Is it worth investing in a real Amiga?

[CongealedWallrs]

Hiya all,

I am very new to the Amiga emulation scene and have never owned an Amiga of any sort. I am very interested in whether it is a good idea to buy a real Amiga in order to play amazing Amiga games or if this will be very expensive and foolish.

I will mainly play games. But is WinUAE good enough for this or is it a good idea to buy a proper Amiga?

Also, if an Amiga is a good idea, how much would one expect to pay? I have seen a few on ebay and was tempted but I think the price was too high.

thank you kindly

[blade002]

YES !!!!! buy a real Amiga

Get hold of an Amiga 1200 with at least a 68030 accelerator board and at least 8 Meg of Fast Ram minimum ( I would recommend 16 Meg Fast though ) and a Hard Drive.

Get a hold of ClassicWB by Bloodwych ( you can find the dude on this forum )

Then get a hold of WHDLoad and install virtually every Amiga game out there onto your HD.

As far as costs go, can't quite tell you about that one, but AmigaKit are selling A1200's that are either new old stock ( as in brand new A1200's from the Escom Days, Circa 1995/96 ) or refurbished models.

[Hungry Horace]

how long is a piece of string?

sorry, not a very helpful answer, but opinion is very much divided on this, and you will get a lot of people giving you a lot of very different "right" answers.

for many people winuae is fine for gaming, or even prefereable, for others it is far from either.

[DDNI]

*cough* Absolutely, nothing can beat the feeling of tinkering with a real Amiga!

Buy an A1200 from me.....

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=35848

[laser]

Originally Posted by blade002

YES !!!!! buy a real Amiga

Get hold of an Amiga 1200 with at least a 68030 accelerator board and at least 8 Meg of Fast Ram minimum ( I would recommend 16 Meg Fast though ) and a Hard Drive.

Get a hold of ClassicWB by Bloodwych ( you can find the dude on this forum )

Then get a hold of WHDLoad and install virtually every Amiga game out there onto your HD.

As far as costs go, can't quite tell you about that one, but AmigaKit are selling A1200's that are either new old stock ( as in brand new A1200's from the Escom Days, Circa 1995/96 ) or refurbished models.

if you check on amikit on the A1200' accelerators section....you will found that they are selling jumpers at 0.34u$ each one

I can't believe they are selling jumpers...it's a shame

after I saw that I can't recommend to anybody purchase something there.

[blade002]

Originally Posted by laser

if you check on amikit on the A1200' accelerators section....you will found that they are selling jumpers at 0.34u$ each one

I can't believe they are selling jumpers...it's a shame

after I saw that I can't recommend to anybody purchase something there.

I must admit that selling a single jumper at 0.34 is really fucked up. a whole bag of about 30 for that price then yeah i can live with that, but selling one jumper and selling for that price is crazy

I will hand it to the guy when it comes to service though. He had my Python and Buffered Device here as fast as he could

[CongealedWallrs]

Originally Posted by Hungry Horace

how long is a piece of string?

sorry, not a very helpful answer, but opinion is very much divided on this, and you will get a lot of people giving you a lot of very different "right" answers.

for many people winuae is fine for gaming, or even prefereable, for others it is far from either.

Yes, I know what you mean. I suppose what I want to hear is: You absolutely do not need to buy one, it takes up extra space, is expensive and they are also quite rare in good condition and so will take time and expertise to achieve a good system.

I am just worried about how much WinUAE seems to crash when I am playing my favourite game in the world (Total Chaos).

thanks for all the responses, you people are FAST on this forum!!

[frikilokooo]

Originally Posted by laser

after I saw that I can't recommend to anybody purchase something there.

how you can write that?Are you joking or you are always this attitude?

Amigakit offers products that are hard to find or cannot be found nowhere and with quality warranty.I would entrust less to buy in eBay or another place for sure!

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by frikilokooo

how you can write that?Are you joking or you are always this attitude?

Rearrange these words to make a popular saying or phrase: Not troll do the feed.

[laser]

Originally Posted by blade002

I must admit that selling a single jumper at 0.34 is really fucked up. a whole bag of about 30 for that price then yeah i can live with that, but selling one jumper and selling for that price is crazy

I will hand it to the guy when it comes to service though. He had my Python and Buffered Device here as fast as he could

also they look like they are on black market....sincerally I never see until now a place on internet selling jumpers ...that's a vulgar attitude


bye

[DDNI]

the jumper is simply a place holder an ironic twist on the lack of amiga accelerators....

[pjtb]

I've got to recommend buying a real amiga - I bought one on a whim from ebay and since joined the forum.

