I found that in 2025 I rarely use the Amiga 600 in its current form - I find the A500 with the ACA500 Plus a more flexible platform. I use another A500 I setup recently for running a native v1.3 environment.

AmigaOS 3.2 runs way slower on the A600 than it does on my A500, since it can utilise the A1200 acceleration of a faster 030 A1200 accelerator card than I can put into the A600.

Sadly the crisp non-yellowed A600 keyboard I had failed just after I took the A600 to Perth back in 2023 for the Amiga group meeting. 

I haven't located another nicer keyboard yet, so I have to live with a old yellowed one that works...

I used the Checkmate Display connected to the A1000 system for this setup work. This allows me to connect the VGA output from the Indivision ECS and HDMI output from the PiStorm 600, and still use the SCART connected Amiga 1000 too!

This Checkmate monitor is such a useful thing to have! 

I have an S-Video add-on to install (thanks very much to Steve for supplying this) when I get some time, and plan to cover that in another blog entry.

Off topic a little bit, I should not forget that this is the 40th year of the Amiga, and along with a bunch of special shows globally, there is a bunch of special issue merch and magazines to celebrate this occasion. 

I picked up the Amiga 40 issue of Amiga Future magazine and a tote bag - they have plenty of other items too if you want to pick them up - have to admit I would still like the coffee mug:

Anyway, back to the build!

 

The Pistorm 600 kit came with a 64GB pre-prepared MicroSD card (inside a SD Card enclosure) with the latest 2025 AmigaOS 3.2.3 update installed on it, and a Raspberry Pi 3 to attach to the Pistorm 600 board.

Let's take a look at the PiStorm 600 board:

 

It has a floppy power port (which is not needed), the IO port to connect the Raspberry Pi to, and FPGA related chips.

On the underside is the part that sits over the 68000 CPU (which is surface mounted and can't be removed). You push this board on top of the 68000 CPU and it takes over the functions from the 68000 CPU to the EMU68 CPU running on the Raspberry Pi.

The colour instructions included with the PiStorm 600 show how to install it in the A600:

This is very helpful to ensure correct orientation:

Currently my A600 has a ACA630 accelerator on the 68000 CPU, so that needs to go first:

As you can see, my A600 is already packed to the gills with add-ons - Indivision ECS, A604n with onboard RTC, second clock port for the Subway USB, IDE to CF adapter (which has a CF to MicroSD adapter!), and a Gotek internal floppy drive.

With the accelerator removed, I set to work cleaning the contacts around the 68000 CPU since it has been years since I did it last.

This helps to ensure a clean connection for the new Pistorm 600 board.

With that done, I installed the Pistorm 600 and Raspberry Pi 3 on top of it.

Closer look:

I needed to remove the prepared 64GB MicroSD from the SD enclosure, since the Raspberry Pi uses MicroSD slot for the hard disk:

With the MicroSD card inserted, the next issue is how to route the HDMI cable to the outside of the case...

There is no much room, and a standard HDMI cable is too long to fit in the case without putting too much stress on the socket connector.

I ordered a right angle HDMI male to female cable to resolve this. In the meantime, I fed the cable straight out the back and didn't close the case up fully.

I also removed the onboard IDE CF card since the A600 will boot from the MicroSD on the Raspberry Pi, which has a prepared Amiga hard disk ready to use. Here it is, ready to test.

I connected the keyboard back onto the mainboard connector, loosely keeping the case on top without securing it to avoid damaging the HDMI cable.

It powered on, which is a good sign...

The system booted into Workbench 3.2.3 outputting to VGA first time. Very happy - it works!

I was enjoying modules using Hippoplayer from my A500 neighbour while working on the A600.

By default the setup is using the native Amiga screenmode for maximum compatibility, but in reality I want to use the RTG support built in to this setup. This system has over 360MB of fast memory! Yikes!

I ran the screenmode prefs and set to work with changing the screenmode to one of the EMU68 RTG screen modes. These screen modes use the HDMI output of the Pistorm. Native output of the Amiga required the VGA output from the Indivision ECS, so that is why I hooked up HDMI and VGA to the same monitor, to allow easy switching without needing a second screen.

In reality, the RTG screen modes are intended to use the 1080p or 720p output - anything else looks weird on the Checkmate display since it is using 4:3 aspect TFT screen.

