August 1, 2012Old School Game Blog

Going AROS: The First Steps

The AROS Kitty by Manu (http://cartoonspace.webs.com/)
The AROS Kitty by Manu (http://cartoonspace.webs.com/)

Hi guys,

Many people are enjoying the Olympic Games in London these days, while others are playing retro games. Guess I belong to the last mentioned category. Lately I’ve been playing It Came from the Desert on my Amiga. After writing the post about the return of Cinemaware, I just had to try it again.. needless to say, it was hard to stop. 😀 It’s such a great game, atmospheric and challenging. Any of you following the Olympic Games by the way?

Anyway, let’s get back to the topic of this post, namely AROS.

It’s done. I’ve decided to go full steam ahead with my AROS plans. That means that I’ll be building an AROS compatible computer. I’m currently gathering all the necessary parts, as well as reading up on the various distributions and the pros and cons with them.

Here’s the specifications of the computer I’m building:

  • Form factor: Mini-ITX
  • Case: SuperCase MI-008
  • Motherboard: Intel D945GCLF2 with Intel Dual Core Atom 330 CPU
  • RAM: Either 1 GB or 2 GB
  • HD: Western Digital 160 GB
  • Optical: Sony Optiarc AD-5240S 24x DVD-R/RW

I’ve already got the case, HD and DVD-drive from a previous AmigaOS 4.x project, so I only need to get the motherboard and some RAM. I was lucky enough to get hold of the motherboard for a fair price the other day, so I’m waiting for it to arrive in the post. The only thing that remains to be purchased is therefore the memory. 🙂

The is the type of case I've got down in the basement, ready to join the AROS revolution.. ;) (picture taken from http://www.supercase.gr/en/p/1-cases/2-super-case/32-itx-series/131-super-case-mi-008)
The is the type of case I’ve got down in the basement, ready to join the AROS revolution.. 😉 (picture taken from http://www.supercase.gr/en/p/1-cases/2-super-case/32-itx-series/131-super-case-mi-008)

The motherboard listed above, Intel D945GCLF2, was used in an edition of the Imica AROS machine by ClusterUK some time ago. It is completely compatible with AROS, which means that I don’t have to struggle with compatibility issues.

With these specs, AROS will run very, very nicely. 🙂

Once everything is assembled, I’m going to do a detailed post with a video of the machine in action, along with a few pictures of the various parts used. I must say that this is a cheap way to get a next-generation Amiga system up and running.

Have a nice day everyone! 🙂

15 comments

  2. Hey buddy, that looks like the start of a great project and am looking forward to seeing how your build progresses.

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  5. I have to wait a while before I can get to my project (computer that is, I have a million others but would be too long to list), but I cannot wait to see you finish your AROS project.

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  8. I am thinking about getting a Raspberry Pi to run Aros on. I got Linux running on my desktop so I think I will play a bit with the hosted Linux Aros version. I had it installed a year, or even more, ago and it ran really great.

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