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

Timber · 21 Mar 2022 at 15:06

Simon0001 said:
What is a Influencer

Someone who has the power to influence a buying decision typically on YouTube, Twitch, Tiktok or social media. These people have been given free products and the Youtube videos above will help to sell the A500 Mini.

It's a pretty well defined and heavily used term.

Simon0001 · 21 Mar 2022 at 17:27

Timber said:
Someone who has the power to influence a buying decision typically on YouTube, Twitch, Tiktok or social media. These people have been given free products and the Youtube videos above will help to sell the A500 Mini.

It's a pretty well defined and heavily used term.

Oh right.

They should have sent it to some attractive people.

Timber · 21 Mar 2022 at 18:32

Simon0001 said:
Oh right.

They should have sent it to some attractive people.

I'll be honest - thought you were being funny.

Influencer, Youtuber, streamer - all the very same thing really. But the important thing is the A500 Mini seems to be off to a good start.

RichL · 22 Mar 2022 at 11:40

Looks like a nice little bit of kit for a nostalgia hit. It's a shame it doesn't come with the joystick though instead of the CD32 style gamepad, especially at that price. Its a bit hard to justify against just using WinUAE and WHDload, and I really enjoy the Workbench experience as I never had a HDD back in the day. An A500-HD+ was a like a dream item back in the 90s, and it still looks kinda cool imo.

Makes me want to dig out my old Amiga 1200 though.

Timber · 22 Mar 2022 at 12:24

RichL said:
Looks like a nice little bit of kit for a nostalgia hit. It's a shame it doesn't come with the joystick though instead of the CD32 style gamepad, especially at that price. Its a bit hard to justify against just using WinUAE and WHDload, and I really enjoy the Workbench experience as I never had a HDD back in the day. An A500-HD+ was a like a dream item back in the 90s, and it still looks kinda cool imo.

Makes me want to dig out my old Amiga 1200 though.

I agree. I do think it's a shame that the frontend doesn't have the option of being a Workbench OS (1.3 or 3.1) with the ability to load the included games from it. It's like the C64 Mini/Maxi not including Commodore BASIC, a rather fundamental part of the experience back in the day. But I get that the Amiga OS rights is bit of a mess and would have greatly added to the costs.

On the stick I think another option is for Retro Games to release an 'Amiga-era' stick, similar to how they have the separate joysticks for their C64 range. But maybe something more like a Quick Shot 2 rather than the Competition Pro style that's already catered for.

Guest2 · 22 Mar 2022 at 15:19

Timber said:
I agree. I do think it's a shame that the frontend doesn't have the option of being a Workbench OS (1.3 or 3.1) with the ability to load the included games from it. It's like the C64 Mini/Maxi not including Commodore BASIC, a rather fundamental part of the experience back in the day. But I get that the Amiga OS rights is bit of a mess and would have greatly added to the costs.

On the stick I think another option is for Retro Games to release an 'Amiga-era' stick, similar to how they have the separate joysticks for their C64 range. But maybe something more like a Quick Shot 2 rather than the Competition Pro style that's already catered for.

Retro Recipes said he is going to do a seperate video on using whdload to boot up workbench on the thing
- step 4 -

It does appear to be lacking some of the game into scenes for some reason and some WHDload additional games play way too fast. There appears to be no option for 'exact cycle' either.
Joystick wise, nothing beats original. I have a monster joysticks adapter with Zipstick hooked up to my PC. It works great with very little input lag

Timber · 22 Mar 2022 at 17:28

Guest2 said:
Retro Recipes said he is going to do a seperate video on using whdload to boot up workbench on the thing

Yea I saw that. I think without the ability to load hdf files it won't be as easy to setup, in the way you just take a preconfigured hdf file from WinUAE to MiSter or real hardware etc. But I don't think that will matter for the vast majority of the audience. I think what will likely happen very quickly is the community will hack-it to run full Amiberry which then opens up the possibility of hdf and adf support. Certainly ready made WHDLoad Workbench images could also appear to load from USB.

Guest2 said:
It does appear to be lacking some of the game into scenes for some reason and some WHDload additional games play way too fast. There appears to be no option for 'exact cycle' either.
Joystick wise, nothing beats original. I have a monster joysticks adapter with Zipstick hooked up to my PC. It works great with very little input lag

I did see that and just thought it might have been issues with 60 vs 50hz. I get what you mean about not being able to select an A500 or A1200 model. Or even AGA. Again maybe that will become clearer or might be something that changes as RGL support this thing.

