Amiga 1500

[games27]

I might be able to get hold of an Amiga 1500 with GVP scsi 420mb hdd. Workbench 2, and some other various software.
It also comes with a Commodore 1084S monitor. How much is all this worth? What is the going rate?
I am very new to Amigas, as I was a bit young for amigas at the time. I had a master system, then PS1 etc. But would love to have a go at the older retro stuff.
Can Amiga 1500 play all the games, that were released on the A500 and a1200?
What does the specs above mean? Is it a good machine to buy? Will I need anymore add ons?

Many thanks people

[Paul_s]

The 1500 is just a rebadged Amiga 2000 - marketed for the UK only.

Being a 2000 you will be able to play OCS/ECS titles (those make up 90% of Amiga software). AGA is not supported (1200).

The 1500/2000 are built like a tank; watch out for the on-board battery which should be removed - they have a tendency to leak after all these years.

Going rate? With a plain SCSI card (non-accelerated), 1084S... you're probably not looking at more than £150. Whilst the '1500' is a rare Commodore pack to come across all you're getting is the exclusivity of the badge on the front of the machine (and the box if you're a serious collector).

http://www.lemonamiga.com/help/models/amiga_1500.php

If you want an 'all-round' Amiga that will pretty much meet all your needs then the better machine would be an Amiga 1200.

[hansel75]

Originally Posted by Paul_s

The 1500 is just a rebadged Amiga 2000 - marketed for the UK only.

We had them down here in Australia to, i knew a guy who owned a A1500 when i was younger.

[games27]

So I wont be able to play A1200 games on the 1500? Sorry if its a silly question

[fitzsteve]

No, the A1500 is an A2000 essentially and as such has the ecs chipset so aga games won't work. You can however fit an rtg graphics card, although you still wont have aga you will need able to play games that support rtg.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

although you still wont have aga you will need able to play games that support rtg.

Which pretty much only means homebrewn conversions/ports and a dozen of really-late commercial games

[zipper]

And mostly just 320x240/256 because of slow ZorroII, perhaps 320x400, too. But I really enjoyed them on my A500T/PicassoIV/CV64 3d.

[games27]

Sorry guys Im a complete beginner. Just so I can get this straight the A1500 wont play really play any of the A500 or A1200 games unless they are ecs chipset? Which is none of them really?
Was the ECS Chipset the later improved one on the A1500?
Is the A1500 more of a business type machine than a games machine?

[games27]

All the different terms ECS and AGA etc has made me very confised
If someone doesnt mind giving me a quick lesson on the Amiga that would be great, and tell me what I would be able to do with a A1500. As it would be a shame if I bought an A1500 and couldnt play on any of the older games.

[ransom1122]

Like what Paul_s said. With an a1500 you can play most amiga games except for games that are designed for AGA.

90% of amiga games are non AGA. (Which will work on a 1500)

Amiga 1200 can play both non AGA & AGA games. Which is why the 1200 is recommended over the 1500 easily.

My personal opinion if you don't care about AGA games get an amiga 500 if you want both AGA & non AGA games to work grab an amiga 1200.

You might get incompatibility issues with a 1500 on some old games depending what Kickstart the 1500 has your looking at buying.

Kickstart 1.3 is the standard Kickstart for the amiga 500 & is recommended for all the non AGA games.


Hope this helps you.

[Paul_s]

Originally Posted by games27

All the different terms ECS and AGA etc has made me very confised
If someone doesnt mind giving me a quick lesson on the Amiga that would be great, and tell me what I would be able to do with a A1500. As it would be a shame if I bought an A1500 and couldnt play on any of the older games.

OCS - Original Chipset / ECS - Enhanced Chipset

The ECS chipset as is an 'enhanced' version of the OCS chipset (productivity screen modes, enhancements to chipram allowance, ntsc/pal switching etc). Most Amiga software (mainly games) run perfectly fine on either. Think of ECS in simple terms as a 'minor'/'roll-up' update to the original chipset the Amiga was shipped with in 1985 (Amiga 1000).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Enhanced_Chip_Set

Fully fledged OCS based machines - Amiga 1000, early - mid revision 2000s, early revision Amiga 500s.
Part OCS/ECS machines - Amiga 500, mid revision Amiga 2000s, Amiga CDTV
Full ECS machines - Amiga 500 Plus, Amiga 600, Later revision Amiga 2000s (including 1500), later revision Amiga CDTVs, Amiga 3000.
AGA only machines Amiga 1200, 4000 & CD32.

there are enhancement boards for some models above which can bring them up to full 'ECS' spec (OCS/part ECS machines only!) but these are not that common in the marketplace so we'll stick with the basic hardware.

AGA - backwards compatible with (most) OCS/ECS based software, you could think of running an AGA only title as trying to play a PS4 game on a PS3 - the hardware on the PS3 isn't going to support it.

n.b. some very old OCS based software can have issues with part/full ECS based machines (some are 'fixed' if you are running WHDLoad for example)