The PCMCIA issue is fixed! Turns out the memory expansion's RAM was conflicting, so I needed to move a jumper from 8MB down to 5.5MB. Not an ideal solution, but I've ordered another board that won't cause issues. Also, I got some custom PCI brackets for the DVI and USB ports! Here's a video on my other channel: th-cam.com/video/oBECeXVTz2Q/w-d-xo.html
Oh man I'm getting conflicts all day even messing around with emulated expansions in WinUAE xD had a c64 once but skipped to pc, I'm now catching up to trying (virtual) amigas and it's awesome :) thanks for this vid!
Back in the day, the primary use of the PCMCIA usually wound up being a way to add a CD-ROM for people who didn't bother "towering up". The internal IDE interface isn't buffered and usually only safely supports one device, which for most people was usually a hard drive. The other benefit being that then the external drive could be powered by it's own PSU. Interestingly this is what the official Commodore CD1200 drive was apparently going to use, though CBM went bust before it made it to market. PCMCIA was never really a terribly popular standard on the Amiga because PCMCIA was a bit of a janky standard.
You probably have one kicking around.. so just use an old PCMCIA network card. You can grab the cnetdevice driver from aminet and the miamidx and key that are easily google-able... then grab orangeftpd from aminet and just FTP stuff to the amiga. With 3.1.4 you'll have access to all of the memory with an IO card like a network card.
@@TheTurnipKing >the primary use of the PCMCIA usually wound up.. And for serial port cards for those of us that had a 56K modem and wanted to actually use it at that speed.
I'm still fascinated with how much I enjoy your videos considering I don't know what you're talking about half the time. They're just very relaxing and have that sense of going over to a friend's house after they've just bought something they're all jazzed up about.
@smbcollector I couldn't have said it any better, that's exactly what I feel when I watch LGR videos. Sometimes I can keep track of all the terms and games and such because I'm old already, but the smooth ride Clints enthusiasm offers is just too good.
PCMCIA needs more love, I thought those cards were the coolest thing back in the 90s, one slot that could let you add a hard drive, RAM, a modem, a floppy drive, it was kind of mind-blowing.
@@circuitsandcigars1278 The big issue though was more than a lot of them used polled i/o which is very resource intensive, sticking a sub interface in the middle actually gets around that as a cheap win :)
If I remember correctly, some Ram expansions interfere with proper PCMCIA operations. You really want to use a proper accelerator board, which puts the Ram in it's own system bus, and doesn't interfere with the PCMCIA memory space.
Any idea why it works perfectly on AmigaOS 3.1.4 but not ClassicWB? Both with the same RAM expansion installed, one works one doesn't. Either way, as mentioned in the video a nice accelerator is at the top of my list for future upgrades! EDIT: Limiting the memory board to 5.5MB fixes the crashing on ClassicWB!
@@LGR I think it will crash at some point even with stock Workbench. It's using less ram so it doesn't corrupt the PCMCIA Ram addresses right away. With Classic WB you are using much more ram, thus overwriting the PCMCIA Addresses. I could be wrong, but I think the "safe" memory boundary is around 4 MB expansion cards, but don't quote me on that! If the expansion board is configurable, try setting it to 4MB and see what happens
@@LGR >Any idea why it works perfectly on AmigaOS 3.1.4 AmigaOS 3 or 3.1 introduced a check in the OS for RAM conflicting with the PCMCIA address space for memory mapped cards. They re-worked that in 3.1.4 so you can use cards that aren't memory mapped like network cards without losing access to all of your memory.
^This, you'll be able to take stuff off of Amiga magazine demo CDs that might not be archived, or archived properly. There's a lot of original content out there that's about to be long lost.
@@ronaldmullins8221 I work in enterprise IT and we keep a bunch on hand, little 512 MB or 1 GB cards so that we can just plug one in for someone that wants two monitors.
I may not cover as many games as I used to, but the retro game content hasn't stopped by any means. Posted a 20 minute retrospective on one just earlier this month!
This case does support use for a PC as well, albeit a somewhat limited one only supporting Micro ATX and Mini ITX form factor boards. You just have to order the PC version of the case that comes with one of the correct back-plates. Either 2 horizontal PCIe cards (on a riser extension), or the one that supports 4 low-profile vertical cards.
I've certainly been eyeing one of those Silverstone cases with dual drive bays, cost be darned I want that classic style, even if my current Core V21 cube is technically set up in Horizontal configuration it's just not the same and I need to use a external 5.25 inch bay for my optical drive because it has none internally
The SilverStone GD09 case looks pretty good for a modern horizontal one. Room for a full size ATK board with seven card slots, an optical drive bay, and front panel USB, USBC, and two 3.5mm jacks.
@@chasenthehype It does kind of remind of when I was a kid and would open a Commodore up to mess with it, see the mass of cables and components and think 'not today'. :)
for the dvi and USB you could take an old video card with dvi and vga ports and remove its backplate and mount those ports to it, the usb might fit the vga hole
Plus make sure that if you find a beige one, the right angle goes the right direction. I bought a micro-USB cable with a right angle, works great except on an old Samsung Galaxy S5 phone with a pivoting cover on the jack, which hinges opposite to the cable. Oh, well...
Great video and thanks for promoting my case again. The screws you used were for the risers and are M4 that are not for PSU and I use a CF card adaptor that fits into the rear PC slot covers. Thanks again.
