ScuzzBlog: 12th February 2016
Subject 01: That's Boppy: Toon of the Week
Subject 02: A1500: Personal Home Computer
Subject 03: Marauding: That my friend is an X Copy
Subject 04: BRAT!: THE ONE that got away
Subject 05: Comic Setter: The Originals
Subject 06: ST-01: Or not ST-01
Subject 07: No News: Kinda bad news
Entry 1603: Blogs: 7
That's Boppy
Entry 1603: Blog: 1
Toon of the Week
I have decided to add a little music to the website. Not unlike the
'Choon of the Month' of old. I am including a track that had some
significance in terms of a time in my own history. Hope you enjoy them.
The backdrop is my recently repaired Amiga 1200.
TOON OF THE WEEK
A1500
Entry 1603: Blog: 2
Personal Home Computer
Having uncovered a 1500 from under the bed I decided to give the machine
a dust down and a run her for a while. Amazingly after several years of
inactivity she fired up first time. The only issue was a failing second
floppy drive which just needed the power supply reconnecting.
A very slow and clunky machine this. Inside is fitted an SCSI hard drive
on a GVP card that appears to have been owned by someone called James.
The monitor is an Amiga 1081 which did need a little adjusting to get the
image working. The connection is from a scart cable which I find unusual.
Has an excellent picture all the same and has the benefit of speakers.
An Amiga 2000 in truth with just the extra drive to satisfy the UK market
I am told. I always remember obtaining this computer because as I was leaving
the guy asked if I would be interested in buying his A3000T for £100. Suffice
to say I took the 3000T off his hands.
Unlike most computers the outer casing slides out from the front taking the
front bezel with it. Though there is a CD fitted it is not connected.
Only the one card fitted to the computer, an SCSI hard drive plus memory.
Amazingly the card is not from this machine, though worked without fault.
It is looking for another drive however, which was probably a 3.5" drive.
Don't you just love the architecture of the inner workings of the Amiga. It is
almost like a futuristic cityscape. The motherboard is a little dusty.
Strange that the 2000/1500 has this extra video slot to the right of the PSU.
They really did try to use as much of the space in Amigas. So clever.
And yes that very tiny red bar at the top of the screen in SysInfo represents
the speed of the machine, which is described as ' gettin better '. No worries
does what I need and at the moment I am checking and copying floppies.
And so that was that, a swift tour around the Amiga 1500. She is currently
playing a Beatles Demo disk and sounding just fine. Classic.
Data Sheet
Model Range:
A1500
A2000
A2000HD
A2500/020
A2500/030
A2500UX
Released in 1987 as Commodore's first high end expandable
machine. Though early models were based around the A1000
design, the later models were built around the A500 chipset.
The hard drive version named the A2000HDcame with an A209x
SCSI controller and a SCSI hard disk drive. The A2500 version
has a processor card added to the A2000HD configuration. The
A1500 was aimed primarily at the UK market and was fitted with
two floppy drives but no hard disk drive. The A2500UX came with
AT&T Unix System V Release 4 operating system instead of AmigaOS,
and had a three button mouse, and often with a tape streamer
and Ethernet card.
Processor
68000 @ 7-28 MHz
68020 @ 7-25 MHz
68030 @ 16-50 MHz
68040 @ 25-40 MHz
68060 @ 50 MHz
The A1500 and A2000 have a socketed 68000 @ 7.14 MHz
processor on the motherboard and were fitted with an empty
processor slot.
The A2500 uses a processor card. The A2500/020 came with
an A2620 processor card featuring a 68020 and 68881 @ 14 MHz,
and the A2500/030 came with an A2630 featuring a 68030 and
68882 @ 25 MHz.
Memory
up to 2 MB Chip RAM
up to 128 MB Fast RAM on processor cards
up to 8 MB Fast RAM on Zorro II expansion cards
the majority of A2000's have 1 MB RAM soldered to their
motherboard. Early models, the 3.x series, have 512 kB
Chip RAM on their motherboard and 512 kB Fast RAM on the
processor card. The 4.x series have both 512 kB Chip and
Fast RAM soldered to the motherboard, whilst the 6.x series
have the RAM set up as 1 MB Chip RAM. Chip RAM can be expanded
to 2 MB with third party expansions which replace the Agnus
chip. 24 bit Fast RAM can be added using Zorro II expansion
cards up to 8 MB, and 32 bit Fast RAM using processor cards
featuring a 68020 or better.
