The Smokin Deist

This is a flashback to 1998. I didn't have a digital camera back in those stone ages so I did not get photos of most of my old systems. (This was taken with a film camera and placed on a Kodak PhotoCD.) I was a (and am) big fan of the Amiga and started with a second-hand A500 that got upgraded fairly well (But I didn't have a really good accelerator for it.) When I moved to an A2000 that came along my way, I transferred a lot of the stuff from the A500 to it (those two models shared a lot a of parts.) I had the DKB Mini Mega Chip and the Super Denise chips so I had the full ECS Chipset for my computer. I was also running AmigaOS 3.1 and thankfully the KickStart ROM was the same for those two. I did have a Supra Turbo 28, a 28 mHz 68010 that had a passthrough sidecar connection for the A500. But if you removed it from the case and changed a jumper, it would work in the A2000's processor expansion slot. Now for the A2000-specific stuff, I had an A2091 SCSI controller which is what I hooked my CD-ROM drive/burner into. I had an Individual Computers Buddah IDE Controller for my internal hard drives. There was a Zorro-II 8MB RAM expansion board and I know there were a couple of other board in there. The display is through a DCTV--a device that allowed for higher color display than even the stock Amiga Chipset could handle before going to a RTG card. I even still have that image, which is still up on what remains of the Aminet archive. Sadly I never got good photos of my later A4000/040 systems which I really loved. (Though I wish I had one of those really good accelerators instead of the stock 25 mHz 68040.) Since my old 28bps Supra FAXModem is on here, this predates my network card that went into my later system. I did get a faster modem but I really loved this guy. That display gave me a lot of feedback on what was going on and I wish I had a faster version of this when I was still using an old-school phone modem. And then there's the big old clunky, but reliable Amiga 1010 floppy drive... Probably the most interesting solution to where do I put my speakers with my homemade cardboard custom speaker holder--a solution not doable with today's ultra-flat monitors but quite doable with a ginormous CRT.

My check is finally pending for deposit and my wife is working on our tax returns so she can get her check--I'm on SSD. Hopefully my wife is still on board for this project. lol I am considering paying full retail for my Win 10 license since the retail versions can migrate to new computers later. Now if it only covered a couple of computers at once, it would be better and save a little money. For me it'll be the first time since my old A4000/040 where I have an actual graphics card and I'm not relying on onboard gfx. (The Amiga was sporting the Picasso IV RTG card from Village Tronic) and the two Windows desktops I built with help and the laptop just had the onboard gfx.) This could not happen at a better time since it seems that my laptop is really starting to bog down.

Stimulus check didn't arrive but we are working on that. I hope to have my build budget soon. I had to save some money for my vehicle repair so that's why I didn't have a bigger budget. (I need brakes and oil change minimum.) I am seeing some good stuff here and I appreciate all of your help on this. I hope to be able to build soon and perhaps post some pics. I'll also likely watch some videos so I can make sure I am comfortable with some of the more fiddly bits on the build. Thankfully I won't have to do anything too messy and these will be the third and fourth Windows PCs I've assembled.

Yes we are, and we don't really have much preference for the case aesthetics other than it not be really fugly. lol

