English Amiga Board - View Single Post - Which Amiga would you recommend to people to buy?

ImmortalA1000 · 18 March 2023, 18:56

This is my thoughts about the A500mini....why bother if you already have a PC?

It's nothing like using a real Amiga and it doesn't offer any more of an authentic experience than using WinUAE on a DELL PC keyboard via an LCD TV/monitor. No 'mini' recreation of a computer is useful really, theC64 mini is another "vs PC+emulator+USB controller for peanuts" setup where it isn't worth the effort, you might as well just use WinUAE or VICE and at least then you can still buy a USB to D9 adaptor and plug in a decent joystick like the Euromax Zipstik etc which you can't do on theC64 Maxi let alone the mini. I presume theA500 mini also has this issue of not supporting standard Windows supported USB to D9 joystick port adaptors?

Unlike the poor C64/128, Amiga has RGB analogue output which is quite easy to quantise down to VGA 31khz RGB analogue even if you don't have a SCART RGB socket on your LCD TV. If you live in the EU your LCD TV will have SCART RGB input so you are good to go, no real need to get a CRT unlike people choosing between C64+SD2IEC vs theC64 Maxi option. Amiga picture on my enormous plasma TV via SCART RGB is pin sharp and lovely, nothing like playing Lotus II or Shadow of the Beast 1 in the dark on an enormous plasma TV

Output on my cheap Panasonic bottom of the range LCD TV is also more than equal to what WinUAE displays via HDMI all things considered, 320x256 is not really a high bandwidth screen mode for a 1080p LCD TV to display.

I also assumed most people would have either owned an Amiga in the past, so they know the software library well, or they have already tried WinUAE as an option and maybe then moved up to USB to D9 adaptors + decent controller already and are still open to the idea of maybe using a real Amiga hardware for the full nostalgic hit but not wanting to go mad on the investment needed. That was my thinking anyway.

18 March 2023, 18:56	#33
ImmortalA1000 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: london/england Posts: 1,347	This is my thoughts about the A500mini....why bother if you already have a PC? It's nothing like using a real Amiga and it doesn't offer any more of an authentic experience than using WinUAE on a DELL PC keyboard via an LCD TV/monitor. No 'mini' recreation of a computer is useful really, theC64 mini is another "vs PC+emulator+USB controller for peanuts" setup where it isn't worth the effort, you might as well just use WinUAE or VICE and at least then you can still buy a USB to D9 adaptor and plug in a decent joystick like the Euromax Zipstik etc which you can't do on theC64 Maxi let alone the mini. I presume theA500 mini also has this issue of not supporting standard Windows supported USB to D9 joystick port adaptors? Unlike the poor C64/128, Amiga has RGB analogue output which is quite easy to quantise down to VGA 31khz RGB analogue even if you don't have a SCART RGB socket on your LCD TV. If you live in the EU your LCD TV will have SCART RGB input so you are good to go, no real need to get a CRT unlike people choosing between C64+SD2IEC vs theC64 Maxi option. Amiga picture on my enormous plasma TV via SCART RGB is pin sharp and lovely, nothing like playing Lotus II or Shadow of the Beast 1 in the dark on an enormous plasma TV Output on my cheap Panasonic bottom of the range LCD TV is also more than equal to what WinUAE displays via HDMI all things considered, 320x256 is not really a high bandwidth screen mode for a 1080p LCD TV to display. I also assumed most people would have either owned an Amiga in the past, so they know the software library well, or they have already tried WinUAE as an option and maybe then moved up to USB to D9 adaptors + decent controller already and are still open to the idea of maybe using a real Amiga hardware for the full nostalgic hit but not wanting to go mad on the investment needed. That was my thinking anyway.