New Amiga mini console coming soon

[eagle64]

As the title says a new (old)Amiga mini console is coming soon, with 25 built in games (and some actual corkers, not just shovelware) as well as the ability to load your own games through WHLoad,. Usb keyboard support as well.

And not only that it looks like it will have the a600 and a1200 chipsets and aga emulated too.

I know I can just carry on with Winuae on my laptop, but it does look sexy, am very  tempted to get one

 

https://retrogames.biz/thea500-mini

 

 

[wearecity]

I pre-ordered one of these a few months back.

A bit expensive, but I just kind of got into collecting mini consoles/computers, without the intention of doing so.

Many of them, I haven't even opened, but it's quite cool seeing them all in a row on a shelf behind me, when I turn around from my computer desk.

Normally, I would say, what's the point in buying something and then not opening it, but I see these like ornaments or paintings for an old school gamer, something to display. These are my little treats to myself every so often.

[nails]

i waited so long for a follow-up to the amiga, that ive no lost interest. i was an absolute fanatic, a500, b2000 and then a really pimped out a1200 in a tower case with moew addons than i care to mention.

Sadly the likes of commodore and escom gave up on it, as piracy killed it stone dead. remember thr last ever game alien breed TKG? released out the backdoor even before the preorders were shipped, and that as far as im concerned was the last nail in the coffin fpr the amiga.

that said, the idea of having a console and playing some old classics does have some appeal in it 

[CompostCORNER]

I got an email saying it's been pushed back to early April. I love the emulator on the lappy but If Im ever gonna get the woman to see what the Amiga was all about, and swap shitty Emmerdale and Corrie for the likes of Valhalla, Zeewolf and Superfrog, I need the Amiga mini... My most anticipated game to show the other half?  It has to be Lemmings on the TV and not on the lappy. I've downloaded a shed load of PD, Freeware and main game roms from 'RARBG' through Real Debrid all loaded onto an SD so I'm ready for this. Ironically, with the Amiga back in the 90's, I spent most of my time with the Shareware and Public Domain stuff. I'm looking forward to some proper nostalgia.

And I need to find 'Disposable Hero'

[nails]

20-30 years ago i would have camped out all night long to get one. now with a 16-core, water cooled gfx card and ultrawide 4k screen the amiga just doesnt stand up to where games are now. sure its an impressive line up of games (my bundled games with my a500 £399 were dire) but i can load up amiga forever and play them on my pc.

glad to see it still lives on though!

[CompostCORNER]

Got my Amiga mini today. Now I've done the Amiga emulator on the lappy trying to get the other half interested into what I was doing 30 years ago, (playing on the Amiga and NOT running my own MSN chatrooms lol) and unless I'm there to sort out the shite for her, It's back to Loose Women and that orange antiques bloke on the telly. But the A500 mini, this is pretty cool. I honestly can't stop looking at the thing. It's an A500 but mini. It just doesn't compute lol. It's like looking at a new born baby... It's soooo bloody cute!! I don't even have to worry about the stupid Amiga power block that cost £50 and was always out of stock at Special Reserve'...

First thing first... Theres a few good games bundled with the unit like Alien Breed, and errm... Alien Breed, in the Special Edition version but my Amiga life started off with Lemmings. And after a bit of faffing around (for the newbies, that is technical jargon for 'faffing around'), I got Lemmings running. Now I know that we have emulators with Kickstart roms and games but as a truly plug-n-play device, this is really good. I want my other half to be able to figure out how to load an Amiga game and play it. This is a woman who didn't even realise that out Vauxhall Zafira Tourer has a button to make the mirrors come in. And that Scooby Doo is a cartoon dog and not actually rhyming slang for dog poo. And she's done over 130,000 miles in the bloody thing. Not the dog likes....

Seriously, I have an extensive MAME collection but unless I have an actual video arcade cabinet, she just won't play great games like Defender, Dr Do, Boris is a See You Next Tuesday and Ladybug. Unless it runs from minimum effort, she doesn't want to know. And If she doesn't want to know, I have to watch effing crap TV like 'The Split', 'Killing Eve', 'Line of effing Duty', 'Naked Attraction (I hate it when the first half of the episode has a trans woman now a bloke looking for cock and the second half of the show a butch woman looking for cock). Statistically, that show should have 7 blokes and 7 women so there should be a good chance I'm gonna see some (as my other half calls it... some LADY GARDEN)

Anyway, I might do a full from the heart review of the Amiga mini providing I haven't been banned for my 'Lady Bug' reference...

 

Jesus... It's gone midnight and I'm in heaven playing Lemmings again.

#Viva Amiga

 

 

[wearecity]

I should be getting mine today.

It will probably remain unopened on my shelf with all my other minis. 

[Altharic]

I'll probably get pitchforked for this but I don't see the point of these mini consoles I got the PSX one for £20 when they were selling them off and aside from the controller I couldn't see what was any different to an emulator.

In the case of the Amiga Amiberry and a custom case would do surely?

[jabbathehut]

There is no point to them as such but there seems to be a market for all these types of consoles and computers its not just about the games its more about recapturing a bygone time.I never owned an amiga so it doesn't do anything for me though I have played the games on amiga emulator.The nostalgia market is there to be milked.I am bit of a game and watch fanboy mostly because I could never afford them as a child so I have bought the 2 that nintendo have bought out albeit in the sale.I have played them both once but I am happy to have them as well as several bought on ebay years ago before prices went stupid.I am still looking for flagman to complete the silver series set but impossible to find at a sensible price 

[Altharic]

I too am retro gaming fan however I don't see the lure in this case I mean that mouse was the original chunky mouse and the gamepad supplied I do not recall being bundled with the machine we were still using Cheetah 125s and Quckishot twos when this was out.

