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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: reidy4040 on February 25, 2008, 10:35:49 PM
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I am wanting to purchase an Amiga as when i was younger my older brother had one and we had many hours of fun on it. Which Amiga is best? And which is compatible with most games? Also how do you know which games will play on which Amiga?
Cheers
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Simple answer to that is the A1200. Not too expensive (but rising fast) and is very compatible with it's boot up options.
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Amiga 500 is nice with older Amiga games (most of the games), but for some later games (1992 and onward) A1200 is probably the best choice.
Older games used OCS/ECS chipsets, and usually they are playble after some fiddling with all Amigas. When Amiga 1200/4000/CD32 (which used AGA) were released, some games mainly for those machines became available.
Using software called WHDLoad, you can install most (even those older) games to harddrive, which could make A1200/A4000 perfect for Amiga gaming.
I don't have links available right now, but there are many sites listing Amiga games and their requirements. You could also try out games using some Amiga emulator, like WinUAE before getting in the process to get them running on the real thing.
Keep an eye out for Minimig too, which is small motherboard emulating Amiga 500 nearly perfectly with classic joystick ports running games from flash cards.
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do you know anybody that sells them?
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There might be some Amiga 1200s (as well as minimig when they become available) at www.amigakit.com
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what about second hand?
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Your best bet for second hand is eBay, but you may want to ask here if any one has one for sale.
Also look to pay any where from $75 to $200 U.S. on eBay (depending on condition and if it has a hard drive)
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Amiga Kit (http://www.amigakit.com) stock them. You can pretty much guarantee that there will be one on Ebay any given time too.
If you want to use WHDLoad to run games from the hard disk I would recommend getting a RAM board or 1230 turbo card with RAM.
A quick search of Ebay in the UK brings up 2 turbo cards and a 8MB board.
A good alternative to a hard disk is to use a Compact flash card and a CF-IDE adapter.
A lot of people install laptop CD drives in the A1200 too.
If you're prepared to pay a bit extra and do all the above you'll have a nice little games system.
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Don't forget about the MiniMig: http://www.acube-systems.com/
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And if you have them (where-ever you are), Car Boot Sales or in America, Swap Meets or something like that is a good rescorce for Amiga's but they are becoming rarer.
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amibay is another good source of computers and parts.
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reidy4040 wrote:
what about second hand?
If you are only into playing games, look for an Amiga 500. Sure, the A1200 is better, faster and more expandable, but 90% of all Amiga games runs on a standard A500, and they are a lot cheaper. Try Ebay for a nice little package (A500 + mouse + joystick + tv-modulator), or search your local ads paper/thriftstore/Craigslist.
If you really want to dive into more possibilities, go for an A1200, but for just games, I still value the A500 best.
Don't pay more than €50,00 for an A500. Here in Holland you can usually get a complete set (sometimes even with monitor) for almost half that price, if you're a bit patient with searching for it...
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@ McVenco, I'v never found any game that's incompatible without ReloKick on the A1200. I can't see how you could imagine to go without AGA graphics, you would miss out on so many good games.
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@ McVenco, I'v never found any game that's incompatible without ReloKick on the A1200. I can't see how you could imagine to go without AGA graphics, you would miss out on so many good games.
The only AGA game that I find worth playing often is Slamtilt. All my other favourite games are OCS and run fine on a 1MB A500.
Relokick is cute, but it's just like using an A1000 where you have to load the Kickstart disk first - after a while it really gets annoying.
For gaming I'd have an A500 over an A1200 anyday.
Also: if someone just wants to play some old games for good old time's sake it's totally ridiculous to advice him to buy an expensive A1200 with an 68030 accelerator and putting WHDLoad on a 4GB harddisk (or advicing to buy a Minimig for that matter). That's like buying a Ferrari when you only want to drive 5 miles to the pub once every 3 weeks.
Go for an A500. It's more retro than an A1200 as well
(who needs 32 bit when playing Pacmania :-) )
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What about Banshee? Super Stardust? Superfrog? Should I go on? (< thats a question not a game by the way :lol: ).