If I use the native 1280x1024, it still looks weird. I think it is because the Checkmate expects HDMI to be 720p or 1080p input: Happy to be corrected Steve if you are reading this...

If I play with the 4:3, 5:4 or 16:9 display setting on the Checkmate, I can get a screen that looks right, but much smaller and doesn't fill the display:

This is 800x600 RTG output. Perspective is correct but doesn't fill the screen.

When I set to 1280x720 (720p), it fills the screen:

I'll live with it. It's good enough.

Now MagicWB drawers appears correctly:

I powered off and installed my original CF Card in the IDE onboard port, so I can copy off the games, demos and other applications and tools I was using on my previous AmigaOS 3.2 build on this machine.

One thing to note with this is that you need to hold both mouse buttons down on power on when booting to select the system to boot from the Raspberry Pi hard disk (DH0) and not the onboard one (mine is called HD0). By default it boots the onboard Hard disk as its priority is higher than the Pi hard disk.

I got to work copying across the files I wanted - mods, games, demos, applications and tools. Time for a coffee or two...

With some of the copying done, I could start to make this Pistorm 600 feel more like my system:

I kept working on copying stuff and got distracted playing Roguecraft on the A500 next to it while I was waiting.

I tested some games on the Pistorm 600 like Worthy, which worked well:

Note that games and demos use Amiga native video output, so this is using the Indivision ECS VGA output rather than the HDMI for the RTG Workbench screen:

Even though the pre-configured image supposedly had MUI on it, it was missing a lot of essential files:

I found that installing the MUI 3.8 supplied with the image failed on the installation. I copied across my newer MUI 5 installation archive from my A3000 to the CF card I attached to the A600 IDE port, and using that worked with the Pistorm 600.

Having MUI working was important since lots of applications and tools I use require MUI to work. I also needed to install AHI and some other tools. Naturally I had to get Eagleplayer working to listen to my favourite mods - as this is using true colour RTG Workbench I can use the 24bit skin for Eagleplayer which always looks great - it is so tiny on this 1080p screen:

Next I tried out some RTG compatible games, like Foundation Directors Cut. It looks amazing on the Pistorm 600, and runs silky smooth.

The game ran so slow on my 030 A1200 when I bought it on release, so I didn't play with it much at all. Now though, I have a reason to play it more! (Yes I know I can play it on the 060 A4000T too, but seeing it run so fast and with full colours on an A600 is just cool)

Now that Rogucraft is on my Pistorm 600 again, I can stop playing it on the A500 next to it:

One thing I will point out is that the I had trouble running WHDLoad demos on the Pistorm, and reading data CD's from the CD drive. Still need to work that out.

Fortunately Roguecraft works fine, so it took my mind off that for a bit.

Even X-Copy works on the Pistorm to format and copy real disks, so I am quite happy with that.

Next order of business if fixing the HDMI cable - I got two different right angle HDMI male to female extension cables as I was not sure which would fit through the floppy drive space, which is quite narrow.

The normal "fat" extension HDMI right angle didn't fit through the gotek hole or the floppy drive hole, so I am glad I bought the slimmer solution also.

The slim HDMI cable was REALLY slim. I have never seen a HDMI cable this slim. It is essentially even more thin than ribbon cable! The two ends have tiny latches to secure the ends of the cable at each end. One end (the male plug end) is a right angle plug.

As I suspected, this cable fitted perfectly through the hole since I didn't need to attach the end until after I threaded it through the gap.

This HDMI cable is much thinner than the Indivision ECS VGA ribbon cable to the left of it!

I then fed the HDMI cable through the A600 case and connected to the right angle connector:

I pushed down the clip to secure the cable:

Ready to connect to the Raspberry Pi 3 HDMI output:

Here is the HDMI cable now connected. It is so small and suits the A600 perfectly:

I then double checked the cable routing to ensure nothing would push against it or damage it, since it is so thin.

I could then put the keyboard back and secure the A600 case with screws. The HDMI cable now sits with the other USB and VGA output cables - I really wish I could find a nice solution for packaging these...perhaps someone can make a 3D printed casing to mount them into? Suggestions?

I moved the A600 system temporarily to my other room as I needed to access my Mac to copy stuff between them and I was tired of having to move between the rooms every time.

The HDMI output is working well, now connected to my second Checkmate Display, which I use for outputting game consoles like the PS2, Switch, ROG Ally and LaserDisc/DVD video output from my ES system setup I built recently.

