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.
