[rescue] Amigas arrived

[Mark]

On 18 May 2007, at 16:15, Bill Bradford wrote:

>> Looks nice and clean at least, and little yellowing.
>
> The front panel cleaned up nicely with a Magic Eraser [0].

I hope you didn't scratch the Commodore badge - it's like letting the  
genie out of the lamp you know ;) I still have the protective plastic  
over the one on my A4000. It's amazing how many Amigas I STILL see  
where no-one bothered to peel that off. Probably thought it was all  
part of the shoddy build quality ;)

>>> Has a Retina BLT Z3 "retargetable graphics" card
>> *That's* what an RTG card is. It's no a bad one either. :)
>
> I still need to find a "dummies guide to RTG cards", as I never dealt
> with one when I had my A1000 (of course).  As far as I can tell, I  
> have
> to do basic OS install/setup using the normal Amiga resolutions out  
> the
> standard video port, then I can set things to go out the RTG card  
> after
> the OS is installed and drivers are setup...  If I can do 1024x768 at
> 24bit, I'll be happy.

Correct. Picasso96 installs into the Amiga Workbench and swaps the  
screen (i.e. retargets it) to the RTG card at boot time.

P96 is avaiable here, the readme confirms it supports the Retina BLT Z3:
<http://aminet.net/package/gfx/board/Picasso96>

> Actually I own two Macs right now - the iMac Core Duo 20" and my  
> MacBook -
> but if I want to emulate an older Mac I'll just do it on one of my  
> actual
> Macs. 8-)  If you (or anybody you know) wants the Emplant card,  
> just let
> me know and you can have it for cost-of-shipping.

I'd have taken you up on that offer if I didn't already have one  
complete with a SE/30 ROM SIMM stuck in my A2000 already :)

> It may already have 3.1 ROMs; I haven't gotten the guts yet to unplug
> the CPU card to see what the ROMs are underneath it.

If it's been a user Desktop belonging to an enthusiast it is likely  
to have been upgraded. If it was used commercially in a studio for  
toaster work it likely won't have as they tended to not upgrade them  
deliberately to retain compatibility.

> I'll find out when I fire it up tonight after the rest of the  
> cables and the mice arrive.
> If it doesn't have 3.1, I can get them from Softhut for $30 or so.

Sounds like a plan. IIRC 3.1 ROMs show up as 40.68.

> I've got disk images of every major WorkBench release up to 3.1; once
> I get my other A2000 working, I can use AmigaExplorer (connected to my
> PC) to write WB3.1 disks, which I can then use to "bootstrap" the A4K.
> Once I get 3.1 working on the A4K, I've got an ISO image of AmigaOS  
> 3.5,
> and have a friend who is giving me an image of 3.9 in a day or  
> two.  It's
> *almost* a chicken-and-egg problem. 8-)

If you can get 3.9 then hold off and use that to upgrade from 3.1.  
Don't got 3.1 -> .5 -> .9 as it may introduce additional problems  
into the system. If you can get the 4000 booted into 3.1 and the  
CDROM setup (a joy and a half in itself ;), then you can create a 3.9  
boot disk which works with the CDROM and allows you to do a clean  
install or upgrade.

Much fun you will have. Ahh well it keeps us all sane (or does it!?!).

-- 
Mark Benson

My Blog:
<http://mdblog.68kmac.org>
68kMac.org:
<http://www.68kmac.org>
Visit my Homepage: <http://homepage.mac.com/markbenson>

"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."