Use of the A500

[Hodgkinson]

Hi there...
Im curious why so many people here on A.org use their A500's more than A1200's, for example (Or so it seems...). Is it nostalga, or is there somthing im missing here?

I mainly use my A1200 in the radio shack, occasionially I play around on the A1200T, but no serious use as such. As for the two A500's one is faulty, and the other one, in fully working condition, is still in its box somewhere.

Thoughts appreciated,
Hodgkinson.

EDIT: Btw, the reason the plain A1200 gets more use than the A1200T is because its smaller than the A1200T - Thus it can fit on the garage bench nicely.

[meega]

Games.

[skurk]

Me: Compability testing (OCS/ECS, demoscene stuff)

[meega]

Of course, silly me.

Games and demos.

[Amigaz]

Tend to use my A500's mostly of the nostalgic kick I get...reminds me of my youth and the great fun I had with my A500 back then...god! i miss those days  :boohoo:

[steve30]

They are better for games than the A1200.

The case is better than the A1200's as well - it is much easier to keep an extra floppy drive, joystick and modem on top of the A500 than it is on the 1200.

For more serious work though the A1200 is better.

[motorollin]

steve30 wrote:
They are better for games than the A1200.

Despite being slower, less expandable and not having AGA?

--
moto

[meega]

Yes, because a lot of early games addressed the hardware and an A1200 is not the same and sometimes does not work.

[motorollin]

So use WHDLoad or BlizKick with a 1.3 ROM image or another degrader. There is very little which will run on an A500 which won't run on an A1200, and the A1200 has all the advantages of AGA, fast accelerators etc. IMO the A1200 is a much better games machine.

--
moto

[McVenco]

motorollin wrote:

steve30 wrote:
They are better for games than the A1200.

Despite being slower, less expandable and not having AGA?

What has being slower and less expandable got to do with playing games? I'd prefer an A500 above an A1200 for playing games. Except AGA games of course, but there are way more OCS games than AGA games so no very big loss there (except Slamtilt obviously :-))

For everything else, the A1200 is better though...

[motorollin]

McVenco wrote:
What has being slower and less expandable got to do with playing games?

The games will load more slowly on an A500. More advanced games might not run as well, or at all, on an A500 with little RAM or CPU speed. I know compatibility is an issue for some really old software, but do we really need to worry about this now there are so many ways around it?

--
moto

[McVenco]

Maybe not, but I still get a better feeling using an A500. Maybe just for old times sake, and I really don't mind somewhat longer loading times. 99% of the games that I like run without hassle on a 1MB A500. For the other ones, well, there's always WHDLoad indeed :-)

[motorollin]

Well, if it's a nostalgia thing then I can understand it :-) My first computer was an Amiga 500, but the first I ever bought for myself was my A1200, so an A1200 has a better feeling for me than an A500 :-)

--
moto

[James]

I use my 1200 for most things. When I run into compatibility issues that aren't fixed by the Early boot or a little degrader action, I switch to the 600.

I will use the 600 more when I get some free time to set up the HD properly. Right now it's just wb2 on there.

When/if I get myself a 500 again, it will have to be expanded with at least an hard drive. I got rid of my 1000 for that reason. Although I had a very strong emotional bond with the 1000, being the first miggy I owned way back when, I just can't be arsed to use a computer without an HD these days. That's the main reason why I got a 600 before a 500, easier to get an HD in there.

For the moment though.. I'm getting a 1040 ST this week. Never had one of those and I can't wait to start exploring this little beast

[Tenacious]

Not everything I do requires a 2 Gig clock, a Gig of ram, and a 1 Gig OS that serves many masters.  Big Grin!

Seriously, I get a charge from playing with a simple, clean OS.  An A500 expanded only with fast ram (and a 2-3 Meg Rad) is a nearly 'pure' experience.  I wish I could send myself a message in 1989 to "..buy 4 Megs of fast ram next..".