A500 ROM upgrade questions...

[zonaps2]

Hi,
I have this A500 with 1mb RAM, I want to know how easy is to upgrade to KS 2 or if it is possible to KS 3.1, what do I need to have before upgrading, or if 1mb RAM is enough.

Also, which are the advantages (if any) of upgrading the ROM on the A500.

Thanks.

[new2amga]

You can indeed upgrade the Kickstart to 2.04(or 5, I can't remember) or 3.1  It's pretty straightforward.  You purchase the rom chip from one of the Amiga dealers, or purchase one specifically for your model off of EBay and then you open your case, and replace your kickstart chip.  I know I'm skipping a lot of steps, but I'm certain there are guides out there that will tell you how to change your kickstart step by step.

[ElPolloDiabl]

Firstly I am 99.99% certain that RAM has no bearing on your choice of kickstart. So any amount is okay.

OS 3.1 is the better choice unless 2.xx is 'sub' dirt cheap when you are buying. OS3.1 ROM allows you to upgrade to OS3.9

Either way both of them will render a lot of floppy games unplayable, because those games 'hit the hardware'.

You will need to get a ROM switcher as well if you want to play those floppy games. Otherwise you change the ROMs by hand everytime, but not recommended.

I can't personally recommend a store as I haven't purchased Amiga kit in years.

[alexh]

There are absolutely NO advantages what so ever if you do not have a hard drive.

In fact just the opposite! As soon as you "upgrade" to KS2.04+ close to a quarter of the floppy disk games you have will stop working due to their reliance on KS1.3

As for "OS3.1 ROM allows you to upgrade to OS3.9" you should forget it. You'll not be using that on an A500. (Uneconomically viable)

To quote a well known saying : "The best upgrade for an A500 is an A1200"

[zonaps2]

thanks for the advices, very apreciated.
I'm looking for a hard disk for the amiga, but they're pretty difficult to find, and when one appears on ebay most of the time the guy do not ship to my country

I'm using Amiga Explorer to transfer files, and with an HD this task would not be so painful.

To quote a well known saying : "The best upgrade for an A500 is an A1200"

Yes I know that, but I have this A500 since I was 10 years old, and I'm the only owner, so I have "feelings" for it.

Gonna look up for some ROMs and ROM switcher then!
thanks

[Zac67]

alex has made a point - upgrading the 500 to something like the 1200 costs you more than the latter without its upgrade path. Without AGA either.

Keep the 500, but seriously consider another 1200. Chances are you'd seriously regret it next year.

[alexh]

Gonna look up for some ROMs and ROM switcher then!

What for? You dont need updated ROMs!! Not unless you have a hard drive. And if you have a hard drive, you dont need a ROM switcher cos you can use WHDLoad.

If you cannot get a A590 / GVP HD8+ SCSI hard drive then why not try to get a IDE68k (Although I would try and wait for the version with RAM)

[zonaps2]

What for? You dont need updated ROMs!! Not unless you have a hard drive. And if you have a hard drive, you dont need a ROM switcher cos you can use WHDLoad.

Please don't tell me that! I just bought a 3.1 ROM from ebay!

Anyway, I don't have a hard drive, I just sent an email to the guy of the IDE68K.
The A590 must be great, but I didn't find anyone, and I guess it isn't cheap.

thanks again.

[nishtek]

none.  A500 with 1.3 is fine.  only reason you'd want rom 3.1 is for OS 3.1 and if you have a hard disk.
Then you'll likely want kickrom switcher so you can go back & forth between 1.3 and 3.1.  And you want rom 1.3 for games like Uridium, Gauntlet 2 etc.
thats where we got ours from.
http://www.amigamaniac.com/amiga_hardware.html
if you need rom 3.1 drop us an email: http://nishtek.com/supportATdomain.jpg

[tone007]

I put together an A500 with KS 3.1, 68010, 10MB of RAM and a SupraDrive XP hard drive.  I have to say it was one of my more rewarding Amiga experiences.  It handles a good number of WHDLoad games.



Don't let anyone tell you that your 500 can't kick some butt.

[zonaps2]

I put together an A500 with KS 3.1, 68010, 10MB of RAM and a SupraDrive XP hard drive.

I envy you!

I don't care much about gaming, when I was 10 years old I loved to draw and make animations on DPaint III. Now I'm discovering the Demos and Music disks.

[terminator4]

Nice.  How did you get the keys all grey, thats cool.  Hard Disk+A500+rom1.3/3.1 sounds liek the ultimate gaming machine!!! and all black darth vader style. cool.

[tone007]

Vinyl dye, and it peeled right off of the protected spots over the letters and numbers on the keyboard (a bonus I wasn't expecting) but is permanent on the rest of the key.

[alexh]

And you want rom 1.3 for games like Uridium, Gauntlet 2 etc.

If you've got a hard drive (preferably one with a few MB of FastRAM) and KS3.1 you don't need a 1.3 ROM or a kickstart switcher to play these games, you can use WHDload and play the games from HDD as I said.

[rkauer]

If you've got a hard drive (preferably one with a few MB of FastRAM) and KS3.1 you don't need a 1.3 ROM or a kickstart switcher to play these games, you can use WHDload and play the games from HDD as I said.

 Without some fast RAM WHDload will not work, not even a single game .slave that I know uses only chip RAM.

 First commandment: grab some Fast RAM, then go HD, then updated ROM . Other things are not really necessary on an A500, like accelerators (expensive!) and other bits and bobs, except maybe a decent mouse  or mouse adaptor.