Clean screens?

On a real A1200, is it possible to use an SVGA or multisync monitor to display Workbench (with Magic Workbench) on a 640x480 screen without graphics glitches yet at the same time play games that are installed on the harddrive in the correct aspect so that there isn't a portion of the game that is off screen (usually from the bottom)?

er, sorry bout the double post, browser got stuck & refresh posted it twice; also I read Agent JDH's thread about scandoublers which sort of answers my question, but, I'm trying to get rid of some gfx dropout from my workbench screen, Picasso GFX boards do a quality job but I think I'm right in saying that the a1200's 68EC020 CPU isn't up to the job, I was wondering if there's a way to get picasso quality on an A1200?

[Amiga1992]

You can use an A1200 with a VGA/SVGA/Multisync monitor, for running Wiorkbench it works just fine, you just need an adaptor for the lead and then setting your display to Productyivity or Euro72

Now, you CAN'T run games on these monitors unless you buy a scandoubler/flickerfixer . do a search on the forum for this subject, it has been covered mnany times already.

Another chance is that you have one of those old multiscan monitors that sync at both 15 and 31khz

[Amiga1992]

Theres no such problem with Productivity modes and Picasso doesnt solve anything. Say, are you using an NTSC Amiga?

No, I'm actually using WinUAE on WinXP... but I'm trying to keep it as faithful to the real thing as possible. I've got 2 seperate configs setup; One is an A4000 emulation which I've setup to take full advantage of a 16bit soundcard (Atchii, OctaMED) and also a graphics card (Picasso) + CDROM; I use this for apps, mp3's etc. I used to have a real Amiga 1200 years ago and I've setup a emu config of this which I use to play my games from the harddisk using Whdload & Jst. Thing is, I always loved Magic Workbench and I installed it on my WinUAE Workbench along with Toolmanager to list all my games for easy 1 click access. On WinUAE though, you have to use the "correct aspect ratio" button to get games to display properly, but, when this is checked I get graphics dropout on my workbench display (fonts get mangled & icons get crunched)Magic Workbench tells you to use a PC style aspect ratio (640x480) but this can't be done cleanly with the "correct aspect ratio" checked on WinUAE. On the A4000 setup, I can get round this problem by using Picasso, which bypasses the native Amiga screenmodes but you can't install a swanky gfx card on a A1200 can you? Okay, sorry about the long winded background Here's the questions; 1) Can you use a graphics card with a 68EC020 cpu? 2) Does a sd/ff display 640x480 res on a monitor with wb and display games properly? 3)Is it physically possible to upgrade a real A1200 with a faster CPU with FPU + FASTRAM + CDROM + monitor style GFX? Basically, I'm interested to see how far you can take an A1200

[thomas]

Originally posted by Marsh2003
Here's the questions; 1) Can you use a graphics card with a 68EC020 cpu? 2) Does a sd/ff display 640x480 res on a monitor with wb and display games properly? 3)Is it physically possible to upgrade a real A1200 with a faster CPU with FPU + FASTRAM + CDROM + monitor style GFX? Basically, I'm interested to see how far you can take an A1200

1) Don't know, but probably yes. Why not ?
2) A scan doubler doubles the horizontal frequency, it does not change the resolution. Amiga resolution is either 640x400 (NTSC) or 640x512 (PAL). Both will display correctly on a CRT monitor, probably not on a TFT one.
As pointed out in lots of other threads, the values mentioned above is only the standard screen size. The real resolution is something around 740x580 or so. The screen can be moved around inside this range to fit the user's preferences. Also overscan can be used to increase the screen size while different monitors will cut off different portions. So to get the real thing in emulation you should use 800x600. If you complain about the frames around the screen, these are visible on the real machine either. Trying to fill the monitor with a 640x512 display is not what the real Amiga does.
3) You can take an A1200 almost as far a an A4000. There is the BlizzardPPC with a 68060/50MHz and a 604e PPC at 200MHz (i believe) and up to 256MB RAM + the BlizzardVisionPPC graphics card with a Permedia2 chip. Building the mainboard in to a tower case will give you plenty of room for CD/DVD-ROM/R/RW as well as Zorro slots for A4000 style expansions or PCI slots for PC style expansions (as far as drivers exist).

When it comes to emulation, why do you care about the exact configuration ? You should try to get the desired software running, not to make it incompatible.

[Amiga1992]

Originally posted by thomas Amiga resolution is either 640x400 (NTSC) or 640x512 (PAL).

Sorry, that is Amiga Super Hi Res LAced Resolution, not just any resolution. The standard resolution for games is 320x256 for PAL, and 320x200 for NTSC.

Teh scandoubler will display at this resolution in the VGA monitor, not at 640x480. As Thomas said this device doubles the scan rate, not the resolution.

I thought you were asking about REAL Amigas, I cannot help you with your lameulator concerns.

Cheers