New Member - and my first Amiga

[Stewcumber]

Hi Everyone.

I am Stewart from Southampton in the UK. I've been getting interested in old PCs over the years, starting with Windows 98, then early-mid 90s DOS PCs. I have been playing a few late 80s DOS games and they're, well, a bit crap! After watching Retro Man Cave's videos I was amazed at what the Amiga was doing in the same time period. That's lead to today, where I've taken the next step and picked up an Amiga 500!



I paid £100, but it came with the stand and monitor, and a lot of other stuff:









I think the first thing I should do is have a look to see if it has a RAM expansion card in case of a leaky battery, is that right?

Secondly, can anyone recommend any strategy games, other than Worms, Sim City and Civ which are already on my list?

[chip]

Nice Amiga ..... welcome to the forum

[Tajmaster]

Lovley looking setup

[DamienD]

Heya Stewcumber,

Welcome to EAB

Wow, that's a newish looking Amiga and extras for £100... bargin

[BrooksterMax]

Nice setup - you have a great start into the world of Amiga! I would have loved that setup (especially the monitor) back in the 90s as well as today.

For strategy which was one of my favourite genres beyond Civ you mention - Dune 2, Mega lo Mania, Theme Park, Cannon Fodder, Settlers and Caesar got a lot of play time by me.

All Amiga strategy games can be seen here. You have no shortage of great games to explore.
http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?...re_category=20

[Stewcumber]

I've opened it up to clean it out - years of looking at leaking barrel batteries on old PCs has me open and clean pretty much any computer I find now - and it says B52 / Rock Lobster and Rev 5.



It also has a 512k expansion board (no battery on it at all though?) which I was hoping for but forgot to ask the seller.

I'm not sure if it worth it's own thread, but the mouse only seems to scroll up and down, and not side to side. It will click just fine though. Is this likely to be something internal or just the mouse playing up. I don't have any other mice / joysticks to test with

Hi Stewcumber , nice find for that price

If the mouse is an old ball mouse, make sure the rollers inside are clean and not all crudded up with gunk, they usually gain a thing line of gunk around them that goes rock hard and has to be scraped off lol, hopefully its just that.

does it have a gotek installed ? (a floppy drive emulator)

if so you can get started straight away DL games on ADF, if it doesnt have a gotek , itll be a bit harder ,original Amiga games are pretty unreliable now and still expensive.

i loved strat games on the Amiga and some of my faves were.

Dune 2
Syndicate
Settlers
Battle isle
Historyline
Lords of the Realm
Colonization
K240
Mega-lo-mania

to name a few, but there are lots more.

plenty of ram/accelerator upgrades are avail if required at some point in the future, but for now ,just enjoy your purchase

[aeberbach]

Bargain! Welcome.

[Nightshft]

Welcome to the forum!
My return to the Amiga began with an A500 too and looks like it's a really nice machine you've bought.

About the mouse. You can try to repair it by opening the case. The wheels must turn and trigger the optical sensor. But probably I'd go with one of the USB or PS2 Mouse to Amiga Adapters because being able to use all these mice is a great enhancement.
Enjoy!

[zipper]

My mouse problems have always been due to a broken cord - especially my Logitech cord got shortened 3-4 times from the mouse end. Just check the continuity.

[redblade]

Great find. We can tell by your photos that the person was an AMOS programmer Is that Ultimate Amos Programming book any good?!?

How do you rate the Deluxe Paint tablet for pixel work?!

Did you buy that Amiga online or locally? Welcome to eab.abime.net

[Stewcumber]

I have no idea if the book is any good - I have never used AMOS before. I've never used an Amiga before! I'm more at the level of Mastering the Amiga - The Essential Tips!

In fact I haven't really used it at all yet - The lack of a working mouse or joystick limits how much I can get stuck in really. I've opened up the mouse and it doesn't register horizontal movement even when I manually spin the wheel that the light thing shines through.

I picked up the Amiga locally. The seller was just clearing out his loft. I am amazed it all works and looks as good as it does to be honest, he must have had a well insulated roof!

[lesta_smsc]

Bargain price and it looks in great condition. Where did you find it!?

As for strategy game:
Rome AD 92 - one of my favourites, great music and a nice story

[Copeland]

My first Amiga 500 had a non-working mouse right out of the box. Had to wait a week before the store got me a replacement. So I would buy a USB converter: no fun in having an Amiga without a mouse.

[Stewcumber]

All my various bits have now arrived...

Pre-flashed Gotek
Floppy power and 44pin ribbon cable extension (didn't know I need this, doh!)
Sega Master System pad
Working mouse

and I can finally get stuck in with some gaming!

nyway the first game I'm trying out is Ambermoon? Why? No idea - I googled "best Amiga RPGs" and this had a recommendation and a catchy title. I'll give it a try and also Perihelion, for the same reason!




Just in time for Christmas, yay! When I will have to give up my Cave for a relative to sleep in, boo!

[DamienD]

That's one sweet set up Stewcumber, everything looks absolutely brand new!!!

...and my comments are coming from a person who has been emulation only for the past 15+ years

[Pyromania]

@Stewcumber

Nice find, welcome to EAB.