+remowilliams Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 I use WHDLoad just fine off SD on my non-accellerated A500 (I have 3mb though, and upgraded ROMs, maybe that is the key... it's not a stock 500). Memory is the big one there, an unexpanded 500 won't cut it for WHDload stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desiv Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 I use WHDLoad just fine off SD on my non-accellerated A500 (I have 3mb though, and upgraded ROMs, maybe that is the key... it's not a stock 500). As far as I know, the only real issues with using WHDLOAD on an A500 are that WHDLOAD requires 2.01 or above ROMs and if you want to "QUIT" to WB, you need VBR, which needs a 68010 or above.. Also, the minimum requirement is 1M RAM, but you're going to really need 2M and want 3M or more.. So, what is the "QUIT to WB" option? :-) That's one of the best parts of WHDLOAD, and totally not required. Basically, if you are running the OS, you can launch a WHDLOAD game from the OS and it takes over the machine to play the game (as it would if you booted off of a floppy). And normally, when you're done with the game, you reboot, but if you have a 68010 or above you can hit the defined QUIT key and get back to your OS... Now, the Amiga reboots so quickly that it's not really a huge deal, but it's very nice.. I know several people who added a 68010 to their Amiga 500's just for that.. desiv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastRobPlus Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 (edited) So, what is the "QUIT to WB" option? :-) That's one of the best parts of WHDLOAD, and totally not required. Basically, if you are running the OS, you can launch a WHDLOAD game from the OS and it takes over the machine to play the game (as it would if you booted off of a floppy). And normally, when you're done with the game, you reboot, but if you have a 68010 or above you can hit the defined QUIT key and get back to your OS... Now, the Amiga reboots so quickly that it's not really a huge deal, but it's very nice.. I know several people who added a 68010 to their Amiga 500's just for that.. desiv Funny you mention this. I bought a 68010 off eBay just yesterday. Didn't get it for this functionality but it's nice to know. I got it because I have a 14.2Mhz accelerator that is lacking a 68000 CPU, so I thought I'd give a 68010 12Mhz CPU a go and see if it worked. I remember back in the 1980s I got a free 68010 from Motorola by asking for an engineering sample. They literally send me one immediately with no questions. It popped it into my A1000 and used it until I got an '020. Edited January 27, 2011 by FastRobPlus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Which Amiga did the Video Toaster work with? I know it wouldn't work with my lowly Amiga 500. I drooled over the Video Toaster for years, but it was too expensive and my computer sucked. Now I can do similar stuff on my PC for free with Windows Movie Maker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Laird Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Which Amiga did the Video Toaster work with? I know it wouldn't work with my lowly Amiga 500. I drooled over the Video Toaster for years, but it was too expensive and my computer sucked. Now I can do similar stuff on my PC for free with Windows Movie Maker. How did the toast come out though? Mine always burns it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 I use WHDLoad just fine off SD on my non-accellerated A500 (I have 3mb though, and upgraded ROMs, maybe that is the key... it's not a stock 500). As far as I know, the only real issues with using WHDLOAD on an A500 are that WHDLOAD requires 2.01 or above ROMs and if you want to "QUIT" to WB, you need VBR, which needs a 68010 or above.. Also, the minimum requirement is 1M RAM, but you're going to really need 2M and want 3M or more.. So, what is the "QUIT to WB" option? :-) That's one of the best parts of WHDLOAD, and totally not required. Basically, if you are running the OS, you can launch a WHDLOAD game from the OS and it takes over the machine to play the game (as it would if you booted off of a floppy). And normally, when you're done with the game, you reboot, but if you have a 68010 or above you can hit the defined QUIT key and get back to your OS... Now, the Amiga reboots so quickly that it's not really a huge deal, but it's very nice.. I know several people who added a 68010 to their Amiga 500's just for that.. desiv The Quit to WB works on my un-accellerated 500 also...... ...... but only sometimes. Maybe half the time? Anyway, now I know a reason why it doesn't always work -- because it's not supposed to! As for the other things you said, yes, that would explain why WHDLoad works for me. I've never used it on a faster machine, but to me, it seems to work just fine. It's not horribly slow or anything except when loading some of the larger directories, and of course some games don't work at all. I would sort of like to get a faster/bigger Amiga, but I have the Amiga Forever package, and for as seldom as I want to mess with stuff that won't run on my real 500 setup, that's good enough for me. I'm actually surprised how good the emulators now run on a fast machine, even running the newer Amiga OS's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desiv Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Which Amiga did the Video Toaster work with? It needed a full length video slot, so it was the Amiga 2000/3000/4000. desiv p.s. There was a company that made a dongle that "emulated" the video toaster so you could run the software (at least Lightwave) on computers without the actual toaster.. .. Oh yeah.. LightRave I think.