Amiga 4000 Restoration featuring Commodore Engineer Dave Haynie - Trash to Treasure (Pt3)

[@RMCRetro]

Huge thanks to Dave Haynie for sharing such an interesting insight into the A4000 and his memories of the company. Thanks also to amigapassion.co.uk for helping me to source the scan doubler (this is not a sponsorship/gift, they were just really helpful!) - and to all of you Amiga fans who have been following the series. Here's hoping the thing I mention at the end comes through! If you've enjoyed the series and would like to watch the next RMC video right now then head over to patreon.com/retromancave for early access to all videos, ad-free. Your support is hugely appreciated. Neil - RMC

[@bryndal36]

Awesome video, Neil. Here's hoping the Video Toaster is real.

[@andrewenglish3810]

Look up Louis Rossman on YT. He fixes Macbook's which are all surface mount components. If you want to improve your skills watch him. :)

[@skilletpan5674]

Try eucalyptus oil for removing stickers etc. www.bosistos.com.au/blog/essential-oil/5-sticky-situations-you-can-solve-eucalyptus It's an ancient Australian remedy for removing glue and it's also good for breathing. My father used to use it to remove glue residue from old book covers etc. Also Tea tree oil is some times used.

[@RonHelton]

Nice to see Dave again. He hasn't posted anything on his channel in over a month. A nice finish to the Amiga 4000. Cheers.

[@ryanyoder7573]

That Dave interview is the type of content that sets you apart.

[@catriona_drummond]

I have been in an LGR video and an RMC video now, both for donating keyboards. My life is complete. :P

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you Catriona, from me, Gizmo and Amiga

[@bluespartan076]

gota wait and donate a keyboard to both the 8bit guy and nostalgia nerd

[@catriona_drummond]

@@bluespartan076 8 bit guy gets no keyboard fro me, maybe a box of fresh paperclips. :P

[@Vanders456]

After the Jif & Brasso I was already thinking "This is the most British computer restoration ever", and then you go and pull an NI card out of the floppy drive...

[@MarkTheMorose]

It's just a shame it wasn't a collectible card from a packet of Lyons tea.

[@ArthLud]

You cannot get the card like that anymore (I got mine just in time!) so I guess it's kinda collectible lol

[@MarkTheMorose]

@referral madness N.I. = No Idea. ;)

[@Vanders456]

@referral madness Stick it in a 3.5" floppy drive?

[@AKsevenFOUR]

More Dave Haynie please. I could listen to him for hours. He's the real deal and so bloody humble. One of my true idols.

[@Waremonger]

I can't wait for a full interview with Dave Haynie.

[@CollinBaillie]

Yay for not twisting those caps off!! I'm looking at you Adrian!

[@bsvenss2]

Collin Baillie Haha 😂 You stole my comment. I was thinking the exact same thing.

[@laserspaceninja]

That was the first thing that I thought. Didn't he say something about a Toaster on his video?

[@EsotericArctos]

Twisting caps has always bothered me, it doesnt take much to heat them up and take them off neatly. :)

[@MegaMasa2000]

hot air is very slow method to remove caps. you will melt plastic on when removing caps from a600 and a1200, doesn't matter how much you try to protect plastic. also when caps leaked much, pads have very thick layer of corrosion and you will need to heat caps for several minutes before they remove, so the caps can explode. if you are incapable to remove caps properly with twisting, use hot air. professionals have better methods to remove caps than hot air.

[@wishusknight3009]

It really is worth getting an SMD rework station. Two prong soldering iron basically. You use a small amount of flux and essentially tweeze them off.

[@martinjgriffiths]

Out of all of your repairs, an Amiga restoration has to be the best of the lot. I wish i'd kept my Amiga 4000 and I doubt i'll ever be able to afford one again! How depressing it was listening to Dave Haynie talk about Commodore, I remember how I felt when they went bust, I was pretty low at the time. So much engineering talent and so many lost opportunities. Keep up the good work on your electronic antiques! One day some of your pieces will be as rare and worth as much as a ming vase!

[@JanBeta]

Awesome work sir! Nice to hear Dave Haynie speaking about the troublesome history of the later Amiga years, too. I don't think I have ever seen an A4000 that didn't yellow at all, lucky you! Crossing my fingers for the *no spoilers* to arrive. ;)

[@KarlHamilton]

Dave Haynie is one of the coolest guys on the planet.

