The Usotsuki Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 A major use of Amigas in the US used to be Prevue Guide. xD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mehguy Posted October 1, 2014 Author Share Posted October 1, 2014 (edited) mehguy wrote: > Just to confirm, the amiga 600 is the same as the 500 but smaller? The A500 usually came with OS 1.3 and OCS (the Original Chip Set) for certain video resolutions. Most Amiga games work with OS 1.3, although some require 1 meg of memory rather than the A500's 1/2 meg of memory. The A600 usually came with OS 2.05 and ECS (the Enhanced Chip Set) for more video resolutions. Some OS 1.3 games won't work with OS 2.05, but the A600 does have 1 meg of memory standard. A500 expansions won't work with the A600 and vice versa. The A500 is easier to repair, because the A600 depends on the harder-to-repair surface mount parts. However, the A600 can have an IDE hard drive/CompactFlash drive added to it relatively easily, whereas the A500 generally relies on older SCSI hard drive add-on's. Both machines can be expanded to OS 3.1 -- less compatible with floppy disk games but easier to use with hard drives. Ok, So if i wanted to play monkey island or the turrican games, the amiga 600 would do the job? Also, Do I need the boot disc of the OS to run the machine or can I just ignore the OS and play the games only? PS: Thanks for all the info man! It really helps! EDIT: Is monkey island on amiga in North America? So many Damn questions. Edited October 1, 2014 by mehguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seob Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 Most games are autoboot. Pop in the diskette and the game starts loading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mehguy Posted October 1, 2014 Author Share Posted October 1, 2014 Most games are autoboot. Pop in the diskette and the game starts loading. regardless of your OS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I'd suggest an Atari 1040 STe, but I'm partially biased. I don't think you will find one for less than $50 though, unless you get lucky at a yard sale. Can you wait a bit and save $100? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
English Invader Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 regardless of your OS? In most cases, yes, but it depends on which Amiga you buy. If you buy a later A500+/600/1200 model, you'll need a program called Relokick to play games that were designed for the original A500 chipset. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Sorry, casting my vote for the Amiga as well. Yes, most of the software was European, but you're probably not going to want to mess with floppy disks at all if you can avoid it. There are SD adapters available for the Amiga, and that ought to let you play anything you want just by downloading it from the internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarian63 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) Skip the amiga, Get an original Atari ST, easy to find and relatively cheap , try to get one with rf like a 520stfm. works great, no goofy workbench disk, just put in game or productivity and turn it on. Best 16bit of the period. Edited October 2, 2014 by atarian63 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mehguy Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 Skip the amiga, Get an original Atari ST, easy to find and relatively cheap , try to get one with rf like a 520stfm. works great, no goofy workbench disk, just put in game or productivity and turn it on. Best 16bit of the period. The amiga is confusing the hell out of me. will the 1040 and 520 both run the same games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_ Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 The amiga is confusing the hell out of me. will the 1040 and 520 both run the same games? Yes. I'd look for a 1040STFm for floppy gaming. 1mb can't hurt... plus I mentioned being able to make ST game disks on a pc with a built in floppy and Windows. If you have that setup (common) it is super easy. Not sure if it is easy to image Amiga disks.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Sorry, casting my vote for the Amiga as well. Yes, most of the software was European, but you're probably not going to want to mess with floppy disks at all if you can avoid it. There are SD adapters available for the Amiga, and that ought to let you play anything you want just by downloading it from the internet. Jess Ragan! Do you remember me? We wrote a lot of letters to each other about 22 or 23 years ago, and exchanged newsletters. It's me Ter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Honestly, you'd be disappointed with an ST. A high percentage of ST games were also available for Amiga and very few of them are better on the ST. I got an STE a few years ago for about $50 but it was a lucky find. The problem with STE is that so few games took advantage of it's extra capabilities. Sure, the demo scene has plenty of STE stuff but there's only so much time you can spend on demos and music. In terms of reliability, both can be equally annoying. But unlike most other competing products I'd give the edge to Amiga in that regard. Although that reminds me... chances are I might have 3 RTC batteries that have done the dirty on my trapdoor Ram expansions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiArcader Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) My advice would be to go to www.amigaforever.com and purchase their Amiga emulation package for $30 (or $50 for the premium edition) This