Whilst I agree using original hardware is great, I do love the fact that we have so much choice now with controllers and companies releasing really nice modern remakes. Hyperkin for example doing a modern Atari VCS controller. Just missing that 'flight-stick' Quick Shot 2 style that was so prevalent in the Amiga/ST-era (unless I'm missing it and there is one).

Cavallino · 22 Mar 2022 at 18:52

So whos getting one

?

Guest2 · 24 Mar 2022 at 12:15

Cavallino said:
So whos getting one ?

Reviews are all great, however there seems to be a missing feature which will means a few games will not work properly or at all. 'Exact cycle'

I was going to get one and have had it on pre order for some time but since configuring WinUAE along with Workbench 3.1 on PC it seems this offers way more options that the A500 which uses Amiberry. My A500 and A1200 hardware in the 90s seems (almost) identical in gameplay to my WinUAE config, baring the LCD screen but dont want to go down the CRT road, again!
Added bonus that the PC provides around 5000 MIPS of CPU grunt or ~280 times faster than an A4000 when running 'fastest' setup. In contrast, the Pi4 hits around 460 MIPS / 25 times the power of an A4000 so I would guess the A500 mini will be a lot less at maybe 3 times the power of an A4000. Sysinfo / WhichAmiga crashes the A500 mini, it was tested in reviews.

I wanted it for quick easy play which it does but now i've properly configured WinUAE its even easier and takes less space (and way less cables) than the A500 mini. I also have an original Zipstick connected and a 4:3 17" screen on an monitor arm so can all be moved out the way easily.

What people do with the A500 mini interests me. I'm sure someone will hack it to bits

Cavallino · 24 Mar 2022 at 12:17

I would love to have your WinUAE settings Guest2.
I actually share your thoughts, I would also love to have a Zipstick, how did you get this connected up?

Guest2 · 24 Mar 2022 at 14:53

Cavallino said:
I would love to have your WinUAE settings Guest2.
I actually share your thoughts, I would also love to have a Zipstick, how did you get this connected up?

Emulation talk is a grey area. I did ask a couple of week ago in the Important stuff thread, but had no reply.

Here's one I prepared earlier

Info, links and my config screens on this vid including links to legal ROMs to buy which are required.

This is the adapter, I got the one with the casing for £13 - https://monsterjoysticks.com/9-pin-joystick-to-usb-adapter
My boxed Zipstick in great condition with instructions was £26 inc delivery

Cavallino · 24 Mar 2022 at 22:53

Guest2 said:
Emulation talk is a grey area. I did ask a couple of week ago in the Important stuff thread, but had no reply.

Here's one I prepared earlier
Info, links and my config screens on this vid including links to legal ROMs to buy which are required.

This is the adapter, I got the one with the casing for £13 - https://monsterjoysticks.com/9-pin-joystick-to-usb-adapter
My boxed Zipstick in great condition with instructions was £26 inc delivery

Legend. Thanks

Ive never sat down and configured WinUAE correctly.

Zipsticks are a bit expensive! £30 or so! Did you grab yours from ebay or elsewhere?

Guest2 · 25 Mar 2022 at 12:26

Cavallino said:
Legend. Thanks Ive never sat down and configured WinUAE correctly.

Zipsticks are a bit expensive! £30 or so! Did you grab yours from ebay or elsewhere?

No probs. I had been meaning to for years due to annoyance of disk swapping (even virtually) and long load times.
I couldnt get my head around WHDload until I found MikeyGRetros tutorial vids.

I figured if I was going to pay £30 for one of the newer Speedlink competition pro USB sticks, I may aswell just buy an original and as long as its in good condition the re-sale value will be much higher. The adapter can be used for many controllers and joysticks and even re-sole with the Zipstick in future if need be. Tested and it works with Megadrive pads too (original and competition pro)

Ravenger · 25 Mar 2022 at 20:26

I caved and ordered one of these as WinUAE is great but it's a bit of a faff on PC. This is much simpler.

I agree that it should have had a workbench mode, or even a proper Amiga boot mode using ADF files and disk emulation for the full Amiga experience.

