A1200 graphics

Justin

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Sep 14, 2008
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Hi all,
just a quick question, what graphics options do i have for the A1200, cheapest right up to best please.
thanks, Juv.U.K
 
Re: A1200 graphics

It really depends if you want to stick with a desktop case, or a tower conversion. Obviously a tower conversion will open up a lot of graphics options.

But if you wanted to stick with a desktop case, then you do have the option of probably the best Amiga specific graphics card that was ever made. The Blizzard BVision. But this only works if you have a Blizzard PPC accelerator for the A1200 as it connects to the local PCI expansion bus found on this accelerator card. More details here.

If you instead go for a tower conversion you instantly open up a lot more possibilities. An expansion board such as the Mediator, which adds PCI slots to the system, will then allow you to use certain PC graphics cards with the Amiga. These are mainly the old Voodoo 3 and higher graphics cards. This page lists all compatible graphics cards and other PCI cards.

If you were to opt for a Mediator expansion board, then make sure you get the later LT, LT4 or SX board, because the original Mediator PCI 1200 doesn't work with the Apollo 1260 which you have, but the later boards do.

There are also other makes of busboard for a towered A1200. Some others also offer PCI slots, but are not as good. While others expand the A1200 so it is more like a big box Amiga with Zorro slots. This would then allow you to use an Amiga Zorro based graphics card, but this could get very expensive considering how rare Zorro cards now are. Better to stick with PCI if possible. You can look through the available busboards here.
 
Re: A1200 graphics

You could also stay with the aga chipset and get a scandoubbler to output to a real screen but i suppose you found out as well that the 2mb chip is not enugh at some cases...

I have a tower with apollo 060 and a mediator + voodoo 3 combo it does its job quite neatly... But then again it is not cheap and i like my desktop amiga better ...
 
Re: A1200 graphics

Hiyas Juv,

my friend, the best at the moment is the new Indivision Scan Doubler, which you can source from either our own AmiTrader redrumloa or Amigakit.

This card is quite cool, as not only is it a 24bit scan doubler / flicker fixer, it also provides some nice HIGFX (high graphics) modes (1024x768). also it has a fall back to 49.9 Hz output should that you experience visual tearing in some games.

Anothing thing I like about the card is the fact you can have Scan Lines for that extra retr0-feel :) should that you want to. But i suppose the best thing about it is the fact its Flash Upgradeable for new screen modes and added support features!

clearly awsome, I tell you the first thing I am gonna do once I have robbed a bank is to buy 2 of these units :)
 
Re: A1200 graphics

Will you need a get away driver for the bank raid? If so let me know when it is going down as I will be needing a cash injection myself to get hold of one of those scan doublers too!

I really would love to own one of those. It would complete my recently upgraded A1200. But they are just so expensive!
 
Re: A1200 graphics

I just hope they don't stop making them before i save the cash to buy one as they work out to be in excess of AU$220 by the time you ad postage and conversion rates. :mrgreen:
 
Re: A1200 graphics

i was talking to Zetr0 the other day and we got talking about the 1200 graphics options, now at this point he got all technical and almost lost me, but the gist of it was, "the 1200 has a zorro 2 output, you just need an adaptor making that would be angled correctly to put the zorro graphics card in to your original case" now this got me thinking, this is my dilema i REALLY don't want to go to a tower (been there done that) but i REALLY want a grapics card, so....... can you guys help me to design a connector as Zetro described? i also think i would not be alone in wanting a zorro slot in a standard wedgie case???
what do you think chaps? (and chapesses if there are any on here? doubtful i know! lol)

cheers, JuvUK
 
Re: A1200 graphics

@JuvUK,

Not sure wether you mean that the A1200 has onboard signals to construct a Zorro II slot by carefully picking the signals up from around the board, If so I would have 3 Main issues.

1) Noise Crosstalk leading to stability issues & reliability of connections.

2) Will be just about impossible for the average enthusiast to replicate, never mind taking into account different board revisions.

3) OK so now you have a Zorro II slot in your desktop A1200, What will you plug into it that doesn't expect / assumes, the full slot length dimensions that Zorro II provides as per A2000 / A4000. It will have limited use unless you move your A1200 to a Tower?? in which case you may as well go ahead & buy existing Busboards..

To Top it off AGA is not that bad tbh, esp with an Indivision & using HighGFX, just be sensible with the colour depth & it all fits in the std case too.

Best Regards
TC :mrgreen:
 
Re: A1200 graphics

all good points and at this point i need Zetr0 to step in with a more detailed decription, but it would save a lot ?(some) chip ram which would help me no end
 
Re: A1200 graphics

@ Juv

Any fast Ram in ur Miggy?
 
Re: A1200 graphics

well heres what I have been thinking a lot about

onboard1200-1.jpg
(image from amiga.resource.cx)

The above is picture of the OnBoard 1200, it provides a single Zorro2 port, now this board isn't all that complicated in truth, I have some schematics for both the Zorro2 output as well as the A1200 cpu interface.

see, whats needed is a clip-on graphics card, its certainly possible the cv64-3d uses a very common s3 virgie chipset and drivers (picasso96), argubly one could build the hardware around the driver that already exists :D

although... it would take a smidgeon of time ;) :D ...sigh....
 
Re: A1200 graphics

so from what Zetr0 is saying you could have a zorro 2 compliant card (graphics card in my case) running inside a wedgie 1200, i think that'd be cccooooooooeeelllll! and i think if such a thing could be produced many other a1200 users may want to buy this as a cheaper (nicer looking) option than going full (ugly and takes up too much space) tower

this is of course just my own personal opinion

cheers JuvUK
 
Re: A1200 graphics

Now this is interesting.

So in theory this idea could be taken further. Instead of building a Zorro 2 expansion board to then enable you to connect a rare and hard to find Amiga Zorro 2 graphics card, you could in theory combine this zorro 2 technology and graphics card technology to build the whole lot into a single card, allowing you the ability to connect a graphics card directly to the A1200's expansion slot! Now that would be popular. But how much would it cost? And there is also the issue of being able to connect an accelerator to the A1200 at the same time.

Now the perfect solution would be for someone to design and make a new A1200 expansion card that is an all in one solution, containing an accelerator and ram expansion, plus graphics card, all on one expansion card. It is possible I'm sure, but I bet the development process would be time consuming, and the limited production run of boards expensive.
 
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