THEA500 Mini has been announced via Retro Games Ltd. and distributed by Koch Media

Neil79

Neil79

Neil79

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With the resurgence of retro gaming hardware enabling us to play old classics on big TV's with lots of built in games such as the NES Mini, SNES Mini, Playstation 1 Classic, NEO GEO Mini,PC Engine Mini and the C64 Mini you'd be forgiven in thinking there wasn't much else to get excited about especially with all the mini's out there in the wild. Well The C64 crew have something to shout about and in a pretty big way, as today they have teased the coming of "THEA500 Mini"; a Mini Amiga which is due to be released from RetroGames Ltd and distributed by Koch Media early 2022.
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Official Press Release is as follows :

THEA500® Mini

Now other classic consoles are just toys! 25 Amiga classics, including Worms, The Chaos Engine, Another World & Simon The Sorcerer all feature on the THEA500® Mini
Continuing the popular line of timeless classic consoles being given a new lease of life, today Retro Games announces the creation of THEA500® Mini, a fully licensed reimagining of the much-loved 16-bit home computer starring a plethora of classic Amiga games.

Due early 2022, THEA500® Mini is a homage to the 1980s heyday of 16-bit personal computing; inspired by the 1987 release of the Amiga 500, which featured a 16/32-bit CPU, 512Kb of RAM and an array of custom chips for producing best-in-class sound and video.

Play one of the included 25 classic Amiga games, selected from a simple to use carousel, including all-time greats Another World, Simon The Sorcerer, The Chaos Engine and Worms. Or side-load your own games via USB stick with full WHDLoad support and an array of options to choose from. Plus, save and resume your game at any time to help you finish those punishingly-difficult classics.

Developed by Retro Games Ltd. and distributed by Koch Media, the THEA500® Mini features the perfect emulation of, not only, the original A500 (OCS) and Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) of future revisions, but also the Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) of the A1200.

The THEA500® Mini comes with the original style 2-button mouse and newly engineered 8-button precision gamepad, allowing you to choose your control method. To compliment the on-screen keyboard, you can plug in an external standard PC keyboard for additional functionality.

“In this initial mini version of THEA500®, we have created what we believe gaming fans will love, and will see as the evolution of mini games consoles”, said Paul Andrews, Managing Director at Retro Games.
“Retro Games have developed a truly unique product”, said Debbie Bestwick MBE, CEO at Team 17, “and I’m very excited to have our classic games represented in all their original glory”.

THEA500® Mini will hit the shops in early 2022 with a suggested retail price of GBP£119.99/ EUR€129.99/ USD$139.99/ AUD$199.99

THEA500® MINI ANNOUNCED GAMES LIST (12 of 25)

Alien Breed 3D, Another World, ATR: All Terrain Racing, Battle Chess, Cadaver, Kick Off 2, Pinball Dreams, Simon The Sorcerer, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, The Chaos Engine, Worms: The Director's Cut, Zool: Ninja Of The ''Nth'' Dimension. Additional games will be announced at a later date.

Included in the box with THEA500® Mini is a 1.8m (6ft) wired USB classic mouse, a 1.8m (6ft) wired precision 8-button gamepad, a USB-A to USB-C power cable (PSU not included) and HDMI cable (both 1.8m (6ft) in length) allowing full compatibility with all modern TVs. Other features include a save game function, selectable 50Hz or 60Hz screen refresh, CRT filter and multiple scaling options. Also upload your own files, games and firmware revisions via USB flash drive (not included).

Was just sent the press release to IRN this morning from *** behind the development of TheA500 Mini
 
That sounds ridiculously expensive for just emulation with 25 games and no working keyboard. The value it adds over DIY emulation is not worth £120!

A full size one with a working keyboard, Workbench included as a 'game' would be very interesting but still not £120 interesting.
 
They did something similar with the C64 models. The first Mini (was was criticised although the firmware was updated) and the then afterwards the much more favourably received The C64/Maxi which was the more interesting version imo. Even as a MiSTer owner a full-sized, emulation based A500 would still potentially interest me, but unfortunately not this mini version.
 
I can emulate an A500 perfectly on my PC or laptop, and the form factor is very similar, unlike the C64 Maxi where its replica case and keyboard give a very authentic feel that you can't replicate using a standard PC keyboard. (I have one, and love it).

I get that a full-size A500 replica would be prettly ludicrous - a huge case and keyboard with a tiny board in it (The C64 Maxi was like this), but this mini doesn't grab me. In any case I had (still have) an A1000, and that's the only 'true' Amiga for me :D

Also it seems expensive for what it is.

If they sell the mouse separately I'd be interested, as it'd give a more authentic feel for emulation on PC.
 
My next purchase is going to be a Mega Drive Mini, seeing as the Nes mini is hacked with all the NES games and the Playstation Classic is a big 128gb emulation station . But as for TheA500 mini probably not for me, I already have an A500 and a nicely modified A1200 with all the games
 
JohnG7 said:
Also the 500 was not 32bit that was the later 1200 same time as the failed console CD32 which is obv also 32bit
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CD32 didn't really fail, it's just that Commodore went bust. It was actually selling really well until supply dried up (that and Commodore not having enough cash to fight an (unfounded) patent infringement notice in North America).
 
amigafan2003 said:
CD32 didn't really fail, it's just that Commodore went bust. It was actually selling really well until supply dried up (that and Commodore not having enough cash to fight an (unfounded) patent infringement notice in North America).
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It failed due to lack of games, I was advised not to buy it over the 1200, Goggle it and yes it was near the end for Commodore.
 
Have pre-ordered, know it's a bit much, but I have all the other mini consoles, order them more as collectables than anything else now, plus the Amiga 500 was my first computer, so many good memories of playing multitudes of copied games.
 
Mucky_Pup said:
Have pre-ordered, know it's a bit much, but I have all the other mini consoles, order them more as collectables than anything else now, plus the Amiga 500 was my first computer, so many good memories of playing multitudes of copied games.
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Nostalgia is a powerful thing... and expensive!

(Especially if like me you can't stop at just one retro machine... ).
 
Like the look of this, not quite as much a fan of the form factor of the computer minis as I have been the console ones, but I really like the C64 advanced model another poster mentioned that has a functional keyboard that I haven't picked up yet either. Might hold out for the Amiga version of that too, though I'd expect double the price as per the C64 versions. So likely £240 or so if they ever release a functional keyboard version of this. That C64 mini with functional keyboard is currently on sale around £115, might have to grab that.

Only 25 games on this isn't great, but with included mouse it's clearly intended for users to do some tinkering. Really great packaging too, definitely looks nice for a collectable.
 
Interesting. Mouse is a nice inclusion. Still think the A500 mouse is one among one of the worst designs ever though. :D Tempted. But I've already got a Raspberry Pi 4 on Amiga emulation duties when I don't want to fire up my Towered A1200.
 
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