Minimig advice

Hi all

I'm a long time Amiga user who was also registered on amiga.org for many years under a different username. I've got a nice retro console collection including classic Nintendo, SEGA, Sony and Atari consoles. My prized computing possession though is my NOS A1200 which I bought a few years ago from Analogic. I have kept it as original as possible, adding only a CF to IDE adapter and a Blizzard 030 card. I use it mainly as a WHDLoad machine.

I'm interested in looking into the Minimig as a more day-to-day Amiga, as I want to keep the A1200 as pristine as possible. Many of the games I enjoy require AGA and/or an 030 (e.g. T-Zer0). I'm a bit confused by the various Minimig platforms (Minimig, FPGA Arcade, FPGA Replay...) and the various cores, what they are capable of, and what is actually available. I'm hoping somebody can clear things up for me and let me know if what I'm after is possible, i.e. an FPGA Amiga with 030 and AGA.

Thanks in advance,
Cheers,
mash

[chaos]

Hi mash,

for the hardware, you have these options:
- original minimig board
- FPGA Arcade Replay board
- MiST board

As for capabilities, only the FPGA Arcade currently has AGA support, the MiST board might be getting AGA support in the future, the original Minimig board's FPGA is unfortunately too small for the AGA support. All of these boards are capable of at least 25MHz 68020 / 68030 speeds, maybe even up to 50MHz. You can even get (or maybe it will be available in the future, I'm not sure) a daughter board with a 060 CPU on it for the FPGA Arcade board.

If you absolutely must have AGA and 030-like speeds right now, I guess your best bet is to try and get a FPGA Arcade board. For some bucks less you might get a Mist board, if you can wait for the AGA core to be developed. If you don't really need AGA, the original minimig board is just fine, probably most compatible also, since it has a real 68k CPU on it. The other boards that use soft-core 68k CPU are getting close to full compatibility, so no problems playing any games.

I'm not sure about availability of these boards, I think the Mist is selling right now, you can try contacting MikeJ on fpgaarcade.com for the FPGA Arcade board, or if you want the original board, you might try searching on the net which dealers still have it, but you should get one with the ARM controller and the 4MB RAM upgrade.

Hi chaos

Thanks for the reply. That clears things up a lot! Just one further question, was the Replay board actually released? I can't find it for sale anywhere so am wondering whether it has been made available yet.

Cheers,
mash

[chaos]

To be honest, I'm not sure. I used to follow Replayboard development with great expectations, but it's really taking a lot of time to be finalized, so I lost track. I think it is still in some 'it's almost ready, we just have to fix the last bugs' state, but it's been like that for quite a while (years?). But once it does arrive, I'm sure it's going to be a boom (AGA core, more than 2MB of chipRAM, RTG graphics, plus if you get the daughterboard, you get the fastest 68060 ever seen on Amiga, plus ethernet and USB. And that's just what I've heard )

If you want to know any details, your best bet is to contact MikeJ at fpgaarcade.com.