Amiga questions you've always been too embarrassed to ask - Page 6

Mrs Beanbag · 18 June 2013, 18:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomas

It doesn't. Turning it *off* dims the LED.

They just shortened the lines. Perhaps they thought it's funny. Or they added the feature to turn off the filter later and had no better idea than to use the same control line as for the power LED.

I'm sure I remember on my dad's first A500, the power LED didn't just dim, it went completely off when the filter was disabled!

Toni Wilen · 18 June 2013, 18:51

A1000 and early A500 revisions turned off the led.

They had to re-use existing IO pin for filter, there was no unused pins left.

Paul_s · 18 June 2013, 19:21

Who at Commodore made the decision to use (now leaky) barrel batteries?

Who is Lazarus?

demolition · 18 June 2013, 22:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

They had to re-use existing IO pin for filter, there was no unused pins left.

But why did they need the ability to turn off/dim the power LED in the first place? For guru?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul_s

Who at Commodore made the decision to use (now leaky) barrel batteries?

Think it was just standard practice at the time and the cheapest option. I've replaced quite a lot of those barrel-batteries back in the time on PC motherboards where they were also used. They started leaking even after 3-4 years. In most Amigas they lasted much longer before they started to make trouble.

roy bates · 18 June 2013, 22:07

was there any lithium batterys around then anyway?

demolition · 18 June 2013, 22:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by roy bates

was there any lithium batterys around then anyway?

I would think so - wristwatches for example were using coin-cells, and I can only assume they were Lithium based.

roy bates · 18 June 2013, 22:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by demolition

I would think so - wristwatches for example were using coin-cells, and I can only assume they were Lithium based.

yes yes of course,maybe it was a price thing.

waal · 18 June 2013, 23:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul_s

Who is Lazarus?

"Please insert volume Lazarus in any drive".

Even if I know who Lazarus was (or supposed to be...), was this prompt a joke like with the "guru meditation" or there was really something to do ?

Also why did I see validation errors happen so often with the Amiga ? Was it simply because floppies are fragile ?

(Questions asked. Now I can go back hiding under my couch).

roy bates · 18 June 2013, 23:44

lazarus had something to do with diskdoctor,something about fixing the bootblock on the diskand renaming the disk to lazarus(cant remember much about it,and even if it was something from myth in the bible?)
but it actually fixed nothing and made the disk unusable.(from memory it way back in amigados 1.3 machines)

someone will be a long in a sec and recall it all,lol.

demolition · 18 June 2013, 23:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by waal

Also why did I see validation errors happen so often with the Amiga ? Was it simply because floppies are fragile ?

Probably yes, and also because OFS was also fragile. I did see checksum errors once in a while with FFS disks on KS2.x but nowhere near as often as the validation errors on 1.3.

TCD · 18 June 2013, 23:48

Actually OFS is a bit less prune to unrecoverable errors (and wastes more space for that...) than FFS. Of course in 'real life' situations those differences don't matter much, but I thought I mention that OFS itself was actually less fragile than FFS

xArtx · 19 June 2013, 04:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomas

BFE101 is the parallel port.

Fire/left button on the first game port is bit 6 of BFE001.
Fire/left button on the second game port is bit 7 of BFE001.

Right you are.. I was lookign at a demo that says
"Press BFE001 to continue..."

Lazarus was raised from the dead in the Bible,
so it sounds liek fixing something.. whether or not it worked...

Q:
Is there such a thing as "bit level access" on an Amiga disk?
or am I making that up?

lukassid · 19 June 2013, 22:42

How to get back to workbench from WHDLoad game without resetting the machine?

TCD · 19 June 2013, 22:47

Press the quitkey. It is displayed on the splash screen of each game. You can change it globally in the preferences file of WHDLoad.

mikey2002kent · 19 June 2013, 22:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by lukassid

How to get back to workbench from WHDLoad game without resetting the machine?

