Newbie with an A1200

[som99]

I wonder if this is a good choice:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-Blizzard-1230-III-8-meg-upgrade-board-crystal-Battery-tested-working-GC-/310428602086?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item4846fc8ee6#ht_2520wt_1165

Feels a bit to expensive for it, it's just 20 pounds under the ACA-1231/42Mhz, I would rather go for the ACA then since you get a 42MHz 030 CPU and 64MB memory and MMU also the ACA is new and in stock.

[som99]

Some of the old RAM cards and accelerators would address their memory in such a way as to rule out use of the PCMCIA slot, if you had over 4MB installed. You won't have to worry about that with the Blizzard, or (from what I gather over at the EAB) the ACA 1220, either.

The Blizz 1230 IV was the "king" of '030 cards, with a 50MHz CPU and a fast chipset interface, you can get away with playing some of the earlier FPS games at reduced settings.

I play most early 3D games without any trouble on my ACA1231, ALien Breed 3D 1-2, Fears, Breathless, all Gloom games are some of the ones I can run fullscreen Even aDoom runs decent enough after some tweaking

[som99]

@stuntmachine - I was looking at the one on e-bay.


I've also been REALLY happy with my ACA (1230/28).  Great card.  I know some people have had "timing fix" issues with some of their 1200's, but mine didn't need any.
(It's not specific to the ACAs, and related to the inconsistencies of Commodore's quality control, but some 1200's need a "timing fix" (removing a few resistors), and a lot don't.  Just something to be aware of...)

As for 3.1, one of the nice features of the ACAs is that it lets you "softkick" a ROM.  So you can off of a 3.1 ROM.  You do need a copy of the ROM and a line in your startup-sequence.  Also, you need to set a jumper on the ACA to tell it you are running 3.0 originally.

Of course, a actual 3.1 rom in your machine is a bit nicer, but the option for the softkick is nice to have...

desiv

I am also happy with my ACA 1231, I had to do the dreaded timing fix, but it was no biggie

[som99]

Amiga RAM addressed through the motherboard is limited to 8 MB, the higher addresses are used by the system to access chips and such. The PCMCIA slot, being on the motherboard "uses" the lower "addresses" that would be used as RAM, so that anything taking more than 4 MB overlaps those addresses.t

Pretty much spot on, if he want loads of ram and do not want to loose the PCMCIA then a accelerator card with CPU is needed.

[som99]

Just fired these up on my ol' GVP 1230, and was surprised to find they play well on the '030, much better than I expected! For kicks I gave Quake a try... results weren't quite as impressive, but it runs.

Nice, I have not given AGA quake a try yet, but won't be playable but must try some day, I want to try and see how Napalm and Exodus last wars run on the ACA1231
Have you tried above mentioned games on your trusty GVP 1230?