Fitzsteve’s Amiga Journey - Part 3

[fitzsteve]

Fitzsteve’s Amiga Journey - Part 3​

Howdy folks! Thanks for tuning in for part three of this epic voyage of mine, however if you haven’t already read parts one and two you should probably read those first.

Part 1

Part 2

Here's where we left offf!

So you’ve seen how I got back into the scene now, expanding my original A1200 and getting myself a nice little A600 and turning that into something special. You’ll be pleased to know it does not stop there! After building these two machines I decided to Tower an A1200 and since I’d acquired another A1200 Turbo board I intended to keep the original A1200 as a simple WHDLoad machine with this little fella:

I love these little M-Tec cards, although the new ACA cards wipe the floor with them back in the day these were perfect (and still are) for a WHDLoad machine, the 25-28mhz 030 which can usually be overclocked to 40mhz are pretty nippy and the 8mb Fast Ram is pretty much all you need for 99% of the games.

So I stuck this badboy in the A1200 and reclaimed the Typhoon with its SCSI for my Tower project along with a brand spanking new EZ Z4 Tower from Amigakit and Micronik Z3i Busboard that I got from my buddy Zetr0.

Here were the foundations for my Tower project:

Must say at this point, how very impressed I was with Amigakit. They packed this Tower very well indeed and even wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap! The EZ Z4 Tower is very well done. Obviously it’s a PC Tower that has been converted with a new back panel but the work has been done to a very high standard.

The initial build was quite straight forward, the Motherboard fitted in perfectly as expected and for testing I set it up without the busboard, and also because I didn’t think about how I would power the busboard so didn’t have a suitable PSU – yep Noob error!

Anyway, I would not let little obstacles like this get in my way, so proceeded with a little power adapter I ordered from Amigakit to get the basics up and running.

Amigakits LED solution:

Here she is all setup:

And yay! All working:

At this point I was thinking about the warnings my friends gave me before starting a Tower project about the problems you get, the expense, the sleepless nights trying to get everything working.

Hmmm, this seemed very straight forward so far, dare I say easy… Too easy…

Little did I know the nightmare was only just about to begin!

Click here for Part 4

 

[BrooksterMax]

Great post and some brilliant pics. I think Amigakit will like at least one of those pictures!

It is this part - i.e. motherboards, expansion cards going in custom tower systems that is the next "level" and perhaps the ultimate in amiga computing?

At the moment I am stuck on cards in the A1200 slot but will know my journey has moved forward if I do anything like this!

 

[fitzsteve]

Great post and some brilliant pics. I think Amigakit will like at least one of those pictures!

It is this part - i.e. motherboards, expansion cards going in custom tower systems that is the next "level" and perhaps the ultimate in amiga computing?

At the moment I am stuck on cards in the A1200 slot but will know my journey has moved forward if I do anything like this!

Cheers!

I agree 100% the step from a simple Desktop A1200/A600 to either a big box Amiga like the A4000 or Towering seems to be the split and in some ways is the point of no return!

Becuase once you start you really need to try and see it though to the end, I'll admit I almost threw in the towell several times but I got through it in the end! But only with the help from this community, there is no way I could have done it without the help and advice in the hundreds of forums posts!

Thanks guys

I should have a couple of chapters for you this week

Steve.

 

[cosmicfrog]

yay chapter 3

Now the fun really begins and you did`t age or lose 2 much hair

 

[User1301]

Nice one mate - great read through

J

 

[fitzsteve]

Nice one mate - great read through

J

yay chapter 3

Now the fun really begins and you did`t age or lose 2 much hair

Glad you guys are still enjoying the threads

Still got some hair left so its all good

 

[jvdbossc]

I personally enjoyed the A1200 tower, I was wondering how it looked like, it sure has an interesting value. I hope someday Amigakit does the same for A4000 etc. This one looks like backplane replacement, anyhow if it fits why not..

 

[johnim]

nice threads steve and great pics

Yes jvdbossc

I personally enjoyed the A1200 tower, I was wondering how it looked like, it sure has an interesting value

it is a very nice case and has plenty of room i have had 1 for xmas and still fiddling with mine to get it just right

 

[jvdbossc]

nice threads steve and great pics

Yes jvdbossc

I personally enjoyed the A1200 tower, I was wondering how it looked like, it sure has an interesting value

it is a very nice case and has plenty of room i have had 1 for xmas and still fiddling with mine to get it just right

That is greate mate I have my bigboxes, so I can't take a tower due to space, however if it was my only amiga, I would buy one right now. Make sure to show it here when you are finished.

 

[Phipscube]

Awesome Steve! Loving your Amiga life story I too am very impressed with Amigakit. Those guys need medals for their stellar service!

 

[WhoShotMrWhite]

this is making fascinating reading!!

 

[fitzsteve]

this is making fascinating reading!!

Glad you're enjoying them