carlsson Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Nebulon, are you based in Europe like I am? Over here, Amiga 500's were (and sometimes still are *) plentiful and cheap, while I've come to understand that you will have to look for quite a while in the US to find any Amiga at all, so in that aspect someone who is determined to get into it, might as well wait and pay extra for the 1200. (*) As late as today, I saw an advertisement in the classifieds about someone giving away their Amiga 500 to someone willing to give it a good home. That might happen just about anywhere, but the more uncommon it is on the market, the less chance someone will pay money for the advertisement to donate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Anyone else object to calling Agnus "the blitter"? She's more than just a blitter chip! Agnus (OCS), Fat, Fatter or Obese Agnus (ECS) and Alice (AGA) if you please! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 I think we called it Fat and Fatter Agnus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dauber Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 (edited) Man...in addition to the games previously mentioned: Desert Strike (which I believe was Electronic Arts' final title for Amiga. Pissed me off when they discontinued Amiga games because NHL Hockey was supposed to be next.) Megaball Vroom (VERY underappreciated racing game) Worms Walker Scorched Tanks BTW, IMHO the greatest piece of software ever written: Directory Opus, which later evolved into the mind-blowing Workbench replacement called Directory Opus Magellan. I wish there were an equivalent for OSX, I'll tell ya what. Edited May 19, 2016 by Dauber 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Been an Amiga user since 1986. Never really used Dopus until a couple of years ago. True story! (never tried Magellan) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Been an Amiga user since 1986. Never really used Dopus until a couple of years ago. True story! (never tried Magellan) DOpus is awesome. I never got into the Workbench replacements (or that mode of DOpus,) though. I preferred to use the real Workbench and then a file manager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Ditto. I found Directory Opus to be great for file handling, batch processing and launching some applications associated with files, but I never saw it as a full Workbench replacement, however it may have evolved into one in the latter half of the 90's and forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 ECS also added the Extra Half Bright (64 color) graphics mode, and supports soft switching between NTSC and PAL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebulon Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Nebulon, are you based in Europe like I am? Over here, Amiga 500's were (and sometimes still are *) plentiful and cheap, while I've come to understand that you will have to look for quite a while in the US to find any Amiga at all, so in that aspect someone who is determined to get into it, might as well wait and pay extra for the 1200. (*) As late as today, I saw an advertisement in the classifieds about someone giving away their Amiga 500 to someone willing to give it a good home. That might happen just about anywhere, but the more uncommon it is on the market, the less chance someone will pay money for the advertisement to donate it. I'm out near the Rocky Mountains. I knew Europe had a lot of Amigas, but didn't realize people were giving them away there. Pretty unusual for that to happen over here. Although, I do recall giving away an Amiga 2000 a while back. It's good to see these machines going to homes where they'll be well taken care of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 To be honest, it is not common practise that people give away rather than try to sell their closet finds. The 500 is starting to creep up in price anyway, despite it being fairly common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FifthPlayer Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 ECS also added the Extra Half Bright (64 color) graphics mode, and supports soft switching between NTSC and PAL. Extra Half Brite was supported by the OCS, though some early versions of the Amiga 1000 did not support it. My A1000 did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 Extra Half Brite was supported by the OCS, though some early versions of the Amiga 1000 did not support it. My A1000 did. IIRC, I installed a Super Denise to get EHB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoatofCar Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 If you want to have a fantastic Amiga experience that won't break the bank, get an Amiga 500 with 1MB RAM. You'll be able to play most (90%) of the games that made the Amiga special in the eyes of its aficionados. For the rest, pick up a copy of Amiga Forever and set up a desktop emulation environment using this guide from The Cake is a Lie gaming. You can hook up a modern LCD to an A500 using a $20 GBS8200 board from eBay, an Amiga monitor cable, and minimal soldering skills. Don't waste your money on an A520 that will most likely blow up your machine or an expensive downsampler. Check out this video we did on the process. Here are the results. As you can see, the image is crystal clear and flicker free. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebulon Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 If you want to have a fantastic Amiga experience that won't break the bank, get an Amiga 500 with 1MB RAM. You'll be able to play most (90%) of the games that made the Amiga special in the eyes of its aficionados. For the rest, pick up a copy of Amiga Forever and set up a desktop emulation environment using this guide from The Cake is a Lie gaming. You can hook up a modern LCD to an A500 using a $20 GBS8200 board from eBay, an Amiga monitor cable, and minimal soldering skills. Don't waste your money on an A520 that will most likely blow up your machine or an expensive downsampler. Check out this video we did on the process. Here are the results. As you can see, the image is crystal clear and flicker free. Very cool. To save on Amiga monitor cables being sliced-up, it would be cool if there was some kind of little adaptor that went in-between the BGS8200 card and the Amiga monitor cable. If someone were to make a few of those, I'd certainly consider purchasing one. Could make for a neat cottage industry.