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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: Hodgkinson on April 10, 2007, 08:52:18 PM

Title: Use of the A500
Post by: Hodgkinson on April 10, 2007, 08:52:18 PM
Hi there...
Im curious why so many people here on A.org use their A500's more than A1200's, for example (Or so it seems...). Is it nostalga, or is there somthing im missing here?

I mainly use my A1200 in the radio shack, occasionially I play around on the A1200T, but no serious use as such. As for the two A500's one is faulty, and the other one, in fully working condition, is still in its box somewhere.

Thoughts appreciated,
Hodgkinson.

EDIT: Btw, the reason the plain A1200 gets more use than the A1200T is because its smaller than the A1200T - Thus it can fit on the garage bench nicely.
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: meega on April 10, 2007, 08:56:58 PM
Games.
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: skurk on April 10, 2007, 09:01:31 PM
Me: Compability testing (OCS/ECS, demoscene stuff)
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: meega on April 10, 2007, 09:05:55 PM
Of course, silly me.

Games and demos.
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: Amigaz on April 10, 2007, 09:16:08 PM
Tend to use my A500's mostly of the nostalgic kick I get...reminds me of my youth and the great fun I had with my A500 back then...god! i miss those days  :boohoo:
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: steve30 on April 10, 2007, 09:19:21 PM
They are better for games than the A1200.

The case is better than the A1200's as well - it is much easier to keep an extra floppy drive, joystick and modem on top of the A500 than it is on the 1200.

For more serious work though the A1200 is better.
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: motorollin on April 10, 2007, 09:40:12 PM
Quote
steve30 wrote:
They are better for games than the A1200.

Despite being slower, less expandable and not having AGA?

--
moto
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: meega on April 10, 2007, 09:42:00 PM
Yes, because a lot of early games addressed the hardware and an A1200 is not the same and sometimes does not work.
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: motorollin on April 10, 2007, 09:44:11 PM
So use WHDLoad or BlizKick with a 1.3 ROM image or another degrader. There is very little which will run on an A500 which won't run on an A1200, and the A1200 has all the advantages of AGA, fast accelerators etc. IMO the A1200 is a much better games machine.

--
moto
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: McVenco on April 10, 2007, 09:47:08 PM
Quote

motorollin wrote:
Quote
steve30 wrote:
They are better for games than the A1200.

Despite being slower, less expandable and not having AGA?


What has being slower and less expandable got to do with playing games? I'd prefer an A500 above an A1200 for playing games. Except AGA games of course, but there are way more OCS games than AGA games so no very big loss there (except Slamtilt obviously :-))

For everything else, the A1200 is better though...
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: motorollin on April 10, 2007, 09:49:57 PM
Quote
McVenco wrote:
What has being slower and less expandable got to do with playing games?

The games will load more slowly on an A500. More advanced games might not run as well, or at all, on an A500 with little RAM or CPU speed. I know compatibility is an issue for some really old software, but do we really need to worry about this now there are so many ways around it?

--
moto
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: McVenco on April 10, 2007, 09:53:37 PM
Maybe not, but I still get a better feeling using an A500. Maybe just for old times sake, and I really don't mind somewhat longer loading times. 99% of the games that I like run without hassle on a 1MB A500. For the other ones, well, there's always WHDLoad indeed :-)

Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: motorollin on April 10, 2007, 09:55:41 PM
Well, if it's a nostalgia thing then I can understand it :-) My first computer was an Amiga 500, but the first I ever bought for myself was my A1200, so an A1200 has a better feeling for me than an A500 :-)

--
moto
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: James on April 10, 2007, 10:18:02 PM
I use my 1200 for most things. When I run into compatibility issues that aren't fixed by the Early boot or a little degrader action, I switch to the 600.

I will use the 600 more when I get some free time to set up the HD properly. Right now it's just wb2 on there.

When/if I get myself a 500 again, it will have to be expanded with at least an hard drive. I got rid of my 1000 for that reason. Although I had a very strong emotional bond with the 1000, being the first miggy I owned way back when, I just can't be arsed to use a computer without an HD these days. That's the main reason why I got a 600 before a 500, easier to get an HD in there.

For the moment though.. I'm getting a 1040 ST this week. Never had one of those and I can't wait to start exploring this little beast :)

Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: Tenacious on April 11, 2007, 02:28:22 AM
Not everything I do requires a 2 Gig clock, a Gig of ram, and a 1 Gig OS that serves many masters.  Big Grin!

Seriously, I get a charge from playing with a simple, clean OS.  An A500 expanded only with fast ram (and a 2-3 Meg Rad) is a nearly 'pure' experience.  I wish I could send myself a message in 1989 to "..buy 4 Megs of fast ram next..".

Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: Methuselas on April 11, 2007, 03:35:20 AM
@ Moto


Some games, such as Bard's Tale, can cause GURU hits on a 1200, even an unexpanded one.
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: Lockon_15 on April 11, 2007, 07:45:05 AM
500 ?

Anytime, anywhere.
Plug'nPlay...no fuss with HDD, softkick, WHDLOAD...
1200 is better machine, even for gaming, but 500 was a pathfinder. A1200 would never saw a daylight if A1000 was left as is.

B52 rulez  
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: Brian on April 11, 2007, 08:59:42 AM
A500 sit's firm in it's cardboardbox togheter with it's spare mate and rarely gets taken out... but when it does however, for nostalgic kicks only mind you, it gets it's SupraTurbo28 and Apollo500 2MB Mem/2Gb HDD attached.

The A1200 with B1230 well, it was my workhorse for a very long time and degraders and WHDLoad solved almost all issues where the machine couldn't run A500 games... 8-)

...Nowaday though, all my AGA machines have 060 some with PPC and compability have been lost again so when ever needed my little A600 with KS1.3/2.0 switch takes the heat when games don't run on the bigboys.

Why the A500 doesn't see much light is cause my A600's monitorstand is my A1000 setup, and although it doesn't do much it is there in the corner of my eye all the time giving me endless of small nostalgic boosts. :-D
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: steve30 on April 11, 2007, 09:16:57 AM
I have had more bad experiences with games with the A1200 than I have with the A500+.

With the 500, games just work. On the A1200, sometimes, I have to switch the Blizard off, then change to OCS, and sometimes boot up with ReLoKick 1.3.
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: Andeda on April 11, 2007, 09:24:10 AM
every now and then i like to play some old classic A500 games and their not allways working on my A1200 (AGA chipset not supported??)
Title: Re: Use of the A500
Post by: McVenco on April 11, 2007, 09:39:02 AM
Quote

Well, if it's a nostalgia thing then I can understand it :-) My first computer was an Amiga 500, but the first I ever bought for myself was my A1200, so an A1200 has a better feeling for me than an A500 :-)


For me it's just the other way round. The first computer I ever bought was an A500 and I didn't have an A1200 until last year. To me, the A1200 requires a lot of fiddling (booting to WB, loading WHDLoad etc) to get some games to work, while with the A500 it's just switching on, inserting a disk and away we go! :-)