Amiga DOWNGRADING Frenzy?

[kyle_b]

I sold all my high end Amiga stuff (BPPC, Bvision, FastATA...) years ago when I realized that all they did is make a bar in sysinfo get longer.

I know a fella who does really good, professional looking cartoon art. sometimes he takes paid portrait commissions. His weapon of choice? A500, second floppy drive, tank mouse.

 

[YouKnowWho]

@kyle_b - funny you mention drawing on Amiga, because I just got an itch for a drawing tablet. Apparently serial PC ones work on the Amiga just fine and hey...it's not a CPU upgrade.

There is beauty in the simplicity and efficiency of stock Amiga systems. Also, stock basic systems have something that no other system (like your previous high-end Amiga for example) has. Potential! You can dream about all the possibilities as you enjoy your stock 68000. That's a gift that keeps on giving, as you scroll through old Amiga magazine mail-order back sections.

 

[kyle_b]

Ironically 7Mhz 68000 isn't fast enough for a serial wacom (he tried). Probably fine on an a1200 though.

 

[qz3fwd]

Stock Amiga's are just way too limiting. Maybe great in 1985, but by the early 1990's quite limiting. I like my modern comfort features like RTG, USB, wifi/networking, and a decent CPU and RAM upgrade. 7Mhz-no thanks. OS 1.3 yuck

 

[YouKnowWho]

@qz3fwd, reminder that C64 is a hugely popular machine, and a slightly booster 68000 Amiga with some Fast RAM and HDD is a treat compared to a C64. A1200 with an HDD and some Fast RAM - heaven!

So my question is, how are those legion of C64 fans supposed to feel about your fancy Amiga demands, like RTG? USB? Wifi?!

 

[miggymad]

The C64 users have their own fancy upgrades. Consider the Ultimate64 board that can do much more than the original. Then there are replacement SID chips, HDMI output boards, SD2IEC, tapuino's etc.

Our machines evolve over time, as do the users. Those gaps in the technology are filled by those people with the skills and foresight to produce such things. It's innovation, to drive and push the tech - just like what C= did from the A1000 to the A500 and beyond. Another one to look at is Sinclair with a similar pathway - from the ZX80 right up to the Spectrum +3.

If you, the end user choose not to go down the upgrade path via add-ons or newer versions of the machine then that's fine. Each to their own.

 

[YouKnowWho]

@miggymad - indeed. I just got tired of all this hotrodding. Here is something that may upset some, my goal will be to one day have an Amiga machine with an original intact WARRANTY VOID sticker on the bottom. And I'm not going to void it!

 

[kyle_b]

Stock Amiga's are just way too limiting. Maybe great in 1985, but by the early 1990's quite limiting. I like my modern comfort features like RTG, USB, wifi/networking, and a decent CPU and RAM upgrade. 7Mhz-no thanks. OS 1.3 yuck

Funnily enough USB was one of the WORST things I ever put in my A1200. The rapidroad might work electrically, but mechanically it's a nightmare, it sits awkwardly wherever you try to put it, with cables making a mess. Then you had to stop the USB stack when you ran a WHDLoad game, so that meant you couldn't use usb gamepad or mouse with the game... It felt inconvenient to deal with rather than just use original 9-pin or serial/parallel port stuff which all works much better.

Networking I don't think is such a "modern comfort" as commodore sold zorro network cards. I do like connecting to samba shares for file transfer, but at the moment I just use CF card.

 

[8bitbubsy]

There's definitely a charm with stock (or near-stock) configurations!
I have an A500 with 512kB fake-fast laying around for this purpose.

 

[qz3fwd]

@qz3fwd, reminder that C64 is a hugely popular machine, and a slightly booster 68000 Amiga with some Fast RAM and HDD is a treat compared to a C64. A1200 with an HDD and some Fast RAM - heaven!

So my question is, how are those legion of C64 fans supposed to feel about your fancy Amiga demands, like RTG? USB? Wifi?!

Not really into C64, so I do not really care what 8 bit fans feel. Just saying.

 

[Amigaz]

Yes, I can understand the reason. Sometimes I dig out my rev 6 A500 which has the same spec as my A500 had back in 1989-1993. To enjoy gaming like it was back in those years.

But the joy is often short since you are limited to what games, demos and software you can run. I often end up switching to my soaped up A4000 instead which lets me run all of the above without any limits

 

[YouKnowWho]

@kyle_b - I do not understand USB in am Amiga either. I guess it's a convenience choice for large file movement but aren't there means to recognize FAT16/32 partitions on Amiga by now? I am going to find out soon as large file movement will become a challenge, and I definitely do not want to have USB on any of my Amiga.

@8bitbubsy - absolutely. There is beauty in simplicity and why not have this in the Retro-buffet, as an option?

