old-computers.com/website
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Actions Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity
Files
de1901464948adcd7a58f8e108309a930123ffe8
website/content/museum/commodore-amiga-1200.md
T

572 lines
28 KiB
Markdown
Raw Blame History

This file contains invisible Unicode characters
This file contains invisible Unicode characters that are indistinguishable to humans but may be processed differently by a computer. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.
This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.
---
title: Commodore Amiga 1200
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Home Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1992'
cpus:
- Motorola MC68EC020
params:
name: Amiga 1200
image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_system_1.jpg
company: /companies/commodore
company_name: Commodore
specs:
- label: NAME
value: Amiga 1200
- label: MANUFACTURER
value: Commodore
- label: TYPE
value: Home Computer
- label: ORIGIN
value: U.S.A.
- label: YEAR
value: October 1992
- label: END OF PRODUCTION
value: '1996'
- label: KEYBOARD
value: built-in keyboard, 96 keys
- label: CPU
value: Motorola MC68EC020 + MC68881 FPU
- label: SPEED
value: |-
14.18758 MHz (PAL)\
14.31818 MHz (NTSC)
- label: CO-PROCESSOR
value: 'AGA based chipset: 8374 Alice (memory controller and blitter), 4203 Lisa (video control chip), 8364 Paula (sound & I/O), Gayle (I/O, IDE interface), 391425 Budgie (bus controller)'
- label: RAM
value: 2 MB Chip RAM, expandable to 10 MB max (2 MB Chip RAM + 8 MB Fast Ram)
- label: ROM
value: 'Kickstart 3.1: 512 KB'
- label: GRAPHIC MODES
value: 320x200 to 1280x512 max
- label: COLORS
value: |-
Palette: 16.7 million\
On screen: 256 in normal modes, 262144 in HAM-8
- label: SOUND
value: 4 channel 8 bit PCM, stereo output
- label: SIZE / WEIGHT
value: |-
9.5" deep × 18.5" wide × 3" high / 8 lbs\
25cm deep x 49cm wide x 7cm high / 3.1 Kg
- label: I/O PORTS
value: RS-232 serial port, Centronics parallel port, external disk interface, 150 pin local expansion port, Clockport, 2x RCA audio, PCMCIA/JEIDA card interface, IDE hard drive interface, composite video out, RF out, 2x Atari joystick/mouse ports
- label: BUILT IN MEDIA
value: 3.5'' floppy disk drive
- label: OS
value: Workbench 3.1
- label: POWER SUPPLY
value: External 23 watts PSU, 220-240V/50Hz (PAL), 110 volt/60Hz (NTSC)
- label: PRICE
value: |-
£399 (UK, 1992)\
£329 (UK, 1995)
tabs:
- photos
- hardware
- connectors
- emulators
- links
- videos
photos:
- title: LEFT SIDE
subtitle: ''
text: Note the PCMCIA cards slot
image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_leftside_1.jpg
- title: RIGHT SIDE
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_rightside_1.jpg
- title: 'KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP #1'
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_keyboard_1.jpg
- title: 'KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP #2'
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_keyboard_2.jpg
- title: REAR CONNECTORS
subtitle: ''
text: |-
**(1)** Expansions trap door\
**(2)** Mouse or Joystick-1 DB9 connector\
**(3)** Joystick-2 DB9 connector\
**(4)** External disk drive DB23 connector\
**(5)** Serial DB25 connector\
**(6)** Parallel DB 25 connector\
**(7)** Stereo sound output RCA plugs\
**(8)** RGB video output DB23 connector\
**(9)** Composite video output RCA plug\
**(10)** RF/TV modulator output\
**(11)** External power supply unit plug
image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_back_1.jpg
- title: INSIDE A1200
subtitle: ''
text: |-
**(1)** A metallic shield prevents magnetic field from being emitted by the computer\
**(2)** 170 MB 2.5" hard disk drive\
**(3)** 512 KB ROM chips holding Kickstart 3.0\
**(4)** 68030 accelerator card\
**(5)** 3.5" internal floppy disc drive
image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_inside_1.jpg
- title: A1200 MOTHERBOARD
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_motherboard_1.jpg
- title: MOTHERBOARD CLOSE-UP
subtitle: ''
text: |-
Hard disk connector area.\
All the passive components are miniaturized versions\
The Sony chip is a video RGB encoder
image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_mboardcloseup_1.jpg
- title: LAPTOP PROTOTYPE
subtitle: ''
text: |-
One of the numerous attempts in designing a portable version of the Amiga system. Same design was applied to the Amiga 600 version.
