ScuzzBlog: Diaries March 2026
Entry 22nd March 2026: Post 1: Amiga 1200 - Two Amiga 1200 machines on the bench.
Amiga 1200 - Two Amiga 1200 machines on the bench.
I have around thirty Amiga 1200 machines. That's not bragging it
is just a fact. I never intended getting so many A1200 computers
but often when I have obtained other kit like A4000s I also got
their other kit like A1200s. I was also gifted collections and in
some cases I was gifted five Amiga 1200s. One thing lead to another
and pretty soon I had thirty of the computers. So why don't I part
with some of them. That's easy, I never part with anything.
Amiga computers have two hearts which you need to understand. The
first is the hardware heart ie ROM, accelerator and peripherals.
And then there is the hard drive heart. Just that when you get a
machine you will have a computer that has its hearts connected
but after a time the hard drive fails and you need to install
another heart.
It is important to understand this cus when you look at the screen
you may be looking at a computer Workbench that has nothing to do
with the actual hardware. So you can misread the history and build
of the computer.
Behind me as I sit typing on this Win7 machine on a small tub and
covered with dust protection are two Amiga 1200s. They are plugged
into Amiga PSUs and on odd occasions I fire them up to check the
hard drives. Some years back I rescued a few 2.5" drives using the
old freezer trick and hitting with the blunt end of a screwdriver.
To make sure the drives keep working I power them up. I only have
the drive lights to go on but I'm pretty sure they are fine. I have
several Amiga 1200s set up around the place that I check the drives.
Remember though that these hard drives are not originally mine and
they also were driving a completely different Amiga 1200. You would
think there was little difference between A1200s.. seriously you
would be amazed.
Both are clean computers with hardly any discoloration other than
to the keys. The first machine is an odd beast. When it arrived it
had inside a hard drive set up for the Amiga 500, hence the name.
It also had a very nice 030 accelerator. The drive packed up sadly
and so I replaced it with one of my salvaged drives.
The machine has the 3.1ROM and the drive is set up as OS3.5. So
the computer this came from had a CD. It was not one of mine. The
drive is a mess and that is my fault. I used the computer for a
good while as a dump for files off other computers to salvage
space so I could store Vidi Amiga animations. I did never tidy up
and so there is stuff all over the place.
I tested the usual mouse and joy stick plus the floppy drives and
all worked no problem. No nasty tints on the screen. She worked
like a dream and certainly a very nice computer. She gets a star.
The next A1200 also is a strange set up. Inside there use to be
an IBM hard drive and my note which is obscured talks about there
being something strange about the motherboard. Probably a power
cable to feed a 3.5 inch drive. Dunno. Like I say the hardware
and the hard drive are two distinct things, don't read one into
the other.
So I fire up and we hit an early boot screen that is the Escom
Workstation. I have only come across this installation on big box
Amiga's like the 4000 when used with a graphics card. My Ateo has
this system. Sadly it is memory heavy and causes system failure
without extra memory. A ton of stuff gets loaded in from the WB
at boot.
Another issue is that I can't bypass the Workstation at boot. It
always boots to this bloody thing even if I select floppy from
the early boot screen.
The other really annoying thing is the screen is set up on a max
overscan and uses the most ugly backdrop pattern that has this
brown fleck in the pattern that makes the screen look faded. It
truly is horrible. Unfortunately I am never minded to change
anything as it represents the original hard drive config and it
is important to me it stays that way. So crap it stays and crap
it looks.
If I take a picture with the camera you get a dreadful brown
staining on the image and it looks dreadful. So I did some close
up pics to try and disguise the annoying pattern. You can just
about pick up the browns in the pattern on one of the pics. If
I changed the WB pattern I probably would save a load of memory.
Anyway the floppies worked and the low memory programs worked no
problem. So I put that down as a working Amiga 1200.. I will be
checking over all the computers as we are entering spring but it
is a little cumbersome to set up the camera so I will be off the
grid now for a few days. Depends on what I discover.
And sorry the computers live and die with me. Once I return back
into the void I lose all contact with this world so why should I
care. I got my kit for selfish reasons. To keep me happy. That
will never change. Losing any of them would leave a hole that my
obsessive nature would insist I replace, so what is the point. I
am currently replacing all my vinyl with CD at the moment but in
doing so I am not getting rid of the vinyl. I only ever add stuff
I never actually ever get rid of anything. I'm bonkers you see.
Check out 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlGtwOtl9I&list=RD-JlGtwOtl9I&start_radio=1'
and 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE7tfOfc_p0&list=RDpE7tfOfc_p0&start_radio=1'
Vinyl how magical.
Amiga 1200 - Two Amiga 1200 machines on the bench.
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