WTB: Amiga 2000 486 Bridgeboard

[giZmo350]

Anyone selling an A2000 486 bridgeboard?
Or does PC Task do just as well of a job?

[Iggy]

At the speed that would run at, what would you do with it?

I know everyone has posted their opinions that the '486 has an advantage over the Amiga's 680XX processor, but I still can't imagine that running DOS/Windows based software on that at that speed would be preferable to native Amiga apps.

[giZmo350]

I have a ton of old DOS games on 3.5" floppy (all like new and boxed) that are still really fun to play (Sierrra-Online, Infocom, etc). I Currently have an old 486 with a really nice VESA graphics card that I use to play the old games. It would be great to consolidate to one machine. I wouldn't be installing Windows (ver 3.11 - Ugh!). It's mostly a matter of desk space and monitor usage. Two machines in one!

[odin]

Forget about using PCTask for games. It's okay for some text based DOS stuff, but try something graphical and you'd better have a 060 overclocked to several GHz.

[save2600]

You have that many exclusive DOS games to make all that hassle and expense worthwhile? 486 & 586 Bridgeboards are extremely rare and not cheap! I just read in an Amiga mag that the 386 Bridgeboard was a major pain to install and configure and that the 286 board was much easier that way. Wonder if anything newer would be that much more difficult.

Those Infocom games... most all of 'em can be had natively in Amiga format. Just curious... what games do you have on DOS you can't get for the Amiga?

[Iggy]

I can sort of see what you're aimming for. I have one old K6-2 system I keep around because I can use it to run an emulator I have the requires Himem support. And, if I wanted to, I could run older software on it.

But considering the price you're likely to pay, a seperate PC would be so much cheaper. Actually, you said you had one, didn't you?

I think I just threw my last vesa video board away. The oldest thing I have is a Voddo3 2000 and that will do VESA modes so why put up with ISA or Vesa?

[giZmo350]

You have that many exclusive DOS games to make all that hassle and expense worthwhile? 486 & 586 Bridgeboards are extremely rare and not cheap! I just read in an Amiga mag that the 386 Bridgeboard was a major pain to install and configure and that the 286 board was much easier that way. Wonder if anything newer would be that much more difficult.

Those Infocom games... most all of 'em can be had natively in Amiga format. Just curious... what games do you have on DOS you can't get for the Amiga?

Well, I know they're hard to find + $$$ but thought it wouldn't hurt to throw out trawling line. I actually have a TON of this stuff and thought it would be easier to just crack 'em out of the box rather than hunt them all down for the Amiga. Don't get me wrong I LOVE Amiga ports because of the digital joystick.! I've thought about selling them but it would take forever on ebay unless I could sell them as lot. Just jotting down the titles would take forever. I collected WAY TOO many PC games in my day. Quit a few of them are impossible to get now and have no Amiga ports. I mean, this stuff has filled my basement! Plus, I have all the manuals that you really need to play a lot of the games. For one example, I have Sim City 2000 - OK, that's an easy one to get for Amiga...  but I also have Streets of Sim City (that's the add on that allows you to drive around in the cities you created) and a bunch of saved citys. I don't think "Streets" was ported to Amiga. I have almost no arcade style games for the PC - that's where the Amiga really shines. Plus, I paid for all these PC games! Arg!

[Heiroglyph]

A lot of people would say to use UAE instead of tracking down an old Amiga too, but sometimes you just want to do the geeky retro thing.

The bridgeboard is the cool solution if you can find and afford it

Best of luck!

[murple]

You could probably find an old 486 for muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch cheaper (as in free). Or use a modern PC with the FreeDOS OS. I've only ever seen 1 or 2 386 bridgeboards for sale and never seen a 486 or Pentium. 286 bridgeboards seem fairly common on ebay, but the performance would probably suck for anything but the simplest games.

[giZmo350]

Yea, I have a great DOS machine now but just thought I'd ask....  ;-)

I knew they (386/486) were rare but didn't know they were THAT rare!
Actually I think I've ever seen only one 286 on ebay... mostly 8088 cards.

I thought about getting a KVM to save monitor space but that isn't really ideal either as I need different size monitors for all these machines I have...  a Mac Mini, a PC, an A2000, a DOS machine....   etc.

I need to get a table like Cammy has!

Thanks for all the replys...   ;-)

[Terminills]

why not mount a pico-itx board inside the A2000 lol =D

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/11/04/via-artigo-pico-itx-builder-kit-a1000/

[Tension]

586?

[Iggy]

why not mount a pico-itx board inside the A2000 lol =D

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/11/04/via-artigo-pico-itx-builder-kit-a1000/

I know that was satire, but a micro PC might be a good solution for him. With a really small PC, the tiny Mac Mini and a decent KVM switch he'd be down to two sets of accessories and savea little space. Plus the PC could dual boot an older OS (or some free DOS solution) alongdside a more modern OS.

Then, of course you set up the Mac Mini to dual boot OSX and MorphOS. Then you've got five OS' (unless you want to throw Linux on to one of these as well).

Since you can't put a PPC Mac into the Amiga, you're going to have two sets of displays and input devices anyway. This setup would be more flexible and capable.

[Terminills]

I know that was satire, but a micro PC might be a good solution for him. With a really small PC, the tiny Mac Mini and a decent KVM switch he'd be down to two sets of accessories and savea little space. Plus the PC could dual boot an older OS (or some free DOS solution) alongdside a more modern OS.

Then, of course you set up the Mac Mini to dual boot OSX and MorphOS. Then you've got five OS' (unless you want to throw Linux on to one of these as well).

Since you can't put a PPC Mac into the Amiga, you're going to have two sets of displays and input devices anyway. This setup would be more flexible and capable.

I wasn't entirely kidding .. I did specifically find one that would fit in a 5.25 drive bay. =]

[save2600]

586?

Pentium - whatever it was called  :laughing: