Questions from a returning fan

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Hi Everyone.  I have a few questions.  But first some background.  Back in 1987, I worked for more than a year making minimum wage to save up enough money for an amiga.  I ended up getting a 500 with the memory expansion and a 1084s.  As part of my mid-life crisis, I'm starting to collect some  of the things I had or couldn't have back then.  And an amiga is at the top of the list.  

I could go to ebay and get another 500.  Or I could get a 2000 which is what I really wanted at the time.  But I think in order to get the most out of the amiga experience for me, I think i'll go with a 1200, mainly for the expandability and the aga chipset.

I discovered amigakit.com   :-D

So here are the questions:

I'm thinking of getting their new old stock a1200.  Is this thing for real?  I'm guessing these are amiga technologies machines.

It doesn't come with a power supply.  But they have an upgraded power supply for what seems like a high price, although it's probably worth it.  Should I go with their beefed up power supply or pick one up from ebay?

What is the video situation on the 1200?  The 500 had that weird 23-pin thing and an rca with the annoying black and white output.  I was thinking of getting an a520 and using a tv to play games.  But really, I'd rather use a modern monitor.  Will I need a flicker fixer for this?  or is there a weird-amiga-to-normal-vga adapter somewhere?  The amiga-hardware.com site shows something that looks like what I want on the back of the a1200.  What's a quick solution that I can use until I get the good solution?

Is the composite out on the 1200 still black and white like the 500 or is it color?

What's the rca connector next to the power connector?

Which os version should I get?  3.1 or 3.9?

Is the mouse a standard 9-pin serial mouse or is it proprietary?

Should I get the memory upgrade from amigakit or will I not notice the difference?

tia

brian

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Thanks for all the info.  

I'm still not quite sure what I want to do with this thing.  I definitely want to play the old games I had plus many others, but I'm just as interested in discovering new uses for it.  I eventually want to get a cpu/memory upgrade and a mediator in a tower case.  But this seems like a good place to start.

ok, so it looks like I want an a1200 with the memory upgrade, an amiga mouse, 3.1, ethernet, and a hard drive.  I'll pick up an a500 power supply from ebay.  And start out with the composite monitor connector.

Any idea where I can get the 23-pin to vga adapter and a scan doubler?

And is there a list of compatible monitors that I can walk into a store and buy?

Thanks again for all the info.  I'm full of questions.

brian

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I'm in chicago.  So it's ntsc.  amigakit lets you choose between pal and ntsc 1200s.  Sounds like i need a scan doubler.

brian

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That's not a bad idea.  Maybe pick up a 2000 from somewhere with a 1084 monitor and switch between the two machines for amiga goodness.

brian

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I saw those.  I think for $450, I'd probably rather start with a 1200.  But i agree that it's a great deal.  Although he wants to extort video work from people as a condition of sale.  lol.

brian

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I'm still working the deal.  He's dropped the price already to the point that I'm probably going to buy it.  I asked about the batteries, but he doesn't seem to know anything about it.  I suspect they're both corroded.  I sent him a link I found that shows pictures of corroded batteries.  He says he used one toaster until about 8 months ago, then put it in storage.  The other one he bought on ebay three years ago as a spare.  He booted it once, then stored it.

I'm figuring i'll ebay a lot of the equipment.  Some things like the mixing board would be cool to keep, but I'm not sure I would use a lot of the other equipment.  And if it could offset the cost of the amigas, that would be ideal.

... just sent another email.  He doesn't want to include the mixing board now.  And there's no power at the storage facility where it is, so I can't power up anything.  :roll:

Still, he came way down on the price.  One working toaster out of the lot would make it worth it.  It's looking like it might include a 1084 also.

If I go check it out, anything I should look for other than the corroded batteries?

I'm very (very) interested in your hardware for hardware deal also.  I'll keep you posted.

brian

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He's down to $250, but without the mixing board.  I said I'd do it, but since there was no power I had to open the machines and check the batteries first.  I'm betting he complains about it.

I could probably do the editing, but the machines would have to work for that.   ;-)

brian