Any Amiga enthusiasts here?

o1s1n · 05-09-2010 04:08PM #1

When I was younger a couple of friends had Amigas. I never did unfortunately, but I have pretty happy memories of them.

Anyway, it's something I'd love to get into but it seems like a very expensive hobby.

I've done a bit of research and it looks like the best system to go for is a A1200 HD. I'd like to run games from the hard drive, but from what I've read to do that you need 4mb of ram rather than the stock 1200 2mb.

Anyone have any tips/knowledge they'd like to pass on? Should I just stay away? (I've heard the 1200 can have cap issues)

I dunno, maybe it's just a phase, but I have that ebay feaver where you keep browsing them and almost hit 'buy it now' on multiple occasions :pac:

whackball · 05-09-2010 04:18PM

I had the Amiga 1200 towards the end of its life (couldn`t afford one before that so had the C64) and loved playing the likes of Turrican, Alien Breed, Shadow of the Beast, Zool and Lotus Turbo games.

Also, wasn`t too bad for arcade conversions like NARC, Rainbow Islands, New Zealand Story and so on.

There is also an emulator on the original XBox. Can`t remember if it was good or not.

Oh and don`t forgot Last Ninja, Dizzy, Sensi Soccer etc.

Retr0gamer · 05-09-2010 04:39PM

What I found about the Amiga was that it was an amazing machine (it came out in 1985 or something!) but there aren't that many exclusives on it since most were released on the PC as well. The hardware is very interesting, the GPU was so powerful that most of the time in gmaes the CPU was practically idle.

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 05-09-2010 06:14PM

*pmed info

Andrew76 · 05-09-2010 06:57PM

Another Amiga fan here too. My fondest gaming memories were with the Amiga, it had some wonderful games. SWOS multiplayer, SWIV, Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker, Lemmings, Cannon Fodder. Only had a 500 so don't know much about the 1200 hardware at all.

o1s1n · 05-09-2010 07:20PM

Hi! I was wondering where you went! PM sent.

tricky D · 05-09-2010 07:29PM

Anyone remember the game they had in Rathmines Swan Centre. It had 2 Amigas in parallel powering a 3D VR simulator game with headset. And this was almost 20 years ago.:eek:

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 05-09-2010 07:35PM

Another problem facing these machines now is well,since the day of the double sided floppy disk is gone which the amiga used in the drives,people have being adapting the use of high density disks,some have being using them for while with no trouble at all,but i think its a lucky dip as they can give read/write errors.

monkeyfudge · 05-09-2010 07:39PM

I grew up on Commodore machines.

Loved the Amiga a lot.

I have an A1200 that I'd probably be willing to sell on as I really don't have the space for it.

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 05-09-2010 07:41PM

they are trying to bring it back again,im watching it all,as usual they hit the wall when comes to the prices.

o1s1n · 05-09-2010 11:14PM

Ah no Monkey, I just saw your post after buying an A1200. Tell me yours doesn't have any upgrades?!

Mine is coming with a 4GB compact flash drive and an 8mb RAM upgrade. (Apparantly you need at least 4mb RAM to run games from the drive)
Also a nice new RGB scart connection.

He's also going to fill the flash drive with games and programs.

It was expensive, but to buy a stock one and build it with those parts would have cost a lot more.

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 05-09-2010 11:16PM

Could had used winuae emulator *waits for its not the same though response

o1s1n · 05-09-2010 11:22PM

'It's not the same thing'

Actually while I have you, what's the story with connecting these to monitors? It'll have the rgb cable, but ideally i'd like to connect it to a CRT monitor.

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 05-09-2010 11:25PM

If your talking about a crt pc monitor,it wont work my good man,the refresh output rate on these machines is 15hz,most modern monitors expect at least 50/60hz,so you wont get anything on screen,you need to buy a scandoubler which go for big bucks.

opinion guy · 05-09-2010 11:27PM

Have you guys not yet discovered Amiga Forever:
http://www.amigaforever.com/

Tonnes of games to be downloaded on the net will run on this.

