Questions tagged [amiga]
For questions related to the Commodore Amiga family of personal computers.
144
questions
7
votes
4answers
860 views
What graphics sytems used display lists?
As near as I can tell, there seems to have been roughly speaking two schools of thought when it comes to graphics hardware among early consoles, what I will call the Atari and Texas Instruments ...
8
votes
1answer
710 views
Did any significant programs or environments take advantage of the Rexx which came with PCDOS 7 (aka PCDOS 2000)?
Being an Amiga fan, I have a fondness for the Rexx language. On that platform, almost every significant program supported ARexx, allowing a high degree of interoperability and customability. So when ...
55
votes
3answers
17k views
What is the “two-drive trick” that can read Amiga disks on a PC?
Standard belief is that the floppy disk controllers used on PCs are incapable of reading Amiga floppy disks, due to the PC disk controller expecting a very specific low-level format of disks, whilst ...
0
votes
1answer
262 views
Which retro personal computers, if any, can use a modern day monitor? [closed]
I play around with emulators, and would love to go back to my roots, with physical ZX81, BBC Micro, Amiga, etc.
Unfortunately, those all require a TV as output. I suppose that I could buy a cheap one ...
9
votes
1answer
462 views
Any Issues with running Workbench 1.3 on a Kickstart 1.2 Amiga 500?
I own a fairly early Amiga 500 with Kickstart 1.2 ROMs, Commodore Logo key and the OCS Agnus 8371. Is this system completely compatible with Workbench 1.3? Or does WB 1.3 require Kickstart 1.3 ROMs? ...
2
votes
1answer
321 views
Is the 3000T's case made by Commodore, or was it stock from elsewhere?
Is the 3000T's case made by Commodore, or was it stock from elsewhere? I need a side panel for one.
5
votes
1answer
217 views
Why does my Amgia 3000 show no Fast RAM even though the ZIP sockets are populated?
I am trying to get an Amiga 3000T up and running, all seems good but there's no Fast RAM. All Zips ard populated. Is there any (easy) way to test the ZIPs? Also, could something like a bad cap kill ...
11
votes
4answers
2k views
Amiga 500 OCS/ECS vs Mega Drive VDP
Superficially the Amiga 500 and Mega Drive are similar. Both run a Motorola 68000 CPU at similar clocks and both have dedicated hardware for sprite and other graphics operations.
Comparing the arcade ...
10
votes
3answers
329 views
Set keyboard layout in Amiga Workbench 3.1
I did a fresh install of the Cloanto amiga-os-310-install.adf disk to a hard drive, and then I wanted to change the keyboard layout to Swedish. I tried SYS:System/SetMap s but then I've learned that ...
11
votes
1answer
711 views
Does the Commodore CDTV-CR contain a 65C02 for some reason?
Browsing around the FS-UAE source code I discovered a 65(S)C02 emulation core, which appears to not be referenced anywhere outside of some CDTV-CR related source file.
Apparently, a CDTV is ...
6
votes
1answer
221 views
Digital PCB Plans for Retro Computers
I use software like Fritzing or Autodesk EAGLE to draw my Raspberry Pi or Arduino projects and was wondering if there is a source for PCB plans of for example an Amiga 500 in a format readable for ...
10
votes
3answers
460 views
What are the Ultra-Highres registers in ECS and AGA for?
The Amiga custom chip set, in its ECS and AGA versions, seems to contain some registers for what is called an "Ultra-HighRes/DUAL" mode:
DFF078 SPRHDAT W Ext. logic UHRES sprite pointer and ...
17
votes
2answers
1k views
What was the role of Commodore-West Germany?
Most of the history of Commodore in personal computers took place while East and West Germany were divided, and Commodore maintained a significant corporate presence in West Germany. While I believe ...
22
votes
10answers
4k views
Why was hardware diversification an asset for the IBM PC ecosystem?
The IBM PC was cloned very early on, and many third parties made hardware peripherals. This required users to run an OS, install drivers, manage IRQs and hardware bus addresses, etc. Why was this a ...
3
votes
0answers
91 views
pfs3 error when copying files
Config: WinUAE 4.2.1, CPU 68020, 24bit, FPU 68882, 8MB FastRam Z2, A1200, CF 4GB Transcend, BetterWB 43, Dopus 4,
When I try to copy folders from PC to CF Partition (2.4GB, pfs3) it goes alright, ...
2
votes
2answers
298 views
Amiga Workbench copy command just outputs 'copy mode'
I'm trying to set up my system using UAE 4.2.1 64 bit and an excellent step by step guide provided by phraxoid:
https://devtty.io/2018/07/computing/how-to-setup-commodore-amiga-workbench-os/
The ...
