Which Amiga model to buy?

[Vesko]

Hi

I'm new to this forum and I'm interested in buying an Amiga computer. I will use it for playing retro games. And because I will have to buy it from abroad, I'm looking at the "low-end" models 500/600/1200 so I won't pay much for shipping. Of the three models 1200 seems the best choice but is it compatible with most of the classic games? Is 600 compatible with more classic games than 1200? Do many good games need the numeric keyboard?

[Peter]

A1200 without a doubt.

Too many reasons why to list...

[crazyc]

Unless you need the space saving of an a600, I believe the a1200 would be the preferred option for flexibility.
For games I would suggest an a1200, CF hard drive (although not necessary), decent RGB -SCART cable, and at least a 4mb or 8mb ram card.
If you could stretch to it a Blizzard Mk IV 1230 would be the best though instead of the ram card.
Then you are sorted.

[Sandro]

the A1200 is the best Amiga for games by far
another great choice is the A4000 /030 , more expensive but excelent for games as the A1200

[Vesko]

Thank you for the answers!

But is A1200 compatible with games for 500 without additional software like loader, emulator?

[Arnie]

Thing is the A1200 can play A500 games (a few need fixes to work) but, a A500 can't play A1200 (AGA) games at all.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Arnie

Thing is the A1200 can play A500 games (a few need fixes to work) but, a A500 can't play A1200 (AGA) games at all.

Who knows, if that accelerator comes out, then we could see A500 AGA, .

[john1979]

A1200.

Compatible with some A500 games but not all. Whdload solves all that. But if you want to use floppies play like you did back in the day then you need a A500 with 512k expansion

[jPV]

Originally Posted by Vesko

Thank you for the answers!

But is A1200 compatible with games for 500 without additional software like loader, emulator?

Well, some games will work, but you might be more comfortable to use WHDLoad, which allows you to install games to harddrive and also fixes compatibility issues. It's not a emulator, but well, some kind of loader

A600 isn't any better with compatibility either. If you want real compatibility for games on disks, then you need A500. But you really should think twice how you're going to transfer games to it. It can be slow and trickery, if you don't own any better Amiga or some other hardware with better transfer possibilities.

A1200 won't be 100% compatible with everything, but it is compatible enough with WHDLoad. And as a bonus, AGA games will work too. And you have many ways to transfer stuff to it. It's just much easier.

One other option which could be considered is Minimig or some other FPGA machine, which are practially hardware remakes of the A500. They have pretty good compatibility, although probably not perfect. But they use SD card as floppy emulator, so getting games on them is easy.

[Hodor]

My vote is for the A1200, indeed.

[jimbob]

Doesn't matter, whichever one you get first, soon you will feel the need to have one of each, at least.

But yes, for a little more money the most painless solution for retro gaming will be A1200 + CF card + WHDload + PCMCIA adaptor (for file transfer), and preferably something in the trapdoor, (WHDload works best with at least a slice of extra RAM).

[Vesko]

Originally Posted by john1979

A1200.

Compatible with some A500 games but not all. Whdload solves all that. But if you want to use floppies play like you did back in the day then you need a A500 with 512k expansion

I think this post answers my question. The joy of retro game collecting is to get the in their original form. I just checked WHDLoad for installing some of the games I'm interested in (adventures like King's Quest, Space Quest) and it requires "installed A500 Kickstart 1.3 image" so it looks like emulation to me. And what's the point of playing pirated games in WHDLoad when I can play them in a emulator in my PC.

Originally Posted by jimbob

Doesn't matter, whichever one you get first, soon you will feel the need to have one of each, at least.

I agree with that although there aren't that many AGA games compared with ECS/OCS. I think I can skip at least A600

[seuden]

Originally Posted by FOL

Who knows, if that accelerator comes out, then we could see A500 AGA, .

FOLWhat?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by seuden

FOLWhat?

That new A600 accelerator, apparently one of the planned features is AGA.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Vesko

I think this post answers my question. The joy of retro game collecting is to get the in their original form. I just checked WHDLoad for installing some of the games I'm interested in (adventures like King's Quest, Space Quest) and it requires "installed A500 Kickstart 1.3 image" so it looks like emulation to me.

It is not emulation. It is a software equivalent of installing a kickstart switcher with KS1.3. A WHDload version is a cracked version of the original modified to run from HDD with fixes to make it work with 020+, AGA etc.

But go ahead and run games the original way. I've seen lots of people starting out this way and then eventually figuring out that Amiga floppy disks are now very unreliable and having everything installed on HDD is much more convenient without ruining the experience of using the real HW.
Getting a 500 with +512kB RAM is much cheaper though than a 1200 with accelerator, but you'll need to think about how you will transfer software to it. The PCMCIA port in the 600/1200 is very convenient for that.
Edit: A floppy emulator could be a solution if you just want a 500, look for Gotek and HxC. Yes, that is emulation, but only for the floppy drive.

[crazyc]

If I had an a500 then I would want an aca500 to go with it.

[john1979]

Originally Posted by demolition

It is not emulation. It is a software equivalent of installing a kickstart switcher with KS1.3. A WHDload version is a cracked version of the original modified to run from HDD with fixes to make it work with 020+, AGA etc.

But go ahead and run games the original way. I've seen lots of people starting out this way and then eventually figuring out that Amiga floppy disks are now very unreliable and having everything installed on HDD is much more convenient without ruining the experience of using the real HW.
Getting a 500 with +512kB RAM is much cheaper though than a 1200 with accelerator, but you'll need to think about how you will transfer software to it. The PCMCIA port in the 600/1200 is very convenient for that.
Edit: A floppy emulator could be a solution if you just want a 500, look for Gotek and HxC. Yes, that is emulation, but only for the floppy drive.

There are plenty of DD floppies on ebay and they aren't so unreliable as you say.

Transferring to the Amiga is the more difficult part as you say. Amiga forever and a transfer cable is fool proof, but rather slow. Especially inconvenient if your Amiga is nowhere near your PC.

I would also go for the 1200 + Whdload + CF card way. Okay it's not as purist as I would like but it's a decent compromise for convenience.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by crazyc

If I had an a500 then I would want an aca500 to go with it.

The ACA500 is quite handicapped relative to using WHDload since it doesn't have enough memory for many games, and adding an accelerator will cause slowdowns in many games due to chipmem becoming slower. Also it will not improve compatibility with disk games, so it does not seem like a useful choice here.

[source]

Which accelerator do you refer to? Would it be available for the 500 or 2000 as well?

[Coltch]

I primarily use my A500/ACA500 for playing games from floppy (I do have a complete 3,1 WB install on CF though).

For WHDLoad I use my A1200/ACA1231 with a CF HDD as it is far more convenient