Good price for a Amiga 1000/ opinion of it

[Tempest]

Yeah my understanding is that the A1200 is the best Amiga if you want to play absolutely everything (including AGA games). If you dont care about AGA games then a 500 is slightly more compatible with games. I use a 1200 myself.

[Dave Farquhar]

I'm intrigued by how the 1200 is received. I came across a couple on eBay (as well as a 500+ in a local retro games shop) and, out of curiosity, decided to look them up. On paper the 1200 appeared to me to be one of the more capable Amiga models - a couple of the web references I found put it on a par with the Falcon in technical terms. Yet, judging by the prices I saw them going for on eBay, they didn't seem to command a particularly high value compared to other Amigas and STs. And judging by the comments on this thread, they don't seem to generate that much excitement amongst Amiga fans either.

 

So, it is something to write home about? I did note some comments about its backward compatibility with other models - was that the problem?

 

I wanted one really badly when they were new. But as FastRobPlus noted, in the States, the Amiga was past its prime by the time the A1200 came along. There just wasn't enough AGA software readily available to me--the nearest dealer was an hour's drive away--to justify setting aside my A2000 and getting an A1200. So I never got one, but if I spotted one in the wild somewhere for a reasonable price, I'd have a really hard time not grabbing it. I had a hard enough time resisting an A3000 when I spotted one at a garage sale last year for $200. It was boxed, in nice shape, and had lots of software and user's group newsletters. I did take the seller's phone number and put another local collector in touch with her, so it would end up in good hands.

 

I guess that brings up another problem. It wasn't easy to buy an A1200 in the States in the early 1990s. The St. Louis area has a population of around 2.5 million, and it had one Amiga dealer at that point in time, and it wasn't easy to get to. In the A500's day, there must have been a dozen places you could buy one, including the better shopping malls. In 1991 or 1992, there were dozens, if not hundreds of places to buy PCs, including the Radio Shack five minutes away.

Edited August 14, 2012 by Dave Farquhar

[Tempest]

I'm intrigued by how the 1200 is received. I came across a couple on eBay (as well as a 500+ in a local retro games shop) and, out of curiosity, decided to look them up. On paper the 1200 appeared to me to be one of the more capable Amiga models - a couple of the web references I found put it on a par with the Falcon in technical terms. Yet, judging by the prices I saw them going for on eBay, they didn't seem to command a particularly high value compared to other Amigas and STs. And judging by the comments on this thread, they don't seem to generate that much excitement amongst Amiga fans either.

 

So, it is something to write home about? I did note some comments about its backward compatibility with other models - was that the problem?

 

I wanted one really badly when they were new. But as FastRobPlus noted, in the States, the Amiga was past its prime by the time the A1200 came along. There just wasn't enough AGA software readily available to me--the nearest dealer was an hour's drive away--to justify setting aside my A2000 and getting an A1200. So I never got one, but if I spotted one in the wild somewhere for a reasonable price, I'd have a really hard time not grabbing it. I had a hard enough time resisting an A3000 when I spotted one at a garage sale last year for $200. It was boxed, in nice shape, and had lots of software and user's group newsletters. I did take the seller's phone number and put another local collector in touch with her, so it would end up in good hands.

 

I guess that brings up another problem. It wasn't easy to buy an A1200 in the States in the early 1990s. The St. Louis area has a population of around 2.5 million, and it had one Amiga dealer at that point in time, and it wasn't easy to get to. In the A500's day, there must have been a dozen places you could buy one, including the better shopping malls. In 1991 or 1992, there were dozens, if not hundreds of places to buy PCs, including the Radio Shack five minutes away.

Damn! I would have taken that 3000 in a heartbeat, and I already have a 1200. The 3000 is just so sexy...

[Dr Do]

Interesting stuff. Currently got my hands full with my burgeoning Atari collection, but if I decide to expand into Amiga in the future I now know a bit more about which models to look for.

Edited August 16, 2012 by Dr Do

[+wood_jl]

Although I've only had one Amiga 1200, my limited experience is that the bad cap issue is FOR REAL. I don't even know who (or where) one would commission to replace the surface-mounted caps replaced, but it would likely be very expensive (in addition to shipping both ways, since there's definitely nobody local to do it). If caps haven't leaked yet, they should probably still be replaced, as they're probably likely to, eventually. If they have leaked, the motherboard may be trash.