7
votes
2answers
1k views
What is this side-scrolling fighting game for the Amiga?
I remember playing this game on an Amiga. I have no idea what it was called.
10
votes
4answers
294 views
Preventing socketed chip corrosion?
I spent a couple hours repairing an Amiga A3000 that wouldn't boot yesterday. The fix was to remove Kickstart ROMs, clean the DIP leads and sockets with contact cleaner, and re-insert. Apparently a ...
5
votes
0answers
170 views
What are all the patches that SetPatch applies to Kickstart?
SetPatch runs as the first command in the Startup-Sequence when Amiga boots up. It applies patches to the code in ROM to fix bugs and also enable features if necessary. For example, I seem to remember ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views
Was there ever a Kickstart that took advantage of 68020+ instructions that would work on an A2000?
Back in the day with my A2500/30, I always wanted to get the 68030 versions of software if I could because presumably I'd be able to get a few percentage more performance in some cases. However, I get ...
7
votes
1answer
209 views
How do I connect an IDE hard drive to an Amiga 4000 tower?
I would like to know how to connect a hard drive to the Amiga 4000 tower. I have an IDE cable from the top right m/b to the IDE CD-drive. I also have what looks like a SCSI cable from the CPU board.
...
13
votes
2answers
466 views
Protected/virtual memory support in classic AmigaOS
It is a well-known fact that AmigaOS is a single address space, totally unprotected memory operating system. The original implementation ran on a Motorola 68000, that did not support virtual memory if ...
6
votes
1answer
448 views
What was Burst Mode on the 68030 and why didn't the A2630 support it?
Inspired by this question, I'm curious what burst mode was on the 68030 and why wasn't it supported on the A2630 accelerator card commonly found in the Amiga 2500/30? I had one of these machines and ...
7
votes
2answers
454 views
How advanced was the Amiga Walker prototype?
The Amiga Walker was a prototype Amiga computer that never made it to market. Wikipedia has some info including a photo of a motherboard.
How advanced was the prototype? Could it boot and run Amiga ...
8
votes
2answers
340 views
How did the Amiga uses compare to uses for other personal computers in 1985? [closed]
The Amiga 1000 came out in July 1985. This was an era in which personal computers were designed by their manufacturers to meet a unique set of bespoke requirements. For example, some computers came ...
6
votes
1answer
182 views
Which Amiga systems did access RAM with fast page access?
I'm pretty sure Chip and Fast RAM access on an Amiga 1000 does not support FPM access.
Which Amiga system, chipset or motherboard "glue logic" first introduced FPM access to Fast RAM? Which one to ...
6
votes
1answer
235 views
How do you open an Amiga A590 Power supply?
I have an Amiga 590 hard drive, but the power supply appears to be dead on it so I want to take a look inside. I have removed three screws from the underside but it still won't open, acting like there'...
6
votes
1answer
228 views
Create hard disk image
I'm looking for Linux dd command equivalent for Amiga to make image of hard disk. TSGUI not work if disk have broken RDB. Do you know program which can make hard disk image on Amiga?
4
votes
1answer
435 views
Attaching a CD-rom drive for A500
How can you attach a CD-ROM drive to an Amiga 500. Will any external SCSI drive do? Are drivers necessary and available?
11
votes
3answers
452 views
Who invented scrollable screens in Amiga?
A well known feature of Amiga is the ability to have multiple Intuition screens (ViewPorts in graphics.library parlance) that coexist and can be laid out on the screen so that they overlap vertically. ...
11
votes
2answers
366 views
What is the minimum set of Kickstart kernel modules to allow an Amiga to boot?
Amiga OS resident modules (libraries, devices, etc...) are location-agnostic, in that it is technically possible to compile them as location-independent code to be loaded at runtime from disk, or to ...
8
votes
4answers
732 views
Amiga floppy disks and GCR vs MFM
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_coded_recording the Commodore 1541 disk drive used a particularly efficient GCR encoding scheme to cram 170K onto the same 5.25" disks that in an Apple ...
6
votes
3answers
289 views
Opening or converting GFA Basic files to something readable?
There is a bunch of GFA BASIC for Amiga files (the source code for Blender's ancestor, Traces, downloadable here: http://zgodzinski.com/blender-prehistory/) that I would like to peek at.
Despite my ...
2
votes
1answer
522 views
When were other inexpensive computers able to recreate “The Amiga Juggler”? [closed]
The Amiga Juggler was the 2nd very popular demo to appear for the Amiga Computer early in its lifespan. The demo was created by Eric Graham (who went on to develop Sculpt3D) using raytracing to both ...
