ACA500PLUS Small dismo + ACA1233n questions

Klaptosti · Sep 5th 2023

Hi,

I recently bought a ACA500PLUS secondhand and it's a great addition to my rev6a Amiga, no problems.

Now i can buy a ACA1233n secondhand and before i jump in i have a few questions.

1: Will my standard lightweight PSU be sufficient.

2. What will be so much better in my system with the added ACA1233n ? Only Cpu heavy games / apps ( lightwave 3d, spectrum and c64 emulators ) and some 3d games will be smoother and sometimes run too fast i guess.

Are there C2P games that will run on my OCS 1MB chip machine with the ACA1233n or do all of these need AGA or RTG ?

3. Will i keep all functionality of the ACA500PLUS ? system roms in flash, pal/ntsc switch etc... or will a lot of functionality be lost and it will just be a bridge to the ACA1233n ?

T.I.A.

Jens · Sep 5th 2023

Quote from Klaptosti

1: Will my standard lightweight PSU be sufficient.

That depends on the leightweight unit you have: The 4.5A unit (beige, same colour as the A500) would be perfect, but the 3.0A unit will only be OK if it's the bigger white unit, not the smaller, black unit.

Quote from Klaptosti

2. What will be so much better in my system with the added ACA1233n ? Only Cpu heavy games / apps ( lightwave 3d, spectrum and c64 emulators ) and some 3d games will be smoother and sometimes run too fast i guess.

The computer will be faster then an A3000. Most games are timed on the vertical sync of the output video, so it's unlikely that things run "way too fast" as it's sometimes the case with C64 games that run on an accelerated machine.

In case a game doesn't like the 68030, the ACA1233n has the possibility to switch off completely, which is fully supported by the ACA500plus menu: You just choose 68000 operation in the menu and the system behaves as if the ACA1233n isn't there (until you power cycle).

Quote from Klaptosti

Are there C2P games that will run on my OCS 1MB chip machine with the ACA1233n or do all of these need AGA or RTG ?

If you're talking about first-person-shooters, these will run a lot faster than with the plain ACA500plus. Just checked the requirements for Nemac IV, and that seems to be OCS, so you should be good (sorry, too lazy to look up other titles).

Quote from Klaptosti

3. Will i keep all functionality of the ACA500PLUS ? system roms in flash, pal/ntsc switch etc... or will a lot of functionality be lost and it will just be a bridge to the ACA1233n ?

The ACA500plus menu takes full advantage of the ACA1233n and other accelerators of the ACA12xx series. Kickstart ROMs are unpacked to the ACA1233n's MapROM area, and the ACA1233n will take advantage of the CF card controller, which provides much faster access due to it's transparent 32-bit access. CF cards will be much faster than the fastest SCSI harddrives of BigBox Amigas that you may have seen back in the days.

With the switchability of the ACA1233n, no functionality of the ACA500plus will be lost. The "Cloaking Device" is still available.

Jens

Klaptosti · Sep 5th 2023

Thank you very very much, i'm gonna go for it 👍

Really loving the ACA500PLUS by the way. I got it for €140 including the plexi case, totally worth it.

Jens · Sep 5th 2023

That's really a good deal. Good to see that there is a working market for used equipment - helps keeping prices in check.

Klaptosti · Sep 5th 2023

I seem to remember playing Nemac IV on my 500+ with the graffity external ' graphics card' somewhere in the 90's.

Next on my list, the graffity 😂 that's gonna be a lot harder to get my hands on.

But first i'm bidding on the ACA1233n, it's on €180,- now by me. I will let you know what it went for eventually.

Jens · Sep 5th 2023

Quote from Klaptosti

Next on my list, the graffity 😂 that's gonna be a lot harder to get my hands on.

It's actually really easy: Graffiti is included in the feature set of Indivision ECS V3. And you get a gaming-worthy flickerfixer with it

Quote from Klaptosti

But first i'm bidding on the ACA1233n, it's on €180,- now by me.

What speed is it? And is this a version with or without IDE speeder? Not that it would make a difference on the ACA500plus, but the upgrade to IDE speeder for the 26 and 40MHz versions was a bit over 60,- EUR. If the auction shows a warranty ID, I can look up the history of the card and post it here.

Don't bid too high - the ACA1234 is available new, and it comes with almost the same feature set, plus a local CF card slot that is even faster than what you'll get wih the ACA500plus CF slots.

Jens

klaptosti · Sep 5th 2023

Wow, that's really nice. The warranty sticker is [eT4Rh]

Does the graffiti emulation on the ECS V3 work the same as the original graffiti card ?
If i can't find the original this might be a nice option to get.
I'm a sucker for the original stuff so i'll try to find an original first, i found it to be a very nice and fun little addon for my a500+ back in the day.

Jens · Sep 6th 2023

Quote from klaptosti

The warranty sticker is [eT4Rh]

August 2019, 40MHz, has IDE speeder, as can be seen on the black wires that are installed for that.

No database entries in terms of service (never returned after being shipped to the Netherlands). CPU mask 0G40W, datecode 9749, MHz-rating scratched off by our chip broker.

Jens

Klaptosti · Sep 6th 2023

Thx, certainly worth bidding on.

Really appreciate what you are doing here even when i haven't bought anything directly from you ( only many many years ago i bought the graffiti at a local retailer in Rotterdam ).

And seeing what you are developing and building i will probably buy from you in the near future and recommend you where i can.

Jens · Sep 6th 2023

Quote from Klaptosti

Really appreciate what you are doing here even when i haven't bought anything directly from you

Our service is tied to the products, not the buyers. There are only *very* few people whom I've told to buy their stuff elsewhere (<5 off the top of my head).

Quote from Klaptosti

local retailer in Rotterdam

That must have been "Computer City" - it's been a while since I've seen Ron; last time was a surprise; I have exhibited at AngaCom 2009 in Cologne and one morning he stood there at the booth, asking for me by name, because he saw the iComp logo next to the Castlenet logo (Taiwanese partner that hosted me at their booth).

Jens

klaptosti · Sep 6th 2023

Haha, yes correct. Computer city with it's small shop in Kralingse Veer in Rotterdam.

Fun times.

mbruines197703 · Sep 9th 2023

To bad Computer City is no more.. If i remember correctly it was the last amiga store here

klaptosti · Sep 19th 2023

Got the ACA1233n for €200 inc. Postage. So a nice deal i think, not cheap or expensive, just what i wanted to pay for it.

Jens I wanna thank you for your help and kind reponses, i'm curious how much faster my Amiga will be because the ACA500Plus is already surprisingly fast and a bloody charm to use, what a great product and i recommend it for every A500 user where ever i can, i prefer this kind of hardware over any fpga or emulation solution every day.

Jens · Sep 20th 2023

Thanks for your feedback - good to see that there's a working used-market for our products. Helps keeping prices low: The hobby should stay affordable (yes, I'm repeating myself).

If you find the ACA500plus "surprisingly fast", then you probably haven't done CPU-intensive stuff yet. Packing a large LHA archive or compiling a bigger C project can take endless minutes, and that will be a lot faster, even if you have cranked up the ACA500plus to 42MHz. Also, 128MByte of fastmem is probably all you'll ever need. It's a ridiculous amount of memory for an Amiga.

I missed one Q:

Quote from klaptosti

Does the graffiti emulation on the ECS V3 work the same as the original graffiti card ?

Yes, you can use the same software that was available back in the days (in fact, there is no new Graffiti software). The Shapeshifter drivers and some ego-shooters like Nemac IV come to mind.

Jens