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Amiga 4000, or, my first Amiga

T

Tupin

Experienced Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2009
Messages
436
Location
St. Louis, MO
I got my first Amiga today. I think I did pretty well. It's an Amiga 4000/040 with a Video Toaster and DOS Golden Gate card installed. It also came with an external NEC CD-ROM drive and some CDs. I also got tons of floppy disks. I got a 1084S monitor as well, but the power button is broken and it has horizontal lines. I'm going to make a VGA adapter and put it through a device that will double it. The only trouble left is that I only have an Amiga 1000 keyboard. I'm guessing the controller port and the mouse port are interchangeable?

The price? $25. I honestly thought it was a typo, and even asked to make sure. But $25 later, I have an awesome machine that I cannot wait to get up and running. :-D

Any suggestions on software/stuff to do with it?
 
I say this with no malice intended: YOU LUCKY BASTARD!!! :)

Gotta love when a seller doesn't know what they have... If all you have is an Amiga 1000 keyboard, ebay it (with the cord), and use the funds to pick up a serviceable A2000 keyboard. Or just purchase an adapter to run a PC keyboard on it (though those can be a tad expensive, but so can cost+ship on an A2000 keyboard). *edit - forgot to mention that an A2000 will need a quickie wiring job to work on an A4000, but A2000 keyboards are relatively plentiful on the used market; A4000 keyboards aren't.

Have to ask - where'd you find this at?
 
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Great deal on it!! The people who have no idea what gems they're selling are the best. I got my XT for 70 dollars WITH manuals, software, and monitor.
 
Dang dude. Great find and awesome price. It supports the newer games if you want to check games out that support/require AGA graphics. There's a similar Amiga 4000 that's been on craigslist here for the last few months but I don't believe he's ever offered it for less than ..well.. crap.. looks like he was able to sell it. Either way he originally wanted something like $800. 4000's still seem to sell to folks who use them for animation, etc. They're one that I wonder if/when they'll ever go down to an obsolete price range.
 
You did a lot better than pretty well on that. You got something that was very close to the ultimate Amiga setup in the early 1990s. Congrats on that find.
 
I got it on Craigslist. Finally, my near-obsessive searching of the same keywords yielded something of value. I opened it up. It has two hard drives. The minor battery leakage on the board will be treated with vinegar after it has been cut out.
 
If only we were all that lucky! - I've never even see an A4000 in person. I wouldn't mind having one if the price were right (i.e. it'd have to be a steal), but really, the only Amiga that I'd really like to get at this point would be an A600 (I always did like the AIO designs like the C64/Atari ST/Amiga 500/600/1200)
 
I clipped out the battery and cleaned it all up. Still need a video connector and a keyboard, I'll order both I guess...
 
Just an FYI... You might not be able to just purchase an Amiga RGB->VGA converter and have it work (thinking about the Amiga-branded silver converter). I'm not sure about with the A4000, but with the A500/1200/2000's that I have, you must have a scan-doubler/flicker-fixer installed in order to use the Amiga with a VGA CRT/LCD. Otherwise, you'll need either a Multisync monitor, Commodore RGB Monitor, or other RGBI monitor that can be wired to the Amiga's RGB connector port.

While I have a Multisync and a Commodore RGB monitor, I also purchased an Extron RGB-202xi to convert RGBI signals to VGA. This works quite nicely for conversion of analog signals to VGA, and can be had quite cheaply from eBay. Grab a BNC->VGA cable and a 25-pin to 9-pin Amiga video cable, pop the Extron between them, and you're set.

Note that there are other Extron converters available that will also do the job - this is just the one that I have and am familiar with.
 
Maverick1978 said:
Just an FYI... You might not be able to just purchase an Amiga RGB->VGA converter and have it work (thinking about the Amiga-branded silver converter). I'm not sure about with the A4000, but with the A500/1200/2000's that I have, you must have a scan-doubler/flicker-fixer installed in order to use the Amiga with a VGA CRT/LCD. Otherwise, you'll need either a Multisync monitor, Commodore RGB Monitor, or other RGBI monitor that can be wired to the Amiga's RGB connector port.
Click to expand...

The Amiga 3000 and 4000 essentially have built in "flicker fixers" (technically scan doublers) as part of their video systems. They output standard 31.5khz VGA signals.
 
The Amiga 3000 and 4000 essentially have built in "flicker fixers
Click to expand...
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NOPE!!!!!, only the 3000. All other amiga models support 15k. (They can do 31.5k with special workbench drivers, but games and all boot menus and standard workbench are 15k.)

I had a 4000 in the day and had to spend alot of money on a multisync 17" monitor. (Illiayma??? I think was the brand.), The 3000 I had on my desk at work used a bog standard vga monitor.

Later,
dabone
 
dabone said:
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I had a 4000 in the day and had to spend alot of money on a multisync 17" monitor. (Illiayma??? I think was the brand.), The 3000 I had on my desk at work used a bog standard vga monitor.

Later,
dabone
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the Idek Iiyama MF-5117? The one with the 5 BNC connectors, the 15 pin (2 rows) analog RGB connector and the TTL Dx-9 connector and the push-button switch for the TTL voltage level?

If so, I have one sitting right here in my den.
 
It was a long time ago, I don't remember the exact model, but I seem to remember it having bnc inputs. It was a great monitor for amiga because you could have 15k and 800x600 for workbench use.

Later,
dabone
 
dabone said:
It was a long time ago, I don't remember the exact model, but I seem to remember it having bnc inputs. It was a great monitor for amiga because you could have 15k and 800x600 for workbench use.

Later,
dabone
Click to expand...

Well, if I ever get an Amiga 4000 in for repair, I'll let you know if that's the monitor that works with it.
 
http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:monitor_data

Here is a nice listing of 15.75khz capable monitors. I don't see the MF-5117 on there, but several other similar models are listed, so its worth a shot. Didn't realize the 4000 lacked 31.5khz output on all modes. That certainly complicates things using an upscaler because most will not automatically pass through VGA mode video when detected. If you can find one, I highly recommend the Toshiba TIMM. Its a great 20" monitor and 100% Amiga, Apple IIgs, Tandy CoCo, and Atari ST RGB compatible plus it supports up to 800x600 SVGA video.
 
It's difficult to find ANY info on the MF-5117, other than it was made and it does VGA through the BNC connectors. I know that part works as it was being used with a CAD system. The RGB Analog and RGB TTL inputs (with the signal voltage selector) leads me to believe that it would do RGB input too :) Possibly, it's a updated version of the 5017 with finer dot-pitch.

Nope, seems the 5017 will do 15KHz to 40KHz while the 5117 does 20KHz to 50KHz.
 
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