New Amiga user

[colinstu]

I've looked at Amiga stuff before, but I've never used, or even seen an Amiga in real life. Would it be fun to build an AmigaOne computer or is it completly different from a PC. It looks a lot like a PC (AmigaOne).

[Tomas]

The AmigaONE is not very different from a standard pc at all.. The only real difference is that it uses the ibm ppc cpu instead of the x86.
The good part is that it can run AmigaOS4.

The classic amiga hardware is however very different from the pc. I think the classic amiga was way ahead of its time, which is one of the reasons i still use my good old Amigas.

[InTheSand]

Welcome to A.Org!

It might be fun to build an AmigaOne computer, but the hardware is unfortunately not currently available and even when it was, it cost a small fortune...

As Tomas says, the classic 680x0-based Amigas are the machines that gave the Amiga its unique feel and were so far ahead of anything else at the time of the original A1000 and even the A500/A2000.

Classic machines, when suitably upgraded, are still usable enough today for most basic tasks. However, if you're a PC user with no Amiga experience at all, I'd imagine you'd find the experience a bit slow and frustrating as opposed to us long-time users going all rose-tinted and nostalgic!

The AmigaOne, I feel, is still aimed at this nostalgic group of Amiga users who want more power but are still after a niche machine for hobby use and to keep the Amiga use going. I'd personally be surprised if a PC user bought an AmigaOne without prior Amiga use.

Many (quite rightly) dislike Microsoft operating systems and use that as a reason to avoid PCs... but a decent Linux distribution and a cheap PC will give far more power and choice of software than any current Amiga solution...

Just my 2c worth!

 - Ali

P.S. I still enjoy using my Amigas, just trying to give an objective opinion...

[da9000]

The previous two guys said it right, but I still encourage you to grab an A500 from ebay or elsewhere (plenty around California, I can tell you that), grab a monitor or an RF modulator so you can hook it up to your TV (or even a more expensive sync doubler device so you can hook it up to a VGA monitor), and hook up the audio output to a decent sound system, grab a bunch of old 3.5inch low density floppies and  somehow (that's the most difficult part) try to get some good old Amiga games and Amiga demos on them and just let it boot from them.. then you'll get a glimpse, mind you a small one, of just what it was all about!! And don't feel discouraged! I used to drool at the vision of an Amiga back in 1985, but my parents never bought me one  So my first one was around 1992 or so, but been with me ever since!

Definately more fun than most other vintage systems that I've played with... OK, no mainframes are to be found in my home, but still I don't think they'd be more fun than an Amiga!

[steve30]

You'd be best off getting something like an old A500, like da9000 said. That way you can find out about how the OS works, and what games there are for it.

I wouldn't buy an AmigaOne until the hardware is in production and AmigaOS 4is released.

Alternatively, you could upgrade an ol amiga. I recently bought an A1200 and a 50MHz 68030 accellerator card. That makes it a lot faster. Combined with the latest OS, AmigaOS 3.9, it should be great.

[CLS2086]

Hi,
I agree with most people.
Try to catch an A500 (for old OCS games) and also an A1200 (for ECS/AGA games), but also to transfert easily with CFlash memories games/demo pickup on internet on Back2theRoot for a legal exemple.

If you want a top end NEW PPC Amiga, you have 2 choices :
- Eyetech Micro AmigaOne G3 - 800 mhz -> may be there will have a new batch before the end of the year (but when you look at the Alan Redhouse speach on June 2005....), OS4 still in Beta but  Update 4.

- Genesi/BPlan Pegasos G3-600 or G4-1Ghz -> still in production, you'll have compatible systems with Amiga applications and games that are not related to 'old amiga customs chips'. You can easily customise MorphOS 1.4.5 by installing AmigaOS 3.9 over it and also OS4Emu which yet support some games/demo and apps of OS4

But whatever your choice if you want one of the 2 lastest machines, you'll have to run an emulator to run old programs that use 'old amiga customs chips'...

