Who here agrees this is the worst technology...

[AmigaClassicRule]

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Commodore-AMIGA-1200-OVERDRIVE-External-PCMCIA-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-170-MB-Mo-/281194526580

Who here agrees that if someone owns an A1200 that he should never buy this? Why? Well, simply put A1200 already have an IDE port inside the motherboard....second...you lose your PCMCIA for a harddrive that could have being used for something more important than a harddrive.

Though....it does look sexy and elegant...it is a useless device. Unless people want to mimic Amiga 500 but with AGA capacity and does not mind their Amiga have no access to the internet.

[SamuraiCrow]

It is worthless to anyone who doesn't need a second harddrive.  Although nowadays, there are better ways to do that also.

[mechy]

More than likely this was designed for the people who had 1200's that did not come with the internal hd and who are terrified of the tools(read: screwdriver) it takes to disassemble a 1200 to install one. I wouldn't call it technology, its a simple add on.
the A1200 IDE is terrible/slow,so who knows if this was a faster solution-Likely not since pcmcia is 16bit and quite slow.

[som99]

Nowdays it's kinda useless, but I wouldn't say no to get my hands on a defective one just to mount permanently on my A1200 for a optical drive and a extra 3.25" hard drive and then just extend the PCMCIA to still be able to use the PCMCIA and have extra large roomy A1200

[Thorham]

I wouldn't call it technology, its a simple add on.

Oh lord :rolleyes: Have we now arrived at the point where high tech isn't called technology anymore? Really :p

[Iggy]

Oh lord :rolleyes: Have we now arrived at the point where high tech isn't called technology anymore? Really :p

...voodoo

[foleyjo]

If you are not wanting to use any pcmcia devices then you could benefit by using this as your os drive and your idea drive to hold your games and apps. Remember there was a 4gb limit back when this came out too

[Darrin]

Who here agrees that if someone owns an A1200 that he should never buy this?

You have to remember what computing was like when this device came out.  I had a friend who owned one and there was a good reason for it:  Price!

Back then, 2.5" hard drives were bloody expensive and this thing allowed you to add a 3.5" drive for a fraction of the cost (nobody thought about cutting shielding and bodging wires).  If I recall correctly, the 3.5" drive over the PCMCIA port also out performed slower 2.5" internal 2.5" drives (correct me if I'm wrong).

As for Internet, it was more about bulleting boards via a trusty old dial-up modem attached to your serial port.

The only other thing the PCMCIA port was good for back then was expensive RAM cards and a squirrel for adding a SCSI hard drive and/or one of those new fandagled CD ROM thingies, but that was only after the CD32 was released.  Most of us added RAM via the expansion port with a CPU card.

Yeah, today I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, but it has its place in history and was useful when it was made.

[freqmax]

How about a cable from the motherboard thorough the plastic chassi to an external 3,5" drive?

[Astral]

@Darrin

+1. Nearly exactly what I was thinking.

[nicholas]

I had a 3.5" drive inside my A1200 back in 93/94 it was my first ever hard drive. Was a Western Digital Caviar 240MB IIRC. I just ripped out the shielding and plugged it in with an adapter cable.

[AmigaClassicRule]

You have to remember what computing was like when this device came out.  I had a friend who owned one and there was a good reason for it:  Price!

Back then, 2.5" hard drives were bloody expensive and this thing allowed you to add a 3.5" drive for a fraction of the cost (nobody thought about cutting shielding and bodging wires).  If I recall correctly, the 3.5" drive over the PCMCIA port also out performed slower 2.5" internal 2.5" drives (correct me if I'm wrong).

As for Internet, it was more about bulleting boards via a trusty old dial-up modem attached to your serial port.

The only other thing the PCMCIA port was good for back then was expensive RAM cards and a squirrel for adding a SCSI hard drive and/or one of those new fandagled CD ROM thingies, but that was only after the CD32 was released.  Most of us added RAM via the expansion port with a CPU card.

Yeah, today I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, but it has its place in history and was useful when it was made.

[cgutjahr]

External hard drives are all the rage these days - there are very good reasons to have an external drive that can easily be disconnected.

While nobody would have bought an Overdrive for backup purposes 20 years ago, the hardware would have still allowed you to easily carry all your data or even your whole workbench setup around and turn any A1200 (the one in the office, at your friend's place, at a copy party) into your A1200.

I call that a major feature.

[scuzzb494]

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Commodore-AMIGA-1200-OVERDRIVE-External-PCMCIA-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-170-MB-Mo-/281194526580

Who here agrees that if someone owns an A1200 that he should never buy this? Why? Well, simply put A1200 already have an IDE port inside the motherboard....second...you lose your PCMCIA for a harddrive that could have being used for something more important than a harddrive.

Though....it does look sexy and elegant...it is a useless device. Unless people want to mimic Amiga 500 but with AGA capacity and does not mind their Amiga have no access to the internet.

Why is it useless... I have one of these.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/overdrive/a87_aod01.jpg

Remember back in those days there were those that didn't have the technical skill to open up the Amiga and slot on the hard drive. The mags at the time were filled with sidecars for the Amiga and this followed on the tradition of sidecars for the 500.  Few people actually used the PCMCIA port anyway, given that because of the demise of Commodore there were few products that were manufactured to use it. There really was no internet in truth in the way that we have today. I think you need to draw a distinction between an enthusiast who likes collecting and playing with Amiga gadgets and someone who is trying to use an Amiga 1200 as a usable computer. I have like a gzillion Amiga 1200s [ or feels like it ] and I bought one of these.... Easy, simple to use and you can simply unplug when you don't want to use it.


http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz22.htm

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz30.htm

PS It also gave you the option of having two hard drives on your computer. How cool was that.

[freqmax]

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz22.htm

What is that adapter for GVP-HD+ for?