Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: outlawal2 on May 02, 2012, 06:13:49 PM
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I waited too long to pull the trigger on one of their "Old Stock" 1200's and now they have been out of them for some time.. Anybody have a scoop on when (or if) they may be getting more of them?
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I waited too long to pull the trigger on one of their "Old Stock" 1200's and now they have been out of them for some time.. Anybody have a scoop on when (or if) they may be getting more of them?
My guess is unless they find a cache of them hidden in some warehouse that no one knows about, they probably won't. Your best bet would be to look for a used one.
-Nyle
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they do refurbish models, but I think the "new old stock" might be long gone.
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I waited too long to pull the trigger on one of their "Old Stock" 1200's and now they have been out of them for some time.. Anybody have a scoop on when (or if) they may be getting more of them?
I just bought a NOS US keyboard from them. It was pretty reasonable price.
You could see if they could build a refurb one with one of those... that goes a long way to making it newish.
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I waited too long to pull the trigger on one of their "Old Stock" 1200's and now they have been out of them for some time.. Anybody have a scoop on when (or if) they may be getting more of them?
there a few really nice a1200's on ebay i just saw
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-1200-4GB-Gamers-HD-3-1-Rom-mouse-NEW-Parts-Boxed-GWO-/140745713115?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item20c51925db#ht_6842wt_1068
thats not _real_ bad om the price.
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there a few really nice a1200's on ebay i just saw
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-1200-4GB-Gamers-HD-3-1-Rom-mouse-NEW-Parts-Boxed-GWO-/140745713115?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item20c51925db#ht_6842wt_1068
thats not _real_ bad om the price.
Yeah there are quite a few good ones but they are all in the UK and since I am from Wisconsin I really would like one from the US if at all possible. (Not just the proce for shipping either... I want NTSC and anything from the UK is PAL) :O(
thanks for the suggestion though. Much appreciated..
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Yeah there are quite a few good ones but they are all in the UK and since I am from Wisconsin I really would like one from the US if at all possible. (Not just the proce for shipping either... I want NTSC and anything from the UK is PAL) :O(
thanks for the suggestion though. Much appreciated..
Amigakit is in the UK. My NOS for Amigakit is PAL.
Why do you want a NTSC machine? You are not seriously going to use the composite output are you? Even so, the PAL composite has worked perfectly with the few TVs i have tried. I have never wished the machine was NTSC, in fact, I prefer PAL by default. I have a NTSC CD32 and that was a mistake. I should have bought a PAL one.
The only issue was the UK keyboard layout, which I just replaced with a NOS US.
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We had a few hundred NTSC A1200s a few years ago, but they quickly sold out.
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Amigakit is in the UK. My NOS for Amigakit is PAL.
Why do you want a NTSC machine? You are not seriously going to use the composite output are you? Even so, the PAL composite has worked perfectly with the few TVs i have tried. I have never wished the machine was NTSC, in fact, I prefer PAL by default. I have a NTSC CD32 and that was a mistake. I should have bought a PAL one.
The only issue was the UK keyboard layout, which I just replaced with a NOS US.
I assumed that in the US I would need the NTSC version... Since I am not certain exactly what the 2 standards entail I was simply playing it safe with the NTSC version... So if I am hearing you correctly, if I were to get the 24 bit adapter being talked about on this board right now, it wouldn't matter if I used it in a PAL or NTSC version.. Is that correct?
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I assumed that in the US I would need the NTSC version... Since I am not certain exactly what the 2 standards entail I was simply playing it safe with the NTSC version... So if I am hearing you correctly, if I were to get the 24 bit adapter being talked about on this board right now, it wouldn't matter if I used it in a PAL or NTSC version.. Is that correct?
Basically the only downfall to having a PAL A1200 in the USA is that it probably won't be able to connect to many old tube televisions because the RF modulator will be outputting PAL video. So if you want to use it with one of those old console TVs (like the ones with the built-in record players), you may be out of luck :)
the video quality of RF output looks horrible, so I doubt you would use that as a long term solution, and composite is not much better, but most TVs will work just fine in PAL mode on the composite input.
