Worst Amiga?
- Thread starter mjnurney
- Start date
- Replies 195
- Views 2429
ok, so I am the only one who voted the A500. Yes, a lot will argue this, but the A500 right out of the box, was/is just too limited of a machine. I compare it to a console gaming system. The "Add ons" are what make it a viable machine, and they are prized and priced higher than gold these days.
At least the "lowly" 600, you could add a hard drive with no extra cost (but the drive), PCMIA periferals are somewhat affordable, and the CF transfer is so handy
At least the "lowly" 600, you could add a hard drive with no extra cost (but the drive), PCMIA periferals are somewhat affordable, and the CF transfer is so handy
the amiga 500 back then was a great machine and with only 512k later when games really needed that extra ram which was quite a while back then it was even better.
I picked CDTV as it really didnt have any place in the market at all plus no one had the know how on how to expand it the way they do now.
I picked CDTV as it really didnt have any place in the market at all plus no one had the know how on how to expand it the way they do now.
No disrespect to the ladies of the forum, but Jimbo, have you had an uber-expanded A600 experience? Have you seen Mario's (mfilos) or my rig for example?
Hey
No I never had any upgraded A600. I have had a couple that were stock but I just dont like them. If a machine does not have AGA I dont want to know. I would only settle for an A1200 or A4000 or even a CD32 like I just bought
I mean no disrespect when I said ladies only for the A600. Just user preference isnt it. Lucky we have a few to choose from.
Cheers
There's an interesting observation that's cropped up in this thread, the question of then vs. now.
Back in the day, I'd definitely say that the A500+/A600 were the mistakes that C= should never have made. The CDTV was a great idea, but far too ahead of its time.
Nowadays, it kinda depends on what you want from an Amiga. I'd argue that the bog-standard A500 is probably the least useful Amiga, I certainly have no desire to own one. And here we go with the controversy, I'd say the same of the A1000. It's iconic, it's beautiful, it was the original Amiga. But it's so limiting when there are so many other models to choose from.
Conversely, with the advent of A604/Indivision ECS/ACA 630/Subway USB, the A600 is an absolutely stunning piece of kit to build up! The compactness really does win over a lot of other things, particularly if you want an uber-miggy but want to minimise on space.
The CDTV would be utterly amazing, if only it wasn't so expensive to expand! I dream of a CDTV with an '020 CPU, 2MB Chip, 4MB Fast, ECS Denise, Kickstart 3.1 and an internal hard disk. It's unassuming, but awesome enough to play most WHDload games, and would look beautiful in my stereo cabinet!
Back in the day, I'd definitely say that the A500+/A600 were the mistakes that C= should never have made. The CDTV was a great idea, but far too ahead of its time.
Nowadays, it kinda depends on what you want from an Amiga. I'd argue that the bog-standard A500 is probably the least useful Amiga, I certainly have no desire to own one. And here we go with the controversy, I'd say the same of the A1000. It's iconic, it's beautiful, it was the original Amiga. But it's so limiting when there are so many other models to choose from.
Conversely, with the advent of A604/Indivision ECS/ACA 630/Subway USB, the A600 is an absolutely stunning piece of kit to build up! The compactness really does win over a lot of other things, particularly if you want an uber-miggy but want to minimise on space.
The CDTV would be utterly amazing, if only it wasn't so expensive to expand! I dream of a CDTV with an '020 CPU, 2MB Chip, 4MB Fast, ECS Denise, Kickstart 3.1 and an internal hard disk. It's unassuming, but awesome enough to play most WHDload games, and would look beautiful in my stereo cabinet!
I personally think the CDTV is nice looking. And if you plug a floppy drive into the back of it, it can play all the same titles the A500 can as far as I know. If you picked up the keyboard and mouse plus an external floppy it would make a nice little machine as long as you were using it the same as an oldschool A500 user would back then (to play games from floppy).
I own a CDTV and most of the games made specifically for it are kind of lame and the controller is ahead of its time but doesn't work half the time. Other than that, if there were more games to choose from and it had and functional controller, it would be a nice system. Especially back when the A500 was king. The black Keyboard/mouse/floppy drive/monitor looks so much more nice than the typical beige, and it was almost unheard of back then. Plus with the inclusion of the floppy drive to play all those floppy games. I think I would have rather had a CDTV than an A500 if I had a choice between the two and money was no object (because I think they were expensive back then ESPECIALLY if you bought the bundle that included the keyboard/mouse/floppy drive).
But I personally am on Jimbo's boat. I prefer AGA machines.
I own a CDTV and most of the games made specifically for it are kind of lame and the controller is ahead of its time but doesn't work half the time. Other than that, if there were more games to choose from and it had and functional controller, it would be a nice system. Especially back when the A500 was king. The black Keyboard/mouse/floppy drive/monitor looks so much more nice than the typical beige, and it was almost unheard of back then. Plus with the inclusion of the floppy drive to play all those floppy games. I think I would have rather had a CDTV than an A500 if I had a choice between the two and money was no object (because I think they were expensive back then ESPECIALLY if you bought the bundle that included the keyboard/mouse/floppy drive).
