Newbie

[roskoff]

Greetings.  I'm a complete newbie with Amigas.  I've been collecting 8-bit Commodore machines/accessories and now I'm ready to run with the big dogs.  The problem is that I have LOTS of questions.  What machine would you recommend I get as a first step?  What should I look for?  What should I avoid?  From what I've read so far, an Amiga 1200 HD seems like a good machine to get since it has AGA, PCMCIA and IDE-interface features.  

What about accelerator boards?  They seem to be a requirement to actually ENJOY using the machines.  Do they overheat?  Are they easy to install?

I've noticed that there a few-to-none Amiga 1200s listed on EBay which are NTSC.  Are 1200s for the North American market that rare?

Thanks in advance for any and all comments.

[adonay]

Hi yes i would reccomend the 1200 you can intall all kinds off clasic games with WHLDLoad software it patches it and runns great.Acc board get a blizzard 1230 IV thease are the most stable and best boards you can buy if your ot looking to play quake 2.the 1230 does not overheat it can take 128 mbof ram with out scsi adapter and you dont need to open your amiga 1200 to install it just slide it into the trappdore and there we go oo and install the software libs..

welcome to a.org btw hpoefully this will be the ultimate retro feeling for you.

adonay :-D

[Martin_Lee]

take a look at: http://amiga1200.deviantart.com/
its got a lot of info useful for newbies

basicly id agree that a 1200 hd is a good way to go.
Im in the process of souping up my A1200

things you might want:
HDD CD drive (scsi or ide) compact Flash reader/writer accelerator and 3.1 ROMs AmigaOS 3.9

[adonay]

yes i forgot 3.1 romms important :-)

[roskoff]

Thanks for the information everyone.  Where is the best place to find an A1200/HD for North America?  And how much should I expect to pay?

Also, I've seem some of these 'Magic Pack' A1200s for sale but what are they?  Are they worth getting?  Thanks again!

 

[bubba]

If you don't want to wait, you can order an NTSC 1200 from Vesalia in Germany, http://www.vesalia.com/.  NTSC versions appear from time-to-time on ebay and go from $100-$300.  I belive the Vesalia units are made from old parts.

I ordered two A1200s last week from Vesalia - one as a backup and one for my kids.   The base price was about $200 with 20GB HD, 3.1 ROMS, and OS 3.5, shipping was another $100 for two units. This did not include the power supply (I use A500 PSUs, they are easy to find on e-bay).  Also, these are ESCOM A1200's which have some minor floppy compatibility problems which is not much of an issue today since alot of software has been modified to use the HD.

I've heard mixed opinions about Vesalia, but they were very responsive to my questions before I ordered and I'm hoping I'll have no problems with shipping.

Anyway, good luck!