Top End Amiga, What Do I Need?

[Djay]

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, but i couldn't think of a better place to put it...

i wanna make a top end Amiga machine... what are the best parts to buy?

am i better off towering an A1200 or buying a A4000?

if i buy an A4000, what do i need to look out for?

what do i need to connect up a TFT monitor to an Amiga, or should i just get an old Amiga monitor (what is a good one to buy)?

i wanna be able to play old games, so i don't wanna include anything that cuts off that option!

any help would be great, money isn't really much of an issue, but i really wanna keep the cost below £300.00 (not including monitor)

[woody57]

Any ppc version without dual graphics is going to halt you playing aga games, so you probably are looking for a multisync monitor as opposed to a fixed 60hz or higher.
And unless you already own the software to get it all running full registered versions will quickly put you past any limit you set, then theres the question of sound eeek !

scrap everything I,ve written so far look at http://vesalia.de and check out their mediator to 1200 add on solutions

In short unless you spot a complete super miggy with all the trimings going really cheap I don,t think there,s a single best answer, really besides games what else are you using it for ?

allthough I hate to say it using a SPIT PC & emu IS the sub 300ukp way to do it .

Real migy will cost you more a lot MORE if using new add on's. :eek

[Amiga1992]

Two questions:

1) What do you want it for?

if the answer to the first question is "just because i can" or "for the hell of it", add question number 2:

2) Are you rich? :P

I found out I don't need anything bigger than my 030 for my Amiga needs (actually I could use an 060 for fastish demos ). if for the hell of it check out woody's link and max it all out and spend a shitload of cash for a computer that will in no way perform just as fast as a current pc/mac and has 1% (if that at all) of the software support the pc or mac platforms have.

Nothing beats the real thing but a PPC Amiga is IMO a waste of cash if you already have a platform you are content with and has all you need. If your computer needs are pretty basic and standard you can use perfectly an Amiga and it will do its job very very well.

For the TFT, you better get a Scandoubler. This is more recommended than getting an old Amiga monitor that will die in days after you purchase it or, with luck, will last you 2 or 4 years, not more.

BTW moved the post to New to amiga/emu scene because you are a newbie in anything related current Amiga (mostly like me )

[Djay]

i got out of the Amiga scene about 2-3 years after the A1200 came out, so in total agreement with you Akira about the noobie thing...

i only ever really used an Amiga for playing games, *doing* demos... that kinda stuff nothing serious at all...

my knowledge of addons for the Amiga is limited to say the least...

so...

i might go with a towered A1200 solution, what problems am i likely to face and what will i need?

[Unknown_K]

I dont see the need for a PPC upgraded amiga either. I play games on mine mostly and an A1200 with 030/50 and 16mb of rams runs games fine and appps also.

To be honest I use my newer A2000HD system more these days because it plays the oldest games without hassles.

[adolescent]

If you want the best system, then the A4000 is the way to go. For 300 though, you'd be hard pressed to max it out, even if you got great deals. For instance, a PPC card would be more than 300 itself.

I'm building the following, "just because":

A4000
Cyberstorm Mk3 060/50 w/Fast SCSI
2M CHIP/144M FAST
ScanMagic SD/FF
60GB HD IDE (connected to SCSI with Acard SCSIDE Adapter)
DVD/CD-RW IDE

Mediator 4000Di PCI Daughtercard
Voodoo3 3000 PCI
Sound Blaster 128 PCI
Realtek 10/100 NIC PCI

[Bad Mr Frosty]

I have a desktop A1200 with a 030, hard disk and CD-ROM. If you just want to play games, thats all you need. Picked it up for 100 quid with a 17" monitor and a load of other crap.

[Oscar Castillo]

A top end Amiga may not be the best choice if games are all you want to do. I had a hard time with games that just did not want to get along with anything faster than a stock A1200. AGA games may be better behaved.

[IanS]

For 300 ukp, you can pick up a pretty good spec A1200, but not 'high end' by any stretch.

