XP and WinUAE solution, but anyone wanting to go a different route is of course very welcome.

[salax54]

@Bloodwych: true, it might be so, but, oh the joy! Would give at least half the feeling of actually using floppies! My plans involve the "harassment" of an A2000 case, but in a way never done before
All i can say at the moment is that there will be two motherboards in there...

[Kitty]

ITX or even miniITX classic Amiga, sounds an awesome idea, what would be the best specs needed for such a system to run classic amiga games successfully?
I think a nice mini cube case would look sexy

[Photon]

I don't really care about somehow covering up that I'm running WinUAE in XP, I wouldn't have any way of concealing that I'm using a PC keyboard anyway And where would I hide the beige metal box with the noisy PSU fan?

I'm not towering any Amiga and adding a PC keyboard and LCD monitor to it either, if a visitor has questions I'll proudly explain why I have an Amiga on my work desk.

Then again, the idea of having a PC for the sole purpose of using it as an Amiga has its merit. But I'd rather use Amiga on loved and cared for hardware than deprecated hardware.

[salax54]

Well, i guess it's time i reveal my secret project!
Although still not even half-way there, you can "get the picture"












Sorry about the image sizes, but resizing them in edit mode doesn't seem to work
Not much to say yet, but the red arrows on the last pic is where i had to drill new holes on the ATX psu to make it secure inside the A2000 case..
Oh, and yes, that's a PPC MacMini in there too

EDIT: Ok, i did some resizing, but where the pics are originally hosted... Hope it's better this way..

[Bloodwych]

Nice pics, but as you said HUGE!!!!! Looks like a fun project - start a thread in the hardware section.

I've had another look into this and it all seems too easy.

Rather than BartPE, MicroXP is the way to go (Google it). It's a 99MB ISO, installs in under 5 minutes and you can install all the correct drivers for your hardware.

Then, using the great guide rare_j posted from lelezetec, it will boot directly into full screen WinUAE VERY quickly:

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=49465

It almost seems too easy to do!!!! But here you can have a fast booting Amiga x86 with the power of WinUAE, for virtually no cost if you have old hardware lying around. An Atom powered ITX would work well with this setup. I'm going to try this soon with my ClassicWB packs.

[Bloodwych]

By the way, if anyone trys the above out before me, let us know and take some pics!

[rare_j]

Micro XP looks a bit dodgy... I think if Windows XP is networked and on t'internet then it needs to run windows updates and it needs a virus scanner (unfortunately). This means a full and licensed copy of XP, it's the only way to be sure!
Isn't there a windows XP licence sticker on the side of any useful hardware anyway these days?

[Bloodwych]

I'd never use TinyXP or MicroXP as a Windows operating system - I have my original CD's for that, plus it's kind of pointless.

But for the purpose of only running WinUAE and Amiga emulation on an old piece of junk or specific purpose ITX build, I think it's fine. After all, we are talking about a hobby system that may not even be connected to the net! It's just a project, probably an offline one.

MicroXP has not got any networking software included anyway - it's been ripped out - and you can install a third party firewall and only allow WinUAE to have outbound and inbound traffic behind a router.

To use a full blown XP with updates and virus checking kind of negates the idea of building an Amiga x86 where you want to forget XP was ever installed. This thing would never get anywhere near communicating with my other PC's! Just a little hobby side build which I can pretend is a classic Amiga machine.

[gulliver]

@Bloodwych

MicroXP is great!!!
By the way at least MicroXP 0.82 supports both ethernet and wireless networks, it even has a browser called Browzar which has CSS and flash support in a single 223kB file!
It is excellent for the ultimate WinUAE box.
The only downside is that driver installation is tricky.

[Bloodwych]

Good to know gulliver. What I meant by the network stuff is I think workstation and terminal services, remote services etc isn't included, generally the things required for joining local domains and setting up local/home networking. Perhaps it is? Although I'd never use it.

I see that it does have internet facilities and that browser sounds barmy!

How is the driver installation tricky - can't you just install the drivers via device manager if the normal setup files are not working?

[radon_22]

Originally Posted by Bloodwych

Then, using the great guide rare_j posted from lelezetec, it will boot directly into full screen WinUAE VERY quickly:

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=49465

It almost seems too easy to do!!!! But here you can have a fast booting Amiga x86 with the power of WinUAE, for virtually no cost if you have old hardware lying around.

This guide will get you where you want to go. Chapter 5 covers some of the modifications I had made, along with a few I don't recommend. I'd personally recommend leaving task manager available and the f12 key.

The problem with nLite and its ilk is that it's easy to rip out things you are sure you'd never need, only to discover you need them later.

For a permanent (not usb based, like BartPe) AmigaXP solution, I think that installing plain-old XP, then disabling certain services via .bat script might be the way to go. No legal gray areas, no worries about funky install methods like Micro XP, and painless, simple installation.

[Bloodwych]

Thanks for your advice radon_22.

[tero]

Originally Posted by radon_22

not usb based, like BartPe

for live system running from usb you need win server 2003
i read this in a readme (bartpe i guess)

[radon_22]

Nah. Google "XP on a stick" for some fun.