will get you a really good emulation of Amiga's from the 1000 - 4000 with legitimate ownership of the Amiga ROMs all packaged into a nice, click and play front end. Then it's just a case of downloading games from any of a multitude of sites off the internet and you're good to go. It even comes with a selection of games to get you started. There are a couple of reasons to go down this path: Ease of access to games You can play games or use any version of Workbench in the package which is great for seeing where Amiga came from and went to over its life PC joysticks and gamepads are out of this world better than those used on Amiga and older home computers. Try using an Xbox wireless gamepad :-) PC mouse - ditto Hardware - you can emulate any Amiga. And you are not reliant on having to try and source the Amiga's disk drives when they fail or buy an expensive SD card adapter etc You can get the same emulator engine (WinUAE) for free but you don't get legitimate Kickstart ROMs or Workbench etc and I believe it is a small price to pay for that. Then just play with it and if you like what you see and want to go backwards in regards to joysticks/ hardware reliability etc by all means grab a real Amiga. Edited October 2, 2014 by KiwiArcader 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Jess Ragan! Do you remember me? We wrote a lot of letters to each other about 22 or 23 years ago, and exchanged newsletters. It's me Ter. I do indeed! What have you been doing lately? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I do indeed! What have you been doing lately? Still living in Staten Island and never got out of classic gaming lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98PaceCar Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Skip the amiga, Get an original Atari ST, easy to find and relatively cheap , try to get one with rf like a 520stfm. works great, no goofy workbench disk, just put in game or productivity and turn it on. Best 16bit of the period. The workbench disk isn't required for most games, it's simply another way to interact with the computer. You can just put a disk in and power the Amiga on and play, just like the ST line. Like many others here, I'd suggest the Amiga 500 with a 512k memory expansion to get you started. That will allow you to play most of the games out there and get a real feel for the system without breaking the bank early. You don't need any of the fancy hardware to enjoy Amiga. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mehguy Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) OK, I think ive got it down to 2 machines, the stfm or the ste. Which one? The amiga is just confusing the hell out of me. Edited October 2, 2014 by mehguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 OK, I think ive got it down to 2 machines, the stfm or the ste. Which one?Easily the STe, it's superior in every way to the STfm except price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mehguy Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 Easily the STe, it's superior in every way to the STfm except price. Does the ste provide sound closer to the amiga? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Does the ste provide sound closer to the amiga? I never had an Amiga, but the STe is in stereo and sounds very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mehguy Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 I never had an Amiga, but the STe is in stereo and sounds very good. So, I can plug it in using composite and plug it into my tv? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 So, I can plug it in using composite and plug it into my tv? I believe so. I know when I first got it in 1991 I didn't have my RGB monitor yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mehguy Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) I believe so. I know when I first got it in 1991 I didn't have my RGB monitor yet. Alright, thanks for the help mate. One last question, where can i get a hold of games? Edited October 2, 2014 by mehguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
English Invader Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Alright, thanks for the help mate. One last question, where can i get a hold of games? Given that you're in North America, I would strongly recommend that you get either a hard drive emulator like the UltraSatan or a floppy drive emulator like HXC because original disk games will be in very short supply. In the short term, I recommend exploring the Automation and PP libraries via emulation. ST emulators and TOS roms are completely free. http://steem.atari.st/automation.htm http://atari.8bitchip.info/fromhd.php The Automation games are disk files and the PP games have been adapted to run from a hard drive. You'll need to set up a virtual hard drive on your emulator to run the PP games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mehguy Posted October 3, 2014 Author Share Posted October 3, 2014 The workbench disk isn't required for most games, it's simply another way to interact with the computer. You can just put a disk in and power the Amiga on and play, just like the ST line. Like many others here, I'd suggest the Amiga 500 with a 512k memory expansion to get you started. That will allow you to play most of the games out there and get a real feel for the system without breaking the bank early. You don't need any of the fancy hardware to enjoy Amiga. I might still consider the amiga. Why not just go with the 600? its has the 1 mb ram out of the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.