Should i build another amiga again ?

[adonay]

Hi all .

After some time without an amiga i have to say i miss the real hardware.
Sitting down in front of a laptop with a WINUAE emulator is in my mind not the same and does not give me the right feeling...

This is my current setup:



I have had every possible amiga 1200 configuration . Tower , Wedge . 020,030,040,060,PPC and bvision. Clockport audio\usb pci bussboard etc.

When did i quit? About 3 times sold all and started over.
Last time I ended up selling my tower first with the gfx setup as i thought i needed money there and then, as well as i thought i would be okay with a desktop configuration.
I did first use a bvision in the desktop but that bppc only had a 040 and after using a 80mhz 060 it felt to slow. So i changed that for a blizz 1260 with scsi.
I liked playing around with a desktop machine for a while but i soon got bored since i did not have enough chip mem after being used to allot of gfx mem and highres.
I tried again later with a ACA1230 56mhz "thought it was buggy" also bought a indivision a little bit later but did not really have time for the amiga since it was in norway and i mainly live in sweden.
So i sold that off as well when clearing out my old apartment as my parents moved house.

However now some years later i only use uae 1200 020.
I am not used to 16\24bit displays on the amiga side any longer.
I still have a few amigas but all the accelerators are sold and i dont even have a scandoubbler any more.
If i build a new system it will have to be 060 since there are just far to many great demos and apps that run best on a 060.
Also knowing there is something faster always seems to kill the experience for me. I have had blizz 1230 mkiv cards and they are great but i always want something more in the ling run.
It must be either a blizzard ppc 060 or a blizz 1260 both with scsi option



Here is were i need you advice although i will probably do the opposite regardless of input "i normally do". I guess i am just looking for some sort of support or ideas what i should go for .

I want to use a external scsi box as i still have this one and all the cables for a 1230 scsi iv controller. I also think this looks damn cool and gives me a neat way of using cds.
I will want to try the new indivision aga mk2 if i go desktop .Or i will just use a tvcard passthrough if i go tower again as well as junk the scsi box.

If i go tower i will try the mediator TX as i have great experience with both the LT4&SX .I see they now have support for a radeon card and a driver for pci SCSI cards . I have heard nothing about the scsi experience though . I also dont know if their Spyder USB cards have posseidon support now.

Any recommendations\ sugestiones etc
What to get and not to get?
Do it or leave it alone.


I use the amiga mainly for games,modules,demos and playing with old iff files etc from long ago .
I have a huge database with allot of amiga stuff that i play around with but normally only when its on an amiga. If i sit on a pc with uae its to easy to read the web or to do other things

[demolition]

Getting an Amiga is not a rational decision, so it has to be completely up to your feelings. I also drive a motorcycle, which again is not really a rational decision, other than I like it.

Even though I have an A1200 with an ACA1232 and IndyMkII, I must admit I more enjoy using my A600 (with ACA620 and IndyECS). In PAL mode with scanline emulation, the A600 feels very 'Amiga' like even on my 24" LCD, where the MkII somehow feels more like sitting at an emulator.

[Amiga1992]

Real hardware always brings issues, or at least, usually.
If part of your "right feeling" is dealing with such things, go ahead and get one. You had real Amiga experience before, so I assume you can tackle those.

I only use my 1200 and 600 for music making, the CD32 is for games and WinUAE is for testing stuff and whatnot. Usually use it on the go on my netbook when an AMiga is nowhere to be found, too. I love it as much as my Amigas, it's a fantastic piece of software.

[adonay]

Originally Posted by demolition

Getting an Amiga is not a rational decision, so it has to be completely up to your feelings. I also drive a motorcycle, which again is not really a rational decision, other than I like it.

Even though I have an A1200 with an ACA1232 and IndyMkII, I must admit I more enjoy using my A600 (with ACA620 and IndyECS). In PAL mode with scanline emulation, the A600 feels very 'Amiga' like even on my 24" LCD, where the MkII somehow feels more like sitting at an emulator.

Always wanted to get the amiga 600 never did .
However i feel the 1200 is a little more practical.
I bet that amiga 600 with a ACA620 is great for gaming etc though.