[@DaveHaynie]

Awww.....!

[@shameless_2]

That interview starting around 11 and a half minutes is really really interesting. Thanks so much for sharing it. Great video.

[@Mrdibzahab]

I once build my own 68020 accelerator card for my A500. I remember it hanged sometimes when MMU code was executed. Dave took the time to blow the dust of his '020 reference manuals (he was working in '040's then I guess) to give some very helpful advice (in comp.sys.amiga.hardware or so). That was such a nice thing to do. Nice to finally see him here, after so many years.

[@DaveHaynie]

If you didn't have an MMU, the trick was pretty much to not run any MMU code :-) Did you have the MC68551 in your design? I do recall there were a few tricks on that... don't exactly recall what they were anymore :-) All documented in the PAL equations, I think.

[@paulfinney]

Interesting Video Toaster fact, the first ones were built by Brag Carvey, brother of Dana Carvey from SNL and probably most famous as Garth in Waynes World. Dana said he based Garth on Brad as well.

[@lwilton]

Brad was an interesting guy, as were many of the people in the Amiga design community in the early years. I recall sitting next to him on some long bus trip at some now-forgotten convention, chatting with him.

[@medes5597]

Garth wears video toaster shirts in both Wayne's World films as well.

[@DaveVelociraptor]

What a brilliant result. Why did we not see the beauty in our micros 20 years ago when we chucked them out or hid them in our lofts?

[@nickolaswilcox425]

the same reason most people are tossing out old laptops and things like xbox 360 and ps3 consoles, commonly available, unreliable and prone to break down and will continue to take up space long after its purpose has been lost. makes it real easy to collect most of this stuff since they can be found everywhere and popular opinion on them is still poor, heck the ps3 got a price jump once people figure out what was actually dying in them and knew how to properly fix a yellow light condition and the wii has started climbing back again now that more people realize how hackable they are

[@dhirajpallin2572]

Well, I'd drilled holes and chiselled slots in my 1200 case so that I could mount a 3.5" HDD on top.

[@raggersragnarsson6255]

Luckily I've kept a lot of old kit. You never know it can be in later years, especially with Linux OS to reinvigorate old PCs. I kept most of my old consoles and enjoy being a few steps behind the modern curve as it's a lot cheaper. I'm buying as many old PS, Xbox and PC as I can to keep them for the future. They will be collectible in time to come.

[@8ightbytes186]

Thanks so much for another superb Trash to Treasure series! Getting Mr Dave Haynie in on the series too, was the icing on the cake for me. That guy was (and still is) an Amiga Legend. To hear his take on the commodore history.. just fantastic! Really hope that the Video Toaster stuff happens too... and as always... eagerly awaiting the next RMC video. Great work Neil....

[@jkdsteve]

I got my first Aminga 4000 in 93 or 94, it was my main computer up through 2001/2002....zero regrets! :D

[@JohnSmith-iu8cj]

I really enjoyed Dave Haynies Interview! Please bring him back for another one! I love the old stories about chip design, manufacturing and management decisions.

[@mumboking]

It's kind of bugging me that the optical and floppy drives aren't flush with the case front.

[@jeejeeverbove4301]

It's probably just the fascia clips that aren't properly seated

[@markk5764]

Me too!

[@heidirichter]

Me too!

[@azumono]

lol - your screwdriver must be magnetized because it warped the image on the CRT slightly when you were pointing at it

[@RMCRetro]

It sure is, I noticed that in editing and though whoooops, someone will call me out on that :D

[@blaknift]

I completely disassembled and put back together a Tandy CM-5 monitor last week with a magnetized screwdriver. Didn't even think about it until after the fact. Didn't harm anything, But I was sweating for a bit.

[@JohnSmith-iu8cj]

blaknift what could happen?

[@billybollockhead5628]

John Smith bang

[@andycraig7734]

John Smith Magnetic fields can cause strange color changes on a CRT. Not a big deal if it’s a small magnetic field but strong magnets can cause serious issues with the picture, requiring a degausser. Many CRTs have a built-in degausser right behind the bezel, which will run for a second when you power them on.

