New Amiga 500 owner

[ApolloBoy2]

I used to go by ApolloBoy here, but something happened with the email associated with my old account, so here I am again. Anyway, I used to own an Amiga 1000 a couple of years ago, then I wound up selling it because I couldn't get it to work properly with Amiga Explorer. However, I went to a local computer store yesterday to get some parts for my DOS PC and wound up walking out with a box of Amiga stuff for $20, which included a Amiga 500 and various accessories.

So now what I'd like to know is what upgrades are available for the A500 and how I can play some games without resorting to tracking down the original floppies (which is somewhat expensive since I'm in the US).

BTW, would anyone be interested in an Amiga 1010 or Golden Hawk MIDI Gold 500 interface? I don't really have any use for them and I'd like to give them to someone who would appreciate them.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by ApolloBoy2

I used to go by ApolloBoy here, but something happened with the email associated with my old account, so here I am again.

You now have a duplicate account, which is not allowed on EAB!

What you should have done is logged in using your old Username and Password and edited your Email address from your Control Panel.

If you can do this now, then you will still be able to use your old account.

Then you must PM RCK, the EAB Administrator, who can cancel your duplicate account for you and merge your threads/posts.

[ApolloBoy2]

Originally Posted by prowler

You now have a duplicate account, which is not allowed on EAB!

What you should have done is logged in using your old Username and Password and edited your Email address from your Control Panel.

I couldn't log into my old account (forgot my password), hence why I made this one. But thanks for letting me know, I PMed RCK and hopefully this will get fixed up soon.

EDIT: It looks RCK hasn't been on in almost a month, that's odd...

[prowler]

Good luck with that, ApolloBoy.

RCK doesn't have much time these days to frequent the forums, so you may have to wait a while for a reply.

In the meantime, posting your intentions here should prevent you from being banned.

Originally Posted by ApolloBoy2

I used to own an Amiga 1000 a couple of years ago, then I wound up selling it because I couldn't get it to work properly with Amiga Explorer. However, I went to a local computer store yesterday to get some parts for my DOS PC and wound up walking out with a box of Amiga stuff for $20, which included a Amiga 500 and various accessories.

So now what I'd like to know is what upgrades are available for the A500 and how I can play some games without resorting to tracking down the original floppies (which is somewhat expensive since I'm in the US).

BTW, would anyone be interested in an Amiga 1010 or Golden Hawk MIDI Gold 500 interface? I don't really have any use for them and I'd like to give them to someone who would appreciate them.

What accessories did you get with your Amiga 500? Does it work okay?

You should keep the A1010 external floppy drive, as it could be useful for transferring games disk images you have downloaded to floppy disks for use with your Amiga.

[ApolloBoy2]

Originally Posted by prowler

In the meantime, posting your intentions here should prevent you from being banned.

Having my old email being zapped from existence and losing my password didn't leave me with much choices, heh. I don't have any intention of starting trouble so I expect this account to be gone once RCK merges it.

Originally Posted by prowler

What accessories did you get with your Amiga 500? Does it work okay?

You should keep the A1010 external floppy drive, as it could be useful for transferring games disk images you have downloaded to floppy disks for use with your Amiga.

I got an AmTRAC Microspeed trackball mouse, the aforementioned A1010 and MIDI interface, and a Wico joystick. The A500 also had an extra 512K installed in the trapdoor slot so I've got 1 MB of RAM as well. It works fine, but without an RGB cable or games I can't really do much with it right now. The only disk I got with it was the first disk of Dynamic Studio and it's practically useless without the other disks. Plus, using it in monochrome composite isn't exactly fun.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by ApolloBoy2

I got an AmTRAC Microspeed trackball mouse, the aforementioned A1010 and MIDI interface, and a Wico joystick. The A500 also had an extra 512K installed in the trapdoor slot so I've got 1 MB of RAM as well. It works fine, but without an RGB cable or games I can't really do much with it right now. The only disk I got with it was the first disk of Dynamic Studio and it's practically useless without the other disks. Plus, using it in monochrome composite isn't exactly fun.

1MB total RAM is nice to have available for playing games. It would have been my first recommendation if it had not been included.

For an RGB cable, look no furher than AmigaKit's SCART TO AMIGA (RGB) CABLE WITH AUDIO:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=226
This is the most compatible cable you could wish for.

It's possible that lost_lemming may be interested in your MIDI interface. See this thread:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=61907

I will post back here later with some suggestions for transferring files from your PC to the Amiga, but I need to search some threads first.

By the way, did you get any Workbench disks with the Amiga, and what is the Kickstart version (shown on the screen when you boot without a floppy in the drive)?

[ApolloBoy2]

Originally Posted by prowler

By the way, did you get any Workbench disks with the Amiga, and what is the Kickstart version (shown on the screen when you boot without a floppy in the drive)?

I didn't get any WB disks and the Kickstart is v1.3.