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animan Posted January 27, 2011 Author Share Posted January 27, 2011 Well, A500 it is I guess. I do not mind using floppies at all (I need a use for this empty floppy container, anyway ). While a Hard Drive would be nice, I don't need it. Anyone have an A500, or any other Amiga for sale here? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Well, A500 it is I guess. I do not mind using floppies at all (I need a use for this empty floppy container, anyway ). While a Hard Drive would be nice, I don't need it. Anyone have an A500, or any other Amiga for sale here? I think Frank (save2600) may have had a 2000 setup for sale recently, but I have no recollection of the price or anything other than it was really nice. Frank's stuff always is. May want to give him a buzz just to see what he has left. He may have others, who knows. I toyed around with the idea of selling my 500 setup awhile ago, but it's all in such nice shape, I think I'd always regret selling it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkhan Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Which Amiga did the Video Toaster work with? I know it wouldn't work with my lowly Amiga 500. I drooled over the Video Toaster for years, but it was too expensive and my computer sucked. Now I can do similar stuff on my PC for free with Windows Movie Maker. 2000's used video toasters. The hard drives on the A500 are OK if you want to WHDload, but when all is said and done you have a setup that is ~sameprice as an A1200. The A500 is nice, but not really worth it unless you plan on only playing A500 era games, commercial disks, or have a nostalgia boner you need to satisfy. (Like me. It was my first computer!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 The hard drives on the A500 are OK if you want to WHDload, but when all is said and done you have a setup that is ~sameprice as an A1200. The A500 is nice, but not really worth it unless you plan on only playing A500 era games, commercial disks, or have a nostalgia boner you need to satisfy. (Like me. It was my first computer!) I agree with this (though I don't think they're bad, just not as powerful as a 1200). Still, I just love everything about the 500 today since I went from Vic-20 -> C64 -> Mac512e -> Amiga 500. When the Amiga support in the area I lived in died off completely around late 1990 (or so I thought at the time), I gave up on computers completely for nearly 3 years! Nearly 3 years of not touching a computer AT ALL because I was so heartbroken about the "loss" of the Amiga LOL... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animan Posted January 28, 2011 Author Share Posted January 28, 2011 Which Amiga did the Video Toaster work with? I know it wouldn't work with my lowly Amiga 500. I drooled over the Video Toaster for years, but it was too expensive and my computer sucked. Now I can do similar stuff on my PC for free with Windows Movie Maker. 2000's used video toasters. The hard drives on the A500 are OK if you want to WHDload, but when all is said and done you have a setup that is ~sameprice as an A1200. The A500 is nice, but not really worth it unless you plan on only playing A500 era games, commercial disks, or have a nostalgia boner you need to satisfy. (Like me. It was my first computer!) That's all I really plan on doing, honestly. I think it's best just to get a cheap machine, and go from there. Unless, of course, there is an A1200 that I can get for the same price as an A500. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrozoneorg Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 If you want to experience what most people played games on then go for an Amiga 500 with 1Mb RAM upgrade. Should get one for around £25 ($35-$40) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thgill Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I have owned many Amiga's over the years, and my opinion is going to be a little different than everyone elses: Buy a PAL A1200 and get a 1084 RGB monitor. 