Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Marketplace => Topic started by: AmigaFan on January 26, 2006, 06:06:51 PM
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All Amiga hardware I am after has been located! I want to thank everyone for all the assistance and input!
Fred
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Hi Fred.
Good luck on your search. I only have an A1200 for sale which doesn't have a working IDE port, so it's only a floppy based system. So it's ok for a games machine.
You realize, that the "latest games" were mostly AGA dependent, so that precludes using the A500 and A3000, but since there's tons of games you can get for a classic system, well, go for it.
The closest dealer to you, is a store in Boise Idaho, which you can get the links below in the dealers section. Otherwise, its softhut in Pennsylvania, and Magnetic Systems in NY. If you want to stick to the USA that is. OldSoftware has games too, but the prices tend to be little high.
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Thanks for the update. I have been trying to get ahold of someone at magnetic but no go. I left a message today so we will see. They have a nice A3000 and A1200 for sale and I want to see if they still have it in stock.
Fred
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You can try SoftwareHut they sometimes have A4000 and 1200 systems available Amigkit is another place to look at but they are located in the UK. The A3000 is not your best option. If you can find a 4000 or 1200 thats you best bet.
And welcome to Amiga.Org :-D
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Thanks Tony!!
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Want list updated!
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Not to sound like Doomy, but what's wrong with an A3000? Sure you can't play AA games, but many of the better ones had earlier ECS versions suitable to the A3000 and later ones had RTG versions which would run fine on a graphics card equipped A3000. A1200 stuff is tougher to get a hold of in the US, but there are tons of old full 32-bit A3000s with built in 68030s w/mmu, 68882 fpu, ZorroIII slots, and vga monitor ready 31KHz video output from Amber (though you may need a rom upgrad). Adding a full 68030/68882 and flicker fixer to the A1200 would run you an extra $200 (if you were lucky to find 2nd hand). A3000s go on eBay for maybe $100-$150, simply more machine for the buck and much more of a computer than the A1200 was intended. Heck, even an old A2000 with a 68030 card and a flicker fixer makes a nice WHDLoad machine for OCS/ECS games.
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just spotted this on craigslist:
http://www.craigslist.org/pen/sys/127567462.html
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Seems like a good price but it would need a new keyboard.
I have nothing against the A3000. I am just after the best bang for my money. If that so happens to be an A3000 loaded, then so be it.
Thanks!
Fred
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I'm not talking 'loaded'; just base machines here. Even a 'loaded' A500 is laughable next to a base A3000. A well-equipped A1200 (other than AGA) just starts to approach it.
The base A3000 is so much more bang for buck it's not even close really. I forgot to mention the built-in scsi dma controller and up to 16MB of fastram on the m/b (though these are rare zipp chips); fast slot compatibility with A4000-style accelerators for expansion; built-in RTC and battery. If you can find a 25MHz A3000 with 8MB of zipp memory, w/ keyboard/mouse for <$150.00 you really won't be sorry. Some A3000s even had high density floppy drives built in (Chinon FZ357A). It was simply the best machine C= ever made, imho.
A 'loaded' 32-bit Amiga w/ 68060, 3D graphics card, 128+MB ram, ethernet card, fast scsi controller, etc. is going to run you probably another $500+, regardless if it's an A3000, A4000 or A1200. The point is when you're ready to invest such money, you'll be much happier putting it into an A3000.
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Hi Fred. I agree with what Argus is saying about the A3000. An unexpanded system already has good features available, and it also has good options for further expansion, and will generally give good value for money.
I don't know how aware you are of the Amiga graphics chip sets. The original chip set was called OCS, and was later upgraded to ECS. IIRC, both of these chip sets had essentially the same behaviour with games (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). Most Amiga games were developed for OCS/ECS. I think any Amiga can support the screenmodes required for these games. Later, in 1992, the AGA chipset was introduced, and was featured in the A1200, A4000, and I think some European (or German) only model(s) like the A2200. AGA has superior graphics capabilities, but there has not been a large amount of software written which requires AGA. Having said that, some AGA games do look fantastic.