Thanks to **Moshe Elmashali**
image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_laptopproto_1.jpg
- title: 3.5" HDD
subtitle: ''
text: |-
3 1/2" drives did also fit into an A1200 case.\
**Steve Green** who sent us this photo specifies:\
The harddrive is a 3 1/2" 1.6 GB Samsung drive. It is attached to the main board via a 3 1/2 inch vide cable connected to a 2 1/2 inch ide cable via a convertor.
image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_fdd35_s1.jpg
hardware:
- title: GVP ACCELERATOR CARD
subtitle: ''
text: |-
This card is connected to the internal expansion connector of the Amiga 1200. It features:
\- A Motorola 50 Mhz 68030 microprocessor\
\- Up to 16 MB of additional RAM\
\- An internal clock with battery back-up\
\- A fast SCSI port
image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1200_68030board_1.jpg
- title: VIPER ACCELERATOR CARD
subtitle: ''
text: |-
**Steve Green** who sent us this photo says:\
The Viper card is an 68030 expansion card. This particular model was a 28mhz 68030 with FPU. Also added was a 16 MB dimm (which I bought from the states for 115 dollars in early 96!). Together these quadrupled the speed of a standard A1200. You could also get a 50 mhz 030 card, but this was one of the earliest.
image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1200_vipercard_s1.jpg
- title: MIDI GOLD 500
subtitle: by Golden Hawk Technology
text: |-
This is a MIDI interface for the Amiga 500, 2000, or 3000...
It features :\
\- one MIDI In\
\- two MIDI Out\
\- one switchable Out/Thru\
\- one MIDI/Serial Switch\
\- one Out/Thru Switch
image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga_golden-hawk-midi-interface.jpg
- title: AMIGA 1300
subtitle: Genlock
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1000_1300-genlock.jpg
- title: MEMORY EXPANSION BOARD
subtitle: ''
text: 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 MB expansion card here fitted with 2 MB.
image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_memboard_1.jpg
- title: VIDEO BOARD
subtitle: ''
text: This board featured 2 MB of RAM and allowed the Amiga to be connected to a standard VGA monitor. All the video modes could be displayed, including the interlace one.
image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_videoboard_1.jpg
- title: A570 CD-ROM
subtitle: ''
text: Thanks to David Griffith for this picture
image: /media/museum/hardware/amiga_cdrom_a570_1.jpg
- title: HARD DISK CARD
subtitle: ''
text: |-
40 MB SCSI card from SUPRA CORP.
Additional SCSI devices could be connected in chain trough the back connector
image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_hdboard_1.jpg
connectors:
- title: PARALLEL PORT CONNECTOR
subtitle: 25 pin D-SUB female
text: |-
1 - /STROBE OUT : Strobe\
2 - D0 : Data Bit 0\
3 - D1 : Data Bit 1\
4 - D2 : Data Bit 2\
5 - D3 : Data Bit 3\
6 - D4 : Data Bit 4\
7 - D5 : Data Bit 5\
8 - D6 : Data Bit 6\
9 - D7 : Data Bit 7\
10 - /ACK IN : Acknowledge\
11 - BUSY : Busy\
12 - POUT : Paper Out\
13 - SEL : Select (Shared with RS232 RING-indicator)\
14 - +5V PULLUP OUT : +5 Volts DC (10 mA max)\
