Amiga newbie of old

[Abmind]

Hi all,

Its good to see my favorite system is still alive.  I used to have a 2000 before going to Mac but I would like to get back into an Amiga and I just don't know where to start. Any sugestions on what system to get?  Or maybe I should wait for the Amiga 1 and OS4?  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.  

Thanks  :-)

[Amigaz]

A good starting point would be an Amiga 1200 with an accelerator card and harddrive so you can install an OS and use it comfortably.
Feel free to ask if you want me to be more precise about the hardware I recommended

[Jose]

Welcome aboard :pint:

It depends on what you want to do really. Ok this is a bit subjective. If you just want to play with some old demos, games and apps then I'd give you AMIGAZ suggestion also. If you want to use it more seriously then get an A1 and wait for AOS4 final release. If you really like the Classic Amigas consider getting an A4000 (it won't be like the new PPC system's though). There's also MOS and Pegasus but I don't know how things are legally after what Genesi done to MOS (I'm sure someone will shed some light into that...)  8-)

[Abmind]

Thinking more about this I would like to just get myself reaquanted with the Amiga and not spend a ton of money (My wife would kill me. I can just here it "Why are you buying that OLD computer).  AMIGAZ if you don't mind I would like that list.  Is the best place to find a 1200 on ebay or is there somewhere else?  Also does it matter if I get a system from over seas or is the 1200 switchable between PAL and NTSC?  

[Robert17]

I'd say the cheapest place to find an A1200 would be in a charity shop or a car-boot sale  :-)  or you could try http://www.amibench.org

Robert

[4pLaY]

If you dont wanna shell out a lot of money go for emulation? or you could try out the AmigaOS clone AROS (www.aros.org).

[Animagic]

Hmmm...
For a classic amiga go to amibench get an A1200 with harddrive. Also get an accelerator (a blizzard 1230IV or a Blizzard 1240 with 16 MB ram - I would recommend).
Also get a PCMCIA ethernet (about 20 euros) and you are ready!

It's fun if you can download ANYTHING without the worry of spyware-adware-viruses  :-D

[Abmind]

Cool. I think the A1200 with accelerator wil be the way I go.  With me being in the US will it matter if I get one overseas?  Will i need a PAL monitor?  Or should I find one here in the US that way I can use a NTSC monitor?

[SamuraiCrow]

If you don't plan on making videos with the AGA chipset then I'd recommend getting a PAL A1200 and a US Power Supply for an A500.  (The A600 power supply that comes with an a1200 is crap and if you get a PAL system it will probably run off a 220 volt 50Hz outlet.)

You'll need a PAL-capable monitor such as a Commodore 1084 series to display anything in color but I wouldn't recommend using the built in tv connectors anyway due to electrical interference on the motherboard itself.

The reason I recommend PAL systems is because they are cheaper and most classic Amiga software runs in PAL resolutions anyway so it will save you the trouble of having to "PAL Boot" your system with a patch to get the software to run.

If you can't find a PAL monitor and are out of options then you can get a scan doubler and hook it up to a VGA monitor but scan doublers are expensive and also hard to find.

If all of this sounds like a major headache to you then you might want to consider the cheaper option:  emulation.  You can run most Amiga software on Macintosh by buying the Amiga Forever CD and then download the latest version of EUAE and try to follow the instructions for setting up EUAE.  It is a little more difficult but it will work on most modern hardware.

[Abmind]

Great!!!

Thanks for all the info everyone

I'll keep in touch :-)