Questions tagged [amiga]
For questions related to the Commodore Amiga family of personal computers.
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HxC floppy emulator on Amiga 1200, second virtual drive disappears after reboot
I've recently purchased a HxC/Lotharek SD Card floppy drive emulator. It's working well replacing DF0: but I'm seeing some odd behaviour with its emulation of DF1:.
On the first boot after power-up, ...
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Booting an Amiga 1000 directly to the hard drive without Kickstart floppy
The Amiga computers such as the Amiga 1000 required a Kickstart floppy to be able to boot directly into a hard drive. I have a Amiga 1000 as well but missing the Kickstart floppy. I would like to ...
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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 ...
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What is the Kelly chip?
The Amiga 3000+ DevCon 1991 notes says:
On the A3000+, these resources include the Amiga "Pandora" chip set
(Alice, Lisa, Kelly, and Paula),
However, a Kelly chip is not part of the official ...
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How many gates does each chip in OCS have?
According to Wikipedia, the original Agnus has 21000 transistors. How many gates would this be? (assuming there's a straightforward way to convert between gates and transistors).
What about Denise, ...
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Amiga 500+ does not start up [closed]
Amiga 500+ does not start up. It has been offline for a considerable amount of time.
The machine powers up but does not move from that point.
I have inserted the workbench disk.
Can anyone advise the ...
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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 ...
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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. ...
CommunityBot
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Creating a new locale.library language support for AmigaOS
Looking through the LO (localisation) disk for Workbench 3.1, I see that the language files are binary. I'd like to create a Gaeilge (Irish) localisation file. How is this done on Amiga?
Update: ...
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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'...
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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 ...
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Extended ROMs on the Amiga CD32 and CDTV
Continuing my series of questions about Amiga ROMs :-)
The Commodore CDTV contained a normal Kickstart 1.3 ROM, plus an "extended ROM". From http://www.l8r.net/technical/cdtv-technical.html:
The ...
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What was the A1200 Flash ROM support meant for?
Question inspired by this answer's last paragraph: https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/a/1307/2155
The Revision 1 A1200 schematics show that the system originally had support for a two internal ...
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How did the Amiga DCTV work
This is an unusual question since I'll answer it right away because it was a truly unique device and there is absolutely nothing about the technology it used on the internet. I spoke with the hardware ...
CommunityBot
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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 ...
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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 ...
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What exactly are the differences between Kickstart 1.2 and 1.3?
The only very known difference is that Kickstart 1.3 fixes the silly bug that prevented Kickstart 1.2 to boot from a hard disk (a routine in the boot code uses A6 loaded with an incorrect library base,...
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Why do all the Speech Synthesizers have that same Voice?
The first time I ever played with software speech synthesis on a microcomputer (not hardware synthesis, like in TI's Speak & Spell) was around 1983, using S.A.M for the Commodore 64.
A year later,...
CommunityBot
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What modification is required from a PC floppy for use in Amiga?
Around the end of the time of Amiga popularity, obtaining a replacement Amiga floppy drive was a nuisance, while PC drives were ubiquitous and cheap. One could install a PC drive in Amiga after ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
CommunityBot
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Why was OCS low resolution limited to 6 bitplanes?
I'm looking for information whether there has ever been an official statement by Commodore back in the days on why the Original Chipset was limited to doing 6 bitplanes only when running in low ...
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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-...
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Seeking details relating to Amiga 3000 serial numbers
I am the original owner of my Amiga 3000. As I remember it, I purchased the machine fairly early after release. I'm cleaning and detailing the machine, and I took a quick picture of the serial ...
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What information is encoded in the 22-digit barcodes on the Amiga's case?
What information is encoded in Amiga's 22-digit barcodes?
For example: 0103791363642010121234
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Is the metal shielding required in all-in-one Amiga models?
All-in-one Amiga computers (500, 600, 1200) have metal shielding surrounding the mainboard. It is in two parts, one below the mainboard and one on top. The mainboard is physically linked to the lower ...
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What is the relationship between Amiga audio and the MOD music file format?
What is the the MOD music file format? Exactly how does it relate to the Amiga 1000 audio hardware?
