ScuzzBlog: 21st March 2010

Subject 01: A4000D Rebuild - Nearly Worked
Subject 02: New Commodore - or is it ?
Subject 03: Lost - And not found... yet
Subject 04: Superfrog - Just for Laughs

Entry 1003: Blogs: 4


A4000D Rebuild

Entry 1003: Blog: 1


Well it nearly worked....



A4000D Rebuild: More of a rebuild than a repair
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First up a perfectly working Amiga 4000 EC 030
used for reference purposes. Quite useful for 
conector information, jumper settings etc
If you click the image you get a medium sized image
Click the link below you get a supersized image

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Images of the inside of a healthy Amiga 4000 complete
with Cybervision 64 graphics card..

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Locating those jumpers on the healthy A4000

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The all important SuperBuster and healthy SIMM slots

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OK Enter the rather sad A4000 with various bits missing

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Daughter board is lying on the top of the previous users
notes on the history of the machine. There is no hard drive
or hard drive cradle. The floppy cables are loose. There is no
power connected and no CD Rom, though the front plastic cover
is inside the machine. 

Most importantly there is no processor board or ROM chips
This machine is currently dead in the water

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There is evidence of previous battery issues. I had already
removed the battery. The Buster is 11 so that is fine
Though, the first SIMM socket looks suspect and this will need
further attention no doubt 

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Jumper settings look fine. Note the rogue screw top left picture 

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I had a couple of spare 030 processor boards handy
along with a damaged motherboard with the needed ROMs

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Just recording the status and location of how the ROM fit

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So the ROMs find there way onto the A4000 motherboard
Snug as the old bug in a rug. Fingers crossed they are working

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Time to re-attach those all important connectors to the motherboard

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Next up I reconnected the power supply and processor board

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In goes the daughterboard and floppy disk ribbon. I also
reconnected power to the floppy drive. Sadly no hard drive 
cradle at this time so that will have to wait...

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And fired up first time... Not without problems though
Unfortunately the mouse only works from the buttons
and there is something very wrong with the memory on
this machine. Saying that, the signs are very good
that another A4000D will return soon fully functioning



New Commodore

Entry 1003: Blog: 2


or is it ?


Link to www.commodoreusa.net 

CPU SUPPORT
Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo, Intel® CoreTM 2 Quad @ 1333MHz 
FSB LGA775 up to 95W. Intel® Pentium® D Processors 
with Hyper-Threading Technology, Intel® Celeron® D 
processor, support from 1.3GHz ~ 3.4GHz 1333MHz System 
Bus. Supporting 9x, 5x & 6x series processors with EM64T.
 
MOTHERBOARD
Intel G31 Express Chipset
 
CORE LOGIC MEMORY
2xDDR2 SDRAM sockets, populated up to 4GB. Supports 
PC2-5300 667MHz & PC2- 6400 800MHz.
 
HDD SUPPORT
Integrated Serial ATA controller facilitates high-speed 
transfers at up to 3Gbps for each of the four ports. 
Allows easier hard drive upgrades and expansion for new 
SATA optical drives. 2x SATA2 ports.
 
VIDEO & GRAPHICS
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3100. 3D enhancements 
enable greater flexibility and scalability and improved 
realism with support for Microsoft DirectX 9.0c Shader 
Model 2.0, OpenGL 1.4. Intel® Graphics also support the 
highest levels of the Windows 7 Aero experience. Stunning 
media, incredible visuals and new 3D capabilities. For 
business users, Intel validates the chipset, processor, 
graphics and software stack to provide a well-tested 
platform with support for Microsoft* Windows 7,Vista, 
Windows* XP, Linux (top distributions) and OS/2 (SciTech). 
Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT) 3.0 supports up to 
289MB of Shared Video Memory;system memory is allocated 
where it is needed dynamically. Supports built-in Dual/
Multi-Monitor windows displays using LCD monitor & DVI 
external display.
 
End quote

Knew it was too good to be true.. Turns out it is simply
a rebadged machine sold by Cybernet - ZPC-GX31

Link to Cybernet 

Images of the supposed New Commodore ...

New Commodore New Commodore


And the real deal from the website at Cybernet
New Commodore


Lost

Entry 1003: Blog: 3


And not found .... yet !!!

I have seriously lost this computer. I have spent all
week looking for it. I mean, honestly how do you lose
and Ateo Tower with an A4000 inside... that big

Ateo Ateo


SuperFrog

Entry 1003: Blog: 4


Just for laughs



I managed to take home by mistake a boxed version
of SuperFrog from the very kind gentleman that gave
me all the Amiga kit listed in the previous blog. 
I hadn't intended doing so and will be returning the
boxed game for the CD32 when I can get to the post
office.

Got me thinking though as to what the game was all about.


[ This is the extract from Wiki ]
frogger

Superfrog is a 2D Platform game developed for the Amiga 
and then converted for the PC, developed by Team17 Software 
in 1993. The Amiga version was popular enough to spawn an 
Amiga CD32 version, which could also be played on some 
Amiga computers fitted with a CD drive. Team17 published 
all the versions in their own right as an independent 
publisher, although the box of the PC version claims 
that the distributing was handled by Ocean Software 
(it is possible that Ocean acquired the redistribution 
rights to the PC version following the success of Worms, 
in the hopes that people would recognize the Team17 name).

The story (mostly conveyed through the introductory animation 
by Eric W. Schwartz) is about a prince (inspired from the 
Frog Prince fairy tale) who is turned into a frog by a witch. 
His girlfriend is then abducted by the same witch. He was 
subsequently sulking by the "River O' Despair" when he found 
a floating bottle of Lucozade, which made him Superfrog. 
The objective of the game is to find and defeat the witch, 
then rescue the princess. When the player has defeated the 
witch, the frog and the princess kiss but the frog isn't 
turned back into a man, the princess is turned into a frog 
instead.

[ End quote ]

..... Not to be confused with Frogger

frogger


Frogger

Frogger is an arcade game introduced in 1981. It was developed 
by Konami, and licensed for worldwide distribution by Sega/Gremlin. 
The game is regarded as a classic and was noted for its novel 
gameplay and theme. Frogger is still popular and versions can 
be found on many Internet game sites.



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Last updated 21st March 2010

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