New products for C64 and Amiga from Individual Computers

[lurch]

The current ACA500 is one of the best pieces of Amiga 500 hardware I've purchased, only coming second to the Indivision ECS and Gotek.

The 2MB RAM is fine and WHDLoad runs fine. The ability to use CF Cards is great, a shame the aux/dos card isn't hot swappable but that's not a big deal when the A500 boots so quick.

I also have a Subway which plugs in and runs great, although I've moved it back to the A1200. Which is another feature that isn't mentioned that often.

The option for soft loading ROMs is good too. However I have bought a couple of 3.1 ROMs, why not they're cheap and worth the upgrade.

I also managed to buy an ACA1232, as my A1200 has an 060 I liked and had become use to the speed of workbench on that. Suddenly the ol'500 is a speed demon and with the Indivision ECS I can have 800x600 with 256 colours and play Doom using the Indivision ECS modes.

It's one smart piece of hardware and we should appreciate Jens bringing product to market. Stop poking the bear.

I own several of Jen's products,

ACA1230
ACA1232
ACA500
Indivision ECS
Indivsion AGA
Competition Pro Joystick from the first batch

And others and they have been great, the only exception was the ECS. However this was fixed by Amigakit to work properly with the A500 plus since then it has been rock solid, crisp picture and has brought the joy back. 27" screen of goodness, would love to make the screen slightly bigger for games if possible though :-)

The only moan I can think of is hunting all over the place for configs,software and firmware but this has been getting better over the years.

I own both of Kippers boards, one with IDE one without. I spent most of my time fiddling with the boards that moved the CPU socket back as the A500s I've tested in they just wouldn't boot with them. However they would boot fine with the board attached straight to the CPU socket.

The 8MB RAM board works with the ACA500+AC1232, if you run sysinfo it shows the board and the 8MB is there. RAM test works fine, however now and then the Amiga will reboot when you quit from WHDLoad so I've removed it. As I've mentioned WHDLoad I am still unable to find a 100% working copy of IK+, on every challenge level (bomb/balls) the SFX stop working. The SFX work fine when fighting though, kind of sad as I love the dong noise of the head hitting the shield.

The 8MB + IDE board was very easy to install. You can even get away without using solder and a soldering iron if you are not that way inclined and hot glue the connector in place wedged against the case and the two gold connectors on the A500 and it boots fine everytime.

Kippers support is fantastic too, so no complaints there. Great products but for a different audience compared to the ACA500.

Overall I've been having a great time and Jens has had a great hand in this with his products.

Only downsides is having spent too much and the A500 hardware getting old and fragile. Even the cases and keyboards are starting to show signs.

What we need now is a nice new cases/keyboards. Especially cases with holes already cut for VGA/DVI and USB :-)

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by dJOS

Kipper's products require a level of expertise some folks don't have.

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Honestly, there are Amiga folks out there who are too scared to open their cases for anything other than a trapdoor ram board.

[Vot]

Originally Posted by dJOS

Honestly, there are Amiga folks out there who are too scared to open their cases for anything other than a trapdoor ram board.

I just hope kipper ships mine soon. I may have harassed him a bit with questions about how to get it working with the ar3 unfortunately I think it would need modification to the plcc's code (and maybe hardware) which even although both projects its based on have the source available he probably doesn't want to share. (Which is fair enough)

[britelite]

Originally Posted by Leffmann

It's all about making as much money as possible, never about meeting customer demand.

Well, he does run a business, not a charity.

force the majority of customers to pay an extra €30 for €5 worth of components.

Yes, because the price of product is only defined by the total cost of the components, right?

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Vot

I just hope kipper ships mine soon. I may have harassed him a bit with questions about how to get it working with the ar3 unfortunately I think it would need modification to the plcc's code (and maybe hardware) which even although both projects its based on have the source available he probably doesn't want to share. (Which is fair enough)

Hi,

This weekend i will be sorting out requests so i will be playing catchup. As for the PLCC code, if you want it, it is available, I believe the Action replay sits at $400000 so if you redo the code to stop the memory reserve at that location it should work (in theory)

[voyager_1701e]

Originally Posted by britelite

Well, he does run a business, not a charity.

Yes, because the price of product is only defined by the total cost of the components, right?

True on both accounts. Jens has a business to run over and above his Amiga stuff also....I for one am very happy to have his stuff available.

I'm quite impressed at the relative rate of development of his stuff....and look eagerly towards the benefits of the new ACA500...and the extra ram

Looking forward to the C64 reloaded too....

[demolition]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

This weekend i will be sorting out requests so i will be playing catchup. As for the PLCC code, if you want it, it is available, I believe the Action replay sits at $400000 so if you redo the code to stop the memory reserve at that location it should work (in theory)

Even if you do not add memory above $400000, the memory chips are still there and connected will respond to read accesses by putting data on the data bus, so the question is if it would still collide with the AR even if the PLCC was changed?
This is unless the PLCC is also used as address decoder so it is possible to turn off chip selects altogether? In that case, it should be possible to make it compatible.