5
votes
1answer
392 views
Multiple mass storage controllers on Amiga 500 or 2000
I'm in the process of restocking a lost collection of retro machines, including a couple of A500s, a 500+ and 2 A2000s (rev 4.1 and 6) in various states of disrepair. For one of the 2000s I would ...
6
votes
2answers
412 views
How to troubleshoot Amiga 600 power issue?
I have an A600 Rev 2D (schematic), which is dead as a doorknob. It was that way when I acquired it some years ago, and it's mostly been in storage since.
Between the 5V rail and GND I measure a low ...
8
votes
0answers
375 views
How many Amiga 3000's were produced?
While revisiting this question: Seeking details relating to Amiga 3000 serial numbers I began to wonder how many actual Amiga 3000's were produced by Commodore.
I suspect (like most production ...
13
votes
2answers
432 views
Can I trigger the Amiga ROM debugger from the boot prompt?
Suppose I have an Amiga computer without any working boot disks. Is it possible to trigger the built-in ROM monitor (RomWack or SAD, see https://theamigamuseum.com/amiga-kickstart-workbench-os/guru-...
12
votes
3answers
3k views
What happened to ZIP RAM?
I have several retro machines and add-on cards for the Amiga that use ZIP RAM. This vertically mounted chip design enjoyed a brief popularity in the early 1990s, in between the original DIP DRAM and ...
9
votes
1answer
429 views
Amiga 500+ rev8A, 1 MB chip RAM and 0.5 MB slow RAM
I have an 500+ rev8A, I added the missing 0.5 MB RAM and the U32 to the motherboard. I also have 512 KB in the trapdoor. This results in 1.5 MB chip RAM; but I want to have 1 MB chip RAM and 0.5 MB ...
45
votes
10answers
8k views
Why was preemptive multitasking so slow in coming to consumer OS's?
Preemptive (rather than cooperative) multitasking was a highly-touted feature for PC's in 1996, with its inclusion in Windows 95 for the first time. It was also highly-touted for 2001 Macs when ...
21
votes
5answers
4k views
Why were 3D games on the Amiga not faster than on similar 16 bit systems like the Atari ST
It seems that 3D games, especially simulations like Falcon, were not faster (fps) on the Amiga than on the Atari ST - even a bit slower due to the CPU clock.
I was wondering why this is the case, ...
4
votes
2answers
680 views
How were individual bit planes scrolled on the Amiga (OCS)?
Back in my early Amiga days (A500), I remember coding simple demos that would use the dual-playfield mode and scroll them around (at a sweet 60FPS). It was pretty trivial to do with languages like ...
2
votes
2answers
949 views
Commodore Amiga 600 Software Failure. “Error: 8000 0004 Task: 000026D0”
Software Failure on Commodore Amiga 600 when I insert a floppy in drive.
Software Failure. Press left mouse button to continue. Error: 8000 0004 Task: 000026D0
Independent from the floppy I ...
8
votes
4answers
1k views
Were external floppy drives for Atari ST and Amiga inter-compatible?
Were external floppy drives for Atari ST and Amiga inter-compatible?
For example, Commodore 1541* had its own serial bus protocol. But what about the external 3.5" DD floppy disk drive on 23pins D-...
6
votes
1answer
215 views
What did Commodore's AppShell and AppObject do?
Among the many developed but never released software that Commodore developed for the Amiga there should be two applications, called AppShell and AppObject. What were these? Did anyone ever saw or ...
16
votes
2answers
531 views
How to create a switchless multi-system 2 button Atari joystick?
All systems that use the Atari 9 pin joystick standard make use of the following pins in consistent ways, with each direction and the fire button being connected to the ground pin when pushed.
1 - up
...
13
votes
1answer
527 views
How do Amiga “Monitor” drivers work?
A "Monitor" driver for an Amiga is a file which, when placed in DEVS:Monitors, enables additional screenmodes. The standard PAL or NTSC driver, which provides screenmodes compatible with consumer TV ...
5
votes
1answer
247 views
Can't type angle bracket characters in AmigaOS 4.1 on WinUAE
Has anyone else experienced that when running AmigaOS 4.1 inside WinUAE that they can't type the < or > characters? I have a mostly bog-standard American QWERTY keyboard, no special emulation ...
8
votes
1answer
683 views
Why was Windows 3.1 so dreadfully slow on an Amiga A2286 bridgeboard?
Back in the day I had an Amiga 2500/30 with an A2286 as my "swiss army knife" home computer; not only did I have the ability to run MacOS (ShapeShifter) at native speed, but the 8MHz 286 bridgeboard ...