Its awesome. Nuclear Wars is aweome! Speedball II brilliant

You can also select which Amigan setup you want to emulate - A500, A1200 etc. As far as I know they've programmed the amiga chipset algorithms into the software so its not so much that it works like an amiga, its more that it is an amiga in software form

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 05-09-2010 11:30PM

Since you bought an A1200,you can scour ebay for an external cd drive,since the A1200/CD32 had same chipset*aga* you can run cd32 games on the A1200,but you need a install disk for the cd drive,usually they come with it.

o1s1n · 05-09-2010 11:32PM

Isaac Unkempt Ferryboat wrote: »

If your talking about a crt pc monitor,it wont work my good man,the refresh output rate on these machines is 15hz,most modern monitors expect at least 50/60hz,so you wont get anything on screen,you need to buy a scandoubler which go for big bucks.

Ah bugger, I was reading something about that.

So what's the story with the monitors I've seen connected to Amigas? Do those Amigas just have built in scandoublers? Or were there Amiga brand monitors made that accepted a 15hz signal?

opinion guy wrote: »

Have you guys not yet discovered Amiga Forever:
http://www.amigaforever.com/

Tonnes of games to be downloaded on the net will run on this.

Its awesome. Nuclear Wars is aweome! Speedball II brilliant

I shall certainly check that out, thanks!

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 05-09-2010 11:35PM

Only the A3000 *which is scarce now* had an built in scandoubler,and yes the monitors where very ancient,i wouldn't bother buying them due to weight and i assume the very limited lifespan they would have now,and that other link guy gave you is an emulation

opinion guy · 05-09-2010 11:49PM

Isaac Unkempt Ferryboat wrote: »

Only the A3000 *which is scarce now* had an built in scandoubler,and yes the monitors where very ancient,i wouldn't bother buying them due to weight and i assume the very limited lifespan they would have now,and that other link guy gave you is an emulation

Yes its an emulation.

LoGiE · 06-09-2010 09:49AM

Owned an A500 and A600. The Amiga was a huge part of my early teens, with me spending hours playing games on it. WinUAE is a fantastic emulator and was one of the first emulators I ever downloaded.

c - 13 · 06-09-2010 10:36AM

Had an Amiga 600 back in the day. Fantastic machine, had a ton of games for it. Packed it away in the attic around the PS1 days - when I went looking for it later my mother informed me she's given it to a charity shop. Only recently begun to forgive her for that.

I'll never forget the excitement the first time I realised it was possible to copy games on it. My first taste of piracy :tear:

Bought myself one again there recently, boxed with all the official peripherals - haven't got around to trying it out yet though.

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 06-09-2010 01:13PM

A600 even though it wasn't liked as much,was good little machine,expansion was bit of a pain though.

LoGiE · 06-09-2010 02:42PM

It was a pain the keypad was missing for some of the older games. Usually Flight Simulators became slightly harder on an A600! On the other hand it ran games like the Settlers better then my upgraded A500.

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 06-09-2010 02:46PM

Yeah different chipset etc

o1s1n · 06-09-2010 03:10PM

Bore away, I'll happily listen! The only thing that bores me to tears here is the mention of a certain FPS which begins with H.

What Amigas have you got? and more importantly, what kind of upgrades have they got?

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 06-09-2010 03:13PM

*typo

o1s1n · 06-09-2010 05:59PM

Probably for the best. The last time you did that I ended up running out and buying a reel to reel tape deck :pac:

Retr0gamer · 06-09-2010 10:51PM

Was always jealous of my amiga owning friends and their arcade perfect version of R-type

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 06-09-2010 10:52PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Was always jealous of my amiga owning friends and their arcade perfect version of R-type

Had alot of ****e ports too,street fighter 2 is just terrible.

Retr0gamer · 06-09-2010 10:54PM

Who needed street fighter 2 when you have Elfmania and Body Blows!

Ok maybe it wasn't all great but still some of the arcade ports like Rodland and New Zealand Story were top notch.

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 06-09-2010 10:56PM

Rainbow islands+golden axe

Any Amiga enthusiasts here?

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