Completely new to Amiga... Some questions.

Hi. I'm SixWayShot, and I spend way too much money on STUFF.

Case in point: I just bought an Amiga lot from a local seller. Way more than I had initially intended to buy, but the guy selling it just threw in everything. I've attached photos of the lot, and the setup I made with the console/monitor/everything. It runs great. That monitor is friggin' gorgeous. Anyway, I have a few questions about the stuff I just got:

1. Is the A530 expansion worth using?

2. I don't know the specs of the GVP A530 just yet. I don't think the guy who had this before me did anything special to it, so it may be stock, whatever that entails. I do know that the hard drive is very small (relatively speaking). How easy is it to upgrade the device, or should I even bother?

3. I read the guide on how to transfer files from a PC to an Amiga, but if I don't have access to a PC with a serial port, is there another method I could use?

4. The Amiga I got is an Amiga 500. I'm pretty sure it has 1MB of RAM, and it's NTSC. I know that most of the good games are PAL releases. How much of an issue will I have playing PAL games, be it physical disks I may get online, or downloaded files?

5. I'm using an Atari joystick right now (from a Flashback 2. Haven't found a vintage Atari stick that's, uh, clean...). What's a good joystick or gamepad to use with an Amiga?

[desiv]

Originally Posted by SixWayShot

Hi. I'm SixWayShot, and I spend way too much money on STUFF.

Hello!!!

Originally Posted by SixWayShot

1. Is the A530 expansion worth using?

No, you better just give it to me to save you the pain and embarassment..
OK.. kidding... Yes, it's worth using..

Originally Posted by SixWayShot

2. I don't know the specs of the GVP A530 just yet.

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/gvp530

Originally Posted by SixWayShot

How easy is it to upgrade the device, or should I even bother?

It's a bit spendier, because it's SCSI, but you can find SCSI drives around still.. You'll want a working hard drive...
You'll want some RAM for the GVP also. Again, it's special GVP SIMMs, so it will be harder to find those, but they are around..

Originally Posted by SixWayShot

3. I read the guide on how to transfer files from a PC to an Amiga, but if I don't have access to a PC with a serial port, is there another method I could use?

Several, but with a 500, it's limited..
Cheapest is to get a USB serial port adapter. They're usually just a couple of bucks.
You can get a SCSI to IDE adapter for your 530, and then you can just attach the IDE drive to your PC (if you have a spare internal IDE port or a USB IDE adapter) and use WinUAE to read it..
If you have a Floppy drive in your PC still, you can get CrossDOS (if your Amiga doesn't have it already) and send files back and forth on DD PC (720k) floppies.

Originally Posted by SixWayShot

4. The Amiga I got is an Amiga 500. I'm pretty sure it has 1MB of RAM, and it's NTSC. I know that most of the good games are PAL releases. How much of an issue will I have playing PAL games, be it physical disks I may get online, or downloaded files?

Its a bit of a hassle, but frequently you can still play the games, just the bottom gets cut off, and they run a bit faster.. Sometimes they don't run, but frequently, they do..

Originally Posted by SixWayShot

5. I'm using an Atari joystick right now (from a Flashback 2. Haven't found a vintage Atari stick that's, uh, clean...). What's a good joystick or gamepad to use with an Amiga?

I believe you will hear Competition Pro and Slick Stick.. and others.. :-)

Great find!!

desiv

For the GVP A530, is there something that can convert the SCSI plug to something like a SD card, or a flash drive? I don't quite know if I can get a hold of a SCSI drive right now.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by SixWayShot

For the GVP A530, is there something that can convert the SCSI plug to something like a SD card, or a flash drive? I don't quite know if I can get a hold of a SCSI drive right now.

SCSI to CF adapter

[fgh]

There are scsi-ide adapters and scsi card readers, but both are quite rare and also expensive.
You could even combine a scsi-ide adapter, and an ide-cf or sd, but compatibility is not great..

