Starting Again: Amiga 500 kit kept in storage for 22 years.

Hi all

Need some advice about getting back into Amiga after well over 20 years. I have kept the following in storage since 1994. The decision I have to make now is whether to
a) upgrade / repair - or to
b) use WInUAE and / or sell it
c) sell it all and buy a refurbished A1200 or something similar.

Here's my setup:
* Amiga 500 with 1.3/2.04 ROM switch - working
* A501 RAM upgrade and REal Time Clock - not working - removed as it wasn't allowing the machine to boot.
* Expansion DF1: 3.5" drive
* GVP A570 120Mb Hard Drive with 2Mb fast ram fitted - working but won't boot when in Kcikstart 1.3 mode. Not sure if this is a fault or that the WB installed on hdd can't sort out what to boot when the ROM is switched. It works fine when Kickstart 2.04 is selected.
* Orginal rubber ball mouse

So there are some issues to solve here - in no particular order:
1) As I recall, most games won't work without the extra 512kb of chip ram provided by the A501. Is there a modern A501 I can buy from somewhere?
2) Nice to see the hdd still working after 23 years - but at some point it's going to fail - I reckon I need either a CF or some other alternative. What's best for an A500? Especially as my stack of disks is probably going to be a bit hit and miss.
3) Need some means of hooking up to a modern TV. I presume the easiest approach is an RGB to SCART and a SCART to HDMI - is that right?
4) Can I use a modern (optical) mouse on the Amiga somehow?

All in all, I don't want to throw my beloved A500 away, but without an A501 I don't see a reasonably cheap way of resurrecting all this old kit

Cheers

[spudisgood]

Hiya Rob, welcome to the board and back to the Amiga.

I've sent you a PM ;-)

But regarding the topic, it depends what you want to do!
The Amiga 500 has some options available now such as the Gotek which enables you to get away from failing floppies and run software from USB stick, when I have my Amiga 500 Plus setup I use an Amiga Video to SCART cable

Amigakit have just released a nice optical mouse which is Amiga 500 compatible

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...oducts_id=1259

Kind regards,
Spud.

[ReadOnlyCat]

Originally Posted by robmeister

a) upgrade / repair - or to

This!

Originally Posted by robmeister

So there are some issues to solve here - in no particular order:
1) As I recall, most games won't work without the extra 512kb of chip ram provided by the A501. Is there a modern A501 I can buy from somewhere?
2) Nice to see the hdd still working after 23 years - but at some point it's going to fail - I reckon I need either a CF or some other alternative. What's best for an A500? Especially as my stack of disks is probably going to be a bit hit and miss.
3) Need some means of hooking up to a modern TV. I presume the easiest approach is an RGB to SCART and a SCART to HDMI - is that right?
4) Can I use a modern (optical) mouse on the Amiga somehow?

All in all, I don't want to throw my beloved A500 away, but without an A501 I don't see a reasonably cheap way of resurrecting all this old kit

In order:

• 1) A501 fail regularly because of the battery they contain (keeps the clock up and running) which tends to leak.
  If you have soldering skills, you should warm that soldering iron and check the extent of the damage, with a bit of luck it would be easily repaired.
  Have a look at [ Show youtube player ] and this post on Lemon Amiga.
  I am sure there are many on the EAB as well but for some reason I could not find them.
• 2) Kipper2K used to make IDE boards for the A500 to which you could plug a CF connector but I am not sure if he still does.
  But Individual Computers are working on a complete A500 memory + CF + plenty of goodness board which should be released around the end of this year. If you have the money and the patience, this should be a most excellent deal.
  I am planning to buy it.
• 4) Yes, and you should! The tank mouse is horrible. Have a look at this thread: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1016206.

Hope this helps.
(And welcome back.)

Thanks for the info but soldering skills are way beyond me I'm afraid for various reasons. Sounds like the thing to do is wait for the new ACA board.

Am I right in thinking the A501 is required for most games? I remember being told this by a fellow Amigan back in about 1989 but I never actually had an Amiga without the A501 so I never knew whether he was right or not.

Cheers
Rob

[alexh]

All you need is a Gotek floppy disk drive emulator to bring practically everything you could ever want. Loading times would be slightly longer than WHDLoad but you won't care considering you're spending under £30

[TjLaZer]

Highly recommend you get a 512k ram card that way you can do the 1MB Chip RAM hack! You will need that for WHDLoad games when you get the ACA500

[Matt_H]

I believe a modern 501 replacement has yet to be made, but there are still plenty of old ones (and equivalents) kicking around - you should be able to get one pretty easily.

[gonk23]

Originally Posted by Matt_H

I believe a modern 501 replacement has yet to be made, but there are still plenty of old ones (and equivalents) kicking around - you should be able to get one pretty easily.

http://www.kipper2k.com/a500chip.html

According to the description it's primarily intended to expand the chip memory of an A500+, but it can also be used to add 512KB to a regular A500.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by robmeister

* GVP A570 120Mb Hard Drive with 2Mb fast ram fitted

Do you mean GVP A530 or CBM A570?

[kipper2k]

There is also work going on for an A500 accelerator too so mabbe hold off while you investigate exactly what you need

Originally Posted by ReadOnlyCat

This!



In order:

• 1) A501 fail regularly because of the battery they contain (keeps the clock up and running) which tends to leak.
  If you have soldering skills, you should warm that soldering iron and check the extent of the damage, with a bit of luck it would be easily repaired.
  Have a look at [ Show youtube player ] and this post on Lemon Amiga.
  I am sure there are many on the EAB as well but for some reason I could not find them.
• 2) Kipper2K used to make IDE boards for the A500 to which you could plug a CF connector but I am not sure if he still does.
  But Individual Computers are working on a complete A500 memory + CF + plenty of goodness board which should be released around the end of this year. If you have the money and the patience, this should be a most excellent deal.
  I am planning to buy it.
• 4) Yes, and you should! The tank mouse is horrible. Have a look at this thread: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1016206.

Hope this helps.
(And welcome back.)

[Jope]

Originally Posted by robmeister

* GVP A570 120Mb Hard Drive with 2Mb fast ram fitted - working but won't boot when in Kcikstart 1.3 mode. Not sure if this is a fault or that the WB installed on hdd can't sort out what to boot when the ROM is switched. It works fine when Kickstart 2.04 is selected.

WB2.04 won't boot with a 1.3 ROM, most of the commands in the startup-sequence just bail out.

Your rationale back then was probably that 1.3 is for some trackloader games / demos only and you did your actual work in 2.04. :-)