Is the A1200 really that cool of a computer???

[Khephren]

I have this question that has really been bothering me for some time now.  I used to own every model of the Amiga at one time or another, except for the A4000.  I love the A3000, the A2000 and even the A1000.  There is just one thing that bothers me....everybody goes nuts over the Amiga 1200.  What is it about this computer that drives everybody crazy?  I own one and it sits and gathers dust.  I do turn it on every once it a while but I just don't get that warm, fuzzy feeling when I do.  Here is exactly what happens:

1.  I see my A1200 looking lonely in my closet, so I hook it up.

2.  I look at the screen and say... "ok, what now?"

3.  I play 2 games in WHDLoad then say...."now what do I do?"

4  In the end I turn the thing off and say to myself...."damn, I could have done all this on my A2000 or A3000"....Back in the closet it goes for another 6 months.

Am I missing something?  Sombody please tell me what the big hype is over this computer.  Some may say, "It has AGA man...it's totally awesome".  I have yet to experience anything extrordinary with AGA or maybe I am just clueless on how cool AGA could be.  Sombody please bring me up to par on this dillema.

Barney

Ease of expansion is the best thing, but you have that. Cost and space is another. An A1200 is cheaper to buy, cheaper to expand, has higher availability, and with WHDload can play almost all Amiga games. Of course, you already own a few others, so many of these points don't count for you.

I bought mine for 3D/2D artwork, the extended colour pallete helped a lot. Generally AGA is not that hot, the base machine had neither the storage/ram or processor to use all it's modes, and AGA was hampered by no chunky modes. The A1200 was not the leap it should have been.

Game wise superstardust, slamtilt, banshee, x-com, liberation, xtreme racing, alienbreed tower assault, star trek 25th are a few that are nice for the base A1200, that OCS machines will miss out on. There are other AGA only games, and lots of others with better AGA and sound effects.  3D games get a speed up, and some had options to turn on more detail.

once you accelerate the A1200 that are more options for games, and the demoscene of course.

[Khephren]

I'm ditching my A4000T because it just takes up to much room, and it's no longer used much for it's intended purpose- graphic artwork.
Now I mainly use my A1200 for games, and some app work, its suits me fine.
The one thing I will miss about my big box, is the graphics card. I wis there was an accelerator/graphics card combo for the trapdoor is that even possible?)

[Khephren]

BPPC and BVision.

Yes forgot about that one. I meant a single card solution. Whether it is theoreticaly possible.

[Khephren]

Speaking of the price of a cool A1200, here is calculation made on the one i'm using to browse this forum:

A1200 - 70 EUR
3.1 ROM - 20 EUR
IDE 10 GB HD - 5 EUR
Indivision AGA - 150 EUR
Subway - 70 EUR
Blizzard 1230IV - 150 EUR
64 MB SIMM - 10 EUR
PCMCIA NIC - 10 EUR
PCMCIA CF and SD reader - 10 EUR
2 GB SD and 128 MB CF - 10 EUR
USB mouse adapter - 20 EUR
USB mouse - 10 EUR

Bonus:
CD32 competitor pro - 20 EUR
2 external floppy drives DD and HD - 50 EUR

Not directly related:
ASUS lcd screen - 80 EUR
Logitech speakers - 20 EUR

Total:

This computer is worth 535 EUR (705 EUR with all bonus), of course using second-hand prices amibay-like and not ebay-like.

Still way cheaper than expanding any other amiga this far.
I spent so much more money in my A2000 for nothing.

And to a casual user, most of that is Unnecessary (although, once they've been sucked in...)