What’s the easiest way to Amiga (Hardware Software ) besides buying an old Amiga ?

[Rends]

I have Fs-UAE running with Lauchnbox on my PC. I made the installation a few years back and now i have trouble with some games. In the meantime i forget everything i did to get it running.
So i was thinking if there is an easier way today to go back.
In the meantime Pimiga was released and also the A500 mini. Now i heard about MisTer.
I don’t want to risk money and go for an old Amiga.
What would you do today for a most trouble free Amiga experience?

[hitm4n]

I think an A500Mini with sideloaded games is best bet for ease of setup, but i guess a little limiting if it doesn't do AGA. I don't know a great deal about it.

I'm a fan of MiSTer, it works great with something like MegaAGS loaded on it. Setup cost is pretty steep but at least you'll have a machine capable of Atari2600, Arcade, Amiga, Spectrum, C64, PET, ZX81, Vic20, Sega, Nintendo and a whole heap more. Brilliant machine.

WinUAE with something like Damien D's huge game collection is a good way to go too, and thats free...

[Seiya]

Originally Posted by Rends

I have Fs-UAE running with Lauchnbox on my PC. I made the installation a few years back and now i have trouble with some games.

Return to use Gamebase if you are using Windows. At least its databases are always available offline and some archives are updated also today

[Fuzzball]

Originally Posted by hitm4n

I think an A500Mini with sideloaded games is best bet for ease of setup, but i guess a little limiting if it doesn't do AGA. I don't know a great deal about it.

I'm a fan of MiSTer, it works great with something like MegaAGS loaded on it. Setup cost is pretty steep but at least you'll have a machine capable of Atari2600, Arcade, Amiga, Spectrum, C64, PET, ZX81, Vic20, Sega, Nintendo and a whole heap more. Brilliant machine.

WinUAE with something like Damien D's huge game collection is a good way to go too, and thats free...

Where can we find Damien D's collection? Is there a torrent for it?


I have also been considering getting a real Amiga after all these years. I only ever owned an A500 as a kid. I have been looking into it but as I only have HDMI monitors and not going to be buying a CRT, it all seems a lot of effort these days messing about with SCART conversion boxes (for only average video quality) or around £150 for a OSSC device. I looked at the RGBtoHDMI mod using a Pi Zero but that seems even more effort and would also mean having to mod some HDMI port somewhere. All a bit beyond my expertise I suspect.


I have a Mister but it doesn't really give the nostalgic feel of owning a A500 to me. Same for WinUAE. However, both those options seem far more convenient and simple when I start looking at A500 videos on Youtube.

@Rends, There are rumours of a A500 Maxi being released. That seems far more appealing to me I think.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Fuzzball

Where can we find Damien D's collection? Is there a torrent for it?

You can find it here: http://ftp2.grandis.nu/turran/FTP/Da...%20Collection/

[Fuzzball]

Originally Posted by TCD

You can find it here: http://ftp2.grandis.nu/turran/FTP/Da...%20Collection/

Thanks. That has a 30gb limit but I will just take a look at it over time.

To expand on my previous post as I have all the options that Rends mentioned in their original post.

WinUAE - can be fairly complicated to setup although can be made far simpler by using the configs from, for example, pimiga or megaags and then using the hard drive images from those too.

Pimiga - very easy to setup. Just write the image to a SD card, pop it in a Raspberry Pi and switch it on. It doesn't get a lot simpler. With the raspberry pi you can also setup Amibian/Amiberry yourself for something less "flashy" than pimiga but that is more complex to setup.

Mister - it's a great device and only slightly more complex to setup than pimiga - using MegaAGS anyway. If you want to setup from scratch then it is a bit more work.

500Mini - I sold mine. It felt gimmicky to me and was an inferior option to the others. The rumours of a 500Maxi are far more appealing - a full size emulated amiga with working keyboard.

None of the above options have the "feel" of using real hardware though but I guess nothing does other than real hardware. Everyone says that Mister is the closest but side by side I wouldn't know if I was using a Raspberry Pi or a Mister. That might be because I am not using them with a CRT but I don't really feel the difference that Mister supposedly has by using FPGA rather than emulation. I still prefer the Mister to the Pi though but really only for ease of use (as I am not into using pimiga image - I prefer to setup myself). If you like pimiga then the Pi is the easier to use. I also prefer the Mister because I can easily use it with other systems I used to own all those years ago.

A real Amiga - the option I don't currently own although I have done a lot of research into it. It can get really expensive and the condition of quite a few of them on Ebay is not great at all. Personally, I would also want a built in gotek drive to replace the floppy drive at the very least. As mentioned previously, I also only own HDMI monitors so you need at very least a RGB to SCART cable and then a SCART to HDMI converter that supports RGB SCART. Looking at around £50 but the results are not amazing from what I have seen. OSSC devices are much better but expensive. If you are happy buying (or own) a CRT then this isn't an issue though.

[Nobby_UK]

+1
A500 mini

Easy and reasonably priced
(it does do AGA)

[fxgogo]

I would take a look at Amikit. I have it for my pi, but there are versions for Windows etc. Great service from the developer whenever there are issues as well.

[chip]

You can't go wrong with WinUAE

[Photon]

I think WinUAE+ADF is pretty easy, but an A500 with Gotek is sometimes even easier than A500 Mini.

AmigaLive is pretty easy. (Cross-platform package with FS-UAE - which has the odd technical advantage over WinUAE and geared more towards just games, so better joystick defaults etc.)

If it's only about games, then it's all about the games list. Does it have your favorite games, and does it run them flawlessly?

[Rends]

Thx guys. I bought a A500 Mini for 75€ and a couple of flashdrives.
One is setup with Aminimiga and one with AGS2.
Install was easy after watching a couple of YouTube instructions videos.
Only trouble i had was some missing lines on screen.
But someone at the Aminimiga FB group told me that i had to change the settings on the TV everything is fine now.
All my favorite games are working and the Workbench runs fine too.
Holding the Tank mouse in the hand having the cute A500 in front of me and watching at the Workbench screen bring back lots of memories.

Can’t complain for this less than 100€ setup!

[Gzegzolka]

All You need is winuae and Quick configurations tab.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Gzegzolka

All You need is winuae and Quick configurations tab.

I would also say it's a good way to get back into Amiga things (and quite easy if you use quickstart).

[Anubis]

MiSTer FPGA is also a good way to get into Amiga and few other computers/consoles.

Most likely, if you setup LaunchBox with FS-UAE - you have used the same instructions I did with creation of folders for each game with ID that LaunchBox and FS-UAE recognize. In my setup copying those folders from original into one where I keep imported games is all it takes to Launchbox to recognize new game in folder and download images / show game in the list.

I have also separated games based on chip/amiga type.

If you like to learn/speak Amiga again - probably best to stay away from completed packs. (like PiMigga)

[yesplease]

Easiest in terms of installation process i.e. time to get the emulated amiga up and running is the installation free vAmigaWeb which runs Amiga in the browser sandbox.

+ no installation of the emulator itself is needed
+ no costs
+ runs on nearly every modern device even iPads/iPhones

1. click https://vamigaweb.github.io
2. drag your kickstart into it
3. drag your adf files into it
4. plug game controllers into it
5. choose the game port or play with keyboard

(optionally if you really like to install it you may also save/install the web app onto your desktop)