The Red One X vs x1000

[Duce]

For playing legacy games, I find any of the NG systems a grand waste of money, and I say that as an owner of a SAM system myself.  I love my SAM, but I'd find it lunacy to buy one to try and get my legacy Amiga fix with.

For games, a lot of the time you end up having to use UAE on that fancy PPC NG Amiga to run said game, and $3000 is a lot of money to spend for a niche system when a Windows box with WinUAE is pretty much a commodity.  

Of course, many older, legacy games and programs will run natively in OS4.  Many also will not, and you'll end up having to "emulate an old Amiga on your expensive NG Amiga".  I'd have a hard time spending much money on that, but YMMV.  That being said, legacy app support on OS4 via UAE is great, just a point and click affair.

[Duce]

If you buy a NG OS4 machine under the guise you'll simply be able to "plug and play" all those oldie fave games and demos you toyed with 20 years ago on legacy hardware, a fool and his money are quickly parted.

I love both my SAM and my MOS machines, but to think of buying either to get a hassle free experience of your youth that you had 20 years ago on your old A500, you'll be sorely let down.

The smart option would be to grab UAE and OS4 FE and give it a whirl, see if you even like the OS4 experience at all to begin with.

Anyone telling you that you can sit around all day long, downloading old (legacy, 68k) games and demos on a NG machine and just unpack them to RAM and run them without the buffer of an emulator (yeah, emulating an Amiga on an Amiga type of deal) - well, you're simply not being told the truth.  And I can say that as the owner of a pre-order SAM440 from 2008, 7 years of experience with it.

Thankfully, I had no illusions nor desires to run oldie SW on the SAM, and I love the machine for what it is.

I don't wish to badmouth any NG system - they are super, as long as you realize what they can and cannot do.  I question the sanity of anyone buying a $3000 X1000 with dreams of running old games and demos, many - if not most, would require you running an emulator on the machine just like you would have to on a $150 Wintel PC.

[Duce]

The "fool and his money are soon parted" is an old term stretching back to the 1500's, and I meant no offense by it.  I should have phrased that better and not jumped to the assumption that everyone is familiar with such old sayings, since we're such a worldly bunch on A.org, locationally.  Apologies if any offense was taken, none was intended in the least.

To the fellow that's considering purchasing a rather expensive OS4 machine, there's a lot to absolutely love about them, but as the others have said, it'd be a shame to see you invest such an ungodly sum of money into a PC that doesn't do what you hoped it would.

I'd recommend just getting WinUAE (or Amiga Forever, since the ROM's are there for legacy stuff anyways) and a copy of OS4 FE.  It won't be the ideal experience true hardware would be, but should give you a fair enough peek into things for under 50 bucks total, which sure beats a $3000 investment.  I'd be leery of buying any OS4 machine atm to begin with, with the X5000 coming out in the future.

In the end, if the software you want to run on said OS4 PPC machine hits or otherwise requires the authentic hardware like the old custom Miggy chips, the NG box will no more have said chips in it than a Best Buy special Windows PC would, leaving you in emulation land anyways.

MOS machines are dirt cheap, and tbh - I always found MOS to handle legacy software a wee bit better than my SAM does.