What do you guys think of my Amiga?

[Eric_Fresh]

I'm not sure if I want to keep upgrading this 500+ with as much ram as possible up to 9 megs, a nice sidecar HD and maybe a accelerator.  I would say the most I want to spend upgrading it is $250, because with that a could get a new old stock A1200 with a CF HD from Amigakit.  So here's what I have now...

A500+ with full ECS, 1.5MB ram, 68010 processor upgrade, 3.1 roms, CA-88 2nd floppy and best of all no yellowing.  Should I upgrade this 500 with at least a hard drive or should I just spend a little more for a 1200?

[Trev]

What do you want do with it? A stock A1200 will provide better performance and compatibility with AGA software, but you'll want a RAM expansion and an easy way to softkick Kickstart 1.3 for compatibility with legacy games.

[save2600]

Out of the options you gave for voting, I chose to go the A1200 route, but only because your A500 is good enough as it is for most games. Personally, I'd just be happy with your A500 and skip the 1200 unless you really have $300-$500 burning a hole in your pocket. As Trev hinted, you will not be happy with a stock A1200. Fast Ram is only the beginning.

Internal or external HD solutions are out there for your A500 and cost less than $100. Guess it depends what you want to do with an Amiga these days. If its only to play games, minimally upgrade the A500 (more ram ain't gonna really do squat). If you want to get into Demo's, play around with AGA, the potential to do mass storage (A1200 has built in IDE) and some more "serious" stuff with an Amiga - then go for an A1200 - but be prepared to sink a lot of dough into her. She's an upgrade whore that way and you may never be fully satisfied  ;-)

[Trev]

Exactly. Your A1200 upgrade path will go something like this:

1. Buy A1200.
2. Buy "cheap" fast RAM expansion, maybe with RTC.
3. Since fast RAM expansion only lets you use 4 MB at the same time as the PCMICIA slot, buy not-so-cheap accelerator ($300+).
4. Built-in IDE support is functional but sketchy. Buy bufferred IDE interface.
5. 15 KHz CRT dead. Buy Indivision (awesome kit).

Someone really needs to build and release an inexpensive 32-bit fast RAM expansion for the A1200. I think availability of the connectors themselves is the issue and not the lack of want or design knowledge.

[Eric_Fresh]

Oh yeah here is a picture of my retro computer queen.

[Trev]

At least you're already good to go with one of the best home joysticks ever produced. :-) I love my Sega stick. (I'm also a fan of the Wico bat, despite having to hit the thing full force on every move.)

[a1200]

Anything more and it will not be a cool A500. I would alway do mega upgrades on a classic with an A1200, you will get more overall from the machine.

Some of my previous cool classix:
A1200
A600

[SamuraiCrow]

The hard drives and other stuff are neat but the center of the Amiga universe is the graphics chipset.  If you could upgrade that without swapping motherboards, I'd recommend it.  As it is the only way to get a new graphics chipset that's Amiga compatible is to buy an A1200.

[Eric_Fresh]

The AGA chipset, the CF hard drive option and the ability to network and go online with it are the main reasons I want a A1200, also I would love to get an accelerator for it and get WB 3.9 which I've never seen in action and the networking and being able to go online...

[Eric_Fresh]

What do you want do with it? A stock A1200 will provide better performance and compatibility with AGA software, but you'll want a RAM expansion and an easy way to softkick Kickstart 1.3 for compatibility with legacy games.

Mainly I want to run demos and games, but I love having the most powerful machine possible even if I don't need to.  Overkill is great.

[AmigaHeretic]

As it is the only way to get a new graphics chipset that's Amiga compatible is to buy an A1200.

Well, unless you can find the "AGA go Kit" for A500.  I believe there where working prototypes.

Oh and of couse AGA and PPC for A500!!

[save2600]

Well, unless you can find the "AGA go Kit" for A500.  I believe there where working prototypes.

Oh and of couse AGA and PPC for A500!!

OMG! Who's the lucky bastard in possession of that modern piece of art?  

[darkage]

AGA To Go.  Now thats getting a bit silly, where one can still purchase new-old stock 1200 in a smaller footprint package.  

To be honest the best setup would be A500 as it is for compatibility with older games and return to the past feeling if u grew up with the A500 and a A1200 for hdd / accelerator / updated WB and AGA classic computing.  (whdload if you get lazy inserting disks into A500 (: )     If you go all out upgrading the A500 you STILL need to go all out to upgrade the A1200.  x2 the money spent.

[ElPolloDiabl]

I voted A500. Max it out as much as you can afford.
If you get an A1200 there is Relokick 1.3 (to play 1.3 OCS games). Can someone provide a link to it or is it abandonware? If so I can upload an adf image then.

[dougal]

Oh yeah here is a picture of my retro computer queen.

That is one VERY nice and clean looking Amiga

Personally i would say that for most people, a perfect Amiga would be as most people in this thread are saying is an A1200 with a fastram card with RTC (Say 4 or 8mb) and an internal IDE harddisk. Also a PCMCIA Compact Flash reader is very usefull.

With that setup you can have a really nice WB3.1 setup with WHDLOAD to run all your classic games from harddrive.

The A500/+ is a great machince and very capable and will also run most games through WHDload if you have a harddisk and at least 3mb of ram but it does lack the AGA and is more expensive to upgrade.