Amiga 500 is the 'real' Amiga?

[turrican9]

So I have Amiga 1200 with ACA 1233, 4G CF card with Classic workbench Advanced, Indy AGA, Amiga 600 with ACA 620, Indy ECS, 4GB CF cards with classic WB full and 3 Amiga 500s, ACA 500 with ACA 1221, classic WB full and my original Amiga 500 has a Gotek drive (which I regret cutting the case even though it was done nicely).

Most of this stuff I bought last year except my original Amiga 500 and one basic Amiga 600 which got into my house in the year 2000 (some kids left it here). My Amiga 500 is from 1991.

The point is I think all this stuff is cool but lately I find myself going back to basic Amiga 500 1MB and loading regular floppy diskettes. Sometimes I use the one with the Gotek also. Is this just nostalgia because this is what I was using back in the day or is it something else? What do other people in the forum think ? Is the Amiga 500 loading floppy diskettes the real Amiga for you?

[Retro-Nerd]

For me only the computer itself is important. I never liked floppy disks. They are slow and unrealiable. I'm also not interested in floppy emulators with all the disk switching stuff. A1200+HD+WHDLoad is my Amiga since 2007. Never looked back. Yes, the Amiga 500 was was fun in the 90s. Not anymore.

[turrican9]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

For me only the computer itself is important. I never liked floppy disks. They are slow and unrealiable. I'm also not interested in floppy emulators with all the disk switching stuff. A1200+HD+WHDLoad is my Amiga since 2007. Never looked back. Yes, the Amiga 500 was was fun in the 90s. Not anymore.

Thanks for the answer. The last couple of months or so I have developed some kind of 'syndrome' where I'm always on the lookout for perfect looking Amiga 500s on ebay or here in Norway on other sites. There is something about the Amiga 500 which I just love so much.

[Retro-Nerd]

I know what you mean. I liked the buzzing sound of the drive. Also a mint A500 looks nice on the desk. Still have one in my attic. But not for daily use, only for testing purposes sometimes.

[Agilent]

Originally Posted by turrican9

So I have Amiga 1200 with ACA 1233, 4G CF card with Classic workbench Advanced, Indy AGA, Amiga 600 with ACA 620, Indy ECS, 4GB CF cards with classic WB full and 3 Amiga 500s, ACA 500 with ACA 1221, classic WB full and my original Amiga 500 has a Gotek drive (which I regret cutting the case even though it was done nicely).

Most of this stuff I bought last year except my original Amiga 500 and one basic Amiga 600 which got into my house in the year 2000 (some kids left it here). My Amiga 500 is from 1991.

The point is I think all this stuff is cool but lately I find myself going back to basic Amiga 500 1MB and loading regular floppy diskettes. Sometimes I use the one with the Gotek also. Is this just nostalgia because this is what I was using back in the day or is it something else? What do other people in the forum think ? Is the Amiga 500 loading floppy diskettes the real Amiga for you?

Nothing beats booting a floppy disk on a real A500. The sound, waiting, smell of the machine, all bring back memories

[zipper]

Nothing beats A500 booting from HDD the first time. That speed...

[McTrinsic]

So you answered it yourself.

It's about the memories.

And these are different for all of us.

Can't beat numbers, though - the A500 had the biggest sales numbers. So it will statistically speaking appeal to the biggest number of people.

Cheers,
McT

[Gzegzolka]

Yes, A500 is real Amiga, as much as A1000, A600, A1200, CDTV, CD32, A2000 and A4000. Those strange models like A500+ or A1300 (with was A1200 with cd-rom) and others are real amigas too For me, my favorite was for a long time A1200, as a kid I loved so much some AGA games - they were great, juicy and I feel they were big improvement in my gaming experience. A1200 is perfect for expansion like hard-disk, extra ram, setup for WHD games. Right now, for few years - I also enjoy cd32 (but only as winuae configuration) - cd-tracks and game-pad are great features.

[DisposableHero]

An A500 with a single floppy drive (generally with 1Mb but sometimes only 512K) was what most of the classic Amiga games were designed for, and probably the system most people used at the time. It's the one that was most technically impressive for its price at the time, the one that drew most of Europe's best programmers in. it's probably what non-Amiga users (and certainly non-videogame fans) are most likely to think of when they hear Amigas mentioned too. So I guess it is the authentic 'classic' Amiga, yes.

For space reasons I don't have my Amigas with me in my flat, so I use WinUAE. I really hope they still work, as I'd love to play a game on a real Amiga t least once, just for the nostalgia of the physical experience and the loading noise (WinUAE's emulation of this still isn't quite right, and all the games available being cracks means you can't relive the weirder copy protection routines). But would I want to swap 11 disks of Monkey Island 2 again? No.