My wife and I are considering getting new computers--finally replacing our old Dell N5110 laptops. I need some help on trying to find or build different systems for the both of us. We are working on a budget and because of our different needs, it's hard to place this post in one category. I was thinking of a budget of somewhere around $500-$800 per system. Since AMD is currently king of the CPUs right now, I'm leaning in that direction but Intel is still a contender if it does what we need. Pre-made or build my own are also both options.If we build a desktop, monitors are part of the equation but don't have to be too fancy. My wife specifically wants a desktop--depending on what I can get, this could be a system in a box or something I can build. She basically needs a general-purpose PC that can handle very light gaming. She basically plays The Sims 3 (she didn't get 4 since she had everything for 3), Minecraft (mostly Bedrock), Dungeons & Dragons Online and this series of hidden objcet games from G5. I think she could get away with a CPU with onboard graphics and could skip an actual graphics card. I could use a budget gaming PC (desktop or laptop)--I know that I'm not getting a top tier system but this old laptop is downright creaky with the second-gen i3 and onboard gfx. I have been hindered from playing anything remotely modern and some of my games are almost unplayable. I also enjoy Minecraft and DDO, plus I play Star Trek Online and Kerbal Space Program amongst other games. I wouldn't mind trying a few more modern games but I also know that KSP can really task a system--especially if I were to try to run some visual mods and fly anything with a high part count. KSP 2 is also a game I'd like to get. Other thing I do is watch a lot of video and movies from streaming srivces and YouTube, and working on tabletop gaming stuff in Office. I have looked on the PC part picker and I do feel like I'm out of my element but I know you guys could be a big help in pointing me in the right direction. I have put together a couple of PCs in the past--both were AMD systems and I had help selecting the parts but I am comfortable in putting things together. Thanks ahead of time for any and all help I can get!

And a longer vid.

Scott Manley talks with one of the developers at PAX

The Picasso IV was one of the best that came out for the Amiga--I just wish I could have added some of the modules to it. The Picasso96 software was pretty nice and it allowed me to create custom display modes and resolutions. I did lose a few, lesser used screen modes and the ability to peel down the different screens on the Amiga--the stock GFX chipset allowed you to drag down different screens displaying them all well even if they were at different resolutions at the same time. I had two A4000/040 systems before. The first was in the standard desktop case and it was a nice step up for me from my A2000. But we had flooding in the FLGS I was co-owner of and the building's insurance paid for my replacement. So I ordered another A4000/040 (refurbished) from Software Hut but this one was in the Elbox Tower case with the larger daughterboard. That was my main system until I ended up handing all my old Amiga stuff to someone in the user's group to take care of a debt--I'm pretty sure I got boned in the deal. I also wish I had a pic of all my old Amigas but we were still using film cameras at that time and it cost money to take and develop pictures. I don't remember everything I had in there but I remember that the motherboard was fully populated with RAM that was hot-glued for some weird reason. It had my Picasso IV RTG card, An X-Surf II Ethernet card so I could surf via DSL, a Catweasel card to hook up PC floppy drives, maybe a Buddah IDE card, and possibly a SCSI card. My biggest bottleneck was that I had the stock Commodore '040 board installed--I really wished I could have afforded good accelerator in there like one of the '060+PPC boards. There should be a pic of my old A2000 earlier in this thread though.

Like an old system that was never opened? I would still open it up and inspect the capacitors on the motherboard just to be safe. Inspecting the PSU for it may or may not be possible. I think some of those old Commodore caps get a bit leaky over time. Luckily enough, you don't have to worry about battery leakage like you would with an Amiga. It's pretty easy to open up and inspect. I don't remember if you need any special bits. I was part of a Commodore user's group for several years and I have opened up quite a few older systems to try to swap socketed chips to see if I can get it to work. I've also installed the JiffyDOS ROMS in several systems from the C64 to the 128D. Another fun task was soldering in device number switches in the old 1541 floppy drives.

Cool to see old hardware. My old A4000 had the Picasso IV RTG Card for the graphics. It used a Cirrus Logic GD5446. It was a great card/GPU. It had 4 MB of video RAM--a lot for those days.

Ran across some pre-alpha gameplay footage.

I believe that a few Squad people are involved and I wonder if that's RoverDude's work, the Orion is in his USI set of mods.

This is good news--KSP2 won't have microtransactions, loot boxes and won't be an Epic Store exclusive. https://www.pcgamesn.com/kerbal-space-program-2/epic-exclusive

I have a Dell N5110 with 8GB of RAM and Win 10. So yeah... But I do appreciate the efforts to help those of us with these conditions you are helping to fight.

I don't think that my anemic hardware can help in this project but thank you for helping with Parkinson's research. I have Parkinson's and I hope your efforts will help me and others with the disease in the future. I live in terror of Lewy Body Dementia after seeing my mother go through dementia after she went into remission the second time from lung cancer.