Ay up! from Derbyshire in't UK

[Paulee_Alex_Bow]

Originally Posted by skintt

Probably not looking to keep it, no. Is the main reason for doing so to maintain compatibility?

Yes, the main reason to have a 1.3 1MB A500 is compatibility with 1985-1990 disk software…games, early applications. Keeping 1.3 is an option, but you won’t be able to use WHDLOAD, which runs games from workbench if you have extra RAM. You CAN use a program called JOTD to run WHDLOAD games on 1.3 but you’d have to look into it

Now, pretty much all accelerators with onboard IDE want 2.05 and above, but 3.1 is ideal.

There are kickstart switchers available, 1.3 and 3.1 usually, but these don’t usually let you boot the hard disk.

If you got a TF536…lovely 030 accelerator about £150ish, you can use a kickstart switcher. With 3.1 you’ll get the 50Mhz ‘030, 64MB Fast RAM and IDE. If you switch to 1.3 it will boot up in a special 7Mhz mode with no RAM, no IDE, so you can play disk games.

The Sordan HC533 (I think they still make a few each month, you’d have to email them) is a 33Mhz 68000 which has a special Oktagon ROM which lets you keep 1.3 and boot from IDE. So it’s a good solution if you want to keep 1.3. It has 8MB Fast RAM.

Bear in mind that for the most Utility on WHDLOAD you’ll want at least 1MB chip, so a modification is needed depending on your motherboard, because the A500 usually has 512K Chip and 512K “slow” RAM. That slow ram becomes chip ram when you do the mod. Many WHDLOAD games need 1MB chip and some extra fast ram, say 0.5MB. Some need more.

I think Vampire and PiStorm might use a ROM in memory and not a physical one, so you get 3.x anyway by default but I’m not an expert on these.

[skintt]

So many options it's hard to know where to start!
I'll probably start simple with the Gotek then look into the PiStorm which I believe can switch between ROMs (I assume in software). Then who knows!



I had a dig through the loft and unearthed one of these Flylink PAL/NTSC SCART + HDMI to HDMI Video Converter which hopefully should do for plugging into my 1440p monitor, at least for starters.


Thanks everyone for the detailed responses and advice! I'm hoping to take delivery of the A500 towards the end of the week

[skintt]

Originally Posted by S0ulA55a551n

ahhh chesterfield the start of the North Welcome

Thanks!

According to some folks I know down south, anything above Watford Gap is 'up norf'

[Dunny]

PiStorm is probably a good way to go. You can disable it for playing floppy games if you need to, but pretty much everything you will want to run has a WHDLoad option now.

The PiStorm will give you any Kickstart ROM you want (so 3.x will be available without having to swap out your ROMs - the PiStorm will just load it from disk), 2GB of FastRAM and as much storage as you want via the Pi's uSD card.

Incompatibilities abound with older software but there is a new library of patches for WHDLoad that deal with those. Anything OS-friendly is just superb. And damn it's fast.

RTG graphics are available via the Pi's Videocore so you can run your WB at 1080p if you so desire, in millions of colours, or you can stick with the old PAL modes if you prefer.

As AlexH points out, Wifi/Ethernet/USB is coming in the future and will be a drop-in update via a software update on the Amiga side.

I have one in my A1200 and cannot recommend it enough.

[S0ulA55a551n]

Originally Posted by skintt

Thanks!

According to some folks I know down south, anything above Watford Gap is 'up norf'

Well I would have said anything past Birmingham. but I know from relatives who live in Buxton ( which I would have said was defo north , and I know is part of derbyshire) is actually East Midlands

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Dunny

PiStorm is probably a good way to go. You can disable it for playing floppy games

Not an A500 version you can't

[paul1981]

I like the A500, and I have one with a hard-disk and 2MB RAM (KS1.3). I wouldn't dream of trying to modernise it much beyond that (I'd like some real Fast RAM one day for it)...you need to keep it slow and 7MHz so you can appreciate the 1200 and faster CPU's more!
Then again, if you ultra modernise it, you won't need a 1200, so the choice is yours!

[BippyM]

Welcome.to EAB AND GReetings from Derbyshire myself. Where are you at? I'm from Derby but live in ilkeston currently.

Need any help give me a shout

Originally Posted by skintt

Hello everyone!


I grew up in the era of 8 and 16 bit microcomputers. My dad's C64 was the first computer I ever used and still have fond memories of waiting 15 minutes for a game on tape to load only for it to fail!


I graduated to an A500+ which lasted a couple of years before I upgraded to an A1200 which eventually got expanded to include a whopping 40MB HDD and external CD-ROM. I regrettably swapped it for a Pentium P60 in about 1997 when it seemed like the Amiga brand was finished.


I'm really glad to see that although there was never much success after Commodore's bankruptcy, the Amiga community never dissapeared and seems much stronger than it ever was in 2024!


I've been dabbling with emulation for the past few years but recently bought an A500 from Ebay for which I'm eagerly awaiting delivery!

[skintt]

Originally Posted by BippyM

Welcome.to EAB AND GReetings from Derbyshire myself. Where are you at?

The north part of Chesterfield. So pretty much on the border of South Yorkshire.

Originally Posted by BippyM

Need any help give me a shout

Thanks! This seems like a really great community

Originally Posted by paul1981

I like the A500, and I have one with a hard-disk and 2MB RAM (KS1.3). I wouldn't dream of trying to modernise it much beyond that (I'd like some real Fast RAM one day for it)...you need to keep it slow and 7MHz so you can appreciate the 1200 and faster CPU's more!
Then again, if you ultra modernise it, you won't need a 1200, so the choice is yours!

There's just so many options for the modern Amigan. I like the idea of trying to keep it stock, but I know I'll end up "pimpin' it out" as they say across t'pond.

[str0m]

Originally Posted by skintt

Thanks!

According to some folks I know down south, anything above Watford Gap is 'up norf'

I used to live right on the south coast and anything above the M4 corridor is considered up north.


However I now live in Newcastle and get really annoyed when people talk about Leeds and Manchester etc being up north as they are now miles south of me and clearly Midlands the most!!

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by alexh

Not an A500 version you can't

Indeed, PiStorm classic cannot. Which might be a reason not to get one if you're really wedded to loading games from floppies.