Amiga32? What's this?

From: jpero_at_mail.cgo.wave.ca <(jpero_at_mail.cgo.wave.ca)>
Date: Tue Jul 8 09:53:51 1997

> > From: Daniel A.
> > Seagraves[SMTP:dseagrav_at_bsdserver.tek-star.net]
> > I was reading some old videogame magazines for console games, and
> > found
> > an ad for something from Commodore called the Amiga32. It's a
> > nice-looking unit, with a CD-ROM on top. Anyone know what it is?
> >
> It's called a CD32. It's basically an Amiga 600 minus keyboard, in a
> one-piece unit similar to a PlayStation/Saturn. It was intended to
> compete with those entertainment consoles. Not a bad concept; there was
> a lot of Amiga game software available and it was simple to port to CD32
> -- just remove any dependency on a full keyboard. Unfortunately it came
> along just before Commodore went under, and was never really marketed in
> the US. It was a decent success in Europe.
>
> > PS: There's some amiga in the junk-parts section of our place here.
> > I'm
> > gonna snag it given the first chance. But it has no disks or power
> > supply. There's a 3 1/2 in the side of it. All that's there is the
> > unit
> > itself. Would it be worth it? And would it need a bootdisk?
> >
> Sounds like an Amiga 500. You'd need a power supply and boot disk. The
> Amiga 500 power supply looks just like a Commodore 128 power supply,
> except the Amiga version has an on/off switch. It can use a TV as a
> monitor, but only in B&W. An RGB monitor is required for color.
>
> Amiga 500's go for surprisingly little money -- like $75 for a complete
> system -- so don't spend much on a PS.
>
> If it turns out to be dead, I need an internal floppy drive for mine...
>
> Kai
Amiga 500/2000 is same on most of chipset but Amiga does not have
slots and standard 1mb but you can add a clock/512k module to it from
underside of this amiga 500. The "slot" is via left side to
"sidecars" modules. There is aftermarket that sells complete tower
kit and all circuit boards, lots of adapters to refit 500 boards into
tower cases provided and make it more of a 2000 models. Neat!

Better yet, these are most repair friendly lots of them allows you to
swap socketed chips. But problem is 500 chips are easy to destroy
because of less buffered i/o ports and these chips are hard to get by
now. :( Wished there was alterative chip makers that makes these in
CMOS instead of hotter NMOS chips.

Funny, the pinouts for the pc floppy drives and amiga drives is very
similar but still figuring out how to make it 100% compatiable...
sigh! (tried that on 500 with a pc 720k drive, that works but not
quite there...)

Jason D.
Received on Tue Jul 08 1997 - 09:53:51 BST