Advice Needed: Should a buy a vanilla A1200 @ 50 Euro?

[Jethro_Tull]

Well , the title says it all really.  A bloke posted an advert to sell his Amiga A1200 plus games for about 50 Euros.  I spoke to the seller on the phone, and he seemed quite nice although he wouldn't budge on the price.  He stated he never added anything to the beast,  no HD, no memory expansion, nothing.

Do you think it's a good deal, or is it overpriced?  I've owned a mega-souped up A500+ and an A600 in the past, and although I use WinUAE quite a lot I miss having a real Amiga, and besides, I've got a 720Mb 2.5" Drive begging to be used.

Thanks for the advice guys!

[Jethro_Tull]

Thanks for your answer, however such an Amiga in Europe is not that easy, and when you find it, it'll be selling at quite an expensive price!  If I could lay my hands on such a beast I'd snap it up immediatly, but it'll cost 200 Euros and up!

[Jethro_Tull]

Thanks to everyone for the advice, I'm simply amazed by the number of replies my thread generated in such a short time!  I certainly wasn't making a fuss over spending 50 Euros (like someone claimed), I just wanted an Amigan's  opinion before buying the machine.  I expected one or two replied in due time, certainly not this!!  Thanks to all of you ppl, you're simply great, you know that, do you?

I've been following the Amiga scene right from the birth of the A1000, when it was considered an expensive dream machine, I remember the reviewer on PCW literally drooling all over it, heaping praise upon praise.  I also remember fondly the A500 boom days, when everyone (and I mean everyone) owned one.  

Amiga clubs were springing up everywhere, people were doing all kinds of thing with them, audio editing, writing music, astronomy, graphic design, CAD etc etc.  It was the first affordable machine which could do all this (and more) easily.  It's no wonder really a lot of people are still fond of the Amiga, it made using a computer a fun and enjoyable, just the way it should be.

Sadly, I can also recall the dark ages, when major magazines thinned down gradually to over priced brouchers and then disappeared.  When the failure of the CDTV and the CD32 brought Commodore to it's knees.  It's a pity, since in my opinion, they had a winner on their hands with the CD32.  Unfortunatly it was competing with Sony, Sega, Nintendo and their huge budgets.  Besides Psygnosis, all major software houses were already deserting the Amiga, and the killer games were released for the other consoles.  With the subsequent buyouts, the Amiga brand slid more and more into oblivious, and hardware and software stagnated for ages.

And this brings me to my point, addressed to DoomMaster, currently all Amigas are toys, from the humbe A500 to the A4000T.  Although some can still be usefull tools in niche areas, they're nothing more then toys nowadays, just face the reality.  Besides, negative comments are simply the worst aspect of this community, don't fuel feuds and clashed!  All machines have their merits and weaknesses, keeping in mind the times they were released in.  Do we need Amiga VS Genesis, A1200 VS A2000 etc, AROS VS AOS VS MORHPOS and all this CRAP???

Thanks to all of you, I've made up my mind to be an Amiga owner once more, and phone the bloke tomorrow and arrange to view the machine, hoping he didn't sell it to someone else in the meantime.  If all goes well, I'll be looking for a PPC card for the beastie on e-bay soon........ maybe redromula will find warehouse full of the things........

Thanks again.

[Jethro_Tull]

@ xyth
Thanks for your kind words xyth, your avatar beats mine hands down, it's simply awesome.  Actually the album cover of Broadsword and the Beast is my all time favourite, did you know the runes on the boarder are actually the opening lyrics of the 'Broadsword' track?  

If it's of any interest to you, I've been following the band since I was 8, and actually managed to catch up with them at the NEC in Birmingham during their 25th Anniversary Tour, and also managed to have a mugshot with Mr.Anderson and Mr.Barre backstage.   The later was quite pleasant and talkative, asking me a myriad of questions about my job, music tastes and life in general.  Martin's parents were also back stage and were  very nice people, in comparison Ian autographed the various album / CD covers at lightning speed (although he didn't decline a single plea), said a quick word and disappeared!  

I've used the Jethro Tull name with the usual 'flute player on a single leg' silhuette logo thoughout my demo coding days, many years ago.  Everyone thought it was a really pecuiliar name, often mispronounced it and nobody knew about the band, even though they had won a grammy award!  

@everyone
I realise I've gone way off topic here, but at least other Jethro Tull aficanados might reply ..........  

if this long winded mail has got you curious about the band, you can download the following mpeg clip from 'www.laufi.de' or take a look at the official band website 'www.j-tull.com'

' I didn't care 'friend', I wasn't there 'friend', if it's the price of a pint is all that you need....  ask me again!'

[Jethro_Tull]

The thread is forking into a 'Everyone Vs DoomMaster' and a 'Toolheads' thread, I'm defninitly not complaining about the later, it's evolving in quite a pleasant and interesting way, unless DoomMaster declares himself to be a Tull fan!  You're perfectly right, Tull fans spring up when you least expect them!

The show I've mentioned was awesome, but musically the best live concert I've been to was by Deep Purple, the literally held the crowd in their hands throughout the whole set, everyone singing along all the tracks, with breathtaking solos by all the members.  Unbeleivable!  Personally I'm jelous of those who attended the Passion Play and Thick as a Brick concerts, I've often read they were a one of a kind thing.....

'Let me tell you the tales of your life of
your love and the cut of the knife
the tireless oppression
the wisdom instilled
the desire to kill or be killed.
Let me sing of the losers who lie in the street as the last bus goes by.
The pavements ar empty: the gutters run red
while the fool toasts his god in the sky.'