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 How does an A520 "blow up" an Amiga computer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoatofCar Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 If you accidentally bump your Amiga into a wall with the 520 connected to the back of it, it can destroy your machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoatofCar Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 Very cool. To save on Amiga monitor cables being sliced-up, it would be cool if there was some kind of little adaptor that went in-between the BGS8200 card and the Amiga monitor cable. If someone were to make a few of those, I'd certainly consider purchasing one. Could make for a neat cottage industry.... Monitor cables are $10 or less. http://www.vesalia.de/e_amigamonitorcables%5b6539%5d.htm?slc=us&gclid=CjwKEAjwya-6BRDR3p6FuY2-u3MSJAD1paxTnCSIHvK4feFjsx7LQS40xm7wJqgC3SE4hUBKsqRaExoC8A7w_wcB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebulon Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Monitor cables are $10 or less. http://www.vesalia.de/e_amigamonitorcables%5b6539%5d.htm?slc=us&gclid=CjwKEAjwya-6BRDR3p6FuY2-u3MSJAD1paxTnCSIHvK4feFjsx7LQS40xm7wJqgC3SE4hUBKsqRaExoC8A7w_wcB Amiga 1084 monitor cables for $10.00 or less? Really? And how about availability in 10 years after a bunch of them have been sliced up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoatofCar Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 (edited) 1084 cables are $10. http://www.vesalia.de/?V02b0f1152534e1279575e53520a514e01101f0954414752050140090a1e3111567f766c34323e756e0c0a2c657f2e39291b39630b03383a27307f792e6d6a696545177f77090b725601654a49465e454159343575134752591e6652147453175b7a763355207366676c47482d6e637c643031274 I understand your fear of running out of monitor cables, but the reality is the world will run out of 1084 monitors before it even comes close to running out of aftermarket monitor cables. Even after removing the connector to attach it to a GBS board, it is not permanently destroying the cable--you could easily re-solder the end back in place if you wanted to. To me, the end result of more people getting to use Amiga hardware is the most important thing. Edited June 1, 2016 by BoatofCar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 For that matter, it would not be too difficult to build a short adapter cable which would preclude slicing-n-dicing up a monitor cable. That said, yeah, I would err on the side of operability. Figure this -- I threw out four dead Amiga monitors. Therefore, that frees up four cables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desiv Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 How does an A520 "blow up" an Amiga computer? With the A520, the image is so blurry that while using one, you have the distinct urge to blow up your Amiga 500! Luckily, your eyes will be so sore that you generally aren't able to wire up the explosives... desiv 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 For that matter, it would not be too difficult to build a short adapter cable which would preclude slicing-n-dicing up a monitor cable. That said, yeah, I would err on the side of operability. Figure this -- I threw out four dead Amiga monitors. Therefore, that frees up four cables. Ugh... could have probably repaired all 4 monitors. (get your point, but hate to hear this kind of thing!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Ugh... could have probably repaired all 4 monitors. (get your point, but hate to hear this kind of thing!) Truth be told, I lament having to throw them out, but in order to fix them I would have had to ship them off as there are no longer any shops within a reasonable distance who will repair CRT devices. I did all of the "known" fixes on them. Truth be told, again, I tried to give away two working 2002s. GIVE THEM AWAY, just pay the $20 for shipping. NO ONE, NO ONE would take them. Seriously? Unfortunately, at the time I was not in a position to keep storing them until needed so they had to go. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arnuphis Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 If you are just interested in trying out the Amiga to play some games, I would suggest an emulator like Amiga forever or pick up an A500. Even a nice 2000 will do the job if you don't mind the big box. Plus they are bomb proof but the downside is they use SCSI drives which are scarce unless you consider the SCSI2SD card option. As for Amiga games. I loved Pirates!/Civilization/Railroad Tycoon and The AD&D adventures such as Pool of Radiance series and Eye of the Beholder were good fun. If you decide on an AGA machine (1200/4000) then you can end up parting with a lot of cash, especially if you go to Ebay. Prices can get crazy especially once you factor in Accelerators etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebulon Posted June 3, 2016 Share Posted June 3, 2016 For that matter, it would not be too difficult to build a short adapter cable which would preclude slicing-n-dicing up a monitor cable. That said, yeah, I would err on the side of operability. Figure this -- I threw out four dead Amiga monitors. Therefore, that frees up four cables. I agree. An adaptor all the way. Out of curiosity, what was wrong with the monitors. Did they by chance start making a high-pitch noise and then go blank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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