English Amiga Board - View Single Post - New products for C64 and Amiga from Individual Computers

lurch · 27 March 2015, 09:13

The current ACA500 is one of the best pieces of Amiga 500 hardware I've purchased, only coming second to the Indivision ECS and Gotek.

The 2MB RAM is fine and WHDLoad runs fine. The ability to use CF Cards is great, a shame the aux/dos card isn't hot swappable but that's not a big deal when the A500 boots so quick.

I also have a Subway which plugs in and runs great, although I've moved it back to the A1200. Which is another feature that isn't mentioned that often.

The option for soft loading ROMs is good too. However I have bought a couple of 3.1 ROMs, why not they're cheap and worth the upgrade.

I also managed to buy an ACA1232, as my A1200 has an 060 I liked and had become use to the speed of workbench on that. Suddenly the ol'500 is a speed demon and with the Indivision ECS I can have 800x600 with 256 colours and play Doom using the Indivision ECS modes.

It's one smart piece of hardware and we should appreciate Jens bringing product to market. Stop poking the bear.

I own several of Jen's products,

ACA1230
ACA1232
ACA500
Indivision ECS
Indivsion AGA
Competition Pro Joystick from the first batch

And others and they have been great, the only exception was the ECS. However this was fixed by Amigakit to work properly with the A500 plus since then it has been rock solid, crisp picture and has brought the joy back. 27" screen of goodness, would love to make the screen slightly bigger for games if possible though :-)

The only moan I can think of is hunting all over the place for configs,software and firmware but this has been getting better over the years.

I own both of Kippers boards, one with IDE one without. I spent most of my time fiddling with the boards that moved the CPU socket back as the A500s I've tested in they just wouldn't boot with them. However they would boot fine with the board attached straight to the CPU socket.

The 8MB RAM board works with the ACA500+AC1232, if you run sysinfo it shows the board and the 8MB is there. RAM test works fine, however now and then the Amiga will reboot when you quit from WHDLoad so I've removed it. As I've mentioned WHDLoad I am still unable to find a 100% working copy of IK+, on every challenge level (bomb/balls) the SFX stop working. The SFX work fine when fighting though, kind of sad as I love the dong noise of the head hitting the shield.

The 8MB + IDE board was very easy to install. You can even get away without using solder and a soldering iron if you are not that way inclined and hot glue the connector in place wedged against the case and the two gold connectors on the A500 and it boots fine everytime.

Kippers support is fantastic too, so no complaints there. Great products but for a different audience compared to the ACA500.

Overall I've been having a great time and Jens has had a great hand in this with his products.

Only downsides is having spent too much and the A500 hardware getting old and fragile. Even the cases and keyboards are starting to show signs.

What we need now is a nice new cases/keyboards. Especially cases with holes already cut for VGA/DVI and USB :-)

27 March 2015, 09:13	#1521
lurch Registered User Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: New Zealand Posts: 104	The current ACA500 is one of the best pieces of Amiga 500 hardware I've purchased, only coming second to the Indivision ECS and Gotek. The 2MB RAM is fine and WHDLoad runs fine. The ability to use CF Cards is great, a shame the aux/dos card isn't hot swappable but that's not a big deal when the A500 boots so quick. I also have a Subway which plugs in and runs great, although I've moved it back to the A1200. Which is another feature that isn't mentioned that often. The option for soft loading ROMs is good too. However I have bought a couple of 3.1 ROMs, why not they're cheap and worth the upgrade. I also managed to buy an ACA1232, as my A1200 has an 060 I liked and had become use to the speed of workbench on that. Suddenly the ol'500 is a speed demon and with the Indivision ECS I can have 800x600 with 256 colours and play Doom using the Indivision ECS modes. It's one smart piece of hardware and we should appreciate Jens bringing product to market. Stop poking the bear. I own several of Jen's products, ACA1230 ACA1232 ACA500 Indivision ECS Indivsion AGA Competition Pro Joystick from the first batch And others and they have been great, the only exception was the ECS. However this was fixed by Amigakit to work properly with the A500 plus since then it has been rock solid, crisp picture and has brought the joy back. 27" screen of goodness, would love to make the screen slightly bigger for games if possible though :-) The only moan I can think of is hunting all over the place for configs,software and firmware but this has been getting better over the years. I own both of Kippers boards, one with IDE one without. I spent most of my time fiddling with the boards that moved the CPU socket back as the A500s I've tested in they just wouldn't boot with them. However they would boot fine with the board attached straight to the CPU socket. The 8MB RAM board works with the ACA500+AC1232, if you run sysinfo it shows the board and the 8MB is there. RAM test works fine, however now and then the Amiga will reboot when you quit from WHDLoad so I've removed it. As I've mentioned WHDLoad I am still unable to find a 100% working copy of IK+, on every challenge level (bomb/balls) the SFX stop working. The SFX work fine when fighting though, kind of sad as I love the dong noise of the head hitting the shield. The 8MB + IDE board was very easy to install. You can even get away without using solder and a soldering iron if you are not that way inclined and hot glue the connector in place wedged against the case and the two gold connectors on the A500 and it boots fine everytime. Kippers support is fantastic too, so no complaints there. Great products but for a different audience compared to the ACA500. Overall I've been having a great time and Jens has had a great hand in this with his products. Only downsides is having spent too much and the A500 hardware getting old and fragile. Even the cases and keyboards are starting to show signs. What we need now is a nice new cases/keyboards. Especially cases with holes already cut for VGA/DVI and USB :-) Last edited by lurch; 27 March 2015 at 18:41.