15 - n/c - Not connected.\
16 - /RESET OUT : Reset\
17 - GND : Signal Ground\
18 - GND : Signal Ground\
19 - GND : Signal Ground\
20 - GND : Signal Ground\
21 - GND : Signal Ground\
22 - GND : Signal Ground\
23 - GND : Signal Ground\
24 - GND : Signal Ground\
25 - GND : Signal Ground
image: /media/museum/connectors/commodore_amiga1200_parallel-db25.jpg
- title: DISK DRIVE PORT CONNECTOR
subtitle: 23 pin D-SUB female (at the Amiga)
text: |-
1 - /RDY : Disk Ready\
2 - /DKRD IN : Disk Read Data\
3 - GND : Ground\
4 - GND : Ground\
5 - GND : Ground\
6 - GND : Ground\
7 - GND : Ground\
8 - /MTRXD OC : Disk Motor Control\
9 - /SEL2 OC : Select Drive 2\
10 - /DRES OC : Disk Reset\
11 - /CHNG IN/OUT : Disk Removed From Drive-Latched Low\
12 - +5V OUT : +5 Volts DC (250 mA max)\
13 - /SIDE OUT : Select Disk Side (0=Upper, 1=Lower)\
14 - /WPRO IN/OUT : Disk is Write Protected\
15 - /TKO IN/OUT : Drive Head position over Track 0\
16 - /DKWE OC : Disk Write Enable\
17 - /DKWD OC : Disk Write Data\
18 - /STEP OC : Step the Head-Pulse, First low, then high\
19 - DIR OC : Select Head Direction (0=Inner, 1=Outer)\
20 - /SEL3 OC : Select Drive 3\
21 - /SEL1 OC : Select Drive 1\
22 - /INDEX OC : Disk Index Pulse\
23 - +12V OUT : +12 Volts DC (160 mA max, 540 mA surge
image: /media/museum/connectors/commodore_amiga1200_dd-port.jpg
- title: JOYSTICK / MOUSE PORT
subtitle: 9 pin D-SUB male (at the computer)
text: |-
**MOUSE :**\
1 - V-Pulse\
2 - H-Pulse\
3 - VQ-Pulse\
4 - HQ-Pulse\
5 - Button 3(M)\
6 - Button 1(L)\
7 - +5v\
8 - GND\
9 - Button 2(R)
**DIGITAL JOYSTICK :**\
1 - /FORWARD\
2 - /BACK\
3 - /LEFT\
4 - /RIGHT\
5 - n/c\
6 - Button 1\
7 - +5v\
8 - GND\
9 - Button 2
image: /media/museum/connectors/commodore_amiga1200_db9.jpg
- title: SERIAL I/O PORT CONNECTOR
subtitle: 25 pin D-SUB Male (at the computer)
text: |-
1 - SHIELD : Shield Ground\
2 - TXD OUT : Transmit Data\
3 - RXD IN : Receive Data\
4 - RTS OUT : Request to Send\
5 - CTS IN : Clear to Send\
6 - DSR IN : Data Set Ready\
7 - GND : System Ground\
8 - CD IN : Carrier Detect\
9 - +12V OUT : +12 Volts DC (20 mA max)\
10 - -12V OUT : -12 Volts DC (20 mA max)\
11 - AUDO OUT : Amiga Audio Out (Left)\
12 - n/c : Speed Indicate\
13 - n/c\
14 - n/c\
15 - n/c\
16 - n/c\
17 - n/c\
18 - AUDI IN : Amiga Audio In (Right)\
19 - n/c\
20 - DTR OUT : Data Terminal Ready\
21 - n/c\
22 - RI IN : Ring Indicator\
23 - n/c\
24 - n/c\
25 - n/c
image: /media/museum/connectors/commodore_amiga1200_serial-connector.jpg
- title: VIDEO PORT
subtitle: 23 pin D-SUB male (at the Amiga)
text: |-
1 - /XCLK IN : Extern Clock\
2 - /XCLKEN IN : Extern Clock Enable (47 Ohm)\
3 - RED OUT : Analog Red (75 Ohm)\
4 - GREEN OUT : Analog Green (75 Ohm)\
5 - BLUE OUT : Analog Blue (75 Ohm)\
6 - DI OUT : Digital Intensity (47 Ohm)\
7 - DR OUT : Digital Red (47 Ohm)\
8 - DG OUT : Digital Green (47 Ohm)\
9 - DB OUT : Digital Blue (47 Ohm)\
10 - /CSYNC OUT : Composite Sync (47 Ohm)\
11 - /HSYNC OUT : Horizontal Sync (47 Ohm)\
12 - /VSYNC OUT : Vertical Sync (47 Ohm)\
13 - GNDRTN : Digital Ground (for /XCLKEN) Don't connect with pin 16-20.\
