A500+ vs. A600

[giZmo350]

Being honest, when the A600 was released, i don't liked. But late 90s, i start to like the system.

Nowdays, both models could be head to head, because the ACA500 for the A500, on other side the A600 have PCMCIA port, IDE HD, and maybe is easy expand for use WHDLOAD games, and others things.

 Good points Drummerboy... I think the only reason I never bothered with an A600 with, like you said, PCMCIA & IDE, is that to use it as a WHDLoad machine you may probably still need an accelerator and quit a few games need additional ram. And then the obligatory scan doubler and memory expansion! Starts getting pricey then.  I think the A600 shines as an expanded A500 though.

[psxphill]

I don't know if the A500+ would have problems with a 1.3 rom.  My guess (and only a guess) (someone out there knows the answer to this) is that it would not be able to address the second meg of chip ram.  Can A2000s or a500 with a megachip address 2 megs of chip ram with 1.3 roms?

Even Kickstart 1.2 could detect 2mb of chip ram.

http://wandel.ca/homepage/execdis/exec_disassembly.txt

Code: [Select]

       ; Having figured out the end address of expansion memory (in A4),
        ; and the value to use for ExecBase (in A6), we now check how much
        ; chip memory we have.  Any memory in the first 2 megabytes of
        ; address space is considered to be chip memory.  Less than 256K
        ; of chip memory is considered a fatal error.

FC0208  lea       0,A0              Start looking at location 0.
FC020C  lea       200000,A1         Don't look past 2 megabytes.
FC0212  lea       FC021A(PC),A5     Set the return address.
FC0216  bra       FC0592            Go check the memory.
FC021A  cmp.l     #$040000,A3       Do we have at least 256K of chip memory?
FC0220  bcs.s     FC0238            Bomb if not.

However reset resident programs won't work if you have more than 512k because of this validity check (which wasn't fixed in Kickstart 1.3 either).

Code: [Select]

       ; We come here if the cold start capture vector was zero, or
        ; upon return from the cold-start capture code.  We continue
        ; to verify the ExecBase structure.

FC0184  bchg      #1,BFE001         Flip the power light to bright.

FC018C  move.l    FC0010(PC),D0     Check the version/revision numbers
FC0190  cmp.l     $14(A6),D0        stored in ExecBase against those in ROM.
FC0194  bne.s     FC01CE            Go reconfigure memory if no match.

FC0196  move.l    $3E(A6),A3        Get end address of chip memory.
FC019A  cmp.l     #$080000,A3       Greater than 512K?
FC01A0  bhi.s     FC01CE            If so, it must be invalid.
FC01A2  cmp.l     #$040000,A3       Less than 256K?
FC01A8  bcs.s     FC01CE            If so, it must be invalid.

There are a couple of solutions to that problem:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=78932

I assume 1mb agnus showed up (or at least the first time someone tested 1mb chip ram with RAD: was) after the Kickstart 1.3 mask roms had been ordered but before the Workbench 1.3 floppy disks and Manuals were. I don't know if the official workround helps with 2mb chip ram. Burning a modified EPROM is the best option, but unless you use RAD: then you might not be that bothered.

The 256k minimum chip ram would make it unusable on an unexpanded http://scacom.bplaced.net/Collection/velvet/velveten.php

[Dandy]

...
It basically is an At Once Plus.  It actually work very well except for the slow graphics, and no access to high density floppy (which were standard on PeeCee's even back in 286 days).

AFAIR, I could use HD floppies with the Vortex AtOnce 286 classic, as I had the registered Version of CrossDos 7 Gold installed...

But it could also be that I confuse it with using PcX on my A4000PPC Tower...my A500 time is too long ago...

[scuzzb494]

I generally use a 5001.3 and 1200 with all the bells. I do keep a 600 to hand cus its light and easy to store. I used it the other day to check a dead brick. The 500 Plus suffers if you forget about the battery. Never really seen the purpose of the Plus to be honest. I have a tray support for a 500 with a monitor and I just like the 1.3 for my ancient games. Everything else I can generally play on the 1200.

I too think the 600 suffers in terms of expanding. Plus they can be a pig with the hd. I always think that if you're tempted with a 600 you may as well get a 1200. And for the 500 size I would stick with the red power light. Anyway back to Manic Miner .... so addictive.

PS I tend to think both models suffered from being stop gaps between the 500 and the 1200 historically. They were never developed significantly by the user base as most were using 1200s and 4000s in the end. Just my thoughts.