Retro Station Update

Its been 10 days since the last update and a lot has happened. Of course it being the holidays and having some time off, there wont be this level of activity like this going on all the time!

In the image above you can see the initial shape it is taking. My apologies up front for the mess of things, once everything is organized as I like, then the cable management will be addressed better. There are parts still coming in and I don’t think the hutch atop the desk is going to work long term once the new Monitors arrive in late 2023. I will likely go with a shelf atop the desk so that I can have the height and width clearance I will ultimately need.

There are several devices and still the Mister to add when it gets here next year. I will talk about each of these projects and where they stand. This also helps me keep organized.

Apollo Systems Vampire V4 SA

I sit in a really great place right now on this system. The new core install had issues and resulted in a blue screen, however, with a USB Blaster I was able to recover and then install a new beta core 9128B. This core seems to have resolved all the issues I was experience and I was able to get a good few hours of explore time on the system. I am very happy with this system right now and look forward settling into it as I move forward.   You can see below I am running several programs all without a hassle.  I was excited to get PageStream 5 up and running.

Because I felt it was needed, I created a Core Update Document. I found Apollo’s video very helpful, however, the screens were really small in some places and I felt that a document would be a great companion showing the screens and steps in a little more detail. I made it available in the Apollo V4 Support channel on Discord.

    Bad Core Update

Next up for this system is getting all the tools I want installed on the operating system image and then making a copy. One considerable downside to the apollo project is that OS release are created as images. Moving to a new release means you loose all your installed applications. To this end I hope to keep those tools on the SD card and maybe learn to script the move of any relevant key files and such faster upon an update. At lease all the tools I want to reinstall can be there on the SD Card as well.

I would like to see better documentation for the Apollo V4 series in general. As a long time Development Manage, I do realize documentation is a lower priority vs new development. The documents that are available are very professionally created. With a moving project like this, documentation will be hard to keep up.  

Crystal Amiga 1200 TF1260

Well I managed to create a mess of my Amiga 1200 TF 1260. I accidently corrupted the Operating System Image trying to figure out how to Ironically create a backup. Hilarious isn’t it?

Just as ironic is that it may have been good for me to have this accident as I am now having to learn how to create a new HD image and also learning more about my TF 1260 which requires some MMU libraries on the HD to boot. Note, this is not to boot off the TF1260 CF Card, but the one on the amiga will red screen a failure if the card is active and the MMU libraries are not present.

Currently I am still gathering the files. I will likely document this as well for my own sanity in case this happens some years up the road again. As the years fly by, the knowledge and file sources grow ever thinner. This pages here will serve as a reference and repository for some of that so I can come back here if needed. I found with all the Ham Radio fun I have, the documents are invaluable when I need to redo things from time to time. Its far too much for any person to keep all in their head.

I have some new Hard  Drive images coming, will be setting up the Compact Flash drive, setting up networking, getting a backup at that point and then settling in gathering tools for that machine as well.  

My goal is to have some standard tools, internet access, word processing, my mod collection and such to be able to work and document my adventures directly on the different amigas.

I have collected over 1000 Floppy Disks to explore as well. I am working on cataloging them and seeing what is what. I will also make sure I have all the ADF files for them too. I also have some different collections of OS versions and ADF file collections in route. All part of the fun! 

Amikit on Windows 11

I have to say that for emulation, AmiKit is a super nice product and a tremendous value for the Amiga Enthusiast that wants a low cost way to dabble. While Amikit still leverages Win-UAE underneath, the distribution package and regular updates are superb! It is a subscription model though, however, for $45 a year or there abouts, its worth it.

Above you will note the polished looking Workbench. The windows like menu at the bottom for quick navigation is really nice. The Rabbithole allows you to access your windows software under the emulation allowing you a browser and any others you wish to configure. Access to GoogleDrive and Dropbox natively is nice as well.   I will cover this mor e in a separate post.

Pi Amiga (AmiKit) (HOLD)

Its kind of slow on a Pi, a bit wonki I would say. I believe I can do some adjustment for the mouse. At high resolution the mouse experience is very much less than desirable. Amikit on the Windows PC is much nicer. I suppose if I had a Linux PC I would find that nice as well. The Pi just lacks a little horsepower still to deliver the emulation and provide nice Rabbi Hole experiences. This device will just be a lower priority as I much prefer AmiKit on the PC. You can see in the picture I got the Pi a nice little case as well as I put some Amiga stickers on it to Jazz it up a bit. I will be holding on this project for a while, maybe indefinitely.

Crystal C64

This little cousin to the Crystal Amiga just arrived and as such I am just starting with it. Right now I lack a serial cable for the 1541 II, so waiting on that to arrive, likely next year at this point. It boots up nicely using the SCART to HDMI converter.  

The KungFu cartridge looks Very Interesting as well. This will take some digging to get the most from it. It has an Micro SD card slot and ability to use it to load games, ect. I did get a DVD with every C64 Game ever made and have started organizing that into a friendlier directory structure. This will potentially be fun to use with the KungFu Cartridge. While I am guessing it will be highly redundant I do have an Ultimate 64 Cartridge on order. Also OS64 is in route.

The goal for the C64 and emulators is just to have fun and relive a few old memories.  

Mega65 (Cancelled)

This looked like it was going to be fun and I actually placed one on order. In the hours or reading I do a day on the whole retro scene I started reading some bad reviews about product quality. Given the cost of them I decided to just cancel the order and see what comes of the whole project. It seems that perhaps there is more potential right now in the whole C64 Mod Scene. I also am not sure why someone just doesn’t FPGA the C65 if it is to have a following.  

PowerMac G4 Quicksilver MORPH OS (HOLD)

No progress as yet, this will clearly move into next year and beyond. Frankly this is my lowest priority effort right now.

That concludes this post as I need to get busy and get ready for a day of company and Christmas eve! Here is wishing everyone a happy holiday season full of spirit and joy!

EverStaR