Resurrecting my A1200

[Galahad/FLT]

Right, having seen a video on Youtube, where an Amiga A1200 was using I think a solid state 'card' hard drive, and some whizzo pcmcia memory thingy so you can easily transport between PC and Amiga, i've decided its time I resurrected my A1200 and had it sat under the Sony Bravia 55" and used.

My son loves watching Amiga longplays, he might as well bloody play on the real thing.

So, i'm basically lazy.

I'm in the UK, what i'm looking for is advice and steering toward where I should get stuff from, so I can just plug it in, and it works.

So, 2gb or bigger card hard drive or whatever the fuck they are called, pcmcia memory and adaptor, where can I get all this shit from, and how much is this shit going to cost me?

Chop chop before I decide to not fucking bother.

[NovaCoder]

Easy, grab a PCMCIA transfer kit for your transfers.

For the actually HD, I went with a solid state module which is a very neat plug-straight-in solution.

Otherwise you can go with a 4GB CF card and buy an adapter from Kipper -> CF Adapter, Internal

Was that quick enough?

[vroom6sri]

I've got one of Kipper's external CF adapters/extenders in my A1200. Bit of a faff cutting the case to make the external slot but well worth it. Now I can whip the CF card out quick and easy to use with WinUAE. Great!

[fitzsteve]

Hi Galahad/FLT,

As a thank you for your work on Putty Squad I'd be happy to send you a 4gb CF card + IDE adapter/cable, just PM me your address if you want it

As for memory forget PCMCIA SRAM it will cripple the Bus on the A1200, look for a proper trapdoor upgrade and just use PCMCIA for transferring files with a PCMCIA-CF adapter, you can pick this up later as of course you can setup your CF card with WinUAE or I can chuck a Classic Workbench/WHDLoad Games on there for you, of course you will need to use your own key

For the upgrade you could get one of the ACA1220's for £71.99 from Amigakit: http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...oducts_id=1100

Or just keep your eyes open for a cheaper 4/8mb Ram board but they often sell for up to £65 anyway

[bubbob42]

The first "upgrade" of an A1200 should always be the replacement of all capacitors.

[Phantom]

My suggestion is not to mess with CF cards (as hard disk), but install a 2.5" hard disk drive instead, which is quite easy to find one. Using CF cards for hard disk drive is not the most reliable thing regarding the Amiga.

As for your son, to have the best experience while playing or watching even demos from the A1200, I suggest to find a Phase 5's Blizzard MKIV 030/50MHz with at least 16 or 32MB RAM for WhdLoad gaming (prices range from €150 to €250). I know that they are almost 20 years old cards, but in my opinion they are still the best. But of course you can buy a brand new ACA as well from Jens; at least you will have warranty and it's brand new hardware.

As NovaCoder mentioned, the PCMCIA Transfer Kit is a bless, if you want to transfer files as quickly as possible to your Amiga with the minimum of fuss.

[Galahad/FLT]

I've already got a 68030 card from when I used the machine for WHDLoad stuff, so that's already covered.DDon't ask what brand it is, I'm too lazy to even bother looking

So, some are saying hard drive, others are adamant that a card hard drive is good. To be honest, I'd rather go the car route, silent, and full boot up in 4 seconds.

[crazyc]

Given your repeated comments about lack of effort, I suspect cutting the side of the case is a step too far, but anyway

I use one of kippers external CF adapters as mentioned by someone earlier. It means its easy to remove the CF card without opening the case so it can be plugged into winuae for quick updates/backups.(hence minimising the problems of potential card failure (although I have never had one fail)).

But cutting the case - although a one off effort, was a bit of an effort actually.

[Phantom]

You can try both methods and see what suits yourself. I'm using an internal 2.5" HDD for years now without the slightest problem, and, well, it boots very fast as well. I've tried the CF card route, and while it seemed ok, after a couple of days it started to do weird things, like validation error and such stuff.

[fitzsteve]

Personally I have setup dozens of CF cards, not just for myself but for other people too and I've had very few reports of issues, I only have 1 CF card here at my house that has finally died through over writing, all the others are fine!

I suggest if an Amiga is going to be used for a lot of productivity work with a lot of writing to the Disk then a mechanical HDD might be the better option, for just playing Games a CF HDD is perfectly adequate.

[roy bates]

if your a lazy sod,i think you are

you should get someone else to do the harddrive setup,like steve and all you have to do after that is plug it in.
but then again..you might be too lazy to open the machine to plug it in

personally i like the mechanical drives,although the cf's do work.

are you using rgb to scart on the tv?

[Hewitson]

I would suggest using a cheap PCMCIA network card and samba or ftp for transfers, much more convenient than having to plug/unplug a CF card all the time.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

I would suggest using a cheap PCMCIA network card and samba or ftp for transfers, much more convenient than having to plug/unplug a CF card all the time.

If he's too lazy to open the case, no way is he going to set all that up

[Galahad/FLT]

Frankly I'm too fucking lazy to respond..Christ last time I took part in this thread was last year, that's how lazy I am!!

Right so is Kipper a chap on here then I presume?

[demolition]

Yes, the username is kipper2k, and here's his stuff:
http://kipper2k.com/amigaforsale/

Also, here's the links for both items at Amigakit for your laziness:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=440
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=883

I prefer the last two items to modifying the 1200 case. Using the PCMCIA is a nice hot swap solution to transferring files after the internal CF card has been set up with WB/FAT95/cfd etc.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by demolition

Yes, the username is kipper2k, and here's his stuff:
http://kipper2k.com/amigaforsale/

Also, here's the links for both items at Amigakit for your laziness:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=440
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=883

I prefer the last two items to modifying the 1200 case. Using the PCMCIA is a nice hot swap solution to transferring files after the internal CF card has been set up with WB/FAT95/cfd etc.

So if I order those two items plus a mem card for the pcmcia adaptor thingy from amigakit, that's it, I'm ready to go?

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

So if I order those two items plus a mem card for the pcmcia adaptor thingy from amigakit, that's it, I'm ready to go?

Yep, that's basically what's needed. You can add the CF card as an option further down on the PCMCIA adapter.

A USB CF card reader for the PC will also be useful if you don't want to do the entire setup on the Amiga.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by demolition

Yep, that's basically what's needed. You can add the CF card as an option further down on the PCMCIA adapter.

A USB CF card reader for the PC will also be useful if you don't want to do the entire setup on the Amiga.

God damnit , lazy mans dream right there. Will order it over the weekend I think. Thanks

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

God damnit , lazy mans dream right there. Will order it over the weekend I think. Thanks

Cool, always nice to see Classic hardware put to good use

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Cool, always nice to see Classic hardware put to good use

Easy there tiger, i've still got to get this one past the missus.

Shes not blind, shes going to spot the big white plastic brick under the PS3 and wonder what the fuck it is, trick is to get the boy using it pronto so that she'll go "ah, look, he loves it!".... and thus ensuring the Amiga gets some love from the next generation.

Wish me luck, shes no pushover!