Hi,

I've just set up my beautiful A1200 again, digging it out from 19 years in storage. I graduated/moved house/changed jobs/got married/had kids etc. Somehow the Amiga was forgotten and I moved to PC. I'd used it to make hundreds of songs in OctaMED, and used Wordsworth and XCAD 2000 to do all my university work.

The only addition to the basic Amiga was an 80Mb hard drive, and when I powered it on this week it needed a firm tap with the handle of a screwdriver to get moving again. So thankfully all my music was still there (I know I'll have to back it up asap).

I look forward to getting to grips with Amiga again, and I already have a lot of questions lined up, such as...

How the hell do I use Workbench again?
How can I upgrade Workbench?
How do I back up my hard disk?
Can I install a wi-fi card?
Can I use SSH to connect to my Raspberry Pi
What's the best IRC software?
What is the latest music making software?
Do I need to add more ram?
Where's my joystick? etc.

I look forward to being part of the community again, it's been too long.

Chris (UK)

Last edited by AmigaTown on 13-Oct-2016 at 11:38 AM.
Last edited by AmigaTown on 13-Oct-2016 at 11:37 AM.
Last edited by AmigaTown on 13-Oct-2016 at 11:36 AM.

@AmigaTown

"Where's my joystick"? Sorry but I have no idea

Check manuals to find information about how to use workbench.

Buy/find an upgrade or by an AmigaOne with the latest AmigaOS 4.x.

Backup... I would transfer the files to the PC in any way possible. Perhaps attach the HD to the PC and use WinUAE to transfer the files to the PC, then archive it and store it on several places (burn copies, USB-stick, other harddrives etc).

From what I've read, yes you can. Check Amigakits homepage for example.

I have no idea.

AmIRC IMHO

I can't remember but Digibooster comes to mind.

How much do you got? Depends on what you're going to do and what your setup is like. If you don't run out of RAM then there's no point and otherwise, yes you should. The speed of AOS will always be the same as long as you don't run out of RAM.

Well, you need to search for your joystick yourself, I'm no medium :P . But again, check Amigakit, they are making their own joystick. Other than that there is the Competition Pro that I personally don't like. I use my old Tac-2 with a USB-adapter and that works great :) .

EDIT: I'm sure that you'll get much better replies, this was just a quick reply going by memory etc.

Last edited by hotrod on 13-Oct-2016 at 11:59 AM.

@AmigaTown

WiFi might work. Don't know which though, and I'm unsure if you can ever use WPA2 as encryption (which is very common). Otherwise any 3Com or CNet PCMCIA card works fine with ethernet. Get Miami or RoadShow to set it up.

Getting anything in or out of the A1200 is difficult without network, USB or CD though since no PC has diskette drive anymore. Do you have a CD-ROM/RW in your A1200?

Backing up 80MB harddisk is best done to a CD-R I believe.

_________________
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> Amiga Classic and OS4 developer for OnyxSoft.

@AmigaTown

Welcome Chris, always nice to see people come back.

@AmigaTown


How can I upgrade Workbench?

Get Amiga OS3.9 from vesali / amiga kit. You would need 8mb fast ram and 68030 accelerator

How do I back up my hard disk?

It is bog standard IDE, use WinUAE to do it. Take a old USD disk, remove disk from it and put you amiga's disk to it.

Can I install a wi-fi card?

You should look Orinoco Silver or Gold cards from ebay. They can connect without hasle to using WPA TKIP encryption.

D[o I need to add more ram?

Note that some ram expansions conflict with PCMCIA port, if there is 8mb ram in use. 4mb should be fine. You can get plenty of ram, without conflict with PCMCIA. http://www.vesalia.de/

Last edited by utri007 on 13-Oct-2016 at 12:41 PM.
Last edited by utri007 on 13-Oct-2016 at 12:41 PM.

Thanks for all your suggestions! :)

Wifi works, but you might need to update the firmware on PCMCIA card to able to use WPA2.
If you're using WPA2 you'll probably want a fast CPU too.

http://aminet.net/driver/net/prism2v2.lha

@fryguy Thanks. Might buy a cheap pcmia ethernet to test it out first :) Which drivers/stack is required to get ethernet working (specifically for AmIRC or similar)?

Last edited by AmigaTown on 13-Oct-2016 at 01:29 PM.

@AmigaTown

As far as the missing joystick, check the closet in your spare bedroom. I think it is in the second storage container.

Quote:

How can I upgrade Workbench?

In my opinion, there isn't much point in WB3.5/3.9, you can get mostly the same functionality with 3rd party patches.

And as mentioned by others, it requires more ram too.

If you want a more "modern" environment, consider AmigaOS4 / MorphOS / AROS instead.

MorphOS and AROS are the "cheapest" options (old PPC mac or almost any X86 system). However, AROS lacks compatibility with classic amiga binaries on X86 (all programs need to be re-compiled). Of course you can also run the old programs on emulator.

I'm currently writing this on WebKit-based browser on a Apple PowerBook laptop running MorphOS. In my opinion, it costs WAY too much to get the "classic amiga" experience even close to this (unless you use emulation)

And last but definitely not the least - check the condition of your Amiga. It's quite likely that at least some condensators have already leaked. Also, if you have battery backed clock, a leaking battery can do way worse damage than the condensators.

