Videos
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Building an Amiga Null Modem Serial Cable
Sometimes a project starts because I have an idea. This was one of those times. Sometimes it starts because somebody else has an idea and I somehow end up making the hardware for it. Yawning Angel got in touch because he was working on a forthcoming video exploring serial communications in AMOS Pro. To do that properly, he needed a cable to connect two Amigas together. Unfortunately, he didnāt have one. So naturally, I volunteered to make it. Fortunately, this is actually a fairly straightforward little project, and it also gave me an excuse to take a closer look at how the Amigaās serial connection works. https://youtu.be/x2WhIUoGgPc What I Needed…
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My Journey to Build a Fully Functional Amiga 500 Plus in a Mini-ITX Case (and Survive the Battery Damage, Fake STM32s, and 2000 Angry Sockets)
There are two kinds of retro builds: the ones where everything just clicks into place, and the ones where you spend hours soldering your way into a functional Amigaā¦ only to discover you put a SIM socket in backwards. Ask me how I know. In this post, Iām taking you along my hands-on journey to build a fully functional Amiga 500 Plus using a dense Denise board in a mini-ITX caseāincluding the keyboard/PS2 āmodern comfortā upgrades, the FlashFloppy GOTEK stack, the joystick/drive mods, and the hilarious-but-educational detours caused by mistakes, tight tolerances, and a small army of sockets. Watch the video on YouTube Starting Point: āThis Isnāt a Raspberry Piā…
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JuiceBox: From Purple PCB to an Upgraded Power Supply (Amiga USB-C Power, Revision 2)
Thereās a special kind of nostalgia that kicks in when youāre powering an old computer with modern bits. Itās half engineering, half archaeologyālike digging up a treasure chest but realizing itās full of capacitors and optimism. In my JuiceBox series, I set out to make a compact, USB-C-powered supply for an Amigaāstarting with a purple PCB in an orange case, then pushing it through real-world use, teardown nerves, and finally an upgrade to make everything tidier (and calmer) in revision 2. watch it here Chapter 1: The Orange Case Dream (and the Purple PCB that Made It Happen) Before the JuiceBox had a name and a case, Iād already been…
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Alicia Build: Resurrecting an Amiga 1200 into a Mini-ITX āMac Proā-Style New Home
I didnāt set out to build āanother retro computer.ā I set out to resurrect an Amiga 1200 in a different form factorāonly to discover, as always, that the past has a way of handing you extra homework. Thatās the ethos behind my āAliciaā series: journeying forward into the future while journeying back to remember the past and learn from its lessons. In other words: yes, weāre making something tiny and powerfulā¦ but weāre also documenting the dents, the detours, and the surprisingly educational moments along the way. watch the Alicia build completeāPart 1 here Chapter 1: Resurrecting the Amigaā¦ into an Alicia When I started this Alicia project, it really…
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How I Built a 2025-Ready ZX Spectrum Keyboard Case Without a 3D Printer (PCBWay to the Rescue)
Thereās a special kind of retro tragedy that happens when youāre ready to print, paint, and perfect your next ZX projectā¦ and then your 3D printer doesnāt survive the move. I hit that exact wall recentlyāright before retro stuff became the planāso I had to ask myself: can I still build a brand-new Spectrum-style case in 2025 without doing the ā3D printer hobbyistā thing? Turns out, yesā¦ and it involved a sponsor, a material choice, and a level of paperwork I didnāt know existed. Also: I may have invented a packing-foam soldering jig. Letās rewind and walk through exactly what I did. Watch the video on YouTube Why I Didnāt…
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I Upgraded My Amigaās Power Connector with a Magnetic USBāC Style Hack (and a Few Soldering Gremlins)
This started as a simple āwhat if?ā after I noticed my MacBook Proās magnetic power connector. You know the feeling: no fumbling, no wiggling, just clickāand the powerās connected. Naturally, I thought, āCould an Amiga get the same quality-of-life glow-up?ā And because retro projects are basically 50% engineering and 50% accidental slapstick, I also decided it would be fun to find out whether it was even possible. Watch the video on YouTube The Juice Box: the power supply I didnāt expect to love this much Before I touch the magnetic connector itself, I need to set the stage: my āJuice Boxā power supply has been a bigger success than I…
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Breathing New Life into My Atari ST with a 3D Printed Case
For years, Iāve watched aftermarket case projects flourish for the Amiga 500 and 1200 ā sleek, modern, injection-molded shells that let aging systems shine again. But the Atari ST? It’s been sadly left behind. If you’ve ever owned one, youāll know the STās case plastics are incredibly brittle, and time hasnāt been kind. So I asked myself: why not 3D print a new one? Thanks to the good folks at PCBWay, who kindly sponsored this build, I got to put that idea to the test. The Case for a New Case When the box from PCBWay arrived, I couldnāt wait to tear it open. Inside was something Iād never seen…
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BlueSCSI Setup for Adaptec EZ-SCSI 4 in DOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k1i_IFYy0U Building a Retro PC with BlueSCSI: My Journey Hi everyone! I wanted to share my recent adventure in building a retro PC setup, complete with a BlueSCSI for storage emulation. What started as a simple idea turned into a learning experience filled with challenges, unexpected twists, and ultimately, a lot of satisfaction The Vision Iāve always had a soft spot for old-school PCs. After scratching my nostalgia itch with an IBM 5170, I set my sights on building a DOS gaming machineāsomething to relive the magic of Doom and Quake. For this build, I used a Baby AT motherboard. While most had transitioned to ATX by the time my…
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Flashing PCIe X1900GT for G5 Mac
I did this to install MorphOS on a PCIe G5 PowerMac Required Hardware Flashing Steps MS-DOS Boot Disk Download I have a pre made disk image here Dos6.22 ATI.img at the prompt type cd ATI then to check the contents type dir You should see ‘X1900GT.ROM’ and ‘ATIFLASH.EXE’ listed. We need to know the adaptor number, type atiflash -i note the adapter number of the installed X1900 GT, which is identifiable by the ‘R580+’ tag in the middle column. Usually, the adapter number to the far left of the ‘R580+’ will read ‘0’, provided the card was installed to the PC’s first (or only) PCIe x16 slot. Note In the…
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The Purple OLED Project
If you’ve been following my journey, you might recall a video I did a while back where I converted an old Amiga external floppy drive into something cool and retro-inspired. If you missed that one, no worriesāIāve linked it below. We’re taking things a step further. Iām about to transform this incredibly grubby, stained Cumana drive into something truly special, and Iām super excited to share the process with you. Retro GOTEK The Vision: A Purple OLED Dream Ever since I started this project, Iāve had one thing in mind: creating a purple OLED screen. I know it sounds a bit ambitious, but thatās exactly what Iām aiming for. Imagine…
