Amiga Tour Guide, please help!

[gsoravil]

Hello fellow enthusiasts!

I'm a long time Commodore 8-bit junkie and am only recently starting with the Amigas. I'm hoping a few of you wouldn't mind helping me get started, in much the same way probably most of us used to get into these machines years ago. Just socializing, asking Qs, giving advice. Well, if anyone other than myself still enjoys that sort of thing.

What I seek to do is get as close as I can in experiencing the Amiga like its users did back in its heyday. I want to run cool games, of course, but I also want to experience the entire commonly-used software gamut - from music trackers, to popular boxed-software people usually used or experienced (for example, DeluxePaint), to learning how to really use the machine (O/S setup, scripting, and I've only heard of WHDLOAD). For good measure, I'd like to throw in running demos that showed off the machine's abilities and also what tools/docs I should look at for writing my own C programs. Basically, a classic Amiga user experience with a little deeper nitty-gritty thrown in for fun.

So, the first thing is "What is the right hardware for such a classic Amiga experience?" And following that, what software do you all suggest would give me that 'classic' experience? Of course, gotchas, pitfalls, FAQs I should look at, etc. are all welcome. I'm just overwhelmed and not really sure where to start.

Any takers?

One last thing, let me follow that up with what I have bought and done so far, just as to avoid wasting time:

A few years ago I purchased an Amiga A1200HD and when I recently started to try and use it, realized I needed more RAM. I opted to add 8MB via the trap door for (I think) a total of 10MB visible in workbench. The HDD was already populated, but I don't know a lot of what is there and how to use it.

I also have an A500 w/512KB trap door expansion, Amiga mice, a 15KHz monitor and cable, and an external floppy. Additionally, I have a KryoFlux on an XP box and have successfully written disks with it that I read with the A500 and the external (I do run into alignment issues with the A1200 internal floppy). Currently that is my sole means of getting software onto an Amiga.

I have only played a few games on the A500 from floppy, played with the A1200 command line, unpacked an LHA of HippoPlayer w/some mods on the A1200 and listened to them. Baby steps.

Of course, by all means, if you have questions for me to help clarify what I have, ask away. Just remember I'm still basically an Amiga noob, so don't be afraid to be verbose.

Much appreciated. Thanks everyone!
Greg

 

[johnim]

hi the 1200 system is perfect setup you can run whdload games http://whdownload.com/

i would look at classic workbench for it too http://classicwb.abime.net/

john

 

[gsoravil]

Thank you, John.

Any suggestions for a 'typical' Amiga user's software list? I know I threw DeluxePaint out there, as the King Tut art was pretty well known, but I really don't know what was popular on the Amiga. I only was really exposed to C64, Apple, and PC back then and each system had certain games/apps/etc that it's individual users gravitated to. Could really use direction in that area.

Also, I hope I'm not over-stepping, but do you know if there is an archive of pre-loaded WHDLOAD apps? Or do I actually have to write ADFs to disk for each game I might want to try?

Greg

 

[johnim]

there is plenty in classic workbench to get you started ppaint, wordprocessor,music players ect ect

have a search for whdload

 

[Nick1977]

Since you say that you want to relive the old Amiga spirit, then i believe that an Amiga 500 (optionally with 1MB ram and an external disk drive) is the closest you can get imo.
Seek out for workbench disks, and a couple of original working Amiga games with nice packaging, and just slip the disk in the drive!

 

[gsoravil]

Since you say that you want to relive the old Amiga spirit, then i believe that an Amiga 500 (optionally with 1MB ram and an external disk drive) is the closest you can get imo.

Yes, that's my goal. Would it make sense to invest in an HDD for the A500, or would I be better off with an A2000? I have noticed that many games that work on my A500 don't seem to like my A1200, but I can't rule out drive alignment. I'm hoping this is something I can solve on the A1200 with WHDLOAD and my external drive (or maybe there's some utility I need to run).

I appreciate all the pointers so far!

Greg

---------- Post added at 13:07 ---------- Previous post was at 12:58 ----------

have a search for whdload

Thanks again, John. I did find an archive.

Is there a way to concatenate a split file? I can split large files on my PC, but I do not know how to glue them back together on the Amiga.