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tokyoracer wrote:
What about Banshee? Super Stardust? Superfrog?
Superfrog is OCS, not AGA.
Sure, a lot of AGA games are cool, but most games have OCS equivalents (SWIV, Stardust), plus there's far more OCS than AGA games to play with, so do you really miss out THAT much if you can't play them?
Maybe I'm a bit narrowsighted since I never had an AGA machine until 2006, but I've since played nearly every AGA game and I can't say I missed out on much in the nineties.
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I dont know much about Amiga's and how they work etc. I was only small when my brother had one and everything was already set up. I do just want an Amiga to play classic games but i want there to be the widest range of games i can get without having to worry about compatability issues.
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reidy4040 wrote:
I dont know much about Amiga's and how they work etc. I was only small when my brother had one and everything was already set up. I do just want an Amiga to play classic games but i want there to be the widest range of games i can get without having to worry about compatability issues.
Thanks to the marvelous WHDload package :bow: - compatability with most games is not a problem. More and more games are being converted on a daily basis to install and run on Amigas with hard drives.
As stated earlier, a hard drive (and possibly extra memory to play some of the larger games) is a starting point. :-)
Although I could be considered biased - I think an AGA machine is the way to go. Possibly with extra Ram, Hard drive, CD Drive, the list continues.....:rtfm:
This would then give you more options than just gaming. You could eventually even write your own games :crazy:
Dave G 8-)
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I would actually recommend the MiniMig, as it is new construction, not 3rd hand. Plus it is an open platform, and upgradeable, meaning that you can get newer FPGA code in time to further enhance your system in the future.
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reidy4040 wrote:
I dont know much about Amiga's and how they work etc.
davideo wrote:
Thanks to the marvelous WHDload package...
downix wrote:
I would actually recommend the MiniMig...
My God. You people really don't read, don't you? The guy has little knowledge about Amigas and you come up with WHDLoad and Minimig?
Let's consider:
1) Minimig + all peripherals: around 170 euros.
2) A1200 + some RAM + monitor + registered WHDLoad: around 140 euros plus a lot of hassle getting it all installed.
3) Amiga 500 + monitor with a truckload of games, all ready to play instantly from disk: 60 euros.
Seriously, we have someone here who wants to play a game he played when he was a kid, not to learn rocket science.
@reidy4040: an A1200 is just as good as an A500, but in it's standard form you could encounter trouble when running older games. Forget about RAM-cards, accelerators or WHDLoad when you just want to play a few games. If you really wish to run dozens of different games and play a few times per week, then it might be interesting to start learning more about the Amiga, but for an occasional game an A500 is just as good in my humble opinion.
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downix wrote:
I would actually recommend the MiniMig, as it is new construction, not 3rd hand. Plus it is an open platform, and upgradeable, meaning that you can get newer FPGA code in time to further enhance your system in the future.
You miss an important pro-point with the minimig: It can be hooked up to modern monitors without the need for expensive scandoublers.
I can see McVenco's point to, tho. But hey, the guy found Amiga.org so there's a lot of potential help available :-D.
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@ downix, I wouldn't. Expensive, hard work to make and time-comsuming. Unless hes a real wizz at the soldering iron and isn't too hard up.
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The real reason for Minimig is the moment when real A500 becomes scarce (Christies? :-D ).
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tokyoracer wrote:
@ downix, I wouldn't. Expensive, hard work to make and time-comsuming. Unless hes a real wizz at the soldering iron and isn't too hard up.
Ehmm... Minimigs are being sold as complete systems by Acube, so no soldering required...
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@McVenco, Still not cheap.
And you were right about Superfrog, my mistake. :roll:
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tokyoracer wrote:
@McVenco, Still not cheap.
Yeah. I mentioned that before as well :-)
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I agree with McVenco completely. If you just want to play a game, buy an A500. They're cheap, can be found everywhere and don't need you to use funny tricks to get a certain game to work. Put the disk in your A500's drive and start playing.