I'm going to remove the RF modulator out of my A1200 to make room for an HDMI port anyway...
Anything connected to the RGB port should work just fine, with one exception... I can't seem to get my NTSC DCTV unit working with my PAL A1200, but i'm not sure that's not something I'm doing wrong.
The Indivision AGA 2.0 will work the same for either version of the machine, and you'll probably want to run your desktop in 640x512 PAL mode vs 640x400 NTSC for the extra 100 lines of resolution.
Keep in in mind the the Indivision is not really a 24bit framebuffer, the 24bit thing is _internal_ and is necessary in order to handle the full AGA palette which is 24Bit. There have not been any promises that the new Indivsion will handle anything other than standard Amiga video modes. That being said, you DO still want the Indivision :)
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I've had bad experiences with NTSC machines running PAL software, and most amiga software is indeed PAL.
Others have found ways around it, so there's solutions.
What do you want to use your miggy for?
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runequester
Does your Dell monitor do the PAL modes as well?
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runequester
Does your Dell monitor do the PAL modes as well?
It does yeah. I use my miggy mostly for gaming and it works really well.
Scrolling isnt 100% amazing but its pretty damn good.
It sucks for interlace modes but most games dont use those though.
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Cant you hardware mod a a1200's Alice chip to switch between NSTC/PAL ?
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I've had bad experiences with NTSC machines running PAL software, and most amiga software is indeed PAL.
Others have found ways around it, so there's solutions.
What do you want to use your miggy for?
Not really anything of any import... I mostly want to network it with my pcs basically just for the Hell of it. I really enjoyed my Amigas back in the 90s and just having fun messing with it. Not really too interested in Games, just to fiddle with. Plan would be an 030 board or better and OS3.9 and as much eye candy as I can squeeze into it, making it as modern looking as possible. Once again just for the Hell of it..
(And thanks for the info BBOND, much appreciated.. )
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Cant you hardware mod a a1200's Alice chip to switch between NSTC/PAL ?
Yes and no.... you can easily mod a 1200 or CD32 to switch between 50 and 60HZ (or just switch in early boot), but the color signal will still be at the original frequency. That is what makes an NTSC CD32 such a nightmare as it has no RGB port like a 1200.... (and 90% of all CD32 software is PAL)
To convert the color signal you need mad soldering skills as you'll be working with surface mount technology.
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Not really anything of any import... I mostly want to network it with my pcs basically just for the Hell of it. I really enjoyed my Amigas back in the 90s and just having fun messing with it. Not really too interested in Games, just to fiddle with. Plan would be an 030 board or better and OS3.9 and as much eye candy as I can squeeze into it, making it as modern looking as possible. Once again just for the Hell of it..
(And thanks for the info BBOND, much appreciated.. )
If you aren't looking for gaming, honestly, I don't think the PAL/NTSC difference will affect you at all. Most programs I don't think really care too much.
I'd recommend looking into the classicWB packages. I find them much more functional than 3.9 and honestly, 3.9 is fairly lackluster without RTG.
All in my opinion anyways
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I've had bad experiences with NTSC machines running PAL software, and most amiga software is indeed PAL.
because a PAL amiga 1200 can run at 60HZ and a NTSC amiga can run at 50Hz its not the same issue you have with OCS machines where the machines can't switch and the timing is wrong or the bottom half of the screen is missing or both...
For a A1200 you'll probably be running whdload games anyway, and you can just add "PAL" or "NTSC" to the tooltype for that game and its all good...
If i was shopping for an A1200 I would consider condition, price & mb revision first and PAL/NTSC would be down the list form there.
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OK, while I have the "gurus" online and listening.. What motherboard revisions should I look for? Which ones should I stay away from? And as always.. WHY? :O)
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OK, while I have the "gurus" online and listening.. What motherboard revisions should I look for? Which ones should I stay away from? And as always.. WHY? :O)
This page shows the various fixes for the different versions...
http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/A1200_Mobo_fix/a1200_mobo_fix.html
Sometimes you need motherboard timing fixes to use an ACA030, 040 or 060..
