4 July, 2008 |

Retro Computing by Flaim ;-)

[wp_caption id="attachment_109" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="A classic Amiga 600 computer - some say it killed Commodore. Looks innocent to me ;)"][/wp_caption]

In the world where everyone forgets about old computers and glorifies the humongous power of multi-core processors and extreme graphic cards with gigs of memory, producing enormous amounts of heat and eating up tons of energy, I still have a small hidden hobby - classic Amigas.

Amiga? What the hell is that?

In the mid-eighties a well known personal computer producer Commodore (r.i.p) started a series of 16/32 bit computers and named them Amiga ('female friend' in spanish). They made a number of models and finished production in the early nineties (went bankrupt in 1994 and sold out to Escom which then went bankrupt too [1997]).

Amiga 1000 - the beginning

The first model introduced in 1987. The computer was fitted with a 16 bit Motorola 68000 @ 7.16 MHz processor and 256 or 512kb of Chip RAM (could be increased up to 9MB with fast ram). The computer was sold in a desktop case with a keyboard and was a huge leap between 8bit computers thanks to it's OCS chipset (which could render 32 colours to the screen and supported a HAM-6 mode for displaying and editing photos) and PAULA sound chip - a stereo sound chip which could play samples (in 4 channel modules) smoothly.

Amiga 500 and 500+

Amiga 500 was the first Amiga computer built into an all-in-one chassis (with keyboard). It based on Amiga 1000 - still having the OCS chipset and the Motorola 68k processor. Introduced in 1987 as a low end, home version of Amiga 2000 model. Amiga 500 had 512kb chip memory expandable to 1MB with a memory card. The 500+ was an improved version of Amiga 500. All previous models based on Kickstart (eeprom) version 1-1.3. (and AmigaOS / Workbench - 1.0 to 1.3). When released - in 1992/93 the new Amiga 500 Plus had a totally new Kickstart 2.0, a new 2.04 Amiga OS version and a completely new chip called Full ECS- which could do 32 colours (or 64 in a special mode using colour variations) and a ham-8 mode supporting up to 4096 colours simoultanously (Deluxe Paint - a famous Amiga graphic software used that mode to edit photos and draw pictures!). The + sported 1MB of chip ram which could be expanded to 2MB in the same way as the A500. Both models had an expansion connector for external devices (i.ex. a hard drive or a turbo module, sampler and so on).

Pro Amigas (2000,3000,4000/T)

While the home market got A500 and A500+ models, Amiga also thought about pro-users. They were producing desktop computers - more exandable, equipped with more memory and better processors (next generation of motorolas). I won't be explaining more about them because you can read it on Wiki but they were still classic Amigas (you call them classic because they are still on classic motorolas and not PPC processors)

Amiga 600 / 600HD

This model was introduced in 1992. It was generally a ripped-off Amiga 500+ in a smaller case without the numeric keypad. It also lacks some expansion possibilities. Had 1MB of chip ram (expandable to 2MB again), the same processor and a Full ECS chipset. Additionally iyt had a type1 pcmcia slot (now you can attach a compact flash card reader to it , a memory expansion SRAM module or a 10/100 ethernet card). The HD version had a newer Kickstart version (but still 2.0) so it could run with an internal 2,5'' hard drive. This computer killed the Amiga company - was more expensive than the A500/Plus models and got a very bad feedback from the public. Not even the great Amiga 1200 could help the company to survive after this disaster. Nevertheless it's a small lovely box for which parts are extremely rare and hard to find (making them expensive) nowadays.

Amiga 1200

A completely new design. It had a new microprocessor (Motorola 68EC020 @ 14mhz), 2MB of chip ram and a really great new chipset - called AGA. It could display 128 colours natively and was way faster than the previous ones. The 1200 , in addition to the a600 pcmcia, had an expansion slot. Everyone could install a turbo card in it to expand the computer (turbo cards with better motorola and powerpc processors are available). New software was also introduced. They fitted the Amiga with a 3.0+ Kickstart and a new operating system , Amiga OS 3.1. The 1200 was continued after ESCOM took over Amiga. It lived a long life and many upgrades to the computer are still available (even new and packaged). You could also fit the A1200 mainboard to a normal desktop case (they even sold the ESCOM 1200 in a Tower version) and fit more expansions - like a graphic card.

Other Amigas

Commodore released a console named CD32 with a built in CDROM drive and a joypad. The CD32 was based on Amiga 1200 (with AGA and 68020 processor). With it's cool black case it's a really nice addition to every collection.

They also produced a stylish black (desktop with a remote) Amiga CDTV. Basically an Amiga 500 with a CDROM drive instead of the floppy. The first media center PC in the market I guess... rare one too.

My Amiga

I currently own a cool looking Amiga 600 (still white after all this time) with some self-made additions :)

Currently it holds:

- stock Motorola 68k processor,

- Chip Ram expanded to 2MB,

 - Kickstart upgraded (eeprom switch) to 2.05 with hard drive support and boot,

- A IDE44 to compact flash adapter inside the chassis with a 256MB compact flash card formatted to amiga fast file system. The computer boots the OS from it (Workbench 2.1 currently),

- WHDLoad software (for running old disk games from the hard drive - cool thing to have - needs much resources so it's difficult to run most of the games on the slow and small A600),

- loads of old games installed and ready to play (and they look way beyond cool on my Bravia LCD TV ;))

Some Pictures of my hardware:

[wp_caption id="attachment_111" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The interior - you can see the CF card adapter."][/wp_caption]

 

[wp_caption id="attachment_112" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="First run of the almost finished Amiga - a success!"][/wp_caption]

 

[wp_caption id="attachment_113" align="aligncenter" width="363" caption="First boot from the Compact Flash hard drive"][/wp_caption] [wp_caption id="attachment_114" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="..and the first game executed with WHDLoad ;-))))))))))"][/wp_caption]

Planned Expansions

There is only one processor expansion you can add to the A600- the Apollo/Winner 620 (or 630 the faster version) Turbo Card. Available is not a good word for it because it's expensive and almost impossible to find. The card fits a faster processor (up to 40mhz) and can handle up to 32MB of RAM (old SIMM) which is visible to the system as FAST RAM (extended memory). This would give me the ability to run almost every game designed for the A600/A500/A500+ from the hard drive - without using the floppy drive. The Amiga would run faster as well (considerably).

I'm currently waiting for a 4MB SRAM type1 PCMCIA expansion card (again - quite rare). It expands the Amiga 600's by 4MB of extended memory (a.k.a Fast Ram). Unfortunately this memory used via the pcmcia port is very very very slow (despite its' name ;-)) but it is an alternative to a rare and expensive Apollo Turbo Card....for now.

 The Outro :)

It's still a lot of fun to use those non-accelerated, single-slow-core, without GB's of memory, machines. If you only know what and how to do. Most of the Amiga software is available easily now via sites like LemonAmiga.com (games) and others (you have to remember that most of the software is still under licenses so you have to buy it to use it!)  You can use Winuae emulator to set everything up before placing on a real Amiga so it gets faster and without any stress. The hardware didn't survive those 15yrs+ in a too good condition unfortunately - so it's good to have some skills in electronics to fix all the minor problems (some cable replacments, not working diodes, jammed floppies and so on). Anyway, still a good time killer and a great 'toy' for boring parties with friends who are fed up with PS3 and XBOX games...just run Superfrog or Lotus and GO! :)

FLAIM

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