Hey I tell you what was fun back in the day I had a Blizzard 030 50MHz with MMU and FPU (Blizzard board). You gonna try running the Vista Pro landscape software on an AGA machine - set the MMU to use hard disk as memory and create a very long animation from images combined into a single anim file - essentially an animation only limited by your hard disk free space. So much fun!
@@10MARC Good luck - and I can't remember if I did but it might be possible to multitask a mod file at the same time - try doing that on an ST *cough* did I say that?
If this fits a CDTV... whoa Nellie! I've got some other upgrades I've been meaning to fit in the ol' sleek black pizza box, and this would be a super sweet addition. Thanks for the in-depth look, Doug!
Yes, it should fit just beautifully and really add a lot to the old girl! I keep looking for a CDTV myself. My hope is that someone donates one to a thrift or surplus store and they just think it's a CD player and I can get it cheap!
Great Video Doug, You mentioned in the video about one of the old ways to mod it was to cut traces, I did this on my A500 for the 1 meg Agnus. Do you happen to know If I could do this 2 meg upgrade without reversing the 1 meg mod?
Yes, this would still work fine with that mod. All the CHIP RAM is now accessed from the RAMesses itself, so I suspect it would basically ignore those modifications. They are generally easy to reverse anyways.
@@10MARC there are two I know of in the works that use FPGAs (possibly three but I think the third was abandoned). Unfortunately FPGAs are hard to get hold of at the moment (cars and machines use them too, and the chip shortage is really biting right now). I would expect right now they will be slightly more expensive once you fact in retail costs than an 8375. They will also be difficult for a hobbyist to build without expensive equipment. They all use BGA and/or fine pitch chips in a tight space.
Does the GARY adapter come with the RAMesses? If not, i have a spare one from a 2MB Trapdoor expansion. Could i use the one i have or do i need a special one for the RAMesses?
I cannot imagine why it would be incompatible, especially since the Classic 520 is a Slot on the Side accelerator. It should not care about what CHIP RAM is in there. Mine works fine with my MegaChip 2 MB board, and those work in a similar way. I will test it out.
@@10MARC thanks for confirming that your Classic 520 works with this RAMesses 2mb chip. Irix support advise it would not work, glad to hear thats not the case.
@@10MARC they are interchangeable, it is really their default setting that determines PAL / NTSC, they can swap in software and in the Kickstart menu. Although the video frequency will be very slightly off if you switch. Most monitors can cope with that.
@@10MARC it would be really great if someone did an FPGA 2mb AGNUS because I think it is the most difficult chip to get of all the Amiga Custom Chips. I might be wrong on that.
My thinking is that finding an 8375 is difficult and they tend to be costly so when you factor in the cost of the RAMesses, you may be better off buying an ACE2b from Individual Computers as it is an all-in-one solution.
It definitely isn't for everyone, and that is fine. Jens' ACE2b solution is also a great option. I know quite a few people who have picked up A500+ machines locally very cheaply which are beyond repair but the Agnus chips are good, then used RAMesses to put those chips into their regular A500 / A2000 / CDTV. They also come up on eBay, in the UK prices currently range from £45 - £75 typically for a 2MB 8375. Batches 1 and 2 of RAMesses did have the option of having them with the 8375 for £50 more, maybe half of people selected that option. Unfortunately I could not acquire them in bulk any more after that.
Good question! I like to Multitask graphics programs sometimes. I will have Amigavision and maybe Personal Paint or Image FX open. It is much easier multitask with more CHIP RAM. MOD files also often play from CHIP RAM, so I can have one playing while working on other software without running out of memory. Back in 1991 we thought this was the best update ever!
There are certainly not many! But games were not really what the 2 MB CHIP expansion was about. Things like graphics programs, audio capture, video titling and such loved the 2 MB of CHIP RAM.
@@mrkitty777 interesting, what should in-theory happen is the clocks and the RAM address bus gets mapped incorrectly. There are some conflicts with LDS/UDS but I don't think they would be fatal. So you end up with just a black screen at power up. Not something I've tried though and I don't recommend anyone try it :)
I think the question really is: why would you want more than 2mb of Chip for ECS? I don't think any software is written to take advantage of more than 2MB DMA for the chipset even if the rest of the chipset supported it. You would be far better off increasing Fast RAM which, as the name suggest, is accessed a lot faster by the CPU. With an 030 or higher you could easily go to a couple of GB of Fast RAM without issue.
