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DXZeff

Posted 2019-08-06 10:13 PM (#1658 - in reply to #1657)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

It should be practically indistinguishable from the original OPL2 AdLib card, interested to know where the noise floor sits though, doubt it's gonna be great as the YM and YAC chips seem to be noisy on their own in my experience.

Brostenen

Posted 2019-08-06 10:21 PM (#1659 - in reply to #1658)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

DXZeff - 2019-08-07 12:13 AM

It should be practically indistinguishable from the original OPL2 AdLib card, interested to know where the noise floor sits though, doubt it's gonna be great as the YM and YAC chips seem to be noisy on their own in my experience.

There are another alternative OPL2/Adlib clone, sold from UK. It is a kit/diy product. here

As for me. I have been doing some metal work on the case that will be the Amiga500 boards new home. It really need some touching up, yet it is the first time, that I use one of those rotary cutting tools. It is a dremel type of tool, made by skil.

Brostenen

Posted 2019-08-10 3:47 PM (#1660 - in reply to #1659)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

My case convertion is almost done. In order to make it a fully functional machine, then I need to find a way to hook up a keyboard. Then it will be as functional as a stock Amiga500. After that, I need to make some upgrades to the machine. Like scandoubler for VGA output, combined 8mb Ram and IDE board for better useability and IDE devices. I need to get a kickstart switcher installed and finally I need to install a boot selector, in order to be able to boot from external drive.

Well...
Yesterday I had this baby fired up for the first time. I watched demo's and played games that did not require a keyboard. And had a six pack of beer, because of the work that I have put into this.

How did I do?

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Rawit

Posted 2019-08-12 10:34 AM (#1661 - in reply to #1660)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

Harris 286

Posts: 19

That looks very nice! I assume you cut out the port area? That material looks thicker than on most cases, must have been a pain. Did the offsets of the screws work out for you?

Edited by Rawit 2019-08-12 11:51 AM

Brostenen

Posted 2019-08-12 1:21 PM (#1662 - in reply to #1661)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

Rawit - 2019-08-12 12:34 PM

That looks very nice! I assume you cut out the port area? That material looks thicker than on most cases, must have been a pain. Did the offsets of the screws work out for you?

Thanks.
The case was actually hard to cut. I removed a strip under the PSU thus making the horisontal hole longer. The I used a piece of cardboard, because the board needed to be raised a bit. Cut the bottom RF shield in order to make it fit the case inside. Poking holes for the brass standoff's. Grinded the screw part of the brass standoff's and glued the standoff's and the cardboard to the case, using some epoxy two component glue. That way I had something that I am able to fasten the board on, using normal PC screws.

So the shiny metal you see at the ports, are actually the original RF shield. The case is actually an old 486 case from a dead Unisys machine. It originally came with stuff like a DX-33, onboard S3-805, VLB and SCSI. The faceplate of the case was badly yellowed, yet nothing that a melanin spunge can not take care of. Now it is only aprox 10 percent yellow, compared to before. No retrobright, only this spunge that I suspect is the same as the magic erasor spunge that you will find in America.

I still need to find a keyboard solution, find an internal scandoubler and get an internal IDE controller. However, I have upgraded it with a kickstart switcher. It is a 4-way switcher, originally made for Roland gear. As of now I have Kick 1.2+1.3+2.0(37.350) original roms installed on that switcher, and the switching turn-knob are mounted on the backside on a slot-bracket.

Brostenen

Posted 2019-08-12 11:05 PM (#1663 - in reply to #1662)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

My project is now on my blog....

DXZeff

Posted 2019-08-17 5:15 PM (#1664 - in reply to #1663)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

This is what that AdLib clone sounds like;

It uses pretty much identical components to the genuine card, so sounds the same. The noise floor is surprisingly low, probably as good as you can get with Yamaha's crappy chips.

Brostenen

Posted 2019-09-08 5:33 PM (#1665 - in reply to #1664)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

Bought something for my Amiga500-Desktop project. It is product that are in picture two from the top, on the following Amibay page.