14 - /PIXELSW OUT : Genlock overlay (47 Ohm)\
15 - /C1 OUT : Clock out (47 Ohm)\
16 - GND : Video Ground\
17 - GND : Video Ground\
18 - GND : Video Ground\
19 - GND : Video Ground\
20 - GND : Video Ground\
21 - -12V OUT : -12 Volts DC (10 mA max) (A500/A600/A1200),\
-5V OUT : -5 Volts DC (10 mA max) (A1000/A2000/A3000/A4000)\
22 - +12V OUT : +12 Volts DC (100 mA max)\
23 - +5V OUT : +5 Volts DC (100 mA max)
image: /media/museum/connectors/commodore_amiga1200_videoport.jpg
emulators:
- title: Amiga Forever
url: http://www.amigaforever.com/
platform: Windows
text: Complete but commercial Amiga emulator
- title: AMIthlon & AmigaXL
url: http://amigaosxl.haage-partner.de/index-e.html
platform: Windows
text: Powerful commercial emulators
- title: WinFellow
url: HTTP://FELLOW.SOURCEFORGE.NET
platform: Windows
text: Probably better at some games than UAE, but not as versatile.
- title: WinUAE
url: http://www.winuae.net/
platform: Windows
text: The best Amiga emulator ? :-)
- title: Max UAE
url: http://maxuae.de/
platform: Apple
text: UAE for Mac OS X
- title: AmigaSYS
url: http://amigasys.fw.hu/
platform: Unix / Linux
text: AmigaSYS is a pre-installed full Amiga OS for WinUAE
- title: Pocket UAE
url: http://pocketinsanity.sourceforge.net/
platform: Other platform
text: Amiga Emulator for Pocket PC
- title: Experimental UAE
url: http://www.rcdrummond.net/uae/
platform: Multiplatform
text: Standard UAE enhanced with features from WinUAE.
- title: MESS
url: http://www.mess.org
platform: Multiplatform
text: MESS now emulates the Commodore Amiga
- title: UAE
url: http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~uae/
platform: Multiplatform
text: '(Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator) for BeOS, Mac OS, Linux, NextStep, MSDOS, OS/2 and Win95/NT : Homepage.'
links:
- title: Amiga animations
url: http://www.randelshofer.ch/animations/
text: A collection of Amiga Animations. This is the only site where you can see them online!
- title: Amiga Interactive Guide
url: http://amiga.emugaming.com/
text: Excellent site ! A lot of very interesting infos there.
- title: Amiga Island
url: http://www.virtualpast.de/
text: Excellent site with ROMs to download!
- title: Amiga Web Directory
url: http://www.cucug.org/amiga.html
text: ''
- title: AMIGART.COM
url: http://www.amigart.com
text: Nice site with Amiga news
- title: Back to the Roots
url: HTTP://WWW.BACK2ROOTS.ORG/
text: Amiga culture, guides, huge collection of legally downloadable software, and much more.
- title: Lex Site - Amiga Hardware Database
url: http://amiga.multigraph.com/
text: The website title says it all!
- title: NetBSD-Amiga
url: http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/amiga/index.html
text: ''
- title: Old Computer Mags
url: http://www.old-computer-mags.com/
text: Scans of old computer and videogames magazine
- title: Recorded Amiga Games
url: http://www.recordedamigagames.org
text: Speedrun, longplay and misc videos of Amiga games and more.
- title: RetroPack
url: http://www.retropack.co.uk/
text: Website dedicated to selling original Amigas, CD32s and Amiga/CD32 Games.
