Kickstart chip upgrades on A500 - worth doing?

Hi guys,

I'm still a beginner to the Amiga scene. I've bought an 'Amiga Kit' kickstart upgrade chip, which would take me up to version 3.0 and beyond. I just wanted some opinions on upgrading on a regular old A500 (REV 5)...

1.) What are the advantages of upgrading to kickstart 3.0 + ? baring in mind this is an older machine. Will it potentially cause any problems?

2.) Will I be unable to play certain games? I'm assuming some older games and software will be incompatible.

3.)The mod involves soldering a few contact points on the chip seat (connecting pins 1 and 31 I believe) ... Is this a good idea?

4.) Will it affect any core functions, or give any compatibility issues?

Thanks in advance, appreciate the help

[r.cade]

Originally Posted by Silwuff

Hi guys,

I'm still a beginner to the Amiga scene. I've bought an 'Amiga Kit' kickstart upgrade chip, which would take me up to version 3.0 and beyond. I just wanted some opinions on upgrading on a regular old A500 (REV 5)...

1.) What are the advantages of upgrading to kickstart 3.0 + ? baring in mind this is an older machine. Will it potentially cause any problems?

2.) Will I be unable to play certain games? I'm assuming some older games and software will be incompatible.

3.)The mod involves soldering a few contact points on the chip seat (connecting pins 1 and 31 I believe) ... Is this a good idea?

4.) Will it affect any core functions, or give any compatibility issues?

Thanks in advance, appreciate the help

It really makes no sense to upgrade a stock A500 past 1.3 (or even 1.2). It causes incompatibility with the games that were made for it and really offers nothing to a stock machine.

Now if you get an accellerator, hard disk, etc. and want to use it for something besides games (or even WHDLoad) then it would make sense, but most people go to an A1200 or one of the desktop machines for that.

[ajk]

It only really makes sense to upgrade to 3.1 if you also upgrade the system otherwise (more RAM, hard disk, accelerator etc.). And in that case a rev 6 or 8 board would be a better starting point.

A "period correct" upgrade would be something like the A590 hard drive with its extra memory; this would keep you at 1.3 but allow you to more easily play multi-floppy games like Monkey Island, and also help with any creative software like Deluxe Paint or music.

You can certainly go beyond that, but it can get expensive and an A1200 may be a better investment. Still, here's my A500 upgrade project, for inspiration

[emufan]

when it comes to upgrades, take a look at the Vampire 500 V2 - soon to be released.

[Amiga1992]

I just removed 3.1 from an A500 because it made absolutely no sense.
Keep it stock, and if you ever need upgrades, I'd get another machine (like an A1200).