[@haydengittins2836]

Still amazing to think that the original effects for B5 were done on an Amiga. The effects were so far ahead of anything else at the time. Still my favourite SciFi series of all time :)

[@lwilton]

I seem to recall Strazinski saying that they had a room with something like 12 toaster systems in it, all sitting there rendering 24 hours a day once they got the scenes designed.

[@digiowl9599]

@@lwilton Too bad the original 3D model files were lost.

[@alexatkin]

@@digiowl9599 I'd still kill for a Babylon 5 game, imagine how glorious it could look with current technology.

[@fredsmith1970]

A4000 - the big daddy of Amigas and on everyone's wish list back in the day. I never get tired of the Amiga related videos, and can't wait for the Toaster/Crying video and the in-depth Dave Haynie tea break. Thanks again for another great post. :-)

[@Colin_Ames]

Very interesting to listen to Dave Haynie. I hope we hear more from him. As for the computer, it turned out nice, as do all of your restorations.

[@CelentAle]

Amiga OS classic and new AmigaOS4 Final Edition! Fantastic system evolution from 1985! 💪👍

[@bobz1736]

Better than any 'official' TV program. I've followed you for years and the production values, entertainment and valued content is top notch!!

[@RMCRetro]

Very kind thank you Bobby

[@batlin]

Wow, Dave Haynie doesn't seem to have aged much in the 35 odd years since starting with Commodore!

[@danilko1]

He hides it well.

[@Alphadec]

cannot wait for more with Dave Haynie, please try to ask what Hombre would been like. ?

[@Waccoon]

Dr. Ed Hepler, the chipset architect, released the specs to the public a while ago - archive.org/details/Hombre_201808 Interestingly, it shared a lot of ideas with the chipset Flare designed for the Atari Jaguar, but was faster and had a better cache system. The main chip was a full CPU with some GPU instructions tacked on, so low-end systems would do everything on the single hybrid chip, while high-end systems would have a separate, discrete CPU for extra performance. OpenGL was to be used as the 3D API, which in my opinion is the most revolutionary thing of the day, back when everyone else was doing proprietary nonsense. It was also designed with the then-new PCI bus in mind, but low-end systems could use a cheaper peripheral bus if needed. Hombre supported four playfields and apparently used its layer system in lieu of a traditional sprite engine. The blitter could do blending and gouraud shading, though it's hard to tell how well the chip could do textured 3D. The copper had been reworked to be 64-bit and could handle jumps, but it could only count vertical lines, and not both vertical and horizontal like the original chipset.

[@DaveHaynie]

I'll tell. One of the nice things about talking this stuff 20-30 years later: no more secrets, no more Commodore to worry about. I always try to tell as much as I know about it... hopefully not too many cobwebs up there in my brain!

[@10MARC]

Nice to see Dave Haynie showing up! How nice! Make sure you talk to Steven Jones about your Toaster - He had to get a bunch of NTSC cameras and equipment to do much of anything with it since they do not work with PAL equipment at all. (And make sure you keep an eye on my Video Toaster Toastorial video series)

[@StevenSmyth]

Good on you, RMC. I am too old to have game nostalgia but boy, did I want a Video Toaster if for no other reason than to run Lightwave. That's one I'm looking forward to.

[@ryanmacewen511]

Thank you for such an awesome video. It's always great to hear from Dave Haynie. I'd like to share a trick for typical sticker adhesive. You are on the right track with WD-40, but far quicker and cleaner is to use simple lighter fluid. Most adhesives of this type are petroleum based. Lighter fluid does not attack ABS,, Acrylic, HDPE, PC. or printed pigments, or paints. I typically will get nearly all glue off with the first few wipes, LIghter Fluid dries quickly with very little odor or residue. A final clean with IPA, or detergent, is often not needed. I whole heartedly recommend to pick up some lighter fluid for the home and shop. Stickers quake in fear,

[@MrJimmyk9]

The A4000 was the machine of my dreams, one with a video toaster... Mind Blown! And not just because I was a fan of Babylon 5.

[@MarkTheMorose]

"Well, he's a Vorlon alright."

[@IJDM]

I just had one given to me today with matching monitor and all three toaster cards, I am working on restoring it, per this guys video series, it has not been powered up since around 1996, stored in my buddies shed for nearly 20 years. I am not sure I am up to this long restore process when it comes to re-capping tho!

