Amiga 500 Mini?

[Superman]

Originally Posted by phx

I read that more games can by added by WHDLoad, which seems included and licensed. But does anybody know how it works (I never used WHDLoad before)? I was under the impression that you need the original disk to patch it and make it available for WHDLoad. But there is certainly no disk drive in the Mini...

The are literally thousands of pre installed ready to go installs in Retroplays folder on the FTP. It will probably be just a case of putting them on a USB stick and running direct from that.

[Jope]

.. and if you wish to install it from your own physical disks, you'd have to use a real Amiga and then archive the destination directory once installed.

[phx]

Sounds good. Thanks!

[liveevil]

Yep, I was right, it's using Amiberry, lol. My Pi 400 will do the job.

[Adropac2]

it is rather a lot for what it is and at the same time I think that's fine if it provides what you want. I run my Amiga setup on a Pi2 and it amazes me that something costing so little can provide such a great experience. I'm not personally into a whole set of emulators on one pi as an individual emulator provides a more authentic time personally speaking. It's the same with my other pi that has BMC64 which essential feels like the real thing

[desiv]

It's not for me per se.
I'm not into minis in general.
But I think they have done a great job with this.
It looks great. The joypad and mouse look great. (I am considering getting those)
Nice looking interface, and I think using whdload is a good compromise.

As for the price, considering what some of the other minis sold for, and this has the extra power, mouse, and pad... I think it's probably about right.

Yes, Pi/emulation is cheaper and better (I have a C64 case with a Pi running BMC64), but there are a lot of people that just want something that they plug in and it works.

I'm not sure if the Amiga mini wanting market will be large enough (compared to the C64 market say...) to make this a success, but I wish them well with this.
I think they did a pretty good job...

I also think they have a pretty decent batch of games that came with it. Some good choices! Yes, there are some that are missing. Licensing issues make sure that would happen. But I think they picked some decent ones to start with!

I'm not going to buy one myself. But if my one of my siblings gets it for me as a present (how I got my C64 Maxi), I wouldn't be unhappy. ;-)

[Adropac2]

yeah I think this will definitely do quite well and given what it allows for people that simply want to play some of their fave games

[TuKo]

Not a big fan of Amiga emulation on Pi since I find it a bit flacky (compared to WinUAE) and since I'm more into FPGA, I might be a bit biased about latency but I think this A500 Mini is a great device for people not wanting to bang their head for weeks and just plug it on TV to revive some old memories for at least some hours.

[Pyromania]

The A500 Mini is a great gift if you want to introduce the Amiga to potential new Amiga fans/addicts. Spread the love all over the world.

[trixster]

Expensive gift

[AJCopland]

I've ordered one just because of the simplicity.

Plug it in, begin playing! It can live permanently connected downstairs with the living room TV.

If I want to add more games I can do that via USB. Brilliant for just playing games without too many issues.

[gizmomelb]

Originally Posted by midwan

Furthermore, nobody from Retro Games Ltd has reached out to me about it until now.
So either they made modifications to the code to add the above features, in which case they are obliged by the GPL to release sources to those changes, as well as make it possible for people to modify and update the version it's running, or they are using another emulator altogether.

Or they are in violation of the GPL, of course. Which would be sad, but not very surprising with the history we've seen in Amiga-Land.

So any news you can share as to whether Retro Games Ltd. licenced AmiBerry for commercial use? If yes, which version and any specific reason why no initial ADF or HDF support? Thank you

[gizmomelb]

Originally Posted by trixster

Expensive gift

really? is about what we spend on each other (adults) in my family.

[midwan]

Originally Posted by gizmomelb

So any news you can share as to whether Retro Games Ltd. licenced AmiBerry for commercial use? If yes, which version and any specific reason why no initial ADF or HDF support? Thank you

No licensing took place (nor is it required under GPLv3). The GPL allows anyone to use and modify the sources and even use it commercially, but with some obligations such as:
- Publish any changes made under the same License agreement (GPLv3)
- Include the sources with the product
- Provide any means necessary (including instructions or data) to let users be able to make modifications and use those modifications in the product (e.g. firmware). This is meant to block "locking down" of devices where only the vendor can update it.

Further reading: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html

[Radertified]

Let's hope they quickly follow the GPL this time around.

It took them years before they posted the VICE part of their firmware in TheC64: https://vice-emu.pokefinder.org/inde...of_Shame#THE64

[ransom1122]

Manual is now online

https://retrogames.biz/support/thea500-mini/manuals/

[Damion]

I *love* the format, menus, and general ease of use of these things, but mainly stick to the real thing/MiSTer and CRTs due to latency issues. While the NES/SNES minis (for example) weren't so bad, many of the included games for the TG16 mini were simply unplayable IMO.

Regardless, this is very cool indeed, and I'll have to pick one up, if only for curisosity's sake.

[ransom1122]

Looks like Jim power intro music has stutter

Also lionheart looks like it has glitch water gfx

[ Show youtube player ]

Maybe a small config fix via gui would fix it? But too early to tell with the unit not available till the 8th

[dankcomputing]

All I want is a native Amiga version of the gamepad.