Is Amiga 3000 a good "gaming" choice?

[c0dehunter]

Compared to 500 that is. I am about to snag one, and although I already own four A500s, A600 (not very compatible with most games), A2000 (1.3 to 2.04 soft switch!), I need to know if the A3000 can run older, games and demos.

I also hear that is has a 'native' SVGA adapter so a modern SVGA monitor can be connected to it, is that right?

[Lord Riton]

Originally Posted by c0dehunter

Compared to 500 that is. I am about to snag one, and although I already own four A500s, A600 (not very compatible with most games), A2000 (1.3 to 2.04 soft switch!), I need to know if the A3000 can run older, games and demos.

I also hear that is has a 'native' SVGA adapter so a modern SVGA monitor can be connected to it, is that right?

I wouldn't buy an A3000 for gaming. In fact i don't know any situation for which an A3000 would be usefull enough for me to buy
An A3000 is less powerfull than a simple A1200, and also less compatible (cannot play A1200 games, and Amiga 500 games don't all work on it).

That remembers me a situation, arround 20 years agoo. A guy came to school and said, yeah, i'll get an A1000 ! wich is much better than a 500 ! (because of the 1000 > 500 i guess ). I told him he was doing some bad buy.. He didn't listen

[roy bates]

i dont know about the a3000 being less powerfull than a a1200 out the box.

the a300 has a built in scandoubler, built in scsi, zorro... less powerful than an a1200?

[quarkx]

Out of the box? Really.
Lets compare:
"Out of the box" the A1200 has 0 yes ZERO fast ram and 2 megs of chip Ram
Depending on the configuration, an A3000 usually has 2-16 Megs of fast ram and 2 megs of Chip Ram.

The A3000 is an Excellent choice for Games, ok, for the few AGA game out there, it won't work, but if you buy a "Stock" a1200, you end up having to put in another couple hundred dollars, getting an Accelerator/ fast ram upgrade, so you can run WHDload. IF you want a scan doubler- bang- add another $150 plus dollars.
Dollar for dollar, or Pound for Pound, Euro for Euro, the A3000 is a way better investment right out of the box than an A1200- Best of all, other than mor ZIP Ram, there is no real need to add any upgrades to the system- a stock A3000 wil run anything and you have zorro slots for any upgrades.

Always remember the market it was built for:
The A3000 is a "big box" Amiga, built for the high-end professional market.
The A1200 was a "home" Amiga, commodore cut corners on everything to bring the cheapest Amiga to the home market, no fpu -no ram- no nothing. If it wasn't for 3rd party upgrades, the a1200 would be a very useless machine.
The A3000 was "everything" included right out of the box- you will find that other than extra ram, most people kept the A3000 stock, there was no need for anything else. Most modern monitors (NTSC ones anyways) will hook up with no effort- just flick the switch.

in fact, I was running OS 3.5 on a stock A3000 with no upgrades (it had 16 megs of ram)

most amiga 500 games work just fine on it, might have to disable the CPU and no fast ram etc, but I have never heard once that games wont work, there are many youtube videos of proud A3000 owners running WHDload on it.

[Galahad/FLT]

The A3000 is pretty much regarded as the Best Amiga that was ever made. Certainly the graphics cards you could add to it made AGA look pretty shit frankly.

Yes, if you have the chance to get a working A3000 for a nice price, take it, it'll only go up in value.

I wrote most of PM3 Deluxe on Gremlins A3000, the only Amiga they had linked up to their internal network.

[Amiga1992]

The A3000 is in my opinion the best Amiga there is, and it's got an awesome design. I wish I get one some day!

[Lord Riton]

Are you guys all serious ?


What does an A3000 bring to A500 games ? nothing.
To A1200 games ? It can't even run them.

He talked about gaming, about nothing else.

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by Lord Riton

Are you guys all serious ?


What does an A3000 bring to A500 games ? nothing.
To A1200 games ? It can't even run them.

