Pimped Amiga 500

[bartread]

It's funny. I objectively know that 9MB of RAM is tiny by modern standards and, indeed, has been tiny for decades now. My friend's dad got a PC with 32MB of RAM in 1996, or maybe early 1997, to put it into perspective.

But I can still look at a screenshot of Workbench 1.3 running on an Amiga 500 displaying "8831544 free memory" and it feels like an absolute ocean of RAM for that machine and that time and, most importantly, for the software that was available in that era.

Back in the early 90s I used to, with 1MB of RAM, code, play games, make music, do word processing, create graphics with both DPaint III (or was it IV?), and create vector drawings with a CAD package, create spreadsheets, create fractal landscapes with Vista, not to mention a ton of other stuff as well.

It is crazy to think of how much you could do with so little back in the day. But even this was a massive step change compared to the 8-bit machines I'd been using up to that point. These I'd mostly used for programming and games (although I did do a bit of word processing on BBC machines, and a teeny tiny amount of spreadsheet stuff). I did have a light gun for my ZX Spectrum but, boy, was it tedious graphics with (although I did do it), as compared to DPaint.

[kwanbix]

My first PC was an original IBM PC XT, with 640kb of RAM.

A friend taught me how to use a device driver (ramdisk.sys I think it was) to split that into two, and use 320kb of RAM as a "fast" hard drive.

I will install games there, and play with only 320kb or RAM (actually less because DOS used some RAM).

I had a 20MB Seagate HDD. 20 Megabytes.

Nice times.

[GuinansEyebrows]

one of my favorite long-forgotten benchmarks is the "3M Computer" [0]:

  - 1 megabyte of RAM
  - 1 megapixel display (1024x1024@1bit - black and white!)
  - 1 MIPS

... all for under $10,000. hey, a nerd can dream!

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M_computer

[merobin_hood]

If you want to experience the Amiga ecosystem in 2025 without touching hardware, the easiest path is:

WinUAE (Windows) or FS-UAE (Mac/Linux) — great defaults, easy setup

Install Workbench 1.3 or 3.1 plus: Directory Opus, Diskmaster, WHDLoad

Use curated packs like Workbench 3.X ClassicWB so you don’t have to configure everything manually

For games, WHDLoad bundles are a massive quality-of-life improvement over floppy juggling

You’ll get 90% of the “Amiga feel” without hunting vintage hardware.

[sillywalk]

I'd also give a shout out to AmiKit.[0] It's pretty slick, and has a ton of software already setup. You still need to get the Kickstart ROMs from AmigaForever. The only thing is it's different from vanilla Amiga workbench.

https://www.amikit.amiga.sk/

[danby]

FWIW amiberry is probably a better option for Mac/linux these days. At least until FS-UAE v5 is released

[Damogran6]

Raspberry Pi emulation works well, too. (and is massively fast.)

[snvzz]

Can get that up to 99% via miniMig-miSTer.

[blippage]

Don't forget that Aminet is still receiving regular uploads: https://www.aminet.net/

It's amazing that a platform that's been dead since the early 90's is still getting so much love.

[EvanAnderson]

Piling-on here: My A1200 and CD32 haven't been powered-on since 2001. They worked when they went into climate-controlled storage but need to be recapped.

I haven't had luck finding anybody in the US with experience recapping these models who will do the work. The one person I found was unwilling to do the work w/o my verifying if they work now. I think it's a mistake to apply power to them in their current state since that could cause damage.

If anybody has recommendations I'd appreciate it. I'm not looking to cheap-out on this (particularly with the CD32, since I'm the original owner and have all the original packing material, etc). I just want them done right so they can be preserved and used again.

Email is in my profile.

[danby]

> I think it's a mistake to apply power to them in their current state since that could cause damage.

One big issue is that these old electrolytic caps can leak and damage the motherboard and this is a common fail state for both the A1200 and CD32, as Commodore used some particularly low quality caps in the 1992-1994 era.

Even if you don't replace the caps they should be removed from the board before they go in to long term storage.

Powering up is unlikely to damage the machines. If the caps have already failed powering up won't cause any additional failure. A cap that hasn't been powered in a long time and is on the very edge of failure can be caused to fail by passing power in to it but that is a vanishingly rare edge case. The most likely issue for the caps, if they aren't working, is that they have already leaked.

[danby]

https://www.reddit.com/r/amiga/wiki/index#wiki_vendors.3A_re...

[radicalbyte]

Try asking in the PiStorm Discord, or maybe ask EU based people who do Amiga repairs (like @linuxjedi on Twitter comes to mind) if they know anyone in the States who does it.

[ManlyBread]

I've never experienced the original Amiga and I probably never will. I would however be open to emulating the machine. Are there any good resources for people like who would like to try out the whole ecosystem as a complete newbie in 2025? My knowledge about Amiga is close to zero.

[amiga386]

1. Get a copy of the Amiga 3.1 Kickstart ROM (v40) and Workbench disks (for example by legally buying Amiga Forever ... or other ways). If you do buy Amiga Forever, they've put together an Amiga emulation environment for you with lots of software pre-installed.

2. Consider buying AmiKit or using its free version: https://www.amikit.amiga.sk/ -- it needs the aforementioned Kickstart ROM and Workbench Disks, but again they've put together an Amiga emulation environment for you with lots of software pre-installed.

3. If you don't want to use those pre-made packs, install WinUAE (for Windows) or amiberry (for macOS/Linux) yourself, configure them yourself with the ROM... and use one of the ClassicWB (https://classicwb.abime.net/) hard drive images.

4. And if you don't like ClassicWB, you can also extract the Amiga hard drive image included with PiMiga 4 to enjoy an alternative pack. PiMiga is a Raspberry Pi image that includes an Amiga emulator for the Pi and a huge Amiga hard drive image -- simply use software to read the PiMiga Linux ext2 filesystem and extract that hard drive image to use it on your own emulator, no RPi needed (https://old.reddit.com/r/amiga/comments/1dfcn8u/extract_amig...)

[lysace]

I am very happy with AmigaVision, packaged by Alex Limi (of early Mozilla Firefox UX/product fame) et al.

AmigaVision is a carefully curated collection of game and demo configurations for the Amiga computer platform, as well as a minimal Workbench setup with useful utilities and apps, wrapped in a user-friendly launcher.

https://amiga.vision/

https://github.com/amigavision/AmigaVision

I run it on a Mister FPGA but there are multiple other ways to do it, including emulators running on your regular computer.

[radicalbyte]

Buy a MiSTer FPGA and run Amiga Vision on it. You can plug in a proper keyboard and joystick and you can map jump to a button instead of up as it traditionally is on Amiga.

I have to admit that it's better than using my A500/A1200s.

[mkesper]

If you're not sure to invest in special hardware, cloanto offers bundles including most kickstarts and some software (games / apps). That's the easiest and cheapest way to get started. A500mini might also be a relatively cheap option with some modern possibilities (SD cards instead of floppy disks).

[Keyframe]

I have multiple real Amigas (jesus, that's a lot of amigas meme), but since I installed PiMiga on a rpi400 with its monitor, that's like 99% what you need amiga for. I even prefer it to my commodore 1084s fleet. Even though I need a CRT shot now and then.

[xyzal]

After many years I turned on the A500 in my attic and got immediate motion sickness from the 50Hz monitor flicker. I guess this is the reason I have to wear glasses now.

[krige]

Having went through a similar process with an A600 and then A1200 I enjoy reading through these writeups. Diskmaster, wow that's old-school (t. Filemaster enjoyer)

Although this system will be somewhat hobbled by OS 1.3, I doubt OP will be bothered by that much. Have fun!

[icedchai]

I wish I kept my Amiga 500! My parents gave it away. :(

[dylan604]

Same happened to me with my Atari 2600 and large collection of cartridges

[anthk]

On the games list, I found Lotus III, good, but the Dr Who one was missing. It's a great platform game.

[yzydserd]

FWIW, thea1200 went live for preorders last week. You can order on the manufacturer site, or even Amazon (some countries).

I have a A2000, and use Amiberry, but I'm looking forward to using this thing.

https://retrogames.biz/products/thea1200/

[eggfriedrice]

Classy job!