PiStorm32 Lite for Amiga 1200 - Installation guide and review 

A 1-hour long 10-minute Amiga Retro Podcast, I love it!

As always I love to watch your videos. A great tutorial as always, already looking forward to the next one! ❤

I just put a PiStorm32 Lite with a 3A+ in my A1200 and it's fantastic. I configured the SD Card in Linux with fdisk and used the same partition type of 76 and it worked great. The biggest issue I ran into was trying to mount PFS3 partitions on my desktop after I set them up on my Amiga. I ended up keeping one large FFS partition for transferring things around. Having RTG so I can see more stuff on-screen is making me want to use my actual Amiga even more now!

10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast my source of inspiration. I only wish my PiStorm32 Lite had arrived already, I've been waiting for your video. Thanks Doug.

Hey friend, just found your channel as I drag all of my Commodore stuff out of the closet. You are exactly my age! I have forgotten so much about my Vic, C64, Amiga and your channel is a great resource to get back up to speed.

Man, you can't imagine how much this video helped me! I've been looking for how to set resolution in Picasso for months! :) Great! - I am very grateful to you for this!

Truly excellent video of the pistorm32 lite Doug.

Fascinating, thank you for the in depth video!

Thank you Doug you are a master with the Amiga and readily admit to any errors. Cheers

The best video about sdcard preparation for PiStorm. Thanks

I love all the work going into breathing new life into these old machines.

Great presentation style indeed! And a more than decent product, too. Cheers, M

Great video Doug! I’ve been curious about the Pistorm and might pick one up to tinker with.

Great stuff Doug!!

This is exactly what I needed, cheers Doug 👍😎 Also...yeah, ten minutes 🤔😂👍

Hello Sir, big thanks for this video and the series of others (that I haven't seen all yet but that will come...) cause it just ... works fine and great. My A1200 starts living again with lots of awesome memories on/with it. And yes you look great on your wedding day. Great initiative to support this lovely machine. Thumbs up!!

Great video as always.

Hi Doug! Thanks for an excellent guide and review of the PiStorm32 Lite! I have been on the fence concerning getting one, but decided to take the plunge today. :-) Your video was helpful in this respect. :-) Keep up the good work and have a good weekend!

The best tutorial 4 pistorm lite!

Thank you for the P96 tutorial!

Easily the best video on the PiStorm32-lite so far. Due to easter, and all post stopping here in Norway because of it, I've not received my PiStorm from Amigakit yet, but once post resumes it should arrive shortly. I'm quite excited to try it out. The drive emulation isn't very interesting to me, as I'm more than happy with the performance I get with FastATA mk3 and a fast mechanical HDD, but the RTG will be fun to try out. This should be an excellent interim solution until I can get the connector on my old accelerator card swapped out. To me, the super blazing speed isn't that important either, but the fact that I already own a Pi 3B, makes this the cheapest accelerator currently available for the A1200. :D

I'm following the vid in preparation for the arrival of my Pistorm32 tomorrow. Get done as much as I can before then. SD card prepped and the AmigaOS HDTools have been adjusted per the vid.

Thanks for this helped me set up my 1200 with p96 the latest one even fills the modes for you

I've never seen a more modest set of folks in my life!

Thank you very much for your explanations. I never really understood that RTG and picasso96 stuff. Now I do.

Thanks for the review, also for the Picasso info.

Great video. thanks

Thanks super Doug! Very interesting, I've been wondering how this project was coming along. It seems like it's made good progress since I last checked in on it, even if there's still a little away to go. Of course none of this would even be possible without chanting those new magic words "bing bang boom" at random intervals throughout the process 😄

Excellent video. Just a couple of small corrections: An 8Gb partition is 8192, not 8096. Filesystem Block Size: Setting it to a higher value on a huge partition does not make it faster. The block size setting should be relative to the size of the files you store on that partition. Smaller files = smaller block size will yield better performance, larger files = larger block size will yield better performance. So, for the Workbench partition, where all the files are small, the default is fine and you may even see a slight speed increase with a lower value. If you stored all your huge Art Department files on another partition, then definitely create that partition with a block size of 16384 or higher (preferably higher, if supported). You WILL see a performance increase there.

