Soldato
Sadly this only piqued my interest when I saw the controller and wondered if it would work with my A1200.
THEA500 Mini has been announced via Retro Games Ltd. and distributed by Koch Media
- Thread starter Neil79
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Quite disappointed in this mini version honestly between how expensive it is and the fact that it doesn't even come with a working keyboard. It's literally just a plastic case. Feels very low effort and looks like a blatant cash grab.
They should have released a full FPGA non-emulated device (like the Spectrum Next, Analogue superNT, etc) with a working keyboard IMO. Hard pass from me.
You'd be better buying a raspberry pi400.
When a CD32 Style controller is the most exciting thing about a system you know things are looking bad....
They should have released a full FPGA non-emulated device (like the Spectrum Next, Analogue superNT, etc) with a working keyboard IMO. Hard pass from me.
You'd be better buying a raspberry pi400.
When a CD32 Style controller is the most exciting thing about a system you know things are looking bad....
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The Pi400 is a fantastic thing. Thinking of moving my Pimiga build over too one.
Got a Pi4 Compute module and the IO board sitting around as well. Not even played with that yet, but given it's overclocking capabilities... Might become an arcade build.
The mouse is gigantic. It'll never fit in my hand.
Seriously, it looks nice, but an Amiga without a keyboard is not a proper Amiga. Though I suppose that a USB PC keyboard is pretty close in form-factor so maybe that'd do. Apart from the authentic mouse, I'm still not sure what advantage this has over a PC running WinUAE.
We were just sent this image and...... Hmmm thoughts?
Hmph, its not an authentic A500 unless it is bright orange.
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CD32?
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The mouse is gigantic. It'll never fit in my hand.
Seriously, it looks nice, but an Amiga without a keyboard is not a proper Amiga. Though I suppose that a USB PC keyboard is pretty close in form-factor so maybe that'd do. Apart from the authentic mouse, I'm still not sure what advantage this has over a PC running WinUAE.
It can just sit under your TV for casual retro gaming without tying up a PC. It's not really aimed at people who know how to set up WinUAE.
Im torn by this.
Ever since the mini consoles started to come out I always said if an Amiga 500 came out, I would snap it up.
Now its on the way, I found myself wanting this out of pure nostalgia.
But on the other hand, I can get a modded Amiga mouse of some kind for USB, a similar controller, plug them in, load WinUAE (5 min setup job) and boom, done.
I mean for £120? Bit ludicrous... if it was at least not triple figured pounds, I might have been easily swayed.....
I mean the C64 maxi is a similar price and thats a full sized keyboard!
Cant help but feel theyre trying to pull a fast one here....
Ever since the mini consoles started to come out I always said if an Amiga 500 came out, I would snap it up.
Now its on the way, I found myself wanting this out of pure nostalgia.
But on the other hand, I can get a modded Amiga mouse of some kind for USB, a similar controller, plug them in, load WinUAE (5 min setup job) and boom, done.
I mean for £120? Bit ludicrous... if it was at least not triple figured pounds, I might have been easily swayed.....
I mean the C64 maxi is a similar price and thats a full sized keyboard!
Cant help but feel theyre trying to pull a fast one here....
I can see why they didn't include a keyboard on the A500 Mini. A modern PC USB keyboard is very close in layout to the Amiga keyboard - so it's a good substitute, and very cheap and easy to get hold of, without having to manufacture a huge full sized A500 keyboard and replica case.
A C64 keyboard has a different layout and specialised keys, plus special graphic characters on the keycaps, so it's not as convenient or usable to use a modern keyboard on a C64 Mini compared to TheC64's maxi's keyboard. If you use a PC keyboard it's just not the same experience.
Possibly if they do an A500 Maxi it will not be a full-sized A500, but more similar to an A600 form factor, but with the keypad included.
Mmm fair comment.
So much for common sense and logic. Ordered two
(And a C64 mini!)
I mean tbh... I dont recall using the Amiga keyboard during my younger years
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I'm up for this. I would have preferred an A600 mini personally, glad to see they didn't emulate that ridiculous TV modulator that came with the original system. I would love the maxi if it ever did come out but with the Amiga a lot of the original disks are starting to fail whilst a lot of old tape games for C64, Amstrad and Spectrum are still working fine so this has its place IMO.
Yeah you can get a proper Amiga with a Gotek drive but then realistically some motherboards need to be recapped, then you have to deal with connecting to a modern HDMI TV, scan doublers and all that, compact flash setup and if you swap in one of those awesome fast vampire accelerators then it is really still an Amiga or is it just providing the mouse and keyboard inputs? This looks like you can add your own games too, personally I think it looks great but I would love a full size keyboard, put it in an A600 size case to keep costs down with the option to connect your own floppy drive.
Yeah you can get a proper Amiga with a Gotek drive but then realistically some motherboards need to be recapped, then you have to deal with connecting to a modern HDMI TV, scan doublers and all that, compact flash setup and if you swap in one of those awesome fast vampire accelerators then it is really still an Amiga or is it just providing the mouse and keyboard inputs? This looks like you can add your own games too, personally I think it looks great but I would love a full size keyboard, put it in an A600 size case to keep costs down with the option to connect your own floppy drive.
Does the floppy drive even work?
Workbench included?
No AC adpater included either???
How the hell do you play Gunship 2000 on a virtual keyboard??
Good luck with thatWhat hardware is inside this? WinUAE works perfectly well on a retro laptop I have from 2001 - 4:3 display, portable, keyboard works (as a proper keyboard) can plug in USB or serial mouse
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I've just noticed tonight that a few days ago they have now placed pre-orders for the mouse and gamepad on their own.
£19.99 each.
I feel this will make the perfect mouse for my MiSTer setup
£19.99 each.
I feel this will make the perfect mouse for my MiSTer setup
Soldato
What a rip, just buy a Pi 400. A much more flexible device
I've just noticed tonight that a few days ago they have now placed pre-orders for the mouse and gamepad on their own.
£19.99 each.
I feel this will make the perfect mouse for my MiSTer setup
The video shows the mouse with beige cable but the pic with black cable.. I know what I'd prefer.. £20 for each isnt great but AmigaTax TM
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The video shows the mouse with beige cable but the pic with black cable.. I know what I'd prefer.. £20 for each isnt great but AmigaTax TM
It's probably the internals of a cheap OEM mouse but if they nail the casing as they did with THE C64, then £20 is probably a fair price.
I'm not personally too worried how the joypad turns out because it's a homage to one of the worse controllers ever. Even back then I remember buying a third-party controller very quickly for my CD32.
Soldato
I might give it a buy when it comes out, especially if the game range can be expanded.