[dreamkatcha]

I was watching a YouTuber recently who commented that the incessant disk swapping necessitated by her newly acquired Amiga was "heart-warming". Needless to say this was all new to her as she didn't own one in the late 80s/early 90s.

[Nobby_UK]

The only floppy my drives see these days is :
'Arte - Sanity' (or maybe 'Spaceballs - State of the Art')
but it always corrupts the disk ---
even though write protected.

[alpine9000]

My 500 in the 90's was as modded as I could get it, 200MB scsi, switchable chip ram, ECS, kickstart 2.04, 030 accelerator, and as much ram as I could jam into it (think it was 8mb?). I remember the heartache when I got my HD and realised I couldn't use my Action Replay anymore.

After being away from the scene for so long, I just ordered another 500, and except for a floppy replacement, I plan on keeping it all standard. The stock 500 was certainly the "real" amiga for me.

But that's not to say I wouldn't love a 4000 if I could get one for free

[ajk]

I think there were two rather different groups of users of Amigas in the 80s and 90s.

Some used the A500 as basically a games console, and the 1MB + floppy drive configuration makes most sense for that. This probably fits most of the people I know who had an A500 back then.

Others also used the system for graphics, sound, programming and also office software and in that case all upgrades were extremely welcome. I certainly remember that running Imagine3D on an A500, even with an A590, was awful A1200 + an accelerator made it a joy.

The A500 probably very much is the "real" Amiga for anyone who was (or now is) part of the first group.


Personally, I did and do enjoy games but it wasn't really single-floppy platformers or shoot-em-ups that I played most. It was games like Lucasarts adventures, The Settlers, Frontier, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Wing Commander etc. which did not run all that well on a basic A500.

[Cpt. Hindsight]

Originally Posted by turrican9

The last couple of months or so I have developed some kind of 'syndrome' where I'm always on the lookout for perfect looking Amiga 500s on ebay or here in Norway on other sites. There is something about the Amiga 500 which I just love so much.

You can try to make your A 500 look perfect yourself with a hydrogen peroxide based cleaner. These products will de-yellow the case. They won't remove any scratches, though.

[Decker]

Any 68K based, Commodore or Escom made Amiga is a real Amiga in my book. Accessories and upgrades don't take away from the experience.

Every now and then I fire up my 500+ / GVP HD for kicks, but normally use the 1200 and don't feel any less nostalgic about it.

The storage medium is the least of my concerns. If anybody gets up in arms about the wonder that is the 3.5" DD floppy, I hand them a box and tell them to have fun. The novelty wears off fast.

[Cobe]

Yup, out of nostalgia I really like using floppies but for the single or two disk games. Surly I'm not gonna torture myself again like back in the days and play Monkey Island from floppies

And I really dont get that gotek thing. It is slow as floppy(obviously) but in return it doesn't give you the audio satisfaction nor u can hold a disk, insert it in drive, nothing thats actually worth that waiting... so if the game is bigger I'm choosing hard disk.

[Amigajay]

Anything that runs from the original hardware (motherboard and custom chips) is a 'real Amiga', as soon as you bung in a FPGA card then its basically emulation albeit hardware emulation, its no longer using the Amiga's motherboard (or Amiga soul as we know it!)

[Cobe]

But for that low cost speed I'd sold my soul although it's not the real thing I'd still have my real Amiga on the table and satisfaction of using it although you can say that it becomes just a keyboard controller...

[daxb]

Originally Posted by ajk

I think there were two rather different groups of users of Amigas in the 80s and 90s.

Some used the A500 as basically a games console, and the 1MB + floppy drive configuration makes most sense for that. This probably fits most of the people I know who had an A500 back then.

Others also used the system for graphics, sound, programming and also office software and in that case all upgrades were extremely welcome. I certainly remember that running Imagine3D on an A500, even with an A590, was awful A1200 + an accelerator made it a joy.

I would count me into both groups. First, Amiga 500 + 512kb + 2nd floppy drive + ActionReplay + 1,8MB + 3rd floppy drive with most gaming, demoscene stuff watching. Later some DPaint usage and mainly Protracker (still using from time to time). With A1200 user software becomes more important, hence several hardware updates followed.

Nowadays, when I seldom insert a floppy disk I also like the noise (memories) but mostly wonder it still works. But I don`t miss swaping disks, wait for loading, swap, wait aso. HD speed was/is so much relaxed. Maybe people like waiting for disk loading because they/we live in a busy/fast world and can relax then. However, sure A500 is a real Amiga but not only like others mentioned already.

UFO: Enemy Unknown

Can you remember if UFO: Enemy Unknown has an end or what is needed to be finished? If yes, please send me a PM.

[ajk]

@daxb

I guess I can comment here that yes, it does have an end, the mission "Cydonia or Bust" where you attack the alien base at Mars You just need to advance far enough in the research to be able to do that.