I loved the Amiga for games and from 2.04 onward for productivity. But the only thing I would want from it today is the UI, with the windows remembering where I last opened them and remembering icon arangements in a folder. I still like the look and feel of the OS and the Arexx scripting. But I want it working on a modern PC with a 4090 or 7900xtx, with full vulkan support and modern browsers. I love your videos for nostalgia, but when I can see the window draw itself I can only think of how much better we have it these days.

434 times FASTER? Wow, that's a Pi-STORM indeed! The 68K lives on in the RPi! Amazing that the OS still can be used.

Thank you for this Douglas, this has been so helpful. I followed your instructions but when it came to setting up the modes in Picasso96, no modes appeared. I am using the Picasso96 from Aminet. Is there anything else that needs to be added that was not mentioned in your video?

Thank you for this. I bought Picasso from Jens (because well, he does great work) and that setup is a tad different from where you click Picasso Modes. For the rest, I enjoyed your video and used it to mainly to set up RTG the pistorm. There still is a lot of development on emu68 fortunately and I'm looking forward to seeing what new features will come out of this. I'm interested in the networking part of it. I'm already getting quite a nice performance out of iBrowse with the pistorm32 and my pcmcia ethernet card.

I've gone back to my 030 card as everything works but just very slowly! Maybe when we get the full-fat chipram timing fix it will fair much better but nothing posted on the nightlys for a while.

This practical how-to video made a refreshing change from all that Cloanto versus Hyperion stuff! I have been toying with the idea of getting a PiStorm32 for my A1200, but I think it might be better to get the A500 version. What do you think? Thanks for uploading.

Again, great video Doug! Do you know if it's possible to mount a Pistorm SD card (that is also used as Amiga hard disk) in winuae? So far I haven't succeeded yet 😢 I'd like to transfer a huge amount of whdload stuff

Thank you for the informative video, Doug. You mentioned that networking isn't supported, will it still be possible to use a PCMCIA card with a network/wifi adapter on the 1200 ?

Nice guide! Wonder how fast the trains in A-train will run 🤣🤣

I find a better way of defining the drive types is to simply add ram: to the beginning so that it doesn’t write any changes to the already pretty full install disk. This would probably also deal with the bug you mentioned.

Hi nice video offtopic: where do you get the keyboard header and flatcable, i have the same custom keyboard but accidently damaged the flexcable.

Great info, I still going to use "real" accelerator, I'm putting one of my 1200 in ATX dektop chassie, with some mods..

Hmmmm....I did not have to manually add other modes with my setup like you did. Perhaps due to using an older core as Michal Schulz pointed out?

Thanks for the video. I've had my PiStorm32-Lite for a few weeks now. My A1200 is very similar to yours, except I'm using a CompactFlash adapter on the 44-pin IDE port. A couple of things I'm struggling with that I didn't hear you mention. First, when I'm booting off the PiStorm's MicroSD, I sit at a black screen for roughly 30 seconds before I have any sign that it's booting. There is no activity on the HDD light. Is that normal? Also, I'm struggling to get my PCMCIA CF adapter working with a FAT32-formatted card I typically use for transfers. It seems fine when I boot it into an old ClassicWB install, so think the PCMCIA slot is working - I'm just not sure what combination of FAT95 and CF adapter drivers I might need here. And unfortunately, I've been away from the Amiga scene long enough that I just can't seem to jog my memory. If you know of any guides I can use to get this working on a vanilla AmigaOS 3.2.2 install, I'd really appreciate it. Anyway, thanks again for the video - it's been a struggle finding info about this setup. I did pop into the Discord channel, but I've never really used that platform and having trouble navigating the various threads there to get useful information. I wish someone would setup a dedicated site that details common config challenges.

I recently acquired an IceDrake for my A1200. I wonder if I should try PiStorm.

Thanks for the video! for some reason windows 11 wont allow me to create the 1024 / id76 partition, it just hangs with a ''..DiskPart has referenced an object which is not up-to-date...."

