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A3000D on the way

C

curtis

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Apr 30, 2003
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Location
Amarillo, TX
Snagged a A3000D off ebay last week.

16M RAM and working fine. BIN price of $150 so I jumped!

Next plan is find a bridgeboard and plop it in there. Anyone have suggestions for which one? Would like a '386+.

Don't plan on running anything higher that Win 3.1 and DOS. Maybe use it for my disk image storage machine.

Another question. Will it run A500/1000 games that autoboot? Specifically Faery Tale Adventure.
 
My spontaneous question is why you want to convert an Amiga 3000 into a slightly inferior PC? It made sense in 1992 but it seems you would need a good reason to do it in 2009. Or perhaps you don't have room for a genuine 386 desktop so you would like to combine two into one.

As for compatibility, you should check out EAGER. Although it only lists Amiga 500, 600, 1200 and CD32 I would think it will give you a good hint. The Amiga 600 uses Kickstart 2.05 while I think your 3000 has something similar, as well as the ECS graphics. Some of the older games may need OCS graphics (can be configured during reboot) but also assume you have a KS 1.2 or 1.3 machine. If I recall correctly the Amiga 3000 has a software Kickstart so there may be ways to boot it with 1.3 instead.

Actually the EAGER for Faery Tale Adventure says NO to Amiga 600, and not even any known patches. However I'm quite sure I managed to play it on my Amiga 500+ which has KS 2.04, ECS graphics and 1-2 MB ChipRAM so this information surprises me.
 
Mostly it's a space saving move.

I have my main machine (Windows), but sort of need a slower machine for vintage work, ie. disk images of other machines, and for development for my TI CC-40. Seems the PC Interface program was written with slower machines in mind and randomly crashes with faster machines. Besides, I like playing with DOS from time to time.

That and I like the old game Faery Tale Adventure. I've beaten it several times, but it's still fun. At least I think it's fun! Curious to see what it'll look like on a VGA display.

Will check out Eager. Can't do it right now since my workplace blocks anything that even hits at games.
 
Most people who get a bridgeboard on an Amiga just want to use a cheap ISA ethernet card to get data to and from the machine.

I would think a cheap 286 would have been a better deal if you don't realy care about the Amiga side much.

286 and XT bridgeboards are common and run around $20 on ebay, the much rarer 386/486SX boards will cost as much as what you spend for the A3000 and take a while to find.
 
I know you can run Faery Tale Adventure using WHDLoad on an A3000 (or any Amiga for that matter). It's been a while since I tried my original disk on the A3000, but most A500-targeted games of that era have problems with the enhanced 68030 CPU or the newer kickstart...
 
Time for a progress report on the A3000.

1. It came in the mail. Took it out of the box and plugged it in and turned it on. Screen goes to the insert disk screen and just sits there.

2. Check ebay auction a little closer and notice the seller said the floppy and hard drives don't work! CRAP!!!

3. Open the unit up and notice the SCSI hard drive isn't terminated. Hmmm. Rummage around and fine a couple of terminators that'll fit. Turn unit back on. Same thing. Oh well, looks like the hard drive isn't bootable, yet!

4. Swap floppy with A1200 that's currently a pile of parts (don't ask!), insert floppy and turn it back on. It boots!

Now to find the rest of the WB 2.04 install diskettes and see if I can get that hard drive working like it should.

Also have an A2386SX bridgeboard on the way. So will be able to do my CC-40 development and also have a home for my CP/M images once I dig around and mount an external 5.25" floppy drive.

More later.
 
Pete Rittwage said:
I know you can run Faery Tale Adventure using WHDLoad on an A3000 (or any Amiga for that matter). It's been a while since I tried my original disk on the A3000, but most A500-targeted games of that era have problems with the enhanced 68030 CPU or the newer kickstart...
Click to expand...

WHDLoad? What's that?

Please understand my last active involvement with the Amiga line is the A500 dual floppy based. And that's been several years ago.

I do seem to vaguely remember there being some sort of degrader software that would "retard" an enhanced machine back to A500/1000/2000 specs. Yes/No?
 
WHDLoad is a commercial program (I think) that lets you install copies (!) of many commercial games onto a hard disk and apply patches to boot them and run on other Amiga models than originally supported.

I believe your 3000 should be possible to soft kick to Kickstart 1.3, but it requires you to have the right ROM files. There may be various levels of degraders, but generally there are many reasons a program may not run:

1. Too new / wrong Kickstart (OS) version
2. Too much (!) memory, or wrong relation between Chip and Fast RAM
3. Too new graphics, which usually can be degraded in the Early Startup
4. Too fast CPU, too much fancy hardware, too much hard drive...

Those games written according to system guidelines usually work, but many games were streamlined for an 512K or 1 MB Amiga 500 and didn't obey the guidelines.
 
Like the sound of WHDLoad. May have to tinker with degraders and see how they work.

Then again, I may end up with a Minimeg too.
 
By the way, it struck me I sold an untested 2088XT Bridgeboard w/ manual for about $7 three years ago. I suppose the buyer did a bit of a bargain although function could not be verified. 8)
 
Yeah, $7 is a pretty good deal PROVIDING it works. Otherwise, you got the better end of the deal.

BTW, I tried to install WB on the hard drive after finding terminators for the drive and using a floppy from an A1200 project. Floppy drive booted and when I clicked on HD prep, the program didn't see the hard drive.

Back to ebay to find a hard drive.

Sigh, looks like this could become a longer term project.

A2386SX board on the way.
 
Ok, perhaps I'm thinking about the Amiga 4000 which I tend to remember has a built in IDE interface, much to the dismay of people who found SCSI disks far superior.
 
Yeah, I think you're right. The A4000 line was when Amiga made the switch.

Also, have a hard drive on the way. Now to shove the Amiga to the back of the workbench and move on to something else while waiting!
 
The Amiga 600 too, which was more concurrent with the Amiga 3000. Thus I had a faint memory it might've had an IDE interface too. Perhaps back then it was considered a much too cheap and unreliable type of drive for professional users.
 
curtis said:
Snagged a A3000D off ebay last week.

16M RAM and working fine. BIN price of $150 so I jumped!

Next plan is find a bridgeboard and plop it in there. Anyone have suggestions for which one? Would like a '386+.

Don't plan on running anything higher that Win 3.1 and DOS. Maybe use it for my disk image storage machine.

Another question. Will it run A500/1000 games that autoboot? Specifically Faery Tale Adventure.
Click to expand...

Congratulations on getting an A3000. It's a great machine. It's also good that you got the full RAM. Those ZIP chips are hard to find. If you can, you should upgrade to 3.1 ROMs.

Faery Tale will not work as is. There is WHDload, as already mentioned, but there is also a nice patch done by Peter McGavin (author of amazing Amiga Doom port). That's what I was using before the WHDload version was available. Faery Tale is a great game. (I love how some guys revive after you kill them and they just stand there, waiting for you to kill them again :D)
 
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