IDE + 8mb FastRam

I need more upgrades, for it in the future. Yet with this, I can use a HDD and a CD-Rom drive. And I will be getting 8mb of Ram.
In the future I have to invest in a scandoubler, in order to use modern flatscreen monitors, and I think that I will be getting a USB keyboard interface
as well, so I can choose between a real Amiga keyboard or a USB PC keyboard. Perhaps I will be getting a boot selector and perhaps a clockport.

Once this IDE/8mb is installed and I have a keyboard connected, then the basic machine is done.

DXZeff

Posted 2019-09-11 11:01 PM (#1666 - in reply to #71)
Subject: RE: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

I rode my antique bicycle to Hornsea a few weeks ago (by all means search Hull to Hornsea on your favorite maps thingy). Meanwhile I haven't been motivated to work on any videos because OS updates have crippled my workstation, everything is slow, Vegas crashes, I have no sound outside of a USB mic, but I am still playing with hardware behind the scenes. Currently trying to mess with ALI chipsets as I know very little about them but the Socket 4 board I have with their chipset was DOA, strangely the same failure mode as several other boards on the 'to repair' pile which are all around the same age, I lean towards quiet tantalum failures as they all have those onboard.

My workshop computer is currently a Celery 2 Doodoo that I picked up from the piss pile (pile of trash at the end of the street) and it barely works, it needs replacing. Now I feel old because rather then meticulously pick out parts, I'm just going to buy a cheap AIO from earlier in this decade and have done with it, it ought to do well enough for playing music, putting a video on in the background and other small tasks like that. Will likely update once I choose one. Right now it's between a HP or an RM, the RM has better specs and is slightly cheaper, but comes with no OS, keyboard or mouse, overall I'm leaning more towards the HP on the basis that it comes with these things and can simply be upgraded later if it starts feeling slow. It has to be better than the E8200 out there right now, there's no way an i3 3220 can't outrun that shit.

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Brostenen

Posted 2019-09-11 11:35 PM (#1667 - in reply to #1666)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

That is a really nice trip you made. I am glad that you have gotten over that back to the extend that you can ride long trips again. Wonderfull countryside you have been through. It reminds med of the island of fuen, on were I grew up. Mostly flat, and just perfect.

This is an areal photo of my childhood playground (the forrest it self), and as you can see, the countryside is pretty much just as flat.

Uploaded Image

I did a search on the route you took on that bike, and I must say that I am deeply impressed by how far you went on it. If you for some reason decide to come to Denmark, then I will be happy to take a long bike ride with you, and have the backpack full of beer, water and lots of food.

Brostenen

Posted 2019-09-20 9:44 PM (#1668 - in reply to #1667)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

Well...
I just recieved that M68K Ram/IDE adaptor. It is an adaptor, that you install by sandwiching it between the motherboard and the CPU on an Amiga500 og Amiga2000. I am not sure it is compatible with an Amiga1000. It is a rather strange device, compared to an IBM compatible PC. However. There are two signals, that need to be fed into the adaptor, that are taken from the motherboard. It is the signal lines called /INT2 and /OVR (whatever /OVR means), and for that I have to solder two jumper wires onto the Amiga500 motherboard, and attach them to the adaptor. Finally I have to use a kickstart rom, that has SCSI.DEVICE in it. Kind of a driver if you like. For that I can patch an kickstart 1.3 rom file and then flash it to an eprom chip. Or I can just use a rom that have it build in. As I am constructing an 500 kind of machine, in were I am aiming at compatibility and as many features on top (not speed centric at all), then I already have this kickstart switcher with 3 roms on it. And one of them are the 2.0 version 37.350 that have the SCSI.DEVICE build into it. The bad part is that it will not transfer faster than 1mb/s. Yet the aim is feature/compatibility centric and not speed centric, so it is ok with me. And I do have my Amiga500/TF-530 already build.