As usual, I am always looking forward to new releases from Jens. I am also amazed by the release rate, particularly considering the retro stuff has low priority against his main projects. Some of his stuff have had issues where some was fixed, others was worked around and some persisted (normally minor ones). Most of the persistent issues as I see it, are specification issues where people expect it to do something it was not supposed to do or was written as a 'maybe' feature to some forum. This is the downside of being active in forums as a designer.

I have quite a few of his devices by now and I have probably not bought the last one.

[Vot]

Originally Posted by demolition

Even if you do not add memory above $400000, the memory chips are still there and connected will respond to read accesses by putting data on the data bus, so the question is if it would still collide with the AR even if the PLCC was changed?
This is unless the PLCC is also used as address decoder so it is possible to turn off chip selects altogether? In that case, it should be possible to make it compatible.

As usual, I am always looking forward to new releases from Jens. I am also amazed by the release rate, particularly considering the retro stuff has low priority against his main projects. Some of his stuff have had issues where some was fixed, others was worked around and some persisted (normally minor ones). Most of the persistent issues as I see it, are specification issues where people expect it to do something it was not supposed to do or was written as a 'maybe' feature to some forum. This is the downside of being active in forums as a designer.

I have quite a few of his devices by now and I have probably not bought the last one.

I looked at the a608 source it has a chip selector decoder so it should be possible if he does it the same way.

I.e remove this

8'b010xxxxx: // $400000-$5fffff

begin

{which_ras[0],which_ras[1],which_ras[2],which_ras[3]} <= 4'b0100; // /RAS1

mem_selected <= 1'b1;

end

Disable autoconfig

[Vot]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

Hi,

This weekend i will be sorting out requests so i will be playing catchup. As for the PLCC code, if you want it, it is available, I believe the Action replay sits at $400000 so if you redo the code to stop the memory reserve at that location it should work (in theory)

Thanks for that, that would be great. If i have any success i will send it back to you (and i wont share it around)

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Vot

I looked at the a608 source it has a chip selector decoder so it should be possible if he does it the same way.

I.e remove this

8'b010xxxxx: // $400000-$5fffff

begin

{which_ras[0],which_ras[1],which_ras[2],which_ras[3]} <= 4'b0100; // /RAS1

mem_selected <= 1'b1;

end

Disable autoconfig

you can probably leave autoconfig on and just remove the call for that 1 x 2mb fastmem area, and be left with 6mb fastmem in 2 chunks, but i will leave the proof to the pros.

The source for the a600 is the same as the a500

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

you can probably leave autoconfig on and just remove the call for that 1 x 2mb fastmem area, iand be left with 6mb fastmem in 2 chunks,

Although this is really off-topic: You'll need a total of three autoconfig entries, as you can't request any specific address from the expansion software.

You'd have to do:
2M board in Z2 area "add to freemem list" (will end up in $20.0000)
2M board in Z2 area "not for freemem list" (will end up in $40.0000)
4M board in Z2 area "add to freemem list" (will end up in $60.0000)

Jens

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Although this is really off-topic: You'll need a total of three autoconfig entries, as you can't request any specific address from the expansion software.

You'd have to do:
2M board in Z2 area "add to freemem list" (will end up in $20.0000)
2M board in Z2 area "not for freemem list" (will end up in $40.0000)
4M board in Z2 area "add to freemem list" (will end up in $60.0000)

Jens

Thanks for the info Jens

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by MagerValp

Ooh, getting closer then, exciting!

Getting even closer:
https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/33/it...completed.html

Jens

[_psy]

looking great and cool

[MagerValp]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Getting even closer:
https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/33/it...completed.html

Oof, I really hope €200 isn't indicative of the regular price...

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by MagerValp

Oof, I really hope €200 isn't indicative of the regular price...

YIKES!!! That's not very sporting is it!

[Schoenfeld]

The Euro is a good 25% weaker today compared to a year ago when the project was planned. Since I pay all of the material in USD, but my main accounting is in EUR, I'd be suffering quite some damage if I keep the originally-planned price of 149,- EUR per board. It'll be 159,- EUR per board.

These boards come without SID, without PLA and without CPU. These can be added separately, which will take you across the 200,- EUR mark. Sorry guys, but low-quantity hardware production has never been cheap. Especially not if there's 258 SMD components and 31 through-hole components on the board. Size-wise, this is the biggest board I have designed so far in my career. The number of components is close to what my VDSL2 modem has, but those get produced in much higher quantities.

Jens

[dJOS]

Around 200€ with the extra chips isn't unreasonable considering your low volumes.

I assumed the 200€ price was without them.

[shuttlepilot]

So at least 200 Euro's to get a chance of the C64 Reloaded board in an email auction, or wait until they go for retail sale for (using Jens' figures in his previous post) around 159 Euro's

What's different (if anything) about these boards up for auction? Are they a limited edition? Perhaps personally signed by Jens?