There are also additional graphics cards for Amigas, though not always easy/affordable to get a particular model that one may desire. These cards offer superior graphics output, and faster performance. Others have said that they are basically essential for web browsing these days. Also, I've read that some newer (post '96?) games require graphics cards and 3D accelerators. I believe some graphics cards will allow AGA Amigas to pass the AGA screen modes through the graphics cards, to still be displayed, whereas some would not allow this. It should be easy enough to fit a graphics card to an A2000, 3000, 4000, 2200?, but more difficult with other models. With an A1200, if you don't have a bus-board expansion, providing extra slots, then I think there is only one graphics card available, BlizzardVissionPPC, which is only usable with a BlizzardPPC accellerator. I'm not sure of what other issues may be pertinent for the use of graohics cards.
You will also want to know about scandoublers/flickerfixers. Most games work on a ~15kHz scan rate, which is too low for most modern svga monitors. Scandoublers/flickerfixers will promote these screenmodes to be displayable on your monitor. I believe the A3000 has one built-in, which is great, as add-on SD/FFs can be expensive, don't always work very well, and can be hard to find (though external SD/FFs are currently commercially available).
There is a couple of other compatibility issue to be aware of. Some software is not compatible with 68040 and 68060 CPUs. For most Amigas, these CPUs are only available on accelerators, though some A4000s shipped with 68040's. Accellerators can generally be disabled when required. Additionally, you should be careful of which ROM's are installed on-board. For OS 3.1, 3.5, 3.9 you need ROM version 3.1, though OS 3.1 will run with limited features using 3.0 ROMs. However, some games may want to use earlier ROMs, like v1.3. This is not such a major issue any more, due to a program called WHDload, which allows old floppy disc games to run from hard drive, and I think eleviates the issues with ROM compatibility. If I remember correctly, this now works with most games.
You mentioned that you don't know what accellerators are. They are cards with upgraded CPUs, faster clocks, more RAM, and possibly coprocessors, or memory management units. They may also feature IDE or SCSI interfaces. Accellerators are truly good things to have, though they can cause some compatibility issues as mentioned above.
Have fun, and good luck.
-Oli
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Amiduffer wrote:
You realize, that the "latest games" were mostly AGA dependent, so that precludes using the A500 and A3000, but since there's tons of games you can get for a classic system, well, go for it.
Actually to be brutally honest most of the "latest games" are ports of recently open-sourced PC games like Freespace, Heretic-II, Quake II and III (not that Hyperion has released their Q&D port of the last one - at least I think they said they had one), Shogo Mobile Armor Division, etc.
All of those desperately need a PPC card plus graphic card and the 3000 is a good platform to put both in...
'course some may digress.
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The biggest downers for me in regards to A3000D are the lack of space in the case, and the very sensitive SCSI controller (kind of picky in regards to what else you've got installed in your system, and which devices you use in your scsi chain). Installation of accelerator cards with SCSI on them requires an INT2 patch. It's difficult to make use of your accelerator's SCSI activity led, since you need to patch up a wire that would somehow connect to the led adapter so that the accelerator SCSI chain activity signal would be received by the led adapter. Getting the SCSI controller updated to the latest revision of supported chips is tricky, as DMAC4 Ramsey7 and WDSCSI8 are kind of hard to find.
A3000 is great if you keep it nice and stock, e.g. 16MB fast ram, 2MB chip ram, 3.1 roms, and perhaps an A3640. Heavy expansion...nothing beats an A4000D or T. A3000T is a totally different story however.
The ultimate fun expansion Amiga system that is also quite capable is definitely the A1200. Parts for it are the cheapest of all Amigas and it's easy to relace a dead motherboard. :-)
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If you want a amiga gaming box, then i would personally go for an aga based machine with HD, some fast ram and maybe an accelrator. The a1200 and a4000 can run most classic ocs/ecs games when installing them using whdload. Not only will most games work perfectly, but you also dont need to swap disks and wait ages for the games to load and you will be able to play newer aga games which wont run on the a500 or a3000.