Rev 1B & 1D1 don't need any timing fixes but are older (and more likely to have the wrong clockport) ...
Some of revisions have slightly taller custom chips and don't work as well with the original Indivision (tends to pop off) but the new MK II as supposed to have a better fitting socket.
I would say 1D4 because the to do timing fixes on the 2B you may have to add a resister and the 1D4 is just limited to removing stuff which I'm much better at :)
1D4 and 2B also might need a mod to fix flickering when using the Multisync monitor driver. That mod is easy though. Bridging is only slightly more difficult than removing :) My soldering skill level would probably be considered "dangerous".
The cockport mod is probably way more difficult than the timing mods, so make sure that the clockport is correct if you want to add a subway USB controller later on.
I just keep remembering more stuff and adding to this (as i'm waiting for Big Band Theory to download), so I'm sure you are thoroughly confused now :)
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honestly, 3.9 is fairly lackluster without RTG.
All in my opinion anyways
That is not really factual. with a decent cpu 3.9 run fine on AGA and even ecs with ram.
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That is not really factual. with a decent cpu 3.9 run fine on AGA and even ecs with ram.
I said it was my opinion, so of course it's not factual.
It looks like ****e in 256 colours, is all
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It looks like ****e in 256 colours, is all
Hey... if you are running workbench in multisync mode in 8BPP on an AGA machine, you are probably have bigger issues that how it looks... like how it performs :)
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I said it was my opinion, so of course it's not factual.
It looks like ****e in 256 colours, is all
Once again wrong. In 256 colours it looks ok. But like the post after yours mentioned you wouldnt run very fast.
However, 16 color with an 030@40mhz or better and some RAM is perfectly acceptable.
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OK, while I have the "gurus" online and listening.. What motherboard revisions should I look for? Which ones should I stay away from? And as always.. WHY? :O)
Outlaw
TBH you dont need to worry THAT much about board revisions unless you are going to expand it to a power user level. I've had many a1200s and never needed to do any circuit mods or anything like that.
@ bbond
Very nice link for the motherboard mods though!
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Once again wrong. In 256 colours it looks ok. But like the post after yours mentioned you wouldnt run very fast.
However, 16 color with an 030@40mhz or better and some RAM is perfectly acceptable.
You do understand the difference between objective and subjective right?
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You do understand the difference between objective and subjective right?
I as far as I remember 3.9 looked OK in 256 colors. I did buy it.
Actually, I have never run workbench 3.9 in any more colors than 256 on any machines I have ever owned - even the ones with GFX cards.
I think I bought it from H&P directly I bought it. I wanted to support Amiga INC back then because I had no idea where it was heading.
I don't use it now, not for any reason in particular..
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Fair enough. I am wrong.
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Fair enough. I am wrong.
I do remember the menu bar thing looking pretty bad in 16 colors though..
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I do remember the menu bar thing looking pretty bad in 16 colors though..
The Dock thing? Thats mostly what stuck out. The icons were decent. For some reason they seem kind of uneven, but that could have been a botched install.
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Yeah the dock looks crap if you use the texture background. Also the dock takes lots of chip ram iirc. I'm actually running 3.9 bb 2 on my spec in my sig. NTSC laced res 16 colors.
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On my 50mhz 030 3.9 was horribly slow with 256 colors using a scandoubler to do 800x600. 16 was pretty usable though.
I miss real hardware, but I really like my dedicated amiga emulation pc. 3.9 in emulation is nice. Its slick and fast and no issues with crazy expensive upgrades...
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haywire lulz you must have typed yours same as mine. 256 is unusable even with Blizzard 1260@66mhz! I run 16 color laced NTSC or PAL modes.
Sure 3.9 on uae is great BUT you get no cool Phat Paula sound, and cant use cool amiga hw like digitizers, samplers, etc PLUS you have to run an energy draining noisy as hell PC rig to run it! I love my Silent A1200. No moving parts, no fans, nothing. (though I may install a fan on my 060)
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I have a cybernet zpc. Its silent, small and pretty fast, I think its a 2ghz older white model. Runs most things fine.