[Savan]

Get yourself Amithlon/Amiga forever and enjoy yourself while you wait for Amiga items to be released.

if you want a top end NEW PPC Amiga, you have 2 choices

The Pegasos is not an Amiga, are you so {bleep}ing stupid? the guy asks about an Amiga, as for alan redhouse, that old conning tosser is about as reliable as a ashtray is on a motorbike.

[steve30]

I think the pegasus and morphos are supposed to be similar to an amiga.

And emulation isn't as good as using the real amiga. It is good though if you have loads of ADFS though and if your software isn't compatible with your real amiga. It also saves having to have more than one computer.

But using the real amiga is mucn nicer.

[djbase]

The Pegasos is not an Amiga, are you so {bleep}ing stupid? the guy asks about an Amiga, as for alan redhouse, that old conning tosser is about as reliable as a ashtray is on a motorbike.

Yeah, this {bleep} isnt an amiga!!!111 It isnt red, it is blue!!!!111 Cant you see that???222 Damn niggas!!!111

[colinstu]

Thanks for the replies. I would actually prefer to get an original Amiga (because I would get the real experince).

Here are some questions:
What is your least favorite Amiga computer?(Upgrading, Software, size, etc)

Whats your favorite?

Does OS 3.9/4.0/Morph have good driver support?

What is a G3 600/800 G4 processor compared (speed) to  Intel chip?

How fast does OS 3.9/4.0/Morph turn on, on a original Amiga. (boot up)

How fast does OS 3.9/4.0/Morph turn on, on a AmigaOne mobo.(boot up)

How important is memory for original Amigas?

More questions to come?

[steve30]

A1200s are quite expandable. You can fit quite a bit into one of those small desktop cases. You can expand it even more if you put it in a tower case. You can add all sorts to it.

These are quite cheap and easy to get hold of.

The A4000 is probably the best Amiga. I've never used one, but I've heard that it is very expandable.

The A500 or A500+ is the best for playing most older games. These are nice and small, and can easily have an HD plugged into the side if necessary.

MEmory isn't very important, but obviously you do need it, but no were near as much as you would for a WinXP machine. For WinXP you need at least 128MB for decent performance. You could easily get away with 32MB for OS 3.9. But the more the better. Some games and apps will need at least 1MB chip ram (graphics ram) and some like 2MB, so if you get a standard A500/+ for some things you may need a memory expansion.

Hope that helps.

[steve30]

The A600s are probably the worst for upgrading, but it can be done. See http://www.amiga600.net for more details.

[tonyvdb]

The Amig 1200 or the 4000 are your best choices if your looking to do all that the Amiga was made to do. The A4000 would be my first choice as it has the most options including AGA but a drawback is that there are only a fuw eccelorators available for it where the 1200 have more choices.
The 4000 also alows you to tap into the Video Editing end of the Amiga with the Video Toaster and Flyer.
Getting a used Amiga One is almost impossible and it has trouble emulating the older Amiga OS for playing games and things like that Building one would also cost way more then just getting an A1200(T) or 4000(T) "T for tower".

[Tomas]

I would get an a1200 with a HD installed if i was you. The stock a1200 runs a much newer and better revision of the AmigaOS and also have more ram, faster cpu and better gfx chip.

With a hd and whdload, you can install nearly all classic games onto a hd. This will save you the hassle of swapping floppies and will also make the games load much faster. The AmigaOS3.x is also much better than the 1.2-1.3 you get with an a500.

The a4000 could maybe be even a better choice, since it comes in case that makes it easier to expand with a cdrom drive and so on.. The drawback is that it is probably more expensive than the a1200.

[SamuraiCrow]

The driver support on AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS are not great since there are many more expansion cards that would work in them than there are people to write drivers for them all.  Remember that the original hardware manufacturers only write Windows drivers for their products and everybody else is on their own for the most part.

I've got an A1200 of my own that I bought back in 1993 and I am still going to use it with the PowerVixxen accelerator when/if it comes out.  Note that the native Amiga graphics chips are well supported by AmigaOS 4 unlike the classic Amiga version of MorphOS.  (Or at least that's what the beta testers claim. :-) )