A1200s seem to have gotten kind of expensive of late. I have an A500 with an ACA500plus accelerator (68000@42MHz, 8MB Ram, CF Hard Drive) running WB3.1 and I love it. It's my favorite retro system. Wouldn't change it for anything in the world.. Amiga is magic.

Man. I have wanted to dive into Amiga for years but keep waiting on the right deal to come along (Ideally a local deal to bypass shipping worries).

Had some DARN good luck at the recycle center today. Voodoo 2 "3.0" (110MHz RAM?) and a Creative Labs Riva TNT2 Ultra (not pictured).

CkRtech wrote:

Had some DARN good luck at the recycle center today. Voodoo 2 "3.0" (110MHz RAM?) and a Creative Labs Riva TNT2 Ultra (not pictured).

voodoo2.jpg

Sweet.... Congrats. 😀

CkRtech wrote:

Man. I have wanted to dive into Amiga for years but keep waiting on the right deal to come along (Ideally a local deal to bypass shipping worries).

They are nice systems, no doubt about that. It's the years between 1987 to 1992 that are the golden ones.
Once you get to something like a P1-166, the PC just shines compared to Amiga.
Still... Some early 90's games are just better on the PC and then the other way around.

One of these days, I'm gonna have an A1200 or A4000 in my collection... but they just cost way too much, like "I'm gonna start shopping for X68030s instead" way too much! 'Til then, it's UAE for me.

brostenen wrote:

They are nice systems, no doubt about that. It's the years between 1987 to 1992 that are the golden ones.
Once you get to something like a P1-166, the PC just shines compared to Amiga.
Still... Some early 90's games are just better on the PC and then the other way around.

I think the turning point is roughly 1990.

Just before that, in the late 1980s, there were PC ports of things like Speedball 2 and Cannon Fodder that had the graphics down pat thanks to VGA now being a thing, but the Sound Blaster audio is noticeably downgraded from the Amiga originals - and that's before I even get into how Cannon Fodder had its catchy theme song axed outright!

Hey, it was a step up from Xenon 2's PC speaker limitations, I suppose.

Carrier Command is a mixed bag; the PC version has considerably enhanced enemy AI over the Amiga/Atari ST originals, but PC speaker sound is all you get. AUGH.

But getting into the early 1990s, you start seeing things like Wing Commander and TFX that are clearly superior on PC, and by the time Wolfenstein 3D and Doom hit, it was all over; people who liked computer gaming on the cutting edge had to move to IBM-compatibles, or possibly Macintoshes since the 1990s were the golden years for Mac gaming, with enhanced PC ports. (Well, late 1990s not so much if you like 3D audio...)

It's quite a shame, really. The Amiga was so far ahead of its time, yet displaced by inferior computers. Who knows what computers today would be like if they traced their lineage to the Amiga instead of the lousy IBM 5150 Personal Computer? (Well, barring the hideously expensive AmigaOne X5000 boards! This is more about economies of scale kicking in so that future Amigas don't cost thousands by default.)

Bought a new old stock via apollo pro at pentium 3 board aska sst 5830.

An AT p3 board I never saw before.. though I cant seem to find the manual or a patched bios for larger hard drives.

NamelessPlayer wrote:

But getting into the early 1990s, you start seeing things like Wing Commander and TFX that are clearly superior on PC, and by the time Wolfenstein 3D and Doom hit, it was all over; people who liked computer gaming on the cutting edge had to move to IBM-compatibles

I think that most people "matured" from Amiga to PC because Amiga didn't handle simulators and other 3D stuff that well until A1200 and turbo cards arrived and by that time everyone already had a 486. Also many titles from the 90's were either Mega Drive ports or other platformers and shooters which had lost their charm a long time ago if you grew up in the 80's.

It's quite a shame, really. The Amiga was so far ahead of its time, yet displaced by inferior computers.

Yes, indeed it was for a while, but I wouldn't call a faster PC inferior as Commodore pretty much sold the same old machine for 5 years and then wondered why nobody bought it anymore. PC's did struggle with side-scrollers long after Amigas demise, but like I said, most computer users had matured from those simple shooters to more simulator like games and the others bought a console.

XGI Volari V3 128MB AGP

Dat grotesque box art.

AKA trident blade xp5, also had only dx 8.1 support.

This SiS 486 board just arrived. Does anyone know what it is and have a manual for it? Also, are the AT power connectors plugged in right? I heard it was 2 black ends together.

dexvx wrote:

This SiS 486 board just arrived. Does anyone know what it is and have a manual for it? Also, are the AT power connectors plugged […]
Show full quote

This SiS 486 board just arrived. Does anyone know what it is and have a manual for it? Also, are the AT power connectors plugged in right? I heard it was 2 black ends together.

I think I found your board: Socket 3 486 VLB Freetech mobo, quick test

dexvx wrote:

This SiS 486 board just arrived. Does anyone know what it is and have a manual for it? Also, are the AT power connectors plugged in right? I heard it was 2 black ends together.