[@InCaldera]

Your restoration work paid off cause it definitely looks fantastic for a machine it's age.

[@milk-it]

This video sets the standard on capacitor replacement, rejuvenation, and bringing in an historical component. Well done.

[@Brubiedoobee]

I had a toaster in my 2000, and an AGA toaster in my 4000, and I did play games on both as well. Two random thoughts: First, in the US, Commodore spent a bunch of money to place a commercial in the 1989 World Series. The game was in San Francisco. An earthquake hit and the commercial didn't air. Second, One of my favorite add ons was Sunrize Industries AD516. It was a Zorro II card that recorded 4 tracks of 16-bit audio. It was so much fun to play with. I would use it to make mixed tapes. If you ever come across one, play with it. Good times and fond memories are found here. I thank you.

[@GadgetUK164]

Great to see you using hot air to remove those old pesky caps (and not twisting them off)!!! Wonderful interview with Dave Haynie there too!!! No games!?!? The people I knew who had an A4000 back in the day got theirs JUST for games lol! Glad they used HP for some of the chip - probably a reason they've survived so well!

[@boydpukalo8980]

The 3000 & 4000 are my favorite Amigas. I almost built a 500 in the Checkmate like you did, but as I learned about the Amigas history I fell in love with the big box variants. So my Black Checkmate case is getting an AA3000+ board with a custom sheetmetal fitting kit made by Simon Marston. And my A4000TX board is going into a Fractal Define 7 case. Exciting times for Amiga where you can build brand new boards. Thanks for getting me into Amigas after watching your videos.

[@Vanessaira-Retro]

Babylon 5 is my all time favorite show, and I had to get an Amiga 4000 with a VideoToaster just to share that piece of history with it.

[@DaveHaynie]

Yes! My stock answer when someone tries to bait me into the whole Star Wars vs. Star Trek thing.

[@Aeroman66]

Everybody has their idols.. Dave Haynie is someone I would be really glad to meet personally

[@DaveHaynie]

I missed out on at least two shows this year! I had planned to go to Amsterdam this month, and the UK for a show in October. Let's cure this frickin' pandemic before people stop asking :-)!

[@byrons8956]

I always love (and hate what could have been) hearing about the last days of Commodore, can’t wait for the longer Dave Haynie video. I’ve been looking at a way to put a GoTek in an external case and also thinking of getting a Toaster 4000.

[@VonMagXL]

I talked my mother into buying me an Amiga 3000 for high school. I got it used for $2700 and eventually upgraded to 2MB chip ram and 16MB fast ram (odd zip style memory if I recall correctly. Pain to install one chip at a time) plus an extra 240MB HD. Then the A4000 came out all too shortly thereafter with AGA. But as the video said, no built-in flicker fixer (my God what a difference for BBS and productivity use in 640x400). I still played plenty of games on it (F-18 ran great), but still had my 1989 A500 for other games, upgraded to 1MB chip ram and a "Mini-Megs" 2MB ram expansion so I had 3MB ram on an A500 which with a "RAD" ram disk, I could play It Came From The Desert with no floppies. OMG, it was so much better with almost no load times for the best game ever made for the Amiga, IMO). I later got a Retina graphics card for the A3000. It had a great 24-bit paint program with it, but other software wasn't appearing so I sold it and got a Retargetable graphics card that me use true color with web browsing. I used the A3000 until mid-1999 when I got my first PC followed later by a dual CPU PowerPC based Mac Digital Audio at a computer show used for $200 in 2006. I upgraded it to 1GHz G4, 2GB of ram and SATA controller with 2TB drives to run my whole house media center in 2007 off early Apple TV (dumped all my Dvds, photos and music). It was then I realized OSX was the spiritual successor to the Amiga OS. I bought a MacBook Pro in 2008 with Logic Pro and A Mac Mini i7 server in 2012, later upgraded to 2TB SSD and 16GB ram and runs Win10 also (KODI on Shields can access Mac Media drives from either OS), but then Apple ditched OoenGL and then Intel so all gaming dried up. I bought a PS4 for my home theater and run emulation of C64, Amiga, arcade, Atari, etc off the Nvidia Shield. I have yet to decide what desktop to get next as I despise current Apple (ARM killed so much software) and Microsoft (Spyware/Adware in the OS now!) and mostly use my Android phone these days. It'd not just Commodore that screwed up home computers...

