New Amiga 500 owner...but no system disks!

[user8086]

Growing up I had PCs for gaming, yet I was always curious about Amigas and their supposedly vastly superior graphics and sound capabilities (at least in the 386 days). Amigas seem relatively rare here in the US, so it was a long time before I finally stumbled across a deal that was good enough to jump on. (Perhaps you guys have been hoarding them?) I managed to get an Amiga 500, Commodore 1084s monitor, external disk drive, mouse, PSU, and some cables for what I think is a pretty decent price...$60 plus shipping. I only base this deal on the prices on Ebay, which have always seemed much higher.

The only problem is that I have no Amiga disks, nor does it come with any. Not even Workbench 1.3.

My goal is to use a PC and a nullmodem serial cable to transfer ADF files to the Amiga, which I can then use to write to high density 1.44 MB floppy disks that are formatted for 720k, and with a piece of tape over the HD switch window thing. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) In order to do this, however, it sounds like I need at least Workbench 1.3, and possibly even Amgia Explorer. Perhaps CrossDOS is another solution? In that case, I'd still need Workbench 1.3.

When my Amiga comes in the mail, I'd love to get started on it right away. Thus my question to you guys is, where can I get a Workbench 1.3 disk, or how can I make one with my PC?

I know the Amiga community is sensitive to copyright issues, but from what I've read I now legally own a license for Workbench 1.3. Is there someone nearby who can send me a backup copy? I'm in the US, in Virgina, by the way.

[user8086]

That's a good question. Unfortunately it didn't say when I bought it online, and the seller is just a reseller. I may have to wait until I get it to check which version it has.

I would expect that it's Kickstart ROM 1.2 or 1.3, based on what I've read online about what Amiga 500s normally run. If I wanted to change this version, would I actually have to buy an upgrade? If so, who sells it?

[user8086]

Ah, tricky. That might be a fun future project, but I'd like to avoid that. If CrossDOS works in 1.3 but not 1.2, I may have to find another solution (e.g. Amiga Explorer).

So does that mean I have to definitely find my Kickstart version before I can hunt down a Workbench 1.2/1.3 disk?

[user8086]

I did not know that.

The listing for my Amiga didn't mention if it was NTSC or PAL. It's shipping from within the US, though, so perhaps NTSC? I'm not sure how common PAL machines were over here.

How do I find out, once I receive it?

Edit: It comes with a Commodore 1084s monitor, which I've read is a PAL monitor. So, presumably, it's PAL and not NTSC.

Edit edit: Now I read the 1084S can do both NTSC and PAL. Soooo..