Damn you, Clint! :D Your last Amiga video made me want an Amiga 500 again. So I went out and bought one. These are getting more and more expensive... But at least I got around 4-500 floppies with it, that's really nice.
You should totally do a beginners series to help people (me) to start out with old tech. Love your channel and watch it every morning when i eat breakfast!
Such a beautiful setup, my A600 can't even compare, even though it works very well for what I want it to do with its Furia EC020, an SD Harddrive solution and that sexy Commodore 1084S CRT I could sit around and play Lotus 3 for days, I wish it would run Elite 2 at a playable speed though.
I agree... Though this audience probably already knows it, the graphics and audio (and OS) were so so ahead of its time back then. I only had an A500 but I ruled the school with that baby.
That was the stand out change to me! It really shows how much the community for the Amiga cares about bringing such things up to modern levels; I don't know why it brings such a smile to my face seeing it but I now I want to do the same to the old PC mice I have laying around the place. :)
If there is one thing I am not missing its fiddling with old ass mouses, opening them up + cleaning just for them to work as shitty as they did before.
@@haraldhimmel5687 I actually found that quite satisfying, at least if it wasn't a cheap crappy mouse. Of course there were lots of shitty ones but some were actually quite good. Used to love scraping off crud from the rollers and cleaning them and the ball with alcohol and having it like new again. Felt like it was worth them getting dirty and starting to perform bad in the first place just for the satisfaction of fixing it!
It's rare for me to get real nostalgic flashbacks watching TH-cam since I'm constantly messing around with my old computers anyway, but the Test Drive 2 at the end there totally did it for me. I played a LOT of Test Drive 2 ~30 years ago but I don't think I've played it since, and I was re-remembering every turn and passing vehicle along with you. I gotta get back to my Amigas. Thanks!
It’s somehow gratifying to see you go through the hard work the rest of us do when playing with old hardware in a new era! You kept plugging! Good job.
That's probably down to having a bootable partition set up on the CF Card, but not setting the boot priority correctly in the in the RDB (Rigid Disk Block) on the CF Card file system. Gotta use HDToolbox or similar to either disable the bootable partitions on the card or set them to a lower priority than the internal drive.
29:31 woah! That's it!! I remember playing a racing game on my uncle's Amiga in the early 90s. The window rolling down and driver smiling, for whatever reason, are burned in my memory but i couldn't recall the game.
A processor upgrade is a definite must. I remember when I upgraded to a 68040 and it made a massive difference to games like Tornado, flight sims or the Elite series. The modern FGPA boards that are available now have great compatibility, lots of graphic modes for higher resolution displays and blow your nostalgic mind when you imagine being a teenager again.
Love the Amiga laser mouse upgrade. You could weight the mouse with some of those sticky alloy wheel balancing weights above the new circuit board; I use those for all sorts of flimsy lightweight things to make them more substantial.
I love both the C64 and the Amiga, and could never get enough of either of them. You're videos are always quite good and I can't get enough of those either, so it's an extra nice treat to see either of the fantastic Commodore systems on LGR. Thank you for the great video.
Amiga never ceases to amaze me with its GUI and overall graphical experience of such an old OS, whilst running on such minimalist hardware! Much respect to the engineers of old who made it possible.
I'm on a massive LGR binge right now, I may even go as far back as your very first video. I love all the hardware build/upgrade videos the most. Makes me pine for the days of my 386...hey, can you one day look into setting up an Atari 800 XE? I used to have one of these with the Atari 1050 Floppy drive - not to mention over a 100 or so games...the good ol'days.
...well, nothing is *guaranteed* 2 work -- not the 1st time, @ least. Of course, this was a perfectly legit reason 2 learn how 2 open up the system case & get your hands dirty. 4 old-timers like me (who got their start back in the 1970s w/ the Apple II scene) this wasn't a cause 4 panic or despair -- it was an opportunity 2 dive into new hardware. If U manage 2 figure out how 2 troubleshoot & resolve system issues (w/o blowing anything up in the process) the end result is that U have a functional computer, a new set of knowledge (& maybe a new skill or 2) U didn't have B4 + a genuine sense of accomplishment. "It is all a matter of perspective." -- Stephen K. Hayes
Are you kidding? That hasn't changed. It's even worse now. Everything is 100 times more complicated (or worse). There's more convenience, sure, when it works.
Agreed. IMHO there is too much emphasis on 3d printing things these days where a small amount of manual work will achieve the same, perhaps better result
Ahh, nothing captures the essence of Amiga hardware better than a Frankenmiggy with all kinds of clever third-party expansions hanging out in (or out of) a third-party case, and having to spend hours chasing down obscure conflicts. A true tinkerer's machine, and I love every minute of it! Thanks for a great video, as usual!
Great video as always Clint, really enjoying your Amiga journey. BTW you can bump up to nice hi-res custom screenmodes using the Indivision AGA if you install the drivers and config tool, should give you a nicer Workbench with more resolution. Even NTSC Interlaced should run fine, flicker free on there and look a lot nicer.
