Amiga questions you've always been too embarrassed to ask

[Solskogen]

If I want to use Picasso96 / P96 in an emulator, is the version on Aminet the latest and greatest is there an other version I should rather use instead?

[Daedalus]

Yeah, more or less. I think there are slightly newer versions floating around, and Individual Computers have updated P96 since the last public version and sell it as a commercial product. But the Aminet version will be just fine for emulator use.

[BippyM]

Off topic aminet posts moved to:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=86923

Please keep on topic, and when I ask to get back on topic don't ignore me.

Thanks guys

[Etze]

Originally Posted by slaapliedje

But yeah when trying to go with something not-BestWB (for example, I and others much prefer MagicWB over the standard icons or the new ones).

One solution does not exclude the other. Just install BetterWB and afterwards MagicWB. As MagicWB is "only" a collection of icons and a demon (that you should deactivate, as its functionality is included in OS 3.1.4) there's no problem using it both.

[leeuwtje]

I have some questions the I feel shy to ask for.

1. I tried to update whdload on my cd32 raiser board workbench setup. I wanted to play 'midnight resistance' which didn't work on the older version. After copying the files from the lha file to c and s (I did backup the originals) I tried to run games, but the screen went black and weird stuff came up. Like the GPU doesn't support a video mode or something similar.... Never had a clue what happened.
Simply restored the old situation and accepted my collection as it is.

Now I can't run the newer slaves for the latest WHD load version. Is it true CD audio is supported now in the newest cd32 slaves? Technically I have difficulty to imagine that...


2. I can't make up my mind what kind of screen to use. It is possible to use high resolution on Workbench, but it sucks on my old CRT RGB TV.
My friends think I am crazy to use a CRT, cause of the flickering, but for games it looks good. The CRT has RGB support, the colors looks nice, but it is true too much of that flickering gives me a headache. Would a modern 4:3 flatpanel LED screen give the same RGB look? At the other side, for workbench an 15 khz supporting PC monitor would be best to handle high resolution I guess. What are the type numbers of those?

I don't know which way to go.

3. People on this forum speak about 128 megabyte RAM in a Amiga 4000 or 1200....?
with use of expansion boards. What in the world would you need that for on a 1995 computer?
If there is no software demading that, what's the point?


4. What do people do with amiga in 2019 if it is not for playing games?
Sometimes I have difficulty in understanding that.
I know a guy who owns a modern canon mirror reflex camera. He is also an amiga fan.
He is still convicted that amiga can do his development work after he shoots pictures...
It works, but he totally skips the RAW multi exposure benefits of his camera. He only copies .jpg out of the camera to his 25 year old amiga 4000 and use Deluxe paint AGA to freak his photo's. He is satisfied... 'Why do you use amiga to fix your photo's?" his anser: "Because it's possible..."

[demolition]

Originally Posted by leeuwtje

My friends think I am crazy to use a CRT, cause of the flickering, but for games it looks good. The CRT has RGB support, the colors looks nice, but it is true too much of that flickering gives me a headache. Would a modern 4:3 flatpanel LED screen give the same RGB look?
3. People on this forum speak about 128 megabyte RAM in a Amiga 4000 or 1200....?
with use of expansion boards. What in the world would you need that for on a 1995 computer?
If there is no software demading that, what's the point?
4. What do people do with amiga in 2019 if it is not for playing games?
Sometimes I have difficulty in understanding that.

Wrt. CRT, you will not be able to get the same look on an LCD. Also, the latency on a CRT is practically 0 so they are ideal for games if you can live with the flickering. I don't think it's a major issue in non-interlaced modes and if your screen can handle it, you could set up WHDLoad to switch to NTSC mode which will increase the frame rate to 60 Hz, thus reducing the flicker even more.
For your next questions, I think the best answer is 'because you can'.
I like taking my Amiga online although in all practical terms it is far inferior to any semi-modern platform. Even a cheap RPiZero board could do it faster and better, but the reward is so much better when you have to overcome more obstacles to achieve what you want.
For actually using 128MB, there are stuff that needs it, like http://www.whdload.de/games/BeneathASteelSky.html with speech and preload enabled, which requires ~100MB. It can also be very useful in some cases just to have a large RAM disk.
I have an old PC next to me running DOS and Windows 98 and it has 1GB of memory. I have a hard time finding any SW from that era that can use 1GB in any meaningful way, but since the motherboard can handle it it's not hurting anyone to just fill it up, does it?

[leeuwtje]

Hi demolition, thanks for the answer. I tried to run that 'beneath a steel sky' slave on my cd32 with riser expansion board. It has only 8MB. I see why it didn't run now, It freezes the system. I like to try the 60 Hz modus, but will it work with a PAL Amiga? The Sony triniton CRT will support NTSC sure. Interesting experiment.