Next step, is to get a scandoubler for my desktop-500, and then figure out what to upgrade it with. Perhaps install a PC-Card that will allow me to run an XT-class machine on the Amiga. Perhaps aim higher and have a 286 class PC-Card upgrade. That would be a nice machine with lots of features.

Brostenen

Posted 2019-09-23 1:22 AM (#1669 - in reply to #1668)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

Amiga500 RAM/IDE adaptor is up and running....

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Brostenen

Posted 2019-09-30 10:40 PM (#1670 - in reply to #1669)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

Installed a keyboard connector in my custom Amiga PC-Case convertion. At this point it is a fully converted Amiga500. I am only missing a keyboard now. Else it is done. My Amiga500-Desktop is ready, finished and done......

Well.
The basic machine is done. Now once it has been "born" it is crying for some love in the form of upgrades. Baby wants upgrades.

My Amiga500-Desktop

DXZeff

Posted 2019-10-03 8:20 PM (#1671 - in reply to #1670)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

Haven't had time to do as much as I'd like due to bullshit with the council. I have gotten a new N64 though, an NTSC one, plus I managed to get hold of an interesting ISA card and dig up the software as well as the demos and SDK for it;

Things are going on behind the scenes for this. Wanted one of these for a very long time but never tried due to never finding any OEM specific software or the other tools until recently.

Otherwise I did get that AIO machine, went for the HP, all I can really say about it is that it works, it's really not interesting in the slightest and it doesn't need to be, it's only there for background video or music while I'm working in the shed. Suppose I did get this quite a while (months) ago but it's dead, probably capacitors given it's the same failure mode as several boards I have of the same age;

First time I've ever seen a Socket 4 with an ALi chipset. Not hopeful about getting it to run again to be honest, nor the other boards I've had sat in storage that went out the same way, one moment they work, next moment the KBC gets hotter than hell and you get no beeps, no video, no nothing.

Edited by DXZeff 2019-10-03 8:25 PM

Rawit

Posted 2019-10-18 9:21 AM (#1673 - in reply to #1671)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

Harris 286

Posts: 19

DXZeff - 2019-10-03 9:20 PM

plus I managed to get hold of an interesting ISA card and dig up the software as well as the demos and SDK for it;

Things are going on behind the scenes for this. Wanted one of these for a very long time but never tried due to never finding any OEM specific software or the other tools until recently.

TIGA? Sweet, can't wait!

Brostenen

Posted 2019-10-25 7:26 PM (#1674 - in reply to #1673)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

Was given an Xbox360 without controllers and AV-Cable. After I borrowed a controller from someone, I have tested it. It turns out that it reads game discs without issues, and everything seems like it is ok. Network is working, both wifi and cable. HDMI out is working and it can download demo games from Microsoft. It is for my children, as their old Xbox launch model, have finally given up reading discs. I even found an 320gb harddisk, that I have modded/flashed so it can be used in the Xbox that I am testing.

Brostenen

Posted 2019-11-02 8:18 PM (#1675 - in reply to #1674)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

This is absolutly in no way computer related. Yet I have begun making my own battle vest/jacket. For that purpose, I have bought a Levi denim vest. And I have found my first patch. This Patch

DXZeff

Posted 2019-11-04 8:59 PM (#1676 - in reply to #1675)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

In the whole lifetime of the Xbox 360 I never once saw a single exclusive title that was even remotely interesting. In your case though it would have made no sense to turn away free stuff and I'm sure your kids will get a lot of fun out of it, which I guess is the main consideration there.

After deciding it probably isn't worth my time to try repairing the ALi Socket 4 board, mostly due to failing to repair a Socket 3 board with the same issue, I got bored and accidentally stumbled into something selling that I probably spent way too much on;

Fills two blanks as I've never owned an OPTi-based Pentium board and never owned a Pentium board with VLB. This is a Socket 4 board, so combined with all of its other oddities, I have no doubt it will be an unruly thing to set up, might prove to be a good home for that POD-133 chip and that Peacock card which doesn't get on with 40MHz bus speeds as I'd guess the VLB runs at half clock here, putting it within spec.

