I'm trying to explore an alternate history (via emulation) where I got an equivalent A500 system from my parents for Christmas 1989 instead of the Macintosh SE (20MB HD, 1MB RAM) I got that year.
What magazines can I look for on archive dot org or elsewhere online to find hardware prices and bundles for that year? Any idea?
Hoping to find some price lists with bundles to find a similarly-equipped system. I'm guessing an A500 with a nice monitor and a small disk would probably cost right around $999 or maybe a little more. IIRC, the Mac SE they got me was around $1099 with the University discount.
Quite some time ago, I asked you what I should restore next, and you voted for a #Commodore#Amiga#CD32 that was showing no picture. This project was waiting in my to-do box for some months now, and I did a bit here and a bit there. Let's use this #RetroWeekend to (hopefully) fix this machine.
I calibrated the laser power at RFO now, using an old music CD. Vpp should be around 900 mV. This calibration is done at the pot of the laser pickup, and needs to be done while playing a CD, which is a bit tricky. Be very very careful with the pot. If you go too far, it will permanently damage the laser.
The original calibration was a bit too powerful, I could actually reduce it.
I keep thinking of silly ideas to do some tinkering with electronics, just for the sake of having fun. Today's idea: an adapter to use #Amiga mice on #MSX computers. That way one could use one of those newfangled USB “tank” mice in one more retro architecture, while looking period correct. I imagine somebody could have done such an adaptor back in the late 80s of early 90s, possibly using some i8051 microcontroller... Betcha @foone would have liked that, given how their “it's always an i8051” is their equivalent of Dr. House's “it's never lupus” :blobeyes:
People talk about how search engine results have gotten worse lately. Here's a clear example: trying to search how an #Amiga mouse works (protocol, pinouts, etc.) these days results in a few pages of links to sites trying to sell you adaptors, and links to actual documentation are a few pages deep (if at all). It used not to be like this, the #enshittification is real.
@hisham_hm
> I haven't heard about this latest Google thing [Web Environment Integrity proposal] but from the name alone it gives me strong Microsoft Secure Boot vibes
The stated goals seem reasonable, but I guess as with Restrited Boot, the devil is in the details. I don't have the knowledge to fully evaluate it, but I look forward to seeing someone like RMS or @pluralistic comment on it.
@yth 😃👍 Wij hebben ook een hele reeks van zulke tunes gemaakt. Veel mensen bleken later onze Nederlandstalige "Douche it" parodie op Salt 'n' Pepa's Push it te kennen. 🙂
'...a lot of the new #Amiga stuff is fun, some great games, but not on the "wow, if only we could have had this back in the day" level we see on the 8-bit computers or 16-bit consoles...'
@nivrig@retrotechtive gato roboto springs to mind, though I acknowledge had it been released for the Amiga back when, it would have been trounced for it's art style
@metin When I was a kid they showed a short behind the scenes video in school of this game being made as part of learning about technology. One of the devs (maybe that was you?) talked about how proud they were of the disappearing platforms section! :)
I already knew I wanted to make games but it was really inspiring seeing that someone in the Netherlands was making games, and how it all worked.
@vruz@amoroso It’s a shame that the pricing these days is out of reach of anyone who’s not already heavily invested in it. Although they do have a free ‘community’ edition available.
@bread80@vruz A pricing strategy similar to other niche languages and development tools that focus on the enterprise and price out small developers and hobbyists. I guess these days you can't make much money at $49.95 or $99.95 apiece if you're cornered in a niche.
For example, the commercial Common Lisp implementations by Franz and Lispworks cost thousands of $ for a usable configuration.
Someone should make a new 16-bit console and put a big marketing push behind it. We keep seeing many new games being made today for our beloved 8-bit and 16-bit systems including #Amiga#NES#ZXSpectrum#GameBoy and other fan favorites, but the hardware is dying and it’s not easily obtainable, so games are being made out of pure passion and nothing more.
I wonder if such an idea has any chance of success… I would love a new 16-bit handheld in GameBoy format.
@darth The #Mega68k is just that. No current plans to make a real physical device (because we are two people and it's a hobby), but it's designed so you absolutely could. Would have sold for around the same price as a Genesis/MegaDrive in 1990.
There’s this article going around on #Amiga system programming in 2023. Unless I’m mistaken (and I often am) it seems to completely miss out on the single greatest environment for Amiga development these days…
My X-Surf-100 seems to have suddenly developed a fault 😢
It now hardly ever connects at all, and when it does I get lots of packet loss during pings. I've tried different cables, different slots, changing to Z2 instead of Z3, removing all other cards. Nothing has fixed it. It worked fine yesterday.
I haven't changed the #Amiga at all, not installed anything new.
I do hope I don't need to send it back. (Flashbacks to the Vampire Standalone nightmare...)
@retrotechtive@paulrickards you might find your WiFi router has some settings buried somewhere on its http config pages which will let you change/force one of the Ethernet ports on the back to 10 base T.