@qz3fwd - well, that was just to point out that a basic Amiga is nothing to sneeze at. But I get what you're saying. Your logic is the exact same I can't get over for Amiga bridgeboards. I didn't even bother taking PCs seriously until Pentium. I felt the Amiga was far better than a 386/486. So why would I bother with a bridgeboard for something I didn't want in the first place? Hence why for me, if a PC goes inside an Amiga it is a nice "modern" SBC. But still...my point was that to a C64 lover a basic Amiga is soooo TURBO!

@Amigaz - yes, basic setups have their time and place. It is nice to make that choice and re-experience it like when we were kids and had no budget for all these luxurious upgrade options. As for some more demanding stuff, I recently pulled an accelerator card out of a 2000, and found that Toaster launches even with just a 68000 and 8MB of fast. Remember rendering something and waiting a few minutes for it to happen? To think....of all that computing our Amiga did, and if they only generated a "stupid" proof of that compute "mining" work done in the form of a token, that Amiga BitCoin would be worth...what...apparently about $85K today...and falling?

 

[miggymad]

Sad news ... I have downgraded one of my A1200's

During routine cleaning, I lost a screw that secures the internal floppy drive - it's somewhere on the floor

 

[YouKnowWho]

Sad news ... I have downgraded one of my A1200's

During routine cleaning, I lost a screw that secures the internal floppy drive - it's somewhere on the floor

Oh, do not worry...you will find it, yes, you will find it! ...when walking barefoot in the dark of the night to the WC. The sound you'll make would be an excellent ring-tone.

Also, be thankful that it was a floppy drive screw. If it was one of the shorter ones in the front lip of the case, then you'd be in trouble and potentially put a pimple into your case by trying to find a replacement.

Who's done that to their Amiga case? NOT someone who didn't try to upgrade!

Oh boy am I in a silly mood this morning. Can you tell?

 

[Xanxi]

@kyle_b - I do not understand USB in am Amiga either. I guess it's a convenience choice for large file movement but aren't there means to recognize FAT16/32 partitions on Amiga by now? I am going to find out soon as large file movement will become a challenge, and I definitely do not want to have USB on any of my Amiga.

USB is not only about file transfer, as there are other ways and PCMCIA on A600/1200 is even faster than a Subway.
There are many other things to do with USB thanks to Poseidon stack, including network cards, soundcards, MIDI, and way more fun SID music, as you can read here http://obligement.free.fr/articles/musique_sid_amiga.php (translation in English available on the left).

 

[Xanxi]

Sad news ... I have downgraded one of my A1200's

During routine cleaning, I lost a screw that secures the internal floppy drive - it's somewhere on the floor

This will help with your lost screw https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B08R3QD2YB?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1
Don't leave it near floppy disks.

 

[dwaco]

So my question is, how are those legion of C64 fans supposed to feel about your fancy Amiga demands, like RTG? USB? Wifi?!

We're very well of, thank you very much.

We do have USB, WiFi and RTG.

On C64 we can hook up two displays at once and on C128 - three.
Same with CPUs - two on C64 and three on C128.

Until recently we usually had to live with just 512 Mb RAM, but now that 64-bits are in beta we can have 16Gb ram as well as M.2 drives and AI accelerators. Sorry, it seems to me Amiga is seriously lagging behind C64 and C128.

 

[Xanxi]

Almost every retrocomputer you can think of has modern amazing add-ons by now and a lot of afficionados. Lately i have hung out a lot with Apple II and IIGS people.
However, the Amiga communauty is the largest of them all and this computer family has the more new stuff by far in the 2020's.

 

[YouKnowWho]

We're very well of, thank you very much.

We do have USB, WiFi and RTG.

On C64 we can hook up two displays at once and on C128 - three.
Same with CPUs - two on C64 and three on C128.

Until recently we usually had to live with just 512 Mb RAM, but now that 64-bits are in beta we can have 16Gb ram as well as M.2 drives and AI accelerators. Sorry, it seems to me Amiga is seriously lagging behind C64 and C128.

Oh dear beloved C64...what have they done to you?

 

[dwaco]

Oh dear beloved C64...what have they done to you?

Oh, no C64s or C128 were hurt.

Just a cart, you know, With Pi.

Feels more like C64/C128 is connected to your network and some big unix box, not like Amiga accelerators.

There is dos-like shell, you can have modified bash as well and you can do some things on C64/C128 from pi, like start MOS/Z80 applications. Or access directory on micro SD from basic. You can use cross compilers without leaving your C64/C128. Oh, afaik there is 80-column CP/M on C64 via graphics mode. Haven't tried this one as I have C128.

IDUN cart. Pretty neat.