Hello from Brighton

[demolition]

Originally Posted by camsoft2000

Thanks for the advice. I kind of like the tinkering but my word Amiga’s come in a lot of different configurations.

The fact that the base A500 models can’t play later games due to stock 512K and then throw in Workbench compatibility issues it’s crazy that they sold so well. Must have been frustrating for owners having to upgrade them to play specific games etc.

Why so many breaking changes to the motherboard and chip revisions?

I don't see why it would have been frustrating for owners. You basically just needed to buy a 512k upgrade and that was it. Many people bought this expansion with the machine from new and never bought another upgrade (perhaps an external disk drive for convenience). You could play pretty much everything with this 512+512 config. Actually, most games would still run without the 512K expansion but would have missing features like in-game music.

Yes, the C64 was simpler in its configuration, but setting aside consoles, the Amiga 500 came very closely after that.

For the PSU, that is an after market PSU which should generally be fine. It is not possible from the photo to tell whether it works or not though.

[camsoft2000]

Thank you, that’s good news about power supply.

My point about frustrations is I guess it was just from my very limited exposure all the ECS/OCS, different Agnus versions being able to address different amounts of memory and then having to running different versions of workbench to run different games due to compatibility issues.

Its just odd that some games and software aren’t backwards compatible with minor hardware revisions

When I googled upgrading the Amiga I’ve found that there are so many solutions depending on what chips and board revisions you have etc. I guess that was the point I was trying to make.

That said it’s great that they are so hackable and kind of fun too. I just want to play games and find the configuration that will allow me to play most of them.


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[camsoft2000]

I owned a Commodore VIC-20 and always wanted an Amiga so my childhood dream is being realised.

It’s great that there is such a wonderful community to join.

I’m also a Acorn fan too especially the BBC Micro which I got my first taste of programming on and pretty much led to me choosing computing as a career.

I’ve done similar upgrades to that machine too adding sideways RAM etc so I’m going to see if I can navigate the Amiga upgrades world and get my machine to a point where it can do most things and play most games.

Though currently I don’t even have a single disk! So my task today is to mod and install a Gotek. Though I’ll probably set this up externally as I don’t want to make physical changes to my machine or case.

I’ve ordered a floppy switcher thing on eBay to allow external to boot and switch back again etc.

For now as I’ve not got external floppy cables yet, can I just plug the Gotek once flashed into the existing internal cables essentially replacing the internal floppy so I can at least get some software running?


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[demolition]

Originally Posted by camsoft2000

My point about frustrations is I guess it was just from my very limited exposure all the ECS/OCS, different Agnus versions being able to address different amounts of memory and then having to running different versions of workbench to run different games due to compatibility issues.
Its just odd that some games and software aren’t backwards compatible with minor hardware revisions

ECS is fully backwards compatible with OCS and newer Agnus chips are also fully backwards compatible with regards to software. And workbench isn't relevant for games since games are generally booted directly and not through WB. If a SW developer was really lazy and ignored the design guidelines, it was possible to make software that only worked with one specific configuration, but those affected games often were re-released as fixed versions.

Originally Posted by camsoft2000

For now as I’ve not got external floppy cables yet, can I just plug the Gotek once flashed into the existing internal cables essentially replacing the internal floppy so I can at least get some software running?

Yes, that will work fine. It will look messy and you'll probably need to keep the case open to be able to access the Gotek, but if it is only temporary then you can probably live with that.

[camsoft2000]

Originally Posted by demolition

ECS is fully backwards compatible with OCS and newer Agnus chips are also fully backwards compatible with regards to software. And workbench isn't relevant for games since games are generally booted directly and not through WB. If a SW developer was really lazy and ignored the design guidelines, it was possible to make software that only worked with one specific configuration, but those affected games often were re-released as fixed versions.



Yes, that will work fine. It will look messy and you'll probably need to keep the case open to be able to access the Gotek, but if it is only temporary then you can probably live with that.

That’s great at least I can get something on the screen!

Thanks for correcting me, I made some incorrect assumptions. I bought the A500+ to kind of future proof me a bit so that I wouldn’t need so many upgrades but what I received was a rev5 A500 so just navigating how to bring her up to spec.

If I get something working I’ll let you know! My main mission is to get at least one game working haha.


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[camsoft2000]

We have life! Even managed to flash the Gotek now just need to get some software!


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[Paisley_Pirate]

Originally Posted by camsoft2000

We have life! Even managed to flash the Gotek now just need to get some software!


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That's a beautiful screen right there... so now you need a 1.2 or 1.3 workbench .adf and you should be good to start. Looking back at the pix, I see an 8371 Agnes, so iirc, that's OCS (from staring at my 8372 ECS Agnes just last night on the A2000 MB that I am trying to clean up from having a lot less corrosion than that one picture... ugh!)

You can do from very mild to really wild, even on an A500 - having lived through it the first time the board revs rarely caused an issue - the how much chip ram could be accessed with ECS vs OCS was the big one - but playing most games shouldn't be an issue - just remember, it won't run AGA specific games. That's left for the A1200 and A4000 (or emulator!)

[camsoft2000]

Got Workbench 1.3 up and running though I’ve not got a mouse so it’s really painful.


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[camsoft2000]

I've download a few ADF files but most don't seem to work on my system, error or just freeze. I'm somewhat confused. I've not yet managed to find a game that will load, most of the games I've downloaded just get stuck on weird credit screens with stuff about hacking the games.

Is there a good source for unmodified roms?

[camsoft2000]

What am I missing here. Every game I download when I boot the game I see screens like this and I can’t seem to proceed.

This is supposed to be cannon fodder?!




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[Belgarath]

click the mouse button (usually the left, sometimes the right). In some cases it may even be the firebutton or the space bar.

[camsoft2000]

I don’t have a mouse haha. Maybe that’s the issue. I tried holding down the Amiga button and hitting the left Alt as I would in Workbench but it doesn’t do anything.

Tried like every button on the keyboard and all I end up doing is going around in circles with these bizarre hacker credits.

Tried multiple games.


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[demolition]

Don't have a joystick either? The fire button on the joystick is the same as left mouse button (when in the same joy port).

And no, the A-shortcuts doesn't work for cracktros - they normally hit the hardware directly so they circumvent those OS-features. But you can't really use an Amiga for much without a mouse, so better get one of those.

[camsoft2000]

Haha okay that makes sense. I had assumed you could use keyboard but I’ll get myself a mouse and or joystick.

Thanks for your help.


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[Fastdruid]

Originally Posted by camsoft2000

I don’t have a mouse haha. Maybe that’s the issue. I tried holding down the Amiga button and hitting the left Alt as I would in Workbench but it doesn’t do anything.

Given the age and relative rarity of "Amiga" mice (not to mention that I don't regret one bit "moving on" from ball mice to optical) I got one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amiga-Ata...r/352635062333

along with a brand new PS/2 optical mouse

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genius-DX...k/202534153104

There are obviously plenty of other suppliers of similar adaptors out there that let you use a modern mouse rather than hunt down an original mouse.

[camsoft2000]

Thanks I’ve done the same. I don’t miss ball mice for an instant!


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