"It seems to work now" most definitely doesn't mean "all is fine".

@AmigaTown

Welcome! Where abouts in the UK are you?

_________________
Live Long and keep Amigaing!

A1200, Power Tower, TF1260 128MB RAM, 68060 Rev 6, OS3.9 BB2, HD-Floppy, Mediator TX+ PCI, Voodoo 3 3000, Soundblaster 4.1, TV Card, Spider USB, 100MBit Ethernet, 16GB CF HD, 52xCDRom.

@AmigaTown

Hope your A1200 stays functioning; for the second time, mine is NOT! It won't turn on, probably because of a short-circuit or blown fuse somewhere.

The last time this happened was a result of me turning it on after it had stayed off for many months- after about a minute there was a loud CLACK and the machine went off, the power unit and EIDE interface (needed for multiple drives) had to be replaced. I'm glad this did NOT happen with your A1200, after sitting in storage for years!

The fact that your A1200 isn't hugely souped-up means it's less likely to go wrong like that, as the A1200 is known for becoming less stable the more things you add to it, as initially it was never designed to be very expandable, ironic that it's the most versatile of all Amigas!

_________________
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@AmigaTown

Quote:

How the hell do I use Workbench again?

Amigakit still have the Workbench 3.1 Manual in stock if you need to go right the way back to the beginning.

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=54&products_id=616

Quote:

How can I upgrade Workbench?

Most worthwhile upgrades will need at least some extra RAM to run and a faster processor to make the most of it. 3.5 and 3.9 were the last official version and came on CD-ROM. There are more recent unofficial upgrades such as Amikit.

http://real.amiga.sk/what-is-it.htm

Quote:

How do I back up my hard disk?

Mounting the hard drive under WinUAE on the PC will be the cheapest route. You should be able to find guides to setting up UAE and backing up your hard drive if you search Google.

Quote:

Can I install a wi-fi card?

Yes. The best option is to get the one sold by Amigakit.

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=32&products_id=121

Quote:

Can I use SSH to connect to my Raspberry Pi

I expect so but it's not my area of expertise.

Quote:

What's the best IRC software?

AmIRC and WookieChat are the main ones I can think of.

http://www.amirc.org/

http://aminet.net/package/comm/irc/WookieChat2.11_OS3

Quote:

What is the latest music making software?

This question probably deserves a thread of it's own.

Quote:

Do I need to add more ram?

Yes, yes and yes!

Quote:

Where's my joystick? etc.

Amigkit make their own big beast of a joystick but some of the other dealers sell various pads and joysticks including the Competition Pro.
There is also the Rys MkII USB adapter that will allow you to use USB pad and joysticks. Amigakit and the various dealers across Europe sell it.


It may be worth considering a FPGA based Amiga over upgrading the A1200. Mist is the only one currently available but quite a few Amiga dealers carry it. I can also be used as an Atari ST, C64 , Spectrum, etc.

Epsilon has done a blog about it. His other blogs are well worth a read too.

http://amigax1000.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/mist-minimig-aga-system-has-arrived.html

Where in the UK are you? There a few UK Amiga user groups such as ANT and LAG.

@RoqueFort

Quote:

The fact that your A1200 isn't hugely souped-up means it's less likely to go wrong like that, as the A1200 is known for becoming less stable the more things you add to it, as initially it was never designed to be very expandable, ironic that it's the most versatile of all Amigas!

It's probably not any more is less likely to go wrong, just that if it does, it's less expensive.

My best experience was A1200 with little extramem and HD+PCMCIA CF card to transfer files from the PC-net and also net in the other. (060+PIV)

Directory Opus Magellan II is free today as many others so there is not so much need to upgrade WB if staying in 3,xx and only music+games. The OS4 is nice to use also. Expensive but Amiga is not for the poor...

Then there are the men with the Butterfly bible, in all ways they say it's the best;)

A1200 rulez with some expansion. There are new cards to make it run.

Make sure you recap your Amiga - or get someone to do it. I have first hand experience of leaving it too late. Leaking capacitors literally eats the motherboard and surrounding components.

Oh and for backup and transfers of adf's and files from the aminet, the simplest solution is a PCMCIA compact flash adapter.

PS replace that mechanical hard drive for an SSD or a disk-on-module or a compact flash or sd card by the way of an IDE adapter. It makes the Amiga more power efficient (better capacity for the psu to take a ram card), it's silent and it will be more reliable than a 15 year old hdd.

Last edited by A1200 on 14-Oct-2016 at 11:01 PM.

_________________
Amiga A1200, 3.1 ROMs, Blizzard 1230 MKIV 64MB & FPU, 4GB DoM SSD, Workbench 3.1

@AmigaTown

back to Amiga!

_________________
AmigaOS 4.1 FEu2 on Sam440ep-flex 800MHz 1GB RAM
C128, A500+, A1200, A1200/40, AmigaForever 2008+09+16, 5 x86/x64 boxes
Still waiting (or dreaming) for the Amiga revolution...
m4rko.com/AMIGA

@Amiboy
North Wales :)

@AmigaTown

Welcome back into the fold!

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A1000, A500, A600, A1200, CTDV, A2000, A4000 Towered, SAMFLEX 800mhz

@AmigaTown

Id recommend Roadshow its the only tcpip stack which you can get legally, and its still getting update s.