So I went exploring in the loft...

[chris-red]

... And found my old Amiga! it is an A500+. I pulled it down and went through the box and the rush of memories coming back was overwhelming!

I remember spending hours with my Sister playing Bubble Bobble and Shufflepuk Cafe.

I remember the Chaos Engine, Lemmings, Cannon fodder, Monkey Island!

I remember seemingly breaking a joystick every few weeks

Really good times, I was smiling so much going through this old stuff. I plugged it all in and got the familiar sight of the purple screen floppy disc going into the drive.

I inserted a disc into the disc and it started making noise and the drive light came on, the screen went solid purple and looked to be loading a game however then it simply went back to the disc loading screen. I tried another disc and another until, I had probably gone through 20 of them with no joy the same result each time.

I can only conclude either after 20 years either all the discs are fecked or the drive is buggered. I ordered a cleaning kit from Amigakit and am waiting for that to arrive.

I would like to get it running and play some old games, then I wouldn't mind modifying updating it if I can.

Was hoping I can get some advice on A how to fix it and be if there is anything I can to update/upgrade it.

I still have the originally Bill of Sale too for when my dad bought it at a Computer fair in Earls Court November 1991 He got the Super Galactic Pack £399!

Here are some photos there are a lot more games than what you see.






The other thing I would like to know is what is the easiest way to download games from the web and put them on a disc that can be played by my Amiga?

A quick google suggests it isn't as easy as I had hoped!

Cheers,

Chris

[s2325]

Nice find, good luck I have same joystick, silent and precise. Most of my youtube videos were done with that nice piece of hardware.

[chris-red]

Originally Posted by s2325

Nice find, good luck I have same joystick, silent and precise. Most of my youtube videos were done with that nice piece of hardware.

I don't if they are working yet, I seem to remember as a kid being heavy handed with them there was a pile of ones that wouldn't move right or back! I'm sure I can make one good one out of the 2 I have!

Just so eager to get it working!

[moijk]

Originally Posted by chris-red

The other thing I would like to know is what is the easiest way to download games from the web and put them on a disc that can be played by my Amiga?

without a harddrive and on a a500 it'll not be convinient. when the new a500 accelerators with ide support comes, it'll be a lot easier.

[chris-red]

Originally Posted by moijk

without a harddrive and on a a500 it'll not be convinient. when the new a500 accelerators with ide support comes, it'll be a lot easier.

Eh!? People are still developing for these!?

[roy bates]

yes peaple are still making addons for these machines,just have a look at the forums.


have you had a look inside yet for battery damage?

[chris-red]

Originally Posted by roy bates

yes peaple are still making addons for these machines,just have a look at the forums.


have you had a look inside yet for battery damage?

Battery Damage? I assume there is a CMOS(esq) battery in there and to check to see if it has leaked? I'll have a look tonight.

[roy bates]

yes there will be a barrel battery inside just snip the legs off if its leaking then use some vinager to neutralise the alkaline from the battery and clean up the mess.(its probably best to remove it anyway)

your drive is probably knackered,try to clean the dust out of the drive as well as a disk cleaner.
i use cotton buds and alcahol to clean the heads if it has been sitting around for very long periods,but dont try this if you dont feel confident though as you have to take the drive apart.

[moijk]

Originally Posted by chris-red

Eh!? People are still developing for these!?

Since there is a lot of people like you and me there is a market. Where there is a market, there is room for people to cater that market.

you have two forthcoming expansions for the 500 and 500+

First is aca500: (from the website)

Our new accelerator for the Amiga 500 has already been discussed in user forums, but will be released with some changes, so customer demand is met in both price and features. The ACA500 is powered by a 14MHz CMOS-68000 processor with 2MBytes RAM and a mass-storage controller for CF-cards and CD drives. Autoboot from CF-card is possible from Kickstart V1.3 and higher. Thanks to our TrueIDE technology, any CF card can be used, even if the card identifies as "removable device". A CD-ROM drive can be connected to the easily reachable IDE port on the side of the A500.
The relatively moderate increase in speed is enough to run WHDload. For those who want more CPU power, the ACA500 has a CPU-slot compatible with our accelerators for A1200 computers. This makes even our top model ACA1231 available to the A500 computer. The ACA500 will be available from all resellers for 79,90 EUR. We're currently negotiating about including Kickstart licenses into the ACA500, so the built-in flashrom can be pre-loaded with different Kickstart licenses.