- title: The Amiga Monitor
url: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MikeWebb/amhome.html
text: ''
- title: The Big Book of Amiga Hardware
url: http://www.amiga-hardware.com/
text: Pics & info (pinouts, jumpers etc.) for just about every piece of Amiga related hardware there is
- title: The English Amiga Board
url: http://eab.abime.net/
text: Community site for Amiga fans
- title: World-Wide Amiga - Online!!
url: http://www.amiga.org/
text: ''
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: Reviews of Amiga software, hardware
videos:
- title: Commodore Amiga commercial - EXIT
url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8721405286052618769&hl=fr
text: 'Length: 41 s'
- title: Commodore Amiga 500 commercial
url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5737538578208665725&hl=fr
text: 'Length: 29 s'
- title: Commodore Amiga 1000 commercial
url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5356507595228759374&hl=fr
text: 'Length: 32 s'
- title: Commodore Amiga 600 italian commercial
url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-768109352967297990&hl=fr
text: 'Length: 19 s'
- title: Commodore Amiga packs commercial
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdaMq8JLyHA
text: 'Length: 21 s'
- title: Commodore Amiga TV Ad - Celebrities
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEFoj6sbDjU
text: 'Length: 29 s'
- title: Commodore Amiga 500 promotional video
url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=9038863557655975739&hl=fr
text: 'Length: 15 min 06 s'
- title: 'Computer Chronicles: Amiga & Atari (1985)'
url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8978343825632445107&hl=fr
text: 'Length: 29 min 18 s'
comments:
- author: Andrew Wallace (Bo''ness Scotland)
date: Wednesday 25th August 2010
text: I had an A1200 on the week it launched. When they first launched hundreds of them had to be returned as the internal modulator (Commodore replaced the A520 external modulator) did not provide a clear picture or sound of any quality. I also remember most games not working on the machine probably due to the 68020, Rom v3 and the AGA chipset. I got shot of mine, bought a second hand A500+ (That I had sold to get the A1200) and saved up for a PC. A friend of mine remained faitful to the A1200 and even had the 060 card in his (that bulged out of the expansion slot) by this time there was some software for the machine. To be honest the machine was never well supported, you were far better off with a A500+ for games and a A3000 for the more serious stuff. Interestingly the A1200 was built at SCI in Irvine in Scotland, about 3 miles from my house. 2 of my cousins worked on it and they told me of the majour problems they had with the machine, especially with mdulators.
- author: Harald Hansen
date: Tuesday 28th May 2013
text: |-
Andrew Wallace:
Sorry to hear your bad experience with the 1200, but to move ahead in the world, some compatibility has to be sacrificed. There were ways to diminish this problem though, using software Kickstart replacements or the compatibility settings at boot.
As for your other comments, I must really beg to differ. This computer was -very- well supported and continues to be many years after it''s supposed demise. You can still get CPU upgrades, graphics cards and even 16 bit sound cards with a DSP for it. You can stick it in a full tower if you so wish and use cheap PCI graphics cards instead of using the relatively more expensive Amiga graphics cards if you so wish.
Software was also written for it long after Commodore went bankrupt in ''94 and Escom went belly up in ''96. So you can''t say it was never supported well, because it really was. Just as well as any of the other Amigas.
- author: Azhrei (Cork, Ireland)
date: Sunday 1st April 2012
text: The Magic Pack was definitely released - I worked at a computer store (that did not sell second-hand gear) in Cork back in the mid-90''s and I remember talking to a manager about the Escom-released Amiga 1200, and it was a Magic Pack bundle. Just fyi.
- author: LethalDose
date: Thursday 15th September 2011
text: |-
The A1200 was far the best computer i ever own. i was for a wile in a small demoscene in my country, used it for grafic design and even on my own little video and audio event company.\
Sad that such a great machine was backup by moron decisions by the manufactures\
My A1200 was tricked out with a wooping 128mb ram, 060/PPC Blizzard with a Blizzardvision graphics card, 240mb HDD and a 4x CDrom at the end of its life\
...i still own it, but its literaly stripped apart in a box right now...one day might take a travel back in time and reassemble it
- author: Diicc
date: Tuesday 23rd August 2011
text: You could actually use 3.5" HDD mounted inside the case. You had to remove the HDD holder/clips and botch together your own stabilizer but it sure worked. Saved moeny and got you more Megs.
- author: catalin (Italy)
date: Friday 11th February 2011
text: hi..the amiga 1200 works without the hard disk
- author: rednight
date: Monday 24th January 2011
text: |-
Yes the Amiga has been re-implemented in an FPGA.