I could then enjoy some WHDLoad demos, although I did hit some issues with running some of 1them.

WHDLoad Games on the other hand worked much better:

I fired up Supremacy for some nostalgia - I loved playing this game back in the day.

This game is a lot of fun and plenty of strategy involved.

I also tried out Doom 2, which runs perfectly on the PiStorm 600:

Never thought this would run so fast on Amiga 600, and in full colour using the RTG modes!

Let's turn our attention to the next part of this build - an external Gotek drive! Actually this is a story of two Gotek external drives - one from Sordan.ie and one from AranaNet.

The first one is the Sordan.ie one, which is very nicely packaged, with a 23 pin connector (not a 25 pin with two pins shaved off).

It doesn't need external power, and has a single USB port on the back to connect your ADF files for mounting as DF1 on the system using the navigation buttons on the top of the case.

On the bottom is some dip switches to change the drive from DF1 to DF2 or DF3. Default is DF1. This is very handy if you want to keep one real external floppy drive (that has a pass through drive connector on the back). You can then daisy chain this to the back of it and set it as DF2, giving you a real floppy drive and virtual option as well.

Here is my USB Stick attached, which is actually a MicroSD card inserted in a USB converter.

It looks good in the back of the A600, plugged into the disk drive port.

The external Gotek drive uses FlashFloppy firmware, the same as the internal Gotek drive.

However the FlashFloppy firmware on the external Gotek is much newer, v3.38 rather than 3.15.

With the A600 powered on, the Gotek floppy drive springs to life. This version of the firmware allows you to navigate through the files on the SD card without setting up the Selector first.

While this is convenient, there is also a menu option once mounted to change the write protect flag, eject the disk, and other options too:

That said, none of the disks I mounted on this Gotek appeared on the Workbench!

I put the usb drive into the other gotek, and booted into the AUTOBOOT image to select the disks to assign to numbers, which is needed to use the adf files with this version of the Gotek.

The interface is easy enough to use, but a bit annoying that you have to assign each adf to a slot number, and you then have to remember what slot number is which disk.

I put together a small list of ADF's to assign to slot numbers to test:

I then save the settings and reboot the system.

I then select a demo adf to try out - with the screen display you can at least see the name of the adf as you cycle through the slot numbers, so that is an improvement on the older ones that just showed the slot numbers only:

The disk booted from the internal gotek no problem, although most of the demos I tried crashed out. I heard this is an issue with Pistorm accelerated Amiga systems, and they recommend to use WHDLoad to launch demos. Kinda sad.

Games seem to have less issues - I launched Roguecraft ADF on the internal gotek and it booted and ran fine ini the Pistorm 600 system:

This proved the USB drive I prepared is fine. Frustrating that the disks don't mount on the external gotek I bought. I have another external gotek drive from Arananet. 

It also has a MicroSD card slot underneath, so I suppose it means I don't have to use a USB drive at all since it is in reality a USB to MicroSD adapter!

But, using the USB makes moving the USB drive between the external and internal gotek easier right now, so I will keep using the USB slot.

It worked immediately on the A600 Workbench, with the selected ADF mounting immediately. So the problem with the Sordan Gotek I received is not the A600 or drive connector. They work perfectly with another Gotek using the exact same USB drive and ADF files.

I could launch and run games from the external Gotek drive from Arananet, and even boot directly from it using the early boot menu.

I have no idea why the Sordan.ie gotek doesn't mount disks...but for now I have a working solution, so I am happy enough. If Sordan is reading this post, I welcome any advice on what else I can try to get your external gotek being able to mount disks.

When I need to change ADF files for a multi-disk game like Rotator, it is easy to do that too:

Turn the dial to the next slot which has disk 2, and then it will mount automatically.

I could then play the game as normal.

My original thinking was to put the multi-disk games with Disk 2/3/4 images on the external gotek and disk 1 images on the internal one, to avoid the need to swap floppies - I will need to prep another USB disk for that though.

Given this A600 has no floppy drives, the Gotek on internal and external drives is a surprisingly useful solution when paired with a PC/Mac that allows me easily transfer ADF files to the USB drives. 

I can also use the AmiKit XE 12 Amiga emulation on my Mac Studio to create blank ADF files, mount them in the emulation and transfer other Amiga files and data to the ADF files. I then eject the ADF file in the emulator and transfer it to the USB drive for use on the Gotek.

