Coming back into the fold... Need advice/suggestions

[Ledfoot]

Hey gang,


I'm returning to the Amiga scene after a VERY long hiadus. I was the owner of an Amiga 500 w/ one of the original Blizzard Boards, 68010 @ 14.7 Mhz, 8 MB RAM, and a Spartan SCSI controller that I built from plans out of a magazine (the plans and such are still available on Aminet! http://aminet.net/docs/hard/spartan.lha) with a Quantum 105MB HD attached and a 2nd floppy drive. I also built a sound digitizer (http://aminet.net/docs/hard/audiodig.lha, and yes, I'm the Mike Kopack who redid the schematic for that one...)



Alas I sold this setup in my Junior year @ Georgia Tech for a 386-DX40 rig to run OS/2, circa 1994. Needed to build up some marketable skills before hitting the job market. Hated to do it, and missed the Amiga for years afterwards.



Fast forward to this week... A friend and fellow Amiga owner pointed me at an A1200 up for sale on amibay and I managed to snag it.


The unit that's on the way (still in shipping transit) has one of the new A1200 cases, an 8GB CF w/IDE interface, and a Blizzard Board IV w/68030 @ 50Mhz, 68882 and 32 MB RAM.



I've already ordered the following:
Kickstart 3.1 ROMS
a Gotek w/ OLED screen
PCMCIA Wifi card
Rapid Road USB adaptor
Recap kit



I have a buddy locally who owns a circuit assembly business who said he could get his specialists to do the Recap for me. So that's covered.


The PSU coming is a UK one, so I'll need some way to switch that for use on US mains (suggestions welcomed). In the mean time, I've gotten an old Amiga power cable and ordered a Pico-PSU 90W, just need the adapter board which seems to be out of stock until November (but I'm on the list).



I'm VERY out of the know on all things Amiga - a LOT has changed in the last 25 years! I've heard things like WHDLoad, ClassicWB, etc. I'm VERY VERY out of date and need some help getting back into the know.



What software should I plan on grabbing and installing? What are the must-have tools?



Which OS should I plan to install? 3.1.4? 3.9?



Basically, if you were coming in with a little ancient knowledge and needed a huge refresher to come up to speed, what would you want to know about?


Thanks guys! Can't wait to get back into the fold... I also just recently did a C64/Pi conversion (Pi inside a C64 case+keyboard) and loving how that came out. C64 was my first computer, Amiga was my second so looking forward to owning both again for the long term.

[crazyc]

What do you want to use it for?

Sounds like you have the perfect games machine already. Personally I have never really seen the attraction of a gotek on an a1200, as everything is via the CF card.

Wireless PCMCIA is going to introduce overhead so I use wired as cheaper and easier but hey.

Same goes for the rapid road - what will you actually use it for?

Now if you are going down the expand it because you can route (perfectly valid) then there are a range of further (expensive) options.

The only thing not considered on your list is connecting it to a display? I think things are slightly different stateside to over here, but I would look into that. (Maybe an Indy MK2 but they are also a pain to configure)

With regards to OS - 3.9 will run OK on your setup, but I might be tempted to try 3.1.4 if I was starting from scratch with that.

[Ledfoot]

Mostly games, but also just general stuff. Mainly nostalgia factor. I'm looking forward to bringing it into work - the older engineers will have fond memories, the young engineers will be amazed (I mentioned I had a C64 and Amiga while in the break room the other day to both an older engineer and a recent college grad. The older engineer smiled and said "Oh, wow, I'd love to see that!", the recent college grad had no idea what an Amiga was!)

I figured the GoTek because I have a ton of floppy images, and my understanding is that WHDLoad can't use floppy images (or am I wrong there?).

The USB and Wifi mostly just to have the expandability and connectivity options - take this thing as close to a modern machine as possible.

Curious what these other (expensive) options entail? I assume you're talking about faster accelerator boards?

Yeah, I'm considering grabbing another CF card so I can set up both 3.9 and 3.1.4.

What about network stacks? My understanding is there are several available?

USB drivers?

What about tools? I know I want Directory Opus (god I've missed that tool!!!) What are the other must have tools?