He talked about gaming, about nothing else.

it can run a500 games through whdload,and its faster.

im pretty sure there where more ocs and ecs games than there where aga.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Lord Riton

Are you guys all serious ?


What does an A3000 bring to A500 games ? nothing.
To A1200 games ? It can't even run them.

He talked about gaming, about nothing else.

And you said "out of the box" it's worse than an A1200, which is totally the opposite, as it was explained before.

Except for AGA games, an A3000 runs, really OUT OF THE BOX with no money put on top of it , a shit ton of games through WHDLoad.

[quarkx]

I would take an A3000 over a stock A1200 any day of the week.
It's like saying "this scooter is faster than this lamborghini"

Now, an stock A4000 over a stock A3000, thats a much harder choice- Each unit has it's strength and weaknesses

[roy bates]

i still cant beleive someone would say an a3000 was less powerfull than a 1200,even the cpu was faster out the box.

[c0dehunter]

If you connect A3000 to a PC (via SVGA), would the games look sharper? I have many 1084-S monitors, and I love the fact that they look great in RGB, but the thought of gaming in SVGA (native) is tempting. Is there a screen-shot or video of gaming in SVGA?

I lost the bid on A3000!

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by c0dehunter

If you connect A3000 to a PC (via SVGA), would the games look sharper? I have many 1084-S monitors, and I love the fact that they look great in RGB, but the thought of gaming in SVGA (native) is tempting. Is there a screen-shot or video of gaming in SVGA?

I lost the bid on A3000!

im sorry you lost the bid.

[quarkx]

Originally Posted by c0dehunter

If you connect A3000 to a PC (via SVGA), would the games look sharper? I have many 1084-S monitors, and I love the fact that they look great in RGB, but the thought of gaming in SVGA (native) is tempting. Is there a screen-shot or video of gaming in SVGA?

I lost the bid on A3000!

Too bad!
To answer you question - Yes, any screen will be 1000% sharper, but that is not necessarily a good thing, in fact, the 16 color screens will probably look worse. You should get a real RGB card for games and such, it was a real disappointment that most pictures and such looked really dithered on a TFT monitor. You got use to it, but we are very spoiled now with "modern" graphics cards and clear Pictures.

[c0dehunter]

OK, thanks. As for the bid, it was a local Craigslist, and was advertised as $40 USD, but then went up to $100, and I offered $150, and this guy came in (before I get there) and bought the whole lot!

[SS454]

The A3000 isn't really a good idea if you just want to play games. Sure, there is whdload... But setting up a 3000 is a lot of work.

They're rare, and usually expensive. Then you have to do the battery repair. Then you have to make sure you've got enough fast ram, those stupid ZIP chips, or a rare adapter. Then you have to make sure your hard disk is big enough, they only had like, what? 300MB max in 1990? It's SCSI too, which means either finding another loud noisy slow drive, or buying a £££ adapter or IDE zorro board. Then you have do deal with file transfer, are you going to plug that SCSI drive into your modern PC? I doubt it.


If all you want to do is play amiga 500 games easily, then Amiga600, CF card, some fast ram, done. Then you can just load games with a USB CF card reader and WinUAE.

The 3000 is a lot more work. It's a trade off you should only accept if you need a workstation.

Or you could buy a cheap 1200, slap in one of the new accelerators and have a machine with the convenience of the 600 setup I just described, and a more powerful amiga than spending the same money on a 3000 would get you.

Plus if you go 1200 you can play banshee.

[Gunbot]

I thought my A3000 was a great gaming machine. Not enough graphic difference to downgrade to a A1200. I do think there were a couple AGA games that I could run through Picasso though.

[c0dehunter]

I have the followings:

A500 X4
A600
A1000 X2
A1200
A2000 (1.3 and 2.04 soft switch!)

I need A3000 and A4000

[SS454]

Originally Posted by Gunbot

I thought my A3000 was a great gaming machine. Not enough graphic difference to downgrade to a A1200. I do think there were a couple AGA games that I could run through Picasso though.

1200 plays all the same games, plus more.

That's an upgrade.