User avatar
Mixel

Posted Tue Dec 08, 2020 4:54 am

Odd question, but how much chipram do you have?

I know the A500 is the most common amiga model.. And A500+ and A600 had 1MB chip, but I guess a lot of people have upgraded to have 2.. (as far as I can tell you couldn't upgrade the A500 to 2MB chip?) I had a 1MB RAM trapdoor expansion for the A500+ .. I think that was Chip RAM but I had no understanding of the difference between fast and chip at that point as I only started using WB properly once I got an A1200..

I realise people in forums like this aren't necessarily representative of the wider scene..

Reason I'm asking is I'm making a game with EHB graphics - but might eventually run out of Chip if I'm limited to 1MB.. In which case I guess I'd target 2MB chip amigas, so.. It'd work on AGA obviously, but also people's upgraded ECS machines?

It's entirely possible I wont surpass the 1MB limit.. I just think its v likely if I carry on adding stuff at the rate I have been. :D

User avatar
Crispy
Sunhillow

Posted Tue Dec 08, 2020 7:04 am

Well, I have an A4000 with 2 MB, an A2000 with 1MB, and an A1000 with 512K. However, I just recently restored my A1000 to working condition, so I've been focusing on that machine lately. From that perspective I'd like to see your game run on a machine with 512K of chip ram.

Interesting question though. I wonder exactly what the numbers are. I know that Commodore sold a lot of first generation 500s, so I want to say that an A500 with 512K of chip ram is representative of the largest user base, but I don't know what percentage of those machines sold have been upgraded to 1MB.

Perhaps the best approach is to plow ahead, release the game, and then make adjustments based on user feedback.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:48 am

If Black Crypt can do it, you can, too! That game uses EHB and can run on an Amiga 500 with 1MB of "RAM" (they never say what type it needs to be).

I bet you could do it. What an awesome project. Can't wait to see what you come up with and learn more about it!

User avatar
Mixel

Posted Tue Dec 08, 2020 11:02 am

intric8 wrote: If Black Crypt can do it, you can, too! That game uses EHB and can run on an Amiga 500 with 1MB of "RAM" (they never say what type it needs to be).

I bet you could do it. What an awesome project. Can't wait to see what you come up with and learn more about it!
Thanks for the encouragement! Looking forward to properly announcing and showing it in a funtional form. I keep putting out little bits on my Twitter, but it's very piecemeal until some of the gameplay mechanics are actually functional.

This game is a lot different to Black Crypt technically, hehe.. Another project I'm working on will definitely work on A500s as hardly anything even moves in that - that also uses EHB (if people hadn't figured yet, I really like EHB, lol).. This one though is more intense. :D But it is great to know there are other games.. I may very quickly realise why EHB action games weren't really common.. Going to try anyway! (TBH Earok did 99% of the difficult stuff, as I'm using Scorpion..!)
Crispy wrote:
Tue Dec 08, 2020 7:04 am
Well, I have an A4000 with 2 MB, an A2000 with 1MB, and an A1000 with 512K. However, I just recently restored my A1000 to working condition, so I've been focusing on that machine lately. From that perspective I'd like to see your game run on a machine with 512K of chip ram.

Interesting question though. I wonder exactly what the numbers are. I know that Commodore sold a lot of first generation 500s, so I want to say that an A500 with 512K of chip ram is representative of the largest user base, but I don't know what percentage of those machines sold have been upgraded to 1MB.

Perhaps the best approach is to plow ahead, release the game, and then make adjustments based on user feedback.
I can't imagine having a non-upgraded A500, soooo many games wouldn't work, so I hope people at least have 1MB total. 512K + 512K .. Might.. Maybe work..? I don't know yet, hehe. 512K alone surely won't... I don't know when I'm going to hit walls though so you're probably right.. Just plow ahead and see what happens. :) In a way if it requires more powerful machines by the end.. That would have *some* merit to it too as I guess both ends are under-catered for.. Would definitely prefer to support the low end though. Fingers crossed! Thanks again.

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Tue Dec 08, 2020 3:38 pm

My impression is that everyone who eventually will be interested in a new Amiga game will have one available with 2MB chip.

User avatar
Mixel

Posted Tue Dec 08, 2020 6:18 pm

McTrinsic wrote:
Tue Dec 08, 2020 3:38 pm
My impression is that everyone who eventually will be interested in a new Amiga game will have one available with 2MB chip.
That’s ... yeah.. Probably true. I tend to forget how many people have multiple, haha.

And emulation makes it almost a non issue.. if someone wanted to play it enough they could find a way. (Though I plan on doing a pc/Mac port anyway so I’m not sure why they’d want the Amiga one in that case..)

Hmm.. when I’m very far along I’ll put out feelers to people with different hardware configs.. Maybe I could make a vampire build that turns everything up to 11 for some reason.

I really miss being able to test things on my A1200.. Hurry up and get recapped. :cry:

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:02 pm

As long as you keep it to 7Mhz, I can at least take a picture of it on my Rejuvenator'd A1000. Maybe one of the only A1000's to ever have it be graced by your game's pixels!

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Wed Dec 09, 2020 8:32 am

I have to agree the A500 with 512K + 512k Trap door RAM was probably the largest install base back then. Most games were written to that spec. Even the one game I know of that ran in HAM mode did not require 1MB chip. I agree with intric8 that it should be very doable for EHB game targeting an A500 with 1MB total RAM. I would think that a good number of people that are buying old A500s, especially on eBay are doing so for old games and nostalgia. Those tend to be pretty stock A500s. I still think that many retro users are not active on forums and tinkering, etc.

That said they did make the Megachip that would also work on an A500. I had one in my A2000 but the socket for the MegaChip was broken and I didn't keep it. I did keep the 8375 Agnus though as it is an NTSC version.

So my A2000 has 1MB Chip. My 1200 has 2MB and my A500s all have 512k chip. While there is an upgrade for A500s to extend to 2MB Chip it is pricey and not yet available: ACE2. 170 Euros, isn't exactly cheap. For me, at least, there are just too many games that don't need this so I prefer to live without it.

If you have a revision 6 A500 you most likely have the Agnus chip that is capable of 1MB chip. A couple jumpers on the motherboard and your 512k expansion is now part of chip. I think this was pretty common in the day for Rev 6 users. I did it to mine back then.

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Wed Dec 09, 2020 2:03 pm

The ACE2 is not available any more. It was. 😉

There are quite a few people offering solutions on AmiBay, though.

User avatar
Bulletdust

Posted Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:36 pm

Mixel wrote:
Tue Dec 08, 2020 4:54 am
Odd question, but how much chipram do you have?

I know the A500 is the most common amiga model.. And A500+ and A600 had 1MB chip, but I guess a lot of people have upgraded to have 2.. (as far as I can tell you couldn't upgrade the A500 to 2MB chip?) I had a 1MB RAM trapdoor expansion for the A500+ .. I think that was Chip RAM but I had no understanding of the difference between fast and chip at that point as I only started using WB properly once I got an A1200..

I realise people in forums like this aren't necessarily representative of the wider scene..

Reason I'm asking is I'm making a game with EHB graphics - but might eventually run out of Chip if I'm limited to 1MB.. In which case I guess I'd target 2MB chip amigas, so.. It'd work on AGA obviously, but also people's upgraded ECS machines?

It's entirely possible I wont surpass the 1MB limit.. I just think its v likely if I carry on adding stuff at the rate I have been. :D
The A500 could be expanded to 1MB Chip Ram, the advantage of the A500+ was that it could be expanded to 2MB of Chip Ram like the AGA Amiga's.





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