Pyromania

[Twistin'Ghost]

OK, I just wanted to welcome Pyromania to the EAB. I met him back in California in the early 90's when he called my Amiga BBS, buzzed me up for chat and filled a request from my wants list (Racter). Then we met and attended the first Amiga vs. IBM Bash where we demolished the local 'beamers' (especially with him there, since he was doing all of the demos of the Amiga's power).

Soon, we were doing some major swapping (an enormous chunk of my collection came from him and his massive collection) and he was inducted into our local swapping club. Then, when my co-sysop and I had a falling out, he became the new co-sysop of my BBS, House of Frankenstein. We had lots of fun attending Amiga shows, taking trips to L.A. to buy European Amiga magazines or to grab the latest stuff from some of the sysops there. I never had to bother being knowledgable about hardware, because he was always there with the information, or he would come by and make the stuff work for me. He convinced me to give up ClickDOS II and graduate up to Directory Opus. And we never lost the PC vs Amiga fights online because he knew more about the PC than the local PC geeks did! And it seems he still keeps up with what is happening in the PC world.

During the glory days, I remember Paradox (that was his nick then) got stationed to Saudi Arabia. I will always remember his famous quote when he returned to the US: "I'm glad to be back here so I can get back to the real war (Amiga vs. PC)..." He also used to write a column in our club newsletter, and has also had articles published in some US publications, as well (like Amiga News).

He is a hardware guru of sorts, as far as knowing what is what and troubleshooting, so if anyone has any questions about what the Amiga can/can't do, what a piece of hardware is or does, or most anything else, direct it his way.

Welcome to EAB, dude!

[Bloodwych]

Welcome Pyromania, sounds like it's an honour to have you aboard.

Being from Europe I never had the hard time you guys faced against PC users. Over here it was always ST vs Amiga.

We were also lucky enough to have a fantastic Amiga scene where EVERYONE seemed to own an Amiga and the local newsagent had trouble fitting all the Amiga magazines on the shelves!

In recent years I too have grown to hate the PC, even more so after learning how they operate, and it's good to know they're experienced computer war veterans like yourself and Twistin' fighting in our corner.

You both deserve a medal of honour. I salute you both!

[Pyromania]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys, it is good to see so my great Amiga owners and developers in one place! It always shocks me to see Amiga owners selling their Amiga's and crying how they are loosing their beloved Amiga but must go PC. Can't they keep both machines? Nothing wrong with having a PC if you must but why give up your Amiga? I need a PC myself for Quicken Quickbooks so I can run my Video Toaster/Amiga sotware business but I would never sell my A4000T 60/PPC because I have a PC. If you start collecting more than one computer it is time to setup a LAN not time to sell your Amiga stuff.

I have no love of Windows and only installed WindowsXP on my PC because it came with WindowsME which is the worst version of Windows ever made! If you have 98SE working never get WinME it is garbage and M$ admits it. As far XP goes it violates lots of privacy and has it's own problems. I have a Cisco router and a hardware based Firewall so the weaknesses of XP on my machine should not affect me. I dual boot with Linux Mandrake anyway and can run Quickbooks via WINE finally!(Lets you run some Windows apps under Linux without using Windows at all) so If my XP died I doubt I would losse much sleep over it. Sure I use WinUAE but I just got the Linux version of UAE and going to try that, plus I got the real thing! A4000T 060/PPC w/ Video Toaster, CD32, A1200, CDTV, A1000. I still need an A600, A2000 A3000 and a mint A1000.

I enjoy computer hardware and computers. I also love Unix since that is what I do at my full time job. I have SGI O2 and a Sun machine at home on my LAN but the Amiga is my fav. My friends that I grew up with in Ohio used to give me a hard time in the early 90's when I went back to visit because I used Amiga. I told them computers are more than just boring spreadsheets and typing. Today they tell me how ahead of the times us Amiga owners were and I have got some of them running UAE. They talk about editing video on their machine and multi-tasking, hmmm sounds like what I told them in 1992. The Amiga changed the way people think about computers and what they do. I wish it would get more credit for that. Even Linux could learn from the Amiga, the Amiga is more elegant and forgiving and easy for newbies vs Linux. Also Linux lacks a killer app until you count WINE but that just lets it run Windows apps without giving M$ any money. It is API compatible with Windows and M$ can't change those API's or all Windows software would not run, haha Microsoft. For those of you that used to read Amazing Computing I was the last Bandito before they closed shop. I also wrote for Amiga Informer and Newtekniques. With all the hacking going on with Amiga websites (Why?) we Amiga users need to stick together. If a PC user hates Amiga why waste time hacking Amiga websites? Why not use his beloved PC and leave Amiga owners alone?

