Buying an 2nd Hand Machine

Hi,


1st post, just joined the forum. I used to own an A500 back in the day and through various youtube videos noticed all the exciting stuff going on with the old Amiga.


Anyway was thinking of purchasing a 2nd hand machine as I stupidly gave mine away.


Was wondering what sort of setup I should go for ? A500 or an A1200 ?


My main interest would be to play the old games but would probably look to get some of the new upgrades that are now available.



Any recommendations ?

[-Acid-]

A500 is fine if you want only want to load old games from floppy disks. If you want to do more then get an A1200 imo.

[4pLaY]

Depends on what you want to do with the machine but an A1200 is the best bet these days if you ask me.

[Anubis]

If you want to spend lots of money Amiga 1200 is better option, specially with CF card for HD and some form of turbo card, but issue is that that gets expensive very quick and some old stuff spots working. (like my Apollo card)

Next best thing is Raspberry Pi with RetroPie, Amibian or Amiberry. With good case, few other things you can get it running for 50-60 bucks and works very well. Here is little comparison video:

[ Show youtube player ]

[Taylan Can]

which emulation boot directly like amiga ? @anubis

[BrooksterMax]

I have an A1200 and A500+ both have their merits.

The A1200 will cost more to setup with maybe an accelerator and a hard drive solution but then is a great all-rounder for AGA games, WHDLoad etc.

However there is loads of merit in an A500 with a Gotek floppy emulator too which will be considerably cheaper overall. Then you can whack a load of ADFs on a USB and boom get playing games that way.

Enjoy whichever path you take.

[Anubis]

Originally Posted by Taylan Can

which emulation boot directly like amiga ? @anubis

It is possible to set them all to boot automatically, but most require some UNIX/LINUX knowledge to setup, as well knowledge about Amiga, hdf and boot process.

Follow this instruction for easy setup with DietPi OS (stripped version of Raspbian) that will self auto update and it is quite easy to setup:

https://blitterstudio.com/amiberry/

Quite like the idea of messing about with a Raspberry Pi device. Although I must admit I don`t know much about them.

What exactly do I need to set a RP up to run Amiga software ?

The RP device - version 3b ?
Some form of case for the RP
Some cut down version of Linux (Do the RP come with no OS ?) ?
Another OS that sits on top of Linux (retropie) ?
2 x Joysticks/controllers ?
Some form of wireless dongo for joystick/controllers ?

Would I need anything else or is the above a comprehensive shopping list ?

One last question about RP devices. Could I use the same device to emulate SNES or C64 ? If so can you have these all on the devices at the same time ?

I know I`ve asked a lot

Cheers

[005AGIMA]

Welcome. I'm newly returned like yourself.

My answer would be....why not have both?

It's a VERY personal thing, but for me, I tried emulation first just to re-ignite the passion.

From there, I knew if I were to re-buy an Amiga, it HAD to be the one i had as a child, so I took great care in finding and buying the right A500 pack, in box.

But that may stay as a collectors piece, with occasional use to keep it healthy (like looking after a classic car).

From there I'll happily continue to play with Emulation on my PC, but I also plan on buying an A1200 simply because that is the upgrade I could/should have done back in the day, rather than jumping to a 386 PC. Call it a "course correction" lol.

I've other projects in mind, like squeezing a gaming PC on a mini ITX board, into an Amiga 500 case (only a broken donor of course).

Re Emulation, and again, I'm new here myself....but I considered Pi, and I may go that way in the future, but I can't help but see PC emulation as more capable, even on old systems.
Just to try, I downloaded WinUAE and...*cough*acquired*cough* the ROMS just to see if this was something I wanted to get into.

It was, and so I then got Amiga Forever DVD version so that I had:
1) The wonderful video history of Commodore/Amiga
2) Legit Roms.

From there I feel I can do anything with a clear conscience as I've paid for my Roms.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[Anubis]

You are very close in list. Here is all what makes perfect for Amiga emulation.

