Wanted NTSC Amiga 500/1200/3000/4000

[runequester]

I'm looking to expand my Amiga collection, so I'm looking for a new Amiga that isn't a 1000. If anyone has an NTSC Amiga that they are looking to sell, send me a message and we can see if something can be worked out.
 
I'd like not to spend more than $100; I figure that somebody has an unexpanded Amiga of some sort that they would be willing to sell for about that price. A 1200 is really what I'm looking for, but what I really want to do is make demos, listen to chiptunes, and play games.

Unless you have specific reasons for wanting NTSC, for games and demo stuff, you will be 300% happier with a PAL machine.

[runequester]

Are you in the US? Might still be able to get a PAL machine from someone state-side.
 
Do you have an extra 100 to spend? If so, you can get an external scan doubler that works great with a normal PC monitor.
 
The reason I ask is that the majority of games are in PAL format, and will work poorly, if at all, on an NTSC machine.
 
EDIT: For games and demo's, a 500 or 1200 is probably your best bets. A 500 is more compatible with truly classic stuff, but a 1200 will run most, and its far easier to transfer files to and from it.

[runequester]

Gotcha
 
Just trying to make sure you get something that will work well for you. Good luck!

[runequester]

i know there is an NTSC/PAL issue, but I have never had a problem with that on my NTSC A2000 by simply holding down the mouse buttons at boot and choosing "PAL."

What ROMs do you have in yours?

[runequester]

do yourself a favour and check out amibay as well. Its a site set up more or less specifically for trading and selling. Mostly european, but there's a good share of US members too

[runequester]

I posted there before I posted here, actually, but I have yet to receive any responses. I'm actually on the second page, if I'm correct. I've posted on Craigslist, Freecycle (I'm also asking for a 486 laptop here), here, and AmiBay.

The only site where I've gotten decent responses to anything at all is this one; the community here rocks.

yeah, this does have a great community. I hope something turns up for you.

[runequester]

Thanks. I've just been looking to expand my Amiga collection, as I've just gotten started and my 512K A1000 doesn't do absolutely everything I want to do with an Amiga. :lol:

The AGA 90s Amigas are what I'm really looking at, mostly because of my interest in that era, I post on a 90s forum every once and a while. All Amigas are amazing machines, though. I can't see why they never took off.

Thats a story thats both long, painful and full of self proclaimed experts (such as myself)

A 1200 is, in my opinion, about the ideal machine though, especially if / when you decide to expand the girl a bit more.

[runequester]

For you, Darrin?  No gel, just some spit if you're lucky and probably a handful of sand to add interest and texture :lol:

Spit on it first, if its the blokes birthday. Its only fair

[runequester]

The TCP/IP stack might eat into the chip ram. I'd look at getting even a modest accelerator later on. Even a tiny bit of fast RAM makes an amazing boost to a 1200, and if you want to run a hard drive later, you'll want it

[runequester]

the hard drive will work. Where I ran into trouble on an unexpanded 1200 was that AGA games tend to require the full 2 megs of ram, so wouldn't run off the HD. Running off floppies works fine of course.

Thats a pretty specific concern, so it may or may not be important to you

All things considered, over the next few months, I'd put aside a bit of money for an accelerator card, even a modest 030, but you'll be able to do stuff just fine without it.

I cant speak to the web stuff for unexpanded. Someone else would have to pitch in there.

[runequester]

Alright. So what I plan on getting is the following:

1. An A1200, hopefully the person I was planning on buying from still has it.
2. An IDE cable to connect to an unused 20GB laptop drive I have.
3. A PCMCIA Ethernet Card
4. The RGB -> PAL/NTSC adapter if I get a PAL version

OR

4. A Commodore 1084 that a friend is probably going to give me

Does that sound like a decent starting A1200 config for demos, music, games, and ASM programming?

that sounds like a pretty good start yeah. The 1200 is nice in that you can expand it quite a bit.

For file transfers, I'd almost say go with a PCMCIA compact flash adapter, rather than the ethernet. Its super easy if you have a card reader for a PC. Something to consider anyways.