I know there are issues with getting PCMCIA network cards working with the Pistorm 600, so I decided not to bother with it at this time. I know Wifi support is "coming" for thePistorm 600, and this would be a better outcome since I use the Sony CD drive with the PCMCIA port. I also have other devices I want to connect through it, like Squirrel SCSI PCMCIA and the Aura sound module...I wish the A600 had two PCMCIA slots.

I could get around the network issue by connecting a parallel port plipbox to the A600 for networking - indeed I did this on my Pistorm 500 system.

But for the A600 I wanted try and do something different.

The next upgrade I got is an IMP box!

This upgrade works with the Infinity Music Player (IMP v3) application for streaming module player/irc/chess/IRC that normally needs network access to the internet to function.

With this IMPBox, it will connect your Amiga via your WiFi to work with the IMP3 software, no other networking software needed!

It needs external power to work (like the Plipbox also), so I hooked up a spare micro USB cable - it didn't come with it.

I mounted the IMP3.ADF file from their website on my gotek and copied the software to my computer:

Annoyingly IMP3 doesn't come with an icon. I got one for it online (I can't remember where I found it now sorry), so I will copy that icon from one of my other Amigas later on as it looks a lot nicer. 

I followed the instructions provided on their website to configure the SSID and Wifi credentials via AmigaShell to connect the IMPbox to the internet.

With that done, it is ready to try out!

When launching IMP3 from the shell, it needs to be launched with the 'ib' parameter to tell IMP3 to use the IMPBox to connect to the internet. It also updates to the latest version if needed (which requires a relaunch), and then you can set the screen it opens on. I the same 720p resolution as the workbench uses.

The default display font is tiny at 720p! I first need to register my NICK to use for this computer, which is tied to the unique CODE advised at first launch for this IMP3 installation.

The display on the IMPBox springs to life when mods start being streamed to the A600 from the internet, with VU meters for the four channels displayed as the mods play, and showing which users are currently also using IMP3 at that time across the world.

Downloading mods is slower than using a normal network card since it is using the parallel interface to transfer them, but it works faultlessly.

I fixed up the fonts to something more readable, and now IMP3 looks (and sounds) great on my Pistorm 600.

From my Mac Studio I can login to the imp website and login with my unique installation regcode for IMP3 (stored in s:imp3.reg) to be able to remotely select the next track, start and stop mods, pause, add to favourites, and more.

After I clicked 'Next Song' on the web interface, it then remotely triggered the IMPBox on the A600 over the internet to download and play the next mod from the internet as below. Very cool.

Next order of business is fixing the IMP3 program to have an icon. As mentioned I found a modern one a while back somewhere on the internet, and I copied it from another Amiga to this one.

However the icon doesn't support parameters as it is the wrong type of icon. Without that I have to launch the imp3 program from the AmigaShell to use the IMPBox.

So to solve this problem, I created a script file to cd to the IMP3 drawer and launch the IMP3 with the require 'ib' parameter. I then copied the IMP3 icon to a new icon called IMP3Box, and then named the script with the same IMP3Box name.

I then changed the IMP3Box script file properties "set filename FLAGS="SRWED" to tell AmigaOS to treat the file as an executable script.

 

I am particularly happy with the IMPBox solution - it works well.

The next thing I want to work on is trying to get a Wodem (serial network) upgrade I bought from Alinea Computers working on the A600. It is supposed to provide internet access via serial port!

Next to it is the optional joystick power thief add-on to supply power to the Wodem.

It fits snugly between the IMPBox and external Gotek.

It uses USB-C for power, and as mentioned I bought the optional power thief joystick module with it, to enable the power to be supplied from the Amiga itself.

The USB-C to USB cable supplied is too short for the A600 - it is clearly intended for Amiga 1200/500/2000 Amigas which have the joystick port at the back of the case.

When I ran the AddNetInterface Slip command to initialise the Wodem, it showed an error that it didn't recognise the Interface command in the Slip definition setup from the install script.

It still worked to initialise the Wodem via Roadshow TCP/IP stack though, so I just edited the Slip file in DEVS:NetInterfaces drawer to comment out the Interface command to remove the errors on initialisation.

I then needed a telnet program to telnet to the Wodem to configure it. For some reason Roadshow does not include a telnet program (!), so I downloaded AmiTCP Telnet and DC Telnet from Aminet.

I tried DCTelnet also, and got the same result: