Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: blakespot on January 10, 2013, 11:27:28 PM
-
I have had some kind of Amiga most of the years over the past 28 years. Usually more than one.
I currently have:
-- An Amiga 1000 system:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157621596272210/
-- An Amiga 2000 '060 system w/ Picasso II:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157604299491786/
-- An Amiga 1200 '060 tower:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157604300573758/
-- A SAM 440epFlex:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157621877406693/
But things are not ideal. I am thinking of selling and re-purchasing.
I love the Amiga 1000 and will never let that go. It's a nice little setup with 2MB FAST and a SCSI HD and is great with 1.3 on down.
The A1200 '060 was my main machine, but it started having issues with the Indivision AGA and so I had to drop back to the more limited FF I had before (Cammy inherited it!). And I have PSU issues, and being towered it's started to feel sort of not deeply Amiga. And, it has OS 3.9 on it which I dislike. I am trying to get the PSU issue fixed and then I may sell, maybe in parts. More on why later.
Then there is the A2000 '060. Lately I have spent all this time building up my A2000 with '060, Picasso II, etc. but it seems misguided. I wanted to use the Amiga 2000 for all kinds of things like IRC and terminal and web etc. but it's not nearly as practical as the SAM. And I'm having some compat issues with '060 on some apps. It's got lots of good stuff in it, ADSG dual serial, etc. but it feels like I've built it out beyond reason. It feels less good than it did when it was an '020 or a '000.
I love the SAM. Will keep and explore AmigaOS 4 onward.
I think what I want, in the end, replacing the A2000 and A1200, is a proper A1200 in its own case with an accelerator like the new 42MHz 030 on that white circuit board, with the fast memory. Something clean that I can attach a CF card to and and Indivision mk II to and have a great WHDLoad experience.
I am thinking I might be better off with a PAL unit, even tho I am in the states, looking at the games and demos out there. A friend just got a NIB A1200 on eBay. How often do they come along?
What do you think of my plan?
bp
-
I was thinking of going for a tower setup but budget and a few other things I've decided not to go any further.
Going to concentrate on getting a 030 1200 in it's original wedge going. Although have been tempted to buy a 060 but the price has always been outside me reach, but we'll see what happens this year :-)
The ACA1231 is very quick though, I was impressed when I did have it running. Although my 1200 didn't like it so it's off getting fixed at the moment.
Thought about the ACA1232 but not fast enough, plus 64MB was more than enough for me.
-
I have had some kind of Amiga most of the years over the past 28 years. Usually more than one.
I currently have:
-- An Amiga 1000 system:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157621596272210/
-- An Amiga 2000 '060 system w/ Picasso II:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157604299491786/
-- An Amiga 1200 '060 tower:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157604300573758/
-- A SAM 440epFlex:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157621877406693/
But things are not ideal. I am thinking of selling and re-purchasing.
I love the Amiga 1000 and will never let that go. It's a nice little setup with 2MB FAST and a SCSI HD and is great with 1.3 on down.
The A1200 '060 was my main machine, but it started having issues with the Indivision AGA and so I had to drop back to the more limited FF I had before (Cammy inherited it!). And I have PSU issues, and being towered it's started to feel sort of not deeply Amiga. And, it has OS 3.9 on it which I dislike. I am trying to get the PSU issue fixed and then I may sell, maybe in parts. More on why later.
Then there is the A2000 '060. Lately I have spent all this time building up my A2000 with '060, Picasso II, etc. but it seems misguided. I wanted to use the Amiga 2000 for all kinds of things like IRC and terminal and web etc. but it's not nearly as practical as the SAM. And I'm having some compat issues with '060 on some apps. It's got lots of good stuff in it, ADSG dual serial, etc. but it feels like I've built it out beyond reason. It feels less good than it did when it was an '020 or a '000.
I love the SAM. Will keep and explore AmigaOS 4 onward.
I think what I want, in the end, replacing the A2000 and A1200, is a proper A1200 in its own case with an accelerator like the new 42MHz 030 on that white circuit board, with the fast memory. Something clean that I can attach a CF card to and and Indivision mk II to and have a great WHDLoad experience.
I am thinking I might be better off with a PAL unit, even tho I am in the states, looking at the games and demos out there. A friend just got a NIB A1200 on eBay. How often do they come along?
What do you think of my plan?
bp
You have missed the one logical,reliable machine. the A4000 or 4000T. other than caps, this is the full 32bit machine with proper z3 expansion bus,and unlike the 2000 with slow zorro2,you get better speed on gfx cards etc. I love the 2000 but its not the most logical machine to do with 060 since zorro2 is so slow(2-3MB/s). Unlike the 1200 it wont be dongled to death(generally) and need a immediate psu upgrade etc. A fully expanded 1200 will still be slower than the full expanded 4000 generally.
I love all amiga's but it still puzzles me why people build on the 1200 as a base.Its not cheaper in the long run and many times not as reliable,and certainly not as fast as the expanded 4k. I have probably opened pandoras box saying this ;)
-
You won't get any disagreement from me. The cool factor of the keyboard sized unit goes away with all the bricks and cables attached to it.
A basic 4000D doesn't cost much and it's already the equivalent of an 040 expanded 1200.
-
I have just treated the A1200 with an Indivision AGA MkII. It was great to get a perfect picture. I also got a ps2 mouse converter and are now using an optic mouse. Quite a change from fighting the worn out mechanical mouse from the 90ties.
-
...I love all amiga's but it still puzzles me why people build on the 1200 as a base.Its not cheaper in the long run and many times not as reliable,and certainly not as fast as the expanded 4k. I have probably opened pandoras box saying this ;)
I had always heard that the A1200 is a more stable, compatible machine. That the extra hardware in the A4000 pushes it further afield from the center of compatibility.
Is that not the case? And how bad _are_ the caps in the A4000? I've got a room full of computers...
http://www.bytecellar.com/photo_pano.html
...and I've never, ever had a caps issue in any of them.
bp
-
Personally I haven't had a cap related failure even though I've had a decent number of big box Amigas.
It's anecdotal evidence, but I just thought I'd point that I believe the cap issue to be real, but less rampant and devastating than searches might lead you to believe.
You only hear the complaints, never the ones that have no problems.
As for compatibility, I'm not the best to answer because I don't play stacks of games. I've never hit anything that caused me a problem though.
In the end you're using the computer you are emotionally attached to, not the one that lasts the longest, costs the least or runs the fastest.
Go with your gut on what you really want.
-
My biggest regret was selling my sam440ep :( really miss that system.
-
Nice room full of computers. I especially like the Gravis Ultrasound nailed to the wall :).
One day I have to at least get my pile of Amiga's on a desk or two. I don't even have a single one set up yet. I can't imagine getting a whole room set up with that much awesome stuff though. Awesome.
-
@ blakespot
awesome computer room!
+1 on the Amiga 1000 as I'll always keep mine no matter what.
personally I have no interest in towering my A1200 since I got my OS4.1 machine back in 2009 & more recently upgraded to my X1000. I still have my 1200 Desktop with Blizzard though.
I also have my original A500 mint but just don't have the space to set it up ..yet
-
Ohh Gravis ultrasound, how nice did not the background music in Doom sound on it! The electric guitar did pop out great with a gravis!
-
You have missed the one logical,reliable machine. the A4000 or 4000T. other than caps, this is the full 32bit machine with proper z3 expansion bus,and unlike the 2000 with slow zorro2,you get better speed on gfx cards etc. I love the 2000 but its not the most logical machine to do with 060 since zorro2 is so slow(2-3MB/s). Unlike the 1200 it wont be dongled to death(generally) and need a immediate psu upgrade etc. A fully expanded 1200 will still be slower than the full expanded 4000 generally.
I love all amiga's but it still puzzles me why people build on the 1200 as a base.Its not cheaper in the long run and many times not as reliable,and certainly not as fast as the expanded 4k. I have probably opened pandoras box saying this ;)
just curious...an sorry to interrupt ..your coment about a4000 would be faster than a a1200 ...question..if ur just using the aga chipset an the cpu is the same an memory is the same ..would that be the case?
with a graphics card id agree ..with aga why would it be different..
-
just curious...an sorry to interrupt ..your coment about a4000 would be faster than a a1200 ...question..if ur just using the aga chipset an the cpu is the same an memory is the same ..would that be the case?
with a graphics card id agree ..with aga why would it be different..
all things being equal with aga,ram,cpu yes they would roughly be the same speed on aga but to compare that it means a expanded 1200 vs a stock 4000.but when i refer to speed i also include the IDE. the 1200 ide is slow and unbuffered,the 4000 ide is buffered and marginally faster out of the box.
The 4000 has the fastest accelerators,cyberstorm MK3 and the PPC cards. The scsi on these cards does around 35MB/s while the fastest 1200 card with scsi can manage 10MB/s not to mention the 604e on the cyberstorm vs the 603 on the blizzard-there is a good bit of difference there. It just makes good sense to build on a good base.
-
Would like to agree about the 4000 being a better option over the 1200. But cost wise a 4000 is a lot more expensive.
I've yet to find a 4000 machine that was a good price, locally they're very rare.
1200 is usually around $80-$150 NZD
4000 is usually around $500 + NZD
I've always wanted a 4000 but 1200's are easy to get a hold of, and addon cards are usually cheaper and easier to find too.
-
Would like to agree about the 4000 being a better option over the 1200. But cost wise a 4000 is a lot more expensive.
I've yet to find a 4000 machine that was a good price, locally they're very rare.
1200 is usually around $80-$150 NZD
4000 is usually around $500 + NZD
I've always wanted a 4000 but 1200's are easy to get a hold of, and addon cards are usually cheaper and easier to find too.
1200 is not cheaper, another misconception.. you didn't do a fair comparison. With the stock 4000 you get a 040/25,good power supply,expansion bus,room for 16mb ram,place for a cdrom,place for a second floppy or card reader.
add those upgrades to a 1200 and you have probabaly equalled the price or surpassed it.Remember the 1200 is 020EC,2mb ram,bad psu,no easy external expansions,no expansion bus for slots unless you tower it and its still not zorro3.The pcmcia is the only big +.
sorry to hijacking your thread Blakespot!
-
I've been an owner of Amigas since 1986 and just recently built out a couple of A3000's; the A4000Ts I own are fast, stable, expandable and were built to be that way. The A500, A600, and A1200 were built with a trap door to add memory and a clock; everything else is kludge. I love my A4000's and can't wait to sell off my other machines. If you want a stable gaming machine then get an A2000, pop in a few items like an SCSI controller, one of Mech's card readers, and run the 4 GBs of WHDLoad ECS games out there. There are only around 100 AGA games and most I've checked have ECS counterparts. 8)
-
I have say, thats room its most better i see in years.
Congratulations, wherever be the owner...
-
.. And how bad _are_ the caps in the A4000? I've got a room full of computers...
http://www.bytecellar.com/photo_pano.html
...and I've never, ever had a caps issue in any of them.
bp
Wow I strongly suggest you open up each case (well at least save the Amiga's :-) & examine each cap for leakage right away.
I lost my A1200 IDE port last year because a cap right next to it slowly leaked and destroyed a bunch of traces beneath it ! It took a while to get her sorted out so do yourself a favour and replace them caps now & save yourself alot of headaches
-
Wow I strongly suggest you open up each case (well at least save the Amiga's :-) & examine each cap for leakage right away.
I lost my A1200 IDE port last year because a cap right next to it slowly leaked and destroyed a bunch of traces beneath it ! It took a while to get her sorted out so do yourself a favour and replace them caps now & save yourself alot of headaches
I just opened my Amiga 1000. No leaky caps. It's one of the oldest machines here. Why do I not have caps problems? Is everyone else?
bp
-
I also have a bunch of computers
of various vintage -- Amigas being my favorite. Other than leaky, corrosive barrel-style batteries on every single machine that had those (get them out of there now!), I have had leaking caps on three machines. Two were AGA-era Amiga and one is a Mac SE/30.
My original Amiga 1200 (purchased new in February 1993) lost its sound because of leaking caps. At the time AmigaKit was selling replacement motherboards so that was the easiest fix. A1200 with second motherboard is still running stong.
My Amiga 4000 desktop (purchased used a few years ago) had bad battery damage but it was leaking caps that eventually disabled the motherboard. I bought a replacement used motherboard from an A.org user and it too had similar damage from leaking caps. It looked a little better, so I sent it to the man in France for some solder surgery. It's working just fine now, but not without some serious money being thrown at getting it going again.
The SE/30 stopped booting but I cleaned up the cap leakage as best I can. Still boots, but sound is very diminished. I have a kit of replacement caps, but they are too tiny for my terrible soldering skills.
My ECS and OCS-era Amigas have never had leaking cap problems -- just batteries. But with AGA Amigas, I'd keep an eye on those motherboards.
For Blake's purposes, I think an Amiga 1200 in the wedge with a new 030 accelerator and Indivision for a nice WHDLoad machine is a good idea. Or reduce the A2000 expansions to the point where it is a reliable, nice WHDLoad machine. AmigaKit's PCMCI network card offerings will get you online for IRC.... or just stick to the Sam for that. (I have a Sam440 and an X1000 and love both dearly.)
My own current classic Amiga project is a 2000/060 that has a MegaChip, Indivision ECS, Deneb (machine boots from USB sticks) and Video Toaster and Flyer cards. It has turned into a FrankenAmiga for sure, but I am having fun playing with the Flyer for edititing standard-def video footage.
I am on IRC with my A1200 right now, and I like to keep that machine simple. I do not consider it a FrankenAmiga. But I like both approaches.
-
I just opened my Amiga 1000. No leaky caps. It's one of the oldest machines here. Why do I not have caps problems? Is everyone else?
bp
ah but you are talking about the best built Amiga ever IMHO in the A1000. Build quality and parts went downhill from there.
FWIW, my A1000 has a build date of early 85 and the MB and PSU still look like brand new, now of course that doesn't mean that stuff won't start failing after all this time but my next project is replacing all the caps in my A1000 after my experience with my A1200 (build date 1992)
-
I have had Amigas since about 1986, and never had a cap problem either.
These days, for a classic Amiga I tend to agree that the A4000T is the best choice if you can find one for a decent price. Regular A4000 next best.
-
Nice systems, and thanks for the opinions.
I am not sure what to do. I have this A2000 060 with 128MB FAST RAM, ASDG Dual Serial Card, Picasso 2, Indivision ECS, and HxC2001 installed. But...it feels too "much" for what I want, what I use. My A1200 '060 tower is unstable and I am not using it at all right now.
I could sell both '060 accelerators and then the A2000 in a reduced config and fund a clean A1200 wedge with Indivision AGA mk II, ACA 1231 (030 42MHz, 64MB FAST), and 4GB CF IDE. Might be better for my WHDLoad purposes (and AGA demos). I'd also have A1000 and Sam 440ep Flex.
Decisions....
bp
-
1200 is not cheaper, another misconception.. you didn't do a fair comparison. With the stock 4000 you get a 040/25,good power supply,expansion bus,room for 16mb ram,place for a cdrom,place for a second floppy or card reader.
add those upgrades to a 1200 and you have probabaly equalled the price or surpassed it.Remember the 1200 is 020EC,2mb ram,bad psu,no easy external expansions,no expansion bus for slots unless you tower it and its still not zorro3.The pcmcia is the only big +.
sorry to hijacking your thread Blakespot!
Try finding one in New Zealand ;-)
-
I have caps issues in my A4000, in the audio section. I have a bag of cosmos caps waiting to get on her, but I don't have the desoldering station or the patience to do it yet.
-
.. And how bad _are_ the caps in the A4000? I've got a room full of computers...
http://www.bytecellar.com/photo_pano.html
...and I've never, ever had a caps issue in any of them.
bp
WOW! Impressive Mancave! :biglaugh:
Are my eyes deceiving me or is there some witchcraft at play? I see your A2000 is running Gauntlet 1. Wasn't it only released on the ST? (16bit)
Cheers
-
WOW! Impressive Mancave! :biglaugh:
Are my eyes deceiving me or is there some witchcraft at play? I see your A2000 is running Gauntlet 1. Wasn't it only released on the ST? (16bit)
Cheers
No magic...
http://www.lemonamiga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=93233&sid=14f226f3153edbc8781ad5094ec05b30
:-)
bp
-
No magic...
http://www.lemonamiga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=93233&sid=14f226f3153edbc8781ad5094ec05b30
:-)
bp
thanks for the link! played those 3 classics to death on my 64 so looking forward to playing on my A1000, damn i really have to visit good ol lemonamiga more often:)
-
In general, the capacitor issue refers to the radial SMD caps - A1200, A4000, A600, CD32, and Zorro cards that have them. The thru-hole caps in the older models were usually of decent quality and aren't as much of a concern (yet). I only replace the latter in PSUs.
