User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:05 am

If you go to Amiga On The Lake to purchase OS 3.1.4, you get both floppy disks and ROMs.

But when you go to purchase, you're presented with options to select the model of your machine. For example:
Screen Shot 2019-03-11 at 8.23.36 AM.png
Now, why on earth does that matter? Do the AGA machines have a different set compared to the OCS/ECS machines?

And why would it matter if I picked 500 over 2000? Are you unable to swap the ROM between two different machine types?

Also - do you get a digital download of the ROMs you purchased, for emulation purposes?

Thanks in advance if anyone knows the answers to these questions. It's not obvious to me after looking at AotL's site.

User avatar
Mr.Toast
Roseville, CA

Posted Mon Mar 11, 2019 10:10 am

IDK. Maybe it is just to make sure customers don't get AGA ROMs? Does the link land at the same page? I've never had a problem swapping same version KS between OCS/ECS boards.

AGA and A3000s are a dual ROM solution (High/Low).

User avatar
oldbull

Posted Mon Mar 11, 2019 10:12 am

I can answer the second question for you. One of the reasons I held off buying 3.1.4 was because I wanted to see what would happen with the df0: situation of my A500.

I quote the following run-on sentence from Hyperion:
AmigaOS 3.1.4 is available as immediate purchase from our direct download section as digital download and will be available shortly is also available as physical set of 3,5" floppy diskettes and machine specific ROM(s) from your Amiga dealer (download of digital version included after registering with supplied serial number).
One of their listed dealers is amigaonthelake. I took that to mean that I could safely buy physical ROM and floppies even if my df0: were completely shot. Worst case scenario I can provide the serial number to Hyperion and download what I need to get the ACA500+ running.

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Mon Mar 11, 2019 11:45 am

In short: yes there are minor differences. PCMCIA for example. AGA/ECS can assume different CPUs. A500 and A2000 should be the same, though.

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Mon Mar 11, 2019 4:59 pm

A500/A2000 should be the same and probably should be the same choice. I would send an email to the AOTL guys they are quite responsive and helpful.
Last edited by Zippy Zapp on Tue Mar 12, 2019 6:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
dalek
Australia

Posted Mon Mar 11, 2019 7:12 pm

Yes there are some technical differences between the ROMs, but the real reason surely is to extract more money out of customers forcing multiple purchases.

I'm glad I've stayed away from purchasing 3.1.4 until the legal mess is sorted out. There is nothing in 3.1.4 that I really need and I can't deal with the Hyperion Copyright bootscreen. 3.1 roms and BetterWB/ClassicWB work well enough and are period correct.

If you want to 'trial' 3.1.4 before you buy there are ways and means that find themselves in the equivalent 'bay' of 'gray area' of legality 'me harties'....

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Tue Mar 12, 2019 6:49 am

It makes me wonder what Commodore would have done. I don't recall an upgrade package for Kickstart 3.0 for Amigas other than the 1200/4000 until it was sold much later I will have to look in Amiga World from the time. I know when 2.04 was released the software came in a binder and disks (that I still have) and it was for A500/A2000. I think even the ROM was the same for A500/A2000 except you had to remove a jumper wire if you were not installing it on a REV 5 A500 or earlier (the only revisions that had a slightly different pinout hence the jumper wire). The 1000 was not part of it for obvious reasons and the A3000 already came with 2.0. The A1200, A4000 and A600 had not been released yet.

When 2.1 came out it was software only and wasn't it for all Amiga's to that point? I have the package at home so I guess I should check.

So yeah, the ROMs should be separate to a degree but shouldn't the software update be the same or at least separate AGA and OCS/ECS releases?

User avatar
Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Tue Mar 12, 2019 11:19 pm

I have a software ROM switcher program that I've successfully used to put my Amiga 500, which has a 1.3 ROM, into 1.2, 1.4, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0 and 3.1

The process I went through for getting this program to work was painstaking and not helped by anyone online. I had to get a hold of countless versions of those ROMs to accomplish this task, and there were indeed, back in the day, separate ROM revisions designed for specific hardware. Pretty sure 3.0/3,1 could not run, period, without an 030 processor, but eventually Commodore made a ROM available to get it to run on a standard 500. Pretty sure, however, that anything I ended up getting to work on my 500 was noted as being a "500/2000" ROM, which would make sense... But why they're trying to sell versions getting that separate into the line, that... Does not make so much sense...

If anyone wouldn't mind sharing one of those new 3.14's, via the downloadable option, could always PM me... I have beyond zero desire to use that version, but would love to test it out using my software switcher program, just to see if would work. I sure as hell am not throwing any money toward those corpse *******, though.

User avatar
BloodyCactus
Lexington VA

Posted Wed Mar 13, 2019 7:43 am

They are probably asking to get the answer to a different question.

Statistics.

By answering the question, irrelevant or not, they are getting important customer metrics.

If 95% of people are buying for a 1200 and 2% are for a 600, is it worth spending any future R&D on 600 only improvements/fixes?

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Wed Mar 13, 2019 8:38 am

3.1 was available for A500 as was 2.x. I am wondering what your issue there is/was.

3.1.4 effectively is a drop-in replacement for a 3.1 ROM.

In situations where you have some libs or similar loaded in the startup-sequence with loadmodule you might get an error. Or maybe if you patch scsi.device of 3.1. Other than that you get instant support for large drives etc.





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