Amiga WC Computer Embarks on Special Repair Mission

There's been quite a few updates since we last saw LOAF's new Amiga Wing Commander Computer. For starters, the system boots and runs Wing Commander! Unfortunately, the machine is afflicted by a leaky circuit board capacitor, which has killed the machine's sound. The issue is apparently quite common, however, and the Amiga is now on its way to New Zealand to be fixed by a repair person who specializes in exactly this problem. Read up on the full adventures at the CIC Forums here.

Good morning everyone! It's very cool that so many Amiga veterans are here... I had no idea there were so many of you.

I heard back from the Amiga surgeon and his rates are entirely reasonable... I just have to remove the motherboard and mail it to New Zealand! So, look forward to seeing some pictures of Amiga guts this weekend. My big worry is remembering how to put it back together... but it should make for a good story, and that's what we're here for!

(I KNEW that joke about Australians at the start of the thread would come back to haunt me.)

(Yes, I know Australia and New Zealand are actually different countries.)

I talked to Hades on IRC last night and he linked me to this: http://aminet.net/package/game/demo/WingCommander

The Amiga Wing Commander demo! I had no idea it was available to the public. He said he'd tried to emulate it but that it didn't work... so it's up to me to try it on the real thing!

IF this is the demo I've heard of then it should be pretty cool. It's not playable but has 64-color graphics instead of 16... and it shows the Sivar dreadnaught from Secret Missions, which never made it to the Amiga!

The problem is that I have no idea how to get this demo from my PC or Mac to the Amiga. I tried burning CDs a few different ways and the Amiga didn't recognize any of them. I did test its drive by loading some of my proper CD32 discs, which showed up just fine.

I've read online that you need to burn at very slow speeds, 2x or so, to get a CD32 to read CR-Rs... unfortunately, my burner won't go below 10x. So I'll have to experiment with different methods in the hopes of finding something the Amiga can read (I DID try downloading a CD32 ROM and then adding the wingcommanderdemo folder to the ISO... no luck there, either.)

Failing that, it sounds like there's a way to connect via null modem... if the Amiga has the right software for that onboard then maybe I can push the demo over from Karga. But I guess I'll have a few weeks to think about that...

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I know what you're thinking: an update on Saturday night?! Don't you write these at work to kill time? Shouldn't you be out partying with supermodels?! The answer to all three questions is yes, but this has been such an eventful night in classic Wing Commander machine-ing that I decided to go ahead and write a quick update now.

Thanks for the name suggestions! I'm really not sure what to go with, but I'll make a decision soon. Other ideas, from Twitter for the record: F-36, Amigo, The Behemoth, Eagle-1, Pathetic Insect and Hamburger Inferno. I do think the Amiga is female? Bertha was a girl for obvious reasons and Karga was male because Kilrathi ships are.

So, the Amiga's first surgery was this morning. My father, who has working eyes, helped strip it down to remove the main board. The board will be shipped to New Zealand on Tuesday for repair and if we're lucky it'll be back here in about a month.