* Raspberry Pi 3b
* Case with built in fan
* 2 x microSD cards (larger, better if you plan to add lots of games and/or options - 2 if you like to have one dedicated microSD for amiga, and second for RetroPi, otherwise you can have only 1)
* Power supply for RPi, prefferably 2.5ma or stronger
* Kayboard and mouse of your choice
* Gamepad, I find xbox 360 being the best fit
* TV for output, or HDMI monitor with sounds (or proper 3.5mm cable for AV connection to separate video and audio)

From link in my previous post, you can download premade Amiberry ISO image that you can transfer to microSD. Upon transfer, edit dietpi.txt if you like to enable SSH and WIFI. Upon first boot it will go through process of update to latest version of dietpi OS, and once done will show you screen very similar to WinUAE.
SSH to RPi and run config to enable FTP, so that you can move rom files, ADFs, HDFs and anything else you like to move.

I use ClassicWB Full setup, and with Amiberry, once you save it as autostart, in misc settings you can uncheck 'show GUI' - and that makes it boot strait into ClassicWB Workbench. You can setup second HD to be directory and you can FTP stuff into it.

Only issue I have is that bigger/larger HD are not supported.

For retropie there are many good youtube tutorials. I find ETA PRime's easiest to follow.

For Amiga emulation on PC - IMHO FS-UAE + Launchbox is best way, but it requires a lot of knowledge how to do stuff and run scripts on computer.. Once is done, it looks great and runs great. Here is my gaming PC screenshot of Launchbox setup for retro gaming. (All games start with single mouse click)

[005AGIMA]

@Anubis Launchbox looks GREAT!

What is the diffrence in running something like Amiberry ISO image to Retropie ?


As you`ll guess I`m new to this but from what I can see retropie runs all sorts of platforms and i`m guessing amiberry is Amiga only. Just wondering why you`d take the 1 platform option.


I`ve got a week off in Feb and will probably look to buy a RP3b+ . Does anyone know the max size of microSD card as the information seems varied on this ?



It`s mentioned you need 2 microSD card ? Is that so you can have one seperate for ROMs ?


Cheers again for all the help.

[Marchie]

Have we just talked someone out of getting real hardware? Sad, sad day...

Don't want to knock emu, just saying real hardware is awesome.

[chip]

I made the same error, i stupidly gave my Amiga 500 away

I suppose most of us gave it away or sold it. Who could ever predict that 8 bit and early 16 bit machines would get a second and better life?

Originally Posted by Marchie

Have we just talked someone out of getting real hardware? Sad, sad day...

Don't want to knock emu, just saying real hardware is awesome.

I’ve still got all my Amiga disks and extra drives etc and will probably end up buying an A1200 at some point but would like to mess about with a RP to bring back the memories. I started on C64 and the idea of having.multiple platforms on the one device appeals. Hence my question as to why anyone would want a single platform on a PI when there is the option of multiple on the likes of Retropie ?

I gave my old A500 away to someone in work as I had a PC and thought it was worthless at the time ?. When I see the prices on eBay I’ll need to pay makes me wish I’d kept it ?

[chip]

You are right Syntrax

This second "emulated" life is much better than the first "real" life

[Anubis]

Originally Posted by The Blastmaster

Hence my question as to why anyone would want a single platform on a PI when there is the option of multiple on the likes of Retropie ?

Because some people make project to recreate Amiga and made it act as close to original as possible. For example look at this project: https://amigalove.com/viewtopic.php?t=552

If you like multiple emulators, then RetroPie is a way to go. Just install it, install Amiberry, copy amiga ROM files into BIOS folder of RetroPie, WHDLoad LHA games into Aimiga folder - and with single controller click you can start any game.

Some of us got multiple RPi, so we might have multiple setups. I have all RPie from first one to last one. RPi3 I think I have 4 of them.

There is tons of stuff to do with those for kids. They love it.

Originally Posted by Marchie

Have we just talked someone out of getting real hardware? Sad, sad day...

Don't want to knock emu, just saying real hardware is awesome.

With the price of Amiga hardware, it is not hard...
Then include convenience, no room for another setup, cables everywhere...

[demolition]

Emulation platforms have their merits, however I always prefer to use the real HW if possible. For games, I'd say an A500 with ACA500plus or an A1200 with a small accelerator like ACA1221ec. Both of these setups will be able to run most games from a CF card with the A1200 being able to run a bit more stuff like AGA games or those needing >1MB chip. Dealing with real HW can be a bit of a hassle though and can be a money pit if you're not careful. :-)

[chip]

Hi again The Blastmaster

Here in the forum we have different opinions about real thing VS emulation

I personally use WinUAE since 2002

If you want a suggest, i would say buy both A500 and A1200

Otherwise, use emulation, it works great