[@marvindroogsma7989]

Having witnessed my 'Titanic' Amiga 4000 being fully restored, I know what a tough job that machine can be. Good job, they deserve preservation!

[@sinephase]

13:50 - that was an interesting time. NT supported a few architectures around that time probably for the same reasons. Nobody knew which way architecture was going!

[@RMCRetro]

I remember when I first saw NT running on Alpha hardware at work... it was like some kind of witchcraft.

[@DaveHaynie]

Funny thing... you could pretty much get NT on anything. Microsoft did it first with MIPS, in that early effort with NEC to create a new RISC standard platform called ARC. The problem was that the chip owner or owners wound up basically doing much of the work themselves and paying Microsoft for the priviledge, but Microsoft never supported any of the RISC ports much at all. You couldn't get Office on the ported versions, for example. DEC managed the Alpha version -- I had an Alpha PC for a little while at PIOS in the mid-90s. They were the only ones to do realtime code translation to run many Win32-x86 binaries. Motorola got hit with something like a $25 million bill to support NT5 -- which of course became Windows 2000 -- and by that time, with Apple cancelling the open MacOS, they were pretty much done with the whole experiment.

[@sinephase]

@@DaveHaynie thanks for the reply! :D

[@mikerichards6065]

Wow! That's quite a clean-up, I don't think my A4000 looked that factory-fresh when it came out of Commodore's Philippine's plant. The A4000 was never a handsome machine like the A3000, but it's good to see one looking quite so bright and clean after - HOW LONG???? OMG - I've got old!

[@DaveHaynie]

I do agree about the A3000 look -- that was a nice looking machine. A pain to put together, but you got used to it, bloody fingers and all. I've been putting together a PC system based on the Checkmate A1500 Plus case that Steve Jones was kind enough to sent me late last year. This is a very A3000-looking case, but infinitely easier to set up internally! This will be my work PC for a new vacation house... it's weird, but these days you could actually work from your vacation house, eh?

[@Inject0r]

Lovely series. Thanks for the back story and lovely repairs! I’d love to watch that Tea break some time!

[@firestar3x]

Thumbs up even before watching the video, Dave Haynie, what a legend.

[@ChEd1980]

If you have issues with stubborn sticker residue try using a pencil eraser, just rub it over the residue. I didn't believe it until I tried it but it works great when the surface is flat, obviously creats mess with the rubbings but you can hoover that up.

[@RMCRetro]

This I have to try....thank you

[@ZylonFPV]

Your videos keep getting better and better. Mixing interviews with repairing real machines is such a good format. The chilled music is great too. Dave is awesome! Really enjoyed this video.

[@ordinosaurs]

I completely approve you keep this model nearly in stock configuration. "It belongs in a museum !"

[@koushiroizumi0]

Is it the best, most powerful configuration for it?

[@attilaracz2034]

Fantastic video! Thank you v much. It's a shame what happened with Commodore and the Amiga. I still have an A1200. What a great machine!!

[@ArthLud]

I really wonder how the computer market would look like today if Amiga actually stayed on the market! I really find your channel great, Neil! The interviews with people personally responsible for creating that great stuff? That is amazing!! Thank you for that!

[@RMCRetro]

You're very welcome Arthur, thank you!

[@cbmeeks]

Thank you for doing it the RIGHT way. I am so annoyed that other KZbinr's who are very popular just take pliers and rip them off. Sure, it may work out for THEM, but they are teaching bad habits. Hot air is the right way. I've used hot air even on caps that were so corroded that you literally couldn't see the legs. Hot air still worked. Just have to slowly warm the board up and gently apply more heat around the target area. Smaller nozzles work good in that situation.

[@EricTViking]

Best thing for removing sticker residue? Akasa TIM Clean. Absolutely magic stuff.

[@qbie]

Maybe if you return Gwen’s NI card (if you can find her) maybe we can get some information about the history of the machine!

[@zoidzilla1976]

Great video. I always use spray furniture polish left on for ten mins at a time works great for removing labels/stickers etc.

[@yucelbilik]

patience and love. amiga worth it. thanks.

