No obvious means of building cheap 1200T

[Damion]

orb85750 wrote:
Let me know if I'm wrong, but it seems that if one wants an expandable AGA machine, the best bet is simply to buy a used A4000 rather than trying to build out from an A1200.  I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my dust-collecting A1200HD, given that it lacks low-price expandability and is incompatible with so many A500/2000 games. -Dave

For an AGA gaming platform, an A1200 with a RAM card (maybe an '030), compact flash hard drive, and perhaps an Indivision is a nice way to go. The PCMCIA slot is real handy for transferring files and cheap ethernet. As Tj said, WHDLoad will solve the compatibility problems and is much nicer than using floppies.

If you want to expand with graphics/sound cards, usb, PPC, that sort of thing, then I agree - starting with an A4000 is probably a better idea.

edit

Cost:

Indivision: $150
RAM card: $75 (maybe $250 for a basic 030 card)
Compact flash card/adapter: less than $50
WHDLoad keyfile: $20? IIRC

The advantage is you can easily play all your games from workbench, and quit back to the desktop when you're done to play another. No floppies, no frustration over finding the right degrader options to get something working, all that BS is resolved.

For the odd game of Lethal Weapon, I agree it may be worth sticking to the A500... but if you're looking for the ultimate classic amiga game jukebox, you've already got the best platform (A1200) to build on.

[Damion]

bloodline wrote:
The other option is to use your A1200 to rip all your floppies to ADF files, then you can play your games in UAE on the laptop of your choice... I have a bunch of icons on my Macbook desktop, each one boots UAE directly into an old Amiga game... One for Lemmings... Another for MegaloMania... etc... It works well for a quick gaming fix, and you'd never know the games weren't native :-)

WinUAE is definitely a good option, costs nothing, and much less hassle for occasional gaming. No real reason to expand a classic, unless you enjoy the tinkering aspect.