The Minimig is complete and available for purchase - it re-impliments an A600 using a real 68000 and the custom chip set in FPGA.
The Natami project is nearing release it is a fully Amiga compatible machine with several modern enhancments.
- author: Lez Anderson (England)
date: Thursday 2nd December 2010
text: Does anyone know if the Amiga has been put onto a FPGA (field Programmable Gate Array) or CPLD ..?? It would be nice to get a hardware single chip Amiga.
- author: Andres Serrano (Spain)
date: Wednesday 20th October 2010
text: 'Many people see the Amigas as a games machine only. I had a friend with an A2000 ( two floppies), who moved to PCs. He never experienced what the Amiga''''s hardware could do with just some extra memory!! I remember installing Civilization I (4 disks) onto RAM: and thus saving disk swapping. And with an internal hard drive and a 030 with 8MB, that was efficient. I met a group of people, programming for both the Amiga and PC, and the scrolls in the Amiga just couldn''''t be matched on the much faster Pcs!!'
- author: Lord Banter (UK)
date: Saturday 29th May 2010
text: |-
The A1200 was a great computer, I still have it at home, unfortunately is not working. But the platform is not lost, there is new Amiga-compatible computer called NatAmi on the way:)
Check out YouTube video of the prototype in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$rydE7wa_5d0
- author: David (UK)
date: Saturday 15th May 2010
text: You can still buy "New old" stock Amiga a1200''s on amigakits.com. I just bought one and cannot wait! There''s cheapr one''s on ebay but they are yellowed and grubby. Check it out!
- author: Kevin (England)
date: Monday 12th April 2010
text: I still hve my A1200, with an 030 card, 18 MB RAM and a 500MB HD, still has the best version ever made of UFO on it. I still use it quite a bit, particularly or Cinema 3D and Dpaint. It was a shame the platform died.
- author: User
date: Wednesday 8th April 2009
text: Weak side of A1200 was low-power power supply, complicating to connect additional devices and expansion boards, wich may result overload and instability in work.
- author: Niels Haedecke
date: Tuesday 26th August 2008
text: |-
I have re-discovered the Amiga Computer series and have set up a nice Amiga 1200 with a dual-boot option for OS 3.5 or NetBSD 3.1. This system also makes use of a FibreLine 10MBit Ethernet NIC (PCMCIA) adapter, a 68030 Turbo board and will soo be equipped with the new Indivision FlickerFixer (to be released in late 2008). I use it for gaming and as Email client. And it still does a very good job.
It is such a pity that the Amiga and especially the A1200 did not survive the "DOS PC invasion". Good to know that there still are a lot of people who take care of these old machines.
- author: Gwion Mainwaring (Wales/Aberporth)
date: Wednesday 10th January 2007
text: I bought my thre amiga's for thee pound each I have the amiga a1200 a500 and cd32 and i'm only 12yrs old i see great potential in my a1200 but i need the workbench disks os 3.0 or 3.1 could anyone please make me a copy of them??Email me if you can BIGEST 12yr old AMIGA fan!!!!!!! hehe lovin Amiga
- author: Blake Patterson (Alexandria, VA (USA))
date: Monday 15th August 2005
text: I recently built my 2nd Amiga 1200 tower, providing the unit with an (overclocked) 66MHz 68060 accelerator and high capacity fast SCSI. The story of this machine can be read in the 'www' link above. (Be sure to click into the gallery of photos of the setup from within the story linked above.) I use the machine mainly for watching hacker demos.
- author: Darren Forster (UK)
date: Monday 27th June 2005
text: The A1200 was a fine machine. I have got one (and an A600 and CD32). I saw an A500 working once and was very glad that my first Amiga was the A600 or else I probably would never have bought an A1200. I got my A1200 from a car boot sale, prior to that I'd had a CD32 with an SX1 box which turned the CD32 into a full A1200. I can't seem to find the CD32 though.
- author: Alex (UK)
date: Sunday 11th May 2003
text: Yep, the trapdoor expansion is definitely easy to use. Only problem is that some cards (mainly 68040's I think) could overheat. Do you think it's possible to put a Blizzard PPC into it with the original case?
