Hello from Leicester

[Exodous]

I've been lurking for a few weeks since registering, so thought it was time to introduce myself.

My name is Paul and I started with an A500 back in 1989 to replace my C64C. Over time I added extra RAM (1.5MB trapdoor "slow" RAM), a 45MB GVP SCSI hard disk with another 2MB Fast RAM, sound sampler and dual external floppy drive, as well as swapping the 1.3 ROMs out for 2.04 ROMs.

I played a few games on the Amiga (all version of Lemmings and Uridium 2), but I was mainly interested in demos and assembler programming which I did using Devpac. Back in the 90's, you needed a name, so I came up with Exodous, hence my forum name.

The A500 was replaced it in late 1992 with an A1200 with a 43MB IDE hard disk. This was upgraded with a 4MB card with 20MHz 68881 FPU, an Archos Overdrive 360MB PCMCIA->IDE hard disk, Power Computing XL high density floppy drive and a Commodore 1942 Multisync monitor.

On the A1200, I released a few small tools, a degrader type shareware utility and many Ami-Express BBS doors written in pure assembler for performance.

1996 was a sad year as I really needed to run Unix for my final year University project and couldn't really do it on my Amiga, so I bought a 16MB Pentium 166 PC with RedHat Linux 3.0.3 and sold the Amiga.

Before selling the Amiga, I backed up the hard disk to floppy disks using Quarterback and archived my documents and code with LHA before transferring them to my PC. All my floppy disks were kept, as were some key books: Amiga Hardware Reference Manual (rev 3), Mapping The Amiga and the Motorola Programmers Reference manual, as well as any magazines that reviewed my software or had it on their cover/subscriber disks.

I did try UAE a few times, but never really found any love as it wasn't a patch on real hardware and I never had "my" Amiga back as I couldn't read the disks I had kept.

For Christmas 2000, I was bought a "new old stock" Escom A1200 Amiga Magic pack with Kickstart/Workbench 3.1. To this I added an old 171MB 2.5" IDE hard disk. In early 2001, I managed to pick up a Blizzard 1240 40MHz 68040 accelerator with 8mb RAM. I also added a 3COM 3C589 PCMCIA network card and networked it to my PC. I got back into 680x0 assembler and I used the Amiga a bit, but not as much as I would have liked due to other hobbies, so in 2002, I sold it. However, this time I had the foresight to convert all my disks to ADF format and store them on my PC, along with a copy of the 3.1 ROM.


I've dabbled with WinUAE a few times since, but recently found my backups and, having some free time, have started to get back into it and am now on the lookout for some real hardware to bring back the complete experience. As I'm interested in electronics, I'm also intrigued by what is being done with FPGAs such as the MisSTer and the Vampire V4 SA.

[chip]

Hi !

I understand you want the real thing

Anyway, just as report, WinUAE works great

I use it since 2002 and no problems at all

But, i repeat, the real experience is probably better

Welcome to the forum Exodous

[Exodous]

I've been using the latest WinUAE release for a few weeks and Toni has done a fantastic job when comparing it to the first versions I tried back in the mid to late 90's (0.5.0/0.6.0 era!) It also runs somewhat faster than any of the 3 Amiga's I had.


I have restored my backups from Quarterback, so got "my" Workbench back. The only change from my original Amiga is that the DBLPAL 640x512 resolution didn't look great on my laptop, so I installed the Picasso drivers and am running 1024x768 in a window. The only other change is that I have allocated more RAM because I can.

I've already found a few bugs in my old code I've been looking at, so have fixed them and most of my old stuff works. The only thing I've found so far that I wrote which doesn't work completely is a demo to showcase what I could do. This was sent to games companies which helped me get an interview and resulting job offers from 3 of them (two of which I worked for). The individual effect that doesn't is doing a lot with the copper and I can't get it to work on it's own (without the rest of the demo) from the source either within WinUAE, so it's probably something that is just "different" betwee the real thing and emulation.

It's all good fun though.

[lesta_smsc]

Hello from Leicester too! Welcome to EAB! Glad to see a local on here

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Exodous

I've already found a few bugs in my old code I've been looking at, so have fixed them and most of my old stuff works. The only thing I've found so far that I wrote which doesn't work completely is a demo to showcase what I could do. This was sent to games companies which helped me get an interview and resulting job offers from 3 of them (two of which I worked for). The individual effect that doesn't is doing a lot with the copper and I can't get it to work on it's own (without the rest of the demo) from the source either within WinUAE, so it's probably something that is just "different" betwee the real thing and emulation.

Heya Exodous,

Welcome to EAB

WinUAE is very accurate these days and it's rare to find something that doesn't run as it did on the Amiga.

Maybe you should PM Toni and send him your source code; he might be interested to see what the issue is.

[BippyM]

Hello from Derby

[malko]

Welcome to the forum Exodous

There are some very skilled people around here, so don't hesitate to post on the coder section as well.

After reading your introduction it doesn't looks like, but if you come to a question you think it may be embarrassing, don't think so and use this thread : https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=69214

[Exodous]

Thanks for the replies. Reading the forum has made me wonder how many people I used to do disk swapping with, or "knew" on BBS's are still involved with the Amiga. I'll have to find their names (real and scene) and look them up.

Also. thanks for the suggestion to knock up a demo of my "demo" problem in WinUAE to share with Toni to review whether it's something in WinUAE or my code.


I've also just found the Retro Computer Museum is nearby in Thurmaston, has anyone been? From what I've read, I'm sure my son would be in heaven there as he loves playing on my original PlayStation and the Wii, even though he's got his own PS4.

[CrazyPepsi]

How do u say Leicester ???

[BippyM]

Originally Posted by CrazyPepsi

How do u say Leicester ???

Less-ter

[CrazyPepsi]

Originally Posted by BippyM

Less-ter

So many times years i said it wrong :P

[BippyM]

Originally Posted by CrazyPepsi

So many times years i said it wrong :P

How have you been saying it?

[CrazyPepsi]

Well Lejcester

[lesta_smsc]

Originally Posted by BippyM

Hello from Derby

Location down as Nottingham lol... East Midlands crew

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by CrazyPepsi

So many times years i said it wrong :P

Originally Posted by CrazyPepsi

Well Lejcester

This one threw me when I first arrived in London 20 years ago...

So how so you think you pronounce this: Southwark?

There's another area in London with similar, but forgotten ATM... too tipsy

[lesta_smsc]

Spelling Leicester as a child was difficult... had to use a mnemonic!

@DamienD - Southwark = 'Suthurk'

[Dastardly]

Hello from Nuneaton!

[BippyM]

Originally Posted by Dastardly

Hello from Nuneaton!

Not too far away lol

[Anubis]

Hi Exodous,

welcome to EAB.

That is interesting story, 2 fails over years.

Another interesting solution that might be more to your linux expertise - amiberry. It turns little board computer such as Raspberry Pi into an Amiga.

[lesta_smsc]

Originally Posted by Exodous

I've also just found the Retro Computer Museum is nearby in Thurmaston, has anyone been? From what I've read, I'm sure my son would be in heaven there as he loves playing on my original PlayStation and the Wii, even though he's got his own PS4.

Yes several times. Great place and people. We're lucky to have this so close to home! I helped set up one of the cabinets for multiplayer racing...

They have their own forum and also events taking place. Well worth a trip. I think the next event is soon, unfortunately, due to health reasons I will be unable to attend