-
I had always heard that the A1200 is a more stable, compatible machine. That the extra hardware in the A4000 pushes it further afield from the center of compatibility.
Is that not the case?
Now, back in the day, when the machines were new, I'd say the A4000 was by far the more stable of the machines. I owned an A1200 with expansions and an A4000/040 (later upgraded to 060), and my A4000 spanked my A1200 in so far as stability. The 4000 was a rock-solid bulldog that could run for days (or weeks) on end without a reboot. The 1200 might get a couple hours, if you were lucky.
And how bad _are_ the caps in the A4000? I've got a room full of computers...
Terrible. The only two Amigas I've had cap problems on were both A4000s. The 4000's also have the self-destructing SIMM sockets. (The only broken SIMM sockets I've seen [besides extreme neglect/impact/stupidity cases] have also been on A4000s.
Oddly enough I've never had the cap problems on my various 1200s, though several, including my current model have been plagued with the vertical flash syndrome.
Personally, I got rid of my big-box Amigas a few years ago, and I can't really say I miss the old hassles. Priorities change, and I'm happier with my 1200 with an 030 in the stock desktop wedge, nowadays. (Ironically, it's very similar to what my 1200 started out as back in the day, before I expanded it and sold the lot and bought the 4000.)
-
Is a 68060 ECS A2000 more "compatible" with WHDLoad titles than an '030 AGA A1200? God knows I have to crank out the NOAUTOVEC action to run half the stuff I come across.
Thanks.
bp
-
Is a 68060 ECS A2000 more "compatible" with WHDLoad titles than an '030 AGA A1200?
No, the '030 A1200 would be about ideal for WHDLoad, with the exception of 1 or 2 accelerator cards that cause problems. (Blizzards are all good, my GVP is fine, too.) The '060 cards are usually OK - that said, I would sometimes have niggling access faults in certain games that wouldn't pop up until several minutes in... seriously annoying. Overall though I had few issues with the '060 cards, but the 1200/030 combo can bring WHDLoad perfection.
God knows I have to crank out the NOAUTOVEC action to run half the stuff I come across.
Thanks.
Odd, don't think this should be the case with the Blizz 2060. Do you have networking up while running games? Any other cards in the system? There was also a version of the phase5 processor library that caused problems with WHDLoad, might want to try another, or even better the mmulib library.
-
There was also a version of the phase5 processor library that caused problems with WHDLoad, might want to try another, or even better the mmulib library.
The which??
bp
-
The which??
bp
LOL, sorry :P
The "noautovec" tooltype (http://whdload.de/docs/en/opt.html#NoAutoVec) shouldn't really be a necessity, at least I don't recall this issue when I had my my B2060 running. This might mean you have another piece of hardware in the system causing WHDLoad to bomb, or maybe a network interface online (always have them offline before launching games).
Latest version of the phase5 cpu libraries here (http://phase5.a1k.org/index.php?driverslibraries). It's worth a check that your 68060.library is the last released, since one or more of the earlier ones causes problems with WHDLoad.
The mmulib package can be found here (http://phase5.a1k.org/index.php?driverslibraries), and includes its own replacement processor libraries. These are the best ones (IMHO) and worth a try, but AFAIK, the latest phase5 library should work fine with WHDLoad.
Anyhow, didn't mean to drag things too far OT - your 2060 should be great for WHDLoad without requiring extra tooltypes, and nearly as good as a 1200/'030 (minus lack of AGA compatibility, obviously).
-
LOL, sorry :P
The "noautovec" tooltype (http://whdload.de/docs/en/opt.html#NoAutoVec) shouldn't really be a necessity, at least I don't recall this issue when I had my my B2060 running. This might mean you have another piece of hardware in the system causing WHDLoad to bomb, or maybe a network interface online (always have them offline before launching games).
Latest version of the phase5 cpu libraries here (http://phase5.a1k.org/index.php?driverslibraries). It's worth a check that your 68060.library is the last released, since one or more of the earlier ones causes problems with WHDLoad.