Did the MOD format become popular on non-Amiga computers? If so, why?
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Why are there two, different, Kickstart 1.3 ROMs with the same 34.5 version number?
The Kickstart 1.3 ROM file that is supplied with Cloanto's Amiga Forever (amiga-os-130.rom) is very slightly different to that which you'd get by dumping a real 1.3 ROM from an Amiga 500.
...
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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 ...
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How did the Amiga 500 left-side expansion port work?
On the Amiga 500 there is an expansion port
How did the expansion port work?
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When did Great Valley Products, stop producing hardware?
I had a GVP 68040 card in my old Amiga 2000 (ah those were the days). 25Mhz 68040, 16MB of RAM, SCSI controller to my 750 MB SCSI drive (if that was even 3200rpm I was probably lucky) and it was SO ...
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What limits Amiga 68030/40/60 accelerators to 256 MiB of RAM?
Even today there are companies that still make accelerators for the 68000-based Amigas, but I've never seen any such accelerator with more than 256 MiB of RAM. If the 68030+ can address 4 GiB, then ...
CommunityBot
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Should I start Amiga's copper list using COPJMP1 or is it superfluous?
According to the documentation I have ("Hardware" by J.Schimanski) after setting the copper list COP1LCx under $dff080 it should be started by writing an arbitrary value into COPJMP1 under $dff088. ...
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Version Control for AmigaOS 3.1
I owe my career as a software developer to the Amiga. I might have learned the basics of programming on the Apple II+ and Commodore 64 - but on my Amiga I learned skills I've applied to my whole ...
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Practical differences between the three Amiga 500 rev 5 motherboards?
The Big Book of Amiga Hardware lists three different versions of the Amiga 500 rev 5 motherboard which it names Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3. Were the changes made only to simplify manufacturing, or ...
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What is the necessity of the Signal BLS (Blitter SLow)
I am trying to understand the Amiga schematics:
Question 1:
What is the necessity of the Signal BLS (Blitter SLow) generated by A2000A U26 or Gary in the A2000B?
Question 2:
BLS is also set by ...
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Appropriate battery replacement for my A3000
I know the interwebs are full of information relating to the replacement of batteries for various computers, and the Amiga's are no different. But before I do anything rash, I wanted to ask for some ...
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Start application after Amiga Workbench 1.3 boot sequence
I want to start an application after the boot sequence of Workbench1.3:
In my case an Amiga Shell application:
Where are the startup files located and what are the changes to provide this?
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How hard would it be to port Amiga OS4 to x86 or ARM?
This question was raised on Facebook a few hours ago. Some say it's possible, others say impossible. What do you experts say?
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Can artifact color mode create 262,144 colors on Amiga OCS?
This is as a follow-up to my previous question on artifact colors and the excellent answers provided there.
The images below show a simple example of artifact colors generated using a single bit-...
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How do I attach and use a CD-ROM drive to an Amiga?
I would like to add a CD-ROM drive to an Amiga.
I have not tried this for several years and I remember things failing to work without giving any useful errors, multiple choices of device and ...
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What was the difference between the original Video Toaster and the 4000 version?
There were two versions of the Video Toaster hardware: an original one designed for the A2000 and a later one designed for the A4000 which was suitably called the Video Toaster 4000.
While I can ...
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Reason for the Amiga clock speed
The Amiga used a CPU rated for 8 megahertz, but clocked at 7.14 megahertz. What was the reason for this number? I remember it was something to do with a multiple of the frequency of the video ...
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What's the meaning of __saveds in Amiga C code?
What's the meaning of __saveds in Amiga C code?
It's applied to function prototypes, and is required for functions that are to be called by assembler code, if I understand correctly.
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How does the Amiga chipset RGA bus work?
The RGA bus is the bus that connects Agnus/Alice with Denise/Lisa and Paula.
What is it used for? I guess at a minimum to write/read registers in Denise/Lisa and Paula, and I guess to feed data to ...
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How does the Kickstart ROM load and start workbench?
As I understand, on the Commodore Amigas, the kickstart copies itself into a region of memory which is later made read-only. Does kickstart also copy workbench into this region?
How does kickstart ...
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