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The Amiga 500 mini announced

Ozzie666

Member
Curious if anyone h
I searched hours on the web for an USB stck that looks like a floppy disk. Found nothing.

It's a nice touch and cute, only 4GB. But honestly seems like more than enough space for this thing. I'm not sure if it was just an EB games exclusive or not. But I bet some of their employees will put them on ebay!
 

RAIDEN1

Member
What other Commodore machine should get the mini treatment? Apart from the C64 and Amiga, Commodore were a 2-hit wonder... all their other systems are much less talked about...
 

Bullet Club

Member
What other Commodore machine should get the mini treatment? Apart from the C64 and Amiga, Commodore were a 2-hit wonder... all their other systems are much less talked about...
The Vic 20 (included in the C64 Mini/Maxi) and the PET were also hits at the time.

A PET Mini might be a bit expensive.

oBflaTK.jpg


After they've done an Amiga Maxi it might be time for a ZX Spectrum Mini.
 

RAIDEN1

Member
Sharp X68000 mini please.....someone, anyone?
Well that would likely be an Japan exclusive.....just imagine the landscape though, Amiga, ST and the X68000 all out to be the king of the hill...so to speak

(Bit like how if the PC Engine made a strong stride in the west what would it have been like, instead of just Sega and Nintendo...)
 

Impotaku

Member
I have a feeling a lot of this issue is either the usb sticks people are using or the version of the files they have downloaded as i haven't found ana blank screens or even crashing so far. Tried newzealand story in the reddit post to see and nope it works fine. In fact the only game that hasn't worked so far was some weird adventure game i have never heard of i tried loading it up and it said it was missing data in a little pop up window so i'm guessing there's another disk i don't have or the lhf was incorrectly put together.
 
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I don't understand this USB stick bingo. Got today a new stick and It works without issues. It's complete bullshit that sticks Work flawlessly on your PC but not on the mini.
 

8BiTw0LF

Banned
I don't understand this USB stick bingo. Got today a new stick and It works without issues. It's complete bullshit that sticks Work flawlessly on your PC but not on the mini.
Did you format the non-working drive in FAT32?
I have a feeling a lot of this issue is either the usb sticks people are using or the version of the files they have downloaded as i haven't found ana blank screens or even crashing so far.
There are different files out there and I haven't been able to start Monkey Island V3.7 yet - only 3.5. I also hope it fixes Lionheart and Jim Power. You can try those now and see they do not run well - crackling sound and gfx artifacts.
 

Krathoon

Member
I can get this console for $58 on Amazon using my Visa card points.
I may go ahead an get it.

Still, you can emulate this on a laptop for free. It is more of a collector's item. It is a way to have some games legally.

Is the controller wireless? I notice the mouse is not.
 

8BiTw0LF

Banned
Tested latest 'whdload_db.xml'. All the games that blackscreened before are now working. Secret of Monkey Island V3.7 works.

Jim Power and Lionheart still has problems with sound and gfx artifacts.

Edit:

Old whdload_db.xml: 4.98MB
New whdload_db.xml: 7.23MB
 
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Krathoon

Member
Tested latest 'whdload_db.xml'. All the games that blackscreened before are now working. Secret of Monkey Island V3.7 works.

Jim Power and Lionheart still has problems with sound and gfx artifacts.

Edit:

Old whdload_db.xml: 4.98MB
New whdload_db.xml: 7.23MB
Hrmmm... I would expect perfect emulation for as much as they are charging.
 

8BiTw0LF

Banned
Hrmmm... I would expect perfect emulation for as much as they are charging.
There's no such thing as perfect emulation, but nearly is also great. Take a look at misterFPGA if you're going for better emulation - but you might check price.. Same goes for a refurbished Amiga with HDMI mod and CF card or gotek drive.

Amiga 500 mini loads games faster than a RPi400 and it will get support from the community, like new updates etc.

The easiest way to emulate Amiga, if you have a PC: https://www.amigalive.com/

A500 mini is for collectors. It's a fun little machine and the feeling of the mouse and joypad are like playing on A500 and CD32.
 

Krathoon

Member
There's no such thing as perfect emulation, but nearly is also great. Take a look at misterFPGA if you're going for better emulation - but you might check price.. Same goes for a refurbished Amiga with HDMI mod and CF card or gotek drive.

Amiga 500 mini loads games faster than a RPi400 and it will get support from the community, like new updates etc.

The easiest way to emulate Amiga, if you have a PC: https://www.amigalive.com/

A500 mini is for collectors. It's a fun little machine and the feeling of the mouse and joypad are like playing on A500 and CD32.
Ah. That is a nice frontend for FS-UAE. It needs it. I tried that emulator out a short time ago.
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Psygnosis started on the Amiga (well, ST and Amiga)

In relation to demos I can only find ADFs not LHAs but I’m sure they are out there.
 