I belive my indy mk1 "on the 1200" had scanline emulation as well i am not sure though..

just wish they made a acc for the cd3d that would be great.

[TCD]

I never got the whole 'build the fatest Amiga' setup thingy myself. I was an A500 user and I had it for the games and demos. However I really think that if you have to ask if you should get another one, you pretty much answered your own question

[alexh]

If using WinUAE does not feel "right" on your laptop it is probably due to the refresh rate of your monitor. If you have HDMI out on your laptop why not try running it with Sync on and at 50Hz or 60Hz?

[adonay]

I dont know i can probably run winuae on my other computer as well but it kind of does not do the same thing for me..
To name a few settlers 2 player with two mice`, how do i do that on a pc ?
Two analog joystick ports that supports my old compendium pros and zipstick etc . The later usb remake has a delay and feels off .
A computer you only use for one purpose as in it cant do other things that will side track you. Plug it into the lcd tv with a rgb scart. Get the paula sound signature "noice" in modules. There are several reasons why the real thing is better. UAE was never a replacement for me...
I guess this time around i will try to drop the 060 thing and not try to demand so much .

[demolition]

For me, the Amiga is not about raw performance - then I'd use WinUAE on my PC which is clocked 500x higher than a low end Amiga. Pretty much all games run in a plain non-interlaced PAL/NTSC mode, and if my monitor had a SCART input I think that would suffice on the A600 for productivity and gaming. On my laptop I can set the screen to 50 Hz, enable Vsync and then WinUAE actually feels quite 'right'.

So one can achieve this feeling with very little money, however if you like to toy with exotic hardware, then an A4000 with 060/PPC accelerator, gfx, ethernet and the lot could be the right thing. We can't tell you what the right thing is.

[diablothe2nd]

I know how you feel about it "not feeling right" with uae. Even using a dedicated Icaros machine doesn't feel right.

if you just want it for making music and editing IFFs why bother with an accelerator when the only thing you really need as an "upgrade" is the IDE Flash Card thing?

for me, it's a little different though. the amiga was the basis of my interest in 3D graphics and design, something of which i pursued as a career at one point. So for me, the raw horsepower of my 66mhz 060 and 330mhz ppc gets used for a much higher ratio than most in it's time spent powered on.

think about why you've sold everything. did you buy all those upgrades on impulse, then lose interest? or did you actually need and use them regularly? if you really wanna go back to what feels right, perhaps sticking with what you KNOW you'll use will make you less guilty when you spend money on it.

for gods sake though, dont get the bug... take one look at my CD1200 link in my sig and you'll know what i mean

[roy bates]

do what you want to do,its your choice.

[TCD]

^ Early post of the year candidate

[adonay]

Originally Posted by diablothe2nd

I know how you feel about it "not feeling right" with uae. Even using a dedicated Icaros machine doesn't feel right.

if you just want it for making music and editing IFFs why bother with an accelerator when the only thing you really need as an "upgrade" is the IDE Flash Card thing?

for me, it's a little different though. the amiga was the basis of my interest in 3D graphics and design, something of which i pursued as a career at one point. So for me, the raw horsepower of my 66mhz 060 and 330mhz ppc gets used for a much higher ratio than most in it's time spent powered on.

think about why you've sold everything. did you buy all those upgrades on impulse, then lose interest? or did you actually need and use them regularly? if you really wanna go back to what feels right, perhaps sticking with what you KNOW you'll use will make you less guilty when you spend money on it.

for gods sake though, dont get the bug... take one look at my CD1200 link in my sig and you'll know what i mean

Hi first off all great post. Got me thinking what i miss and want to achieve with my amiga setup.
Clearly i can not live with just a cf upgrade on a designated retro box "computer". Even in UAE i use allot of ram so a clean 1200 wont cut it.
I guess i can be called a power user on the amiga i used it for everything it was not intended to do like go to Internet, play mp3s from one time to another . play 060 demos or ppc demoes. Fiddle around with ppc tooltypes etc for a smoother experience.
To put it this way every time i have sold something i have regretted maybe not there and then or the next week but some time after that.

