Was this a good buy?

[ArchM]

Sorry, one more question.

Can I play PAL CD32 games on this machine?  What about PAL disc games?

[CLS2086]

Hi,
yes you can.

But you paid too much :
PAL+RGB french CD32 + PSU + pad + pinball illusion + transport = 45E
SX1 + 8mb + RGB cable + external floppy  = 35E
CD32FMV complete in box incl. transport = 55E
 :roll:

[alexh]

Did you really understand what the difference between an SX-1 and an SX-32 was when you bought it?

Did you accidentally think this was an SX-32?

[stopthegop]

pierre wrote:
or much less, hard to say what this stuff is "worth"
I hope it will be worth more as I have tons of it, but I kinda doubt it... as much as I love these old things I just don't see it turning mainstream anytime... but we can alwasy hope!

Amiga being "mainstream" would destroy its cult appeal and make them worthless (how many free Amigas have you seen on Craigslist?).  Rarity and desireability are what determine value.  The desireability of Amiga equipment is static - if not increasing.  And rarity is proportional to time.  I think for sure Amiga prices will continue to go up.  For the better, imho.  

[pierre]

yeah I see what you mean, I think I used the wrong word.
I think over time less and less people will go to the trouble of wanting to run a classic amiga.  As much as I enjoy playing with them I get the feel that is i actualy considered an uncool activity (not just by my girlfriend).  It's not like restoring a classic car or anything.  If course I want it to nad hope more people will get involved, just not sure it will happen based on what I see.  Prices are falling on the old grear all the time.  I think those that are going to get into it are already here.

[stopthegop]

pierre wrote:
yeah I see what you mean, I think I used the wrong word.
I think over time less and less people will go to the trouble of wanting to run a classic amiga.  As much as I enjoy playing with them I get the feel that is i actualy considered an uncool activity (not just by my girlfriend).  It's not like restoring a classic car or anything.  If course I want it to nad hope more people will get involved, just not sure it will happen based on what I see.  Prices are falling on the old grear all the time.  I think those that are going to get into it are already here.

You think so?  I know what you're saying, but I see evidence to the contrary.  I work for a big hardware manufacturer (one most people have heard of).  My co-workers at first thought I was a out of my mind when I told them I had a collection of interesting vintage "PCs" from late 1980s and early 90s. Of course they were envisioning me piddling around with huge, big Mamma, clunker 286 DOS 2.0 machines.   They were all astounded when I showed them my workshop; 4 new LCD flat panel monitors lit up with nice, modern looking "desktops" all in 16 or 24 bit resolution - all networked.  No big, ugly CPU cases; biggest one is the Mirage.  I had the 1200 hooked up to a Magma Box via PCMCIA and the Magma connected to an HP LTO Gen III (2gb NFC!!) tape drive.  NFC = Native Fibre Channel.  How's that for contrast?    They couldn't believe it..  "These are Ataris and Amigas???"   They had images of the Amiga 500 and the Atari 2600, and nothing else.  If anything, it confirmed, in their minds, that indeed I am truly a little nuts.    Anyway, I digress..  my point is that I think the Amiga will retain its cult status for a long time.  One of my co-workers is now trolling ebay in search of an A1200 like mine.   My neighbor's 16 year old son is a musician.  He has been pestering me to sell him my MegaSTE.  He wants because his musical idols used Ataris for MIDI work.  Thats natural.  I can see his way of thinking just as I can see him wanting an "old" Les Paul Guitar instead of a new one.        

[pierre]

hmmm.  I dunno.  Do see things happening.  I work for a mayor animation company that you would also know.  There are plenty old amiga guys here, they all left ages ago, why?   New machines are BETTER and faster. They look at my collection and might, wow I had one of those and encourage me to sell it all on ebay and get a laptop!  It just that unless your a bit nutts it not practical to have a bunch of amigas about the house.  I think your co-worker and kid next door may be the exeption to the rule.   Also how long will there intrest last once the see how much WORK it was doing it the old way! (and how much better modern software is for making music!)  The "les Paul" is a wood crafted MATURE instument that will never become too old.  The amiga is an ancent  computer that has been improved on soo much over the years.  
I hope you are right and this stuff becomes cool...

[stopthegop]

You are absolutely right about the amount of upkeep involved in maintaining these machines, to say nothing of the money!  To most of us its a hobby.  Some of us take our hobbies more seriously than others, thats all.    You said new machines are "better" and "faster".   No question they're faster, but so what?  I may be in the minority here but for me,  I am perfectly happy with 100 million instruction cycles PER SECOND.   If the trade-off  for me to increase the rate at which I can compute to, say, 3 billion instruction cycles per second is a switch to one of three equally horrendous operating systems (Mac, Linux or Windows), then I'll stick with the 100 million ticks/second, TYVM.   As far as "better", thats subjective.  Ask 100 people to define "better", you'll get 100 different definitions.   My view is that new machines are not necessarily "better".  They're bug ridden, complicated, virus prone, inefficient, prone to overheat, and top heavy with software.   Granted, you can do a lot more gee-wiz 'multimedia' stuff with new machines (like games and pornography).  But I'm not really into those things.  I think you and me grew up around the same time and we probably both got started early using Amigas.  As such, we took AmigaOS for granted thinking "this is how a computer behaves; we command it, not the other way around".   Eventually Windows got big, but it was an abomination, the very antithesis  of what a computer IS.  At least thats how I viewed it.    To really appreciate the Amiga you kind of have to step back in time and undo a lot of the brainwashing of the last fifteen years.    

[ArchM]

See, for me, I am interested in the style and quality of the games.  The games that come out these days, I would say about 1 in 20 is worth a crap at all.  With the cost of game production going through the roof, and not showing any signs of slowing down, companies won't take a chance on an inovative game idea, they have to stick with what is tried, true, and safe.  There is so little real innovation in games anymore, and they all just seem to be clones of each other - the quality is dead.  
I don't really care about all the new bells and whistles the graphics and sounds have these days, its all about the heart and soul of the game.  For instance, "Out of this World"?  BEST GAME EVER.  That game had magic to it, no other way to describe it.  It was perfection.  Now, if somebody would give me another Out of this World, with today's technology, I would be happy.  But they won't, they will give me Grand Theft Auto 6, or Tony Hawk 12.  

I am buying this machine simply and solely to gain access to the Amiga's vast library of games - pure and simple.  The days when a group of friends could make a game in their garage over the course of a year - that is when magic happened.  *sigh*   Done ranting....