- author: Hubert (Poland)
date: Wednesday 16th April 2003
text: My Amiga 1200 had 420MB Seagate 3.5 inch HD installed internally (well, I coudn't fit it, so there was small, 3mm gap between lower and upper part of case, clearly visible on left side of computer - hard drive was simply to high). It was running internal acceleration card with 50MHz Motorola 68030 overclocked to 66MHz and math coprocessor running at 50MHz an asynchronous mode, and with 16 MB of 'real-fast' memory. It was very fast, I don't remember the name of this card - my friend bought it for me in USA... It was quite rare in Europe, most of my friends with Amigas 1200 had different acc. cards in their machines. Besides the clear superiority in terms of speed my card had some compatibility problems with its memory controller - most of so called 'demos' coudn't utilize 'fast' on-board memory resulting in speed loss (such programs could only use 2MB of 'chip' type memory, with access slowed down by DMA channels).
- author: Peter Gordon (UK)
date: Wednesday 12th June 2002
text: Also, almost none of the cards in the card section work with the A1200 :)
- author: Peter Gordon (UK)
date: Thursday 6th June 2002
text: |-
The Magic Pack definately was released.
The modification to the disk drive was not for compatibility with the Amiga filesystem at all (All disk drives can read and write Amiga filesystem disks, but standard PC floppy CONTROLLERS can't read/write Amiga 880/1760k disks. As AROS proves, PC floppy controllers can write FFS disks with only 720/1440k).
The incompatability was due to a missing signal (DSKRDY) which indicates when the motor has spun up and is ready.
- author: Gary Byrne (UK)
date: Wednesday 5th June 2002
text: The Amiga 1200 did have up to 200Mb Hard Disk Drive internally. I should know as I have one! Also the expansion underneath the Amiga 1200 not only held extra RAM but you could add an additional faster CPU which would override the orignal - not sure how this was done.
related:
- /museum/commodore-amiga-1000
- /museum/commodore-amiga-1500
- /museum/commodore-amiga-2000
- /museum/commodore-amiga-2500
- /museum/commodore-amiga-3000
- /museum/commodore-amiga-4000
- /museum/commodore-amiga-500
- /museum/commodore-amiga-500-plus
- /museum/commodore-amiga-600
- /museum/commodore-amiga-600hd
- /museum/commodore-cdtv
oc_id: 628
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230329001433/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=628
date: '2023-03-29'
---
In October 1992 the Amiga 1200 was launched. This machine took the A500 approach to computing with the "distinct" Commodore case, but including the AGA chipset present in the A4000, 2 MB RAM, and the PCMCIA slot from the A600.
At the price of £399 it sold like hot cakes and is seen as one of the best Amigas to date. It appears to have been rushed to launch for the Christmas period with manuals claiming to give you the opportunity to upgrade from 1mb to 2mb chip ram with FPU. It is, however, a darn fine machine that can be easily upgraded for most of your needs.
After Escom bought the Amiga during 1995 it was relaunched to mass outrage. The machine still cost £399, £150 more than it had done a year previously and was not enhanced in any dramatic fashion. It was released in two versions- the Amiga Magic pack and the Amiga Surfer bundle. Unfortunately, the former was never released due to Escoms financial situation. The Escom Amigas were also struck by incompatibility problems due to a different disk drive being used, it was actually a PC high-density drive mechanism that had been altered to allow compatibility with the Amiga file system. Unfortunately, some games that hit the hardware directly would not run. A circuit upgrade was released free of charge that allowed users to fix the drive problem.
Source: [Amiga Interactive Guide](http://amiga.emugaming.com/)
---
More information from **Chris Green**:\
We got our A1200 in about 1995.It was part of a part exchange deal I think from Escom. You had to bring in an old A500 and then you got the A1200 for £199. I think it was the Magic pack (it had a spaceman on the box). The hard drives you could add were internal 2.5" drives as the 3.5" were too big for the case. You could also add any amount of external floppy drives, we had 2. We had a Reno 2X cd rom which fitted onto an SCSI adapter. You could also have an ATAPI-IDE drive if you threaded the IDE cable out the back of the case.
Reference in New Issue View Git Blame Copy Permalink