That's largely down to deciding to put an A1200 in it. While it does technically support it, its primarily designed with an A500 in mind, first and foremost, just like the original Checkmate 1500 case that was sold back in the 80s. Like literally the only problem that he had with it that he still would have had with an A500 board is the location of the floppy connector being under the power supply and needing a longer floppy cable. None of the other stuff would have applied, and he also would have gained the ability to use big-box Amiga Zorro expansion cards meant for the A2000 as well.
I always wanted a unmodified Amiga 2000. It would bring back the 80s for me. I never had an Amiga but did attend an Amiga 1000 demonstration in a small shop before it ever went to market. I also saw Amiga 500 demo units in stores throughout the 80s. I used to collect Amiga and Pc Magazines. Amiga World Magazine was a real treat every issue.
Dang. That stuff is no joke! I can't make AmigaOS and Workbench look that pretty at all. Whole different world of configuration and tricks. Glad you took the time to make it look so dang nice!
I know this video is a little older now but 3d printers have never been cheaper. Kind of stagnated on quality improvement BUT prices are great. I highly recomend the voxelab aquila. ender 3 v2 clone for 140 bucks that knocks the socks off machines twice its price. Using tinkercad and that machine you could design and print your bracket in 15 min. to half an hour or so. All you'd need is the file for a PCIE slot adapter. Then use tinkercads subtractive tool to create the holes. A 3d printer would def be a god send for a project like this. Never been easier to get involved and tbh dude the 3d printer youtube community is pretty great just like the computing community. Check out printsleo for more on the aquila. Get the OG aquila btw the more recent stuff is just pricy for no reason other than profits and you will miss out on the awesome custom frmware and modding community allowing the OG aquila to punch far above it's weight class.
I have no memory of playing test drive ii but the menus looked super familiar. It's crazy what you can suddenly remember from almost 30 years ago. I remembered that dude in the car window after choosing your car.
what a nice suprise I'm more of a c= folk, and only saw PC stuff from you up until now :) nice to see you have a place for amiga in your heart aswell, miggy is love!
It's always nice to see your upgrade videos of old hardware. I'm always testing and upgrading things in my different 486s but I only have one case (tower) so it gets frustrating sometimes. Never owned or used an Amiga so I don't feel nostalgic about it but looking at your videos makes me want one!. Yep, the CD drive would be an interesting thing to test but at the end you'll probably won't be using it much. Cheers!
Tungsten weights are awesome for adding weight. They sell them in all sorts of sizes for use in Cub Scout's pinewood derby cars, so you can dial the mouse in to exactly the same heft as before.
Unrelated but I have two original Checkmate 1500s and both still work. The one has the MegaChip plus ROM switcher and external SCSI drives plus 5.25 and 3.5" drives. Running 2.04 for the most part I use the one very often. The other is less expanded and in its original box complete with keyboard. The new one featured here looks more like my A3000s and whilst I may have been tempted I have better running A1200s anyway so I really don't need the upgrade. Interestingly the Checkmate referred to by Stephen Jones in one of his original TH-cam videos is my Checkmate I have set up. Anyhoo... if you're lucky you may just have a system that will last you a good thirty years. Great product.
Good informative video for an Old Amiga 1200 with a totally new case with the possibiities of many functionalities as hardware and software with additional memory and additional hardware.Functionalities of hardware from all of the sides of the computer, with upgraded old case balled movement amiga mouse to optical stage + 15 pin Amiga joystick. If you do this continously you would have customers for computers you built. Good Work ...
Laser modification for a ballpoint mouse - I'm in shock! Wow! Damn it - when it comes to videos where you are doing a retro computer - time goes by! =))) By the way, at the end of the video, I remembered the first "System shock", how I was then surprised by the mechanics of the implant, which gives a "rear view". And as it turned out, this "feature" was implemented in "The Duel: Test Drive II". Haha, fun =) ... I wish you great luck in improving this Amiga in the future !!! Thanks a lot for the video !!!
It's always a pleasure to watch you struggle your way through a build that I have no knowledge whatsoever about lol. I know the feeling of frustration when working on my PC and things just aren't working as intended, which leads to hours of troubleshooting afterwards. Sometimes I think the troubleshooting can be the best part because I love problem-solving... but it's not fun when you actually can't solve the problem. Anyway, fun videos. Keep up the good work!
I got that same Checkmate case and an A1200 inside. I used a StarTech CF adapter that has a PCI bracket to let me mount it in the back of the checkmate. So I can actually reach behind and swap out the CF card when needed. :) Also got the PCMCIA CF adapter, the Kickstart ROM 3.1.4 and Workbench 3.1.4. Nice upgrades. :) Oh and the PCMCIA and RAM board issues is present for some cards. I happened to pick up an older expansion board, a DKB1202, and expanded it to 8 MB. It has an FPU and RTC as well, but the good thing is that this board does not conflict with the PCMCIA slot / CF adapter cards.
Very very great video of your Checkmate Amiga 1200 I love all your videos but especially videos with Commodore Amiga content. Amiga Lives! Best regards from Austria to USA. :)
Just got back my first pc with a discreet graphics card I gave it to my buddy in his time of need and I’m cleaning it up and getting it going again and the idea of playing it again and maybe finding some of my old videos from windows movie maker is going to be super fun.
I remember having CF adapter in my Amiga like 10 years ago. It was like having an SSD drive back then, but it wasn't much faster than a standard HDD because of the Amiga limitations. It was like 1.3MB per second but it was enough. I also used PCMCIA to CF adapter to transfer data from my PC laptop like ADF files for example.
