Daedalus2097

You'd be surprised - you regularly see people complaining about the cost of (cheap) parts and looking for cheaper alternatives. Having said that, Commodore used the absolute bargain-basement, cheapest capacitors they could find. Even basic spec capacitors from any branded manufacturer these days will easily outlast them. Premium capacitors in this context are typically polymer capacitors, which do have the advantage that they don't contain liquid electrolyte and so should never leak and corrode the board as conventional electrolytics do, but their useful lifespan isn't typically any longer than their standard aluminium counterparts.

Yeah, the PiStorm is an interesting one. It also provides RTG for some tasty high resolution screenmodes, and a video passthrough mode (using the camera input of the Pi) is in the works.

Yeah, the SCSI on the Cyberstorm does, but that's a bit of an exception. The Blizzard SCSI doesn't unfortunately - or at least it didn't last time I checked, and neither do things like Mediator DMA, so ethernet, USB etc. there will be slowed down too. 256MB is pretty minimal alright, though even with additional Z-III RAM boards like the BigRAM, it's slower than the 128MB that's on the Cyberstorm, which again will hurt performance with large applications, though having SCSI available will help things a lot. I have 512MB in my A1, and it's enough for most things, but even so, opening a few browser tabs or similar heavy work and it soon runs out. I know what you mean about MorphOS - I have it on a G4 iBook with over 1GB of RAM, in theory my most powerful Amiga-like machine. It's great for a portable, but just doesn't feel right and I much prefer using OS4 when I have the choice.

From a different perspective, having extra RAM and a cheap hard drive solution allows games to be loaded from there instead of from floppy or Gotek. When this is done, any differences in hardware or OS are dealt with by WHDLoad, so you don't have to worry about switching to OSC or ECS mode on boot, using a Kickstart degrader or any of that stuff. Convenience is nice, and once I started using a hard drive in mine in the '90s, I never looked back. Depending on the games you play, there are actually quite a few that benefit from the extra speed of the A1200 (or an accelerator in the A600). Anything 3D, such as flight sims, Frontier, Zeewolf, F1GP, will start to become playable on an A1200. And even 2D games where there's a lot going on, like Syndicate, Theme Park, Settlers, Dune 2, will also benefit from the extra grunt. It's mostly simpler arcade-style shooters or platformers where you won't see the difference, so your experience, and whether you think more power is worth it, depends on what sort of game you play. Regarding accelerators, the Furia is probably the go-to device for the A600. It's an excellent bit of hardware that gives you more RAM and a significant boost in speed. As for capacitors, I would go a bit further and say it's essential to change them. If they're not already leaking, they will soon enough, and when they do they cause all sorts of nastiness that'll need potentially expensive repairs. Having said that, using it for a short while isn't going to make a difference - if it's already damaged, it's already damaged, and if it's not, it won't happen overnight but after weeks of use. Power supplies are less of an issue though. Unlike many 8-bit PSUs (the C64 in particular, or the ingot A8 PSU), it's very rare for them to fail in such a way that it causes damage. Normally, either the machine crashes or fails to turn on at all when they go.

The amount of RAM you can connect is the first hurdle - the OS itself is fine, but newer applications and games are pretty big. CPU speed in itself isn't the best, and most DMA-only devices don't work, so the SCSI bus on the Blizzard can't be used. Onboard IDE is very slow, and access to graphics cards is much slower than on native PPC hardware. The 68k CPU isn't used, instead it's emulated on the PPC which probably will be slower than an 060 with a ~233MHz PPC, so 68k applications will be slower than under 3.x. So, it works, but the experience compared to even the most lowly PPC boards will compare quite poorly.

There's a physical release in the works - big box, and it looks awesome. It might need to be pre-ordered though: https://mcgeezer.itch.io/turbo-sprint

I'll verify when I get my own copy and read the EULA, but a few people are reporting that the CD version has a licence for as many machines as you want to install it on, so long as you own them. So just one CD copy is all you'd need for all your machines. Interesting if that is indeed the case - it's not been that way before. I love OS 4.1FE, but on a BlizzardPPC it's going to be kinda slow and limited. It really needs more powerful hardware to properly stretch its legs.

Looks like RetroPassion in the UK were the first to offer it in their store (which has promptly ground to a halt with a deluge of traffic ).

How it's been told by the devs is that the CD covers all models (licencing for multiple machines is a different issue), and Hyperion are delaying the release of the digital downloads to allow dealers to ship CDs first. When they do offer digital downloads (presumably in a few days or a week or two), those downloads *will* be machine-specific, so you'll need a different download for different machines, as it was with 3.1.4.

Yep, it's been lined up as a great update, with lots of the user experience features from 3.9 that were missing in 3.1.4, as well as some nice ones from OS 4.