 

 

Admittedly, I know very little about the Amiga, but I really get a kick out of the Amiga 500 and HxC floppy emulator.

 

 

I don't have to know very much about the Amiga, in order to enjoy more great games than I'll ever have time for. The 1200 (and any other models that support AGA games) got comparatively little support.

Setting up an A1200 with WHDload (and degrader, and all that stuff I know little about) sounds much more complicated, but if you get a machine with bad caps (seems likely, I'm afraid) you'll never even get there, at least not easily.

 

 

It's super-easy to add a 2nd 512k (A500), and many A500s already have it. While this is not a WHDload A1200, it's definitely this......

 

 

All the Amiga games I can play in one unit with no fiddling with disks, and very easy and reliable. Downside? HxC floppy emulator AIN'T CHEAP. But worth it, and works on ST as well.

 

A1000 gets my vote for best-looking. But it's not EASY with all the upgrades/stuff. A500 is definitely the machine for me, and is definitely a lot of EASY fun.

Edited August 16, 2012 by wood_jl

[Dave Farquhar]

Cleaning up after bad caps isn't bad--just run the motherboard through the dishwasher, removing a battery if present. Replacing them is the harder part. But leaky caps won't kill the motherboard, at least.

 

I agree that the Amiga 1000 was the best-looking of all the models. I remember a company selling replacement motherboards for them that included all the ECS chips. It wasn't cheap. I can't imagine many of them survive, or that many existed in the first place.

[+remowilliams]

Yeah my understanding is that the A1200 is the best Amiga if you want to play absolutely everything (including AGA games)

 

You still using the 1200 from back when? Didn't realize how long ago that was...

 

A decked out 1200 really is top of the line for game players. I love mine

 

 

Admittedly, I know very little about the Amiga, but I really get a kick out of the Amiga 500 and HxC floppy emulator.

 

The HxC is such a great piece of equipment, it makes even the 500 nice

[Mika73]

Amiga 1000 was my first Amiga and I still love it. I also used to have Sidecar pc emulator and card harddrive inside it. I did run Opus BBS with it. Memoryexpansion for A1000 would be great... Is it how difficult get memoryexpansion for A1000 these days?

[Shephda]

I love all this Amiga talk.

I broke down and bought an old school computer desk the other day at a local thrift store. It's the kind where the keyboard drawer pulls out and there is a slanted top that holds books. This is exactly like my very first one back in the late 80's.

 

Anyway, got it cleaned up and moved my A2000 out of the basement, up into the light of the living room, and back in play!

 

 

Not the best picture, but it'll do for now.

[Tempest]

You have one of those! I have the exact same computer desk minus the cover (well sort of, mine has a cabinet at the top) that I use for my Apple IIe. I love that thing! I've been looking for another one forever, but never could find one. I never thought to check a thrift stores.

 

That Amiga 2000 is very nice looking. If I didn't have my decked out 1200 I'd go for either a 2000 or 3000 I think.

[Shephda]

You have one of those! I have the exact same computer desk minus the cover (well sort of, mine has a cabinet at the top) that I use for my Apple IIe. I love that thing! I've been looking for another one forever, but never could find one. I never thought to check a thrift stores.

 

That Amiga 2000 is very nice looking. If I didn't have my decked out 1200 I'd go for either a 2000 or 3000 I think.

 

I found it a few days ago at a local thrift store, some of the veneer is a bit rough but then again I paid $7.99 for it.

I've been looking for a compact desk to fit in the living room and about dropped a load when I saw it sitting in the store, it's identical to the one I used to use. I had an instant flashback to sometime around 1988 when mine housed my "decked out" Commodore 64 setup. My son was 4 then and wanted to play Ghostbusters, I told him to let dad get a cup of coffee and I'd start it for him, as I was pouring the coffee I heard the game starting. I asked him if he did that and he said yeah. I made him show me and by God he knew how to load C= games at 4! That's my boy!

