My Amiga blog (and a return sort of).

[Amiga Lifestyle]

I had an account a while ago and some projects I was doing, but between buying a house, irritation at the internet in general and work getting super busy (in a good way at least) I dropped it.

Well, things are settling down and writing is good for the brain anyways, so I revived it but I wanted to wait until I had a few posts before really sharing it.

To avoid spamming the forum, I'm just going to use this thread so if you want to read along you can just check in here.

Comments are welcome. I use Posthaven for the blog posts but comments on there are kind of awkward, so it is easier to just post a comment on here instead.

You can find the introductory post here
https://amigaretroforever.posthaven.com/introduction

With the second post being my choice of mouse solution for the Amiga.
I gave it a review score but I really did not intend to do scores at all, so ignore that.
https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....ouse-interface

[Amiga Lifestyle]

Post 3 and 4 is a review of Superfrog, along with my wife and one of my friends (both of which have only limited Amiga experience and had not played the game previously)
https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....view-superfrog

and a sort of "dummy's guide to kickstart" for new users

https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....rt-for-dummies

[Amiga Lifestyle]

Post 5 and 6 is a discussion of my experiences with joystick/mouse switches

https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....h-mouse-switch

and a retrospective of Lethal Weapon on the Amiga, a game I always was quite fond of

https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....-lethal-weapon

[Amiga Lifestyle]

I can see from the view counts that some of you are reading so thank you

Several posts have DOUBLE DIGIT viewcounts. Take that grandma, you said the internet was only a fad.

The next two posts while catching up are a brief gripe about hardware reviewers who don't actually use the hardware for anything
https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....g-actual-tests

and more pleasantly the start of a series I call "play and completion" where I talk about Boxx 1
https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....and-completion
(an easy start because the game is like an hour long but its really fun!)

[Amiga Lifestyle]

Almost at the end of catching up:

Catacomb 3D Amiga port - play and completion.
https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....and-completion

I didn't expect to end up enjoying this game as much as I did, despite (or because of) how jank it is.

And a starting advice post for Champions of Krynn and really the other SSI RPGs

https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....dvice-and-tips

[Photon]

Don't fret, blog about what you want. There are users just like you with 100K views on Youtube, just from trying hardware or games or reading news blogs.

Regarding Cocolino (apart from being unavailable last 10 years) it's a nice PS/2 adapter, but common with all mouse adapters is that the total length including compatible USB to PS/2 adapter and cable amounts to 10cm+... in a world where no-one can have a 14" CRT because of "lack of desk space"...

Something like the recent mouse adapters but with some thought to depth - because us CRT users (and I think flatscreen users and users of box Amigas will chime in here) don't like a HUGE GAP between keyboard and monitor - could be something to pursue perhaps?

Please HW community, give us 1 adapter that shows some thought towards this.

Anyway my message is do what you're passionate about with Amiga, don't fret about views and similar popularity contests. Most people are simple. They want a video or picture without words, or chat without really communicating. You can't win with the best content in the world, for as long as this is the most popular.

[Amiga Lifestyle]

Originally Posted by Photon

Don't fret, blog about what you want. There are users just like you with 100K views on Youtube, just from trying hardware or games or reading news blogs.

Regarding Cocolino (apart from being unavailable last 10 years) it's a nice PS/2 adapter, but common with all mouse adapters is that the total length including compatible USB to PS/2 adapter and cable amounts to 10cm+... in a world where no-one can have a 14" CRT because of "lack of desk space"...

Something like the recent mouse adapters but with some thought to depth - because us CRT users (and I think flatscreen users and users of box Amigas will chime in here) don't like a HUGE GAP between keyboard and monitor - could be something to pursue perhaps?

Please HW community, give us 1 adapter that shows some thought towards this.

Anyway my message is do what you're passionate about with Amiga, don't fret about views and similar popularity contests. Most people are simple. They want a video or picture without words, or chat without really communicating. You can't win with the best content in the world, for as long as this is the most popular.

Yeah, I was mostly joking since this is mostly just for my own enjoyment
I much prefer reading blog posts since I am old and boring, so I suppose I'd sooner appeal to 10 people who are into that than try to do something i don't like. Thanks!