[jmmijo]

Welcome Pyromania to this great board

As for the real war, Amiga vs. PC, well for me it never was one. I have had both Amiga's and PC's co-existing in my household for years, actually 15+ to be more precise. In fact I come from old school you couls say.

Back in the mid-late 70's, ooops dating myself aren't I , I cut my teeth on the trash 80 model 1 and 2. Also found myself, regretably, using an Apple IIe. I finally came into the light and started to use the CBM PET and then the Vic-20 then the killer box a C64. Graduated to the C128, then a 128-D now there was a machine. Finally the Amiga 1000 and so on down the line. You could say I was a Commodore junky.

I do however regret selling my 1000 and then my 2500, but because I had 2 accelerated 500's and a 4000 it didn't hurt as bad. But still I think I may start scavenging around for the other models as well.

Geez, I even bought myself a MAC clone, a Powercenter from Power Computing. They all live happily in the household and all I need is a NIC for the 4000 to get it online, the null-modem config is too slow for all the files I want to copy.

[Pyromania]

Your right the C64 was a killer machine for its time, I had one and still have an SX-64. I never had the 128, moved right to the Amiga from the C64. I sold my C64 but picked up a used SX-64 later because a missed the C64. Try to find a mint A1000 if you can, kool machine to own. Mine looks kind of old so I am looking for a mint one as well. I always emulated the Mac but laughed at its limited OS. Now Mac OS X is based on Unix so even I am looking around for a used Mac Cube. The Mac Cube was the coolest Mac why did Apple kill it? Fools, just like they killed the Newton which was also cool, I have 2 of them. Anyone try iFusion? It is an iMac emulator for Amiga's with Phase 5 PowerPC cards.

//admin: no need to quote all other's message ^_^

[jmmijo]

Sadlay no I can't try out anything that requires a PPC accelerator as both my 500's and 4000 only have 030's in them

Perhaps there are others lucky enough to own one of these and can inform all of us, hint, hint

[Twistin'Ghost]

I sure as heck don't have such a beastie, but I had a hunch Pyro did...

[Pyromania]

I have not bought iFusion because it is $150 dollars and I can't think of any Mac apps that I have to run. Almost all Mac apps are available for PC so why bother? I would like to know how well iFusion runs on PPC Amiga's it is cool that you can run PowerMac on the Amiga if you need too. I am still going to look around for a cheap Mac Cube, cool little box too bad Apple killed it. Mac OS X is no Amiga but it is Unix and has some cool features. Mac had to start over, Mac OS X is based on Next, it runs old Mac apps though emulation or you can dual boot but why bother? Mac OS 9 can't multi-task and is old and crusty. If anyone wants to see what a Mac Cube looks like check out this link.

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI...tem=1317697755

It is still a bit on the high price side, I will only get one if I get a good deal like I got on my SGI. It is a G4 based machine with Mac OS X so it is not an old Mac beast.

[jmmijo]

Emulation is really fun to mess around with, but nothing beats the real thing for sure. It is funny how my PC's can seem to run Amiga apps faster then my 4000 but hey, you still have to tweak with the settings to get the sound and graphics correct.

Myself, my MAC clone just runs OS9.x as I figured I'd just get a cheap iMAC someday to run OSX. Although that DUAL G4 seems like a nice box. Nah, I'd rather spend my money on my Amiga instead

[Pyromania]

Your right jmmijo, Amiga takes first priority! I will only get a Mac Cube some day when the price is right. Buying cool new Amiga toys comes first! I am trying to hunt down a CDTV for my grandmother at this moement. She played with mine and really enjoyed it so I am going get her one. She does not even have an Audio CD player so CDTV will be cool for her, she likes apps like World Vista, Lemmings, Electronic Cookbook etc.

