LGR - Checkmate Amiga 1200 Update!

David Rickard

I only have a vague knowledge of this, but I do recall seeing a lot of accelerators being 'PCMCIA compatible' (or not) back in the day. No idea why, but I think there's some funkyness with memory mapping. Oddly, I think it also causes issues in DOS in similar ways.

Andrew Kirkby

I had a load of trouble with my CF to PCMCIA adaptor on my 1200 too. Turned out for it to sort of work, the ram had to be re-configured on my accelerator card (I have the apollo IV). That solved some weird issues. There's also a problem with rebooting with the card in I think. I have a 600 on which it works fine. Now the card reader works but for some reason mine won't read / write to the CF card. I have the CD32 which I use more now.. The honeybee controller is great. Think it's x compatible with the 1200 so worth a look too..

Chris Munch

It never occured to me until this video, but the reason I was obsessed with getting a radar detector was because I grew up playing Test Drive on the C64 in the 80s. I've had one in all my cars since I was 17, never not had a car without a radar detector.

Alyxx the Rat

Gotta love how the case is just not designed well enough for compatability with your particular model. Still impressed by how it looks though.

Rob Caporetto

I'll second the pick of BestWB, I run it on both my A500 with an ACA500+ board, and my MiSTer, and it's so much cleaner than ClassicWB. As for the CD drive, other than collections, there are a few later Amiga games which came on CD - though to be honest, it's that kind of era (late '90s, as in way after Commodore's death era) where the stuff was kind of trying to be like what you'd be getting on the PC, but not quite as good. Or if you can find the cover disc from the issue of CU Amiga which had TFX on it, and see how that compares :) Actually surprised to see there's as Gameport joystick adapter - I stumbled across Gunship 2000 having support for it, but I've not seen many other games do it either. Makes me wonder at the very least if Microprose's other Amiga sims had support for analogue sticks.

Robin Freebeard

Good timing with the video. Today is the 35th birthday of the Amiga!

LGR

I'm glad you enjoyed! The main attraction of having the PCMCIA card for me is to have a drive to swap in and out while the Amiga is powered on. If I were to stick with the main drive, that would be removing the operating system drive, and that's not ideal. It'd be the same problem I have on my 486, where I have to power it off and on anytime I remove the card!

Valora Inverse

Loving that juxtaposition of the ominous "That's okay, I've got a plan to address this" with the fadeout of the saxophone. :D

JennaKay

Oh 3) You might be able to use software patches to run CD32 games ... there are like a few? With the DVD drive, but a 4Gib CF card would quickly get eaten up by the size of those.

JennaKay

Nerd comments: 1) You can install all this stuff on the bare OS 3.1.4 WB! If you want to spend hours making the perfect desktop anyway. It looks like it says "3.0" where it said "??" before so that ClassicWB version definitely isn't up-to-date enough for the new ROMs. 2) That Indivision AGA supports higher resolution desktops with the right setup, so you an have it look all flash and modern. I used to have an A1200 with one of those, it was lovely. I miss it & kick myself for selling it off.

Bukkarooo

I think if you end up going the way of a custom 3D-printed bracket on those card slots for the video/usb, I think you should get another and switch back to your original Compact Flash adapter with the cable. That way you can have the CF card pop out of the back like you used to on the Woodgrain 486. You have to reach around the machine to swap it out, but I'd prefer that to the awkward PCMCIA card sticking out of the side, personally. Anyway I love getting to see more of this computer!

LGR

I've seen this, it leaves me in the same spot I am now with the USB port: an opening with nowhere to screw in the port. The screw holes are for the VGA and DVI ports, nothing in the middle sadly.

Woz Brown

Would this work for your VGA/DVI ports? The USB could also fit in that HDMI hole possibly... https://bit.ly/3jARuFO

LGR

Thank you! They are indeed a great convenience, especially when on a schedule for making videos about old software :)

Very cool vid! I'm SO glad I started swapping out old hard drives for the CF card/adapter combos. It's made my life a LOT easier! I think it was your XT build a while back that got me thinking about those. Wish that I had some experience with the Amiga. But, I seem to have skipped over it back in the 80's. Well done!

LGR

I believe CD32 is a possibility with an optical drive, but WHDLoad already makes it happen even without a drive, yes. Hadn't heard of MegaCD compatibility though, that'd be fun to try! About the best use case argument I've seen is for trying out all the shareware and freeware Amiga software compilations on CD from back in the day. Those would be fun to explore in their original form.

Maximilien Noal

As a former Arch Linux user for 10 years, I approve totally the urge for a fresh operating system restart once in a while. Feels like spring cleaning. Edit : Could you play Amiga CD32 games with an optical drive ? IIRC, the Amiga CD32 is very close to the Amiga 1200 from a hardware point of view. It seems that the Amiga CD32 port of Defender of the Crown is worth it. But then again, if there's already a WHDLOAD solution for that, I'd rather use that. There seems to be also a Megadrive emulator for the Amiga. Mabye for the MegaCD even. They both use Motorola hardware so maybe it runs OK ? Playing Megadrive or MegaCD games on an Amiga could be fun. Anyway, I don't know if the CD drive would see much use, but some use cases might be interesting.

LGR

Hopefully my eventual Amiga 2000-based sequel will impress as well, assuming it comes together as intended 😁

LGR

That'd work for just the DVI port, sure! But as mentioned I'm looking for a plate with both DVI *and* USB port openings. I've never seen a card with both of those together, so 3D printing seems like my best bet :)

Maximilien Noal

I've got a new favorite director's cut of a movie. It's called "Checkmate Amiga 1200". :D

BolognaDavenport

For mounting the DVI port, steal the metal shield from a trash DVI graphics card. You usually just have to unscrew the little threaded inserts and they pop right off.