Brostenen

Posted 2019-11-05 8:24 PM (#1677 - in reply to #1676)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

#DXZeff
That is a mighty fine board. What would be the aim for you with this board? I am thinking software wise. Also. If you used really strange parts for it, then it would be like a real frankenstein-PC. Like VLB Network card and stuff like that. Anyway.... What hardware configuration would you use with that board?

Regarding the Xbox. Yup. My children were totally happy with it. They have had 360 for the last 7 or 8 years now, so they have gotten used to that. They have these disney infinity games and Burnout Paradise City that they play as the only ones. Else they play Wii, Super nintendo and Playstation1. At my place, they play Playstation3. Uhhh. And I bought Burnout Paradise City for both Xbox360 and Ps3 the other week. Both my daughter and my son are totally into that game. More than I have ever seen them enjoy a game.

Exclusives on Xbox360? I am heavy into racing games and fighting games on consoles. The best franchise that I know of, when it is fighting games, are Dead Or Alive. Except for the first one, then I find every single one of them awesomme. Number 3 and 4 were Xbox and Xbox360 exclusives. 5 is for every console. Yet the best are DOA2 in my opinion. I have it for my Ps2, yet I liked the Dremcast version better. Regarding racing games, then I think that both Gran Turismo and Forza series are equal. They have their own things going for them. Like I find the car selection more interresting in Forza and the track selsection are way better in GT. That said, I think Forza 1 and 2 were completely overshadowed by GT3, GT-Concept and GT4. Forza3 are generally a tad better than GT5 and Forza4 and GT6 are yet again equal as in tracks vs. cars selection. Most other games on Xbox360 is something that I don't really care for, as the ones I play are on both systems. And usually the Playstation version have way better gfx. That said. Gamestop are usually way cheaper when it comes to Xbox360 games. So.... I am actually not really sure what system I would prefer all in all.

DXZeff

Posted 2019-11-09 12:46 AM (#1678 - in reply to #1677)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

Probably a typical DOS/WFW setup, in fact it has to be as the only other choice with the hardware I have is NT 3.x and I don't much like that idea. The video card will be weird at least, that Peacock VLB VGA and capture card I got earlier in the year and ended up not being able to run due to all of my VLB systems running too fast, I have a VLB NIC but that lives in the NexGen, so I may use VLB SCSI in here instead as the NexGen had issues with it and it's been on the shelf ever since. Don't fancy the costs of 1GB SCSI drives though, will be waiting for a cheap one to come up. Having more trouble picking out a sound card, would rather avoid Creative, may end up with another PAS16 or something.

On the subject of the PAS, I learned something interesting about how it's PIT sniffing from the ISA bus sounds different to Creative's cards - I got hold of an AdLib clone which uses the more traditional cable method, but does it via purely passive analog mixing, it sounds much more like the PAS16's bus sniffing method, so whilst the sounds that produces aren't the norm, they're arguably more accurate, a question I didn't previously have an answer to. The "5A12" knockoff FM chip also has a delightfully grainy sound quality, it's bad but it's likeably bad and fits the vibe of the crappy 286 quite well, here's a ZIP with the PIT sounds from the SB16 which uses a cable with unknown mixing methods, the PAS16 which sniffs PIT access from the bus and the AdLib clone which uses a cable with passive analog mixing, also included is a recording of 'Tush' from the 5A12 clone and another clone with a real YM3812 for comparison; http://dxzeff.com/trash/pitsounds.zip
The grittiness of the 5A12 makes me think of an old badly tuned portable TV or something.

Never had much fun with racing games from the 6th generation onwards, then the adventure games and survival horror went away, it all just bored me. FPS games started to suck balls too, all gray and slow and serious, no fun. 16-Bit is the era i keep going back to.

