A1200 ROMS - what does 3.1 give over 3.0?

[CDTV1991]

I've got an A1200 with 3.0 ROMS. What are the main benefits of 3.1?

Just wondering if its worth the money to upgrade

Thanks

[FOL]

Originally Posted by CDTV1991

I've got an A1200 with 3.0 ROMS. What are the main benefits of 3.1?

Just wondering if its worth the money to upgrade

Thanks

Updated rom modules / device drivers.
Plus the ability to run higher os's i.e. 3.1, 3.5 and 3.9.

[CDTV1991]

I thought 3.1 ran on a 3.0 machine?

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by CDTV1991

I thought 3.1 ran on a 3.0 machine?

You can run Workbench 3.1 on Kickstart 3.0 but you can't run OS3.5/9 on Kickstart 3.0 under normal conditions.

There are work arounds such as soft kicking custom OS3.9 Rom Modules or using an ACA's MapRom feature or Deneb/Kickflash

[lesta_smsc]

Would it be possible to softkick higher ROMS on Kickstart 2.05?!

[FOL]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

You can run Workbench 3.1 on Kickstart 3.0

Not exactly true, alot of 3.1 files crash or simply do not run.

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

Would it be possible to softkick higher ROMS on Kickstart 2.05?!

As steve said, but unless you have a card that can softkick your going to be out of luck.

[JimmySage]

Originally Posted by CDTV1991

I've got an A1200 with 3.0 ROMS. What are the main benefits of 3.1?

Just wondering if its worth the money to upgrade

Thanks

I think 3.1 is also better at detecting memory expansions so you can remove the various "AddMem" type commands from your startup sequence.

I now run with my own custom rom in fast ram so technically I no longer need to 3.1 roms to run os3.9.
However... To create that rom image using Remus, I did need to extract some 3.1 modules from the rom chip first.

[Bamiga2002]

3.1 ROMs give your miggy a slightly higher state of consciousness :-)

[Mequa]

One great "feature" of Kickstart 3.1 is that it will disable your PCMCIA slot if you are using more than 4MB of Fast RAM. So while a PCMCIA CF adapter will work perfectly on a Kickstart 3.0 A1200 with 8MB Fast RAM, if you slot in a 3.1 ROM the PCMCIA will be completely unusable. Well done Commodore!

No, I am not kidding.

[cpiac64]

with 3.1 you can use large hd

[Jope]

3.1 has the same hd size limitations as all the other kickstarts that came before it.

[fgh]

Originally Posted by Mequa

One great "feature" of Kickstart 3.1 is that it will disable your PCMCIA slot if you are using more than 4MB of Fast RAM.

This applies to systems with 24bit memory addressing: All a1200 with simple ram expansions or 68ec020 accelerator boards, and a couple badly designed 68030 accelerator boards.
Accelerator boards that allow more than 8MB fast RAM use 32bit addressing and do not trigger this limitation.

[mfilos]

Kickstart 3.1 ftw...
If you use such Memory cards with 16bit addressing you don't actually need any fancy installations so Kickstart 3.0 is just fine for you.
For accelerated Amigas that are using 32bit addressing this is no problem at all so any 3.1 fancy installation or 3.5/3.9 is just fine.

Haven't tried the patched card.resource into burning it into a real EPROM cause I never had a simple memory adapter but only accelerators with 32bit addressing.

Kickstart 3.1 indeed had some flaws, but it's no problem these days. Just burn the ROM you like with better modules or kick them with MapROM (if you can).
If you don't have these features then certainly you use Amiga only for gaming where RAM expansions are just fine.

[acadiel]

Didn't 3.1 also support some chunky graphics modes?

I recall there was a gameboy emulator that wouldn't work under 3.0 but would under 3.1 because of the graphics enhancements in KS 3.1.