That looks like my board. Here's a picture from last year showing my power pins -- if it's the same. I'll double check when I get back to see if it's the same all around. I need to open my case. I'm not sure I ever found a manual for it, but I've found drawings showing the mobo-layout( jumper settings, etc. ).

Hmm... I think I must've done something wrong when powering it up.

I put in a Trident 8900 ISA, 2x 16MB EDO SIMM, used an ATX -> AT power adapter (with -5V), connected the CPU fan's molex to the PSU. I started it up... the CPU fan starting spinning, but it began to smoke where the two metal tab things right of the CPU (in Arctic's link)....

Did I miss something obvious? I'm going to recheck the jumper settings. But I'm guessing the chances of this board living went down significantly.

dexvx wrote:

Hmm... I think I must've done something wrong when powering it up.

I put in a Trident 8900 ISA, 2x 16MB EDO SIMM, used an ATX -> AT power adapter (with -5V), connected the CPU fan's molex to the PSU. I started it up... the CPU fan starting spinning, but it began to smoke where the two metal tab things right of the CPU (in Arctic's link)....

Did I miss something obvious? I'm going to recheck the jumper settings. But I'm guessing the chances of this board living went down significantly.

See if it posts without the fan. A 486 should be fine for a couple of minutes with out it.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

dexvx wrote:

Hmm... I think I must've done something wrong when powering it up.

I put in a Trident 8900 ISA, 2x 16MB EDO SIMM, used an ATX -> AT power adapter (with -5V), connected the CPU fan's molex to the PSU. I started it up... the CPU fan starting spinning, but it began to smoke where the two metal tab things right of the CPU (in Arctic's link)....

Did I miss something obvious? I'm going to recheck the jumper settings. But I'm guessing the chances of this board living went down significantly.

See if it posts without the fan. A 486 should be fine for a couple of minutes with out it.

I think my bigger concern is why the hell it was smoking. It smelled of burnt metal.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Dat grotesque box art.

I think it blends in just nicely into all these other weird box arts of the era.

dexvx wrote:

Hmm... I think I must've done something wrong when powering it up.

I put in a Trident 8900 ISA, 2x 16MB EDO SIMM, used an ATX -> AT power adapter (with -5V), connected the CPU fan's molex to the PSU. I started it up... the CPU fan starting spinning, but it began to smoke where the two metal tab things right of the CPU (in Arctic's link)....

Did I miss something obvious? I'm going to recheck the jumper settings. But I'm guessing the chances of this board living went down significantly.

By "metal tab things" you mean the voltage regulators? i.e. the three-legged components with a hole in the metal tab? If those have burned out then I don't think you will be able to use the CPU unless you replace them (3.3V for sure, though 5V CPUs may still work).

Also, I don't think that board can take EDO RAM, only FPM.

TheMobRules wrote:

dexvx wrote:

Hmm... I think I must've done something wrong when powering it up.

I put in a Trident 8900 ISA, 2x 16MB EDO SIMM, used an ATX -> AT power adapter (with -5V), connected the CPU fan's molex to the PSU. I started it up... the CPU fan starting spinning, but it began to smoke where the two metal tab things right of the CPU (in Arctic's link)....

Did I miss something obvious? I'm going to recheck the jumper settings. But I'm guessing the chances of this board living went down significantly.

By "metal tab things" you mean the voltage regulators? i.e. the three-legged components with a hole in the metal tab? If those have burned out then I don't think you will be able to use the CPU unless you replace them (3.3V for sure, though 5V CPUs may still work).

Also, I don't think that board can take EDO RAM, only FPM.

Yes, I suppose it was smoke around the VRM area. I popped the CPU out to take a look. Looks like one of the bins are black and there are 2 pins that are burnt. Not really sure what I did wrong here. Sigh.

dexvx wrote:

TheMobRules wrote:

dexvx wrote:

Hmm... I think I must've done something wrong when powering it up.

I put in a Trident 8900 ISA, 2x 16MB EDO SIMM, used an ATX -> AT power adapter (with -5V), connected the CPU fan's molex to the PSU. I started it up... the CPU fan starting spinning, but it began to smoke where the two metal tab things right of the CPU (in Arctic's link)....

Did I miss something obvious? I'm going to recheck the jumper settings. But I'm guessing the chances of this board living went down significantly.

By "metal tab things" you mean the voltage regulators? i.e. the three-legged components with a hole in the metal tab? If those have burned out then I don't think you will be able to use the CPU unless you replace them (3.3V for sure, though 5V CPUs may still work).

Also, I don't think that board can take EDO RAM, only FPM.

Yes, I suppose it was smoke around the VRM area. I popped the CPU out to take a look. Looks like one of the bins are black and there are 2 pins that are burnt. Not really sure what I did wrong here. Sigh.

Uh wasn't it possible to install 486s rotated wrong or something? I remember someone saying some shady eBay seller was doing that to cause boards to die as soon as people got them a while back.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Uh wasn't it possible to install 486s rotated wrong or something? I remember someone saying some shady eBay seller was doing that to cause boards to die as soon as people got them a while back.

Do such ebay sellers do it out of pure sadism? Because I couldn't imagine such thing would ever benefit the seller financially.