My Amiga build to be. Advice and help needed please!

[trooper]

Hello!

Well as I said in my introduction thread I'm returning to the Amiga fold and I could do with some help filling in my knowledge gaps.

One of the projects I'm going to undertake is to beef up an A1200 for the fun of it but I want something I can use as well. Having done some reading up it seems I'm going to have to lower my sights a bit.

Web browsing is out of the question no matter how much processing power and memory I stick into the thing. At least if my expectations are on a par with the modern browsing experience I get out of my six year old laptop.

I've learned that the Amiga doesn't have a bluetooth stack, so no wireless PS3 controllers. Now that's disappointing!

I do want it to have a pretty Workbench when it boots up. I'm not sure whether this means I need a graphics card of some type.

I want it to be responsive, within reason. And I want it all in the standard wedge case.

So my A1200 is going to be for gaming but I suspect that there's a few more titles than just Alien Breed 3D that I'd be missing out on without acceleration.

The Amiga will be in the garage where I used to hack around with my motorbikes and I'll be throwing its video out to a projector. So far then I think my shopping list as well as the A1200 should be

1. Accelerator
2. Indivision AGA for DVI output to the projector
3. CF card adapter and card
4. Game controllers. Preferably wireless of some sort.

Question is... what accelerator should I get. PPC cards are out as it seems they go for about half a grand which is too rich for me. Is there such a thing as an 060 card without the PPC? What will it cost? If not, what games can I expect to run with an 030 or 040? What games are out there that wouldn't run on the lesser options?

Have wireless controllers been done?

Is there anything else I should be considering?

With thanks in advance!

 

[Sardine]

Just to let you know 99% of Amiga games will work on quite a low spec A1200

to run your game of CF card then WHDLOAD will require some extra ram

for the price I would go for 68030/50 +16mb or more ram this would run 99% of Amiga Games with ease via WHDLOAD.

the other 1% would require 040 or 060 namely doom(playable on 030 but low fps), quake (still slow on a fast 060) and ScummVm to name a few.

but with the 040/060 you start to loose some compatibility with a few older titles.

if your a tech Demo or Emulator man (run Mac OS on Amiga) then the fasted 060 you can buy is best.

but generally just for games, 030 is more than ample as the 030 is almost identical to the 020 the reason for the high compatibility.

 

[johnim]

+1 to sardines post

 

[tbtorro]

There is the Blizzard 1260 or the Apollo cards with 060 and no PPC but you hardly need them for gaming.

The most important upgrade you need is 8(+) MB of RAM expansion so you can use WHDLoad. For this reason an 030 card is more than enough (for example the Blizzard 1230 Mk IV) This will run most AGA games just fine.

As for wireless gamepads, I'm not sure there is a solution, perhaps a USB setup would work with Subway USB built into your A1200.

But you have to do your own research as price discussions are not allowed on this forum.

 

[CrazyC]

Work out if you need an fpu. If it's just gaming then should be fine. If it's demos etc then maybe you might want one. It will impact your choice of accelerator.

I have only had the blizzard mk iv which is a great card with option for fpu and further expansion. ( plus my blizzard 060 of course). B-)

Sent from my HTC One.

 

[soeter04]

030 accelerator with 8+ mb would do the job indeed.
If you want to hook it up to a big screen or projector, definitely get a indi mk2.

Instead of taking the plunge with an expensive usb solution to
(maybe) support wireless pads i would go the cheap classic way:
old school 1 button joysticks and long extension cables.

Cable mess is an integral part of retro gaming

 

[romppainen]

Instead of taking the plunge with an expensive usb solution to (maybe) support wireless pads i would go the cheap classic way:
old school 1 button joysticks and long extension cables.

Alternatively you can also grab one of those Atari-compatible wireless joystick sets, which are a bit scarce but also rather crappy as-is, and hack the transmitter into better quality joystick.

 

[NovaCoder]

Hello!

1. Accelerator
2. Indivision AGA for DVI output to the projector
3. CF card adapter and card
4. Game controllers. Preferably wireless of some sort.

With thanks in advance!

This is a nice little setup, might give you some ideas

[m]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS21EyNkRlw[/m]

Specs:

• AGA (only)
• Blizzard 1260 over clocked to 80Mhz (108 MIPS)
• Indivision AGA Mrk2 with HDMI output
• 16 GB SSD hard drive module running PFS3 (for faster HD access)
• IdeFixExpress (boosts IDE speed)
• Wireless mouse
• Running OS 3.9 + BB1 & BB2 + Blizkick (to boost speed)

It's important to note that you need the right software setup (eg PFS3 060 version and things like Blizkick) to get the most out of your hardware.


I did used to have a wireless PS 2 controller but for some strange reason my PS 2 adapter stopped working one day
I've tried a few different controllers and even brought a new adapter but I still can't get it to work icard