 

Thrift stores are a gold mine, I got the 250MB SCSI Zip drive there with a pair of disks for $10, the power center under the monitor was had for $3, I find all kinds of hard to find cables that come in handy for these old machines all the time.

[macgoo]

Hi, I was wondering what is a good price for a Amiga 1000, just love the look of it. Here is a link of one I found on ebay. eBay Auction -- Item Number: 200594111572

Also what are people's opinions of it and are there any games that it can't play, Does it play the Lotus and Jaguar games. Thanks for your time.

 

As an owner of one since 1986 I can tell you the truth about this machine.

 

1. It is possible to have 8mb Fast RAM and 512kb Chip RAM. Most come with just 512kb Chip, you will need a side expansion to add the fast ram (512k-8mb). So the only games that won't run are those that specifically need the A500Plus/A3000 chipset with 1mb Chip RAM.

 

2. Price, well I can't see the pictures and condition is everything. It's not cheap at 202 dollars unless it has no yellowing at all and the box has zero scuffs and all the manuals are also mint.

 

3. The build quality is far superior than the A500, the keyboard is a joy to use and it takes less space on your desk. All but the very first Summer/Autumn1985 NTSC machines have exactly the same features as the A500 technically. Once you boot Kickstart disk from cold boot it is held in protected memory and even a keyboard reset won't clear it.

 

Bad side is parts are harder to come by though.

 

The two games you mention will run fine on an A1000 and so will Shadow of the Beast/Sword of Sodan/ALL Cinemaware games/Battlesquadron/Marble Madness. Very few games needed the 1mb Graphics chip to work, even Stardust runs on my A1000 (it is a 1mb game though).

 

I use mine for serious work with a Kickstart 2.1 disk and with a 2mb expansion I have 2.25mb free when using Kickstart 2.1.

 

Basically unless you want to use the 1280x256 4 colour mode there is no difference between the A1000 and A500Plus really.

[Shephda]

Here are a couple of better shots:

 

 

And:

 

 

Found a vendor and picked up a couple of keyboard extenders so I have the keyboard and mouse routed behind and over the drawer. This keeps the cables from streaching and binding.

Nice little system:

A2000, Rev 4.3 mobo

Mega-Midget Racer 68030 w\2MB RAM

3.1 ROMS

Updated Agnus and Denise to 1M full ECS

OS 3.1

SupraRAM 8MB card

GVP HDC +2 HD controller with 2MB RAM and a 3GB drive

6X CD-ROM

250MB Zip

Amiga 1011 drive (pretty little thang)

[Tempest]

I ended up getting an Amiga 2000 myself this weekend (I'm selling my 1200 in the marketplace). Mine has:

 

Kickstart 1.3

Workbench 1.3

1MB chip RAM (Fat Agnus)

8MB fast RAM

120MB SCSI Hard Drive (upgraded it to a 1GB drive)

Dual Floppies

GVP a2000-hc+8 series ii SCSI and RAM Card

Original Amiga Keyboard

Commodore 1084 Monitor

 

The case and keyboard are in great shape, no yellowing at all. I have a newer style Amiga mouse that I'm using with it now as well. I'm keeping it at WB 1.3 with no accelerator for now because I'm just going to use it to play games and I want to keep maximum compatibility. I might add a cheap 010 accelerator for a tiny speed boost in the future though or maybe a faster one if it has an on/off switch (some do I hear).

 

BTW what is it with the little gap around the floppy drives? It's driving me nuts!

[Shephda]

I ended up getting an Amiga 2000 myself this weekend (I'm selling my 1200 in the marketplace). Mine has:

 

Kickstart 1.3

Workbench 1.3

1MB chip RAM (Fat Agnus)

8MB fast RAM

120MB SCSI Hard Drive (upgraded it to a 1GB drive)

Dual Floppies

GVP a2000-hc+8 series ii SCSI and RAM Card

Original Amiga Keyboard

Commodore 1084 Monitor

 

The case and keyboard are in great shape, no yellowing at all. I have a newer style Amiga mouse that I'm using with it now as well. I'm keeping it at WB 1.3 with no accelerator for now because I'm just going to use it to play games and I want to keep maximum compatibility. I might add a cheap 010 accelerator for a tiny speed boost in the future though or maybe a faster one if it has an on/off switch (some do I hear).