90% of the games, demos and whatnot you download are going to be in the PAL format. Some of it can be forced into NTSC mode, but not all of it. The 1084 will sync to either PAL or NTSC in RGB mode so it doesn't matter. Even though you can do an Early startup change from NTSC to PAL, a lot of the software bangs directly on the hardware and that ain't gonna fly. Some TV's here in the US can also sync up to PAL video. Both my 27" inch Vizio LCD in the bedroom and 47" Vizio in the living room both handle PAL video just fine. Plus the A1200 has color composite video out just in case you need to hook it to a tv that can sync to it. No need for an A520 - though its composite video isn't that sharp, it works in a pinch. Save yourself the headache of trying to get apps to work on an NTSC machine and just get a PAL machine. Preference being an A1200 due to the fact it very easy to expand. Combine that with a 1084 RGB monitor, compact flash/IDE storage solution and perhaps a fast mem or accelerator expansion and you are all set to enjoy the HUGE software selection that the Amiga has to offer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilly Willy Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I switched from the Atari 400 to the Amiga 500 back in the day. I did the 1MB chip ram hack on it, and added 3.5MB of slow ram to the belly slot. I also had a slingshot with two zorro cards on the side, and a 68030 accelerator with 8MB fast ram. I then got an A1200 and A4000. Both went through various upgrades. I pulled the accelerator and slingshot from the A500 so I could use it for old games. Anything the needed power was run on the A4000 at that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BydoEmpire Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Not totally on topic, but I was just getting into Pool of Radiance on my A500 - got most of the party up to level two and was about to start really killing some monsters. The game crashed out of the blue while walking through town, now when I try to boot the game I get "error 103" which is apparently out of memory? How is it out of memory at boot, before the game even loads? Weird. Wonder if the disk got damaged? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lastkill3r Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Well, do like i do, get an 500, with al least 1mb ( i have 3 mb) of RAM, Kickstart 2.0 (to run Amiga 600 games) and an external floppy drive(s). Then, if you like it, get into Amiga, and search for Amiga 1200 with at least 030 (040 would be nice too) and Kickstart 3.9 (latest that you can run without buying a PPC processor). If you get into an Amiga 1200, you surely want to buy PPC processor and run AmigaOS 4.1, or at least 4.0. Then, get an Amiga 4000, with PPC and run AOS 4.1, upgrade RAM, and it will be great machine. You're all set! You should also get an 600, it's the tinest amiga. And when you will buy 1200 or 4000, make sure they're from Commodore, NOT Escom. 500- Amiga 500 and 600 games 600- optional, for that a600 games experience xD 1200- for games needing 030 4000- scene But, the trick is, that you need to get PAL Amigas. Also, if you're interested in modern Amigas you should get Amiga 1 G4 or an PPC Mac, that can run MorphOS. Eventually, download AROS to your PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Well, do like i do, get an 500, with al least 1mb ( i have 3 mb) of RAM, Kickstart 2.0 (to run Amiga 600 games) and an external floppy drive(s). Then, if you like it, get into Amiga, and search for Amiga 1200 with at least 030 (040 would be nice too) and Kickstart 3.9 (latest that you can run without buying a PPC processor). If you get into an Amiga 1200, you surely want to buy PPC processor and run AmigaOS 4.1, or at least 4.0. Then, get an Amiga 4000, with PPC and run AOS 4.1, upgrade RAM, and it will be great machine. You're all set! You should also get an 600, it's the tinest amiga. And when you will buy 1200 or 4000, make sure they're from Commodore, NOT Escom. 500- Amiga 500 and 600 games 600- optional, for that a600 games experience xD 1200- for games needing 030 4000- scene But, the trick is, that you need to get PAL Amigas. Also, if you're interested in modern Amigas you should get Amiga 1 G4 or an PPC Mac, that can run MorphOS. Eventually, download AROS to your PC. So, basically, your solution is just to get one of each LOL... yeah, I like that option, I'd sure do it if I could afford it. I didn't realize I could run MorphOS on my PPC Mac... hmmmm... I'll have to look into that to see if mine can do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmel_andrews Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 (edited) If your on a budget, Just get an amiga 500+ (full ecs and KS 2.04) if you want to run classic a1000/a500 stuff and if your'e missing out on any AGA action get yourself a 1200 with an 030/64 meg upgrade As for me, I started off with a stock a600 (though i wanted an a500+ but couldn't find one), I got it from dixons a few months b4 commodore went under, later on i added a 1200 with a hisoft (i think it was hisoft) scsi2pcmcia adapter and a scsi cd rom drive and when that machine died i got a 1200 with installed hard drive, I added a