I wish I knew then...

Hey all, and thank you for the warm welcome over in the intro board, very nice to be here!

Well, I now have spent, or will be spending when I can afford it (I've earmarked a few things from a couple people, and they've been nice enough to hold them for me, budget what it is!) £200 on the Ami 1200, but I honestly still have no idea what direction I want to take with it.

So I thought it was time to ask some of those stupid questions I mentioned in my intro! Therefor I thought the theme of "I wish I knew then what I know now!" was a good start.

My first question is the thread theme, what piece or pieces of Ami knowledge would you have loved to have when you started? Seeing as I am a total Ami virgin, that is where I am, the most basic of beginners.

My other questions relate to a few things...so here goes!

1. Just what do I do with the damn thing!? lol I know I already want to have some fun playing Worms & Lemmings in their native environments, but beyond that I'm not sure I actually have a purpose for the 1200, beyond being a fun (and expensive!) project.

So in 2011, just what can I do with a 1200 (the Blizard IV I've got on hold is a 50mhz model with 64mb RAM, if that helps to give idea's as to what I can use it for).

I also saw mention of using it as a BBS/IRC machine, which is an idea, I know I'm not going to be doing any YouTube or anything like that with it.

2. Printing! I figure I can't just go jam a regular all singing all dancing modern printer into the Ami and expect it to work, so I've decided on a Laserjet 4L or 5L, compact but decent laser printers, or a 24 pin dot matrix if I can ever find a decent one, and recommendations for brand on the DM side of things? I'm pretty sure Laserjets that old will work on the Ami, but stop me if I'm wrong!

I used to have a Star printer that worked lovely with it, but I scrapped it years ago.

3. Monitor. Now I know the 1200/600/500 are designed to be run on a TV, and that's all fine & dandy & all, but I would really like to run it on a 'real' monitor or a LCD TV. Browsing Amiga Kit I see they do a dedicated RGB to Scart cable, anyone had any problems using these? eBuyer have a nice white 19" widescreen (yes I know widescreen is a problem) LCDTV on offer at the moment that's option 1, and I know of the scan-doublers to use a regular monitor...but...hens teeth.

3.5 Resolution, realistically what kind of res can I hope to get out of the 1200 with the accelerator card? The LCDTV aforementioned supports 1440x900, so was hoping to squeeze 1024x768 (though I tried that on my big TV, didn't like it! Was all screwy aspect wise...) out of it, or reasonably close.

4. Top software & games? What's everyone's top ten of apps & games that you really MUST have on an Ami? I've been playing around with WinUAE (badly) and already found the glories of SysInfo, but would like to know what else I should be fiddling around with.

Think that's about it! At least all I can think of at the moment, sorry if it's a little sporaddic and/or erratic, ask as I think of things.

Hope I didn't ramble too much!

Dem

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by Demonitron

Hey all, and thank you for the warm welcome over in the intro board, very nice to be here!

Well, I now have spent, or will be spending when I can afford it (I've earmarked a few things from a couple people, and they've been nice enough to hold them for me, budget what it is!) £200 on the Ami 1200, but I honestly still have no idea what direction I want to take with it.

So I thought it was time to ask some of those stupid questions I mentioned in my intro! Therefor I thought the theme of "I wish I knew then what I know now!" was a good start.

My first question is the thread theme, what piece or pieces of Ami knowledge would you have loved to have when you started? Seeing as I am a total Ami virgin, that is where I am, the most basic of beginners.

My other questions relate to a few things...so here goes!

1. Just what do I do with the damn thing!? lol I know I already want to have some fun playing Worms & Lemmings in their native environments, but beyond that I'm not sure I actually have a purpose for the 1200, beyond being a fun (and expensive!) project.

So in 2011, just what can I do with a 1200 (the Blizard IV I've got on hold is a 50mhz model with 64mb RAM, if that helps to give idea's as to what I can use it for).

I also saw mention of using it as a BBS/IRC machine, which is an idea, I know I'm not going to be doing any YouTube or anything like that with it.

2. Printing! I figure I can't just go jam a regular all singing all dancing modern printer into the Ami and expect it to work, so I've decided on a Laserjet 4L or 5L, compact but decent laser printers, or a 24 pin dot matrix if I can ever find a decent one, and recommendations for brand on the DM side of things? I'm pretty sure Laserjets that old will work on the Ami, but stop me if I'm wrong!

I used to have a Star printer that worked lovely with it, but I scrapped it years ago.

3. Monitor. Now I know the 1200/600/500 are designed to be run on a TV, and that's all fine & dandy & all, but I would really like to run it on a 'real' monitor or a LCD TV. Browsing Amiga Kit I see they do a dedicated RGB to Scart cable, anyone had any problems using these? eBuyer have a nice white 19" widescreen (yes I know widescreen is a problem) LCDTV on offer at the moment that's option 1, and I know of the scan-doublers to use a regular monitor...but...hens teeth.

3.5 Resolution, realistically what kind of res can I hope to get out of the 1200 with the accelerator card? The LCDTV aforementioned supports 1440x900, so was hoping to squeeze 1024x768 (though I tried that on my big TV, didn't like it! Was all screwy aspect wise...) out of it, or reasonably close.

4. Top software & games? What's everyone's top ten of apps & games that you really MUST have on an Ami? I've been playing around with WinUAE (badly) and already found the glories of SysInfo, but would like to know what else I should be fiddling around with.

Think that's about it! At least all I can think of at the moment, sorry if it's a little sporaddic and/or erratic, ask as I think of things.

Hope I didn't ramble too much!

Dem

1. anything you want to do. whdload for the games.

2.printing.well you could check on aminet for printer drivers.then source the printer.(im using a epson 830 stylus photo inkjet)
through os 3.9.

3.yes that cable works fine and yes modern lcd tv work as well.ive found you dont really need a scandoubler on lcd.just my peneth worth.

3.5 only the resolutions that pal/ntsc etc support from 320 by 200,to 1250 by 500 approx.if you want higher go for one of jens scoenfeilds products.although you might not need it,depending on what you use your miggy for.

4.same as 1.whdload.i strongly suggest registering as well.its well worth it.and scummvm aga.the software you will aquire over time depending on your needs.i also surgest getting a large harddrive 4gb or larger.if you havent already.

regards roy.

[Cooljerk]

Games my man! Games! The Amiga was a fantastic games platform. I've been having a blast playing Amiga versions of games that appeared on other systems. Occasionally, you'll run into a version of a game which is completely, 100% different, like Toki going Ape spit, or Mr. Nutz. Seeing as I loved those games on the genesis, discovering that the Amiga version is completely different is almost like finding a long lost sequel for me.

[ajk]

3/3.5) Resolution-wise you should really consider the Indivision scandoubler; it will cost a bit, but with it you could get either 1024x768 or 1280x720, the latter would work particularly well with a widescreen LCD monitor.

Using AGA alone with a SCART cable the maximum practical resolution is likely to be 640x512/480 (plus maybe a bit of overscan); you can get more from the chipset, but it's going to be hit-and-miss whether the tv/monitor will display it properly. You can of course try it out first, since the Indivision is out of stock right now anyway.

Accelerator cards don't really make any difference in the available screenmodes, but of course running at a higher resolution will be a lot smoother with more CPU and RAM.


2) Oh yeah and for printers be sure to check out Turboprint and what drivers that has.