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.

[motrucker]

Which workbench version you need will depend on which ROM is in the A500. Cross DOS needs at least OS 2.0 if my memory still works.
I still have a bunch of system disks, for most systems. See which ROM your machine has, and E-Mail me.

[RMK305]

I used cross dos on my 1.3 A500 no problem

...not sure of the version though off the top of my head.

[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?

[RMK305]

You would have to change the ROM chip inside the machine. Either ebay, or amibay.com would be your best bet for locating a different chip...if you need one.

[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?

[zipper]

For 1.2/1.3 users there is MessyDos in Aminet.

[desiv]

You in the US?
(Oh, you said you were in the US.   ;-)

PM me and I think I can help you out.
As for PC to Amiga on 1.3, I use DOS2DOS without problems, but I rarely need it.
I usually use a serial cable and transwarp on the Amiga (and ADF Sender Terminal on the PC) to send images from the PC to the A500.

desiv

[runequester]

You can update the kickstart ROM chips, but if you are looking for retro gaming, I'd stick with 1.3

Is the model NTSC or PAL? An NTSC machine isn't the end of the world, but the majority of classic games were made for the PAL format.

[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..

[Jiffy]

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.)

Try to find a stack of double density disks. High density formatted to 720 KB are highly unreliable. They might work, sometimes even for quite a while, but it is not to be recommended.

The A500 is a cool machine. With a small ram expansion to get it up to 1 MB and an extra external diskdrive it is a nice retro machine to get the feeling of the late 80-ies. In that configuration, it's more or less the standard to which most Amiga games were made.

A very nice and quite common addition would then be something like an A590 controller (2 MB ram + SCSI harddrive). It makes your A500 much more usable when it comes to using utilities and gives it enough oomph to run Whdload and put most of your games on your harddrive.

Messydos runs very well on a 1.2/1.3 Miggy, is readily available on Aminet and gives you the opportunity to work with (720 KB) pc formatted disks. Setting it up might be a hassle if you have no experience with Amigas (you need to edit a text based configuration file), but the manual is very helpful.

By far the easiest method for a configuration like yours is, as you already mentioned, a nullmodem cable. I have been using this method for years and years (still!). It is reliable, reasonably fast, always works and is even nice from a retro point of view: I like using a terminal program...