I had the A1200 with a 4.3GB HD and a CD rom drive (power computing 8 speed) and one of the 60030 boards that fit in the trapdoor it was middle to high end  for the time

[MikeyMonster]

Line of Duty is decent though - well until the last series

[wearecity]

23 hours ago, Altharic said:

I'll probably get pitchforked for this but I don't see the point of these mini consoles I got the PSX one for £20 when they were selling them off and aside from the controller I couldn't see what was any different to an emulator.

In the case of the Amiga Amiberry and a custom case would do surely?

I can understand this point of view.

But, I think quite a few people, are now turning to legal ways to play old games, such as the Evercade, which offers a chance to build a nice collection of carts, steadily over the years, at a reasonable amount of money for each cart.

Also, quite a few people, aren't tech savvy and couldn't cope with setting up emulators, getting roms etc.

Others like me, are collecting them, just like people collect ornaments or have a dozen watches or pairs of shoes etc....

[CompostCORNER]

On 11/04/2022 at 16:41, Altharic said:

I'll probably get pitchforked for this but I don't see the point of these mini consoles I got the PSX one for £20 when they were selling them off and aside from the controller I couldn't see what was any different to an emulator.

In the case of the Amiga Amiberry and a custom case would do surely?

For me, I have the emulator and have for years, and thats given me loads of games to sideload on to the Amiga mini. The downside with the emulator is that it's confined to the laptop. The other half simply won't play it unless it's on the telly. And If she doesn't play it, I CAN'T PLAY IT!!!!

The mini makes it easy for her to play Amiga games. They are easy to load, they look good on the 4k OLED, and we now have the makings of a computer night where she can load and practice and she actively wants to play Amiga games.

Taking turns playing 'Lemmings' is great. We could have done that on the emulator but the other half likes it on the big TV

[CompostCORNER]

Actually, this MINI A500 (cannot say Amiga OR Commodore) is not a bad piece of kit. Still struggling to get 'Secret of Monkey Island' working on this WHD Load thingy. I just get a black screen. Most other things run so I know it's not a USB stick issue or WHD Load issue. Lots of YouTUBE videos on the A500 Mini and one or two on how the Competition PRO joystick doesn't work. Initially, a fair few games didn't seem to work properly. Especially the pinball type games. But once you've figured out how to remap the joypad, or joystick in the case of the Competition Pro, and bring up the 'virtual keyboard', things start to work.

I've just rekindled my love for the game 'Benefactor'. And the missus is actually playing Lemmings and enjoying it. And check out the music on some of these Amiga games. I forgot how awesome the music was on this platform.

Looking good....

[serene02]

I found Amiga emulation a bit of a nightmare to set up back in the day, so if these things are literally plug and play then they are more appealing to me.

J

[CompostCORNER]

8 hours ago, serene02 said:

I found Amiga emulation a bit of a nightmare to set up back in the day, so if these things are literally plug and play then they are more appealing to me.

J

Very straight forward. It is pretty much 'plug n play'... Get yourself a 32GB USB stick, format it to FAT32, drag 'WHDLoad' onto the stick, WHDLoad is available from the 'Retro Games' site (the people that created the A500 Mini) then grab all the files you can that have .lha as an extention from whatever sites you can. Just google 'Amiga LHA games to download' (as i don't want to directly link from here in case it's frowned upon....)

Plug the stick into your A500 Mini, and it appears in the games carousel. Click on it, and click on the file you wanna load. It is simple and the guys who created the Mini promise regular firmware updates to combat those games that just won't load... 'Secret of Monkey Island'... lol

Just lacking the keyboard and lots of games use buttons in the main menu like 'SPACE BAR' and 'F1', 'F2' buttons ect... Especially the Pinball games to select tables and 'Jaguar XJ220' that requires you to press 'F1' for language.... The virtual keyboard built in to the Mini will get around most of this. Alternatively, remap the buttons on the gamepad to like F1, F2, SPACE ect... I'm thinking about getting a cheap keyboard just to make it a little easier.

I really loved the Amiga. Many fond memories for me. The only reason I drifted away from the Amiga was my power brick failed and it took 8 months for a replacement back in the 90's. I got playing again but the PSU packed up, couldn't get a replacement and the A1200 went into the loft (at the now ex's).

Probably still there with my Cartoon Classics pack and my old A600. I had a massive 20MB hard disk drive in that A1200

[CompostCORNER]

Things have just got better. Theres a firmware update on the retrogames website that enables ADF files to be loaded into the A500 mini. Once installed, you can select multiple files (or DISKS) and load them into the A500 Mini. Simply download your files, bang them on to your USB, shove it into your A500 Mini, then from the A500 mini screen menu, select your files as before (from your USB stick of course) and if theres more than 1 file (as in more than 1 disk in a game), simply highlight the next file/disk, and using the joypad 'R' button, you can add multiple files. Start your game and if theres a prompt to change disks, its simply a matter of holding the 'HOME' button and pressing the 'R' (Right Shoulder Button) to toggle through the disks.

I'm still testing it out but the addition of being able to load ADF files into the A500 Mini means that all games, magazine demo disks,utilities, pretty much anything on the Amiga are now working on the A500 Mini. Big step forward I reckons.