For those of us who can't afford to get an Amiga, there's the Pi400 running PiMiga, an Amiga Workbench port for the Pi4/400. I have one and it works a treat.
Adding weights to a mouse is completely legitimate; I've taken apart several modern laser mice and found more than a couple of them had big metal weights inside. If the weight of the mouse isn't good, I would totally recommend it. The key to get the correct feeling is the placement of the weight. Make sure you get the balance and feel correct (per your liking). As a recommendation: Most mice I've seen tend to place it near where the base of the palm rests.
The PCMCIA issue is fixed! Turns out the memory expansion's RAM was conflicting, so I needed to move a jumper from 8MB down to 5.5MB. Not an ideal solution, but I've ordered another board that won't cause issues. Also, I got some custom PCI brackets for the DVI and USB ports! Here's a video on my other channel: th-cam.com/video/oBECeXVTz2Q/w-d-xo.html
nice!
Oh man I'm getting conflicts all day even messing around with emulated expansions in WinUAE xD had a c64 once but skipped to pc, I'm now catching up to trying (virtual) amigas and it's awesome :) thanks for this vid!
Back in the day, the primary use of the PCMCIA usually wound up being a way to add a CD-ROM for people who didn't bother "towering up". The internal IDE interface isn't buffered and usually only safely supports one device, which for most people was usually a hard drive. The other benefit being that then the external drive could be powered by it's own PSU. Interestingly this is what the official Commodore CD1200 drive was apparently going to use, though CBM went bust before it made it to market.
PCMCIA was never really a terribly popular standard on the Amiga because PCMCIA was a bit of a janky standard.
You probably have one kicking around.. so just use an old PCMCIA network card. You can grab the cnetdevice driver from aminet and the miamidx and key that are easily google-able... then grab orangeftpd from aminet and just FTP stuff to the amiga. With 3.1.4 you'll have access to all of the memory with an IO card like a network card.
@@TheTurnipKing
>the primary use of the PCMCIA usually wound up..
And for serial port cards for those of us that had a 56K modem and wanted to actually use it at that speed.
I'm still fascinated with how much I enjoy your videos considering I don't know what you're talking about half the time. They're just very relaxing and have that sense of going over to a friend's house after they've just bought something they're all jazzed up about.
@smbcollector
I couldn't have said it any better, that's exactly what I feel when I watch LGR videos. Sometimes I can keep track of all the terms and games and such because I'm old already, but the smooth ride Clints enthusiasm offers is just too good.
PCMCIA needs more love, I thought those cards were the coolest thing back in the 90s, one slot that could let you add a hard drive, RAM, a modem, a floppy drive, it was kind of mind-blowing.
they are however slow as hell and very cpu heavy
The thing with alot of PCMCIA bus setups after USB came along is they actually used USB vs a parallel bus
Its crazy that PCMCIA didn't become close to as popular as floppy drives did. I don't understand.
@@circuitsandcigars1278 The big issue though was more than a lot of them used polled i/o which is very resource intensive, sticking a sub interface in the middle actually gets around that as a cheap win :)
Mission, navigation, and targeting data used by the RAH-66 Comanche stealth helicopter was stored on PCMCIA cards.
4:09 "It's really a thumb and indexfinger screw if you think about. *MMMMM* "
Don't know why that cracked me up, but it did.
same here... i LOL'd so hard. It was so random.
The Clint "Mmm" should be an official punctuation mark.
I mean, he's right after all!
hahaha same
Gotta say I'm glad he found something constructive to do with his thumbs ;-)
If I remember correctly, some Ram expansions interfere with proper PCMCIA operations. You really want to use a proper accelerator board, which puts the Ram in it's own system bus, and doesn't interfere with the PCMCIA memory space.
Exacly. Pcmcia its not compatible with some ram expansion
Any idea why it works perfectly on AmigaOS 3.1.4 but not ClassicWB? Both with the same RAM expansion installed, one works one doesn't.
Either way, as mentioned in the video a nice accelerator is at the top of my list for future upgrades!
EDIT: Limiting the memory board to 5.5MB fixes the crashing on ClassicWB!
@@LGR I think it will crash at some point even with stock Workbench. It's using less ram so it doesn't corrupt the PCMCIA Ram addresses right away. With Classic WB you are using much more ram, thus overwriting the PCMCIA Addresses. I could be wrong, but I think the "safe" memory boundary is around 4 MB expansion cards, but don't quote me on that! If the expansion board is configurable, try setting it to 4MB and see what happens
Ahh that makes sense, AmigaOS is running far more lean than my ClassicWB config. Thanks for the info!
@@LGR
>Any idea why it works perfectly on AmigaOS 3.1.4
AmigaOS 3 or 3.1 introduced a check in the OS for RAM conflicting with the PCMCIA address space for memory mapped cards.
They re-worked that in 3.1.4 so you can use cards that aren't memory mapped like network cards without losing access to all of your memory.
I'd say put in the cd drive. It's there if you need it, and its always more content.
^This, you'll be able to take stuff off of Amiga magazine demo CDs that might not be archived, or archived properly. There's a lot of original content out there that's about to be long lost.
Wouldn't it also be amusing to be able to play some tunes on the Checkmate?
use an old back plane from a vga card that has a dvi and vga port. That should fit the usb and dvi headers you have.
