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Latest find: Amiga 500

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linuxlove

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2009
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Location
Auburn, AL
Went to the thrift store and found this sitting on one of the shelves with the power block.
Bought it, brought it back, fired it up and it seems to be working.
It's very yellowed so it looks like I get to make my first batch of Retr0Bright and clean this thing up.
I need a Workbench 1.3 disk though, anyone got one?

Pictures:




 
The Amiga 500 is a fun and interesting machine, but unfortunately the built-in composite video output is only monochrome (you need the A520 add-on to get color composite output), the floppy disks have a special format which cannot be read or written on PC drives, and all the good games are from Europe, so most will not run on an American machine due to the difference in video system and clock speed (PAL 7.09 MHz vs. NTSC 7.16 MHz).

I have one and I'm lucky to have the A520 and a few original system and application disks, but its ultimate usefulness is pretty limited compared to my Atari 520ST+, which reads and writes PC 720kB floppy disks (so I can easily download and transfer software from the Internet) and has no trouble running European games.
 
I'm sure you could pick up original Workbench disks and an A520 for next to nothing on eBay, but if you happen to have an RGB monitor (15KHz) it's well worth buying/making a cable for it. If you end up with copied Workbench disks, try to get them on DSDD if you want them to last (although I must say I have some backups on decent DSHD floppies which still work fine after > 10 years).

Is game compatibility really that bad on the US version? I remember a lot of games only used 200 lines as opposed to the 256 the PAL version supports, specifically so that the image would still fit on an NTSC system.
 
cosam said:
I'm sure you could pick up original Workbench disks and an A520 for next to nothing on eBay,
Click to expand...
I can only find one Workbench disk and one A520 on the US eBay, both are bid-only which usually means I've lost the item anyway.
 
It doesn't look that yellowed, to me. Anyway, I'd strongly recommend tracking down a 1084 monitor rather than a composite adapter; the quality is just so much better, particularily in high-resolution mode. As for Workbench, I think I might have a spare disk, but you'll want to get an Amiga mouse.
 
As an owner of too many amigas, I'll try and make your life easy. Use winuae and create a workbench disk that you like. Think about including a term emulator or IBM dos drivers so you can transfer and create other disks. When ready, send me the adf and I will write it to a real amiga formatted disk. Just send me a couple of $'s to cover the postage and I'll send it off to you.
 
Thanks for the offer jeokster.

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I have here one of these cheap NES-on-a-chip controllers. Would this work in place of the Amiga mouse or will I end up blowing everything up?


Another webcam pic...
 
You call that yellowed? Then you haven't seen the A500 I have in my possesion.

Just be aware that if you get software for it, it may contain viruses and worms. It's not too critical since the A500 don't have any fixed disks, but I suggest writeprotecting any disks you get for it. Viruses spread by infecting the bootloader, which in turn infect any writeable disks you insert. This is something only a hardware reset (powercycle) can fix.

The quality of the composite out is quite horrible, as expected. If you can't get a 1084 monitor; try to make an Amiga-to-SCART adapter (in the case you got an Europeian TV).
 
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linuxlove said:
I have here one of these cheap NES-on-a-chip controllers. Would this work in place of the Amiga mouse or will I end up blowing everything up?
Click to expand...
Genesis and other Atari-pinout controllers won't damage the Amiga, since the electrical layout is the same (and in fact some games can recognize and use a Genesis controller, IIRC.) However, the Amiga won't use it as a mouse, since the actual communication protocol is different. What you can do, until you've tracked down an Amiga mouse, is use the arrow keys plus either Amiga key to move the cursor (Amiga + left Alt is left-click, and Amiga + right Alt is right-click.) It's awkward, but it works.
 
linuxlove...I'd say you need to get a copy of Workbench1.3 and Extras1.3 and also a terminal program like JR-Comm at a bare minimum. Once you have those things you can get anything else transferred over via null modem cable.
 
Getting a null modem cable made was one of the top things to do for the Amiga, along with Workbench. I'll keep a look out for a terminal program though.

Is it safe to use one of those floppy drive cleaner disks and 70% isopropyl alcohol in the A500's disk drive?
 
commodorejohn said:
Genesis and other Atari-pinout controllers won't damage the Amiga, since the electrical layout is the same
Click to expand...
I am not entirely sure about that. They look similar, but the change of pin for the 5V has always confused me. What happens if you press Select on a Genesis gamepad while connected to an Atari or Commodore?

Atari 2600: http://pinouts.ru/Inputs/JoystickAtari2600_pinout.shtml
Commodore 64: http://pinouts.ru/Inputs/ControlPortC64_pinout.shtml
Commodore Amiga: http://pinouts.ru/Inputs/AmigaMouseJoy_pinout.shtml
MSX: http://pinouts.ru/Inputs/JoystickMsx_pinout.shtml
Sega Genesis: http://pinouts.ru/Game/genesiscontroller_pinout.shtml

In any case, a digital joystick will not send the right pulses the Amiga expects from a mouse. If LL would own an old bus mouse, I think in theory it might be adapted with a change of connector to work with the Amiga, but it is easier and better to try and get a replacement mouse from someone.
 
carlsson said:
I am not entirely sure about that. They look similar, but the change of pin for the 5V has always confused me. What happens if you press Select on a Genesis gamepad while connected to an Atari or Commodore?
Click to expand...
Okay, I'm not sure on that. I do know that it didn't damage my Amiga when I tried it, but I didn't take notes on the results. At any rate, yeah, Atari/Atari-based joystick != Amiga mouse.
 
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