The C64 booting straight into Commodore Basic manages to replicate a very authentic C64 experience that's one up from using an emulator on the PC, due to the form factor and keyboard. I hope they do an A500 model with a functioning keyboard.

BTW The C64 mini and C64 Maxi joysticks will work fine on the A500 Mini, as will the Speedlink USB Competition Pro (which is a far better stick), and the A500 Mini mouse also works on TheC64.

Cavallino · 26 Mar 2022 at 23:14

So how does diskswapping work with the A500?

Cavallino · 26 Mar 2022 at 23:14

Guest2 said:
No probs. I had been meaning to for years due to annoyance of disk swapping (even virtually) and long load times.
I couldnt get my head around WHDload until I found MikeyGRetros tutorial vids.

I figured if I was going to pay £30 for one of the newer Speedlink competition pro USB sticks, I may aswell just buy an original and as long as its in good condition the re-sale value will be much higher. The adapter can be used for many controllers and joysticks and even re-sole with the Zipstick in future if need be. Tested and it works with Megadrive pads too (original and competition pro)

Cheers G2. Im going to buy a zipstick and one of those adaptors.

Timber · 27 Mar 2022 at 09:13

Cavallino said:
So how does diskswapping work with the A500?

There is none - games will just load either from the included games or USB. WHDLoad, which the A500 Mini uses, is designed to allow for games, or original other programs to be installed on a Hard Disk. At the moment the A500 Mini doesn't have ADF compatibility so won't be able to run Amiga Disk images. I'd imagine that might be added, either officially but if not, almost certainly unofficially.

Guest2 · 27 Mar 2022 at 10:01

Ravenger said:
I caved and ordered one of these as WinUAE is great but it's a bit of a faff on PC. This is much simpler.

I agree that it should have had a workbench mode, or even a proper Amiga boot mode using ADF files and disk emulation for the full Amiga experience.

The C64 booting straight into Commodore Basic manages to replicate a very authentic C64 experience that's one up from using an emulator on the PC, due to the form factor and keyboard. I hope they do an A500 model with a functioning keyboard.

BTW The C64 mini and C64 Maxi joysticks will work fine on the A500 Mini, as will the Speedlink USB Competition Pro (which is a far better stick), and the A500 Mini mouse also works on TheC64.

I thought the same, but once WinUAE is setup right all I need to do is double click the shortcut, select 'load config', then select 'start' and im instantly in Workbench 3.1. Select iGame to open the list of games.
There's a lot less cables with my setup and I though having the A500 mini would take up some room by the TV and still requires some settings to be changed on individual games anyway.

This is cleaner

One thing I am getting is an NEC multisync 19" screen, which should hopefully do 15Khz properly and comes with a soundbar.

Cavallino said:
Cheers G2. Im going to buy a zipstick and one of those adaptors.

No probs - best idea

FYI my suction cups looked in good condition but provided no suction. They are easy to take off (just pull them off by twisting a bit) and replace with these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008B7X71S
No need to even open the joystick

Cavallino · 27 Mar 2022 at 10:13

Guest2 said:
I thought the same, but once WinUAE is setup right all I need to do is double click the shortcut, select 'load config', then select 'start' and im instantly in Workbench 3.1. Select iGame to open the list of games.
There's a lot less cables with my setup and I though having the A500 mini would take up some room by the TV and still requires some settings to be changed on individual games anyway.

This is cleaner

One thing I am getting is an NEC multisync 19" screen, which should hopefully do 15Khz properly and comes with a soundbar.

No probs - best idea
FYI my suction cups looked in good condition but provided no suction. They are easy to take off (just pull them off by twisting a bit) and replace with these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008B7X71S
No need to even open the joystick

Ah cheers for that. I snagged my stik off ebay last night... it said it was a refurbished one/cleaned etc. Lets see!
In the meantime I need to sit down and sort out WinUAE.... I never realised you could load games from within the amiga environment rather than using Winuae to find the game and load it manually.

Cavallino · 27 Mar 2022 at 10:14

Timber said:
There is none - games will just load either from the included games or USB. WHDLoad, which the A500 Mini uses, is designed to allow for games, or original other programs to be installed on a Hard Disk. At the moment the A500 Mini doesn't have ADF compatibility so won't be able to run Amiga Disk images. I'd imagine that might be added, either officially but if not, almost certainly unofficially.

Cheers Timber.