Oh, and for display, it's coming with a Amiga->SCART cable, and the Amiga friend has a spare SCART-HDMI adapter box

[Ledfoot]

Also just ordered a 128MB memory stick to replace the 32MB one on the Blizzardboard.

[pipper]

If you get that 128mb stick to fit, please let me know where you ordered it. So far I had no luck finding a module of this capacity that would fit the Blizzard 1230-IV

[Ledfoot]

This was the one I bought... didn't realize there is a space issue/concern...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/391683160973

[pipper]

This one is likely to not fit. The height of the module cannot exceed 26mm (~1inch), otherwise it’ll conflict with the cpu socket. Good luck, though!

[Ledfoot]

Ah, crap. Ok, thanks for letting me know. At least it was only $20 wasted

[Ledfoot]

There's this one which is 26mm tall:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/128MB-EDO-7...ss!08002!US!-1

$38.95... Says it's 26mm tall, in fact it specifically says it's for the Blizzard board

[Ledfoot]

ok, here's some other questions....

OS 3.1(.4) ? Or OS 3.9???

Which network stack? Miami or AmiNet? I've ordered the PCMCIA Wifi card w/EasyNet Pro from Amikit, which seems to include AmiNet. 3.9 seems to have AmiNet built in (but I assume an older version). Or Roadshow??

Which Filesystem? I'd like to be able to use > 4GB partitions for DH0: FFS2? SFS? (My experience is so out of date I only remember OFS and FFS(1)... Any issues with going one way or the other? Is there something else? Is one more appropriate for one version of the OS vs another?

Suggestions?

[spudje]

A lot of questions, Many of us "midlife crisis" re-Amiga-joiners all went through this

- Gotek: First of all, don't go cutting in your A1200 case for the gotek, even if it's a new case. Use something like this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2102839 if you really want to go the gotek way. And flash it with the Flashfloppy firmware, currently the best what's available.

- Network: I think the Easynet cards are only WEP, so not the most secure wifi solution. Maybe look here on this forum for a WPA2 prismv2 wifi card. You could use the supplied easynet software. But personally I prefer roadshow. I use my network mostly for either going to aminet for software or downloading software from my NAS via samba.

- USB: I personally see no real use for USB on a A1200. But it could replace the network file exchange with doing it via a USB stick/flashdrive. But a PCMCIA CF adapter and a CF USB reader on a PC is just as easy. You may also use it for a USB soundcard for software that supports AHI. And you might want to use it with those logitech wireless keyboards/mice. Only works in Workbench though, not in (most) games. IMO it makes more sense in a big box Amiga.

Also note that in WHDLoad you have to turn off both your network stack and USB stack for it to work.

- OS version wise. ROM ICs 3.1 and OS 3.9 + BoingBag 1&2 are more than fine. You could go the "newer" 3.1.4 way, but then I guess I would wait for 3.1.4 ROM ICs and have a pure 3.1.4 system. Mixing 3.1.4 and 3.9 seems possible, but a bit more complicated from what I read. I personally have no experience with 3.1.4 yet

- Filesystem. If you go the 3.1 + 3.9 way go for the latest PFS 3.1, elsewhere mentioned in this forum. If you go for a full 3.1.4 system, I guess you can use the default filesystem, as the ROMs already take care of larger drives etc.

[sian]

im just coming back to amiga too

i want to put amigasys 4.0 ( like on amigaforever 7 )
need really easy steps for a new be to do it

can some one help

i also like new icons but have no idea where to find that program

please help

[Anubis]

Your setup just calls for ClassicWB, that is perfect for real OP machine like one you building as well for emulation.

What version would work better for you, it depend on what you like to do, as well how nostalgic you are. (Just get Amiga WB 3.1, that ClassicWB needs to install)

[Ledfoot]

Originally Posted by Ledfoot

There's this one which is 26mm tall:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/128MB-EDO-7...ss!08002!US!-1

$38.95... Says it's 26mm tall, in fact it specifically says it's for the Blizzard board

Just wanted to confirm for those interested that this one DOES fit just fine!



I don't have a PSU or video cable yet for my A1200 so I haven't been able to confirm that it detects all the RAM, but the stick DOES fit just fine. Not touching the CPU at all.