THEA500 Mini has been announced via Retro Games Ltd. and distributed by Koch Media

[Neil79]

With the resurgence of retro gaming hardware enabling us to play old classics on big TV's with lots of built in games such as the NES Mini, SNES Mini, Playstation 1 Classic, NEO GEO Mini,PC Engine Mini and the C64 Mini you'd be forgiven in thinking there wasn't much else to get excited about especially with all the mini's out there in the wild. Well The C64 crew have something to shout about and in a pretty big way, as today they have teased the coming of "THEA500 Mini"; a Mini Amiga which is due to be released from RetroGames Ltd and distributed by Koch Media early 2022.

[ Show youtube player ]

http://www.indieretronews.com/2021/0...unced-via.html

[Aladin]

real keyboard ?

[Muzkat]

Any word on the dimensions of the main unit?

How small could it be without it impacting the keyboard, and the size of the keys?

[davideo]

Originally Posted by Aladin

real keyboard ?

From IndieRetroNews

To compliment the on-screen keyboard, you can plug in an external standard PC keyboard for additional functionality.

[lordofchaos]

I'm quite excited by this news. Happy with the C64 Maxi so hope this does justice for the Amiga legacy. Curious about input latency and how the vsync is handled? Hoping it uses a low latency method like WinUAE.

[PortuguesePilot]

A shame. No functional keyboard = no buy from me. Imagine all the games and programs that need keyboard input (sometimes a fast one, like The Chaos Engine or Dyna Blaster) and you have to deal with the virtual keyboard and all its shortcomings? No, not gonna work for me. Plus I already have a PSX mini, underneath all these minis are very alike, I don't need another one, even if it's dressed on an A500 costume. If it had a functioning keyboard, super! Would jump on one as fast as I could. As it stands, it's a no for me. And yes, I know about the option of connecting an external keyboard to it but alas... it's just not right. I have my real Amigas and I think I'll keep amigaing with them.

EDIT: that gamepad, though... it looks neat. And the USB tank mouse also has its appeal.

[lordofchaos]

Originally Posted by PortuguesePilot

A shame. No functional keyboard = no buy from me. Imagine all the games and programs that need keyboard input (sometimes a fast one, like The Chaos Engine or Dyna Blaster) and you have to deal with the virtual keyboard and all its shortcomings? No, not gonna work for me. Plus I already have a PSX mini, underneath all these minis are very alike, I don't need another one, even if it's dressed on an A500 costume. If it had a functioning keyboard, super! Would jump on one as fast as I could. As it stands, it's a no for me. And yes, I know about the option of connecting an external keyboard to it but alas... it's just not right. I have my real Amigas and I think I'll keep amigaing with them.

I share your concern about the Keyboard, bit disappointed they are going with the "Mini" design, but then again they did this with the C64 Mini initially and over time we got the full sized machine, we can hope..

For myself it's a nice convivence, easy to transport and hook up to a modern TV, introduce to some friends and family without the hassle.

[malko]

Hope they thought about games for 4 players and that enough connexions are available.

[jbenam]

Yes. Finally.

The C64 and C64 Mini were the best thing ever to happen to the C64 market - you can finally find again C64s for decent prices since the masses all flocked to the modern reproductions and left the original units alone, with all their issues and maintenance requirements.

I hope the same will happen with the nowadays oversaturated Amiga market. I know of a lot of people that bought a 500/1200, put a Gotek in it, played a few games then put it in the cupboard and it has been there since.

The same happened with the CD32 frenzy - everyone bought one since it was finally easy to "mod" one to play games on it then forgot about it after a few weeks.

These people just want to scratch an itch for nostalgia and then go back to their usual (non-retro focused ) lives. Or even worse, they just want to put one for show on a shelf *shudder*. But then there is one less Amiga on the market for people that would REALLY love to tinker with them, use them everyday and so on. And thus the prices rose.

I rotate between my Amigas and try to use them all for different things (and on different TVs) - can't really understand people stocking on Amigas just to leave them rotting in a cupboard somewhere...

I hope this will be a success - they will most certainly release a full-size A500 if so, which should help "free" many more Amigas from cupboards and such

[towd]

Originally Posted by lordofchaos

I share your concern about the Keyboard, bit disappointed they are going with the "Mini" design, but then again they did this with the C64 Mini initially and over time we got the full sized machine, we can hope..

my thoughts exactly -

though i never owned the c64 mini or the revision (only the originals)

how was the keyboard on the full size unit? any idea?

either way, i'm extremely happy that this is happening - the home computer market of the 80s and 90s is being forgotten about by the masses, and must seem laughable to a lot of the younger generations - hopefully this will raise awareness of some of those classics we all love!

[lordofchaos]

Originally Posted by towd

how was the keyboard on the full size unit? any idea?

It's pretty decent, not overly light, nice contact when hitting the keys, they have a slight clunk as you hammer on them. Doesn't match the original keyboard for overall quality, good enough though.

[rothers]

So a cheap Amiga case with (probably) a Pi inside it masquerading as an Amiga. Hmm. You could 3D print your own one of these.

The fact they could not be bothered to make a working keyboard says it all.

[stairmand]

I don't get really why I'd buy this over a Pi 400 ?

[stevelord]

Originally Posted by stairmand

I don't get really why I'd buy this over a Pi 400 ?

This. It's a shameless brazen attempt to capitalize on nostalgia. It'll be an ARM SoC running an open source emulator, so no real difference between this and any of the polished SD Card images other than fewer systems and maybe a slightly slicker front-end. Will contributors to UAE get anything from this? No, of course not.


They're litigious leeches so they probably feel right at home doing Amiga products.

[Konrad]

For NES, SNES, MegaDrive, PSX it doesn't matter that the mini consoles are shrunken down. They're not relevant for gaming. You had put the game in and from then on you just used the controllers.

The Amiga keyboard does matter, though. Alot of games use it.
Of course you can make a game selection which doesn't rely on it.
But for me the keyboard is fundamental to an Amiga and thus this A500mini is disappointing.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by stairmand

I don't get really why I'd buy this over a Pi 400 ?

Because lots of people don't know how to setup a Pi and just want something you can plug in your TV with no technical knowledge and have a quick game.

Only a properly licensed "console" can give you that.

[sneckburger]

I know of a few people who would buy this...but I wouldn't.

The reasons above cover why.

[Neil79]

Box art!

[dreadnought]

said Paul Andrews

Normally I treat any Mini news with "not for me, but good luck" attitude. Seeing the Paul "Horace" Andrew's name attached to it cuts that phrase in half though.

[RichL]

Just tried to make a thread about this, thought I would find it in news to be fair oh well mods I guess it’s not needed