It's an impressive looking game! I was watching AmigaBill's stream last night, even RJ Mical popped in and was impressed by it

That could be part of it, though it's a strange coincidence to have that failure at the same time as disassembling and reassembling the machine. Did you remove the lower shield too? There's a plastic insulation sheet between the lower shield and the motherboard - if that moves or falls out, you can get shorts between the motherboard and the shield. The board should still work fine with that capacitor removed, though if you are checking across that component while it's still in the circuit, there's no way of telling whether that's faulty or the short is elsewhere on that rail. So it might be worth checking elsewhere - the 12V and -12V rails are used for the serial port and audio circuitry, for example, so check for shorts in those areas (serial circuitry is near the keyboard connector, including the ...88 & ...89 chips and surrounding components, audio is bottom right section with the ...347 chip, and the area just behind the audio sockets.

Sounds like you've shorted something out, maybe pinched a cable when reinstalling the keyboard, or it's not quite right and is touching something on the motherboard. Did you reinstall the upper shielding? Is that touching anything? Try it without the upper shielding. Did you align the floppy power cable correctly? It's possible to misalign it in some cases, resulting in a dead short on a power rail. The keyboard connector can also be misaligned and cause power issues - disconnect the keyboard and remove it completely and try again, it doesn't need to be attached for the machine to boot. If the PSU was shorted, there's a reasonable chance nothing was harmed and correcting the fault will bring it back to life. Any decent PSU will have short circuit protection, which often makes a regular popping or clicking noise.

Hmmm, that's fair enough, space will be tight in that scenario... Perhaps a couple of riser sockets under the Denise adaptor would raise the Pi up above the accelerator? Raising the relocator up might not be an option with a large accelerator PCB.

Goteks are pretty cheap, and are all more or less clones of the original one. There are dozens of different sources both local and from China, so it depends on how long you want to wait versus how much you want to save I find it's much nicer to use a Gotek with an OLED or LCD screen rather than the basic 3-digit display they come with by default. The simplest way to create actual floppies is to use the Gotek and internal floppy drive at the same time, then use the Amiga to do a disk copy from the virtual disk to a real disk. This is made much easier by using the Gotek as an external drive, and installing a small mod to allow you to switch between them. Unfortunately, this also needs a cable for connecting the Gotek externally, and preferably a housing, which all adds to the cost and complexity of the project. If it's getting to the Kickstart screen, most of the machine is already working - a badly failed CIA wouldn't allow it to get that far. The pattern isn't stored as a flat bitmap in Kickstart, and the code is executing fine, so I would say it's quite unlikely to be a faulty Kickstart. Most of the time when these sorts of glitches appear, it's down to a faulty bit on the custom chip bus. This could be to do with RAM, but I've mostly seen it in relation to the Agnus socket needing a clean. You'll need to remove the clip over the chip and use a proper extraction tool to remove it, but cleaning the contacts in the socket and on the chip could well resolve the issue. The Denise socket is also worth inspecting and cleaning. If these don't resolve it, piggybacking the RAM *might* resolve it, but if it doesn't, that doesn't mean the RAM isn't faulty (ouch - too many negatives, but the point is to not draw too many conclusions from piggybacking). If you have RAM chips lying about then it's an easy step to take, but otherwise I would first get a Gotek set up and run Amiga Test Kit on it. This will show you faulty bits in the RAM test and allow you to narrow down the fault.

Are you looking for information on doing it yourself, or on people who do repairs? I have a list of some people who do repairs and recaps here: http://robthenerd.com/amiga/repairers If you're looking for information on doing it yourself, there are a couple of good resources: John Hertell's Recapping Guide gives advice on many aspects of replacing capacitors. Covers the A1200 but the A4000 is broadly similar with respect to capacitors. Ikod's Capacitor Lists gives part numbers and quantities for the capacitors on the different Amiga model motherboards. Amiga PCB Explorer has interactive maps of various Amiga motherboards, very useful for tracing signals for troubleshooting, trace repairs etc. Amiga Vector Schematics has various Amiga model schematics redrawn in vector format.

Is there a reason you're against using a relocator? The TF536 is also a great accelerator, but needs a relocator to fit under the keyboard.

