Amiga 500 Graphics upgrade options?

[bugsymalone666]

Apparently I am all about the classic Amiga, but want to make loads of changes to it lol.

So I have my Original A500 from when I was a kid, in which time its gone through 2x 512k memory upgrades(which both died, one when I was a kid, the other about 3 years ago when I started using the machine again), which recently I got a 3rd 512k and then put a '2mb' one in, in place of the 512k.

It seems to be a Standard one with a Standard Video Output(stock Denise, not the super) - an A520 modulator. I was going to look in to making a scart adapter to replace the modulator, as scart is quite close to VGA RGB and may work on some of my monitors.

I have been recently watching videos where people have Vampire accelerators and thought it would be really nice to just be able to hook up to a modern screen, with it being super sharp.

Having Just finished building a Terrible Fire TF530 today (which is the most complicated thing I have ever built) which has a reasonable investment in components, I'm not going to go down the Vampire route.

Other things on the go are:

Currenly looking at a ROM switcher, I have 1.3 (original to this Amiga) 2.04 and recently I have installed a 3.1 ROM, was going to get a switcher for all 3 (apparently easy to make) not sure if any graphics change will interconnect with the version ROM I have from a compatibility point of view

Zorro Slot adapter, I bought a PCB off ebay last week(waiting for it to arrive) to hopefully solve some problems of relocating my A590 PCB as this is all in a PC case, means I can hook up maybe a Zorro card from a big box Amiga?

I have something like 4.5mb of ram with the ram upgrade and A590, hoping the TF530 will bring that to 6.5mb.

I have an HXC device built from a modded GoTek. I also have a Normal Amiga GoTek. so getting files on and off the machine wont be a problem.

Hoping to have some sort of running operating system on a hard drive (scsi or IDE) or CF card soon (I did have WB 2 installed) Ideally going to look to get WB 3.1+ on it, does that affect the graphics much?

So space is not so much of an issue as its all mounted in a PC case.

I wondered about maybe getting a scart HDMI adapter, but I guess I wanted to maybe find something a bit better.

It also doesnt want to be crazy expensive, either to buy or build.

I did wonder about maybe some old PC graphics card might have been supported?

Please enlighten me

[zipper]

My A500 is towerized into a Micronik tower with Zorro slots so I can run a Picasso IV. But it needs processing power which is solved by Blizzard 2060. Goes into that crazy expensive class...At least a fast 030 card is recommended with RTG Graphics.

[bugsymalone666]

Originally Posted by zipper

My A500 is towerized into a Micronik tower with Zorro slots so I can run a Picasso IV. But it needs processing power which is solved by Blizzard 2060. Goes into that crazy expensive class...At least a fast 030 card is recommended with RTG Graphics.

Well Processing power might be ok once the TF530 is in, I have a 68EC030 40mhz, with an FPU. I just hope its all ok, its so hard to find what I wanted at the time.

Obviously an 050 or 060 is the dream, but this should certainly bump things up if it works!

Doesnt look like Picasso cards are all that abundant, I am sure I have seen some after market type ones recently while doing other research.

Thin I have sent most of the day doing Amiga stuff and I am fascinated by the thought that it might be possible to get my 30 year old Amiga on to the internet and play all the things I have always dreamed of doing as a kid

[zipper]

Yes, it was a nice addition when I got a network card into my tower instead of a 56k modem. A huge speed bump.

[TjLaZer]

Sounds like a Vampire upgrade card is something that you would really like as it adds on board IDE, 128MB Fast memory and onboard graphics card with HDMI output. And if the firmware upgrade ever gets released it’s supposed to add AGA compatibility!

[turrican3]

+1 for the vampire !!!

[bugsymalone666]

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

Sounds like a Vampire upgrade card is something that you would really like as it adds on board IDE, 128MB Fast memory and onboard graphics card with HDMI output. And if the firmware upgrade ever gets released it’s supposed to add AGA compatibility!

It sounds like one probably would be my cup of tea, but they are about 5x the cost of the components I used for my TF530, with the only additional element being the graphics I think.
I think the TF530 is a bit closer to the original Amiga in some respect, MC68K CPUs from the same era, small increase in ram using modern chips because they are easier to do, Gayle IDE implementation but on a custom chip, so while its surface mount bits for some of it, its almost like mid 90s spec which I like.

I guess I was wondering with the development of so many add on cards, someone must have started going down the route of Zorro II graphics cards as Picasso cards are insanely expensive considering its a graphics card from at latest 1996, if you can find one.

I seem to remember something about when people towerised the Amiga 1200, they were using some sort of add on board that gave it PCI slots, so you could use A PCI graphics card. No idea how it was done or if it was only possible because of the architecture of the A1200, but wondered if there might be something for the A500. I'm sure I still have some PCI graphics cards from the year 2000 knocking about with VGA out, which would be plenty