 

BTW what is it with the little gap around the floppy drives? It's driving me nuts!

 

Nice setup!

The MMR 030 i have can be turned off via software, or you can leave it off an run it manually when wanted\needed.

The gap around the floppy drives is to let the dust in.

Edited August 27, 2012 by Shephda

[dudeslife]

Amiga 1000's are getting hot on E-Bay.

[Tempest]

Anyone have a spare floppy drive cable? Mine has died on me. I may also need two new drives, but I want to start with the cable first.

[desiv]

Anyone have a spare floppy drive cable? Mine has died on me. I may also need two new drives, but I want to start with the cable first.

I've got a gutted A1010, so there's a cable from that one...

 

That work for you?

 

desiv

[Tempest]

Anyone have a spare floppy drive cable? Mine has died on me. I may also need two new drives, but I want to start with the cable first.

I've got a gutted A1010, so there's a cable from that one...

 

That work for you?

 

desiv

PM Sent!

[desiv]

Oh, you mean the flat cable that goes from the drive to the main board?

(I was thinking external drive..)

 

I think I have that too..

 

I'll PM..

 

desiv

[SusieG]

 

I have a gentleman who is interested in buying my Amiga 1000 that has been stored in it's original boxes for several years. This belonged to my late husband who took exceptionally good care of his equipment (I remember making dust covers for this at his request! He kept it covered whenever it was not in use.) I don't know how much to ask for it. I have seen one without a monitor go for slightly over $200 to one in the box, again without the monitor, that sold for over $600. Can anyone help me?

[Seob]

Although I've only had one Amiga 1200, my limited experience is that the bad cap issue is FOR REAL. I don't even know who (or where) one would commission to replace the surface-mounted caps replaced, but it would likely be very expensive (in addition to shipping both ways, since there's definitely nobody local to do it). If caps haven't leaked yet, they should probably still be replaced, as they're probably likely to, eventually. If they have leaked, the motherboard may be trash.

 

Surface-mounted caps can be replaced by normal trough-hole caps with the same specs. Just bend the legs and solder them onto the solder pad where the surface-mounted cap was. Just like one would do when repairing a game gear.

[number six]

Wow this is an old thread to pop up, but entertaining!

 

Just to throw in an alternative (if anyone still cares). The setup I had for the longest time was a CD32 with the SX-1 computer expansion module. This turned the CD32 into a fully functional Amiga 1200 with a CD-Rom drive.

 

I liked this setup because it solved that whole 'how do I get software to my Amiga?' problem. My main computer was a PC.. that's where my modem was and what I used to download software off the Internet. This created a problem as the PC absolutely will not read Amiga formatted disks (not without something like a Cat Weasel which was either not out yet, or too expensive). With the CD32 you could just write stuff to CD-Rs using the PC and move them over a bunch at a time. This beat trying to move stuff over using 720k PC disks which the Amiga could read with Crossdos.

 

You could also play CD32 games but that wasn't such a boon as CD32 games were few and far between and hard to get over in the US anyway. I think I ended up with one.. a copy of Impossible Mission 2032 which wasn't very fun

 

Of course now things are a lot easier with the SD Floppy emulator gimmicks and such. I actually need to get my CD32 out of moth balls and see if it still works. Hopefully it doesn't have the same cap failure problem that the normal 1200 does.. guess i'll find out

[Seob]

The cd32 has a other caps problem. 2 caps where installed the wrongway around at the factory, so you need to replace them anyway.

[desiv]

Can anyone help me?

That's tricky...

In general, an Amiga 1000 (unboxed, etc) will sell for about $100, and maybe $200 with the monitor..

But what you have is in great condition with the boxes et all... Original 1080 "Amiga" monitor.. Very nice...

 

That's hard to put a price on as it's obviously worth more, but to a smaller audience.

 

You'll probably have better luck judging prices on Amiga specific forums, such as Amiga.org.

I like amibay for Amiga related sales, but they have a very strict "no price driving" policy. Going there to try to figure out prices is against the rules.

 

Good Luck

 

desiv