Also, any recommendations for network connectivity on the A1200? Wireless is not mandatory (might even be preferred, as there's a real chance neither of my wireless routers do "B").

Thanks!

 

[johnim]

hi again the easiest option is to take the hardrive out and use a ide to usb adapter in the pc using winuae to setup and transfer

or get yourself a ide to cf adapter and use a cf card

 

[Nick1977]

With A500, you should aim at games with 3-4 disks at the most.

If you go at HD installable ones, then A1200 with a CF and WHDLoad (as already suggested by other fellow amigans) is the most convenient solution.

 

[gsoravil]

Ok...well took the plunge on a CF adapter since this allows me to simultaneously prep with WinUAE and convert to a much larger capacity drive (the HDD is already waaaay too small with just hippoplayer and some protracker mods).

I'm downloading/reading up on WHDLOAD tonight. Will probably play around with it a little this weekend to see if I can get it going. Hopefully will have the CF adapter by the following weekend. Maybe play with WinUAE and a CF during the week.

Is 4GB the max for those? (Is that a partition limit, or the actual limit of drive capacity the Amiga can address?) I do have an 8GB handy...

 

[johnim]

4 gb is just enough. but look at my first 2 guides for setting up

 

[gsoravil]

4 gb is just enough. but look at my first 2 guides for setting up

Thank you johnim! I'm going to read through it all.

This past weekend I realized that I already have a Sandisk CF PCMCIA and Sandisk 512MB CF sitting around (I use the adapter with an HP Palmtop). I tried my hand at installing the CF0 and fat95 stuff on the A1200 but I *think* the CF0 isn't working for me. I can use the mount command or double click CF0 but even then if I run the partition program I only see the built-in Maxtor HD (no CF card) and if I type dir cf0: it returns bad number. Is there a way to determine if the Amiga is seeing ANY hardware on the PCMCIA port? I do not even know if the port works and I'd like to know if it does before buying a NIC.

Also, what's the value for a bare-bones A4000D? I'd really like to get one and build it up, but all the ones I've looked at so far have been fairly loaded and subsequently rather pricey.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[johnim]

hi

what's the value for a bare-bones A4000D?

we cant talk about prices here its a rule sorry

you can check the PCMCIA slot is working by trying preptool either in tools or utilities

 

[Boom]

I'm jumping in a bit late to this thread. But just wanted to say hi, and I hope you're having fun with your Amiga.

You suggested about getting a hard disk for the A500. I personally don't see the point. I wasn't a huge fan of OS1.3 (as I started out on 2.0) The A500 took generally expensive big and bulk SCSI drives. As you've done, you've got the CF adaptor and stuck that in the A1200. Definitely the best solution.

You asked for a definitive software list. Ok here goes, let me brush off some cobwebs:

Video/Graphics:
Deluxe Paint
Scala MM300 (for video titling and stuff)
ppshow (for viewing pictures)


Audio
Protracker
Octamed
AmigaAMP
Delitracker (player)
mpega (for playing mp3s in Command Shell)

Word Processing
Wordsworth

Workbench Enhancements
MagicWB / NewIcons
MCP
Toolsdaemon
Clicktofront


Internet
MiamiDX
AmIRC
Voyager/Aweb/Ibrowse (all terrible these days!)
AmFTP


Games (waay too many to list!)
Lemmings
Zool
Superfrog
Cannon Fodder
Sensible World of Soccer
Worms TDC


I'm sure you've heard of it now. but Aminet was the largest collection of Public Domain Amiga Software and it's still running. So you can search on there for software. At the time, it was the only central point platform specific software distribution hub in the world. Ie Aminet was around way before the likes of App Stores and Android Stores etc. We were always ahead of the game!

To help you transfer files over to your Amiga 1200. You can always get a compatable PCMCIA Wifi card, and put it in the side. Then you can install and configure MiamiDX to connect to your home wifi network. Install an FTP Server on the amiga and then from your PC FTP files up to it.

Anyway all this is pretty higher end stuff. The Real Amiga dream was floppy disk swapping!!

Have fun And remember, only Amiga makes it possible!