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EzdineG
Springfield, MO

Posted Sun Feb 11, 2018 4:23 pm

Greetings!

I've recently obtained my first Amiga 1000 and found this board while searching for information regarding possible modifications for it. I've recently recapped a 1084 for her, as the combo is absolutely beautiful. I will be making a Kickstart ROM / CPU relocator adapter, socketing in in MKL's IDE68K/8MB and calling it a night. I tried to live with the Kickstart disk, but just couldn't do it ;)

As a child my family didn't have much money so I was limited to the very basic Amiga 500 in 1988 (yay single mother income tax!) I later purchased a trapdoor expansion and a 1084 monitor after working long hard McDonald's hours as a teen in high school. As many of you can also appreciate, these machines forever captured my imagination and I have a great sense of nostalgia for them as a result. To easily communicate with the international Amiga community today is something I could only have dreamed of.

I can't say I am interested at all in the PowerPC generation machines, as I just can't bring myself to consider them Amigas, but something about those Vampire cards is exciting. I currently own a few PAL/NTSC Amiga 500's, 600's and 1200's and a CD32 obtained just to make one of Terriblefire's RAM expansions (which is fantastic, BTW!) In the past I've owned all three of the big box versions and 040/060 accelerators but have sold them during several "time to move on" phases in this cycle of my hobby interests. The one thing I've learned about THIS hobby is that is that I always seem to come back, so I reckon I'm here to stay.

I also have a collection of C64/128 and Atari 600/800/800XL computers. Something about those Jay Miner Atari models that feel familiar, isn't there?

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:02 pm

Welcome, EzdineG! So cool for someone of your past and experience to join. We're happy to have you!

I can totally relate to the A1000magnetism. It's such a cool little machine. This weekend - while battling a virus - I started to experiment with the MKL 8MB RAM to 68000 device, too. I put it in for the first time the other day, and it's been just fantastic. I'd like to post about it before passing out. We'll see how that goes.

My daily driver is an A2000 and it's pretty much exactly the way I want it. I'm fairly sure it'll never see another upgrade for a very long time. I have lots of "things" I could put in it (some old, some brand new) but I'm in no rush. It's exactly what the doctor ordered.

But I have 3 other fully working Amiga machines, 2 of which I'm actively playing with lately. One is a pristine stock A1000 that I built out of two other machines: internals from one, case/keyboard from the other. It looks amazing and is a joy to use. Most of the time. I did just add that 8MB of RAM, so as a result I've removed my sidecar expansion RAM. 8.5MB of RAM on the little thing feels gluttonous - I just love it. (I have another MKL board in-coming as a backup spare.)

My other machine that I've been goofing around with a lot is a Phoenix from Australia, which I've converted to NTSC. I actually found an original NTSC 1MB Agnus that is inbound, too, which will go into it. It'll be 100% pure USA, baby. Just because. What's cool about these later model Agnus chips is they can flip back and forth. I just really wanted an "NTSC" message in SysInfo... So dumb! I put the Phoenix in a slightly less-pretty case I had from a dead 1000 I'd picked up last year locally for a very nice price.

Fairly recently I figured out how to get the Phoenix to use its internal SCSI controller to fire up a SCSI2SD with a 256MB SD card in it (2 partitions). That machine auto-boots Workbench in 20 seconds flat! It's amazing. The only real "issue" I have with that machine is it is stuck at 2MB of RAM, 1 chip and 1 fast. That, and I've been spending way too much time trying to get the machine's floppies to not get jammed when I put the case back together. Other than that, the machine is super fun, even though it does seem to have its own unique peculiarities about it that are often hard to predict or (for me) even understand.

I wish I had more room in my house... In an ideal world I'd have 4 machines hooked up at the same time all of the time. My 2000, the Phoenix, the 1000 and my breadbin C64. I'm lucky to have any room at all, but as it is I can only run 2 at a time. All of them get driven to BBSes fairly regularly via some new WiFi modems that are out there now.

Anyhoo... stoked to see and hear what you're up to! Thanks for joining.

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Bulletdust

Posted Sun Feb 11, 2018 6:07 pm

EzdineG wrote:
I also have a collection of C64/128 and Atari 600/800/800XL computers. Something about those Jay Miner Atari models that feel familiar, isn't there?
I had a 600XL that was given to me brand new when I was younger, due to the fact I never had any peripherals for it and my C64 had 64k of ram as standard I never used it - It just stayed in it's box under my bed until I moved out of home, in which case I have no idea what happened to it.

But lately I've been fascinated by the Atari 800 (as in the original monolith beast of a machine!), I'd just love one to play with. I saw one a little while ago with two massive hard drive units that plug into the joystick ports, that's my dream machine..

I remember when I was younger I had a friend that was right into Atari's and had M.U.L.E, it was so good to play on the 800 due to 4x joystick ports - We had a ball playing that.

Welcome to Amiga Love my friend!

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sun Feb 11, 2018 6:09 pm

By the way, I'd be curious how you go about doing your Kickstart ROM mod.

