old timer returns to the A1200 and is now a NEWBIE

[pubzombie]

hi guys,
just thought i ought to hi to ya'all. i had an Amiga in the 1990s after my C64 bit the dust. It sort of got waylaid and lost during a couple of house moves and life changes. I got back into playing my old games under emulation on my laptop and GP2x last year. However, my girlfriend brought me an A1200 for Christmas and i haven't been able to sleep right since - cant wait to get it playing all my fave old games.
its a stock A1200 so i will be looking to expand/accelerate and put a HDD in it.
It came from Amigakit.co.uk so a called mat - who was very helpful and patient - and got an adf-pcmcia easy transfer kit. any advice or tips etc. on tweaking my new miggy will be appreciated.
HAPPY NEW YEAR DUDES
pub x

[mgerics]

Wait a minit! Your GF BOUGHT you an Amiga??!??

Wow! My wife gives me grief over mine!!:)

Happy New Year, and welcome to Amiga.org!

You'll have lots of fun with it - I have fun with my machines!!

[save2600]

Welcome back after all this time! Lots of advancements throughout the 90's and beyond for these machines hardware and software wise. This site is a great resource to be sure. Lots of advise and tips to be found here. Good luck w/ playing and tweaking out your system. It can be as rewarding as it is expense wise.

And yes, sounds as if you have a very special GF indeed. You must have known it was coming or at the very least, had planted a seed... lol

[rednova]

Dear Friend:

I suggest getting amos professional (for amiga). Is really easy to learn, and then you can create your own video games for amiga. You can use deluxe paint and import your drawings into amos, thus being able to make nice games.
Visit the Amos Factory:

http://amos.condor.serverpro3.com/

A website dedicated to amiga/amos programming. I think you can even download a free version of amospro.
Cheers!!!

rednova

[A1260]

welcome back, here is what you need....

1.blizzard 1230 accelerator with fpu and 16-32mb ram
buy one used from ebay

2.Indivision AGA Flicker Fixer/Scandoubler
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=821

3.use flashcard as hd
http://alan2.rateliff.us/a1200flash/

[edit by admin : Links to pirate sites removed.  Please see Terms of Service]

5.transfering files between amiga and pc.
get a null-modem serial cable and amiga forever-plus edtition that include amiga explorer.. read more here http://www.amigaforever.com/ae/

thats all  ;-)

[meega]

Hello! :-)

Enjoy a HAPPY NEWBIE YEAR!

[orb85750]

mgerics wrote:
Wait a minit! Your GF BOUGHT you an Amiga??!??

Wow! My wife gives me grief over mine!!:)

Happy New Year, and welcome to Amiga.org!

You'll have lots of fun with it - I have fun with my machines!!

Exactly, just where do you find a mate like that?  Consider yourself a lucky man on many levels.

[darksun9210]

happy new year! and welcome to amiga dot org... :-)

just to re-itterate, what A1260 said should cover pretty much all bases.
accelerator and fast ram, blizzard's can't go wrong :-D
compact flash card with 44pin IDE drive adapter
registered version of WHDLoad

optional items
scandoubler,
big screen TV,
comfy sofa.

let the good times commence!  :-)

[pubzombie]

Hi Guys and thanx for your replies,
 is it best to go for the flash card option over a HDD and what is the difference between 030 - 040-060 accelerator, and which should i get? also should i also be buying more ram separate to the accelerator?
sorry for dumb questions but this is really new to me , i cant believe how much i have forgot since Intel and Microsoft took over the world.
my girlfriend was spying on my ebay searches (in case i was buying gentleman's viewing material probably )and got me an 1200 from amigakit.co.uk.
give it a few weeks sat upstairs in my office and she will learn to spit the word amiga out. .
i have just sent a payment for whdload, but i am not sure what it does and i have an easy adf-pcmcia transfer kit.apart from that its an 'old' 'new' stock miggy1200
what is a scandoubler?
thanx again for your help and i am sure i will be moaning about ear ache soon enough

[rkauer]

 No need for "outsider" (PCMCIA ) memory when you have a good (PCMCIA-friendly) accelerator. Also save the PCMCIA port for useful things, like the transfer kit you have or a network card.