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by leeuwtje

4. What do people do with amiga in 2019 if it is not for playing games?

We create a new games

[demolition]

Originally Posted by leeuwtje

Hi demolition, thanks for the answer. I tried to run that 'beneath a steel sky' slave on my cd32 with riser expansion board. It has only 8MB. I see why it didn't run now, It freezes the system. I like to try the 60 Hz modus, but will it work with a PAL Amiga? The Sony triniton CRT will support NTSC sure. Interesting experiment.

BaSS will run with 8 MB memory but it will run very slowly as it needs to switch the system in and out constantly to load new data.
Any ECS/AGA Amiga can run in both PAL and NTSC modes. Back in the 90s I used to run adventure games like MI in NTSC mode on my A500+ since the graphics in those games was only 200 lines high anyway and it made for a more pleasant image quality (and smoother mouse movements) on my 1084S monitor.

[Daedalus]

Yep, 128MB or RAM is mostly a "because you can" thing (I've got 192MB in my A1200 - it used to have 256, but I downgraded for neatness as the 128MB SIMMs were too fat to fit in one slot). However, that machine was my main computer back in the day and remained so until into the '00s, so I used it for far more than games. In fact, games were never a major thing for me with the Amiga, though there were some that I liked. But an 060, graphics card and lots of RAM allowed me to work on many large images, edit multiple song-length audio files at CD quality in RAM, run a web browser, stream internet radio, edit and print very large documents, and lots of other things. Software doesn't necessarily have to demand that amount of memory to use it - there's plenty of software on the Amiga that can use as much RAM as you want it to use. I also occasionally played more "modern" games like Earth 2140 and Descent: Freespace, both of which required relatively high amounts of RAM, maybe 32MB. I also ran Mac emulation back then that could happily use a large chunk of RAM.

Nowadays it would mostly be development work that I use that A1200 for, so I rarely use any more than 40-50MB RAM. But in general I use an OS4 machine for most Amiga stuff since it's like a much more powerful version of the A1200.

[Etze]

Originally Posted by demolition

BaSS will run with 8 MB memory but it will run very slowly as it needs to switch the system in and out constantly to load new data.

Just to be sure: Beneath a steel sky has a HD installer, right? So wouldn't it be better to use that native installer instead of WHDload, at least with 8 MB RAM or lower?

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Etze

Just to be sure: Beneath a steel sky has a HD installer, right? So wouldn't it be better to use that native installer instead of WHDload, at least with 8 MB RAM or lower?

It probably has a HD installer like most adventure games, and that would make it work with 8MB RAM, unless the games has some issue with your CPU as well (some games were not tested on high end CPUs like 040 and 060 since this was not a common configuration for gamers).

[Glen M]

Originally Posted by leeuwtje

1. I tried to update whdload on my cd32 raiser board workbench setup. I wanted to play 'midnight resistance' which didn't work on the older version. After copying the files from the lha file to c and s (I did backup the originals) I tried to run games, but the screen went black and weird stuff came up. Like the GPU doesn't support a video mode or something similar.... Never had a clue what happened.
Simply restored the old situation and accepted my collection as it is.

I'd suggest you just want to delete the existing WHDLoad install and use the installer included with the package to install the current version of WHDLoad.

Originally Posted by leeuwtje

Now I can't run the newer slaves for the latest WHD load version. Is it true CD audio is supported now in the newest cd32 slaves? Technically I have difficulty to imagine that...

I don't think CD audio is supported. I could be wrong but I understand CD audio is handled in Akiko on the CD32 direct from the drive and is just mixed with the Paula audio. I don't see a method of reading CD audio from the HDD. That said this is a feature I'd love to see implemented in WHDLoad or whatever. Modern storage is more than big enough to hold an entire CD32 ISO library on the drive.

Originally Posted by leeuwtje

2. I can't make up my mind what kind of screen to use. It is possible to use high resolution on Workbench, but it sucks on my old CRT RGB TV.
My friends think I am crazy to use a CRT, cause of the flickering, but for games it looks good. The CRT has RGB support, the colors looks nice, but it is true too much of that flickering gives me a headache. Would a modern 4:3 flatpanel LED screen give the same RGB look? At the other side, for workbench an 15 khz supporting PC monitor would be best to handle high resolution I guess. What are the type numbers of those?

High res workbench flickers on any screen I've tried it on. CRT will give you the best image but its a big bulky thing. I personally use a 4:3 LCD screen with the GBS8200 or direct to a modern TV with an RGB scart to HDMI converter. If you don't want to buy the converters get an old TV with a scart socket. For best picture try to get a plasma screen. My Amiga direct to my panasonic plasma in the living room over RGB is fantastic.

Originally Posted by leeuwtje

3. People on this forum speak about 128 megabyte RAM in a Amiga 4000 or 1200....?
with use of expansion boards. What in the world would you need that for on a 1995 computer?
If there is no software demading that, what's the point?