But I personally am on Jimbo's boat. I prefer AGA machines.
Tajmaster
Truth, Justice, all that stuff.
I voted based on how good the Amiga was when it came out, not on whether it was a mistake by Commodore etc. IMO the A500 is poop. Its got kick 1.3 (pants), OCS (pants) half a meg of Chip Ram without modification (pants), only 512KB as standard (pants) and older models have the horrible red LEDs 
I would also add that I having mono composite and having to use an external modulator for RF or colour composite sucks too but the A500+ is in the same boat in that respect.
I dunno if I have a favourite Amiga but the A500+ is certainly the one Im most fond of (my first one), Im really surprised its being bashed so much here. The A600 I can understand but the 500+? Really? Judging Amiga's by how good they were when they came out rather than what they should have been makes the 600 the most disappointing of the lot. The A1000 shouldnt really be bashed, it was the first one after all
I would also add that I having mono composite and having to use an external modulator for RF or colour composite sucks too but the A500+ is in the same boat in that respect.
I dunno if I have a favourite Amiga but the A500+ is certainly the one Im most fond of (my first one), Im really surprised its being bashed so much here. The A600 I can understand but the 500+? Really? Judging Amiga's by how good they were when they came out rather than what they should have been makes the 600 the most disappointing of the lot. The A1000 shouldnt really be bashed, it was the first one after all
Damn right , don't bash the 1000!!
Here,here
---------- Post added at 22:14 ---------- Previous post was at 22:10 ----------
And
While PCMCIA is cheap and common now when cbm launch the 600 and 1200 it wasn't common or cheap and neither was anything to plug in to it..
Commodore never bothered with PCMCIA add on as far as I know ??
Here,here
---------- Post added at 22:14 ---------- Previous post was at 22:10 ----------
And
While PCMCIA is cheap and common now when cbm launch the 600 and 1200 it wasn't common or cheap and neither was anything to plug in to it..
Commodore never bothered with PCMCIA add on as far as I know ??
Tajmaster
Truth, Justice, all that stuff.
From what I remember, the PCMCIA on the 1200/600 was made before the full spec was published. I dunno if that is true but as you say, stuff was expensive and rare for that slot. Its ironic that it has come in so handy in this day.
Ill guess ( I don't know) that by the time the cd rom and ram had appeared the 600 had been dropped..
I may be wrong .. But I don't remember there being anything for PCMCIA when I had a 600
I may be wrong .. But I don't remember there being anything for PCMCIA when I had a 600
Ooh, it looks like my A1000 comments have stirred up a right hornet's nest! Still, if you want to run an OCS Amiga that's limited to 512k of ChipRAM, is nigh on impossible to get decent expansions for and has to load Kickstart from floppy, then don't let me stand in your way...
:run:
:run:
For today's Amiga user who likes to use WHDload and fancy workbench setups... then yeah the 1000 is probably not the wisest choice going. Even I'd have a 500/1200 over a 1000 as expansions are more widely available/cheaper and not much of a struggle to get running nicely.Depends what you want your Amiga to do I guess/budget constraints. I'm quite happy with a couple of 500's and WinUAE for serious stuff (I've promised myself not to emulate Fitzsteve and start dribbling over hardware pron Zorro cards which are worth more than cash machines churning out gold bars!)
Hey now that would be cool, put in £900 and out pops a 060 card with 2GB of ram onboard 
Hey! Fitzsteve doesn't have a monopoly on pimped miggies! (He might have the most-pimped one though.) My poor A4000 is crying out for more Zorro cards. I'm gonna have to feed its desires again!
The A600 had the same problem too! (people seem to forget this when they bash the A500+
).
I simply LOVE my A600 since day zero. Small enough to carry around, PCMCIA port and a kind of portable A500 with HD inside. Tude and other downgraders was there to make old titles running.
PCMCIA came very later, when I had both A1200 (NTSC! ARGH!!!!!) and the PAL A600, in form of a Squirrel SCSI. CD-ROM for A600 in 1994!
Then, last year, I switched my 1Mb PCMCIA RAM for an A608 (courtesy of THB) and the little fellow become my favourite Amiga for several months. Now with the ACA630 it will be a little speed monster that may surpass my A3000 in speed and usage!
The most handicapped Amiga still is the CDTV: no good ORIGINAL titles for the original (without extras) appliance. Not it is not awesome on its own, it is just too expensive to have a fully upgraded unit that (then) can have an use.
PCMCIA came very later, when I had both A1200 (NTSC! ARGH!!!!!) and the PAL A600, in form of a Squirrel SCSI. CD-ROM for A600 in 1994!
Then, last year, I switched my 1Mb PCMCIA RAM for an A608 (courtesy of THB) and the little fellow become my favourite Amiga for several months. Now with the ACA630 it will be a little speed monster that may surpass my A3000 in speed and usage!
The most handicapped Amiga still is the CDTV: no good ORIGINAL titles for the original (without extras) appliance. Not it is not awesome on its own, it is just too expensive to have a fully upgraded unit that (then) can have an use.