On my pistorm32 pi 4b fails to recognize partitions on sd card. I had to switch to raspberry pi 3b to set my PFS partitions. There is another issue with PFS memory allocation. After partitioning amiga would not format PFS partitions giving me an error message about memory allocation that do not match mask. I fixed the problem by changing the mask from 0x7fffffe to 0x7ffffffe and max transfer to 0x1fe00. I hope that helps. If you wonder how fast is the hard drive I'm getting 26Mb/s vs 1.5Mb/s on onboard IDE and with overclocked pi 4b Sysinfo reports 4700 times the speed of Amiga 600

Yeah I'm getting that same weird effect in RTG modes as if you're looking at Workbench through a chain link fence. Maybe it needs a change of one of the HDMI settings in the PiStorm config, although I haven't tried that yet. Otherwise PiStorm32 is worlds better than my old ACA1221 with its 28Mhz 020 (I'm not much of a gamer anymore and I still have my other Amigas if I want to do that). Also my install defaults to 900MB of Fast RAM... hey It works and I'm not going to argue. :) At any rate, the review and the installation guide are much appreciated!

Perhaps if you like to consider to do a video about CaffeineOS on PiStorm32 Lite. Beside the PiStorm and the Emu68 imho one of the best projects in Amiga Scene at the moment.

Did you try to connect any kind of Realtek High Definition Audio internal chip or soundcard to Amiga? and test Symphonie Pro ?

There's a stealth 'core' to disable the pistorm32 to have maximum compatibility with games

I would be interested to know how fast objects are rendered in Lightwave. That alone would be a reason for me to buy. It might also be a topic for a video.

I notice you have an Indivision AGA flicker-fixer installed. How are you running the video while doing this install of the PISTORM32? Which video output to use is confusing...Indivision or PISTORM... Do you no longer need the Indivision AGA in the 1200 once you have the PISTORM32 installed?

Great video Doug, just what I needed to dive into the Pi-Ocean, but alas I am a Mac user and Mac's Disk utility will not partition Fat32 formatted storage devices. Crap! It will only partition Mac Journaled formatted drives/cards. I purchased my 32lite from amigakit with the sdcard already loaded, but the 32gb card was 1 partition. I formatted it in Mac Journaled, them partitioned the 3 partitions per your video and formatted the partitions Fat32, but the storm doesn't recognize the card because its root is still mac journaled format. Crap! Do you provide a service to set the card up as you did yours? (I'll copy my existing partitions to it, just need it set up like yours inclusive of the HDMI drivers) Thanks and have a good one.

Hi. Why is it when I go into Picasso96Mode and try to “attach setting to…” the board showing up is videocore?? I’ve followed your instruction to the letter, so I’m stumped! Thanks!

Sir you can't imagine how much this tutorial helpful. Thank you for your service :) However let me ask a question. After cloning of my CF card with WHLOAD games to the PI sd card. At the first boot from SD cad I receive loadmodule failed returncode 10 error. Is anyone has idea why ?

great guide thanks, i did same mistake just picked any file and it didn't boot up haha

Thanks @Doug. I have installed everything as shown including my own kick rom and all I am getting is a black screen. I also have a CF installed. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance.

Fantastic Job on the tutorial Doug 👍🏻 I’ve got one of these. I prefer it to the Vampire V2 I also own. Referencing this, what do you prefer? A couple of questions. 1).. On the Diskpart side, can you just set up the 200MB FAT32 without setting up the 2 ID=76 partitions and just use HDToolBox in the Amiga side to setup? 2).. You mention Networking, is thePiStorm32 Lite capable of this? Just to also mention in the video. You said this just takes over the CPU. But you also mention later that you have to add a .ROM file. So this takes over the ROM as well? 😉 So basically the same as a Vampire does? Cheers 🍻

I purchased one of these to pair with my Raspberry 3b. Still procrastinating on the software build. What are the major differences between the PiStorm 32 Lite vs. regular PIStorm?

Love the way this little device has came on, just wish could find a way to only have to use 1 monitor with it, without a rare monitor that can do it all is there any other way, eg i a indivision mk3

What boost will the Amiga 1200 receive in mhz and ram?

A newbie question. Does the Pistorm lite also give the A1200 256MB ram?

I'd love to see the Amiga-derived PIOS running on top of PiOS on a Raspberry Pi.

Nice video as always Doug. I have one also now and I put the Pi 4B on it. However I can't get it stable. It starts Emu68, but booting from my Gotek with the install disk of OS 3.2 it always freezes at the same spot. Tried different micro-SD cards (Sandisk, Kingston), but no luck. Tried different nightly versions. Tried different Kickstart rom files. I have a modern power supply, so that should not be an issue either. Anyone any ideas?