EIther that or find a friend that has a milling machine to machine out a PCI blank for it. ;)
@@mikem.9197 Or a laser cutter.
I work at a computer shops that has a ton of those kept away just in case. See if any local shops have some, probably easiest way to get some
@@ronaldmullins8221 I work in enterprise IT and we keep a bunch on hand, little 512 MB or 1 GB cards so that we can just plug one in for someone that wants two monitors.
you can get round panel mount usb connectors or some sort of 3d printed thing would work
Oh look a shooting Star.
I wish for a Jagged Alliance 2 review in the future from LGR.
Also Congrats on a new Intro Logo.
He doesn't really do game content anymore, besides the sims 4 expansions.
Retro Amateur thats why i noticed something was missing,that blows but hey things change
I may not cover as many games as I used to, but the retro game content hasn't stopped by any means. Posted a 20 minute retrospective on one just earlier this month!
Your comment was very cute. No homo.
@@LGR Will we get UT99 then? :D
I wish horizontal PC cases were still a thing. They're out there but usually cost quite a bit extra compared to a similar "tower" case.
This case does support use for a PC as well, albeit a somewhat limited one only supporting Micro ATX and Mini ITX form factor boards. You just have to order the PC version of the case that comes with one of the correct back-plates. Either 2 horizontal PCIe cards (on a riser extension), or the one that supports 4 low-profile vertical cards.
I've certainly been eyeing one of those Silverstone cases with dual drive bays, cost be darned I want that classic style, even if my current Core V21 cube is technically set up in Horizontal configuration it's just not the same and I need to use a external 5.25 inch bay for my optical drive because it has none internally
The SilverStone GD09 case looks pretty good for a modern horizontal one. Room for a full size ATK board with seven card slots, an optical drive bay, and front panel USB, USBC, and two 3.5mm jacks.
The cable manager in me is screaming, but it is a pretty case.
It's got that classic 'mustard and ketchup everywhere' aesthetic though. A true classic in my book :)
@@chasenthehype It does kind of remind of when I was a kid and would open a Commodore up to mess with it, see the mass of cables and components and think 'not today'. :)
you might want to get that looked at I've heard that having a cable manager inside of you can be bad for your health
Pinball dreams!!!!
(the whole series was awesome, and still is!)
It warms my heart to see all this amiga love, having grown up with one on my lap.
for the dvi and USB you could take an old video card with dvi and vga ports and remove its backplate and mount those ports to it, the usb might fit the vga hole
Yep, that's what I was thinking. No need to 3D print.
that was my thought as well, that USB port looks like it was meant to fit in a DB9 style cutout which would be the same footprint as a VGA connector
Having an Amiga and not playing Turrican is a crime.
Just the soundtrack alone is worth it.
@Kurt Pedersen HERETIC! ;P
Oh, and I don't mean the game "Heretic". Even though I am told that one was pretty good as well.
AaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaA
I would’ve done a beige usb cable 😆
Me too, if one was available! Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a beige USB cable with a 90 degree right angle USB B connector.
@@LGR Spray paint. Okay, that's PROBABLY a bad idea for rubber, but it worked for the black floppy bay CF-IDE adapter in my beige DOS box.
@@LGR Maybe you can just add some wood grain to the cable? ;P
@@LGR Yup. Quick search reveals beige 90 degree USB A side with a straight B but not the other way round, weeeeird!
Plus make sure that if you find a beige one, the right angle goes the right direction. I bought a micro-USB cable with a right angle, works great except on an old Samsung Galaxy S5 phone with a pivoting cover on the jack, which hinges opposite to the cable. Oh, well...
WOOOO always a good day when LGR is in my Feed!!!!
The fonts you're trying to use were designed to be used on a minimum of 400/512 line displays. Please switch to either Interlaced of double-scan. :)
@@seanys Indeed.
Great video and thanks for promoting my case again. The screws you used were for the risers and are M4 that are not for PSU and I use a CF card adaptor that fits into the rear PC slot covers. Thanks again.
Damn you, Clint! :D Your last Amiga video made me want an Amiga 500 again. So I went out and bought one. These are getting more and more expensive... But at least I got around 4-500 floppies with it, that's really nice.
Don't forget to check for battery leaks, especially if it has a RAM upgrade from back in the day
You should totally do a beginners series to help people (me) to start out with old tech. Love your channel and watch it every morning when i eat breakfast!
Such a beautiful setup, my A600 can't even compare, even though it works very well for what I want it to do with its Furia EC020, an SD Harddrive solution and that sexy Commodore 1084S CRT
I could sit around and play Lotus 3 for days, I wish it would run Elite 2 at a playable speed though.
@Singe Slayer i think it might take at least an 030 to run Elite 2 smoothly. i believe there are 080 boards now and they are insane
That optical mouse board conversion is an exquisite solution, god, i can't wait to have the income to dive into amiga.....
Can’t wait for the final update,
Also i really miss that wow & rewarding feeling from the amiga.
I agree... Though this audience probably already knows it, the graphics and audio (and OS) were so so ahead of its time back then. I only had an A500 but I ruled the school with that baby.
Oh I saw Moonstone in your games list. Used to have so much fun playing it on my friend's Amiga 500. Someone should do a modern remake of it.