I guess i will go tower again with mediator and a bppc . Problem i guess is to get a nice tower case are there any new for sale at the moment ? used to have a D-Box and custom one before that. Its a pain in the rear to align the mediator with the pci backplate.,
Used yellow infinty towers are not prefered.

I see you plan to use your bvision together with the mediator and the radeon card . Am i right that you plan to use the radeon for workbench and the bppc for warp 3d ?

O and btw i never regret spending too much money on hobby's or projects.

[adonay]

Lol just for the fun of it here are some of my old setups some hacks some ok .

[Amiga1992]

Damnit, you don't want to do all that again :P Just build something nice and simple to game and watch demos. A cheap ACA accelerator should be all you need.

[TCD]

I bet he wants our absolution for doing it again Sorry, but the question itself is kinda pointless and can be only answered with 'Yes!' if you got the 'bug' again. Bet you just want people to chime in to make you feel better and I guess that's kinda fair. I for one can't see myself spending a lot of money for a system that basically only runs some demos at full speed when I can have it for free with my current PC setup, but then again I don't really care for it being 100% authentic. It boils down to 'Whatever floats your boat' mainly...

[adonay]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

I bet he wants our absolution for doing it again Sorry, but the question itself is kinda pointless and can be only answered with 'Yes!' if you got the 'bug' again. Bet you just want people to chime in to make you feel better and I guess that's kinda fair. I for one can't see myself spending a lot of money for a system that basically only runs some demos at full speed when I can have it for free with my current PC setup, but then again I don't really care for it being 100% authentic. It boils down to 'Whatever floats your boat' mainly...

Can you run ppc apps on that pc of yours or os4 if you wanted "not that i care for os4".

Its more of a thread to get new ideas for what i should get i guess.

[TCD]

I don't care for PPC apps (not that there are many interesting Amiga exclusive ones anyway IMO). Like you said, your thread title implies something else than what you already decided. My two cent would just be 'DON'T SELL EVERYTHING AGAIN IF YOU'RE GOING TO BUILD A NEW SETUP'. You clearly like to own a pimped 'real deal', so just get a nicely pimped A1200 from Amibay and be done with it

[adonay]

Originally Posted by Akira

Damnit, you don't want to do all that again :P Just build something nice and simple to game and watch demos. A cheap ACA accelerator should be all you need.

Maybe i will . I will start there try to get a 1230 iv again with a scsi addon and a indy. The rest i already have .
I would go for the ACA but i would like the scsi from the other card. I could do pcmcia SCSI but its nice to have wifi or sd card there as well as the dma in the blizzard.



Building a mediator setup is fun and expensive but will make the 1200 a different computer all together.

[fishyfish]

For my tastes UAE doesnt quite cut it. Sure, its an impressive piece of software and I do understand the appeal, but "the real thing" has its own charms that simply cant be emulated. Trying to squeeze the most from old hardware for example. Half the appeal from retro gear for me is seeing what sorts of results can be squeezed out. Emulating a system doesnt have that appeal. Not that Im anti-emulator. I love my (currently not working) amithlon box just as much, but theyre different kettles of fish. Same is true of AROS/MOS/OS4/WINUAE/etc.

[adonay]

Originally Posted by fishyfish

For my tastes UAE doesnt quite cut it. Sure, its an impressive piece of software and I do understand the appeal, but "the real thing" has its own charms that simply cant be emulated. Trying to squeeze the most from old hardware for example. Half the appeal from retro gear for me is seeing what sorts of results can be squeezed out. Emulating a system doesnt have that appeal. Not that Im anti-emulator. I love my (currently not working) amithlon box just as much, but theyre different kettles of fish. Same is true of AROS/MOS/OS4/WINUAE/etc.

There we have it i guess you put words on why i miss the real deal.
See what you can do with so little yet have something fun\different to play around with. I personally loved to get the most out of my systems and also liked that some things did take longer =slower like copy stuff and disk access .

I guess for the thread i made up my mind to build a new system again. Not sure what i need and want yet but that will come later .

Thank you all for your input you have inspired me allot.