Custom chips
Agnus / Fat Agnus - OCS / ECS display controller
Denise / Super Denise - OCS / ECS display encoder
Paula - audio and I/O controller
Gary - system address decoder
Buster - DMA arbitrary controller
The A2000 OCS or ECS chip set offers the same screen modes as
the A500 and A500 Plus:
Reasons to be cheerful - 1 - 2 - 3
The Beatles |
BettyBoo |
The Bangles
Marauding
Entry 1603: Blog: 3
That my friend is an X COPY
What can I say.. I mention the copying fiends of X-Copy and instantly I
get a request for the various flavours. Well here you go.
What the software boasted .....
ONLY MARAUDER II OFFERS ALL THESE FEATURES
Fully automatic ultra high speed backup of any Amiga disk.
Completely deprotects many of your AMIGA software favourites.
Requires absolutely no hardware adjustment of any kind.
Makes multiple simultaneous copies from a single original.
No knowledge of AmigaDOS necessary , works from CLI or Workbench.
Compatible with expansion memory and all versions of kickstart.
Marauder II is brought to you by Discovery Software. 1986
What the software boasted back in 1990.
X-COPY. This market leading backup system is a must for every Amiga user.
X-Copy is a true multi-function system that allows floppy disks to be copied,
hard drives to be backed up and a full file copying facility. X-Copy is
extremely fast, efficient and user friendly. A regular update service is
available for registered users.
X-Copy utilised a dongle...
With the cartridge and drive plugged in, switch on your Amiga and insert the
X-COPY PROFESSIONAL disk. One thing that you will notice is that with the
cartridge plugged in, workbench will tell you that DF1 is BAD. This is quite
normal. Double click on the disk icon when it appears and then on the CYCLONE
icon to load the program.
Cyclone has three modes, standard nibble, deep nibble and APWM ( Adaptive
Pulse Width Modulation ) deep nibble mode.
APWM DEEP NIBBLE MODE - This is more powerful than the deep nibble mode. It
works by synchronising the two disk drives together and keeping them locked
at a constant speed. It is slower than the other modes, but its performance
makes up for the lack of speed.
Marauder II |
X-Copy 11.35 |
X-COPY
Marauder II - X-Copy Version 11.35
X-Copy 10 |
X-Copy XC52 |
X-COPY 11
X-Copy Version 10.34 - X-Copy Version XC32 - X-Copy Version 11.31
BRAT !
Entry 1603: Blog: 4
THE ONE that got away
What can I say... I failed. A request for a copy of THE ONE dual format disk
THE BRAT! from 1991 Tarran Ltd Image Works and the disk failed. Big time !!!!
So I searched and searched but could only find the none playable demo. I say
none playable, but at a point in the demo you take control of his dummy but
for me he always dies. He really is an annoying little brat.
So if anyone finds a good copy of the disk then maybe you could email it to me
The Brat
Comic Setter
Entry 1603: Blog: 5
The Originals
Just filling in the blanks. I included in the last issue copies of the
cover disks for Comic Setter. This month I include the originals
Comic Setter |
Clip Art
Comic Setter Program Disk V1.0 - General Clip Art
ST-01
Entry 1603: Blog: 6
Or not ST-01
Anyone that has tried to track down the original copy of ST-01 that accompanied
ST-00 of Soundtracker hits the same problem. Basically how do you know that the
disk has not been modified. File dates make no sense as in the day there really
was no battery back up on most machines.
"ST-01 and most of the samples from ST-02 were made by Karsten Obarski, who
invented the tracker with his Ultimate SoundTracker."
Ultimate SoundTracker V1.21 (Soundeditor) by Karsten Obarski
1987-08 Ultimate SoundTracker V1.0 Karsten Obarski
1987-12 Ultimate SoundTracker V1.1 Karsten Obarski
1988-03-01 SoundTracker II Jungle Command
1988 SoundTracker III The Prophets AG
1988-03 SoundTracker V3.0A Il Scuro/Defjam
1988-10-21 Ultimate SoundTracker V2.0 EAS
1988-03-25 SoundTracker V1.3 Unknown/DOC
1988-04-09 SoundTracker V1.4 Unknown/DOC
1988-04-20 SoundTracker V1.6 Unknown/DOC
1988 SoundTracker V1.9 Unknown/DOC
1988 SoundTracker V2.0 Unknown/DOC
1988-12 SoundTracker V2.2 Unknown/DOC
1989-05-25 SoundTracker V2.3 Mnemotron/Spreadpoint
1989-07-28 SoundTracker V2.4 Mnemotron/Spreadpoint
1990 SoundTracker V2.5 Mnemotron/Spreadpoint
1990-11-03 SoundTracker V2.6 Mnemotron/Spreadpoint
1988-07 Master SoundTracker V1.0 TIP/The New Masters
Anyway with music in mind I give you these disks....