Yep, it will. The battery is only for keeping the real-time clock going. Without it, the system time will be reset to 01-Jan-1978 (or the most recent filesystem date if disks are present) when you boot from cold. Not a big deal though if file timestamps aren't important. If you did want to, you can modify the board by adding a diode, which will let you add a lithium cell like a CR2032 instead. These are far safer, and most holders can be fitted in the same footprint as the battery. Alternatively, many Amiga stores sell small modules that fit in the original battery footprint and contain the diode and the CR2032 holder as a simple drop-in replacement for the NiCd, and there are open-source PCBs as well if you wanted to DIY one. No, unfortunately. The Amiga actually has quite a versatile floppy controller that allows it to use many different floppy formats. Its native format stores 880K, more information than the standard 720K of the PC and ST, and the 800K of the Mac, so none of these are capable of writing Amiga disks. The Gotek suggestion is a good one - they can be a little clunky to use, but that can be helped somewhat by getting one with an OLED display and FlashFloppy firmware. You'll pay a bit more than the base Gotek price to get one ready set up like that, but it'll save some fiddling. If you really want to use floppies, there are some additional devices that let a PC read and write Amiga floppies (and other retro formats). Kryoflux is a big one, and Greaseweazle is an open-source alternative based on very cheap Bluepill dev boards. Both use a standard floppy drive with a custom controller and custom software to handle disks. Yep, the 8370 is the NTSC-only version. That's all you need to change, though make sure it's an 8372 or 8372A, because others (including the 8372AB) are not compatible with that revision motherboard. The default OS of the A500 doesn't provide a facility for switching modes in software, but you can switch modes using a special bootdisk, or by modding the machine and putting a switch somewhere to switch modes in hardware (a common mod back in the day). Newer versions of the OS allow switching via a pre-boot menu, but they can also cause problems with compatibility of some very old games. Not really, they're pretty bullet-proof machines so there's not a lot to worry about. If it's damaged, it's likely caused by some sort of abuse along the way. With no video output, you can still see if it's alive by turning it on and listening for the Amiga "heartbeat" - the floppy drive clicking every couple of seconds as it checks for an inserted disk. As mentioned, getting an RGB cable for it will give you the best image possible without further hardware upgrades, but for testing, the composite output will do fine. It's greyscale only, but that's plenty to make sure the machine works. Welcome to the Amiga world It will indeed be fun!

To be fair, unlike many PSUs for 8-bit machines, the original Amiga PSUs rarely fail and take the machine with them. Typically they just become unstable (resulting in crashes), or stop working altogether. But the modern PSUs based on off-the-shelf modular supplies will work just fine, and will be cheaper to find than an original. Not wanting to scaremonger, but it might be worth checking a new PSU with a multimeter before plugging it in - the other day there was a report in one of the Amiga groups of a guy who bought a PSU from someone who was building and selling them, and the 5V and 12V outputs were swapped in error. That motherboard is most likely a writeoff, and those machines are getting expensive... As for the floppy drive, as already said, most models have a built-in drive. A Gotek or similar is a good substitute for ease of use. Some models of Amiga also have an internal IDE port, which makes for a more convenient experience, but also needs a RAM expansion to get the most of. Finally, as well as the battery check, some Amigas have capacitors that tend to leak and damage the motherboard. The A600, A1200, A4000 and CD32 are all in that category. If it's one of those models, I strongly recommend getting the capacitors changed by someone competent with that sort of work. If they're not leaking already, they will.

Okay, I've looked into this further and there is indeed an NTSC release of Double Dragon 2, though it only makes the Amiga Love article more confusing. The version of the game that was fussy about Agnus chips was PAL only. Later, it was fixed for ECS compatibility and released in an NTSC version with a modified screen layout, so all NTSC versions should work with the "newer" Agnus chip, since ECS implies the later Agnus. So the problems in the article are either from the version of the game tested being PAL and just working on an NTSC Amiga because only an NTSC OCS setup was available, or some other issue, potentially with the floppy drive, on the A2000 that was tested and failed. And while the screenshots show the bottom of the screen to be a little cropped, this could equally be a poorly adjusted monitor, and on balance, I suspect that it is actually the NTSC version (which does work on ECS), and the A2000 drive is less than ideal. NTSC IPFs are available, but they're only of use for emulators - a Gotek can't deal with them AFAIK. It would appear that only the earlier PAL version was cracked, and nobody felt the need to crack the later, fixed NTSC version. Games with custom disk geometry are usually only available in original form in IPF format - to get them into ADF format, they need to be cracked versions. Plan 9 seems to be in a similar situation - there appears to have been an NTSC release but the ADFs available are all based on cracks of the PAL release - including one which is supposedly fixed for NTSC use and might be worth trying.

Most games were available in NTSC territories, but not necessarily any different from the PAL version other than having different distributors (and probably different packaging as a result). A well-written game that stuck to 320x200 resolution would work equally well on either system. But that is pretty interesting, and I'm all for learning more about things I didn't know! Neither of these are games that I've ever really played, but I can only find reference to PAL versions. So, where can I find an image of the NTSC versions of these? I'm interested to see how they've changed them to fit the lower resolutions.