 An old, trusty 030 @40Mhz or even 50MHz with 16Mb or more RAM is good enough to run the vast majority of WHDload games. A 040 or 060 accelerator is only needed for serious applications or for the "because I can" factor.

 Notice the 040 and 060 are less compatible with games...

 BTW: you need the ROM IMAGES from old Amigas to run the WHDLoad games. Easily sorted on torrent/P2P sites or buying the Amiga Forever CD in a legal manner.

[rednova]

Dear Friend:

I have a beloved amiga 1200. I have an 030 accelerator ( 030/50mhz + fpu 50mhz + ram 18 mb) I believe is agvp jaws 1230 accelerator. Is not as fast as an 040 or 060, but it runs good, it never overheats (which is the case with higher accelerators) and is good enough to run all the software i want to. Is super for games and applications alike. I even use it for raytracing/3d using 'aladdin 4d' and is good enough for me. I only paid us$ 120 for the 1230 accelerator (ebay) and then like u$ 40 for the fpu and u$ 60 for the 16 mb ram stick (from software hut).
Is not as fast as the 040 and 060, but is stable and reliable, cheaper, and good enough for all unless you want to get into 3d animation, in which case you should get a fast pentium.
Cheers !!!

rednova

[Crom00]

First off treat that woman of yours well. Not many a woman would do such a thing. Most would have us dump the Amigas in the trash. So guess what Amiga I left this year? lol!

$150 for 030/50 (I have the Microbitics one)
$8   for 128mb EDO ram (yes this works just fine)
$150 Indivision Flicker Fixer (promotes Amig video to VGA)
$15  Extra A1200 Case
$15  Extra A1200 Keyboard
$25  4 gb SanDisk CFcard and ide-cf adapter
$8   Plastic Vynil Black Die paint (becuase black A1200's are just frigin cool)
$6  PCMCIA to CF card adapter

Got this stuff here and there but have had most of it for a while. For games just Get WHDLOAD via the previously psoted links, get the games too... BUT and register that whload. You can get most Amiga games online as they're classfied abandonware.

The only other thing I want to add is a CD-ROM drive, but  there is a way to mount ISO's from a hard drive or CF card.

The Indivision and the Accelerator are required, If you want to go HOG WILD the next purchase would be a subway usb card that attached to the internal cloclport. This will update your Amiga to near fully modern spec. Well kind of. Today EVERYTHING comes in a USB version... So The ability to plug in an external Keyboard and mouse makes it worth the trouble alone. Not to mention all the USB peripherals that cost nothing next to Amiga equivalents.

The only quibble with the subway is the USB 1 speed but whatcha gonna do.

If you're in europe and have access to a scart connector equipped TV or LCD never mind the indivision, unless you're spending hours on  productive tasks.

If you do serious Amiga stuff... Heck a $150 Weekend computer show Pentium 4 from 2003 will do you fine. Just install AmigaKIT on that and you'll have the equivalent of a $2000 EBAY fully loaded 060 amiga... LOL!

Treat your woman well man, she's a rare breed.

[Amiduffer]

Hi PZ.

The issue of what you want equipment you want to put in the 1200, is what you're going to do with it.

If all you're going to do with it is play the occasional game, then a 68030 accelerator with a little RAM is going to suit you to a T.

Whether you want to get a regular laptop harddrive or use a compact flash adaptor, it doesn't really matter. CF's have the advantage of no noise, no heat, and relative speed advantages. 4 gig harddrives are dirt cheap though, so it doesn't hurt your wallet.

[stefcep2]

I am currently using an 8 meg ram card on A1200 and other than Doom-alikes I can play every game ever created for an A1200.  And DPaint, PPaint, Brilliance, and Scala work really well.  An 030 is nice but if you want to save some money a ram card will do just fine.

Read speed on card flash is fast, write speed is slower than hard drive

[Crom00]

You know I used to think that a FPU card with the 8 megs ram was ok. But they go so high in EBAY (espcially if you're in the USA) that it just made more sense to pay more and get the full speed and ram capabilities of an 030/50. Having 60 meg ram disk is cool..

I've owned most every Amiga, to go beyond the 030, it just doesn't make sense unless your a demo coder, pixel artist, and such.

For ImageFX just use AmigaKIT on a PC with all the old Amiga productivity apps installed, is like having a supercomputer.