I was lucky, I picked up an A1200 with HDD, 040/33 and 16Mb Ram (now 64mb) and IDE splitter for 20 ukp. It was a bit tatty, but I swapped the upper case for the one on my 030/50 A1200. It even has a 250W PC PSU cobbled on to it. It's not pretty, but it works. Unfortunately my Mouse has shed it's mortal coil, and I can no longer use my either of my Miggys! A Serial mouse adapter is on it's way...

Still, you can always emulate... I know WinUAE is free (Toni W !!), but legal Roms aren't. Amiga Forever 6 now comes with virtually every Rom and Workbench up to and including OS 3.9, as well as a PPaint 7.1, loads of preset configurations plus a few utils and games etc. At least you get *real* hi res, fast Workbench screens under P96, access to big HDDs and lots of Ram. For 50 ukp. Cloanto should be applauded for sticking with the Amiga in any form, and AF6 will probably run more games than any one REAL Amiga. (Please Akira... don't beat me up on this! Please? 300 ukp won't buy a top end Amiga, although I wish it would . As you say, a lower end machine is more compatible than an 060 zorro'd, Picasso 4 A1200 tower with all the bells and whistles... AF6 can emulate just about any real Amiga except PPC). Any budget PC will run AF6 at faster speeds than many real Amiga's.

IMHO an A1200, 030/50 or 040, 32mb Ram, 1GB Hdd, high density floppy, scandoubler and 17" pc monitor... should do for most things. Or Emulate.

(running for cover... did Akira see me?)

[Unknown_K]

A2000 WB 1.3 1mb+2mbFastram and 500mb HD covers the early games
A1200 WB 3.0 2mb+16mbfastram 030/50 and 4gb HC covers the AGA games

Both of the above systems are very easy to put together and wont cost you an arm and a leg. A few more bucks for a good NEC 3D monitor or 1084S, a few good joysticks, a bunch of DD 3.5" disks, and alot of adf's and your set.

I dont see the point of going for 040 or 060 systems unless you want to play a rare later game port or run some heavy duty old apps. A network connection to a PC makes life easier turning adf's into real disks. Amiga explorer is a crucial tool for me. PPC upgrades are a waste of money for the most part. Oh, and upgrade to a nicer mouse!

[ant512]

Originally Posted by IanS

Unfortunately my Mouse has shed it's mortal coil, and I can no longer use my either of my Miggys! A Serial mouse adapter is on it's way...

You know that the serial mouse adaptors require drivers, meaning they only work in system-compliant apps? Workbench is fine, but Lemmings and other mouse-controlled games won't work. PS/2 adaptors do not require drivers and will work in any Amiga software.

[IanS]

Thanks ant512. I wasn't aware of that, but I'll get myself a new Amiga Mouse or PS/2 adapter too I guess.

At the moment I'm running the Amiga display through a a TV card in my PC as the Philips monitor died. If only I could get the Siamese working over serial... maybe I should try VNC. Has anybody tried VNC between an Amiga and a PC?

Thanks again ant.

[Amiga1992]

I heard VNC works, I really would like to try it myself but I lack the necessary ethernet card.

BTW yes I did read the post above ;P

[ant512]

Originally Posted by IanS

If only I could get the Siamese working over serial... maybe I should try VNC. Has anybody tried VNC between an Amiga and a PC?

I've tried both of these. Both are slow, even over ethernet. I think Siamese was unstable on my system, but it's been a while since I tried it and I can't really remember.

VNC only works one way - it is possible to control the PC from the Amiga (PC runs the server, Amiga runs the client), but there aren't any VNC servers for the Amiga yet. Not proper servers, anyway. The only one I've come across is a VNC clone that requires CyberGraphX called "AnyWhere". I don't know how well it runs because I didn't want to switch back to CyberGraphics from Picasso '96.

VNC-style programs are briefly entertaining on the Amiga, but they're too slow to have any practical applications.

[Amiga1992]

That's shit, there's a port of VNC even for Comtiki running on the C64!
If the Amiga port does keyboard and mouse I would be OK.

[IanS]

Thanks guys. I'll have a look see if there are any other VNC type servers, and maybe retry Siamese. It didn't work properly on my last PC/Amiga setup. Otherwise, I'll buy a monitor adapter and try using a spare 15" VGA monitor.