The mmulib package can be found here (http://phase5.a1k.org/index.php?driverslibraries), and includes its own replacement processor libraries. These are the best ones (IMHO) and worth a try, but AFAIK, the latest phase5 library should work fine with WHDLoad.
Anyhow, didn't mean to drag things too far OT - your 2060 should be great for WHDLoad without requiring extra tooltypes, and nearly as good as a 1200/'030 (minus lack of AGA compatibility, obviously).
Reading up on MMUlib now. Had never heard of it. I had just installed the libs on a floppy that came with this accelerator. The link you give for MMUlib takes me to Phase 5 software where I do see their libraries, but not MMUlib specifically.
Where can I get it? And it is an alternative and preferable to Phase 5's 68060.library?
Thanks.
bp
-
...This might mean you have another piece of hardware in the system causing WHDLoad to bomb, or maybe a network interface online (always have them offline before launching games).
Also, I do have an X-Surf card and use it under 3.1 with AmiTCP. I am sure to have "stop net"ed before running games.
bp
-
Reading up on MMUlib now. Had never heard of it. I had just installed the libs on a floppy that came with this accelerator. The link you give for MMUlib takes me to Phase 5 software where I do see their libraries, but not MMUlib specifically.
Where can I get it? And it is an alternative and preferable to Phase 5's 68060.library?
Aminet. Alternative, in some cases it may be better - never tried yet.
-
oops!
http://aminet.net/package/util/libs/MMULib
I had just installed the libs on a floppy that came with this accelerator.
OK, you might be running an outdated library - try the last one from phase5 and see how it goes.
-
I grabbed the new P5 68060.library set.
I still get NMI auto vec crashes on basically every demo I run. :-(
bp
-
I grabbed the new P5 68060.library set.
I still get NMI auto vec crashes on basically every demo I run. :-(
bp
Bummer! I'll try finding some time over the weekend to get mine fired up, and see if I encounter the same problem. What demos should I try?
That aside, the only other suggestion I can think of would be to pop out the x-surf and try again. I also wouldn't hesitate to start a thread over at the eab (http://eab.abime.net/) - the WHDLoad developers are really friendly and active over there.
-
So I installed the new 68060, 68040 libraries mentioned a few posts up, yet Showconfig tells me I have a 68040 in the system. I have a Phase 5 Blizzard '060 board in this A2000.
SS loads the standard Setpatch with OS 3.1.
This may be my problem with crashes in WHDLoad, right?
Should Showconfig report 68060? I read on EAB that it should... Thanks.
bp
-
What do you think of my plan?
I am going through the exact same experience as you. I've been an Amiga user since 1987 when I bought an A500. In 1996 I got an A2000, and between then 'til 2008 I expanded that machine with lots of bits and bobs trying to make it a super powerful Amiga (Picasso II, Repulse audio, 68040, Kickflash card, SupraRAM, Megachip, Flickerfixer, etc.). The thing was literally crammed (no more free expansion slots, and with ribbon cables going everywhere).
I was trying to keep up and be able to do modern desktop publishing, graphics and audio work with that machine...and for a while I succeeded, but it was very expensive and relied on hardware that couldn't easily be replaced.
Then, cheap PCs started to surpass what I could do even with that Amiga. There was little way for me to keep up - I could desktop publish and do advanced graphics and sound editing, but the wait times for thing results to render were extremely long in comparison with what a cheap PC could do.
Meanwhile, the A2000 with all these bits and bobs hanging on, had become a bit touchy. It seemed I was always popping the hood open to get one bit of hardware to play nicely with another third party add on. I babied that machine though and kept it clean and well fed, it served me well, but sometimes I had to say a little prayer every time I turned it on that the hard drive would spin up or a certain card would be recognized.
I eventually realized (after yet another component broke and would have been very hard to replace) that I was not really using an Amiga at all. YES, there was an Amiga BURIED somewhere in there, but everything was retargeted from the original Commodore hardware; all the graphics were RTG'd to a third party graphics card, sound was AHI'd to a third party audio card, and the CPU load was handled by a third party 68040 board. The Amiga motherboard was doing very little other than supplying power to the third party hardware hanging off of it. The actual hardware Commodore had designed and that had shipped with the A2000 on they day it rolled off the factory floor was barely being used. So, then, mightn't I just as well be using a SAM or WinUAE or a MacMini running MorphOS? The A2000 had simply become a box to feed electricity to all the non-Commodore components that were doing the real work.