ProTracker V3.1 |
Mods |
Octamed Player
Five-Star PD gives you ProTracker V3.1b Beta Amiga Format Version 1992-93
Developed by Ivar Just Olsen, Bjarte Andreassen and Tom Bech
Mods - Mod-Blues, Mod-CENTI, Mod-extravaganza, Mod-GFORCE60, Mod-GRAV2,
Mod-HITSQUAD and Mod-Preman 2
Octamed_disk_2 Octamed Professional - OctaMedPlayer
OctaMed Modules 1 |
Choon of the Month |
11 Mods
OctaMed modules 1, MOD.8Channel, MOD.Axelf, MOD.Bass, MOD.Blues
MOD.Covertune and MOD.Touch-Me..... Play Axelf. Classic.
OctaMEDPlayer V5.00 Choon_of_the_Month - Move_Any_Mountain
OctaMed Mods - 11 Mods for you to play.
Drum Studio |
Noisetracker |
Thunderbirds
An infamous ST-00 NOISE TRACKER with 31 instruments no less.
NOISETRACKER V1.0 Mahoney Kaktus Northstar + Silents 1989
New Art Presents - DRUM STUDIO
MASH Modules Disk 1 Presents there ST-00 and click F2 for Thunderbirds
DRUM STUDIO
MED V2.01 |
Noisetracker |
Perfect Sound
Amiganuts United present MED V2.01 MED MUSIC EDITOR
Watch out for the little guy jumping up and down on the cursor
ST-00 Start Computer Systems - Noise and SoundTracker
Perfect Sound includes PSound
State of Art Demo |
Supreme SoundTracker |
ProTracker 3.15
Watch the hand plus dancers... State of Art Demo - A Spaceballs Production
Supreme SoundTracker from 17Bit Supreme Sounds Vol 1 Program by SPADGE
Oxygene it, Creation II, Crockets Theme, Tied Up, The Last Ninja, The Last Sun
Toccata by Allister Brimble and the Popcorn Mix.
The Assassins Audio Magic 9 complete with Pro-Wizard_v2, Multi-Player V1.32
and ProTracker 3.15 and this time not the beta version.
The Jungle 5 |
My ST-01a |
My ST-01b
The Jungle Issue 5 - A Damian Production - Disk Magazine
The mag you can't afford to miss. Released at The Party III on 28th Dec 1993
by... Silents - Lemon - Spaceballs
My own compiled set of INSTRUMENTS representing the original ST-01 Part A
My own compiled set of INSTRUMENTS representing the original ST-01 Part B
ST-02 Samples |
NoisePlayer V3.0 |
Perfect Sound Samples
St-02 Instruments
NoisePlayer V3.0
Perfect Sound Samples
SoundTracker V2.6
SOUNDTRACKER V2.6
No News
Entry 1603: Blog: 7
Kinda bad news
So where did all the magazines go. More significantly... where did all the
newsagents and magazine shops go. Time was a could throw a rolled up paper
from one news vendor to the next. Today they have all but disappeared
I guess I was a magazine addict. At Christmas I would buy magazines from the
previous month and place on a shelf and stockpile so that I had a good read
over the holiday. It is truly amazing as to how many of my projects started
from articles in magazines. Sadly, though over the years I have seen all but
a handful disappear from the shelves of the newsagent.
I do not find the internet as in any way as entertaining. A magazine was/is a
bound collection of thoughts, ideas, photographs etc. It has a beginning and
an end and you know the edition by the cover. Add to this the disks and CDs
and even the adverts on cards and you have a magical work of art that you
can hold and treasure. I do not think I have thrown one magazine away since
around 1990 and I have them all stacked in date order, and even catalogued
by various articles. The magazines are like art which I have laid out in
selective places in the house. They can warm the heart with their images.
I received an email from the BBC today following a complaint I made regarding
the changes to their website. Gone are the journalistic editorials regarding
the live football games. Replaced instead with Facebok style Twots with comments
from Joe Blogs. The style changed and it is second rate. The response indicated
that it was to satisfy the telephone users. And that has become the way of the
world. With each loss of magazine or serious editorial we lose the photographers,
journalists, printers, artists. All the creative talents just vaporise and the
world drops down the hole where trivia and selfies make the headlines.
For me, I wish I could walk into a Town Centre filled with shops and people.
Where I can purchase magazines, computer games and music. But sadly they have
all gone. Now if I need to learn something I have to read through endless
drivel spouted by nobodies and obtain my goods through faceless online shops.
The sum of societies worth is not any richer for growing exponentially through
social media. We are less because in truth ' empty barrels make the most sound '
-o-
I am scuzz. Just another empty barrel.
-o-
|