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EzdineG
Springfield, MO

Posted Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:06 pm

intric8 wrote:Welcome, EzdineG! So cool for someone of your past and experience to join. We're happy to have you!

I wish I had more room in my house... In an ideal world I'd have 4 machines hooked up at the same time all of the time. My 2000, the Phoenix, the 1000 and my breadbin C64. I'm lucky to have any room at all, but as it is I can only run 2 at a time. All of them get driven to BBSes fairly regularly via some new WiFi modems that are out there now.

Anyhoo... stoked to see and hear what you're up to! Thanks for joining.
Thanks!

Once I get this 1000 situated, I plan on trying out one of those external network solutions too. I might have to ask about some of your experiences with all of your existing solutions, especially relating to using them on multiple computers.
intric8 wrote:By the way, I'd be curious how you go about doing your Kickstart ROM mod.
I'm going to follow the veraboard instructions from here.


.. BUT I'd also like to move the 68K socket up by a few mm to fit the IDE68K without removing the floppy, so I might have to draw up a board instead.
Last edited by EzdineG on Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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EzdineG
Springfield, MO

Posted Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:15 pm

Bulletdust wrote: I had a 600XL that was given to me brand new when I was younger, due to the fact I never had any peripherals for it and my C64 had 64k of ram as standard I never used it - It just stayed in it's box under my bed until I moved out of home, in which case I have no idea what happened to it.

But lately I've been fascinated by the Atari 800 (as in the original monolith beast of a machine!), I'd just love one to play with. I saw one a little while ago with two massive hard drive units that plug into the joystick ports, that's my dream machine..

I remember when I was younger I had a friend that was right into Atari's and had M.U.L.E, it was so good to play on the 800 due to 4x joystick ports - We had a ball playing that.

Welcome to Amiga Love my friend!
Thanks!

I had originally bid on eBay listings both a 600XL and 800XL a few years ago, fully expecting to get sniped out of one or the other by the auction's end and ended up winning them both. I ended up putting an Antonia 4MB expansion in the 600XL because it is in such great condition (and I was too lazy to do the 64k upgrade!) Considering the machine's abilities, I can't believe how much smaller it is than an 800XL, or an 800 for that matter. It's been my primary source for Atari entertainment for a while now, and I love it - and you can play 4 player M.U.L.E. if you break out the paddles!

A few months ago I picked up a $35 Atari 800 on Craigslist, but the guy said he "didn't have the TV cables for it" so it couldn't be tested. As you could probably imagine, the machine didn't work. Fortunately, they are built like TANKS and are easy to diagnose thanks to the wealth of knowledge at Atariage - so a $15 personality card, $2 keyboard multiplexer chips and $5 fuji key (it was missing) later and the machine is now pristine! It comes out from time to time to play Star Raiders, which is a blast!

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Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Sun Feb 11, 2018 8:50 pm

Hi and thanks for sharing your story. Nice to meet another Amiga user over here in NTSC land.

It sounds like you have quite a collection. I was never into the Atari line of computers back in the era, only because we had a VIC-20 and then shortly after a C64. I always liked them though because I liked Atari products since getting a 2600 in 1978. I remember going with my Dad to purchase one and we had to choose between the Atari VCS and the Fairchild Channel F. I urged my dad to buy the Atari, because I knew the name and never heard of a Farichild. Heh, True story: My Dad had a doctors prescription/order to buy the system to help my little brother that was having dexterity skill and hand eye coordination problems. The medical insurance paid for it.

Anyway, as usual i am blabbing on... Nice to hear your story though.

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McTrinsic

Posted Sun Feb 11, 2018 10:44 pm

Welcome to AmigaLove!

Stories like yours always send me on a trip down to memory lane.

I was totally blown away when I first saw an Amiga back then in action for the first time. It was one of the first machines in Germany. It wasn't even named '1000' at that time. Later when I finally had enough money everyone was buying an A500. I had to get the machine on display. Some kids were angry at me because I took the last unit from the computer store and they were playing games on it.
It really felt like a huge leap in technology that you just had to be part of...

So let's help each other to revisit this feeling from back then and solve all the issues stand in our way to do so.
:)

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LambdaCalculus
New Jersey, USA

Posted Mon Feb 12, 2018 7:31 am

Hello and welcome to our fun little family! Nice to see more US based Amiga users; I know we're out there but we're rather scattered! :D

I'm a bit later onto the Amiga scene (always coveted having one as a kid; now I've got an Amiga 500 and an Amiga 4000 I'm getting fixed up), but glad to be a part of it! Most of my Amiga knowledge has been predominately from from friends in Europe, so to meet and greet with Amiga users here in the States is a nice balance!

For now, I have an emulated AmigaOS 3.9 environment, as well as a Mac Mini G4 that runs MorphOS for some next-gen Amiga-like feels. The Mac Mini was recently upgraded with an SSD and it absolutely flies now; it takes two seconds to boot MorphOS! :lol:

I'm also part of Westchester Amiga User Group, run by Bill and Anthony of The Guru Meditation! They're great guys to hang out with, and the group is always fun to attend!





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