There are rpi compatible clones like Libre pi and some others... Can you confirm which non rpi cards would work also? Thanks

A really good alternative to the "overpriced" accelerator cards from other companies. I found the package(Alltogether) for 180 euros in the EU Store. Now all I have to do is persuade myself to buy it :-) However, a question remains: games that run on normal screen will not run with RTG support? Or is it only delivered at the AGA outcome?

I've installed OS3.2.2 Best WB fresh for my PiStorm with RPi3 and it's really fast but there's someway to go for us to sell our 030 cards just yet! Games fair better than Demos (sadly, Hybris audio speeds up and down, even with PAL option ticked). Popular Demos from the 90s fair much worse. Some are fine, some glitch and some crash. Audio sync seems to suffer too. I'm using latest nightly build of Emu68. I heard "firmware" has been patched to fix some timing errors but does he mean Emu68 or is there another way to patch?

What I couldn´t find out in any youtube video: How long does a cold boot (from power off) take? The Pi has to boot first. It´s probably more bare metal than a full blown Linux. Is the A1200 waiting for the "CPU" to wake up?! I was pretty disappointed by OS3.1.4, taking so many seconds to the "insert disk" screen (I know it´s not a cause of emulating anything). Anyway, as soon as networking gets implemented, I am all-in! Edit: is there a simple on/off switch you could add to go for standard A1200 WHDL with Chip access as expected?

Do you have a guide for the 500 version of the pi storm ? I want to know how to have this run mac os using shapeshifter.

hello thanks a lot for this tutorial i have followed it step by step but when i start the amiga by pressing the two boutons, the two amiga partitions are not "Bootabled" thanks in advance for your help

Reset and load games from floppy see normal Amiga cpu with no ram and acceleration?

If I change SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=brcm-sdhc.device, I still see nothing after starting HDtoolBox. Don't know where the problem might be?

bootable QDH1 ? no "LONG FILENAMES" enabled?

Where do you get the kickstart roms from?

Since PiStorm is in emulating the m68k, Fast-RAM is not a problem; major bottleneck is going to be Chip-RAM and the speed of the Amiga's custom chips which are slow in comparison. WHDLoad games are always going to use non OS friendly ways of banging the metal which are always going to produce strange side effects. Same can be said for emulators like WinUAE with software which is reliant on the blitter.

The tilted perspective confirms that you are a Batman villain.

how to do RTG modes... exellemt

At 20.30 It's funny how Windows autocorrects kick.rom to Kick.rom. I had the same issue, not sure what the hell Windoze is doing there. And thanx for a good video.

ive tried the pistorm32lite with a pi3 and a pi4, i get graphics/screen glitches/jumping several times a minute with it, I have an indy mk3 as well, does anyone know why this would be?

Great pi storm lite / emu vid, & hopefully your wife doesn't watch as you've defo Dug a hole for yourself!😉

do want for macintosh classics

Apparently this Chipset issue has been fixed and also some jitter correction issues fixed.

I've found Sysinfo disk speed crashes with larger than 1024 block size.

untill next gadget

You possibly need samsungs high speed sd cards... !

I just want the pistorm so I can watch 030, 040, 060 demos on a CRT. hopefully it's possible. Everything else..well that's why I have a 14 core pc.

Hard drive manufacturers do not lie about the size of drives. They sell them in decimal SI units of storage (multiples of 1000) however OS'es report the size in binary units. Most people believe a gigabyte is 1024mb when in fact it is not. A gigabyte (decimal) is 1000mb whereas a gibbibyte (binary) is 1024mb.... so for example if you put a 10 gigabyte drive into a computer it will tell you it has 9.765 gigabytes available (10000/1024).

You should use 32 bit, it's he fastest. I think there is a bug in 24bit

I'll have to dust off my REAL picassoIV and see how it is

No Audio! 😮

11:17 then dont do dangerous thing use sdformatter when you formatting sd card LOL then no change format hard drive

sadly the price of rpi is totally insane

i just downloaded it, i do not have in any i have DL, the Libs or Includes folders?

Had to use "brcm-emmc.device" in the HD ToolBox for it to see my SD card in Raspberry Pi 4B

Wow just…..wow. Even in North America, can’t stop Commodore Amiga!!! What about PI 4b 4 go?