I've got 128mb of ram in one of my A1200s and 64mb of ram in my CD32. (OK technically 130 in the 1200 and 66 in the CD32 if you include chip ram). Why??? Honest answer is because thats the amount of ram the accelerators have on them. My other A1200 with 6mb of ram total has probably never been filled. Modern ram is cheap as chips so there would be little cost saving in reducing the amount on the ACA or TF accelerators to say 32 or 16mb. Plus it gives options to those that actually use the machine for productivity.

Originally Posted by leeuwtje

4. What do people do with amiga in 2019 if it is not for playing games?
Sometimes I have difficulty in understanding that.
I know a guy who owns a modern canon mirror reflex camera. He is also an amiga fan.
He is still convicted that amiga can do his development work after he shoots pictures...
It works, but he totally skips the RAW multi exposure benefits of his camera. He only copies .jpg out of the camera to his 25 year old amiga 4000 and use Deluxe paint AGA to freak his photo's. He is satisfied... 'Why do you use amiga to fix your photo's?" his anser: "Because it's possible..."

My Amigas are 100% games machines but I have aspirations to do something about that. I did a fair bit of coding back in the day on PC, just high level stuff in visual basic or C. I really enjoyed it even remaking games like space invaders and even started development on a C&C clone (couldn't work out the AI but most the rest of it was there) The only thing holding me back to be honest is time and a severe lack of it. I am hoping to pick up some getting started tips at Amiga Ireland in January.

As for your friend and his photos its possible he is looking for that style of art the Amiga produces. I find "because its possible" or "because I can" to be a common answer within most retro computer scenes.

[Glen M]

Originally Posted by demolition

BaSS will run with 8 MB memory but it will run very slowly as it needs to switch the system in and out constantly to load new data.
Any ECS/AGA Amiga can run in both PAL and NTSC modes. Back in the 90s I used to run adventure games like MI in NTSC mode on my A500+ since the graphics in those games was only 200 lines high anyway and it made for a more pleasant image quality (and smoother mouse movements) on my 1084S monitor.

When I try to run BASS on my 1200 or CD32 from WHDLoad the screen flickers each time an audio sample is loaded. Its extremely annoying to the point that I can't play it. Is this caused by the reason you suggest above?

The 1200 has 128mb of ram so technically there is no reason the full game couldn't be loaded into memory on the 1200. Is there anything I can change in the WHDLoad settings to use more of the RAM?

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Glen M

When I try to run BASS on my 1200 or CD32 from WHDLoad the screen flickers each time an audio sample is loaded. Its extremely annoying to the point that I can't play it. Is this caused by the reason you suggest above?

The 1200 has 128mb of ram so technically there is no reason the full game couldn't be loaded into memory on the 1200. Is there anything I can change in the WHDLoad settings to use more of the RAM?

Yes, you do not seem to have preload enabled:
http://whdload.de/docs/en/opt.html#Preload

You can set it globally (my suggestion), in s:whdload.prefs or on the individual slave by adding it in the information page.

Simply remove the ; in front of 'Preload' in s:whdload.prefs to enable it globally.

Originally Posted by Glen M

Modern ram is cheap as chips so there would be little cost saving in reducing the amount on the ACA or TF accelerators to say 32 or 16mb. Plus it gives options to those that actually use the machine for productivity.

True, I remember Jens from IComp saying that there was practically no cost savings if he reduced his new ACA123x boards below 128MB. While you can still find smaller RAM chips, they are not much cheaper than the 128MB ones.

[d4rk3lf]

Is there some trick to open circle part of the bottom part of the (tank) mouse?
I've opened it before, but now is really stuck, and I am afraid I will brake plastic if I try any harder to spin it.
Also, my left mouse button, needs to be pressed really hard, in order to work... I think my girlfriend spilled a little bit of coffee on it... should I just open a mouse, and try clean it with pure alcohol?

Yes, I am complete hardware noob.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Etze

Just to be sure: Beneath a steel sky has a HD installer, right? So wouldn't it be better to use that native installer instead of WHDload, at least with 8 MB RAM or lower?

Exactly

[Etze]

Originally Posted by demolition

It probably has a HD installer like most adventure games, and that would make it work with 8MB RAM, unless the games has some issue with your CPU as well (some games were not tested on high end CPUs like 040 and 060 since this was not a common configuration for gamers).

Originally Posted by DamienD

Exactly

Thanks to both of you.

[daxb]

If you never opend up a mouse to clean it then it its time now. Just do it. It isn't complicated.

[d4rk3lf]

Originally Posted by daxb

If you never opend up a mouse to clean it then it its time now. Just do it. It isn't complicated.

I did (as I said in my previous post ).
At least that bottom part. Occasionally, I've opened that bottom part to clean the ball, and inside of it, from the small dirt in it.
However, now it's stuck, and can't rotate (spin) that bottom part in order to open it, and I am afraid I will brake plastic if I try harder.
I wonder if there is any liquid, or something I can put on that part to relax it a little bit. Or some mechanic trick, to force it.... have no idea.

Cheers