April 11, 2016Old School Game Blog

Amiga: From 1200 to MIST?

Amiga 1200 as a games machine (photo by Old School Game Blog)
My Amiga 1200 as a games machine. TV is not working anymore (photo by Old School Game Blog).

Hi guys,

First of all I’d like to say hello to new followers of this blog. Many thanks for subscribing and please feel free to leave comments on posts as well. 🙂 It’s always great with some feedback or input. Also hi to both old and new visitors. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.

The topic of this post is “From 1200 to Mist?”. For people not into the Amiga it probably looks pretty cryptic. What is this number 1200 and what does MIST have to do with it?

1200 is short for the Amiga 1200 computer. MIST is an FPGA computer that can run and operate just like a normal Amiga.

The reason I’m writing, is that I’m thinking of letting my Amiga 1200 enter the age of retirement. This means it’ll end up on the shelf or in the cupboard. I don’t have the stomach to sell it, because it has been like a friend to me for about 16 years.

As a replacement, I’ll get a MIST FPGA computer that can behave just like an Amiga 1200. It’s small (which means that it has high WAF = wife acceptancy factor), you can hook up USB keyboards or mice to it, it can connect to modern screens, and it is very quiet while running. It is worth mentioning that you can make the MIST behave like a Nintendo NES or Atari ST for example. There are many cores available.

My usage for the Amiga is coding (AMOS), graphics (Deluxe Paint), music (Protracker) and of course some gaming and demo-watching. The MIST will work fine for this.

One of the reasons I’m not that interested in using the 1200 is because of the lack of proper screen, but also that it needs many upgrades to do what the MIST does right out of the box. It’ll be very expensive to get it in good shape and it’ll also take up more space.

It is also the question of waiting for the Vampire II. Although it is a superb card, I can’t see myself needing all that speed in the near future.

As I’m writing this, I think I’ve settled for the MIST. Sometimes it’s good just to empty ones thoughts and see what comes of it. Now I only need to raise some funds for this machine, hehe. 😉

PS: Here’s a video giving you a great look at the MIST FPGA computer:

 

16 comments

  1. I dunno…if you go FPGA, why not just emulate a 1200 via WinUAE? That will save you space and money.

    -boatofcar from Amigos Podcast

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    • Hello Boatofcar and thanks for visiting my blog. 🙂

      I can see what you mean, but it’s about having a new dedicated Amiga system, a standalone machine that behaves and works just like the real thing. You turn it on and you’re ready to go, whilst WinUAE is much more hassle. If I’m going to do demo work, I’d like to get started right away without any fuzz. 😉

      A PC with WinUAE can never become a replacement for the Amiga for me. I’ve used WinUAE for ages for various purposes (handy for video output, taking screenshots etc.), but it still feels like what it is, an emulator.

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  2. I always find I learn so much about the Amiga scene through your blog!! I have an A500 that I mainly use for gaming, so it’s cool to not only see what’s happening with the crazy Vampire II cards, but that there’s an FPGA Amiga. Will have to check out that video later!

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    • Hi Sean! Thanks for the kind words. 🙂 Much appreciated! Be sure to catch the video of the MIST. It’s a beautiful thing. 🙂 If I get to afford it, I will of course review it up and down and sideways. 😀

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  3. Looks like a great solution. Might be something to think about in the future, but I don’t really have the money at the moment. For the foreseeable future I’ll be sticking to WinUAE!

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  6. To those of you claim WinUAE is the same thing; it’s not. WinUAE is great for running some Workbench software for instance, but for games and demos (especially those that bang the hardware) there will always be some compromises; like jerky scrolling etc.

    For music production WinUAE also comes to short because the sound will be slightly delayed after you press the keys on the keyboard. Well, of course it works if you never play “live” and don’t need accuracy.

    You can be the lucky owner of the most powerful Windows based PC in the world but that does not help you. WinUAE has these problems because it runs on top of several Hardware Abstraction Layers:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_abstraction

    Due to this Windows sucks for emulators (Linux and MAC probably do too). I remember the DOS version of M.A.M.E ran a lot smoother than the Windows version. I don’t think that has changed to this day!

    Of course the MiST is not perfect (at least not yet), but an FPGA computer will always have the potential to be closer to the real thing than an emulator will ever be! Because there are no Hardware Abstraction Layers (at least they’re different), no electricity is wasted. The MiST only uses a couple of watts when being operated. I guess your PCs running WinUAE require a lot more than that in comparison.

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