Meanwhile I carried out my threat and bastardized Ion Fury;

Edited by DXZeff 2019-11-09 12:47 AM

Brostenen

Posted 2019-11-21 7:43 PM (#1679 - in reply to #1678)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

Today I recieved the Amiga500 USB keyboard adaptor. This way, I can choose to use stock keyboard or USB PC keyboard. Or both at the same time. Installed it in my 500-desktop convertion.

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DXZeff

Posted 2019-11-23 10:23 AM (#1680 - in reply to #71)
Subject: RE: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

After the exhaust studs pulled their threads out again (they were already broken when I got this thing) and not being confident in tapping them for a fourth time in the ever thinning metal, I replaced the bore on this piece of junk. It runs, but it's going to need new gaskets that might take upwards of a week to get here.

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Brostenen

Posted 2019-11-28 8:36 PM (#1681 - in reply to #1680)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

Recieved the USB extension cable yesterday. Now it is installed in the Amiga500-Desktop convertion. I have lost my glasses, so I am having a hard time, with the fonts on this forum. I had to fit the bracket, because the screw holes on the cable, was just a tiny bit too far apart for the bracket. Or something.... Had to file a bit on the bracket, in other words. Next upgrade will be a Scandoubler, in order to be able to use a modern LCD monitor.

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DXZeff

Posted 2019-12-04 3:55 PM (#1682 - in reply to #1681)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

I have a few USB headers around that have 'pinched' looking plastic housings due to the screw holes being too close together, the oldest ones I have seem to have their nuts maybe 1/16" closer together so perhaps this has something to do with it.

Fixed a Dreamcast a few days ago, but it probably won't last long, stupid lasers. Also the engine has been fully repaired now, still breaking in the new cylinder and rings, but it's running without issue, will probably modify it a little once I've finished the break in process to get some more power and speed.

Probably gonna start work on a video soon, nothing huge as free time really seems to be a limited resource this year, maybe next year will be different.

Edited by DXZeff 2019-12-04 3:57 PM

Brostenen

Posted 2019-12-04 11:19 PM (#1683 - in reply to #1682)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

DXZeff - 2019-12-04 5:55 PM

I have a few USB headers around that have 'pinched' looking plastic housings due to the screw holes being too close together, the oldest ones I have seem to have their nuts maybe 1/16" closer together so perhaps this has something to do with it.

Fixed a Dreamcast a few days ago, but it probably won't last long, stupid lasers. Also the engine has been fully repaired now, still breaking in the new cylinder and rings, but it's running without issue, will probably modify it a little once I've finished the break in process to get some more power and speed.

Probably gonna start work on a video soon, nothing huge as free time really seems to be a limited resource this year, maybe next year will be different.

Yeah... USB header, cable and all these things, have been changing through the years. Especially the modern China ones, are different from what we had some 10 to 15 years ago. I did search wide and low to get the solution that I wanted, and sadly there were nothing that matched exactly what I wanted. The result so far, is actually pretty close to what I want. The next step is to get that scandoubler, and I have decided what I want to get. It is the one in the link here: [url]http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/Indivision_ECS_V2 I so hope my son will be happy with the Amiga when it is finished. It will be the machine that he will be playing with, when he want to play Giana sisters and other old games. He actually asked about when he can play Amiga again. I asked him if he want to have one in his room at our place. He wanted to have one, so going for the Indi V2 scandoubler, then it is kind of future proofed in regards to monitor choices.

Dreamcast! Cool. It is such a wonderfull system. I had one a long time ago. Sold it to a collector, that wanted one. And I never used it anyway. However, I did fix the battery in the console, as it would not charge at all. It was dead, so a new one was soldered into place. :-) I hope your console will keep working for you, else there are these SD card solutions, that emulates an optical drive. Kind of a gotek drive for the dreamcast. :-)

Else... I found that the ChipMem-upgrade that I had done in my 500-Desktop, was shipped with bad chips. So I took out the old ones, and used some from a better brand. The memory test in the program called Systest, ran aprox some 15/17 times without any error, and then I tested with tons of games. Everything was stable again.

Edited by Brostenen 2019-12-04 11:29 PM

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