I want an Amiga gaming system!

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I have 4 more good tested new C= refurbished A500s for $150 each including free shipping to the us lower 48 states. After those 4 are gone, I don't know if I will be able to secure more stock, probably not.

HERE

BTW- Personally I'd have to agree that for old school games, an Amiga 500 with KS1.3 rom is by far your best bet and bt waaaay far the most compatible. An A1200 would be o-k, but AGA and KS2.0+ will helplessly break many games. This can't always be fixed by degraders, as helpful as they are you just can't beat a real A500 with KS1.3.

[redrumloa]

WHDLoad is not just a degrader; the faulty code of the original game is patched with better code. There are 1511 installers on WHDLoad.de, and the vast majority work on expanded A1200s, even when the original disk versions are hopelessly broken on 1200s.

WHDload is an excelent program and it's support is growing, but it is still spotty. I can go through my personal collection of original games and still 80% of them are not supported. There is also the fact that it wasn't uncommon for their to be mutliple revisions of the same game, with only one of them working with WHDload. Even of the ones that are supported and supposedly work, many of them still did not work on my old A3k/060 system.

[redrumloa]

You need to be insane if you don't like WHDLoad. It makes any expanded Amiga run any supported game (unless it's a non-AGA unit trying to run an AGA game).

Who says they don't like WHDLoad? I only stated that it is wrong to claim it magically makes every single game work, it doesn't. It supports a specific list of games.

[redrumloa]

mugenakuma wrote:
First off I live in the US and would definitely want an Amiga capable of playing PAL and NTSC games. Considering this what should be my plan?

Also loading time is something I definitely would rather not have to deal with BUT I don't mind some loading time. To be honest I dont feel like spending even close to $500 on a system. Would this then rule out a A1200?

Lastly why would I need a monitor? Can't I just hook up any Amiga to my current PC 19"?

From what you just stated, get an Amiga 3000. It is the only Amiga model that from the factory will hook directly up to a PC monitor. It has a scsi hard drive controller, and will let you switch from PAL to NTSC in the early startup menu. you can pick up a second hand A3000 on eBay for about $200.

[redrumloa]

mugenakuma wrote:
Every time I read a new post I think I have decided what to go with, that is until I read another post.

I guess I will go look around for A600s?!

You have a big group of die hard Amiga users in here. Any time the subject comes up, a big arguement ensues. Luckily there really is no wrong answer. I'll try to sum it up as fairly as possible.

A500:
Strengths:
My personal suggestion (Please note I do sell these so I am biased)
With 1.3 roms it is compatible with 95%+++ of all games ever written for the amiga, no tricks or hacks needed.
Weakness:
Expansion possibilities are costly and limited.
Doesn't play AGA only games (only a few made).
Doesn't work with VGA unless a costly adapter is bought.

A1200
Strengths:
Built in HD, AGA, 020.
Weakness:
More expensive than A500
Expansions are ackward, hackish and weird
Playing many older games requires  degraders or simply don't work.
Doesn't work with VGA unless a costly adapter is bought.

A3000:
Strengths:
Built in SCSI (fine controller), 030, ONLY AMIGA THAT WORKS WITH VGA STOCK.
Likely the best Amiga ever made overall.
Expansions are plentiful and inexpensive(relative to Amiga market)
Has ECS so is fairly better compatible with older games than AGA.
Weaknesses:
Doesn't play AGA only games (only a few made).

Also you have the options of:
A600(miniturised A500 with HD)
A2000(A500 in a big box with plenty of cheap expansion possibilities)
A4000(Not recomended for games, most expensive second hand)
CDTV, CD32(neat pre-settop boxes)

You really can't go wrong with A500, A2000, A3000, A600 or even A1200. All have their strengths. Whatever you get there will be plenty of people here to assist you:-)

[redrumloa]

1)If you get an A500, you would probably want.
a) An A501 or equivelant 1/2meg expansion. This will give your A500 1Meg total, enough for most games.
b)1 external floppy drive. This helps eliminate alot of disk swapping.

2)Yup you will need to get an Amiga monitor like 1084, 1080 or a C= monitor like 2002. There are RGB->VGA adapters, but the *current* offering are insanely expensive.

3) Yup, absoluetly. Uh-huh, yup!! :-D

4) Nowadays you should be able to get a decent bare system for under $200 with keyboard and mouse. Either watch eBay for a while if you are in no hurry. Otherwise start a new thread here offering to buy an A3000, someone will come forward to offer to sell you one:-)

Good luck!

[redrumloa]

The resolution is terrible. Games would be fine, but workbench is blurry.

Monitor size? All of C=/Amigas monitors were 14inch. The are fairly cheap but that's the biggest you will get without spending a fortune.