Amiga advice needed

[sheep2001]

After many years stored in it's box, i've just attempted to power on my trusty old a500, and unfortunately nothing but a flashing caps lock light for about 2 mins, and now she's completely dead. RIP - i'll miss you..........

The advice i need is - should I replace my 500, or go for a 600 or 1200 - can anyone still into the Amiga scene give me any pointers?  I have had a quick google and I like the sound of the compact flash adapters available for the 600 and 1200.
(I also remember trying a friends a600 when they were 1st released, and didn't like it at all)

The big thing I have to consider is being in France now, everything is a hell of alot more expensive thatn when I was in the UK - and ebay.fr doesn't have any 600's or 1200's for sale at all.  Might try ebay.de as I know german folk were very much into the scene.  But what should I be looking for?  Have a real hankering to replay Hybris and Battle Squadron right now.  WinUAE here I come.............

[amarthar]

When I was a wee lad, I always played at my uncle's house on the Amiga. He had 500 and then 1200, and as far as I remember I could play all of the same games on the 500 and 1200. So I'd recommend you get 1200.

[Arseen]

1200 sounds better and easier to come by.
And they are probably more realiable as well.

[tiktektak]

A1200 is the more advanced version and uses AGA if you have the right version of a game and it supports it. It is also very nicely expandable by using it's trapdoor to install an accelerator card (very pricey). With an acc. card with a co-cpu, a hdd (also easy to install with a cradle) and some more RAM you can make a real power house out of a 1200. With this maximum power and a CD drive you can even play tadadadadaaaaaaa Simon the Sorcerer 2 or Feeble Files on your good old A1200. Don't forget to get a better power brick though or this will not work.

The real downside of a A1200 is that not all A500 OCS/ECS games run on the newer machine (maybe 80% of Amiga games are for the A500). Out of my collection of just 20 boxed games (those boxes are a nightmare to store) two only run on my A500 not my A1200. This seems to be a problem with the different chipsets or sth else with the different kickstarts the two machines run on. You can try and run the game on 1200 with original mode enabled (hold both mouse keys when the 1200 boots up and then you can select use original chipset only or sth like that). Hadn't any use with my two games though. Many people love WHDload to load 500 games on a 1200 (I never used it).

Anyway to cut my long speech short I'd get both. A 500 and a 1200 to turn it into a real beast (cash requirements high).

EDIT: Besides I'm still eagerly waiting for a real nice Amiga template. Didn't you work on one?

[sheep2001]

Thanks tik - looks like i'll be going 1200 route.  Disconnected the floppy from my 500 today and system came on for about 30 secs then *BANG*.  Capacitor on the motherboard blew in a spectacular way - with the top off too. 

As for the template - i've been using my last revision, but as my scanner died and i'm arguing with Amazon/Epson over who is giving me a new one i've been using lowish quality stuff from the net, so nothing worth putting on the site.

[tiktektak]

Thanks tik - looks like i'll be going 1200 route.  Disconnected the floppy from my 500 today and system came on for about 30 secs then *BANG*.  Capacitor on the motherboard blew in a spectacular way - with the top off too. 

As for the template - i've been using my last revision, but as my scanner died and i'm arguing with Amazon/Epson over who is giving me a new one i've been using lowish quality stuff from the net, so nothing worth putting on the site.

Template ready? If yes then please give...

[sheep2001]

Template ready? If yes then please give...

well - it's ready enough for me - have a look see what you think:
http://www.box.net/shared/r7xod8h290

a couple of examples:

[Arseen]

Perfect simplistic template.

Very nice indeed.

[tiktektak]

Template ready? If yes then please give...

well - it's ready enough for me - have a look see what you think:
http://www.box.net/shared/r7xod8h290

The covers look nice at first glance. The template too!

Now on how to scan those big and sometimes twisted Amiga boxes.

[Arseen]

Template ready? If yes then please give...

well - it's ready enough for me - have a look see what you think:
http://www.box.net/shared/r7xod8h290

The covers look nice at first glance. The template too!

Now on how to scan those big and sometimes twisted Amiga boxes.

Can the boxes be flattened oe are they those hard cardboard boxes that come in two parts?

[sheep2001]

mostly the hard cardboard ones unfortunately.  most of the covers I have done have been without my scanner, so will not be up to site standards - high quality artwork for amiga games is pretty difficult to find on the net!

[Arseen]

mostly the hard cardboard ones unfortunately.  most of the covers I have done have been without my scanner, so will not be up to site standards - high quality artwork for amiga games is pretty difficult to find on the net!

Yeah.

Maybe you should get cheap scanner.
Buying it stings only once.
OK few times if you have to be without food for a week.

As to how to scan.
Find a book that fits as snugly as possible in side box, and put some really heavy weight on top and let it remaiin under pressure on flat surface for day or two, that should straighten things up.

[sheep2001]

i DO have a scanner (not a cheap one) - only a couple of months old - but it's broken - arguing with amazon.fr and epson over who will give me a new one!

[Arseen]

i DO have a scanner (not a cheap one) - only a couple of months old - but it's broken - arguing with amazon.fr and epson over who will give me a new one!

Oh OK.

Hope things get resolved fast.
Or contact Consumer Advisor (or what they are called in English).
They help free of charge in these matters.

[tiktektak]

I think, but I could be wrong, that sheep is old or better mature enough to know how the world's going around.