I got a pair of extension cables that I think are intended for a Sega Megadrive but they seem to work just fine.
I tried a USB adapter but it did not work well with the right mouse button. Looking online apparently a known issue with some A1200 motherboards so I decided to just stick to this. Once it dies, I'll grab whatever is out there on the market to replace it

[Photon]

There is joy in writing and I'm not really joking. Just yesterday sorting all my gear I came across an old article in a magazine with the dev diary of Uridium 2 - for the few, you'd maybe think - or maybe for the many if it's good stuff AND lucks out so it becomes a hit.

I say: blog about what you like. If you have something special, the value will be higher than the stuff anyone everyone does, and you can point to it if the special thing recurs.

Mice: Fortunately, there are plenty of USB mouse adapters, but all share the trait of craving 10cm space behind the computer. If you can get a mouse with HW programmable DPI (memory in the mouse), set it to 400-550 DPI, else optical mice from the late 90s match Amiga resolutions best. (Exceptions are Amigas used with RTG cards with better than 1080p resolution.) 800 DPI or HW acceleration and the cursor flies across the screen.

All Amigas can detect right mousebutton and you need this on Amiga for sure. I would sooner suspect, well, anything else. As in, either your A1200 rejects RMB for all mice (fix it) or just plug in another mouse and done. Cheers

[freehand]

Originally Posted by Photon

There is joy in writing and I'm not really joking. Just yesterday sorting all my gear I came across an old article in a magazine with the dev diary of Uridium 2 - for the few, you'd maybe think - or maybe for the many if it's good stuff AND lucks out so it becomes a hit.

Talking of urdium 2 I read an article from the gfx artist he said the reason the ships seem a little over the top is because Andrew Bray brook was colour blind.

[Amiga Lifestyle]

The mouse issue was that when holding down the RMB the system would read it as the button being clicked repeatedly super fast. Only happened with the USB adapter, not with PS2 adapter or a real mouse so something was amiss.

I don't have another USB adapter to test with, but I saw online that people had run into the same thing with certain A1200 motherboards and USB adapters.
Of course with these old girls, who even knows Sometimes it can be basically anything. They have their own personality and maybe she just doesn't like that modern stuff!

I did run into the optical mice being rather fast. The one I use now was the cheapest one I could find on amazon and that works fine, though it is very snappy.

[Daedalus]

The Micromys adaptor is quite good for space because it has the circuitry and PS/2 socket on a short cable instead of built directly into the DE9 connector.

[patrik]

Check out the mouster adapter, it does notbuild 10cm.

[Amiga Lifestyle]

https://amigaretroforever.posthaven.com/amiga-offline

Todays post is about why my Amiga is offline.

[Muzkat]

Lovely blog with some handy tips. Subscribed.

[Amiga Lifestyle]

Thank you so much!

I hope to do more tips and stuff in the future, but December turned out to be brutal for work.

I did however complete Boxx 2 after a few nights banging my head against my own clumsiness
https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....and-completion

[Amiga Lifestyle]

First post of the new year is some tips and tricks for the venerable Warlords. I may do a more in depth guide in the future
https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....dvice-and-tips

[Amiga Lifestyle]

Friends, I managed to complete Breathless. All 20 levels of it.
https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....and-completion

Advice and tips post coming this weekend.

[Amiga Lifestyle]

As promised, tips and advice on beating Breathless.
These are what worked for me and I have pretty bad reflexes so they can no doubt work for you as well.

https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....dvice-and-tips

[Amiga Lifestyle]

Thoughts on what to do when my Amiga eventually does die.

https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....ts-and-musings

[Amiga Lifestyle]

Thinking back, the 8 games we played the most of in multiplayer

https://amigaretroforever.posthaven....es-at-the-time

I was going to pick 10, but I realised that while the list of games we played occasionally was very large, when it came to games that got way more play than the rest, it was these 8. (hence f.x. why Jaguar is on here but Supercars 2 is not) This is not counting games we played a lot together taking turns or just "playing together" like Eye of the Beholder, only true multiplayer ones.