[@AbandonedMaine]

A Toaster retrospective would be a fascinating video subject.

[@silkee]

Amazing. I have my A4000 with loads of upgrades- I need to get mine restored and recapped too...

[@tony359]

Big KUDOS for removing SMD capacitors with hot air and not by yanking the components off the board with pliers and then blame some corrosion for damaging pads... To wash the board, may I recommend this product from Electrolube: SWAS05L. It's a water based cleaner, designed for cleaning PCBs in ultrasonic cleaners but it works really well manually too. The board needs to be submerged and gently scrubbed, then rinsed with some water (distilled possibly). If the board does not have components where water can get trapped, it'll make your board sparkling new at a reasonable price (it is reusable) and without toxic fumes. Also, some grime does not dissolve in alcohol. Finally, I like your way to solder SMD caps back - just one idea: as you are melting the solder in advance, I'd apply some flux before you put the caps down. That should make your solders joints even better. But to be honest it looks like a cool job.

[@RMCRetro]

Great tips thank you Tony I'll certainly take those on-board

[@remijakobsen424]

Very good video. My brother and some friends ordered the Amiga 1200 as soon it was available. They had to wait for maybe 3 months before they got it, because it wasn't enough of them to meet the demand in Norway, even there was almost no marketing for those machines by Commodore themselves.

[@SeverityOne]

I met Dave Haynie, or more accurately, I saw him, at the Amiga '89 expo in Cologne, Germany. I came by train from the Netherlands, yet I was one of the first near the tables where they sold tickets, and got in a pretty bad crush as more and more people starting showing up and pushing forward. Anyway, this was 1989, and information came from magazines. So the one person I knew was Jay Miner. And Jay was there! I shook his hand (as did thousands of others) and still have the "I made it to Ami Expo Santa Clara" autographed t-shirt. Behind Jay, there were a lady with long dark hair, and this guy with long wavy hair and a moustache. It's only later that I realised that this must have been Dave Haynie. Fun fact: he got one of the Checkmate replica A3000 cases, and built a beefy PC inside it. Incidentally, at that fair there was also Laura "Welcome back to Newtek" Longfellow who, contrary to her name, was very petite. Ah, the good old days. The next year, at the Amiga '90 where a good friend of mine was showing his Video Backup System, there was Armin Sander who wrote Oktatracker. I'd written a Mandelbrot set generator, using 16-bits fixed point arithmetic, that was optimised to the very last clock cycle, and used stuff like DJNZ because it was a few cycles faster per scan line. So it would fill the screen from bottom to top. And it still used the API to draw the image: no funny direct hardware access. It would take 40 seconds on an Amiga 500, and ran really quick on an Amiga 3000. When Armin Sander saw that, he boasted that he could do that twice as fast. Later, he came to ask how to draw a Mandelbrot set...

[@ianhughes5090]

Ohhhhhh the Amiga toaster Ive never seen one I will look forward to this thanks Neil for sharing

[@hrorm]

What a great journey this was , it turned out beautiful

[@doorran]

I'll say it again .. I need to do this... so I am happy to follow your lead. thanks for posting. I have an 060 fully loaded 4000 desk and a tower as well.

[@mrman17]

This makes me think of my Amiga collection - most of it is stuck in the loft. I'm not sure whether to keep it or not now. It includes my old "daily driver" A1200T with 060/PPC SCSI and gfx card, 2 or more A500s and A600s, at least 2 A4k desktops, a non-working A4000T (original, but it's a mashup of a Commodore and Amiga Tech parts. 3x A1200s, A2000, CDTV, a couple of Philips monitors and loads of bits and pieces collected over several years. I'm sure I had something like a Videotoaster card floating around, I'll have to have a look. I may be able to loan you something if you want to feature it on your channel?

[@th3d3wd3r]

Your SMD soldering was spot on! As always, an impeccable job. Goes without saying, a machine worth all the effort. I dream of one day owning a 4000T. Likely to be nothing more than a dream. If I did get one, i'd replace every component on the board if I needed to.

[@stephenhargreaves9011]

It's always sad to hear Dave. he was committed to the Amiga, but blocked by management who didn't have that commitment. I still occasionally watch his videos as they closed down :(

[@shadowsong1]

Peavey Bandit silver stripe making a sneaky appearance there. such a great unsung solid state guitar amp.

