So finally, I've managed to get hold of myself a WORKING Amiga 1200 that I'm happy with, but bloody hell it cost me a few bob, I didn't realise how much 1200s were fetching these days.
Let's take a closer look at this machine, what I got, why I got it from whom I got it from and a bit more.
So, my good friend James bought an A1200 recently and was telling me how good it was, how happy he was with the purchase, and how much he recommended the seller, especially as he knew I was also on the lookout for a good 1200. So, I waited until the same seller had another 1200 up for grabs, and I pulled the trigger on it, splashing out just a little over £500 for a really good example.
So, this is the machine I ended up with:
ESCOM Amiga 1200 rev 2B (lovely "like new" condition)
No accelerator (so stock 68020) and no Fast RAM
Kickstart 3.0 ROMs
Internal 4GB CF card hard drive
Power Supply
machine already recapped & had timing fixes done
fully refurbished and working internal floppy disk drive
a few floppy disk games chucked in for free
a couple of games already installed on the CF card
and tbh, I think that was a good deal considering the prices these are nowadays
On floppy disk, I got:
Test Drive 2
Super Cars
Final Fight Enhanced
Benefactor
Alien Breed Special Edition
and already installed on the CF card
Alien Breed 2
Alien Breed Tower Assault
Firstly, I managed to find my PCMCIA SRAM card, adding 2MB Fast RAM to the machine, which makes it a lot more usable. I installed a few more games on the machine (Virocop AGA, Shadow Fighter AGA, Fighting Spirit, Flight Of The Amazon Queen, Simon The Sorcerer and many more) and I also installed some utilities, then I installed the AMOS collection (Easy AMOS, AMOS 1.3 and AMOS Pro) followed by DPaint, DMC (Disk Mag Creator) and some other stuff.
The finishing touches and a lot of the stuff for the "Adventures In Retro" disk mag have been completed on this very 1200.
Well, I'm definitely looking to get some form of Fast RAM and/or accelerator in it, but I'm undecided between the following
4/8MB trapdoor Fast RAM card
PiStorm32-Lite
an ACA card of some sort
TF1230 or TF1260
but, budget is a slight concern and I need to think about what I intend to do with the machine.
One reason: AGA
A lot of new homebrew releases seem to be targeted at AGA machines (much to my frustration) and hence, getting a 1200 is a necessity.
Possibly - I'm tempted with a CD32, but the prices are insane for these, however, I may still consider one.