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| Here's what I know ... by Flack 06/20/2011, 4:27pm PDT | ||||
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| ... and it's not much.
I believe many/most games were written to run on the Amiga 500. I think (hope) all the original games I gave you work on the 500. When it comes to simply playing games, I think the 500 is one of the best models to own. With the 1 meg of RAM that's in that specific machine, I think you should be able to play the majority of floppy-based games. Converting ADF to virtual floppies (and back) is still virgin territory to me, but here's what I know. First, cannot read/write Amiga floppies on a PC without a special controller card like the Catweasel (and you really don't want to go down that route). With additional RAM and a parallel cable, you should be able to copy over and write ADF files -- I think. The biggest limitation is the disk images are almost a meg, so with only 1 meg of RAM, you don't have enough to hold both them and the OS in RAM at the same time. I don't think the 500 is the best solution for this, but with a few upgrades, it's doable. In regards to Amiga 500 video solutions, there are 4 that I am aware of. The first is (duh) to use an Amiga monitor. This is a good solution if you have an Amiga monitor, I guess, or the cash to have one shipped. Oh, and Amigas use 15 kHz monitors, which means a standard PC one won't work (that would be too easy). There ARE some that will, however (I believe many Sony Trinitron monitors will sync down to 15 mHz, for example). The second solution is to use the RCA video out connection on the rear of the 500. This only provides a black and white signal, and I've never understood why this was even included. This would be like listening to your new Bose stereo from the next room by holding a drinking glass up to the wall and pressing your ear against that. Why the most graphically advanced computer of its time has a black and white output option is ... I don't even. The third option for the 500 is purchasing a Amiga 520. It's about the size of an old C64 modem, it plugs into the back of the Amiga 500, and it gives you color composite out. I have one in the blue tub and, now that I no longer have an Amiga 500, I will just mail it to you if you want it. It works okay for games and terrible for text. Thank goodness you don't plan on playing text adventures on that thing! (Someone online sells a 520 modified to do S-Video; if it works worth a shit, that might be a cheap way to go.) The fourth option I am aware of are scan doublers, which double the signal from 15 MHz to 30 MHz, making the video signal compatible with modern computer monitors. As you saw at the show, this is more art than science -- one of the monitors I brought couldn't detect the Amiga's video signal and kept going into sleep mode. The other scan doubler Icbrkr brought had to be adjusted depending on how long it had been in use. I have no experience with them other than at the show, but so far it appears to me they are more art than science. To paraphrase Han, "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good monitor at your side, kid." It would be nice if there were a good, reliable scan-doubling solution. That's what I got so far. The Amiga 1200 I have has a PCMCIA slot. I have a PCMCIA network card, which I believe will allow me to get it on my network. If that's the case, I think converting .ADF disks to real Amiga disks should be simple. If that's the case, I have no problem with converting and mailing boxes of disks back and forth through the mail. Tonight I'm gonna party like it's nine-teen-eight-tee-nine. (Please don't sue me, Prince!) |
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