ACA500Plus, Checkmate 1500 plus and ZZ9000 RTG compatibility

[SteveWarren]

Hi All,

I'm currently new to the retrogaming scene and have recently bought my A500+ back to life.

I'm currently running this with an ACA500plus, Indivision V2 and X-Surf-500, which has made significant improvements, but I'm not satisfied.

I'm looking at an accelerator card in the future (possibly the forthcoming ACA1240/1260) and wanted to know if I improve things even further by adding MNTs ZZ9000 (primarily for RTG) to the mix. I'd look to achieve this by putting them all in a Checkmate 1500 plus case.

My questions is does the A500 Zorro Bus allow for this, I understand the ACA500plus uses 6MB, but I'm unclear on whether the remaining 2MB will be enough for the ZZ9000 (I read somewhere that this may require 4MB).

There's also the question of whether checkmates new Zorro adapter works with the ACA500plus. I've read that the issues are finally resolved, but can't see anything concrete.

I know the smart option would be to save my money and invest in a big box Amiga, but this A500+ is sentimental to me and I'd like to do a little more than just play games.

Any advice would be greatly received.

Steve

[stevelord]

I'm not sure a ZZ9000 would be a great experience on an A500+. Even on Z3 it struggles at 16-bit 1080p. You might find a PiStorm more useful (which has RTG support) and certainly less expensive. It should work with a Checkmate case too.

[wazza]

Yeah, sell all that Amiga specific hardware you already bought and just throw in a raspberry Pi instead...........

[SteveWarren]

I'm on the waiting list for a PiStorm, but who knows when they will be available again!

[stevelord]

Originally Posted by wazza

Yeah, sell all that Amiga specific hardware you already bought and just throw in a raspberry Pi instead...........

If he gets a ZZ9000 his X-Surf and Indivision are redundant anyway.


He doesn't need to sell the gear. He can try the pistorm out and see if it works for him. Clearly OP has a goal in mind. If it moves him towards his goal, great. If not, he's ruled it out without spending tons of money on a card that'll be slow on his setup compared to what it's meant for.


If he wants to keep the existing setup then a GBAPII++ (they pop up on Amibay and ebay) might be easier/cheaper to get hold of given MNT's recent issues. There are Pistorms on ebay right now around 30 quid per unit.

[SteveWarren]

I spoke to MNT and they have a version of firmware that only uses 2MB of the Zorro bus and will work alongside the ACA500plus and accelerator. They actually use a similar set up themselves.

I've taken the plunge, so I'm committed now. As stevelord mentions, I can remove the X-Surf and Indivision and either sell them on or repurpose them in another A500.

I'll still look at getting a Pistorm when they are available and not via the crazy profiteers looking to make a large profit from an open source project as I feel it goes against everything the developers of the Pistorm were trying to achieve. With CPLD shortages meaning this could be some before I can get my hands on one, I'll be happy with my planned approach to try and make my dear A500+ the best version of itself.

[stevelord]

Originally Posted by SteveWarren

I've taken the plunge, so I'm committed now.

Cool! In case you haven't seen it Greg Donner's ZZ9000 Compendium is the best place to get the latest updates. I believe batch 6 is being shipped now and you should be in batch 7, which might be a while off but it'll get there.

Originally Posted by SteveWarren

I'll be happy with my planned approach to try and make my dear A500+ the best version of itself.

That made me smile. I'm sure it'll be in great hands.

[E-Penguin]

I use a GBAPI++ in a similar setup and it works nicely