Amigakits a1200 recommendation

[Fisketryne]

Asked for recommendation on a general mucking about / retro-amiga that will mostly be used for whdload and dreamings of better days. Mentioned some of the tips previously given to others on this forum. Heres what I got:

Hello,

Thank you for your email.

If you are looking to use WHDLoad, then an A1200 with 4GB CF hard disk and 68030/16MB accelerator would be perfect for this task.

A useful way of transferring data from PC is with an EasyADF PCMCIA CF Transfer Kit with 4GB of storage.

Cocolino is great for using PS/2 mice with the Amiga 1200.

You will not need OS 3.9 as this is not needed for WHDLoad.

Friendly and to the point methinks. Seems like Amigakit agrees with Amiga.org too. Guessing I would also need the Intellivision AGA thingy as I would love to put it on my plasma.

Wants to get everything in one go, all set up, but I could not find accelerators there (and someone said it was super expensive anyways). Guess I will trawl amibay/ebay. Btw: If anybody here has one, or has a A1200 to sell with extras or know where to get one, please tell. Note: N00b factor is huge. Live in Norway. Last two facts not necessarily related.

[the_leander]

If you're wanting a fairly hassle free setup, I'd say go with the recomendation. It looks fairly sound.

[Trev]

Your plasma TV will probably do a decent job of upscaling and deinterlacing the A1200's composite output on its own. Try it out before investing in an Indivision (which is awesome, if you need it). Your set may also accept the A1200's RGB output without modification.

[Fisketryne]

Your plasma TV will probably do a decent job of upscaling and deinterlacing the A1200's composite output on its own. Try it out before investing in an Indivision (which is awesome, if you need it). Your set may also accept the A1200's RGB output without modification.

Good advice. Thanx.

[save2600]

Guessing I would also need the Intellivision AGA thingy as I would love to put it on my plasma.

I too would love to play Intellivision on an AGA machine, but I think you meant Indivision...  :lol:

[Cammy]

A 8MB RAM card is all you need for WHDLoad, if you can find one of those instead of an accelerator, they cost far less. 4MB would be fine too, and you can use a PCMCIA SRAM card to add another 2-4MB if you need to.

[amigakit]

@Cammy

The Amiga 1200 is a 32-bit computer, so installing a 16-bit SRAM PCMCIA card will have an adverse effect on system performance.  

It is better to use a trapdoor expansion / accelerator which is 32-bit especially as many WHDLoad Slaves require higher performance than a stock A1200 can provide.  A good example is Chaos Engine AGA (WHDLoad) which unfortunately is very laggy on a vanilla A1200.

However, your advice would be valid for an unaccelerated A600 as this is a 16-bit system.

[Karlos]

@amigakit

Truesay. Also, the A1200 PCMCIA slot should be kept free for more useful expansions.

[Cammy]

My advice was to purchase a 8MB trapdoor RAM expansion, or at least a 4MB one, which will be sufficient for most WHDLoad games, but if more RAM is needed a 2-4MB SRAM card can be used as well, when it's needed.

I can understand that you're only trying to sell the products you have in stock, but there's no need to attempt to prove my advice wrong by twisting around what I said.

[Karlos]

My advice was to purchase a 8MB trapdoor RAM expansion, or at least a 4MB one, which will be sufficient for most WHDLoad games, but if more RAM is needed a 2-4MB SRAM card can be used as well, when it's needed.

I can understand that you're only trying to sell the products you have in stock, but there's no need to attempt to prove my advice wrong by twisting around what I said.

I don't amigakit was twisting your advice, he was simply pointing out that installing RAM in the PCMCIA slot of an A1200 is not really a good idea as it is significantly slower than trapdoor memory.

For most WHDload titles, 4MB in the trapdoor ought to be enough, leaving the 4MB PCMCIA space free for other expansions that would be more useful perhaps than a slow RAM expansion.

[Cammy]

Well that's the great thing about PCMCIA isn't it, you can easily pull the card out and stick a different one in. I'm sure having a spare SRAM card as well as a CF/SD card adapter and a network card is handy, I have them all myself and it's really not that much effort to swap them over when I need to.

[the_leander]

Not just slower in terms of the bus used, but, at least when I used a squirrel interface running data through that port absolutely hammered the cpu, even with an 040 running the show.

[amigakit]

@Cammy
It is not a case of selling the items we have in stock- it is important to give factual and accurate advise to our customers. If we misrepresent a product, it will result in a product return which is not advantageous to anyone, so we are always careful to give valid answers.

I have re-read my reply and cannot see anywhere where I have "twisted" what you have said.

[save2600]

...all she said in regards to 16-bit RAM is 'if you need to'. Which actually, after 4mb FAST and 2MB chip, would be extremely rare and okay to use "in a pinch" for the few games that might need it.

I thought her advice was sound, logical and economical. If I only wanted an A1200 to play games, I too would forego the 030 and seek a 4mb or 8mb trapdoor solution. Money would be better spent putting toward an Indivision or something else. IMO.

The OP was looking for affirmation or other ideas, else he wouldn't have posted. If money is no object, then yes - an 030 is a nice thing to have, especially with the extra RAM. And he wouldn't have to bugger tracking down a different RAM solution either.  

[Cammy]

However, your advice would be valid for an unaccelerated A600 as this is a 16-bit system.

This implies my advice about using a 8MB Trapdoor RAM expansion for WHDLoad games being sufficient is invalid. Your post was directed at me as if you were making a correction to what I had advised, which wasn't incorrect to begin with.

I never recommended SRAM as the sole RAM expansion for an A1200, only as an addition if a 4MB trapdoor expansion is used and is insufficient memory for a particular game, which in most cases is only needed for preloading multiple disk games that nearly all only require a 68000.