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iljitsch

Posted Sat Jul 10, 2021 10:01 am

Hi, I've been an Amiga user since about 1990. I originally had an A500 but I can't remember what happened to that one.

Shortly after that I got an A3000 that ran as a BBS (sponsored by Commodore Netherlands) for the better part of the 1990s. It now has all its Zorro slots filled, with an ISDN card, an X-Surf network card, a Buddha IDE interface with a CF card adapter and a CyberGraphx video card. I should also still have an A2232 7-port serial card somewhere, but that one didn't play nice with one of the other cards IIRC.

Around the same time I upgraded from the A500 to an A1200 which now as a 50 MHz 68060 with 64 MB, a PCMCIA networking card, an Indivision MK3 HDMI/VGA adapter and a clock port USB adapter.

Back in the day, my first computer was a C64 and then I got a C128.

I seriously thought about getting some additional retro computers, but eventually decided against it because of the hassle. Do like the THEC64 systems, though, except that they're way too picky about the hardware they talk to.

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McTrinsic

Posted Sat Jul 10, 2021 12:06 pm

Welcome to the cozy side (site ;) ) of the Amiga in the Internet :).

Glad you found your way here!

If I may ask - do you have some pictures of your setup? Your machines sound really advanced.

I love it if someone still has at least one original machine from back then. I wasn’t so wise, unfortunately.

Is there nice story - or any story ;) - how you came to be the one to run the BBS?

Anything particular you did with the other machine while not running the BBS? Anything specific that brought you to the Amiga?

Sorry if I may seem like asking a lot of questions. For once, yes, I am generally curious. The other thing is that I am indeed really curious to hear how it really was (is) to work or game with an Amiga compared to the other solutions. History seems to be sometimes hiding behind rose-tinted glasses domaine you can share a story or two how you developed your AmigaLove?

Thanks for being here!

Cheers,
Erasmus

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iljitsch

Posted Sun Jul 11, 2021 3:18 am

This desk has my A1200 on it and the A3000 to the side, with usually the keyboard and mouse tucked away to make room for other stuff like laptops, and the A1200 is normally under a cover to prevent further yellowing.
my-amiga-setup-2021-m.jpg
From top right down and to the left:

  • iPod 3rd gen :-)
  • 8-port switch
  • Synology NAS
  • Printer/scanner
  • Amiga 3000, with the floppy drive now DF1 and a Gotek floppy emulator as DF0 (hence the red numbers glowing inside, but I usually keep the cover over it)
  • 1920x1080 monitor and a VGA switch below it that switches between the Amiga's VGA port and the Cybergraphx card, which I've programmed for a 960x540 resolution so it fills the screen.
  • Original A3000 keyboard and mouse. Interestingly, the keys (except the space bar) haven't yellowed, and it has a big-ass return key 8-)
  • Speakers under/behind the monitor are hooked up to the 1200, as I sometimes switch to this monitor to play games as it handles 50 Hz modes smoothly, unlike the other monitor.
  • A1200, with the I-Card network card sticking out from the PCMCIA port on the left.
  • The little door on the back right of the computer now holds an HDMI port and a USB port (thanks to the Indivision MK3 and Rapid Road). A second USB port inside has a Logitech universal receiver attached to it so I can use the wireless mouse (the middle one). The mouse on the right is a USB mouse hooked up to an adapter for the mouse port so I still have a working mouse when the USB drivers aren't loaded.
  • The other monitor is a 4K one with audio out to the little speakers below. Unfortunately, the Amiga doesn't support 4K resolutions. :shock:
  • Last but not least, a Monster Joysticks arcade-style joystick.
(I could use some cable management...)

In the 1980s and 1990s we had a "hobby computer club" (HCC) here in the Netherlands. They ran a good number of BBSes, some "general" and all the special interest groups had their own. These were standardized on BBS software for DOS.

However, the Commodore user group decided to run theirs on an Amiga. So Commodore Netherlands provided an A3000 and we got some pretty expensive BBS software (DLG) from Canada, IIRC. Not sure how it came about that I became the sysop (system operator), but that's what happened so that A3000 sat in my living room running the BBS, from 1992 to 1998, I believe.

The BBS actually still works and if I start it up and mess a bit with my network, it's possible to connect to it over telnet. Or have a look here, which should give you a flavor of what it looked like (most of it is in Dutch, though).

Until last year I basically never turned on the A3000 because it was so noisy. Not sure if it was always like that, but probably the fan got noisier over time. So I replaced it with a modern one with a temperature sensor, which is dead quiet as long as it's cool. Also, I got the Buddha IDE card and after a good deal of experimentation (doesn't help that this A3000 reads its kickstart from floppy or HDD and that the Buddha after the Cybergraphx won't AutoConfig), the machine now runs off of a CF card that sticks out of one of the slots in the back for easy replacement. The old SCSI drive is still hooked up for now, but I make it spin down immediately, as with the fan replaced, the HDD was now the largest source of noise.

Not sure for what reason the BBS was stopped, but I eventually paid a few hundred euros to the HCC to became the owner of the machine.

The story of how I came to the Amiga: I got a C64 when I was a kid, and then a few years later I had saved enough money for an upgrade. So I got a C128, for which I didn't have much (any?) software but I did a whole lot of my own programming on it. And actually I shouldn't have worked so hard saving my money, because two months later the Amiga 500 was released for about the same amount of money as a C128 and a 1571 drive... But probably, if I'd gotten the Amiga, I may not have spent so much time programming and my career may have been completely different...

After I got out of school I was a volunteer at the local TV/radio station, where we used Amigas for a bunch of graphical stuff. I then got my own A500 and started discovering the world of BBSes. Not sure if I first got on the internet with my A500 or the A1200, which I must have gotten in 1993.

Then I went to college studying computer science and did a lot of my school work, including C programming, on the A1200. I also started to network the two Amigas in all sorts of ways, especially as I entered the internet service provider industry.

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McTrinsic

Posted Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:36 am

Thanks a lot for sharing this!

Quite impressive setup - generally, referring to the compilation of systems on your desk and the systems individually.

My physical Amiga is currently undergoing major reworks. Once (when...) it is up and running I plan to visit some BBS‘s as I missed that time completely. I joined at the time of www later with a PC.

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JoeUser
Dallas, TX

Posted Sun Jul 11, 2021 6:31 am

iljitsch wrote:
Sun Jul 11, 2021 3:18 am
<snip>Then I went to college studying computer science and did a lot of my school work, including C programming, on the A1200. I also started to network the two Amigas in all sorts of ways, especially as I entered the internet service provider industry.
Cool introduction, thanks for sharing!

User avatar
iljitsch

Posted Sat Aug 07, 2021 10:15 am

amiga-hdmi-usb.jpg
Using an Amiga 1200 with an HDMI monitor (thanks to the Indivision AGA MK3), USB mouse (thanks to the MouSTer) and a USB keyboard (thanks to the Rapid Road adapter and Poseidon software).

Commodore key in the bottom left and Amiga keys thanks to WASD.

Arcade joystick thanks to Monster Joysticks.

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A1-X1000
Toronto, Canada

Posted Fri Oct 15, 2021 12:34 pm

@ iljitsch

welcome aboard & awesome Amiga setup :boing: :commodore:





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