[@paulb4uk]

Superb work does indeed look like new .

[@SuperDerek]

Woo! Right on time dude! Love these restoration videos!

[@AmAtAm]

Brilliant interview with Dave Haynie, some new insights and I was glad to see he wouldn’t be drawn into the “A4000 is rubbish” narrative that has become a la mode in certain circles recently. The ‘030 version of the A4000 was released sometime after the original 040 model, as a replacement for the A2000. At £999 when new, it’s not surprising that it’s cpu performance is similar to an A3000, it was a fraction of the cost. Really enjoyable video.

[@DaveHaynie]

I kind of got out of the business of talking bad about anything from the Amiga industry that wasn't responsible for its death. Even Phase V :-)! There just was no point in it anymore. And sometimes I got educated. I mean, I did have a habit of seeing what I had wanted to build versus what we were all able to build, so I wasn't always happy with the result. But a huge number of people loved those machines. Even the A600 has its place. I didn't like how that had come to be made, that management had cut off the A500 -- while it was still selling -- and forced the A600 out there. But in the post-C= years I've met dozens of folks who love the A600, because it's compact enough to take to shows and these days they can run everything off a memory card. Who am I to say they're not happy, eh?

[@namakudamono]

Excellent video Neil. The production quality and content is absolutely top-notch. The restored A4000 really does look beautiful, although the Philips monitor doesn’t look quite right. Perhaps you can source the original Commodore multi-sync monitor that was original produced for the system (I believe...) to complete the package. It was interesting to see you upgrade to Kickstart 3.14, as I haven’t seen a great deal of coverage about this updated classic Amiga OS online. Finally, I’m delighted to hear that Dave will return for a full interview in the future, even if I do feel a sense of frustration listening to him talk about all of the incredible technology that Commodore allowed to slip through their fingers. Keep up the great work!

[@gsuberland]

For sticky stuff, look for limonene based degreasers. They're plastic-safe, very effective, don't make you woozy, and don't cause damage like acetone does. Xylene based agents will clear up just about anything but you really want to use that stuff outdoors if you're working with more than a tiny spritz of the stuff, lest you end up a bit wobbly from the fumes.

[@FintanMoloney]

Great chat with Dave - never had an Amiga but always wanted one as a kid, they are still a little pricy but going to look into the various hardware emulation options / Amiga forever software. Looking forward to hearing more from Dave.

[@StephenBlower]

Pro Tip (From an amature LOL) I use a very small painting brush to apply flux. The kind you use for painting pictures or miniatures not walls.

[@sffpv9671]

Great end to the series Neil. A little secret (or maybe not) to cleaning plastics I have found useful is oxi action granules and a magic sponge for stubborn stains.

[@skyplonk]

What a great series. Thank you.

[@osgrov]

Beautiful. I almost bought one back in 1992, but I convinced myself that the future was the PC, and got a 486 instead. Sad as it was, it was the right move. I still regret it, though. ;) Happy to see Dave Haynie doing well, and let me say that a LONG tea break with him is what everyone needs. That man is a treasure! Also intrigued and hopeful that you get that VideoToaster 4000. I've never seen one up close, so that'd be really cool.

[@AmigaFanatic1980]

Looking forward to the A1200 Trash to treasure, my favourite computer of all time :-)

[@EsotericArctos]

I really hope that Video Toaster is genuine. It would be great to see that running and all the things it can do.

[@BertGrink]

Great job bringing that lovely Amiga back it its former glory! 👍👌😁

[@RobA500]

Superb restoration, and thank you very much for not using the twist off method for recapping. The Dave Haynie brief interview was nice to see and fingers crossed 🤞 for the video toaster, I’d like to see one of those in action.

[@torrosixsixzero]

Great restoration. The Amiga has always been close to my heart, have so many memories. Great vid, and it's nice to hear from the people from Amiga history. :)

[@jkdsteve]

A 4000VT machine is a rare treat, hope that pains out.

[@SirReptitious]

I have my A1000, A3000, and A500 sitting in my closet. It was really sad when I had to retire them to the closet because they couldn't be used as a daily driver system. I really should try to find them homes, because I know that I don't have any use for them anymore. It's kind of depressing when I think about how much I spent on the A1000 and A3000; the A500 I bought used so it wasn't much.

