Amiga500 Vs Amiga600!

scifi · 27 March 2006, 15:17

Was Amiga600 a step forward or a step backward?

Express your opinions gently!

_ThEcRoW · 27 March 2006, 15:24

Backwards

keropi · 27 March 2006, 15:27

it was a good step ahead, IMHO, but the lack of numpad was dumb...
who can say it was backwards, when it had ecs, 2MB chipram, pcmcia, ide???
but the general idea was dumb, they should have abandoned the chipram technology, ecs and above should have been pixel pushers....

scifi · 27 March 2006, 15:35

I think that Amiga600 was a compact and advanced (more memory) Amiga500.

However, the big drawback was that a large amount of prerelased games on Amiga500 could not run on Amiga600. The opposite is logical & expected.

Is that right Keropi?

keropi · 27 March 2006, 16:12

yeah... it was an advanced 500 but they satyed on the same route, even aga was the same... too bad... planar gfx had an expiration date, too bad they did not realise it earlier...

musashi5150 · 27 March 2006, 16:37

Having an internal IDE bus was nice, and it was quite a cute little machine that could fit in a backpack to take to a friends house

And you didn't need a modulator...

mombasajoe · 27 March 2006, 17:18

It was a step backwards because nobody needed it.

jrom · 27 March 2006, 17:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by keropi

2MB chipram

A600 only came with 1MB chipram...

DoctorQ · 27 March 2006, 17:45

A step backwards.

The only good it brought was the internal IDE controller and the PCMCIA slot.

Bamiga2002 · 27 March 2006, 17:46

The A600 should have had a good working 030 in it by default. My A600 got broken a few years ago, bad design i guess...

Dizzy · 27 March 2006, 18:16

I dont like the a600, it was ugly and didn't bring anything new to the amiga market

alexh · 27 March 2006, 18:25

The A600 was DEFINATELY a step forwards.

The engineering techniques gained from the A600 made the A1200 possible.

It really stems back from the engineering lessons (and financial lessons!) learned during the CDTV project. The CDTV project was a "special projects" demo, meant for one or two customers, never intended for wide scale production, it was a hack-bodged A500 and cost a fortune to make and even more to test and sell.

As such CBM ordered the creation of the CDTV-CR which introduced CBM to the ideas of reducing the Bill of materials (BOM), surface mount technology, limit expansion capabilities, use lower cost interfaces (IDE vs SCSI in A600). All these techniques were used during the A600 and A1200 projects (and to some extent later A4000 motherboards).

The A600 expansions were far cheaper than those for the A500... adding a hard drive was just the drive + cable!! Ethernet was a standard PC laptop PCMCIA card. It had an integrated modulator making connectivity much easier.

If CBM had added an extra key, a modifier key, and silk screened the missing keypad keys onto other keys (like they do with laptops today) it would have avoided any incompatibilities. Afterall most users never used the keypad anyhow!

Without the A600 the A1200 would have probably not been made.

Dont forget the A600 WASNT supposed to be a step forwards. It WASNT supposed to be an upgrade for A500's. It was supposed to be a cost reduced A500+ for NEW to Amiga customers!

Nexjen · 27 March 2006, 18:37

I love my A600 the batteries always died on the miggy 500 and killed the mainboard.

My first ebay purchase of it ended up sadly like this.

alexh · 27 March 2006, 19:13

@Nexjen

You mean A500+ there were no batteries on normal A500's.

Which reminds me I should really open up my A500+ and remove the battery.

bluebrummie · 27 March 2006, 19:44

It was a step forwards in as much as design I think. It looked better and was a smaller design. Maybe it was aimed at console owners, I don't know? I personaly prefered the 500 as I never had any problems with it and all my games worked on it!

Anubis · 27 March 2006, 19:55

It was step backward.

It had nice features, but no battery and screen to be a laptop.

I had A500+ and that machine was step forward. All the good stuff from A500 + ECS, 1MB standard RAM and Kick 2.0. A600 was just way to small.

Dizzy · 27 March 2006, 20:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anubis

It was step backward.

It had nice features, but no battery and screen to be a laptop.

I had A500+ and that machine was step forward. All the good stuff from A500 + ECS, 1MB standard RAM and Kick 2.0. A600 was just way to small.

Size do matter

DaZZaBoY · 27 March 2006, 23:46

Was quite annoying when your m8 had a 1mb chip A600 and you had a 512mb A500. Grrr!

jrom · 28 March 2006, 00:22

Ghehe... yeah... I was one of the last A500 with kickstart 1.2 users in the Amiga club I used to go back in the days... And then someone came in with an A600HD... :'( Ah well... The A500 still functions

Mick_AKA · 28 March 2006, 01:27

Technically my A600HD 030 is the most powerfull amiga in the house at the moment (A1200 is on loan!!)

The A600 is a lovely compact little system and was totally a step forward in almost every sense, the lack of expansions for the A600 was the most dissapointing thing, I always felt it could have been the mini micro of its geneeration if just pushed a little harder.

Although I hold far more admiration for my A500, it ended up in the loft on the basis that the A600 can just be nicely slid in on top of my dvd player

27 March 2006, 15:17	#1
scifi Resurrected... Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Athens/Greece Age: 50 Posts: 290	Amiga500 Vs Amiga600! Was Amiga600 a step forward or a step backward? Express your opinions gently!

