New owner (again).

[gertsy]

If all you want to do is play games, the cheapest & quickest way is to get a Gotek USB floppy emulator.
Just put all disk images (.adf files) on a USB stick, plug it in the Gotek and off you go.

For an unexpanded A500, that's the best solution, IMO.

Welcome back!  Agree with the above.  If ur a Linux head you'll be able to flash a gotek for Amiga and then run adf files(available from the interweb) directly from it on usb key with no need for ugly floppies: https://cortexamigafloppydrive.wordpress.com/
Or you can by a ready flashed one for a bit more.

Secondly if you want to use a modern display an Indvision ECS will help there.

Some cheap options to move your a500 into a baseline modern position.

[ravenpi]

I'll answer in order:
Oldsmobile Mike: excellent!  Thanks for the links!

Arnuph1s: clearly, I have some reading.  "Vampire?"  *googles*

UberFreak: Gotek USB floppy emulator; a lot of chatter about Windows when I googled it. Can I do this without Windows?  I'm pretty much 100% Linux.

Lord Aga: ACA500 Plus/Vampire.  Clearly, even more googling in my future.

rednova: Yeah, I had nothing against floppies other than access times.  But always enjoyed just how well the Amiga dealt with multiple devices.

Sir_Lucas: heh; your name reminds me of the 68020 project that was in the Amiga Transactor magazine: the Little Ugly Cheap Accelerator System.  Moving on, I'll check out the link.  Thanks!

paul1981: noooo?  I don't think that was it.  Lemme google some, here.  Nope, no dice.  Yet.

Magnetic: thanks!  I'll definitely go check out the FAQs and stuff.  Even knowing that there is such a thing to be referenced is already a huge help.

amoskodare: thank you kindly!  Let's face it -- the Amiga was the best home computer, ever.  Indeed, it was only because I got so good with it that I did as well with my transition to being a Linux admin/user as I have.  It'll be fun to go back in time.

klx300r: sorry; re-reading, I see it was easy to misconstrue my intent.  Not trying to get my A1000 going; that, alas, is long gone.  But my new A500 -- I'll check into the ECS.

Magnetic (again): awesome!  I'll check that stuff out.  Much obliged.

gertsy: yeah, I've been using Linux as my primary work-and-home OS since '94, so I guess I do qualify as a "Linux head." :-)   I'll check out the link.  Might go for the buying-it option, as I'm leery of trying to flash stuff if the directions are aimed at Windows users (but saying that, I haven't checked out your link, which may well be Linux-related).  Thanks!

[gertsy]

Hey, no probs. Yeah the flash util for Gotek is Windows. But there's not a giant price difference between the Amiga versions on eBay and the original un-flashed ones that justifies the effort in time to do it properly. IMO.