@@linuxjedivideo it’s more for AGA when I’m using 128 or 256 colour modes when browsing the web and easily run out of memory if I have too many windows open
@@sacredbanana now for AGA, sure. You still have the chipset problem though. You would need a 32bit CPU too as the 24bit memory map doesn't have space for more than 2MB chip. I'd recommend some kind of RTG if you are doing high colour modes with lots of windows.
IMHO v2 should be a bit cheaper, as some little particulars indicates that less parts were used (e.g. the Gary cable is soldered on v2); however, take my money, too!
Thank you for the awesome review 🙂
Happy to do it, Andrew! You make nice stuff!
Awesome upgrade thanks for posting !
Yes, it is a really good one, and easier to find than the old MegaChip expansions!
Hey I tell you what was fun back in the day I had a Blizzard 030 50MHz with MMU and FPU (Blizzard board). You gonna try running the Vista Pro landscape software on an AGA machine - set the MMU to use hard disk as memory and create a very long animation from images combined into a single anim file - essentially an animation only limited by your hard disk free space. So much fun!
I have played a bit with Vista Pro but I need to do more with it. Good idea about the MMU! I will give that a try!
@@10MARC Good luck - and I can't remember if I did but it might be possible to multitask a mod file at the same time - try doing that on an ST *cough* did I say that?
Love the review. Would this work/fit on an A500 with a PIstorm? I have had to use a CPU relocator as the Keyboard would not sit flat.
I think so. The PiStorm is off to the left far enough where it should not be an issue.
Brilliant !
If this fits a CDTV... whoa Nellie! I've got some other upgrades I've been meaning to fit in the ol' sleek black pizza box, and this would be a super sweet addition. Thanks for the in-depth look, Doug!
Yes, it should fit just beautifully and really add a lot to the old girl!
I keep looking for a CDTV myself. My hope is that someone donates one to a thrift or surplus store and they just think it's a CD player and I can get it cheap!
It fits great in my CDTV :)
@@linuxjedivideo Sold! I just put my name on the waiting list. :)
Great Video Doug, You mentioned in the video about one of the old ways to mod it was to cut traces, I did this on my A500 for the 1 meg Agnus. Do you happen to know If I could do this 2 meg upgrade without reversing the 1 meg mod?
Yes, this would still work fine with that mod. All the CHIP RAM is now accessed from the RAMesses itself, so I suspect it would basically ignore those modifications.
They are generally easy to reverse anyways.
Yes, it bypasses any modification and will work.
Beautiful! I’d love to see an A1000 version too. I know it’s not easy, as the DIP Agnus chip in the A1000 lacks some essential signals.
You would need a rejuvenator board for that. Or some serious skills to grab signals elsewhere on the board. It would be wonderful, though!
@@10MARC my A1000 has no daughterboard, so the Rejuvenator doesn’t fit, what I need is a more generic solution
I miss an agnus replacement rather than reuse old chips; might be next step?
I have not heard of one being in the works, but it would certainly not be impossible.
@@10MARC there are two I know of in the works that use FPGAs (possibly three but I think the third was abandoned). Unfortunately FPGAs are hard to get hold of at the moment (cars and machines use them too, and the chip shortage is really biting right now). I would expect right now they will be slightly more expensive once you fact in retail costs than an 8375. They will also be difficult for a hobbyist to build without expensive equipment. They all use BGA and/or fine pitch chips in a tight space.
Does the GARY adapter come with the RAMesses? If not, i have a spare one from a 2MB Trapdoor expansion. Could i use the one i have or do i need a special one for the RAMesses?
Doug, will this work with irix labs classic 520? My understanding is due to the chip ram connecting to Gary is not compatible.
I cannot imagine why it would be incompatible, especially since the Classic 520 is a Slot on the Side accelerator. It should not care about what CHIP RAM is in there. Mine works fine with my MegaChip 2 MB board, and those work in a similar way. I will test it out.
@@10MARC thanks for confirming that your Classic 520 works with this RAMesses 2mb chip. Irix support advise it would not work, glad to hear thats not the case.
Real good stuff, Doug. That looks like a real dandy little board. How tough is it to get those Agnus chips these days?
on ebay right now they're 150 USD. would say they are becoming exceedingly rare
They usually sell for about $100 - $125 for the 2 MB Agnus. Not impossible to find.
Was that a PAL 8375? Is the RAMesses compatible with either?
