New to Amiga's, gifted one without Kickstart.

Hey everyone.


When Amiga hit the UK I was living abroad in Cyprus, I remember seeing on display of the Import Depot (A sort of shop that UK Imports were brought into for Army families to buy). Even though I was about 4 or 5 years old, I remember being very interested by the Amiga 1200 on display. Since we owned a Sega Saturn and my Dad's regiment had a C64 for recreation, he never saw the point in getting an Amiga 1200 since all their computers were either Terminals, Windows 95 or one or two Macintosh computers.

I was recently gifted an Amiga 500. A little beaten up, three keys are broken and there's snaps on the case where it looks like someone tried to open it up at one point. No mouse, no monitor etc. Took a while to get a TV to talk to it. I checked the box but unfortunately no where to be seen is a Kickstart disk. Just a few games.

I can't find any Kickstart disks that say they work on an Amiga 500. I have Amiga Forever and WinUAE, I figured maybe it could use my USB Floppy Drive to write a new disk but I couldn't figure out how.


So I'm curious, is there a way to make a new disk, or is there some treasure trove of Disks someone makes for Amiga fans somewhere I can buy one from?


Many thanks for any help, And it's great to be here!

[amiman99]

Amiga 500 does not need a kickstart disk, so any self bootable disk should start the game or a program.
Maybe you are asking for Workbench disks?
USB floppy drive on Windows computer will not work for making disks for Amiga.
Check out Gotek USB drives, they allow you to load disk images in ADF format and use them as a real disk.

Yeah, Workbench would be good too. I ask for Kickstart because a few disks I already have from being given over the years can't be booted. Such as Beneath a Steel Sky etc. They all have installation disks which seems to need Kickstart?

Is there any videos on how to install the gotek onto an Amiga?
I already have a bit of a headache trying to figure out how to repair this keyboard as well as add more RAM.

[amiman99]

Kickstart is already on a chip inside the Amiga 500, the Amiga that needed a kickstart is Amiga 1000 (Amiga 3000 too with kickstart 1.4, but that's pretty rare).
the Gotek can be purchase here: https://amigastore.eu/323-usb-floppy...r-gotek.html#/ or any other amiga store, or Ebay. Look for the one that has flashflopppy installed. LCD option is highly recommended, so you can see the file names.
To install the Gotek, remove the floppy drive power cable and ribbon cable, install the Gotek, plug both cables back and you are almost ready to go.

For best results, watch some youtube videos, it's faster then writing.

[512k]

Just a heads up to amiman post

There is a gotek with 3d printed mounted to save modifing the case

http://amigastore.eu/en/676-internal...-and-1200.html

Review of crazybob 3d printed mount below

[ Show youtube player ]

[amiman99]

For people who can't do it themselves, it's a good option, but a little pricey for my taste.
I went a little different route, I used this 3d print to relocate my OLED display so I can see it better: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2745095
I highly recommend the OLED mod! I think we should not use the original number display at all anymore.

Ah. I've already purchased a gotek that looks like I need to modify a case. Only thing I need to do now is figure out what keyboard my Amiga uses. It looks like a Mitsumi in that the part on the board is round with a white square thing in it. But it dosn't look quite like the ones I'm finding pictures of.

I was eventually able to find a Workbench disk. After all of it, my Amiga's cost approx £54
Workbench Disk: £17
VGA Adaptor: £8.99
VGA Cable: £4.99
GoTek: £23.89.

Then the keyboard is probably gonna cost a fair bit more unless I can figure out what kind it is and just get individual keys as opposed to a full new keyboard. I want to keep the Amiga as close to stock as possible. For me it's not so much the games and software that gives me the nostalgia but the feel and sound the hardware has to it.

[amiman99]

Do you have pics of the broken keys?

Originally Posted by amiman99

Do you have pics of the broken keys?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11HZ...ew?usp=sharing


They're round but some pics I've seen of the keyboards don't look like this. They seem to have a cup on them.


The broken keys are 1 and 0 on the keypad and left arrow. They seem to have been sheered off like the previous owner tried pullign them without a key puller because one of the keys has some plastic snapped off on its side.

[Sune Salminen]

Originally Posted by Andromeda

I ask for Kickstart because a few disks I already have from being given over the years can't be booted. Such as Beneath a Steel Sky etc. They all have installation disks which seems to need Kickstart?