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Thank you everyone for your input. I am now starting to understand what I need to look for in a machine. I really appreciate all your help!
Fred
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AmigaFan wrote:
Thank you everyone for your input. I am now starting to understand what I need to look for in a machine. I really appreciate all your help!
Fred
Hi Fred........
How about a Killer A2000 ?
I have 2 A2000's that I'm going to list on EBay.
I have most all the extras and can set it up however
you want it from a GVP TecMagic 060@50 w/128 megs ram
and harddrive, CD Rom and which ever roms you want plus
a scan doubler/flickerfixer for your SVGA monitor.
Or scale it down to your wants.
The A2000 makes an excelent game machine.
If you're interested email me at ....
melott1@netonecom.net
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Email sent Melott. Give me more details please.
Fred
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I agree about the A3000 space issues the case is not user friendly (the 1000 and 2000 had alot more room) and adding extra hard drives or an excelorator is almost impossible without modification. You should look for at the least an A3000 tower and it has so much more space and you automaticly get a SCSI controler and High density flopy drives. Plus 4 PC slots and both a 13kHz and a 15kHz (with built in flicker fixer) video out.
I used to have one but sold it when I upgraded to my preasent A4000D.
By the way the above A2000 would do you very well (nice system)
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I emailed Melott for more details and price.
Fred
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I found the Amiga 500. Now looking for either an A1200 or A2000.
Fred
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All hardware has been found!
Thank you
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thats too bad, Their is a great A4000 on ebay right now and its in the US Here (http://cgi.ebay.ca/Amiga-A4000-Desktop-with-AmigaOS-3-9_W0QQitemZ8755627759QQcategoryZ4598QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)
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tonyvdb wrote:
thats too bad, Their is a great A4000 on ebay right now and its in the US Here (http://cgi.ebay.ca/Amiga-A4000-Desktop-with-AmigaOS-3-9_W0QQitemZ8755627759QQcategoryZ4598QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)
and its most likely the seller is a 10 minute drive from where i live.
Amiga *shout outs* from Raleigh and surrounding areas.
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you can fit like 6 3.5" devices in the 3000d and fans to keep everything cool! you have to get a little goofy with power splitters and make brackets to hold drives on top of each other but they all easily fit.
ethernet, or zorro scsi, and video card and sound card all fit nicely, and if you dont have a video card you can still hook it up to any vga monitor.
in just the past year here on amiga.org i have seen dozens of posts for people looking for scan doubler/flicker fixers for their 1200s and 4000s and i just kick back with my 3000 hooked up to a huge svga monitor.
having aga missing is big, granted, but playing on a stable flicker free crystal clear screen more than makes up for it. many games were released for aga and ocs/ecs and many newer games had rtg versions also esp. 3d games.
i guess this means you can put my vote with the 3000 especially since i sold my 1200 to buy one, 4000s are pretty pricey even now.
just my 2 cents
or like 6 or 7 cents :-D
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Argus on 2006/1/27 0:14:04 Wrote:
Not to sound like Doomy, but what's wrong with an A3000?
Shouldn't that be 'What's wrong with an A2000?' :-)
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Colin_Camper wrote:
Argus on 2006/1/27 0:14:04 Wrote:
Not to sound like Doomy, but what's wrong with an A3000?
Shouldn't that be 'What's wrong with an A2000?' :-)
yeah, military spec and all that jazz
I love the A3000, it's quiet and really the machine C= most carefully built with all the fixins. People complain it's hard to get into but I attribute that more to the great engineering that went into it. The case is put together with such precision, you really get the impression it was well thought out by design. Contrast that with the A4000, as the clunky top metal cover is a pain to seat properly. Oh well, I like both, but the A3000 is my favorite. :roll:
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"Shouldn't that be 'What's wrong with an A2000?' "
the most loaded a2000 say with 060 accelerator etc still has a zorro2 bus thats like having a pentium or even 486 system with only isa bus.
zorro2 can only hit 3mb/sec transfer zorro3 is very close to pci bus capability
so if you say a loaded 3000 that could mean with a good accelerator and video card wich the a2000 cant take