Usually F10, DEL or PRTSC

roy bates · 20 June 2013, 00:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by lukassid

How to get back to workbench from WHDLoad game without resetting the machine?

ah this one is a good one,as you have seen it is displayed on the splash screen as the game loads.

but...if you are on a 500,600,2000 etc with 68000 this might not work most of the time.and the only way out is a reset.
or change the cpu to a 68010 or better.

ara · 20 June 2013, 10:49

Why was the parallel port of the Amiga 500 and 2000 different from the LPT port (IEEE 1284) in PCs (especially the 5V pin)? Was it used anywhere else or just a random idea of the Amiga/Commodore designers?

roy bates · 20 June 2013, 11:02

the parallel port was proably the limitation of the custom chips to keep costs down,and adding a 5 volt line would be handy for samplers and midi and other external devices to be added etc.

ara · 20 June 2013, 11:05

Are you aware of any commercial or public domain program that used the Bob/AnimOb functions of the graphics.library?

diablothe2nd · 20 June 2013, 20:33

What did CBM stand for when referring to Amiga... for example game boxes sometimes said "For CBM Amiga"

edit: nevermind, I was asking google the wrong question

Commodore Business Machines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_International

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18 June 2013, 18:51	#102
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,502	A1000 and early A500 revisions turned off the led. They had to re-use existing IO pin for filter, there was no unused pins left.

18 June 2013, 19:21	#103
Paul_s Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Amigaville Age: 46 Posts: 3,333	Who at Commodore made the decision to use (now leaky) barrel batteries? Who is Lazarus?

18 June 2013, 22:07	#105
roy bates Registered User Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: birmingham Age: 55 Posts: 2,827	was there any lithium batterys around then anyway?

18 June 2013, 23:44	#109
roy bates Registered User Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: birmingham Age: 55 Posts: 2,827	lazarus had something to do with diskdoctor,something about fixing the bootblock on the diskand renaming the disk to lazarus(cant remember much about it,and even if it was something from myth in the bible?) but it actually fixed nothing and made the disk unusable.(from memory it way back in amigados 1.3 machines) someone will be a long in a sec and recall it all,lol.

18 June 2013, 23:48	#111
TCD HOL/FTP busy bee Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Germany Age: 46 Posts: 31,518	Actually OFS is a bit less prune to unrecoverable errors (and wastes more space for that...) than FFS. Of course in 'real life' situations those differences don't matter much, but I thought I mention that OFS itself was actually less fragile than FFS

19 June 2013, 22:42	#113
lukassid Registered User Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Surrey Posts: 390	How to get back to workbench from WHDLoad game without resetting the machine?

19 June 2013, 22:47	#114
TCD HOL/FTP busy bee Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Germany Age: 46 Posts: 31,518	Press the quitkey. It is displayed on the splash screen of each game. You can change it globally in the preferences file of WHDLoad.

20 June 2013, 10:49	#117
ara Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Belgium Age: 50 Posts: 42	Why was the parallel port of the Amiga 500 and 2000 different from the LPT port (IEEE 1284) in PCs (especially the 5V pin)? Was it used anywhere else or just a random idea of the Amiga/Commodore designers?

20 June 2013, 11:02	#118
roy bates Registered User Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: birmingham Age: 55 Posts: 2,827	the parallel port was proably the limitation of the custom chips to keep costs down,and adding a 5 volt line would be handy for samplers and midi and other external devices to be added etc.

20 June 2013, 11:05	#119
ara Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Belgium Age: 50 Posts: 42	Are you aware of any commercial or public domain program that used the Bob/AnimOb functions of the graphics.library?

20 June 2013, 20:33	#120
diablothe2nd Registered User Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Northamptonshire, UK Age: 41 Posts: 1,236	What did CBM stand for when referring to Amiga... for example game boxes sometimes said "For CBM Amiga" edit: nevermind, I was asking google the wrong question Commodore Business Machines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_International

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