CD-ROM
9 messages in this thread
Help! I need some opinions regarding CD-ROM vs CDTV. I'm a Bridgeboard
owner, and have a "deal" of sorts, I can get a Toshiba CD-ROM drive and 8
bit SCSI card for the IBM side, along with a useful CD for 699 from a
company called CMC Research in Oregon. I _think_ that is a good deal in
itself; the CD-ROM has an access of about 380msec, and I could use the SCSI
board for additional hard drive storage on the IBM side. But, I assume I'd
need a driver to use it with the GVP SCSI card on the AMiga side, and I
also assume that there aren't any drivers at the present time for this
purpose (in addition to the need for viewing software, etc…) Does anyone
have suggestions? I also have Amax II and was wondering if the SCSI drive
would fit onto the end of the Amax cartridge?? Any and all comments would
be appreciated!!
Thanx in advance
Tim T.
– via Whap!
Tim
To address your last question first, no, putting the CDROM player on the
SCSI port of the AMax cartridge doesn't work — I tried it. I think the
drive must be initialized by the Amiga through startup-sequence for AMax to
"see" it. (Dopn (Don't quote me, though — it's just a guess). As for the
prices you quoted on IBM-compatible SCSI board & CDROM player, I think
that's a little steep, unless the Toshiba player is really fast. A PC SCSI
board can be had for about $35 (Western Digital), and it is possible to
find CDROM players for under $400, but they're generally the "previous"
generation of slower machines. I think the prices on these things are
coming down so fast, that it might be worth waiting a month or two to see
what happens. STill, I went ahead & bought one … depends on your
priorities/sales resistence……..
Kathy
There isn't a SCSI connector on the the AMax! That's a regular, Amiga,
pass-through floppy disk drive port. There's a connector for a Mac drive,
too. Any SCSI connector on your Amiga is connected to your SCSI
controller. 🙂
John,
(Blush) Maybe I should read the documentation? I have a Mac drive on the
cartridge, but just assumed the SCSI port was AMax-specific. It doesn't
work with Mac CD-ROM drivers, though. I think Amiga drivers are the only
things that are going to work.
Thanks for pointing that out. Is it too obvious that I'm a s/w type, and
only do h/w or firmware stuff out of necessity?
<sigh>
Kathy
I wouldn't blame you… it's a very dumb design decision that someone made
along the way. The "DB-25" D-shell 25 pin connector is everywhere. You'll
see parallel, serial, and SCSI ports all using the same connector shape.
At least the Amiga tried to break away from this, with its unusual 23 pin
monitor connector. In short, floppy drives aren't controlled with SCSI
signals. Many hard disks are SCSI, though. The Amiga's floppy drive
connectors are unique *electrically*, even though they might use the same
connector as some SCSI devices.
So, have you ever connected this CD-ROM drive to a *known* SCSI port, with
the Mac software drivers that came with it, under AMax II, using an Amiga
controller that's compatible with AMax II? I'm taking close interest in
what you're doing here, because I want to do it someday, too. I love
browsing those Apple developer CDs…
John,
Yes, I did try connecting to a known SCSI port — I even bought a special
cable for my SCSI harddrive controller to do so. The problem, I'm now
convinced (after being told often enough) is the lack of a CDROM software
driver to tell the operating system there's a CDROM player out there. So,
since those all seem to be specific to the particular SCSI controllers, or
so I've been told, I need to get one from MicroBotics, who made my SCSI
controller. I did get an email from someone at MicroBotics, and told him
what I've told you, but haven't heard from him again. Maybe I need to
jostle his memory and send him another note. Or maybe he's trying to find
out more about it himself. This is a pretty young technology, after all.
Lots of misinformation and lack of any information out there.
I'll be sure to let you know (via this forum) if I ever get it to work.
Kathy
You're saying that you tried dropping some Mac CD-ROM driver software in
your Amax's system folder, under AMax, and that you've got a controller
that is compatible with AMax II? I know GVP, IVS, etc. are compatible.
This means, if you've got a SCSI device, AMax II should be able to see it,
and I'd think that any Mac CD-ROM driving software would be able to use it,
too. Or is your problem that Microbotics isn't AMax II compatible yet?
I'm just trying to be very clear – I really want to do this, too – so
that's why I'm asking detailed questions.
John,
What I've done so far is boot AMaxII, once I get to the Mac prompt, with a
Mac system disk that has the NEC CD-ROM Interface s/w on it. I have used
this disk to boot a Mac SE to use the CD player (without accessing the
harddisk) successfully, but the method doesn't work on the Amiga. The
reasons for it not working are not entirely clear to me, but it is probably
one of the two you mentioned — either my MicroBotics SCSI controller is
not AMax compatible, or I need a CD-ROM driver on the ADOS side, before it
even gets to the AMax program.
One way I can find out if the MicroBotics controller is AMax compatible is
to reformat/repartition my harddisk and see if it works with AMax. If it
does or doesn't, that answers that. If it doesn't work, it still leaves the
question since it could be both things, not just the SCSI controller. I
just haven't had time/guts to reformat that HD yet … I've been
procrastinating about it for months now.
I'll keep you posted on what I find out.
Kathy