User avatar
Busta Uppa

Posted Mon Jul 25, 2022 9:05 am

Hello all! First time posting here, although I've enjoyed reading the informative blogs and boards on this site. :)

I took possession of the old family Amiga 500 a couple years ago, and have gradually been integrating it into my modern home/office setup. It already had a 512K trapdoor RAM expansion and an external floppy drive, and I went ahead and added some RGB cables (so it now shares a Retrotink 5X with some game consoles) and a Gotek (which I swapped into the external drive housing using a post from this very forum as a guide).

I'm ready to splurge on a nice upgrade, and the conventional wisdom seems to be that an ACA500plus covers just about everything one might want out of an Amiga in 2022. One of the most attractive features to me is the ability to switch between PAL & NTSC (it'll be nice to finally see the lower-screen HUD on some of these games :lol: ) - so for that, my understanding is I'll need to upgrade my Fat Agnus as well. I've opened up the Amiga and confirmed I have a Rev. 5 board with a 3071 Agnus. So I'm thinking I should be pairing the ACA500plus with either: So I wanna make sure I have the right idea here... BOTH these options will let me do the PAL/NTSC switching, but the ACE2 throws 2MB chipram in there as well. Is that correct?

Subjective follow-up question: Is the 2MB chipram worth it? From what I've seen online, it's mainly stuff like Deluxe Paint and productivity software that benefits from the extra chip RAM, but my main use case will be games. I will probably start dabbling with WHDload, which I think benefits from at least 1MB of chip. Are there game hacks or perhaps homebrew titles that benefit from the 2MB? I'm okay with the splurge, just wanna make sure I'm getting something out of it for my use case to justify the upgrade over a basic 8372A.

Also appreciate any thoughts on the following:
  • CF cards - guess I'll be needing some of these to use with the ACA500plus/WHDload. What's a good source?
  • ACA500plus housing - I'll definitely pick one of these up, I see eBay has some, anyone got a favorite?
  • power supply - still using my original... should I leave well enough alone if everything seems to work, or is an upgrade recommended? The ACA500plus team seem to be very particular when discussing requirements.
Thanks for reading! :D

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Tue Jul 26, 2022 8:04 am

The upgrade to 2MB ChipRAM always seems to be the first thing for me. But that’s a personal thing, admittedly. ChipRAM has the advantage of being ‚always there‘, while some FastRAM might have to be configured of games just don’t expect it to be there.

To be honest, you get rather little.

Here’s an impression:
https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=53994

https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=69597

The biggest advantage for me: Amiga OS 3.2!!

It has a 2MB requirement :) .

Cheers,
McT

User avatar
Busta Uppa

Posted Mon Aug 01, 2022 6:49 am

McTrinsic wrote:
Tue Jul 26, 2022 8:04 am
The upgrade to 2MB ChipRAM always seems to be the first thing for me. But that’s a personal thing, admittedly. ChipRAM has the advantage of being ‚always there‘, while some FastRAM might have to be configured of games just don’t expect it to be there.

To be honest, you get rather little.

Here’s an impression:
https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=53994

https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=69597

The biggest advantage for me: Amiga OS 3.2!!

It has a 2MB requirement :) .

Cheers,
McT
Thanks for the feedback! Decided to GO for it, so now I've got an ACA500plus and an ACE2b on the way!!

User avatar
Signman

Posted Mon Aug 01, 2022 8:54 am

3.2 has a 2mb requirement? Maybe in ram but not chipram.

User avatar
mike34

Posted Wed May 10, 2023 1:13 am

Busta Uppa wrote:
Mon Aug 01, 2022 6:49 am
McTrinsic wrote:
Tue Jul 26, 2022 8:04 am
The upgrade to 2MB ChipRAM always seems to be the first thing for me. But that’s a personal thing, admittedly. ChipRAM has the advantage of being ‚always there‘, while some FastRAM might have to be configured of games just don’t expect it to be there.

To be honest, you get rather little.

Here’s an impression:
street fighter duel
https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=53994

https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=69597

The biggest advantage for me: Amiga OS 3.2!!

It has a 2MB requirement :) .

Cheers,
McT
Thanks for the feedback! Decided to GO for it, so now I've got an ACA500plus and an ACE2b on the way!!
A right decision, I will also try to change





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