27 March 2006, 18:25	#12
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	The A600 was DEFINATELY a step forwards. The engineering techniques gained from the A600 made the A1200 possible. It really stems back from the engineering lessons (and financial lessons!) learned during the CDTV project. The CDTV project was a "special projects" demo, meant for one or two customers, never intended for wide scale production, it was a hack-bodged A500 and cost a fortune to make and even more to test and sell. As such CBM ordered the creation of the CDTV-CR which introduced CBM to the ideas of reducing the Bill of materials (BOM), surface mount technology, limit expansion capabilities, use lower cost interfaces (IDE vs SCSI in A600). All these techniques were used during the A600 and A1200 projects (and to some extent later A4000 motherboards). The A600 expansions were far cheaper than those for the A500... adding a hard drive was just the drive + cable!! Ethernet was a standard PC laptop PCMCIA card. It had an integrated modulator making connectivity much easier. If CBM had added an extra key, a modifier key, and silk screened the missing keypad keys onto other keys (like they do with laptops today) it would have avoided any incompatibilities. Afterall most users never used the keypad anyhow! Without the A600 the A1200 would have probably not been made. Dont forget the A600 WASNT supposed to be a step forwards. It WASNT supposed to be an upgrade for A500's. It was supposed to be a cost reduced A500+ for NEW to Amiga customers! Last edited by alexh; 27 March 2006 at 18:31.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Hd installer amiga600	paladium	support.Other	11	19 December 2007 01:23
Having a Amiga600 since friday i need HELP	ser6io	Amiga scene	10	30 December 2005 22:18
Amiga600 question	mikey303	Amiga scene	10	08 November 2004 21:11
Using HD floppies in my amiga600	clownstyle	New to Emulation or Amiga scene	3	25 January 2004 16:52
Softsynth Amiga500(+)	cosmiq	request.Apps	15	04 May 2003 22:20

27 March 2006, 15:24	#2
_ThEcRoW Amiga NetRunner Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Spain Age: 45 Posts: 941	Backwards

27 March 2006, 15:27	#3
keropi . Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Ioannina/Greece Posts: 5,040	it was a good step ahead, IMHO, but the lack of numpad was dumb... who can say it was backwards, when it had ecs, 2MB chipram, pcmcia, ide??? but the general idea was dumb, they should have abandoned the chipram technology, ecs and above should have been pixel pushers....

27 March 2006, 15:35	#4
scifi Resurrected... Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Athens/Greece Age: 50 Posts: 290	I think that Amiga600 was a compact and advanced (more memory) Amiga500. However, the big drawback was that a large amount of prerelased games on Amiga500 could not run on Amiga600. The opposite is logical & expected. Is that right Keropi?

27 March 2006, 16:12	#5
keropi . Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Ioannina/Greece Posts: 5,040	yeah... it was an advanced 500 but they satyed on the same route, even aga was the same... too bad... planar gfx had an expiration date, too bad they did not realise it earlier...

27 March 2006, 16:37	#6
musashi5150 move.w #$4489,$dff07e Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Norfolk, UK Age: 42 Posts: 2,351	Having an internal IDE bus was nice, and it was quite a cute little machine that could fit in a backpack to take to a friends house And you didn't need a modulator...

27 March 2006, 17:18	#7
mombasajoe Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: D Age: 49 Posts: 528	It was a step backwards because nobody needed it.

27 March 2006, 17:45	#9
DoctorQ What?? Who?? DoctorQ!! Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Rødding/Denmark Age: 43 Posts: 314	A step backwards. The only good it brought was the internal IDE controller and the PCMCIA slot.

27 March 2006, 17:46	#10
Bamiga2002 BlizzardPPC'less Join Date: May 2004 Location: Finland Age: 46 Posts: 3,210	The A600 should have had a good working 030 in it by default. My A600 got broken a few years ago, bad design i guess...

27 March 2006, 18:16	#11
Dizzy Pirate Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Denmark Posts: 3,395	I dont like the a600, it was ugly and didn't bring anything new to the amiga market

27 March 2006, 18:37	#13
Nexjen Abre Los Ojos Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Glasgow Age: 39 Posts: 132	I love my A600 the batteries always died on the miggy 500 and killed the mainboard. My first ebay purchase of it ended up sadly like this.

27 March 2006, 19:13	#14
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	@Nexjen You mean A500+ there were no batteries on normal A500's. Which reminds me I should really open up my A500+ and remove the battery.

27 March 2006, 19:44	#15
bluebrummie bluebrummie Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Birmingham, England Age: 58 Posts: 27	It was a step forwards in as much as design I think. It looked better and was a smaller design. Maybe it was aimed at console owners, I don't know? I personaly prefered the 500 as I never had any problems with it and all my games worked on it!

27 March 2006, 19:55	#16
Anubis Retro Gamer Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Underworld Age: 51 Posts: 4,058	It was step backward. It had nice features, but no battery and screen to be a laptop. I had A500+ and that machine was step forward. All the good stuff from A500 + ECS, 1MB standard RAM and Kick 2.0. A600 was just way to small.

27 March 2006, 23:46	#18
DaZZaBoY Diamond Geezer! Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: NorthWest/UK Age: 52 Posts: 133	Was quite annoying when your m8 had a 1mb chip A600 and you had a 512mb A500. Grrr!

28 March 2006, 00:22	#19
jrom Wannabe asm coder ;) Join Date: May 2002 Location: The Netherlands Age: 47 Posts: 459	Ghehe... yeah... I was one of the last A500 with kickstart 1.2 users in the Amiga club I used to go back in the days... And then someone came in with an A600HD... :'( Ah well... The A500 still functions

28 March 2006, 01:27	#20
Mick_AKA crusader of light Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Stone, Staffordshire. Posts: 1,151	Technically my A600HD 030 is the most powerfull amiga in the house at the moment (A1200 is on loan!!) The A600 is a lovely compact little system and was totally a step forward in almost every sense, the lack of expansions for the A600 was the most dissapointing thing, I always felt it could have been the mini micro of its geneeration if just pushed a little harder. Although I hold far more admiration for my A500, it ended up in the loft on the basis that the A600 can just be nicely slid in on top of my dvd player

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)