beefy 200 wat psu (bought from analogic) and also an 030/64meg upgrade Strange thing is, most of the people at commodore (outside senior execs/mgmt) didn't like the a600, viewing it as some sort of toy Just to point out, if you want to run any internal 1200 upgrades, you will need a beefy heavy duty psu (like the one that i had) or your machine will keep reseting after a few minutes Edited January 30, 2011 by carmel_andrews Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Just to point out, if you want to run any internal 1200 upgrades, you will need a beefy heavy duty psu (like the one that i had) or your machine will keep reseting after a few minutes Yeah, what was weird was that Commodore provided the A500 with a beefier power supply than the A1200. So, for the sake of conversation though, an expanded A1200 used could use one of them at least. I did for years with no problem: 030 card, Indivision AGA FF/SD, internal 2.5" HD and external floppy. And yeah, the A600 is a curious little machine. Should have never happened, but it did. Basically just a small version of the A500+ w/ built in IDE. I had one for a bit and it was great for what it was. Kind of a cool Amiga collectors piece and actually now... you can get a newly made 030 accelerator for it. There's also a 1mb Chip RAM expansion available now as well. Amigakit.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Well, at a glance, it appears that my old G4 PowerBook is not MorphOS compatible. But I have an old G4 tower sitting around that is. That rocks. I will have to give that a go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animan Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 Thanks for all the feedback. However, I have decided to pre-order a Nintendo 3DS, and will have to avoid spending the money on an Amiga for now. After I get the 3DS, I will begin to focus on getting an Amiga again. (I'm a broke teenager, you know ) Continue to post stuff here if you want. I will still be looking in to it, and any other advice is wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Thanks for all the feedback. However, I have decided to pre-order a Nintendo 3DS, and will have to avoid spending the money on an Amiga for now. After I get the 3DS, I will begin to focus on getting an Amiga again. (I'm a broke teenager, you know ) Continue to post stuff here if you want. I will still be looking in to it, and any other advice is wanted. Cool! I honestly would just consider emulation first, or instead of buying an Amiga in your case. Since you're young, I assume you have no nostalgic reason to have a real Amiga, unless you just want to experience the real hardware, and if so, that's cool. Otherwise, I'd get the Amiga Forever package (http://www.amigaforever.com/) and just have fun with that. You could find everything in there for free, but it's really well put together and makes it all easy. If you have a fast modern PC, you can emulate everything from A500 through the much newer ones, and it does it really well. Way cheaper than even a base A500 alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animan Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 Thanks for all the feedback. However, I have decided to pre-order a Nintendo 3DS, and will have to avoid spending the money on an Amiga for now. After I get the 3DS, I will begin to focus on getting an Amiga again. (I'm a broke teenager, you know ) Continue to post stuff here if you want. I will still be looking in to it, and any other advice is wanted. Cool! I honestly would just consider emulation first, or instead of buying an Amiga in your case. Since you're young, I assume you have no nostalgic reason to have a real Amiga, unless you just want to experience the real hardware, and if so, that's cool. Otherwise, I'd get the Amiga Forever package (http://www.amigaforever.com/) and just have fun with that. You could find everything in there for free, but it's really well put together and makes it all easy. If you have a fast modern PC, you can emulate everything from A500 through the much newer ones, and it does it really well. Way cheaper than even a base A500 alone. I have never actually seen an Amiga before, neither have my parents ever used one (My dad did have a C64, though). I have played with emulation, and I love what I see (except for the big amount of crappy arcade ports.) I own roughly 10 classic systems (see my collection thread). Emulation is fun and all, but I just prefer the real deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 I own roughly 10 classic systems (see my collection thread). Emulation is fun and all, but I just prefer the real deal. Hey, me too... believe me, I'm not into emulation much at all. I nearly always use the real thing. Just thought I'd throw it out there as a really money saving option in this case, since a newer Amiga especially can really cost an arm and a leg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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