It would appear that those games, like many others, were PAL-only releases by European software houses. Apparently the Amiga had a much bigger following in Europe for games than the US, and most software houses released primarily or exclusively for the local markets. Many games also work on NTSC Amigas because they limited their vertical resolution to 200 lines, but games that used the full PAL screen resolution of 256 lines would be cut off at the bottom. Of course, there's also the issue that many games would also synchronise to the screen refresh so timing might be a little bit off, but sometimes that can actually be a benefit. The software houses involved (Virgin and Gremlin Ireland) primarily released in Europe, so I don't think you'll have much luck finding NTSC copies. If you have a newer A500, or any later model Amiga, you can switch to PAL mode when needed for games. Naturally, you'll need a display that can do 50Hz, but most displays should, and the Commodore monitors from back in the day do.

An lha is an archive like a Zip file, not a disk image like an ADF. Also, I think you're confusing the hard drives and floppy drives. On the Amiga, the floppy drives are labelled DF0: for the standard drive, and DF1:, DF2: and DF3: for the additional drives. Hard drives are typically labelled DH0: for the first partition, DH1: for the second and so on, though those labels can and do change depending on circumstances. A basic installation of Workbench on a virtual hard drive is more or less a given if you were intending to use the system for anything other than running games from floppy images, so setting up the virtual hard drive with the Workbench 3.1 installer disks is the very start, and necessary for using WHDLoad. You don't need 4 hard drives, though traditionally Amiga users tended to have multiple partitions (e.g. Workbench: for the OS, Work: for programs, Games: for games). I would advise setting up a shared hard drive directory that is accessible from both the Amiga and Windows, which will make it simple for transferring files downloaded in Windows to the Amiga. Lha is a command line program, so you need to run it from the Shell. You can download the lha.run package from Aminet, run it in the Shell and it will unpack itself as a couple of different files including executables for a couple of different CPUs. Copy the one you want into the SYS:C directory of your boot drive and rename it as lha. Then, when you have an lha file you want to extract, navigate to its location in the Shell, then use lha to unpack it: lha e archiveName.lha For this purpose, I like to put the archive in the RAM disk, unpack it there and then copy the contents to wherever they should be on the hard drive. The WHDLoad package itself would be one of these archives, and then if you find pre-installed games, they would be more. Once WHDLoad is unpacked, it will have an installer script that you double-click to take you through the process, and games that are unpacked simply need to be dragged to wherever you keep your games on the virtual hard drive. To be honest though, I'm sure there are hard drive images you can download that will have all this already done and include 95% of all games ever released for the Amiga, and this would be the way to go for simplicity. I doubt very much these guys selling fully loaded CF cards online for £20 have set up the OS, utilities and installed thousands of games themselves - they just found a 4GB, 8GB or whatever image, downloaded it and stuck it on a card. It's not really my thing (I prefer to have a small collection of games, most of which I actually own), but such images are occasionally talked about in Amiga Facebook groups and the likes.

Yep, pouet.net tends to be updated with any new versions of things, and reworked / fixed demos will turn up usually on both. The whole point of WHDLoad was/is to be able to install copy-protected games to the hard drive, which is why it's mostly geared towards real hardware and original disks. WHDLoad on WinUAE has the drawback that it can't install from real disks, which means you either need to find images of the original disks. ADF images commonly found are most often of cracked versions, not originals, since the ADF format doesn't support the non-standard geometries used by many copy protection schemes. The images of original disks are typically in IPF format, which are more difficult (but not impossible) to find. The modified nature of the cracked versions means the WHDLoad installers don't often work with cracked images. That all said, you can find pre-installed games from a few places. First, if you look around on auction sites, you'll find plenty of options for buying compact flash cards preinstalled with thousands of games. These will be chock full of WHDLoad-installed games and are usually pretty cheap. The intention of them is to connect to the IDE port of an A600 or A1200, but if you have a card reader, you can either mount the card directly in WinUAE as a hard drive, or take an image with any disk imager software and use that image as a virtual hard drive in WinUAE. That'll be you set up and ready to play. The second source is to look for pre-installed archives of WHDLoad games. The key thing here is that they're frequently distributed as .lha archive files, so searching with that term should turn up plenty of results. Download, unpack to your Amiga's hard drive and you're sorted. It's important to remember to unpack in the Amiga environment, and not on the Windows side, because unpacking with WinRAR or similar will lose some of the unique file properties supported by Amiga filesystems and that can prevent programs from working. In both cases, it's also worth bearing in mind that WHDLoad is very flexible and can be adjusted to suit virtually any hardware setup. The downside of this is that when you get a game that someone else has installed on their machine (both the options above come from this method), it will be configured for their hardware and might not work well on other configurations. The most common hardware setup is probably something like an A1200 with OS 3.1, an 030 CPU, 2MB chip RAM and 16 or 32MB of RAM, so start with that and it should match what most of the original installers were using.

Oops, I meant to post about this before it happened, but forgot. Due to all the happenings, the regular Amiga Ireland event in January didn't happen this year. Instead, there was an online meeting held, which was well attended and saw some interviews, gaming competitions, creative competitions, and previews of new games and hardware. For anyone that's interested in catching up, there are some highlight videos available here.