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8BiTw0LF

Banned
Yes I did and It's well known that this happened to more people. It pisses me off that everytime people ask the same question. It's not Like rocket science to format the stick in FAT32 you know??
Just trying to help. Some units are sensitive to the different usb versions - and revisions. I modded my Snes Classic with a SD card slot and it wouldn't accept my cheap SD card.

I always use Sandisk - never had any trouble with those - unless they are cheap copies.
 

Impotaku

Member
lools like retrogamesltd has updated the wdhload file database on their website to a newer version probably matching the one that was mentioned on that github page they have also added a faq on their page which is handy as it explains why the virtual keyboard doesn't work on games you add in. Looks like we are stuck with the file display limit as well.
 
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I really don't understand this system. Played Rodland and lost all my lives and It was game over. Entered my name in the Score list. Couldn't play another round because the game froze. Restarted the game and now I can't start the game anymore. Before people say that I should try out the newest WHDload Version. That's what I did.
 
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Krathoon

Member
I was kind of worried this system didn't hammer out all the bugs.
Does it let you save through the game? They usually saved to floppy.
 
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8BiTw0LF

Banned
So the A500 mini has a 2GB nand flash - that's enough space for 2000 games. In a short time we'll be able to add games (lha, adf and hdf format) directly to internal storage, with pictures, folders etc. from the original menu.
 
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8BiTw0LF

Banned
I really don't understand this system. Played Rodland and lost all my lives and It was game over. Entered my name in the Score list. Couldn't play another round because the game froze. Restarted the game and now I can't start the game anymore. Before people say that I should try out the newest WHDload Version. That's what I did.

Here's a list of compatible/uncompatible games:

Rodland has issues as you describe.

Moving forward and cracking this mini wide open - expect 99.9% compatibility.
 

01011001

Banned
Is that a complete list of WHD Load games for the Amiga? There are tons of Amiga games that are missing.

they miss a lot, especially THE BEST AMIGA GAME EVER, Lionheart is not there.

but I can tell you that Lionheart has issues, it has audio stutters and weird flicker for some of the layers. but it is playable. a friend has this thing and brought it over yesterday, so we played a bunch of stuff on it.

the controller is surprisingly good... like proper good... I didn't expect that tbh!
 

Ozzie666

Member
I'm totally addicted to earlier games like King of Chicago and It came from the Desert, just pure nostalgia. I can't wait for a full hack so it will be easier to use ADF files with trainers, intros and what not. Playing Rocket Ranger is a pain with using the decoder wheel. But first world problems right? I can't believe there is an interactive on line decoder wheel, pretty cool.
 

Krathoon

Member
Unfortunately no, Ultima 6, Bad Blood, it's like golden age Origin before they exploded with the big budget stuff.
Yeah. People forget about Bad Blood. There were some big names involved with that.
It seems like you really can get away with starting Ultima with Ultima 4. I never really dug into Ultima. I got them all on gog. Even Ultima 9, which was garbage. When you learn the lore, you realize how awful the last one really was. Ultima 7 was probably the last good Ultima.
 

Havoc2049

Member
Yeah. People forget about Bad Blood. There were some big names involved with that.
It seems like you really can get away with starting Ultima with Ultima 4. I never really dug into Ultima. I got them all on gog. Even Ultima 9, which was garbage. When you learn the lore, you realize how awful the last one really was. Ultima 7 was probably the last good Ultima.
Yes! Thanks for reminding me about Bad Blood! 😁👍

My C64 mini just came in the mail and I've been thinking of C64 exclusives and unique games to add to the mini. Bad Blood used the same engine and set-up as Origin's other open world action RPG, Times of Lore, also done by Chris Roberts and Warren Spector. I've played and finished Times of Lore and really enjoyed it.

This is my list so far:
Project Firestart
Legacy of the Ancients
The Legend of Blacksilver
Ocean Ranger
The Sporting News Baseball
Typhoon of Steel
The Train Escape to Normandy
Law of the West
Zork Quest I: Assault on Egreth Castle
Zork Quest II: The Crystal of Doom

BTW: Ultima IV, V & VI are their own trilogy, the Age of Enlightment Trilogy. Ultima I, II & III is the Age of Darkness Trilogy.
 
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AmigaHobo

Neo Member
My biggest gripe so far is the non-compatibility with the Speedlink Competition Pro joystick. That joystick is to the Amiga what peanutbutter is to jelly. The fact that it doesn't work properly is hopefully just an oversight that will be fixed soon, or I'm gonna have to go in and rewire the buttons, which is ridiculous when it would be so easy to just remap in software instead.

I haven't really tested it extensively, but it boots everything I've tried and runs seemingly beautiful. It's been too long since I actually played any real Amiga games to be able to tell if there is an input lag with games like Badlands and Speedball 2, but they did feel a bit sluggish.

Hopefully these are all teething problems that will go away with later updates.
 
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