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Offline ReptileTopic starter

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The Modern Classic Setup
« on: September 27, 2011, 07:33:38 PM »
Hi all!

I've introduced myself, now to ask you wise ones some questions!

My Amiga usage these days is purely for fun / gaming.
I've done the whole expanding A1200s fun as it was I want to keep life simple for my Amiga use now! Discussions on here and elsewhere about my setup have led me to believe it's not perhaps the best long term solution.

I have at the moment the following setup:

Amiga 500 Plus [battery removed]
2 External Disk Drives
6Mb RAM

Which is plenty for classic floppy gaming, but I've came to realise that floppies aren't going to last forever, and looking at the prices of boxed floppy games whether they are new or used, they are pretty high for what they are, though I understand you are sometimes paying for the novelty of new-old stock.

I already have gone through 3 copies of Cannon Fodder for example. Also the floppy loading times are starting to become annoying when I know that there is a simpler way.

I've been out of the loop for a while so is WHDLoad still being produced / able to register or has it gone freeware ?
Do you even need WHDLoad in the CF-card era for gaming or can you just download and run from CF?
Is there new custom solutions?

I would also like to download games from the Internet [legally of course] from the likes of Back To The Roots and so on, but obviously as a Mac user I have no access to a floppy disk drive which brings me to my next question regarding CF card solutions.

it is my understanding that there is no way whatsoever to get CF to work on the Amiga 500 Plus. Is this correct?

My next question is that Amiga 1200s are pretty expensive to buy these days, would an Amiga 600 handle CF card gaming as well?
I remember issues regarding the Amiga 600 HD on its release as many games would not load from HD due to shortage of Chip RAM after Workbench had loaded.

If I am to retire my beloved Amiga 500 Plus, I would prefer the 600 to the 1200 for purely for the cool factor and would maybe look at kitting it out a bit more. I also found that the Amiga 600 is much more compatible with the classic games I enjoy to play.

I've had 1200s in the past, but I think the 600 is the cooler looking machine and still looks great today, it's kind of came back in fashion with the low-form factor cases you see these days.

So basically yeah... best solution for CF card gaming on a REAL Amiga?

A1200 the only choice or would an A600 or even my 500 Plus be able to do it??


And finally... is PCMCIA a simpler solution in terms of removing the case to access the IDE port?
I'd imagine modern PCMCIA cards are still compatible with the A600 and A1200?

Thanks,

Reptile
« Last Edit: September 27, 2011, 07:36:28 PM by Reptile »
So The World May Know....
Apple iMac 21.5" Core 2 Duo 3GHz, 4Gb, 500Gb HD,
Amiga 500 Plus, 6Mb, 3x floppy power!

 

Offline arttu80

Re: The Modern Classic Setup
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2011, 08:15:22 PM »
Hi!

I'm not going to answer to all of these questions you posted, but I would like to make my point regarding "classic gaming". I have many low -end Amiga models at my disposal, even my first Amiga, which is by the way A500Plus. I like it, yes but you just can't beat A1200 with CF-HD and 030/50Mhz setup playing WHDLoad games! You wouldn't have any comaptibility problems, because all WHD -games are made to run on ANY classic Amiga. For example old action game Stormy Swiv, which just couln't run on even stock KS2.04 equipped A500 Plus machine. But it run flawlessly on my AGA A1200 computer, ofcourse it's installed to run with WHDLoad. Just pay for registration to author and you're there. It's like a good dream, trust me!
 

Offline runequester

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Re: The Modern Classic Setup
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2011, 09:03:42 PM »
Quote

I've been out of the loop for a while so is WHDLoad still being produced / able to register or has it gone freeware ?
Do you even need WHDLoad in the CF-card era for gaming or can you just download and run from CF?
Is there new custom solutions?


You can use a CF as a hard drive, but it will only work for games that support hard drive installs on their own, or through WHDload. You can still download it, and Im sure you can still register it too.

Quote

it is my understanding that there is no way whatsoever to get CF to work on the Amiga 500 Plus. Is this correct?


Never say never, but to my knowledge no. It requires a PCMCIA slot (for the external option, which is generally whats used for file transfers

Quote

My next question is that Amiga 1200s are pretty expensive to buy these days, would an Amiga 600 handle CF card gaming as well?


Between a 600 and a 1200 (stock) you are probably only looking at a hundred bucks difference, with a bit of patience.
You can do it on a 600 though, just fine.

