questions about aga and different amiga models?

[amigadave]

I've been running a dedicated amiga emulation pc for awhile, with a catweasel pci. I have an old amiga 500 but I was thinking of getting a better classic machine.
 
Since amiga 2000's are alot more available than a4000 or a1200, I wondered if any of the graphics card upgrades allow the a2000 to display aga graphics, or are aga graphics only available on a1200 or a4000?

Sorry, been awhile and I don't recall. I thought I remembered a friend who had an a3000 getting some kind of upgrade card?
 
Thanks for your thoughts...
 
Steven

The other answers cover your question thoroughly enough, but it got me thinking about other options.  Since you are already familiar with emulation, you may know the answer to my first question better than I do.  Does the AGA option in WinUAE work with ANY AGA Amiga games?  I have never tried it, as I am not much of a game player anymore and haven't been for years.

The other option I thought about is not released yet, and that is the Natami project, which should be fully AGA compatible when it is released.

The final thought I had about the possibilities for playing AGA games is not invented yet, but I was wondering with the great progress that Individual Computers has made with their Indivision scan doublers that use FPGA chip, or chips on them, I wonder if Jens could invent an Indivision that could give an older Classic ECS/OCS Amiga AGA capabilities.  It would seem to me that if the Natami team can give AGA (or their SuperAGA) capabilities to a brand new computer design that does not have any of the original Classic Amiga's Custom Chips installed, then why couldn't Jens, or some other hardware genius, create something like the IndivisionAGA for an ECS/OCS Classic Amiga?

Something to think about, isn't it?

[amigadave]

The one aspect and very important thing not to be mentioned yet: if you upgrade an A2000 to 1mb or 2mb Chip Ram, you're pretty much in the clear to run 98+% of all Amiga software ever produced for an Amiga. AGA was nice when it first came out in the early 90's (and almost compared to VGA color wise), but just about every program was written to be cross platform'd for universality.

AGA IMO is overrated. Sure... there a 'few' games that are AGA only, but you ain't gonna miss them today.

IF you have a chance to get an A2000 cheap, especially with a video card, that's the way to go IMO. PLENTY more upgradable and affordable options. Not to mention superior build maintenance wise (socked chips vs. surface mount, etc.) A1200, you're always gonna feel like it's cheaply built comparatively and UBER expensive to upgrade.

BTW: ECS Amiga's are soon to get the Indivision treatment - so no worries that way either.  

Legacy A.org users: sorry to sound like Doomy, but considering his quandary...  lol

Must disagree with you on a couple of points.  I loved my A2000 when I first got it and it was the best Amiga I had, but I would not say that the build quality of the A2000 was much better (if any) than the quality of the A1200.  Secondly, as for cost of upgrades, if you are talking about new, not used upgrades, the A1200 beats the A2000 every time, not to mention that any NEW upgrades for the A2000 are much harder to find than the large variety of new upgrades you can find for the A1200.  Used gear can have prices all over the map, so I won't argue about what you MIGHT be able to find used A2000 upgrades for, but you must remember that the more rare a thing is, the more it will usually cost you to buy and the numbers of A1200 computers and upgrades made over the years will surely outnumber the A2000 equivalents.

I am not saying that the A2000 is a bad choice, specially if it can be gotten for a good price and comes with a decent graphics card, but the OP was asking about AGA software capability, so his view on what he is willing to miss out on by not having AGA will likely be different than yours.

P.S. The ECS Indivision is already released and was on sale at the AmiWest 2009 show last weekend by AmigaKit.

[amigadave]

There's absolutely no reason to pass on a nice upgraded A2000. I have both an A2000 and A1200 setup next to each other, the A2000 easily gets the most use.

AGA is really a must if you like demos, and of course there were a few awesome AGA-only titles. Most AGA games offered very little over the OCS versions, though.

If you only want one system, want a gfx card, and must have AGA, get an A4000. Just make sure the battery is removed and all the electrolytic capacitors are replaced before putting it to serious use.

With a gfx card, you'll either need 2 monitors, or a card that will scandouble and pass-through the native output like a Picasso IV or CV64/3D (+ extra scandoubler module). A few graphics cards have a straight pass-through (no scandoubling), most useful for an A3000 which came with its own scandoubler.

Another option is to use a monitor switcher (yuck) or CRT with dual inputs (much better), and switch between your gfx card output, and an Indivision.

Good points, and with the ECS Indivision out now, there is the added possibility of putting the Indivision output into the passthrough input of the GVP Spectrum, or Picasso II graphic cards and having a nice one monitor solution without the graphic card having a scan doubler built-in.