[RetroMan]

First of all, I like to welcome Pyromania ! Welcome to this great board, bringing back all those memories and tries to bring back the good old times ! Ey, wait a minute !!! Why bring them back ?? I´m still in it I just did something I allways wanted to do, but never managed before : I SOLD MY PC (PIII 600Mhz.) !! Why ?? Well, I just build up an A2000 (out of ruins) with a 040, EGS Grafix card, 40MB Ram, 2 x 2Gig HD and a cool little 19" Monitor hanging on it I just realized, that all the things I did with my PC are also possible with that A2000 (well, I knew that before, but I never got any Amiga with a Grafix Card ) like listening to mp3´s, surfing the Internet or viewing mpg movies ! Now I only use a PC at Work, well the money has to come from somewhere, does it ? I also plan to install myself Linux on that Amiga and get access to the really big software pool of Linux apps. That´s all for now, have fun at the board and as I said before : ONLY MY 2 CENT

[jmmijo]

So, Pyromania, have you found or had any troubles with a HD disk drive? I removed mine as it was having problems just reading a standard DD disk, including the original WB disks.

I'm thinking I'll just keep the pair of DD drives in there now as I can actually use an internal DF0: and DF1: drive much more then a HD drive. I may even install an internal LS-120 after getting a Catweasel ZII card.

Hmm, decisions, decisions.

[Pyromania]

jmmijo my A4000T came with a LD 880K drive (Why did Quickpak do this???), I have not tryed a HD floppy drive on it. All my main machines are networked so if I want to transfer any files from machine to machine I do it over my LAN.

[Pyromania]

Retroman what sound card do you have in your A2000 for listening to MP3s? I here there are several good ones that are ZorroII based.

[jmmijo]

Pyromania or anyone else for that matter

Is anyone interested in a somewhat flakey internal HD drive? It came out of my 4000 and it is the crappy Chinon 357A.

Please email me direct if you are interested. If you cover the S & H then I'll send it to you for free! What a bargain

[Pyromania]

Bloodwych, nice nick. I remember playing that game and enjoying it. I did not finish it like you did but I had fun playing it. Captive was another cool game of that gender and one of my fav similar games was Kult, Weird but cool game, I did finish that one.

[Pyromania]

Damn just lost to another bidder on a simi-mint A1000 on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI...ndexURL=0&rd=1

Half of the proceeds go to getting a new Harddisk for the Amiga In a Box website so it was for a good cause. I put up a good bidding war but he must have wanted it more than I did and finally got it for $97 beating me! He wanted that A1000 very badly so I am sure he will enjoy it.

[RetroMan]

Originally posted by Pyromania
Retroman what sound card do you have in your A2000 for listening to MP3s? I here there are several good ones that are ZorroII based.

Currently I only use good ol´ PAULA But I plan to buy a Delfina "Flipper" Soundcard when it will be released

[Bloodwych]

Originally posted by Pyromania
Bloodwych, nice nick. I remember playing that game and enjoying it. I did not finish it like you did but I had fun playing it. Captive was another cool game of that gender and one of my fav similar games was Kult, Weird but cool game, I did finish that one.

Thanks Pyromania, Bloodwych is my all time fave game!

I first played a 2-player demo on a magazine cover disk and was hooked. Bought it as soon as it was released, a week later a friend and myself had finished it by playing for hours every night after school.

We'd have finished it sooner, but we couldn't resist having fights and killing one another! Actually, for nostalgia we had a Bloodwych marathon about a three years ago where we attempted to finish the game in under 24 hours! It was fantastic, and we were both surprised how well we remembered the map layout. In fact, I think I know the entire dungeon off by heart.

I then finished it once more with my brother five months ago because he'd never reached the end.

My original disk is looking a bit old (box and manual as good as new) now and has seen some serious use over the years, yet still works. Luckily I have the HD version as well for that fateful day when it dies

Mead, n'egg, murlock (my AV), asteroth, sir edward, megrim, zaspath, zothan, ulrick, disrupt, arc bolt, summon and key words such as these I shall never forget.

Recently became stuck on the data disk (could have sworn I finished it 10 years ago) as told in a post in the nostalgia section, and it seems no one has an answer. Might be a bug in the game...........

Take a look at this:

Bloodwych Shrine

Bloodwych HD versions are also provided!

Some Bloodwych vocab:

"Come and join my Merry band"

"thou seems most wart like"

"thou art an utter bumblefoot"

"thou toad"

"thou seems unusually splendid"

I used sayings such as these once for insults in online quake multiplayer. My name was of course Bloodwych.

PS I rant on like this whenever anyone takes an interest in this game, be warned!