A500/2000 accelerator cards: still unfeasible to create new ones?

[Lockon_15]

Now that I did not know! No need for Poseidon or Trident? That's awesome. Thanks for that info Cammy!
 
I've been really wanting to put an Indivision ECS and MiniMegi in the A500 & and with a Subway USB I would have exactly what I want! BTW,Is Indivision coming out with a new version of their scandoubler? I see that AmigaKit is out of them but Versalia still has them I think.... should I wait?

Jens is finishing work on Indivision AGA Mk2 which will add DVI support and few other image enhacements like 75Hz PAL mode etc. You want Indivision ECS which is available from Vesalia and will be available from AmigaKit. This SD/FF will remain the most advanced SD/FF since it's planned to include basic/acceptable mini-RTG features which ***might*** put OCS/ECS machines closer to AGA look&feel (WB only).
 
Few days ago I ordered a second IndyECS since I want to check dual monitor/extended desktop support in my A500. That's right, you can have 2 IndyECS stacked together spanning WB in 2 screens.

[huronking]

"A500" and "rare" in the same sentence? Now that's funny.

I think I just struck gold in my closet. haha

[Digiman]

"A500" and "rare" in the same sentence? Now that's funny.

"rare enough",as in to find not as in worth a fortune lol. Go on ebay UK and see if there are 30-40 per week being listed a week like the old days. Didn't even see a single A500+ for sale last time I looked let alone a 2mb A500+

For people who want one and just look on ebay they have a harder job getting any Amiga than they did just 12 months ago when, including A500s which were ten a penny.

[tone007]

There are plenty of 500s on eBay in the UK today, a couple of 500+ even.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Commodore-AMIGA-500-PLUS-computer-only-tested-OK-A500-/380310887618?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item588c4b9cc2

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Commodore-AMIGA-500-PLUS-computer-only-tested-OK-A500-/380310887196?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item588c4b9b1c

Anyway, by this time most people that want a 500 have one (or ten,) and the low value of the item is a good reason not to bother listing on eBay.

[Digiman]

Which is why less and less appear, in the old days you couldn't move for unboxed A500s on ebay. Now it is single figures, obviously it's not worth the messing about boxing up and going to the post office for £10 sale on ebay (so £8 by the time PayPal and ebay have taken their cut)

If I really wanted one I would ask here, but they're not cheap on forums!

[tone007]

I've got so many I've started cutting them up for parts!

[sim085]

This SD/FF will remain the most advanced SD/FF since it's planned to include basic/acceptable mini-RTG features which ***might*** put OCS/ECS machines closer to AGA look&feel (WB only).

Does that mean that we can hope of one day be able to play AGA games on A500/A2000/A600 as well? If so then really that would be one hell of an add on to my current setup That said, for now I would be more then happy with just an 020 or better 030 accelerator card with plenty of memory and possible IDE controller. More then that would be a great bonus

[Lockon_15]

AGA ?
Of course NOT.
 
In BEST case you might have WB3.1 or WB3.9 with pretty colorful icons thrown across 800*600 area with maybe a nice background picture. That's a maximum you'll ever get on non-AGA machine. Games wont use that WB mode, we all know taht WHDLoad games discard OS already.
 
This is a remarkable attempt since you'll actually have something almost impossible on those bandwidth limited OCS/ECS machines.

[Lockon_15]

Which is why less and less appear, in the old days you couldn't move for unboxed A500s on ebay. Now it is single figures, obviously it's not worth the messing about boxing up and going to the post office for £10 sale on ebay (so £8 by the time PayPal and ebay have taken their cut)
 
If I really wanted one I would ask here, but they're not cheap on forums!

You can always check on www.amibay.com
Prices are pretty reasonable.
Half a year ago I got well-cared A500+ for appx. $35, you can get plain A500 starting with 20-25, in some cases people are offering for free if local pickup can be arranged.
 
For users in Europe, especially UK, you can always count at 'airey' aka Amiga Retro Experience shop at eBay (just for reference, he's moving his Amiga business to eBID.uk). He has a very large stock of 2nd hand A500s of all revisions (total unit count is close to 90) and is generally very reliable seller.

[Digiman]

I've got so many I've started cutting them up for parts!

Nice

I cut up a couple to replace broken draw fronts in my freezer and put the Commodore logo on the door :roflmao:

I had a quick look and it's pretty even for 4000s and 500s currently up for auction. The 2000 & 3000 being less available than the 4000.

[Photon]

I gleaned these preliminary specs from the A1k thread about ACA520.

Yum!

[ognix]

I gleaned these preliminary specs from the A1k thread about ACA520.
Yum!

Thanks for sharing!

The preliminary specs reflects what has been written previously (except that the A1200-like trapdoor expasion bus is for ACA accelerators only - it's written that not every A1200 accelerator works - Apollo ones 1240 and 1260 won't).

It's great that Jens is making also such a product for A500/A500+ : I think he will be rewarded by sales... if the price is right!  

My opinion is that a price range around 100 EUR would fit (the lesser the better!), but I'm not aware of components and production costs (but I'm figuring out from other products from Jens).

Upgrading an Amiga 500, IMHO, is due to two possible reasons:
1) a more powerful machine for running games thru WHDLoad (never tried, BTW), stored on internal hard disk/Compact Flash card.
2) for trying to get the best performace possible out of that "good oldie" computer (pretty like me )  ). It's not rational, it's just like those who like "special old cars", and the emotions they receive by using them.  

In the first case, you get the ACA520 and you are happy with it.
In the second case, you get the ACA520 and another A1200 accelerator to get even more (here we have to see what works, and how it could be done "mechanically", to push everything inside A500 case).

I'd like to have a 68030-based A500 accelerator with 16/32MB of Fast RAM at least, but it would be too expensive for the first category of people.
With the A1200 bus solution you can improve the system further, even in two steps.

Since this news, I'm a bit sad that I recently bought an Apollo 520 on eBay (68020+68881 @ 25MHz + 4MB)... quite pricey... but I'm quite satisfied after all.  
...I'm thinking on building an adapter to place it internally, since I already have an Oktagon 508 by side, and placing it there as well, puts my SCSI controller even further on the left!  :?

BY and thanks Jens!

[sim085]

I gleaned these preliminary specs from the A1k thread about ACA520.

is this true? we can expect this uprade by March 2011? so soon!!

[Photon]

is this true? we can expect this uprade by March 2011? so soon!!

Well, 4 days ago he posted (in reply to "when can we expect this new nice piece of hardware?") "it will be another two months, first I finish Indivision AGA MK2 which has top priority".

[Darrin]

I gleaned these preliminary specs from the A1k thread about ACA520.

Yum!

Well there's the clockport, so USB via Subway!  

I wish it used an overclocked 28MHz 68020 though.

All in all, I think Jens has a winner on his hands there.

[kedawa]

I've already got a trapdoor expansion, so I'd like to have some sort of module that could pop onto the side expansion bay of my A500 and make it super duper.  Flash memory, ethernet, RAM expansion, etc.
I'm sure it'll never happen unless I do it myself, but I just don't have the skills or money right now to do something that sophisticated.