[@SullySadface]

Ahhh, the perfect thing to wake up at 3pm and watch. Cheers.

[@AMarchant]

Another great episode, really appreciate the music selection again too.

[@Hairy_Lee]

Such a lovely looking machine!

[@AndrakarVideo]

Dear RMC. Thanks for your video!!! Great! Thumbs up! For soldering: I´ve learned, ALLWAYS use solder. Mounting like you did is ok, but to get a propper solder point, you have to use additional fresh solder. Thats all i´ve learned.

[@johnharden986]

Watching from West Chester, Pennsylvania, the resting place of Commodore.

[@DaveHaynie]

I still have not gone back to the old C= building, now a QVC studio and warehouse.

[@nicwilson89]

I coulda listened to Dave talking for dayyssssss. Looking forward to hearing from him again! :D

[@lwilton]

Wow. It's interesting that Dave Haynie still looks like he did back in 1992. I wish I could say the same for myself.

[@DaveHaynie]

What a nice thing to say... thanks! It might be all the IPA :-)

[@JapanPop]

The hot air gun approach looks tidy and safe. I’ve seen folks grab and twist with pliers! But that looked too hinky for me.

[@DaveHaynie]

He's doing it the way I'd be doing it... at least at home. I don't actually have a hot air system at work, though I can bring it down to the technicians if I'm not too lazy about it. Though I haven't used aluminum electrolytics in ... practically forever. A bunch of those A4000 caps could probably be replaced with ceramics these days.

[@JapanPop]

Dave Haynie Good to know. I have a Mac Performa 630 Dos Compatible that has the same style caps and will need a recap sometime down the road. I never had an Amiga, but it’s fun to get to enjoy them vicariously via channels such as these.

[@BollingHolt]

Fantastic! Y'all keep pushing me closer and closer to purchasing my first Amiga! ;)

[@BrightSpark]

Ah, now I know where I know him from - I saw a recording of his talk about the Amiga age of Commodore, "Commodore Part 3 - The Amiga Years", which is a follow-up of sorts to Bill Herd's "Tales from inside Commodore" - both are available here on KZbin and very fascinating!

[@MrVestek]

Great work, looks brand new!

[@DominicClifton]

3:41 I do it pretty much the same way, except that i put a little flux on the pad with no solder so that when you apply solder it flows better.

[@clay890]

I find lighter fluid removes sticker residue with ease and its just kind enough not to cause any problems. I also use lighter fluid for cleaning negatives and slides when scanning. Also use it for cleaning heat sink compound residue and I have never lost any items due to using it. Its very safe.

[@fredsmith1970]

...once the flames have burned out :-)

[@mdrumt]

Love the chill tunes in the background 😊

[@RETROCENGO]

Great story by Mr. Haynie, just think about Commodore releasing the AAA chip in 1990🤩 Congrats with the A4000, nice work, turned out really nice, my ocd just triggered then the CD rom drive dident allign with the front panel🤷🏻‍♂️😁 One sweet upgrade could be going for the full 16MB fastram. Levely series, looking forward to see the toaster, keep it up Mr. RMC Retrocengo

[@jeffhyche9839]

I had a choice to get a new A4000 or a used A3000. I went with the used A3000 and never regretted it. I loved my A3000and used it for several years after CBM went tits up. All though my current computer is way better than the A3000 in almost every way, sometimes I still miss my A3000. I've had many computers over the last few years but I still think the A3000 was one of the best designed computers ever marketed. I really miss the case and the keyboard.

[@anakondase]

Sad to say the front panel on mine is quite yellow. Tried the sunbathing retrobrighting last summer, had it out in the sun for a few days, but it actually got worse. Though, the yellowness is more even than before so I guess it's something. Have had my 4000 away for refurbishing (I am to self conscious to recap surface mounted caps) since it haven't been very stable lately. Waiting for it to come back any day now. Also got my Cyberstorm MkII upgraded from 040 to 060 so I'm gonna get the full power from it in the future. Makes me feel like a kid on christmas again!

[@Lilithe]

29:00 Degaussing that screen with the screwdriver to make it even more apparent what he's pointing at! :D