Is a 256 color Workbench possible on an Amiga 2500?

[FlagshipAmigaLover]

Hi everybody,

Is it possible for me to have a 256 color Workbench on my Amiga 2500?  I saw NewIcons on an Amiga 4000, it looks really awesome.  The screen resolution was 1024 X 768 and 256 colors.  Do I need some sort of a Zorro II video card?  I have the full ECS Chip Set, Kickstart 3.1, Workbench 3.9, a 68040 board with 32 megs of DRAM, and a ViewSonic Flat-Screen monitor hooked up to an A2320 board.  What NTSC video card would you recommend that I use?     :roll:

[QuikSanz]

Hi,

Ok, I'll Byte. What does an NTSC video card have to do with a VGA monitor?

Chris

[FlagshipAmigaLover]

Hi QuikSanz,

Ok, I'll Byte. What does an NTSC video card have to do with a VGA monitor?

Because I know that most people are going to tell me that I should get a Picasso card.  Picasso video cards are PAL boards.  I live in America, so I need an NTSC Zorro II video card.  NTSC is much better looking then PAL, so no, I do not want to use PAL cards.

Also, the Denise chip can only display a 64 color Workbench.  The standard is between 4 to 16 colors.  My thinking is that if I use a Zorro II video card, the video processor on that card will be more powerful then the Amiga 2000s Denise chip and I should be able to display a 256 color Workbench on the VGA monitor that is plugged into the video card.     :idea:

[QuikSanz]

Hi,

No, I have a PicIV and there is no such thing as pal or ntsc (never the same color) on them.
those modes are for native Amiga screenmodes only. As the PicIV is actually a pass thru with flicker fixer and scan doubler it will pass whatever the machine gives it. ie: what you give it is what you get.
Of course this all has nothing to do with gfx screens. Ask Doomy.

Chris

[FlagshipAmigaLover]

Chris,

Of course this all has nothing to do with gfx screens. Ask Doomy.

Does Doomy come on here any more?     :roll:

[Effy]

An A2000 with OS3.9 and an 68040 looks very impressive !! A gfx card would certainly speed up your system, not only more colours but also at least 10% speedup. A PicassoIV is of course the best you can get, but a Cybervision64/3D is also great and a lot cheaper and still new to get. You can also hunt for another gfx card that supports Zorro2 but it will have to be 2nd hand.

[frankb]

As you can tell, you have not gotten a real responce.

There are some cards that can be recomended. I peronally have a CyberVision643D (CV643D). I haven't had any problems with it.  It works in both ZII and ZIII mode (Zorro 2 and Zorro 3.). You can also get a GVP Spectrum Card. To be able to use any graphics card, you need to have a RTG system.  I personally use Picasso96, but you can also use Cybergraphics. P96 uses the same API as Cyberygraphics, and P96 is going to be the official RTG (ReTargetable Graphics system) in AmigaOS 4.

BTW, the Amiga 2500 is nothing more than a Amiga 2000 with an accellerator card in it. It will only accept a  Zorro II (Z2) card  in it. As I said above, the CV643D card works in both, and you sould be able to find one on ebay.com for a low price.

And yes, you can have 256 colors, or thousands of colors, or millions of colors. I just depends on which resolution you work in.

[Effy]

256 colours, that means working in the lowest mode called 8-bit. A CV64/3D can work also in 15 bit, 16 bit and 24 bit. But 8-bit works the fastest if you have an 68030 like I did on my former A1200 tower. But if you want lotsa colours without overloading the processor then just use 15 bit which will display most gfx very good ...
In these days of A4000's with PPC turboboard and PCI busboard it doesn't mean that we will drop you just because you have 'only' an ancient A2000 !!! It is still a system that is  capable of being upgraded with modern hardware, from Buddha/Catweasel to 2060 turboboard !!
Besides, you have got a 68040 card inside which is more than most A1200's have. You only need a gfx card to have an up to date system. Do you also have got an IDE controller inside ?? Get an Xsurf ethernet card which also has got an IDE controller so you can connect ultra cheap and mega fast CDroms !!

[Framiga]

Hi all

ARE YOU JOKEING or what?

WakeUP Guys . . . . .i can't beleive !!!!!

[Nick]

Framiga...Erm...Yeeeees. :-)

[Effy]

by Framiga on 2003/12/26 15:26:29    Hi all    ARE YOU JOKEING or what?    WakeUP Guys . . . . .i can't beleive !!!!!

Why ?? What did I say wrong ??  :-?

[voytech]

wooohooooaaaa :-D  :-D  :-D

[Ross_Geller]

Don't worry Effy, I don't think it's not you, it's about a certain old amiga lover who appears to have resurfaced :-)

[Framiga]

Hi Effy

don't worry Effy . . .  nothing against you :-)

Ciao

PS- try to go here:

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3792

DoomMaster vs DoomMaster (NOW aka FlagshipAmigaLover) . . . . .the top of the top of the . . . . ."DoomMaster Show"

[FlagshipAmigaLover]

Hi Effy,

Do you also have got an IDE controller inside ??

Why would I want IDE when I already have SCSI.  SCSI is a lot nicer and faster then IDE.  SCSI drives are usually higher quality then IDE drives too, this is why they cost about twice as much.  I even have SCSI on my Pentium 4 PC computer.  SCSI is so well made that I still have an old Seagate 5 Meg hard drive that still runs just fine with no errors on the platters.  This 5 Meg drive is in my old Lisa computer that is 20 years old.  They just don't make computers like that anymore.     :-P