Which Amiga Model(s) are you considering a MUST for Nostalgic pursposes

[Antiriad]

Guys

I need your opinions regarding on which Amiga model(s) are you considering a MUST for somebody who wants an Amiga(s) for nostalgic reasons. My personal favorites is the Amiga 500(Small, most compatible with old software) and 1200 (small, Amiga 4000 AGA-Lite). I do not believe a Desktop Amiga(s) are in my selection list since they are bulky for the average home user and they hold valuable space. Plus I am not planning to do any serious computing with them.

Even today's computers are considerably bulky...but I haven't seen anything as small and "powerfull" as the Amiga was it it's days. Maybe with the new Mini-ITX and Micro-ATX technologies computers will be compacted considerably.

How impresive was it that the Amiga 500/1000 did exactly that almost 20 years ago...

Any opinions are strongly encouraged...

Thanks

Mike

[x56h34]

As far as collecting goes, then every single one of them.

As far as actual usability, then probably A1200, A3000, and A4000 would be top choices.

[Hammer]

Antiriad wrote:
Guys

Even today's computers are considerably bulky...but I haven't seen anything as small and "powerfull" as the Amiga was it it's days. Maybe with the new Mini-ITX and Micro-ATX technologies computers will be compacted considerably.

Refer to SFF based PCs.

[c64_d0c]

a1200+1gighd+1230+16mb ram and all the whdloaders+ games and all old games are 100% compitable

thats what is a must have when it comes to retro gaming..

a500 are crap not worth looking at when you can have it all on a a1200....
________
Expert Insurance

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Except from compatability issues...

(how dare you to insult my sweetie A500! )

[Dan]

c64_d0c wrote:
a1200+1gighd+1230+16mb ram and all the whdloaders+ games and all old games are 100% compitable

thats what is a must have when it comes to retro gaming..

a500 are crap not worth looking at when you can have it all on a a1200....

Actually you could just as well use UAE. If it works nice with that setup then it probably works onUAE.
A clean A1200 and a A500 with extra memory and then spend the rest on extra diskdrives and joysticks, you know the parts that tend to wear out.;-)

[Akiko]

1200 with an accelerator + extra ram, big hard drive and OS 3.9 and most importantly WHDLoad to store and load hundreds of classic games..  :-)

Most desirable gaming system, CD32 SX-32 Pro, OS 3.9 and WHDLoad installed. The Ultimate retro gaming machine..:-D

[Will-i-am]

My wife accused me of collecting all the Amiga models until I started recounting how many there were, eg A3000, A1200, A2500, etc. I have three A2000's, one vanilla original, one with an '030, one A2000HD w/'030. Then I have an '040 A4000D for graphics, an A4000D for parts and an A4000T w/Cyberstorm PPC for making me crazy. I very much like the original A2K, even with it's 7.5 cpu it never fails to boot, makes excellent animations and has lots of room for cards and expansion. I'd pop one in a tower to make more room on the desk, but since I usually have one or two machines open for examination the desktop is never very clear anyway. Besides, you can always use those little feet thingys and place it on it's side. I'd have to say the A2000 is a sturdy beast for games and graphics and the '040 A4000D for any serious Amiga work.

[Dan]

If you want a small collectors item how about the Access? 8-)
I still wonder why nobody made an Amiga laptop out of it, maybe that could have financed the Boxer?

Otherwise there is also CD32 and CDTV.
But a real collector would get all of them, there isn´t that many. Prototypes are hardcore however.

Mini-ITX, it´s sooo old. It´s nano-itx now :-P Via is closing in on pc-104+, check out other industrial formats like the 3,5" pc 8-)

[FastRobPlus]

Nostalgia and collecting are different things.

For Nostalgia, it’s any Amiga you have a fond memory of using.

For collecting, it’s a boxed Amiga 1000 system, since the original of any platform is generally the most desirable.

The 500 could also be considered collectable, as it goes right along with the Atari ST and the C64 as one of the most influential home computer game consoles of all time.

Other Amigas can be very desirable to collectors based on their condition and their relative rarity. For example, An NTSC Amiga 600 complete in box is surprisingly rare in the US, but a PAL 600 complete in box is common.  The 3000UX and the Commodore-Amiga 4000T are also rare.  

There’s no real set value range for any Amiga, despite eBay auctions.  The 4000 is still generally the most expensive, since it’s still used as a daily PC.  In 15 more years, we’ll have a much better idea about which Amigas are hard to find (and fetch top dollar from collectors.)

As I think I alluded to in another thread, sometimes it’s the add-ons that are most desired by collectors.  I paid more for my circa 1985 Los-Gatos Amiga “boing” logo plate (the badge that is affixed to the 1080 monitor’s bezel) than I did for a circa 1985 new-in-box 1080 monitor

[a1200]

I went from A1200/30 to A600/30 the A1200 was too slow and common, and the 600 with '30 processor is great fun. I think if you like the 1200 you need it maxed with CD ROM, HDD, 060&PPC, and LEFT IN ITS ORIGINAL CASE

[adolescent]

I'd have to go with the A1200 here (of course in the original desktop case)

Small footprint - the second smallest Amiga
Standard Features - AGA, color composite, IDE interface, etc.
Expandability - accellerators, memory, HD, NIC, USB, etc. all in a desktop package.

Of course, I built one with this in mind.  a1200 might find it commonplace, but I've only seen a couple others as outfitted as mine still in the desktop case.  (Although, I still have a free clockport so there's always room for expansion)

[Wolfe]

@adolescent

USB and a free clock port?  PCMCIA USB card?  Model?   :-D

[PhilMoore]

For me, nostalgia is the A1000.

A friend of mine got one when we were in Highschool, I think it was about 1987 or so.  I remember it well, his parents bought it for him.  They brought it home at about 2am.  We were up playing Dungeons and Dragons, and when they got home, we were just stoked!  Well, it was a "refurbished" unit, and lo and behold, there were no disks in the box.  Since kickstart comes on a floppy disk for the A1000 (no ROMs), it was completely useless.  The nearest Amiga dealer was 200 miles away, we were dead in the water.  It was so depressing.  Anyway, he finally got the disks about a week later, and he also got "Barbarian", which we actually thought was a really cool game.    Another one he had was some kind of track and field or olympic game that you had to rapidly wiggle the joystick left to right to make the character run.  It was the butt of many juvenile jokes because to get maximum power, you had to hold the joystick in your lap, and kind of hunker down over it.  It really looked bad if you walked in the room and saw a person in that position making those motions... :lol:

He eventually got a 2000, and sold me the A1000, which I still have.   The college he went to offered free internet connection, but you had to dial in.  He got a modem and would download stuff off of wuarchive, put it on disks and mail them to me out in the sticks.  Good times, good times.
 

[TjLaZer]

You can start out with the one you like the most, then when you get hooked you can start collecting other models.  One thing to keep in mind is if you want to transfer ADFs to it you will need some extra RAM and a easy way to transfer them from PC to Amiga.  So maybe a Accelerator with Fast RAM and SCSI would be cool that way you can transfer files on a PC Zip disk or something.  A HD would also help out too so you can work easier on the Amiga.  Also if you like games you will definately want to use WHDLoad.  There are a ton of games you can run from WB, but again you need OS 2+, Fast RAM and a HD.

I myself have a A4000D and A3000T on my home LAN, so I can transfer or download ADFs to the Amigas to transfer to real disks and play most games with WHDLoad...