Hell yeah! Now I wish he'd played it on the show and chopped off some heads and such ;).
The Amiga Checkmate is such an overlooked computer, too bad Commodore was killed off by competitors, because our schools loved Commodores!
Commodore board just continued to shoot the company in the foot after Jack Tramiel left...
This troubleshooting is the real deal! People see some vintage computer/project working and can't imagine how much effort we put in those things.
Hi Clint I think you should put the dvd drive in even if you don’t use it because it will look good
I agree :)
And then you can play Amiga games that are on CD, like the Amiga CD32 games that has some great CD audio with great FMV.
I would like to see what optical drive usage looks like on Amiga, so that would be nice too.
21:08 the image of Athlon CPU smoking pops up in my mind whenever I hear this tune
Although the game itself is great too ;)
That ball mouse to optic mouse-section is delightful nonsense. :D
I'll always hate the Commodore brick mouse, but the optical upgrade would make me hate it a lot less.
That was the stand out change to me! It really shows how much the community for the Amiga cares about bringing such things up to modern levels; I don't know why it brings such a smile to my face seeing it but I now I want to do the same to the old PC mice I have laying around the place. :)
If there is one thing I am not missing its fiddling with old ass mouses, opening them up + cleaning just for them to work as shitty as they did before.
@@haraldhimmel5687 I actually found that quite satisfying, at least if it wasn't a cheap crappy mouse. Of course there were lots of shitty ones but some were actually quite good. Used to love scraping off crud from the rollers and cleaning them and the ball with alcohol and having it like new again. Felt like it was worth them getting dirty and starting to perform bad in the first place just for the satisfaction of fixing it!
It's rare for me to get real nostalgic flashbacks watching TH-cam since I'm constantly messing around with my old computers anyway, but the Test Drive 2 at the end there totally did it for me. I played a LOT of Test Drive 2 ~30 years ago but I don't think I've played it since, and I was re-remembering every turn and passing vehicle along with you. I gotta get back to my Amigas. Thanks!
Definitely put the Optical drive in. It would look pretty awesome and would be an interesting feature to have even if it is not used.
That mouse click noise is soooooo damn satisfying!!!
Why not just cut holes in one of your ISA slot covers with a Dremel for the USB and DVI?
It’s somehow gratifying to see you go through the hard work the rest of us do when playing with old hardware in a new era! You kept plugging! Good job.
I think the PCMCIA made it self CF0, so when you plug it in it gets confused from your internal card.
Try making it a secondary drive
No it does not.
Internal cards are DH0 (or HD0).
That's probably down to having a bootable partition set up on the CF Card, but not setting the boot priority correctly in the in the RDB (Rigid Disk Block) on the CF Card file system. Gotta use HDToolbox or similar to either disable the bootable partitions on the card or set them to a lower priority than the internal drive.
29:31 woah! That's it!! I remember playing a racing game on my uncle's Amiga in the early 90s. The window rolling down and driver smiling, for whatever reason, are burned in my memory but i couldn't recall the game.
Btw Turrican is available on windows 10 as a freeware “clone” called T2002. Comes with tons of of other “cloned games” like Metroid and Rtype as well.
Thanks Clint for doing Amiga stuff. Before I got my own PC in 1996 I had an Amiga 500 for 8 years!
Who else loves the TV show “Halt and Catch Fire” ?!
Dude these kinds of builds with retro tech mixed with modern things is so satisfying! All the little tweaks and upgrades are great!
3.1.4 ROMs removes the icon libraries and thus you need a workbench that has them on the harddisk/card
You have really upgraded this thing and showed the Amiga checkmate's potential.
Its an informative video. Great job. Way to go!
Use metal slots from old video card with div, same for USB cheers
Exactly what I was thinking, a full height with vga and DVI
A processor upgrade is a definite must. I remember when I upgraded to a 68040 and it made a massive difference to games like Tornado, flight sims or the Elite series. The modern FGPA boards that are available now have great compatibility, lots of graphic modes for higher resolution displays and blow your nostalgic mind when you imagine being a teenager again.
21:07 "What happens when a CPU heatsink is removed" (John Sokol 2/14/2006)
Love the Amiga laser mouse upgrade. You could weight the mouse with some of those sticky alloy wheel balancing weights above the new circuit board; I use those for all sorts of flimsy lightweight things to make them more substantial.
21:08 WOW the music of AMD meltdown vídeo!
I love both the C64 and the Amiga, and could never get enough of either of them. You're videos are always quite good and I can't get enough of those either, so it's an extra nice treat to see either of the fantastic Commodore systems on LGR. Thank you for the great video.
Seek and Destroy! Now there's a game that I divested several hours of my existence on.
"Overkill!" Ah, yes, good ol' Safari Software. ♥♥♥
Love that game! And also other such arcade-y military-style shooters from back then. Wish that genre would make more of a comeback.
Amiga never ceases to amaze me with its GUI and overall graphical experience of such an old OS, whilst running on such minimalist hardware!
Much respect to the engineers of old who made it possible.
21:08 Anyone remember this song being used on a video about CPUs running without Heatsinks like Pentium 4s?
It's probably just a generic royalty-free song that you can buy a license for or use for free.
