Refocus: Amiga 500

[Miked]

Ok, so I've been asking questions about how to upgrade my A500.  I have encountered the problem of scarcity of Amiga 500 parts, so in order to organize myself, I want to make a list of ALL parts that I will need (even if it takes time to hunt them down).  Additionally, I could use some help organizing the importance of obtaining these parts.

My Stock A500:

Amiga 500 w/ 1meg Ram (512k trapdoor)
WB 1.2
1.2 Roms

Thats it!

What I need:

3.1 Roms
WB 3.1 (or higher)
Hard Drive
(external floppy?)
flicker fixer (or something to allow use of a VGA monitor)
ECS chipset (what about AGA chipset?)
Accelerator Card
As much RAM as will possibly fit


With regard to the ECS (AGA?) chipset, what chips are actually involved (I have a general idea, but could use some input as I am concerned about conflicting advice).  Also how "mechanically savy" do I need to be?  Will there be a lot of soldering (i.e. removing of chips/resoldering of chips)

This should make for a well-focused, interesting thread

-Miked

[Miked]

CLS2086 wrote:
Hi,
my advice : keep you A500 in its original configurations !
Some games only run in OCS machine with kick1.2
You'd better buy a A1200, it's easy to upgrade and very compatible with ECS games.

You know, the more I research and talk to people, the more I think I might keep my "classic" A500 (perhaps just another external floppy or hard drive).  Maybe I will look into an A4000.  I have had some people tell me if its between a 1200 or 4000...go with the 4000 (assuming I can afford an A4000)

Now here's a question.  If its between a 2000/4000 which way would you go?

Miked

[Miked]

Well, the A500 project is not totally dead.  I am in the process of purchasing a hard drive and fast ram for the A500.  I will upgrade slowly and who knows, maybe a good accelerator card will come along somewhere.

Are there any accelerator cards for the A500 in particular that allow for 68000 downward compatibility?


As far as an A4000- I will keep my eyes open for something good.  It's amazing; all this pentium technology and I could care less about it (although I am a realist, I do need my pentium based system for the real world)


-Miked

[Miked]

doctorq wrote:


I believe most of them have. The one I'm selling certainly do, it can be disabled by a switch. The same could my previously A500 accelerator, a Supra Turbo 28.

Doc,  tell me a little more about you Supra Turbo 28.

-Miked

[Miked]

The story is- persistence(sp?) pays off.  I am fairly close to obtaining an accelerator board for my A500.  I didn't realize it would be so difficult.  Now all I need is everything else and I'll be getting somewhere.  I will document the progress of this project wth some photos as soon as I get my digital camera back

-Miked