Draco Casablanca - Using it as a general purpose Amiga

Hi there, I have in my possession a Draco Casablanca video editing box. It is an 060 based Amiga that boots directly into the video editing software on bootup. I have not yet tried connecting a hard disk containing an installation of Amiga OS on it but I will tomorrow. Anyway, does anyone have any experience with using this machine and how compatible it is with a regular old Amiga. My guess is it's probably RTG only, and setting that up might be a bitch, but I can dump the roms and provide images of the 2 hard disks I have that are loaded with the system software if any of you guys care to take a crack at busting this thing! I really want a nice 060 Amiga box, so please let me know!

Here is some info on the Casablanca: http://www.amiga-hardware.org/Casablanca

I think it lacks the amiga chipset, so no good for Workbench or games.

It runs workbench in RTG just fine. Nor sure which RTG, I think it has its own.

A friend of mine has owned several Draco systems and used WB 3.1 on it.

Maybe I can get him to register here

EDIT: I was a bit quick, didnt realise that it was a Casablanca and not a draco station. But still, with Amiga ROMS everything is possible...

If it can be made to use RTG, like the earlier DraCo system (it used Cybergraphx and this might possibly too) then would it not be possible to run workbench and some later (RTG) games?

EDIT: @Arnljot: I know the earlier DraCo system did run CybergraphX RTG and could use workbench, did he ever run it on a Casablanca, the later model? I know this has been where the confusion has lie in the past

Im calling him now..

Oh wow! Thanks a lot! I really appreciate the help! You are amazing Arnljot!

Just off the phone.

He never got the time to investigate the Casablanca fully. But as long as it´s the first generation Casablanca he recons it can be done. As it´s supposedly mostly a rewrapped draco.

I´ll be heading over to him now to pick up all his draco software floppies. So I´ll dissect them and try to figure out what it is.

What kind of format can you image the Casablanca disk in? (boot media)?

I can do whatever you need. I can try and read it in (the boot partition anyway, I have been told the A/V partition is unreadable by an amiga) on my A2000, or I can dump it raw, and so on. I could even send you the drives if you feel that would be more effective.

Do you have scsi on your pc? Because winuae hdf format is the best.

We'll see in a while what we can do. Maybe I can make an image in my end, using my friends floppies.

Either way, you'll then need a method to write it to disk.

We also need to find out if the casablanca is rdb compatible, since the roms are based on 3.1 it's most likely

DraCo is an "Amiga" without the custom chips, so you have to use RTG.

Well, Amiga without its custom chips, it's not an Amiga though.

TheRogue said:

Here is some info on the Casablanca: http://www.amiga-hardware.org/Casablanca

Click to expand...

When I bought my Casablance (the one pictured in the link above) it cost me over £4,000!!!!!!!

I still have it but now it is collecting dust in my work room.

I can now do the same and a lot more with Pinacle software for the PC which cost less than £100!!!!

Go figure - I guess times move on.

I'll be paying close attention to this thread

Dave G

Me to, I had the chanche to buy one, but declined it... Probably still available..

I searched the whole web back then, and there exists some info around it, even about os 3.9.

I think Kin put the words then: Using uae for those programs makes probably more sence///

Since it is exactly the custom chips that make classic amiga, there where uae seems to be rather slow.

I hope that the programs you like can make use of it's graphics..

The "Cassie" is based on Amiga technology, but missing the chipset as has already been said. That goes for the Draco too. The difference between the two is that the Draco has been sold with the Amiga OS pre-installed, and perhaps some tweaked ROMs. The Casablanca has a custom floppy format, which -as it seems- was due to copy-protection philisophy (go figure ). Try inserting the Casablanca floppies to anything else than itself, and you'll see what i mean. On the contrary, Draco's flopppies can be read from other Amigas, and the machine itself can read just as any other Amiga regular Amiga-formatted disks! Been there, done that. If you have time, take a trip down www.amigahellas.gr and use Draco or Casablanca as search parameters where you'll come up with pictures of both my machines. The Draco i have is an 060 and the Casablanca an 040. I have even started a Yahoo group about this, but not much traffic as of yet.... Most everyone has the same question: how do we make an Amiga out of a Cassie? I'd sure be glad to find out!

Okay

Status, he didn´t have any macrosystem draco disks. He did however have heaps of other disk for amiga, but none that will help us.

However, the draco used cybergraphics, version 2 if he recalled correctly but he wasn´t sure.

Also, RDB blocks are supported because he said it was a vanilla wb 3.1 which was used with the exception of cgx.

Also, can you get to early bootup on your casablanca? Both mouse buttons down from power on, it´s possible on the draco.