[prowler]

Here are some threads to help you with transferring files from your PC to your Amiga:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=27704
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=35434
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=37924

Originally Posted by ApolloBoy2

I didn't get any WB disks

You may not need any, depending on the transfer method you choose, if all you wish to transfer is the occasional disk image, but if you purchase Amiga Forever (available as a download), you will get a full set of Workbench disks as well as the excellent utility Amiga Explorer (mentioned in the above threads).

Originally Posted by ApolloBoy2

...and the Kickstart is v1.3.

That should do nicely.

[ApolloBoy2]

What about this?: http://www.students.tut.fi/~leinone3/ide/ide68k.html

[CritAnime]

Just wanted to say welcome to the mighty Amiga club from the UK

[dabone]

I've got a dataflyer ide/ram expansion with a 2gb CF card installed for sale. I'm looking to get out if it what I spent, so 150+shipping.
It has 8MB ram installed. That and a kickstart 2 or 3 would make a beginning WHDload machine. And you can take the cf card and mount it on the pc using winuae to transfer software to it.

I'm located in Chattanooga, TN. And the dataflyer comes with box and the manual if I can find where I stuck it.

Later,
dabone

[cosmicfrog]

welcoming ribbits to the mad place that is EAB

I might be intrested in the midi if the cost of postage is`1t to much, always wanted play with midi but never really known where to start

PM me plz if u want to try and work something out

[TjLaZer]

you might be interested in getting one of these do you can write images back to a real disk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypT_H-Dg3bs

[prowler]

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

you might be interested in getting one of these do you can write images back to a real disk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypT_H-Dg3bs

Don't be too hasty. IPF images only, ATM.

[ApolloBoy2]

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

welcoming ribbits to the mad place that is EAB

I might be intrested in the midi if the cost of postage is`1t to much, always wanted play with midi but never really known where to start

PM me plz if u want to try and work something out

PM sent.

[cosmicfrog]

\o/ & midi ribbits, I have my fingers crossed

[ApolloBoy2]

So I managed to get an RGB SCART cable for my A500 but I'm still trying to figure out how to get games running on it without resorting to floppies. So far I'm divided between finding an internal IDE controller or spending big bucks on an HxC. Thoughts?

[CritAnime]

I have the HxC and its awesome. They can be mounted internally or if you look on the mods forum you can see an external case design. But the device is awesome. I had my doubts but they went the moment I used it.

[A500Man]

Well,

next to the HCX there is the Kryoflux:

http://www.kryoflux.com/

CU,
A500Man

[ApolloBoy2]

Originally Posted by A500Man

Well,

next to the HCX there is the Kryoflux:

http://www.kryoflux.com/

CU,
A500Man

Problem with the Kryoflux though is that it seems to be just as expensive as the HxC and I would still have to make floppies, something I want to avoid.

[A500Man]

Hm,

to have your Amiga "floppyless" the HCX is the only well running device. Harddisks for the Amiga are available, but just few games have a harddisk-installer on board. And WDH-Load is not available for all games.

But, why do you want to go "floppyless"? You can still re-tinker a newly made floppy-drive (Samsung SFD-321B) to use it in your Amiga:

http://www.forum64.de/wbb3/board314-...00/#post453971

The bigger prob` is to get DD-floppy-disks. These are not produced anymore, and HD-disks are not that reliable when used with an Amiga. So: get enough DD`s ...

CU,
A500Man

[ApolloBoy2]

Originally Posted by A500Man

But, why do you want to go "floppyless"?

I've never really liked floppies and the idea of being able to load games off a flash card is way more appealing than having to write a bunch of floppies every time I want to try some new games.

[CritAnime]

It was a tough decission to go floppyless on my amiga. But when turrican 2 gave up the ghost and my floppy drive completely died only a week later I decided time for a change. The SD version is amazing and I have not run into any issues with it as yet. The mainniggle is that you have to use the software to convert from .adf to .hfe. But its not so bad once you start using the batch converter. The usb version is cheaper but you need a desktop or laptop computer feeding it images.

[ApolloBoy2]

Thought I'd give this a bump as I have a new question. I've been going to a local Amiga group for the past couple months and today I managed to get a copy of Workbench 1.3 that I needed for Amiga Explorer, which I'm using until I find a flash card solution. I've made a few floppies so far but most of the games I've tried so far are PAL. I didn't think this would be that big of a problem since I'm using an RGB monitor, but it's getting annoying playing games with part of the screen missing and having them run too fast.

So does anyone know of a solution that will allow me to play PAL games as intended on my NTSC A500? I can't do a hardware mod unfortunately as my A500 doesn't have the correct Agnus chip needed for that.

[thgill]

What revision is the motherboard in your A500?

[ApolloBoy2]

Originally Posted by thgill

What revision is the motherboard in your A500?

It's a rev. 5 board so it doesn't have the dual NTSC/PAL Fat Agnus.

[rampartsagain]

have to buy agnus and change it

[thgill]

Originally Posted by ApolloBoy2

It's a rev. 5 board so it doesn't have the dual NTSC/PAL Fat Agnus.

Which Agnus version does it have?

[ApolloBoy2]

Originally Posted by thgill

Which Agnus version does it have?

It has the original 8370 Fat Agnus.