It reminds me of System Shock 1 intro music somehow
I'm on a massive LGR binge right now, I may even go as far back as your very first video. I love all the hardware build/upgrade videos the most. Makes me pine for the days of my 386...hey, can you one day look into setting up an Atari 800 XE? I used to have one of these with the Atari 1050 Floppy drive - not to mention over a 100 or so games...the good ol'days.
Welcome to the computing I remember from my childhood... NOTHING EVER WORKS!!!
...well, nothing is *guaranteed* 2 work -- not the 1st time, @ least.
Of course, this was a perfectly legit reason 2 learn how 2 open up the system case & get your hands dirty. 4 old-timers like me (who got their start back in the 1970s w/ the Apple II scene) this wasn't a cause 4 panic or despair -- it was an opportunity 2 dive into new hardware.
If U manage 2 figure out how 2 troubleshoot & resolve system issues (w/o blowing anything up in the process) the end result is that U have a functional computer, a new set of knowledge (& maybe a new skill or 2) U didn't have B4 + a genuine sense of accomplishment.
"It is all a matter of perspective." -- Stephen K. Hayes
Are you kidding? That hasn't changed. It's even worse now. Everything is 100 times more complicated (or worse). There's more convenience, sure, when it works.
@@dysamoria oh, I agree 100%
21:09 Wow! That song just took me back 25 years.
28:58 is a small certified DankPods moment
Where's the one grit?!
@@Crusader1089 that adapter might need a bit of 1 grit
It's been so long since I owned my Amiga 500 and it really is crazy looking back at how impressive the Amiga line was.
Instead of 3D printing a bracket adapter, why not just dremel out holes in one of your existing card slot covers? Or even the beige plastic one?
Agreed. IMHO there is too much emphasis on 3d printing things these days where a small amount of manual work will achieve the same, perhaps better result
@@neilo3476 Meh. Works either way. Not just saying that because I already made an STL.
Ahh, nothing captures the essence of Amiga hardware better than a Frankenmiggy with all kinds of clever third-party expansions hanging out in (or out of) a third-party case, and having to spend hours chasing down obscure conflicts. A true tinkerer's machine, and I love every minute of it! Thanks for a great video, as usual!
21:08 AMD on socket A goes BRRRR without a cooler xDDDDD
ahh old Tom's Hardware Guide videos
Dont remove your heatsink
YOU BEAT ME TO IT!
Great video as always Clint, really enjoying your Amiga journey. BTW you can bump up to nice hi-res custom screenmodes using the Indivision AGA if you install the drivers and config tool, should give you a nicer Workbench with more resolution. Even NTSC Interlaced should run fine, flicker free on there and look a lot nicer.
21:07 - [smell of Athlon smoking in the distance]
Application crashes CPU & board up in smoke
I still remember downloading that video on a 56k modem. lol
I never expected LGR to be such a huge AMIGA Fan :) Had an a 500 an 1200 myself. Ah, good memories...
I'm really not impressed with that case. So many caveats.
3d print your own....it's possible now...
not to mention the price
That's largely down to deciding to put an A1200 in it. While it does technically support it, its primarily designed with an A500 in mind, first and foremost, just like the original Checkmate 1500 case that was sold back in the 80s. Like literally the only problem that he had with it that he still would have had with an A500 board is the location of the floppy connector being under the power supply and needing a longer floppy cable. None of the other stuff would have applied, and he also would have gained the ability to use big-box Amiga Zorro expansion cards meant for the A2000 as well.
I always wanted a unmodified Amiga 2000. It would bring back the 80s for me. I never had an Amiga but did attend an Amiga 1000 demonstration in a small shop before it ever went to market. I also saw Amiga 500 demo units in stores throughout the 80s. I used to collect Amiga and Pc Magazines. Amiga World Magazine was a real treat every issue.
I'm a simple man. I see Amiga, I click on it.
Dang. That stuff is no joke! I can't make AmigaOS and Workbench look that pretty at all. Whole different world of configuration and tricks. Glad you took the time to make it look so dang nice!
I know this video is a little older now but 3d printers have never been cheaper. Kind of stagnated on quality improvement BUT prices are great. I highly recomend the voxelab aquila. ender 3 v2 clone for 140 bucks that knocks the socks off machines twice its price. Using tinkercad and that machine you could design and print your bracket in 15 min. to half an hour or so. All you'd need is the file for a PCIE slot adapter. Then use tinkercads subtractive tool to create the holes. A 3d printer would def be a god send for a project like this. Never been easier to get involved and tbh dude the 3d printer youtube community is pretty great just like the computing community. Check out printsleo for more on the aquila. Get the OG aquila btw the more recent stuff is just pricy for no reason other than profits and you will miss out on the awesome custom frmware and modding community allowing the OG aquila to punch far above it's weight class.
I have no memory of playing test drive ii but the menus looked super familiar. It's crazy what you can suddenly remember from almost 30 years ago. I remembered that dude in the car window after choosing your car.
So many daughter boards and components, makes the upgrading process appear very satisfying and oddly meaningful.
This was a nice video to watch while playing SimTower on my PowerBook 1400c. Great Video!
what a nice suprise I'm more of a c= folk, and only saw PC stuff from you up until now :) nice to see you have a place for amiga in your heart aswell, miggy is love!
Proper Amiga setup, kudos and enjoy this great computer!