So lets get to making that image of the hd.

The Draco system disks are a set of a couple of floppies, and a CD. The CD takes about 15MB of space. Basically, the installation of the OS (3.1) takes a dump of the CD contents and throws it to an empty hard disk.
However, I'm not willing to get into any sort of trouble for "upping" this, since i don't know the status of legality on the content! I've goofed already once mentioning i was willing to accept an image of something else.. So, unless someone RESPONSIBLY states that there's no issue with the matter, i'm very sorry.
To give you a better picture of the situation, and show you how serious this stuff is, i will only tell you a detail which you might not be aware of:
There's these guys who have built a "special" AOS 3.9 version for the Draco on a CD. In order for you and me to be able to purchase the CD, we have to prove that we are legal owners of the actual WB 3.9 and the Cybergrafx 4! Maybe it's insane, maybe not. All i can stress is that this is valid now, not some years ago! I personally find it insane, due to the fact that a Draco owner doesn't necessarily have a hold of the aforementioned software, since the Draco never came with the 3.9 nor the CGfx 4 package... If that was the case, we wouldn't need the "special" CD:huh:
And being a Draco owner, doesn't neccesarily mean you're an Amiga owner, does it? However, i have already purchased the 3.9 (Amiga version) and am planning to get the CGx 4 too, so i can then prove i got them, and pay 50 E for the Draco version..
Hope this covers the case!

---------- Post added at 16:50 ---------- Previous post was at 16:19 ----------

Some additional info: My Casablanca came with a 3-button trackball-type mouse. Pressing any combination of either 2 or 3 buttons at startup doesn't take me anywhere else...

davideo said:

When I bought my Casablance (the one pictured in the link above) it cost me over £4,000!!!!!!!

I still have it but now it is collecting dust in my work room.

I can now do the same and a lot more with Pinacle software for the PC which cost less than £100!!!!

Go figure - I guess times move on.

I'll be paying close attention to this thread

Dave G

Click to expand...

At least you used your one, I own 2 cube Dracos (one I paid a grand for the other was given to me; after I brought out his entire collection he found it hiding) and haven't fired up either

I do mean too, eventually :nod:

one day maybe!

as for paying for things; yes, in 1985-86 Amiga stuff was very expensive, I still have receipts of items that'll curl your toes

some info here

http://www.kernersville.com/videoworks/dracofaq.html

Obviously, we're not getting much info about the Casablanca unit. Rarely has something detailed been written about it... Anyhow, since this thread has involved the Draco in the conversation, i did some scanning.
Hope y'all find it interesting.









---------- Post added at 08:46 ---------- Previous post was at 07:33 ----------

Some more interesting info on the Casablanca, translated from an Italian site ( http://www.amigazette.org/numero_11/casablanca_01.html )

"MacroSystem engineers have devised a simple but effective antipiracy protection. Every Casablanca has a serial number within the system ROM; when you insert a diskette in the drive, the system software checks wether it is a disc for Casablanca and if it has already been marked by another Casablanca.
The album marked with a time stamp, can only be read by the machine that matches the serial number. To allow marking of the disk, the floppy must be unprotected. Protection may seem silly, but it is not; in fact, the Casablanca has a proprietary format, which allows it to utilize more than 1.8 MB compared to the 1.44MB floppies for Win and Mac, and at the same time prevent duplication of the disc.
Apparently this choice seems to penalize your being honest, because you're prevented from making backup copies permitted by law, but it's not that bad. In fact, once the software is installed on hard disk, the floppy disk is no longer needed and can be used as a backup, it must be stored in a safe place not subject to excessive changes in temperature and away from magnetic fields. In case of accidental damage you can ask MacroSystem, or your local distributor, for a new disk, simply enter the machine code and send the faulty disk."

This seems to be a major obstacle for anyone attempting to "hack" the OS..

What is the status here, do you have SCSI capabilites on your PC?

You could send the disk to me, but it´s VERY time consuming and also risky as things can be damaged in transport.

Just to add to the confusion comparing the Draco with the Casablanca is like comparing the Amiga 1200 with a 4000.

They are very similair but in another way completely different.

The Casablanca has no CD drive. It can have an internal SCSI HD and an external one as well. But unless you disconnect the internal drive the external one is not seen. Thus allowing you to work on two projects at once by fitting and removing the HD (or as I did just swap the SCSI drive out in its tray). An IDE HD can be used with a SCSI to IDE bridge.

And as per salaxi54 post all software is keyed to the ROM code and once installed can't be installed on another machine.

If I get chance over the next few days I'll whip the top off my Casablance and do some piccys for the thread along with some extra information.

Dave G