It is not clear from your posts whether you are aware of this or not: You will not be able to "install" anything on your Amiga 500 unless you buy a hard drive for it, the workbench disk that you bought is not useful for the purpose that you bought it for.

Originally Posted by Sune Salminen

It is not clear from your posts whether you are aware of this or not: You will not be able to "install" anything on your Amiga 500 unless you buy a hard drive for it, the workbench disk that you bought is not useful for the purpose that you bought it for.

I was informed this elsewhere. But I thought the Workbench disk would give me a GUI OS enviroment to begin installation from. When I was gifted this A500 I just got the computer. They'd lost the documentation long ago so I'm having to go off what little I can figure out.

[Sune Salminen]

That's true, it would. But you'd still have nowhere to install the game to.

[Hewitson]

Wow, 17 quid for a WB disk? I'm sure someone on here would have been happy to help you out with one.

Unless it's an ECS A500 with at least kick 2.0 the VGA adapter and cable will not be usable. Either way, most Amiga software will not work with this setup.

[jlin_au]

Originally Posted by Andromeda

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11HZ...ew?usp=sharing


They're round but some pics I've seen of the keyboards don't look like this. They seem to have a cup on them.


The broken keys are 1 and 0 on the keypad and left arrow. They seem to have been sheered off like the previous owner tried pullign them without a key puller because one of the keys has some plastic snapped off on its side.

The broken keys definitely look like Mitsumi hybrid ones with their square connections; ignore the white caps and springs used to return the key to its unstruck position. See halfway down the following webpage https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...miga-computers for the pictures.

The new campaign for a 2nd batch of key caps has only 2 days left under https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/n...2/x/18776895#/

[ajk]

Originally Posted by Andromeda

I was informed this elsewhere. But I thought the Workbench disk would give me a GUI OS enviroment to begin installation from. When I was gifted this A500 I just got the computer. They'd lost the documentation long ago so I'm having to go off what little I can figure out.

Hmm, I think there may still be some uncertainty of the things involved here. Many things have been explained but just to recap:

- the Kickstart on the Amiga 500 is a chip on the board, if you were missing it, the system would not boot at all

- if you install the Gotek (please don't cut your case in doing so, install it externally instead), you won't have need of the physical Workbench floppy either

- once you do boot into Workbench (the GUI environment), you still have nowhere to install games such as Beneath a Steel Sky to with just a Gotek - you would need a hard drive controller of some description (the A500 does not by itself have support for a hard drive)

- games do not generally need to be installed, nor do they need Workbench loaded first, they simply boot from the (first) floppy disk (although for convenience, multi-disk games are obviously much nicer to run from a hard drive if you have one )

- if your VGA adapter is a passive one (such as this), it won't make the Amiga's output signal VGA - the monitor you will be using still needs to accept broadcast video frequencies (so called multisync monitor)

- almost any TV with a SCART input will, however, accept the Amiga signal with the right cable (or you can use composite, but on the A500 it's greyscale only unfortunately)

- if you only need a couple of replacement key caps, you can probably find them on eBay (try here) instead of buying a whole set

- manuals for the A500 and Workbench are available in many places online (maybe start here)

My VGA Adaptor is passive. I can't afford an upscaler. So I'm probably going to save up for a CRT monitor that works with an Amiga. There's a recycling centre nearby that gives away stuff like it as well as a few Charity shops.

Only 1 TV Supports the Amiga in my house using the modulator. I'm mostly using it on that at the moment.

The kickstart for those keys, do I have to back it to get the keys or will I be able to get the keys after it's successful? I don't get paid for another 4 weeks.

I didn't buy the Gotek in the end. I decided If I do get one, I'd like to get the one that's modified to fit in the case. Then maybe get a HD. Or just get a SD card unit for the HD emulations. That way I can keep the floppy drive since I've been given a box of 100 floppy disks, all Amiga games and software etc.

If the keyboard is definately a Mit, I'll havea look for replacements. Most ebay sellers say they're selling Samsung keys however.

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Wow, 17 quid for a WB disk? I'm sure someone on here would have been happy to help you out with one.

Unless it's an ECS A500 with at least kick 2.0 the VGA adapter and cable will not be usable. Either way, most Amiga software will not work with this setup.

I wasn't keen on asking. Being new, I didn't want to be an imposition and be rude by asking for one.


With the disk I ordered, I hope to make some copies and donate them where they're needed however.