A500 vs. A1200

[HopperJF]

I have both these machines, but I only want to play classic games, I.E. games made in the amigas gaming heyday around 1987 - 1997.

What is the best Amiga for the job out of the 500 and 1200, without modifying anything?

Thanks

[Morley]

There were very few genuine AGA games released, so the A500 would be the obvious choice for a gamer. An A1200 has lots of incompability issues with older games, albeit some can be fixed using degraders, WHDLoad and so on. If you want to use your 1200 for gaming you would most likely have to expand somewhat.

If you just want to break your joystick, use the A500. It's the far most compatible.

[HopperJF]

I just remembered I have a horrible yellow A600 as well, will that do a similar job to the A500?
It is more compatible then my nice white A1200 right?

Hmmm.

[Morley]

HopperJF wrote:
I just remembered I have a horrible yellow A600 as well, will that do a similar job to the A500?
It is more compatible then my nice white A1200 right?

Hmmm.

The 600 uses kickstart 2.06 and no fast ram which is incompatible with a lot of older games. If you put the kickstart roms from your 500 into your 600 it will be a bit more compatible, as the processor and a lot of others are identical, but the 500 is the gaming machine for older games. A 500+ is not as suited as a regular 500.

[gizz72]

Greetings,
@HopperJF
 My first Amiga was an A600. I exchanged it with an A500 cause I'm interested with the ROM2 and I was scared with it because of SMC(surface mounted chips). Unlike the A500, you only need a skill in soldering and electronics. Later, I did and me and my A500 were close partners since. Until I added my A1200 in 2000.
 A500 is slow but VERY compatible with older games, easy to maintain.
 A1200 double the speed, but incompatible with earlier games. But you can count on the A1200 in some DTP(prowrite) and Graphics(Dpaint/AGA) programs.

Good day to all Amigans! :-D
 

[drwho]

I have an A3000 and as much as this is a "classic" Amiga for the most part, I still have a really hard time playing older games (which I love ...) on the 3000. I am fairly adept at using degrader applications like TUDE and WHDLoad, but, I find that the games even "feel" different than they would on an older Amiga.

In light of that, I set out a while ago to build the ultimate Amiga game box. So, I threw an Amiga 2000 together, got a 1.3 ROM for it and a GVP SCSI/030 card. I can use the GVP tools to reboot the Amiga with the card completely disabled and basically play every game ever made for OCS and ECS Amiga's.

Long story short, I wouldn't even bother with the A600 (I once owned one of these and had many issues with running games on it ...) and I would use the A500. Everything will run on it as long as it doesn't require AGA, which few games do anyways.

Sorry for the long post, felt like babbling ... :-)

Hope this helps,
- Mike

[leirbag28]

@Morley

The A500+ and the A600 are the same.........so saying "A 500+ is not as suited as a regular 500." doesnt make sence

The best A500 to get is one with the Kickstart 1.2 ROM as there are some games that wont work with 1.3 such as Alien Syndrome from SEGA and Fire and Brimstone and some others.

I have an A1200 with WHDLoad though and its the best.....no disk swapping and no long loading. I have 160 games on my A600 as well...all HD installed using JST or WHDLoad

but the best in my opinion is a CD32 with an SX32 Pro, becasue you can play most games on this:  A500 games, A1200 games, CDTV games, and CD32 games.........along with audio CD's  Karoake CD's and of course the games.

Doesnt get any better because you can even play DOOM  and Gloom, Breathless, AlienBreed 3D 2,  Genetic Species, NemacIV, Heretic, Myst, T-ZER0, Capital punishment, SuperStreetFighter 2 Turbo, Fightin Spirit, and one of the best game ever made for the Amiga........SLAM TILT! baby!!!
 

[that_punk_guy]

leirbag28 wrote:
The A500+ and the A600 are the same.........so saying "A 500+ is not as suited as a regular 500." doesnt make sence

Er, yes it does. There are many incompatibilities (with games at least) between the A500 and A500+. A lot of old games work only on the A500. What doesn't make sense about that?

[leirbag28]

@that_punk_guy

 If I am not mistaken, the A500 has the ECS just like the A600...........so adding and extra megabyte will make it ChipRAM and not fast. Although the A500+ probably came with Kickstart 1.3 ROM?  so maybe that alone might make it more compatible out of the box.

 I think its handy to own an A500 with KS 1.2 just to test the games.  I have one and might be selling it.

[Morley]

The A500+ and the A600 are the same.........so saying "A 500+ is not as suited as a regular 500." doesnt make sence

ehrmm...I'm not sure what you mean here. I think it makes perfect sense. The 500+ is kickstart 2.x and 1MB chip. (nearly 600 as you stated out.)A "normal" 500 is kick1.3 or kick1.2, with 512k chip and eventually 512k fast, and this would be the gamers choice if you only want to play most games and not modify/expand the machine, which the original poster did'nt want to do.

-EDIT-

stupid typo's

[leirbag28]

@Morley

Morley i am a complete idiot.........I totally misunderstood what you wrote and I just noticed it right now. You are correct in saying that an A500+ is not suited as a regular A500.   You know I am not even sure what I understood from that at first. hmmmmm hahaha sorry about that!  same to That_Punk_Guy


 I think I thought that you were saying that the A500+ is the same as an A500, which made me question that if that is the case, then why isn't the A600 like the A500?, because the A500+ and A600 are almost the same. :-)

[Morley]

 :-P

[HopperJF]

My first Amiga was a 600, I think that is my choice. I had no problems running any games.. certainly nowhere near as much as I do with the A1200.
The A500 hmmm well... mine was 1.3, I have 2 actually. One is dead, and the working one is hidden away where I can't find it..

A1200... beautiful machine, like new condition with the exception of a bit of damage on the "A1200" badge. Not compatible enough, and the time it takes to get to the disk prompt is too long.

A500 WOULD be my ideal choice, but there is no way I can set it up here.
I have no room for an A500, at the moment the A1200 sits fairly comfortably on top of my TV, but an A500 with 520 modulator would be really unsafe.. so A600.

However, I dont really want to set up my A600 as it is...
Why? Because its YELLOW and looks really bad  :-(

I realised that I have 2 Amiga 500s, one of which is dead, and the one that works I cannot seem to find.
Earlier I found an A600, which might be ideal.. it has the compatibility with more games than my A1200 AND fits nicely on top of the TV.. the A500 probably wouldnt fit due to my setup.

Yes, it seems the A600 would be ideal, but the way it looks is putting me off.
Does anyone have any suggestions as a  solution for yellowed cases?
I dont particularly want people to see my A600 like it is now:

[HopperJF]

Morley wrote:

HopperJF wrote:
I just remembered I have a horrible yellow A600 as well, will that do a similar job to the A500?
It is more compatible then my nice white A1200 right?

Hmmm.

The 600 uses kickstart 2.06 and no fast ram which is incompatible with a lot of older games. If you put the kickstart roms from your 500 into your 600 it will be a bit more compatible, as the processor and a lot of others are identical, but the 500 is the gaming machine for older games. A 500+ is not as suited as a regular 500.

My A600 has 2.05 ROMs, is that much different?  :-?

[Morley]

My A600 has 2.05 ROMs, is that much different?

No, no, not at all. I'm probably just mixing numbers. The A600 has kick2.05, you're right.

If you don't want to use an A500 with a modulator out off the back, which is quite "wobbly", get a RGB->SCART-TV cable and connect it directly. The picture will also be better.