I decided I would stop trying to make my classic Amigas compete with a modern PC or MAC and instead get back to basics - when using my classics, I would appreciate them for what the are, and not try to "pimp them out" into something they are not.
I sold my big box Amigas and their add-ons, and am going back to a basic Amiga 500 with a simple hard-drive sidecar and some extended RAM. I'm going to use software that doesn't need more than the custom chips and the basic 68000. Deluxe Paint, PhotonPaint, DigiView, Music trackers, original games. Give those custom chips a workout.
I've seen artists and musicians doing stuff on very basic Amigas lately that I'm really impressed by. It's like the whole synthesizer thing - in the 1980s we struggled to make realistic instrument sounds on our analogue synths. Many, like me, wanted to sell our old "obsolete" analogue synths because we wanted the new crop of digital synths that could actually mimic real acoustic instruments like oboes, clarinets, guitars, trumpets, saxes, etc. At that time some people laughed at my early 80s Roland Juno-106 because it was so "outdated" - and I started to believe them. Knobs and sliders were passé and everything was menu driven and membrane keyboard interfaces ruled. Sounds were crisp and sterile.
Then a decade later, we learned to appreciate the earlier analogue technology for what it was - and analogue synths then became sought after and desired for the unique sounds only they could make. Suddenly, everyone wanted real knobs and push-buttons on synths again. Synths like the Juno are now legendary and no one buys one to try and re-create a real acoustic instrument. They WANT that "fake" synth sound we had rejected.
I think Amigas are starting to be appreciated in this way. The old classics are not being compared to the latest cutting edge computers anymore - they are being appreciated on their own merits.
Like you, I also am attracted to the idea of a "clean" basic Amiga like you mentioned in your original post - hence I'm going back to a "wedge" Amiga like I originally had in the 1980s. The wedge also looks so unique!
I haven't abandoned the Amiga for productivity work. I use it more than ever (graphics, desktop publishing, 3d rendering, Bars & Pipes, audio editing). A few years ago I very reluctantly bought a PC and a copy of Amiga Forever. I never thought it would match my decked-out A2000. I delved into WinUAE, becoming what I would say is an "advanced user" and set up a virtual copy of the desktop that had once been on my A2000. It just FLEW! In AIBB tests it rated obscenely faster than my former real 68040 - even much faster than a 68060 - and this was on a (not cutting edge) PC that cost only a few hundred dollars from a refurbished computer dealer.
I was finally able to get more work done with this virtual "Amiga" than I had ever been able to do before. I was editing massive images in ImageFX and rendering in Aladdin4d stuff in seconds instead of minutes or hours. It's an RTG, 16-bit AHI setup without all the hard to find 20 year old cards. And if anything breaks, like the hard drive or the RAM or whatever, I can (finally) just pop down to any corner computer store and buy replacements for dirt cheap - or just replace the whole computer for almost nothing as people are giving away slightly older PCs all the time. I call it a "virtual Amiga" but really, it feels very Amiga to me.
I guess this is the same experience you had on your SAM - it was hard to go back to the expanded big box Amigas once you had tasted the speed of AmigaOS on modern hardware.
And for when I get nostalgic and want to use a REAL hardware Amiga, actually touch an original keyboard, hear the disk drive grind, see the interlace flicker and feel the angular mouse, I have that A500 with sidecar...and I know when I use THAT I'm actually seeing Denise, Paula and Agnes flex their muscles along with good old 68000. No RTG, AHI or third party CPU cards. WinUAE is my Amiga for "working" and the A500 is my Amiga for "fun" - and it's going to be damn fun I think!
I guess what I'm saying is a bit contradictory - When I want a nostalgic Amiga buzz I'll go back to a classic machine running on the native hardware, and when I need to do productivity work I'm happy to see AmigaOS run on the fastest possible, modern hardware (WinUAE, AROS, SAM, AmigaONE X1000, MorphOS, etc). I guess I'm what I'm trying to say is "appreciate the classics for what they are, leave the future to the next-generation machines".
-
Should Showconfig report 68060? I read on EAB that it should... Thanks.
Not on 3.1 - 3.1 was written before 060 came out.