I now have both a 600 and a 1200 and haven't looked back since. Something satisfying about upgrading a 16 year old machine and playing games rather than emulating with every configuration available. The upgrades can be hard to find but thats part of the fun. The advice on this forum is superb and I certainly have the bug now.

[mfletcher]

Originally Posted by CongealedWallrs

Hiya all,

I am very new to the Amiga emulation scene and have never owned an Amiga of any sort. I am very interested in whether it is a good idea to buy a real Amiga in order to play amazing Amiga games or if this will be very expensive and foolish.

I will mainly play games. But is WinUAE good enough for this or is it a good idea to buy a proper Amiga?

Also, if an Amiga is a good idea, how much would one expect to pay? I have seen a few on ebay and was tempted but I think the price was too high.

thank you kindly

Buy a proper Amiga? The answer to this is a most resounding YES!!!

Sure you can emulate your Amiga just fine in WinUAE, but a lot of people in this community still hope to see the platform resurrected at some point.

Buying Amiga Hardware ensures:
1) That demand for Amiga Hardware is still there
2) Keeps the last companies dealing with Amiga Hardware (ie AmigaKit, Individual Computers) in business!
3) If there is significant demand, this can spur on the development of new hardware that can keep the platform alive. For example, there is a demand for ScanDoublers / FlickerFixers for A1200's so that users can connect their computers to modern LCD monitors. Just witness the threads out there asking for such devices. I believe that Jens S saw this potential demand and thats why he's releasing his internal Scandoubler / FlickerFixer later this year.
4) Nothing beats using original Amiga hardware!

Mark

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by mfletcher

but a lot of people in this community still hope to see the platform resurrected at some point.

"Resurrected"? Not so sure about that

[CongealedWallrs]

Thank you everyone! I knew that posting here would simply complicate my decision. Now I really do want one!!

But I want an A4000, how much should they sell for? I saw a beauty but she was pricey.

And I imagine that I would need to be able to service it myself?

[davideo]

Originally Posted by CongealedWallrs

Thank you everyone! I knew that posting here would simply complicate my decision. Now I really do want one!!

But I want an A4000, how much should they sell for? I saw a beauty but she was pricey.

And I imagine that I would need to be able to service it myself?

A good one can go for more than £350

You do have to look out for leaking batteries and capacitors

These can bugger up anything from the sound output, the real time clock, mouse and joystick

I'd recommend that you only buy one from someone you know and trust

I got caught out by a fleabayer and I'm now having to carry out several repairs to get my sound back to how it should be

Dave G

Originally Posted by blade002

I must admit that selling a single jumper at 0.34 is really fucked up. a whole bag of about 30 for that price then yeah i can live with that, but selling one jumper and selling for that price is crazy

I will hand it to the guy when it comes to service though. He had my Python and Buffered Device here as fast as he could

In all fairness, that jumper was first put there when a 68030 card was first offered there. I bought only the card, the jumper has been there ever since. Maybe I should have taken the orphan. The card was a Blizzard 68030 with 64 megs. I would check daily and sent Amikit emails about the Blizzard cards and when it arrived I jumped on it. I have bought many items from here. They are TOP NOTCH. I would not hesitate to buy anything from Amikit.

[stefcep]

Personally yes, a real amiga feels different. But don't waste money on a A4000 just for games. In fact most software that needs an A4000 eg 24 bit graphics software, renderers you can get better alternatives on your PC. But the Amiga stuff that needs the native chips is just as good on A1200. Stick to an 68030 for best balance between speed and compatiblity

Originally Posted by stefcep

Personally yes, a real amiga feels different. But don't waste money on a A4000 just for games. In fact most software that needs an A4000 eg 24 bit graphics software, renderers you can get better alternatives on your PC. But the Amiga stuff that needs the native chips is just as good on A1200. Stick to an 68030 for best balance between speed and compatiblity

@CongealedWallrs: A1200 equipped with a hdd is really enough to play all good games. But don't forget, Total Chaos requires at least 040, yes it works with 020/030 but for a good speed you should have 040.

[CongealedWallrs]

Originally Posted by endo64

@CongealedWallrs: A1200 equipped with a hdd is really enough to play all good games. But don't forget, Total Chaos requires at least 040, yes it works with 020/030 but for a good speed you should have 040.

Great advice everyone, can't thank you all enough! This information will certainly help me make a good decision.

I am mostly a bit scard of breakdowns and maintenance because I could not do that myself and I would imagine that it is hard to find anyone who can.

But I do agree that an Amiga just for gaming is a bit silly, but I AM a bit silly so there we go!