It's always nice to see your upgrade videos of old hardware. I'm always testing and upgrading things in my different 486s but I only have one case (tower) so it gets frustrating sometimes. Never owned or used an Amiga so I don't feel nostalgic about it but looking at your videos makes me want one!. Yep, the CD drive would be an interesting thing to test but at the end you'll probably won't be using it much. Cheers!
I know so little about Amiga stuff but those games look fantastic. Makes me very curious about the system
That setup looks great with that case, Microvitec CRT and Altec Lansing speakers.
I swear I could watch/listen to you build retro builds all damn day. Good stuff as always!
Good video. I never had a Commodore Amiga, I regretted opting for a PC back in 1990 to replace my Commodore 128. I still regret that!
That wonky floppy eject button is killing me!
Those games would have blew my mind back in the day lol!
Tungsten weights are awesome for adding weight. They sell them in all sorts of sizes for use in Cub Scout's pinewood derby cars, so you can dial the mouse in to exactly the same heft as before.
Unrelated but I have two original Checkmate 1500s and both still work. The one has the MegaChip plus ROM switcher and external SCSI drives plus 5.25 and 3.5" drives. Running 2.04 for the most part I use the one very often. The other is less expanded and in its original box complete with keyboard. The new one featured here looks more like my A3000s and whilst I may have been tempted I have better running A1200s anyway so I really don't need the upgrade. Interestingly the Checkmate referred to by Stephen Jones in one of his original TH-cam videos is my Checkmate I have set up. Anyhoo... if you're lucky you may just have a system that will last you a good thirty years. Great product.
I love the mix of new and old technology all coated in beige!
Could watch thst stuff hours of hours. So relaxing and educational
21:08 HOLY COW! I remember that song from a Tom's Hardware Video from like ages ago.
Good informative video for an Old Amiga 1200 with a totally new case with the possibiities of many functionalities as hardware and
software with additional memory and additional hardware.Functionalities of hardware from all of the sides of the computer, with
upgraded old case balled movement amiga mouse to optical stage + 15 pin Amiga joystick.
If you do this continously you would have customers for computers you built.
Good Work ...
I'm still fascinated by how ahead of it's time the Amiga line was. It was doing things in the mid 80s that a lot of PCs couldn't do til 1992!
Laser modification for a ballpoint mouse - I'm in shock! Wow!
Damn it - when it comes to videos where you are doing a retro computer - time goes by! =)))
By the way, at the end of the video, I remembered the first "System shock", how I was then surprised by the mechanics of the implant, which gives a "rear view". And as it turned out, this "feature" was implemented in "The Duel: Test Drive II". Haha, fun =) ...
I wish you great luck in improving this Amiga in the future !!!
Thanks a lot for the video !!!
It's always a pleasure to watch you struggle your way through a build that I have no knowledge whatsoever about lol. I know the feeling of frustration when working on my PC and things just aren't working as intended, which leads to hours of troubleshooting afterwards. Sometimes I think the troubleshooting can be the best part because I love problem-solving... but it's not fun when you actually can't solve the problem.
Anyway, fun videos. Keep up the good work!
I got that same Checkmate case and an A1200 inside. I used a StarTech CF adapter that has a PCI bracket to let me mount it in the back of the checkmate. So I can actually reach behind and swap out the CF card when needed. :) Also got the PCMCIA CF adapter, the Kickstart ROM 3.1.4 and Workbench 3.1.4. Nice upgrades. :)
Oh and the PCMCIA and RAM board issues is present for some cards. I happened to pick up an older expansion board, a DKB1202, and expanded it to 8 MB. It has an FPU and RTC as well, but the good thing is that this board does not conflict with the PCMCIA slot / CF adapter cards.
21:07 brings back good memories of that one old Tom's Hardware video where they took the coolers off of cpus while they were running
good shit
Find it amazing that people make new parts for old computers.
That's the same driver Genius gaming mice used to use. Very good driver. Nice mouse upgrade.
Very very great video of your Checkmate Amiga 1200 I love all your videos but especially videos with Commodore Amiga content. Amiga Lives! Best regards from Austria to USA. :)
Just got back my first pc with a discreet graphics card I gave it to my buddy in his time of need and I’m cleaning it up and getting it going again and the idea of playing it again and maybe finding some of my old videos from windows movie maker is going to be super fun.
I remember having CF adapter in my Amiga like 10 years ago. It was like having an SSD drive back then, but it wasn't much faster than a standard HDD because of the Amiga limitations. It was like 1.3MB per second but it was enough. I also used PCMCIA to CF adapter to transfer data from my PC laptop like ADF files for example.
Dat ending, epic... :D More Amiga stuff, plees! Loving every second of it!
For those of us who can't afford to get an Amiga, there's the Pi400 running PiMiga, an Amiga Workbench port for the Pi4/400. I have one and it works a treat.
Thank you for the video Clint! Always refreshing to see a fantastic retro tech vid!
Keep it up!
Was excited to see that flight game! Solid childhood memory
Adding weights to a mouse is completely legitimate; I've taken apart several modern laser mice and found more than a couple of them had big metal weights inside. If the weight of the mouse isn't good, I would totally recommend it. The key to get the correct feeling is the placement of the weight. Make sure you get the balance and feel correct (per your liking). As a recommendation: Most mice I've seen tend to place it near where the base of the palm rests.