Pros - Cons: topic: wanting an A600

[ivibozic]

Are you a pro or a no

in:

getting a cheap A600, 2chip, 8 fast RAM, 1084s, 2 Pythons, a hard and some disq(-ettes).

If no, just pass..

i_b_

[x56h34]

Hey, if someone else asked this question, this is how you would answer:

What is A600? Is of no good. But I want happines. Lots of potential there. But what of the cute? If frustrated, please take note. Oh yeah!

[drwho]

No.

I bought one of these when they first came out. I think that either I was completely out of my mind, stupid, or I thought that it would be better than an A500. What a peice of junk.

My opinion, don't buy an A600. If you are a beginner, you can get a nice A500 with lots of extras (games, joysticks, etc) from ebay dirt cheap.

Just my 2 cents.

-- Mike

[leirbag28]

I disagree with Dr Who

The A600 is a great machine with much more potential softwarewise than an A500.  For starters it has the Enhanced Chipset wich makes it like the A3000's little buddy. its got PCMCIA port to use Wireless PC ethernet cards and Sony Memory Stick, Compact Flash, SD and others.  It can have 2 MB of chip ram much easier than an A3000, and can be upgraded with an Apollo 630 which I believe are being rereleased again (they are not too good....2 died on me)

And as far as games (people will tell you otherwise but its more compatible than an A500 if you install WHDload ( you cant run games thats use 2MB of ChipRAM on an A500 unless you install the MegaChip which is quite expensive.

Plus the A600 is super portable!  But if you had to buy one Amiga.........I would go for the A1200..........even for portablility its beter than a CD32, because a CD32 you need to carry along a keyboard and floppy to make it complete.

[doctorq]

Apollo 630 which I believe are being rereleased again (they are not to good...2 died on me)

Where did you hear that?

So basicly you are saying that the only accelerator for A600 (more or less) aren't that good? I'd better get me one of those!

unless you install the MegaChip which is quite expensive.

And the Apollo 630 isn't?

-EDIT-

Btw. I agree with drwho.

[TjLaZer]

M four cents  

I think the A600 is a awesome little machine.  Has 2MB Chip, can add a HD very easily (just drop in a PC laptop HD in it and go!  Even larger ones with some tweaks or OS 3.5+) and it has PCMCIA so you can add upto 4MB Fast RAM, or a modem, or a LAN card.  Only drawbacks are 1.  Expensive as hell in the USA, 2. Cannot easily add a faster CPU or RAM, 3.  Surface mount chips so very hard to repair.  I have 2 bad units now that I cannot fix.

The A500 on the other hand is the classic.  Very very cheap, robust, easily expandible, socketted chips for easy repairs, and you can also add a internal HD if you like.  The AdIDE2 and Novia kit (got mine from eBay for $40)  Only bad thing is trying to add more Fast RAM.  Will also need a CPU upgrade or trapdoor upgrade (both very $$$) but overall cheaper than a A600 (here is the USA atleast)

Your call.

[ivibozic]

doctorq wrote:

Apollo 630 which I believe are being rereleased again (they are not to good...2 died on me)

Where did you hear that?

So basicly you are saying that the only accelerator for A600 (more or less) aren't that good? I'd better get me one of those!

unless you install the MegaChip which is quite expensive.

And the Apollo 630 isn't?

-EDIT-

Btw. I agree with drwho.

Yes, but on A500 you'd need extra memory, and installing WB2.0, (cause the games that didn't play on 500 and needed 2mb ram, also needed - OS2.0). In A600 you get os2.0 and you're continuing only to the mb expansion. With A500 however, as I've written, the case wasn't that simple).

I'd go so far to say that in computer world the 600 is as the Alfa 156 in cars. CHEAP! ROUND WORTH(ness)! and a blaster. By the experience most certainly. It's only that it was bit sluggish back then, but hey, there's always that 'back then' to write and write about instead of skipping it.

i_b_

[doctorq]

cause the games that didn't play on 500 and needed 2mb ram, also needed - OS2.0

Please let me know which these games are so I can check it out. To my knowledege there isn't any games that run on A600 that doesn't want to run on A500.

[TheMagicM]

given the opportunity, I would pick a A600 over the 500 any day.. ease of expandability make it a no brainer.

[Linchpin]

I prefered my a500 over the a600 anyday... little noisy thing with no numeric keypad to play flight sim's!

One of CBM's mistakes imho ...

[leirbag28]

Some of you must have had seriously Messed up A600's or something...........its defintely nicer to have an A600than the A500.....a behemoth thats too difficult to expand these days. Especially with modern stuff such as ethernet and Compact Flash, and IDE drives.  
For games played with ease without having to load from floppy.its ten times easier to have an A600, as all you need s WHDload and a HD.  

Who the heck wants to go through the trouble of upgrading and even carrying that HUGE behemoth around.  I used to have my A600 inside my Cars Dashboard back in 1994 and Had DSS8+ attached to it with a Mic and to my Sound System to yell at passer buys "GET OUT OF THE WAY!!"   try that with an A500 in a car...............also had scratch and DJ samples that I would hit keys while driving...........playing my own music :-)

[Doppie1200]

The A600 is a very nice machine.

Surface mounted chips may be a hassle to replace but it is possible to do so if you have a good soldering iron, magnifying glass, a solder remover and a very steady hand.

As for expandability; I think they are hopeless! Sure you could add PCMCIA RAM, and/or an accelerator. But it's easier finding a dodo egg.

The harddisk is nice but most whdload games need fastram. Which is a problem as stated above.

The network card possibility is nice and gives it an edge. You can make a perfect ADF writer from it.

The footprint is nice. The ugly A500 slab takes up a huge ammounth of space. One thing...A500 tend to be less sensative to yellowing.

I'd go (and went) for an A600. Also because theyre cheap and easy to come by here in good old Holland

[that_punk_guy]

Meanwhile, back in reality...

Whichever machine you get is likely to come with a sh1tload of  games anyway, all of which will have been tested. Any that didn't work will have been copied over with tacky HAM6 public domain porn collections.

[x56h34]

WHDLoad usage with A600 is only neat if you have an accelerator installed.

Try using a vanilla setup with 2MB Chip / 4MB PCMCIA Fast ram, and you'll see that plenty of games refuse to work as they should, due to the 68000 cpu. It is missing some WHDLoad needed instructions, that only come with 68010+ cpus. Lots of games don't work due to this. :-(

[leirbag28]

@Doppie1200

PCMCIA memory is SUPER easy to find............problem is that there are many A600 and PCMCIA Nay Sayers.........never listen to them.

See most people arent aware that many PCMCIA cards from Apple Newtons work on the A600 with no need for drivers or anything.  Go on ebay and watch as they show up. Type  "Newton Flash" and you have yourself enough Memory to run WHDLoad :-)

Sometimes you find the 2MB ones for 15 bucks....not too bad.