Argus wrote:
@koafder
I think you're exaggerating the prices a bit. You could get yourself a GVP Spectrum rtg graphics card for less than $100; a Cyberstorm MkII for probably $300; 128MB simms for the Cyberstorm for $30; and a XSurf ethernet card for $100-120 (new from Software Hut). That and $30 for 3.1 roms (if you don't have them) gives you a pretty nice miggy for $500 or so. I give you that you can get halfway to a nice Athlon 64 PC system for that price, but then you still need $50 for AmigaForever and $100+ for a Catweasel PCI card. The amiga native A3000 solution lets you run most of the available software base, sans AGA, and it's actually cheaper than the AmigaForever solution brand new (since you already own an A3000).
*sigh*
You are right, i probably could get this a3000 pretty well upgraded for a little less. But hitting the native refresh rate on my 17" lcd ( of which i have 3 and a 21" lcd ) is pretty important for me. And i'd like to get there with at least 16bit color.
I have a few classic amigas, all stock except for memory upgrades, this provides me with lots of old school gaming and demo fun. But what id really like to top it off is something i could browse the web with and irc off of, and use as a personal system. Something i could keep my photo albums on and other personal stuff. Something cool, something fun and on Amiga platform. Something modern.
So from my point of view, if i want the high rez graphics and stuff, WinUAE gives me the best value on classic aos. I'll hold out for aos4, as that seems the best bang for the dollar. With aos4 and associated hardware, i can expect to interface to a modern monitor properly, ethernet on the board, a fast proc, audio, etc, probably for a similar price to getting a classic amiga upgraded to the hilt.
I'd like to get os 3.9 on my 3000, the kick roms and ram are cheap, but whats the point withouht a nice video card to boot, and thats the real cost there.
There is something inheriently geek cool about the a3000/4000 upgraded to the max, with the ppc accelerators though. A 15 year old machine, frakenstein upgraded to ppc with gobs of ram and accelerators with pci builtin for graphics cards, etc. Its like taking a pinto and putting on 4wd and hudge tires and throwing in a v8.
What i really wanted for my upgraded miggy setup was an a1200! Always wanted one, hard to come by in the US, europe got them all!
Sorry for my unarticulated previous post, which obviously made some think that i considered amiga to be a crap system. Personally i would like to see amiga gain in numbers again. For the same reason i think beos and osx are good to still be around. We need more computing diversity and open standards. It needs to get to the point where OS doesnt really matter. A computing monoculture is a bad thing. It leads to major security problems and content restrictions.
So, i have my classics for my fun time, my some what slightly antiquated pcs for emulation, and i think i'll hold on to my dollars for an aos 4 machine. Trokia seems likek they might have a system for sale some time soon. If they do they will get some of my money, and i will certianly be showing my friends my machine, which may lead to a sale or two...
I feel bad about not donating any time to aros. I wanted to take the bounty for the hdinstall project, but after spending 2 weeks looking at whats involved it was obvious that i just dont have enough free time to do it. And its not the bounty money anyway thats motivating ( cmon, the bounties are too small for the effort involved) if i could have done it i would have rolled the funds into another bounty ( of my choosing of coure ).
So to end this post, i say emulate if you want a killer setup, buy a classic and do a minimal upgrade if you are cool with the limitations and probably just want to relive the games, if you are going to spend a nice sum, wait for aos4 ( i may be a pessimestic {bleep}, but i still think its going to happen eventually) .