Yes it is compatible with either. Mine is the NTSC version, as is about 90% of my hardware
Doug, does this also work with PAL and does that require a different Agnus chip revision?
Yep - works with PAL just fine. There are different NTSC and PAL Agnus chips. I am not sure just how interchangeable they are
@@10MARC they are interchangeable, it is really their default setting that determines PAL / NTSC, they can swap in software and in the Kickstart menu. Although the video frequency will be very slightly off if you switch. Most monitors can cope with that.
Yes, it works with PAL as it was designed in a PAL region :)
@@10MARC it would be really great if someone did an FPGA 2mb AGNUS because I think it is the most difficult chip to get of all the Amiga Custom Chips. I might be wrong on that.
@@linuxjedivideo Doh! Yes my bad. A pity about the Agnus though. Almost impossible to find the 2mb version.
My thinking is that finding an 8375 is difficult and they tend to be costly so when you factor in the cost of the RAMesses, you may be better off buying an ACE2b from Individual Computers as it is an all-in-one solution.
It definitely isn't for everyone, and that is fine. Jens' ACE2b solution is also a great option. I know quite a few people who have picked up A500+ machines locally very cheaply which are beyond repair but the Agnus chips are good, then used RAMesses to put those chips into their regular A500 / A2000 / CDTV. They also come up on eBay, in the UK prices currently range from £45 - £75 typically for a 2MB 8375.
Batches 1 and 2 of RAMesses did have the option of having them with the 8375 for £50 more, maybe half of people selected that option. Unfortunately I could not acquire them in bulk any more after that.
Yes, Jens solution is also awesome. This was a better solution for me as I already had an 8375 chip that was unused.
So what do you use 2 MB of chip ram for?
Good question! I like to Multitask graphics programs sometimes. I will have Amigavision and maybe Personal Paint or Image FX open. It is much easier multitask with more CHIP RAM. MOD files also often play from CHIP RAM, so I can have one playing while working on other software without running out of memory.
Back in 1991 we thought this was the best update ever!
DPaint Animation.
The problem is that the 2MB Agnus (8375?) costs *a million euros* !!
They can be hard to find. Now and again you might get a good deal on one.
No ocs and ecs games needs 2meg chip memory to my knowledge 🤔
Worms 2mb version
There are certainly not many! But games were not really what the 2 MB CHIP expansion was about. Things like graphics programs, audio capture, video titling and such loved the 2 MB of CHIP RAM.
Jungle Strike and Primal Rage come to mind.
Agnus versions have different voltages, putting the wrong old agnus would destroy it.
The voltage is the same, but the pinout is quite different. Probably wouldn't destroy anything using the wrong one, but it definitely wouldn't work.
@@linuxjedivideo old agnus in newer revision socket destroys the newer motherboard revision but I don't know what chips or components were damaged
I also doubt it would destroy anything - it probably just would not function.
@@10MARC placing agnus from older revision amiga500 destroyed the amiga500+ permanently.
@@mrkitty777 interesting, what should in-theory happen is the clocks and the RAM address bus gets mapped incorrectly. There are some conflicts with LDS/UDS but I don't think they would be fatal. So you end up with just a black screen at power up. Not something I've tried though and I don't recommend anyone try it :)
It’s 2022. Why can’t we have more than 2mb of chip ram?
You can in emulation, but the data paths for Agnus don't support more than 2 MB of RAM.
@@10MARC hopefully gets added to the MiSTer core then
I think the question really is: why would you want more than 2mb of Chip for ECS?
I don't think any software is written to take advantage of more than 2MB DMA for the chipset even if the rest of the chipset supported it. You would be far better off increasing Fast RAM which, as the name suggest, is accessed a lot faster by the CPU. With an 030 or higher you could easily go to a couple of GB of Fast RAM without issue.
@@linuxjedivideo it’s more for AGA when I’m using 128 or 256 colour modes when browsing the web and easily run out of memory if I have too many windows open
@@sacredbanana now for AGA, sure. You still have the chipset problem though. You would need a 32bit CPU too as the 24bit memory map doesn't have space for more than 2MB chip. I'd recommend some kind of RTG if you are doing high colour modes with lots of windows.
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IMHO v2 should be a bit cheaper, as some little particulars indicates that less parts were used (e.g. the Gary cable is soldered on v2); however, take my money, too!
It is a bargain, IMHO, since the MegaCHIP on the used market is 3X the cost, and Jens solution from icomp.de is close to double the price.