Easiest would be if some friendly folks around on eab or amibay would help you out with a pre-setup scsi drive

Edit:
For playing games from floppy the machine is already fine. But the 530 takes it a long step towards becoming a great machine for running games off a harddrive with whdload. If there is any ram in the gvp that's great. If you upgrade to 2mb chip ram you have perfect compatibility. Whdload raises memory requirements quite a bit, but is very convenient, as you can download and run all the games from a game launcher.

scsi to multi-card reader

[keitha1200]

Very nice The 500 and all the games look as tho their still new

Hah. That SCSI to CF thing looks awesome. It's a bit too much for me at the moment, though. I'll keep it in mind. The A530 seems to have a 50 MB hard drive in it. WOW, I'LL NEVER HAVE TO USE ANY MORE SPACE AGAIN. That said, I'm considering trying out the Amiga Explorer method of getting ADFs... Since any PC I have will not have a serial port, I'll need to get one with a USB port... Anyway, what do I need to hook my computer into my Amiga 500 to transfer files besides a serial to USB cable?

[desiv]

USB serial to null modem cable to Amiga.

desiv
(Tablet is acting up, editing is tricky. Short reply)

Awesome. Most of the games I got are complete, or at least I think they are. They're in REALLY good shape, too. Either the person I bought these from never touched them, or he was VERY careful. All the strategy games come with the maps and manuals. All the games that have copy protection devices came with them. Hell, Cannon Fodder came with a keyring of a bullet with the game name put on it. Sweet. The biggest downside? Space, primarily. I'm going to need some awesome shelving to store all of this stuff. A few of the disks may be reaching their end, as well. Cannon Fodder's already crashed on me once, and the awesome theme at the beginning is skipping like mad. All in all, it's really, really awesome to be able to play Amiga games, and the expansion makes it even better. The monitor is also fantastic. I think I'll use it to play my SNES on.

[clenched]

That's one of the nicest rigs I've seen turn up on EAB in a long time. I recommend Wico bat handle joystick (most durable one I've ever had). For transferring files PC2Amiga via parallel port. (faster, but will also need Kickstart 2 and workbench 2.1 or at least some components of it). My A530 has ran like a tank just shy of 20 years with zero failure and original 40Meg harddrive. You want to really treasure a fine unit like that.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by desiv

USB serial to null modem cable to Amiga.
(Tablet is acting up, editing is tricky. Short reply)

At a P.C. now.. ;-)

Anyway, you just hook up the USB-serial adapter to your PC, plug in the null modem cable into both, and run the software.

Now, getting the software on the Amiga side onto your Amiga can be tricky.

At least, you will need a bootable Amiga disk with CLI/Shell and the TYPE command. (A standard WB disk will do)
Better is a crossdos enabled Amiga or a program called DOS2DOS (or disk2disk?? It's been a while) to read/write from an IBM DD formatted disk.
Assuming your PC has a floppy. :-)

Once you get the transfer program onto your Amiga, then it's pretty easy.

For free, you can use transwarp on the Amiga and ADF Sender Terminal on the PC to send disk images to your Amiga. It's command line on the Amiga, but works well...

For a smoother feel, the Amiga Forever people have a product called Amiga Explorer, which is very nice. I haven't used it for full disk images, but I have for file transfers. It's very nice... (did I say that ;-) It's not free tho. I think it's $10 if you buy it separately, or it comes free if you buy Amiga Forever. Have to admit, even tho I prefer the real hardware and WinUAE is great as is, the latest AmigaForever is a nicely put together product.

But I did ADF Sender and transwarp for quite a while, with no problems...
It's slowish (serial, fastest I could reliably do was 19,200. You should be able to go faster with the accelerator), but I still remember 300 baud transfers.. ;-)

And if you're having trouble getting set up, I (or probably others) would have no trouble sending you a floppy to get started.

Enjoy that system!!!

desiv
(yes, the 1084s monitors work great for multiple systems. When I get/make my svideo adapter (they take s-video, just as separate Chroma/Luma), I'm going to move my 3DO to it, so I can use the lightgun.)
(Darn LCDs not working with lghtguns!!) ;-)