Something like an A1200 would be nice if you plan to dive deeper in Amiga-land, but there's no reason to go that route for the occasional game.
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you can't do any worse than picking up a secondhand A500 off of ebay.
if you want the full floppy loading expirence as well then this is probably your best bet.
but as ever, depends what you want....
The A500:
very very compatable, but hard disk expansions are becomming rarer, so chances are, you will be limited to floppy disks only.
The A500 Plus:
comes with a more uptodate chipset, but looses some compatability in the process - not enough to really worry about. Same expansion options, but comes with more chipram (graphics memory) so comes in handy if you do decide to put (and can find) a hard disk on it to run WHDLoad modified games from there.
The A600:
has all the features of the A500Plus, including a space for a standard laptop hard disk, in a very small case, but without the expandability.
problem, it cannot be expanded with memory beyond 2Mb, or faster CPU's without alot of effort. people buy A600's as an exersize in "how much can i expand the non-expandable" :-D but otherwise, quite a cute little machine.
The A1200:
Faster CPU, and best chipset, able to find ram cards, and processor accelerators much easier than for the A500, able to take standard laptop hard disks straight away. max amount of graphics ram, so no problems. can run a "degrader" to run games that have problems otherwise. can run WHDLoad very well. for max game compatability with an A1200, i wouldn't advise going past an 030 CPU.
old old games like Populous run their game timing directly off the CPU clock, so the faster the CPU, the faster the game!
If i was going for a bit of a knock about with a couple of games, and then put it away again, I'd go for the A500.
If i was going to have a bit of a play and leave the machine out as a bit of a hobbie retro gamer, i'd go for the A1200.
Bear in mind, a hard disk on an amiga will drasticly change the way you use the machine for the better. has to be one of the best things you can add if you are going to get into using one on a regular basis. :-)
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i don't like using floppies anymore. i bought my kit when i was going to use it for the internet now it's come in good for whdload. nice and no floppies if you download packs. this config (a1200 40 hd cd.) is perfect for me now. i won't need to be using a500 or a600... just the money factor for a newbie!
uae is the quickest and cheapest way to go. and you can always play the games you can't get running on an amiga. :-) although you need amiga forever...
ps. my linux spell checker thinks both the words linux and amiga are spelling mistakes. :lol:
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I haven't seen any mention of the A2000 ....
It has all the advantages of the A500, plus its very
expandable with the CPU, GFX, and Zorro slots.
I'd say the A2000 is best for this guy.
It gives him many more options at a much smaller price
than either the A1200 or the A500.
Mel
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I'd say the A2000 is best for this guy.
It gives him many more options at a much smaller price
than either the A1200 or the A500.
I doubt that. The A2000 itself is not cheaper than an A500 or A1200, and expansions like accelerators or SCSI controllers are in the same price range as A1200 ones, or even more expensive.
And if you want to store your Amiga in a cupboard, only to take it out and connect it to a TV everytime you want to play a game, then the A2000 isn't your Amiga either.
Mind you, I really like the A2000 (I like all Amigas for that matter), but it's hardly a games machine.
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McVenco wrote:
I'd say the A2000 is best for this guy.
It gives him many more options at a much smaller price
than either the A1200 or the A500.
I doubt that. The A2000 itself is not cheaper than an A500 or A1200, and expansions like accelerators or SCSI controllers are in the same price range as A1200 ones, or even more expensive.
And if you want to store your Amiga in a cupboard, only to take it out and connect it to a TV everytime you want to play a game, then the A2000 isn't your Amiga either.
Mind you, I really like the A2000 (I like all Amigas for that matter), but it's hardly a games machine.
Sorry, my mistake. I see the guy asking the question is
in the UK and what you say may be true for UK and Europe,
I don't really know. But here in the US A2000's are not
much more expensive than an A500 and cheaper than A1200.
And definently cheaper to expand.
Mel
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Make sure it has the workbench disk! Without it, it's very hard to transfer games (downloaded from internet sites like Back2roots) to it. If it hasn't a workbench disk, you'll need a Catweasel controller.