Quote

If I am to retire my beloved Amiga 500 Plus, I would prefer the 600 to the 1200 for purely for the cool factor and would maybe look at kitting it out a bit more. I also found that the Amiga 600 is much more compatible with the classic games I enjoy to play.

I must say, I never found kickstart 2.x to be more compatible than 3.x really.
Once you factor in relokick or other options, very little will fail to run on a 1200.

Quote

And finally... is PCMCIA a simpler solution in terms of removing the case to access the IDE port?
I'd imagine modern PCMCIA cards are still compatible with the A600 and A1200?


I use a simple adapter I got from amigakit, but you can probably use other stuff too.

The main purpose of an external CF is transferring files (by way of a simple card reader on your PC) so you can write them to floppy.
Theres ways of mounting disk images virtually but I don't have any experience with those.

THe 1200 will take CF cards with an IDE adapter as an internal hard drive. I believe you can do that with a 600 as well, but hopefully someone can pitch in and illuminate.


With a 600, you'll probably want to look into adding some extra RAM, or loading from a hard drive will make life difficult. Same goes for a stock 1200 and AGA games.
 

Offline bbond007

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Re: The Modern Classic Setup
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2011, 09:33:05 PM »
Quote from: Reptile;661569
Hi all!

I've introduced myself, now to ask you wise ones some questions!

My Amiga usage these days is purely for fun / gaming.
I've done the whole expanding A1200s fun as it was I want to keep life simple for my Amiga use now! Discussions on here and elsewhere about my setup have led me to believe it's not perhaps the best long term solution.

I have at the moment the following setup:

Amiga 500 Plus [battery removed]
2 External Disk Drives
6Mb RAM

Which is plenty for classic floppy gaming, but I've came to realise that floppies aren't going to last forever, and looking at the prices of boxed floppy games whether they are new or used, they are pretty high for what they are, though I understand you are sometimes paying for the novelty of new-old stock.

I already have gone through 3 copies of Cannon Fodder for example. Also the floppy loading times are starting to become annoying when I know that there is a simpler way.

I've been out of the loop for a while so is WHDLoad still being produced / able to register or has it gone freeware ?
Do you even need WHDLoad in the CF-card era for gaming or can you just download and run from CF?
Is there new custom solutions?

I would also like to download games from the Internet [legally of course] from the likes of Back To The Roots and so on, but obviously as a Mac user I have no access to a floppy disk drive which brings me to my next question regarding CF card solutions.

it is my understanding that there is no way whatsoever to get CF to work on the Amiga 500 Plus. Is this correct?

My next question is that Amiga 1200s are pretty expensive to buy these days, would an Amiga 600 handle CF card gaming as well?
I remember issues regarding the Amiga 600 HD on its release as many games would not load from HD due to shortage of Chip RAM after Workbench had loaded.

If I am to retire my beloved Amiga 500 Plus, I would prefer the 600 to the 1200 for purely for the cool factor and would maybe look at kitting it out a bit more. I also found that the Amiga 600 is much more compatible with the classic games I enjoy to play.

I've had 1200s in the past, but I think the 600 is the cooler looking machine and still looks great today, it's kind of came back in fashion with the low-form factor cases you see these days.

So basically yeah... best solution for CF card gaming on a REAL Amiga?

A1200 the only choice or would an A600 or even my 500 Plus be able to do it??


And finally... is PCMCIA a simpler solution in terms of removing the case to access the IDE port?
I'd imagine modern PCMCIA cards are still compatible with the A600 and A1200?

Thanks,

Reptile


I regged whdload about a year ago.

For thae A500 you could get an AD-IDE (or similar adapter) that fits under the 68000 which you could attach a CF with IDE Adapter. The biggest issue with the A500 is getting more RAM, which you alreadty have enough.

In my opinion, just get the 1200. You might save $50 on the computer, but you'll spend more than that trying to optimize the A600 for whdload. Low-end Trapdoor accels and memory boosters cards are pretty cheap for the A1200.

A600 (and A500) has only a 68000 CPU  (and no trapdoor expansion) so with whdload you'll have to reset the system, not just exit the game with prtscr or F12 or whatever. You can always get a 68010 CPU for the A500, not sure about the A600. Also you'll probably want more ram for the A600.

Also because whdload fixes many imcompatible games, the 1200 will have the largest library as it has AGA.

1200 FTW. Or stick with the 500. Add AD-IDE and a 68010 CPU.
« Last Edit: September 27, 2011, 09:40:56 PM by bbond007 »