Back in 1985 when the Amiga came out the Paula sound chip was not totally groundbreaking, but better than most of its competitors. It supported four channel stereo PCM playback. This could be used with sampled instruments to get a relatively natural sound. However there were many limitations, many of which due to the software not utilising the Paula to its fullest. Two years later, when the A500 came out, Roland released the MT-32. A consumer grade synthesizer module that was used relatively widely in the MS DOS gaming world, spearheaded by Sierra On-Line. It is a little known fact that you can use the MT-32 also on the Amiga with Sierra adventures such as King’s Quest, Space Quest or Larry. Does the Amiga sound better with the MT-32?
Tag: amiga
Black Amiga 500
Many a computer from the 1980s is today yellowed and brittle. The plastics age considerably over the decades. You can do some mitigation by retrobrighting with hydrogen peroxide. However for some machines you can even get replacement cases, and in some cases even brand new key caps for the keyboard. Today we will transform a beige Commodore A500 into a black beauty!
PSU Battle: Commodore vs Electroware
The original power supplies of our Commodore home computers are now at least 30 years old. Many need maintenance, some got lost or are defective. There are modern replacements. But are those any good? Are they better or worse than the old supplies? In this video we will compare my original Amiga 500 supply to a modern Mean Well based PSU by Electroware. We will mostly compare the ripple that both PSUs produce, which is one of the main factors that could disrupt the functionality of a computer.
Brand New Amiga 500 Demo on Floppy Disk in 2021?
The demoscene has been part of Amiga (and PC) culture for at least 30 years. Of course there are still great demos and intros released for all kinds of platforms. I love when the Amiga OCS machines (A500, A1000, A2000) get some kind of love, but getting a brand new demo ONLY on floppy disk, and not for download, is something special. This is Hologon by TEK (The Electronic Knights) — let’s watch it!
Amiga 500: Booting From External Floppy
After the 1084S monitor, my Amiga 500 gets an external Gotek USB Floppy Drive emulator. To be able to boot from it, we install a DF0 switcher. Many demos and games on the Amiga can only be booted from the first floppy drive, DF0. The external drive is called DF1. With the switcher we can toggle the external drive to be either DF0 or DF1.
Commodore 1084S D2: Replacing the Power Switch
I acquired a Commodore 1084S CRT monitor. This is a pretty good, classic monitor for the Amiga and other systems. The device is already 28 years old, so it has some ageing problems. Namely the power switch will not stay locked in. I got myself a replacement part and will try to solder it in!