Good morning everyone!
I apologize for the lack of updates. Last week was the /worst/ for this project.
I had dedicated President's Day to taking the whole setup apart to install the VFX-1 and to reorganize the various external compnents to make room for the eventual return Amiga.
First I opened up Karga and put in the VFX-1's ISA card and an S3 Trio 64 graphics card. I removed the Roland LAPC-I (RIP, world's longest ISA card) to free up a slot for the VFX-1 controller. LA MIDI would now come from an external MT-32. I was a bit hesitant to make this change, because while I OWNED two MT-32s I had never managed to get either of them to work (I hadn't tried /hard/, though.) Luckily, I VERY QUICKLY figured out what I had been doing wrong in the past: to 'chain' the MT-32 to your setup you need to go from the "MIDI THRU" port of the previous device (an SC-55mkII, in my case) rather than the "MIDI OUT" port. That worked great and I think it's an even better solution because I now get an external display that shows me what instrument is playing at any given time (and which will display 'INSERT BUCKAZOID' when I quit Space Quest!)
(Interesting aside: removing the LAPC-I technically plummets Karga's bluebook value. EVERYTHING else is cheap to replace and largely unwanted... but LAPC-Is can sell for $500-$1000 today. I don't know why, but they do.)
But that success was a false positive. Next I re-ran all my cables so the MIDI boxes, the receiver and the KVM switch would tuck into areas of the desk. I moved Karga himself to the left so I could center the rudder pedals and I put the Game Voice, modem and VGA switch on top. And when I put everything back together... no picture on the monitor! All that work and the new graphics card was a dud... and I'd screwed something up so that the keyboard wasn't working either! I couldn't even take fun pictures of the mess because my iPhone's camera had a nasty scratch that was making everything look fuzzy. Then I checked the tracking for the Amiga and found that it had apparently moved only five miles in a week. And then the new monitor arrived... BROKEN! The whole experience left me just plain crestfallen. I couldn't even think about the project for a few days. I left Karga open by the desk, cables everywhere.
Like most rational human beings, I deal with depression by spending an unreasonable amount of money on Dune memorabilia:
And methodically reorganizing my blurays and narwhale finger puppets:
What a difference a week makes!
I sat around feeling sorry for myself and started playing through Mass Effect 2 on Insanity to be ready for Mass Effect 3. Then came some great news: the Amiga had arrived in New Zealand! I should have known USPS tracking just sucks (it's STILL in Gaithersburg, Maryland as far as the government is concerned.) That little bit of news revitalized me and I set about ordering some more parts:
* Working on the assumption that the S3 was bad, I purchased another one on eBay... for $2.50. Oddly, it came from an art supply "co-op" and showed up wrapped in an empty box of candies (like the kind of fancy candy you buy for a pretty lady or someone in the hospital.)
* Cables, cables, cables! The greatest thing in the world is placing a big Monoprice order and that's exactly what I did. I ordered some shorter VGA cables so I could switch between Karga's 3dfx card and the S3, a female-to-female serial cable to finally plug in the 'mouse' part of the Thrustmaster TQS, several cables so I could split the audio between the speaker system, some velcro dots because the modem kept falling on the floor and a hundred rainbow velcro ties with which to clean up my giant mess of cables.
* PS/2 adapters for the Amiga! I ordered a "Lyra 2 4000" and a "Micromys V3" to let me use a keyboard and mouse (respectively) with the Amiga... whenever it returns. I may still need a video solution... but that can wait! (Actually, while moving my 70-pound CRT back and forth AGAIN, I noticed that it has a European-style RGB connector... it may be that I already have a monitor that will work with the Amiga's lower refresh rate. I need to look up the model.) These adapters are coming from Germany, so between that and the repair in New Zealand it's truly an international project.
And notice how clear those photos are? I suffered through the Apple store Genius process to have my phone's backplate replaced. $29 and they do it right there in five minutes.
So on Saturday I put in the new S3 into Karga and... success, a video signal! And after some back and forth with getting the feature connector put in every way but right I had the VFX-1 powering up!
Here's the totally rad old-school install program:
And here's a shot of one of the eyepiece in action!:
It's VERY COOL! It fits on my enormous head (really, it's larger than a normal head) and I can see the right LCD clearly even with my horribly broken single eye. I'm very, very impressed. I'm not sure if I'll do much with it now that it works but... it multiplies the coolness factor of the whole setup. I can't wait to get a picture of everything together.
(Aside: in the process of mucking about to test the different cards, I noticed that the Voodoo 5 has what looks like a VESA feature connector. That surprised me, as the thing doesn't output a truly VESA-compatible signal in the first place. For the sake of history and possibly an open PCI slot I decided to experiment with it... with no luck. Future Googlers: you can not plug a Forte VFX-1 into a Voodoo 5's feature connector. It just doesn't work. Sorry.)
Pix actually has an article on his experience with Wings of Glory in the VFX-1 and it sounds AMAZING. I can't wait until I have a chance to try this:
http://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/wings-of-glory-on-the-vfx-1/
And here's a funny promotional video from Forte about how the VFX-1 is the future of computer entertainment:
And for good measure, here's a video of a pretty blonde girl teaching Chinese people internet acronyms:
(Another side: adding the S3 means that I can now play the Wing Commander III demo WITH the video introduction! Woo!)
So I was VERY relieved that that was working! I still need to put all of Karga's external bits and pieces back together, but that will wait for next weekend when the colorful velcro ties arrive from Monoprice (Monday!)
I also added the velcro dots for the components that sit on top of Karga. Voila:
... and now they won't fall off!
I guess I'm getting to the crafting phase of this project. Stop me when I'm painting nose art on the side of the case.
Huh, Karga won't shove back into its position. Is something in the way? Yes:
But don't worry, says Grey, I can just destroy your VR headset instead:
(Actually, she's obessed with the VFX-1's "CyberPuck" controller, which is a small hand-held mouse-like device that's works with some games so you don't need to have a mouse on a flat surface. When I had the box sitting open and the cyberpuck was in a little plastic bag she was continually picking it up and running off with it. I'd better leave it disconnected or she'll pull down the whole setup at some point...)
But what about the AMIGA, you ask? Well, some great news arrived on Sunday... the repairs were completed! Here's what was done:
Tested unit, fault confirmed. Damage to audio stage and other areas of board due to leaking electrolytic capacitors. Replaced U402 which was corroded. Replaced C407, C408, C409, all 22µF and 4.7µF SMD electrolytic capacitors. Repaired open circuit PCB tracks. Replaced RTC battery as existing one was showing signs of corrosion. Recalibrated 32.768kHz real time clock oscillator. Passed flex and soak testing, passed all function testing, OK.
So now the Amiga is in the mail and should get here in one to two weeks!
Dundradal also suggested what I think is the best name for it so far: Lazarus, after the transport from Action Stations. It seems appropriate both for the Amiga's history and... you know, since it's going to rise from the dead. I'm still open to suggestions if anyone has anything better, though!
(I took some nice high res photos of Karga's innards, but I forgot to bring my memory card to work. I'll post them later!)