(in other words, slightly faster and can use IDE disks / CF solutions which you can transfer between the main computer (running winuae) and the real amiga.

For whdload: (Wikipedia)

WHDLoad is a program for Amiga which has been created to easily install programs to a hard disk (such as demos or games), allowing for better compatibility of Amiga programs, which can sometimes be difficult to run or emulate otherwise due to the widely varying hardware setups of Amigas across its history. Its use basically circumvents the Operating System of the Amiga for greater compatibility and preserves the original program as a non-degradable archive (unlike magnetic media).
WHDLoad allows the installed floppy disk image to autostart simply clicking on an icon related to it.


the second is the zeus68k:
"One board to rule them all..."

68SEC000 CPU running at 7 or 50 MHz
8 MB RAM
1 x BootMenu (Config)
6 x Kickstart ROM Switcher
IDE Controller (Gayle Logic A600)
Clock Port
Realtime Clock
Freezer Button (just upload your freezer ROM, e.g. Action Replay, and you are done)

Six devices in one: Accelerator, RAM, IDE Controller, Kic


http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=65047


Also let you use WHDLOAD


Only WHDLOAD is currently available, aca500 will probably be shortly and zeus68k in due time.

I got three a500 and one a500+ so i'll be exploring both.

[grobda]

short term you can use either a null modem cable or parallel cable to transfer adf images to formatted amiga floppies. slow, but cheapest option for a bit of quick nostalgia if your floppy isnt completely goosed.

amiga will format and use HD floppies too (as 880k), people say theyre not reliable but ive had less problems using them than using much older SD floppies.

if you want to spend more and have hard disk installed games then youre probably best off with an amiga 600/1200. both would need memory upgrades though.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by chris-red

... And found my old Amiga! it is an A500+. I pulled it down and went through the box and the rush of memories coming back was overwhelming!
I inserted a disc into the disc and it started making noise and the drive light came on, the screen went solid purple and looked to be loading a game however then it simply went back to the disc loading screen. I tried another disc and another until, I had probably gone through 20 of them with no joy the same result each time.

Congratulations with your find. :-)

As other people pointed out, your A500+ has a battery which has likely leaked. In the A500, this battery was located on the ram expansion which would spare the motherboard for a while if it would leak. From your explanation it sounds like your FDD interface or drive might be the problem. It detects a disk being inserted but cannot read it properly.

[chris-red]

Not gonna lie when I googled Amiga forums I expect them to have one man and his dog active. I didn't realise there was such a busy community! What sort of money would these new accelerators cost when they are ready?

I'll have a look for this battery won't there be problems if I snip it off? Does it need a replacement?

If it is the FDD interface what can be done to fix it? I assume that is on the board.

Hopefully my floppy cleaner will arrive today/tomorrow I will run that through and see what happens.

As far as I'm aware it was working fine when it was boxed up, (probably 1998 ish, was upgraded to a playstation) and has been in the loft ever since. It was very well packaged and there wasn't noticeable dust in the box, it was all very clean.

[roy bates]

if you remove the battery you wont have to replace it,its only so the clock circuit is able to remember the time when switched back on again.

trust me when i and others say this,remove the battery anyway when it leaks it damages and corrodes the pcb(i have seen countless amigas destroyed this way)



EDIT:scare mungery aside,welcome to eab.amigas are fantastic machines when working

[Bamiga2002]

Welcome to the forums! I hope you have stashed some extra cash aside, you're going to need it!

[chris-red]

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

Welcome to the forums! I hope you have stashed some extra cash aside, you're going to need it!

Oh god I need another expensive hobby like a hole in the head,

Cycling, Motorbikes, Photgraphy, PC Gaming...

Now Amiga's




I'll be sure I'll be bothering you lot to help be get it going again!

Cheers,

Chris

[roy bates]

ive got a floppy drive i can test if you want it,if your close enough for it to be posted its yours.

[chris-red]

Originally Posted by roy bates

ive got a floppy drive i can test if you want it,if your close enough for it to be posted its yours.

Cool Cheers, I'll try to fix and have a poke about if not will get in touch.

[roy bates]

no,probs.

if you find you cant get anywhere with it just send me a pm.

[chris-red]

You were right!

[demolition]

Not as bad as it could have been - I've seen them half covered in white and blue crystals with the surrounding tracks and component pins all green..

But better take it out, clean it up and see if all the tracks underneath are looking intact.