Upgrading the Checkmate Amiga 1200! Indivision AGA, PCMCIA etc
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- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2020
- Adding all kinds of stuff to the LGR Commodore A1200 build! Indivision AGA MK2cr, PCMCIA Compact Flash, 15-pin PC joystick support, swapping the mouse ball for laser, upgrading the Kickstart ROM, along with plenty of little tweaks and fixes.
● LGR links:
/ lazygamereviews
/ lazygamereviews
/ lazygamereviews
● Music courtesy of:
www.epidemicsound.com
#LGR #Amiga #Upgrades 
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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: ruclips.net/video/oBECeXVTz2Q/видео.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.
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 ;-)
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.
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.
It warms my heart to see all this amiga love, having grown up with one on my lap.
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
WOOOO always a good day when LGR is in my Feed!!!!
Pinball dreams!!!!
(the whole series was awesome, and still is!)
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.
Dude these kinds of builds with retro tech mixed with modern things is so satisfying! All the little tweaks and upgrades are great!
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...
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 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.
You have really upgraded this thing and showed the Amiga checkmate's potential.
Its an informative video. Great job. Way to go!
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
21:08 Memories of the Tom's Hardware CPU cooler video...
This is unrelated but nice profile picture
@@turnoffautoplay Thank you so much~
Kevin Moondust Cheers from a fellow femboy
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.
Thank you for the video Clint! Always refreshing to see a fantastic retro tech vid!
Keep it up!
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
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.
I swear I could watch/listen to you build retro builds all damn day. Good stuff as always!
That mouse click noise is soooooo damn satisfying!!!
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.
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
It's rare for me to get real nostalgic flashbacks watching RUclips 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 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!
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!
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 ;).
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!
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!
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...
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.
This was a nice video to watch while playing SimTower on my PowerBook 1400c. Great 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!
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 ;)
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.
21:09 Wow! That song just took me back 25 years.
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 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.
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.
Proper Amiga setup, kudos and enjoy this great computer!
Thanks Clint for doing Amiga stuff. Before I got my own PC in 1996 I had an Amiga 500 for 8 years!
Why not just cut holes in one of your ISA slot covers with a Dremel for the USB and DVI?
3.1.4 ROMs removes the icon libraries and thus you need a workbench that has them on the harddisk/card
I love your channel. Thanks for all the great videos. I've been watching your content for years. Keep up the good work.!
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. :)
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
28:58 is a small certified DankPods moment
Where's the one grit?!
@@Crusader1089 that adapter might need a bit of 1 grit
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.
Could watch thst stuff hours of hours. So relaxing and educational
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
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.
Dat ending, epic... :D More Amiga stuff, plees! Loving every second of it!
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.
Who else loves the TV show “Halt and Catch Fire” ?!
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.
Great video as always, never had an Amiga, but this definitely inspired me to get the Checkmate and start playing around, so thanks for that :D but anyway, I wanted to suggest this couple of videos ago, you should definitely look into getting a small to mid range 3D printer, I think it would save you a lot of hassle for videos such as this, and it would be an overall neat addition to the channel :D
21:08 WOW the music of AMD meltdown vídeo!
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%
Love watching these retro builds :)
Ooooooh! Love that new intro animation! Good stuff
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.
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
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 !!!
So great to see some more Amiga Hardware/Software on your RUclips channel, really loved you build video also, hope to see in the future a lot more Amiga stuff on your channel.
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.
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!
I'm a simple man. I see Amiga, I click on it.
That setup looks great with that case, Microvitec CRT and Altec Lansing speakers.
That LGR logo background looks absolutely sweet
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 never expected LGR to be such a huge AMIGA Fan :) Had an a 500 an 1200 myself. Ah, good memories...
I love the mix of new and old technology all coated in beige!
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.
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.
Lots of great upgrade ideas! I think I'll start with the laser mouse upgrade, I have an Amiga mouse that needs to be de-balled!
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.
Was excited to see that flight game! Solid childhood memory
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.
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!
5:50 I got the same StarTech cable (although with Mini USB).
Right angle cables look so nice with keyboards!
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 ...
That's the same driver Genius gaming mice used to use. Very good driver. Nice mouse upgrade.
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.
RUclips turned off my comments (It was probably my fault) So glad you're still making videos!
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!
I know so little about Amiga stuff but those games look fantastic. Makes me very curious about the system
This is the only RUclips channel I actually need.
Damn, the new intro looks great ❤
So many daughter boards and components, makes the upgrading process appear very satisfying and oddly meaningful.
Amiga users are so lucky with the amount of really cool expansion stuff and mods that are available!
I still have the megaball tunes stuck in my head since the early 90s!
15:54 You literally neutered the mouse lol! Nice Video! That's one cool amiga!
those cliffhangers before the commercials are killing me man :D