Found A500, now what?

[Micropitt]

Hi all,
I found an Amiga 500 in the Attic of a building I work in. I was told that it was up there for more then 8 years. It is indeed very dirty/dusty but seems to be complete with Mouse, Disk Drive, memory expansion card, books and disks. I don't know much about Amiga but did have many, many years ago a C64, SX64 and VIC20. Not to mention the ZX81 I started out with. Anyways, I only would like to know which monitor I can hookup to the Amiga? Is there any kind of adapter that I can buy to use a regular VGA Monitor? I would be thankful for any tips, hints or ideas.

[Gwion]

You can hook it up to a TV with A/V but thats compositive video (its  a start)

[Speelgoedmannetje]

If you live in the US, it's a bit hard to hook it up to a regular tv set without extra hardware. Otherwise, here's a diagram for hooking it up to a tv set using SCART.

[LoadWB]

See if someone has an A520 laying around.  You can get RF  and color composite that way.

Otherwise, you need to find a DB23-SVGA adapter and a monitor which will scan to 15kHz, or a real Commodore/Amiga monitor with cable.

There's also a project here somewhere of an RGB to component converter.

But the short of it is you cannot use a stock A500 with a standard VGA monitor without an un-Godly expensive scan-doubler.

[Tenacious]

There is a black & white composite connector (yellow phono-type) on the back.  Most newer televisions will have this sort of input as AUX or Video 1.

B/W is not too exciting but you will be able to test the system.  A500 are more capable and expandable than the machines you mentioned.  There are some here who do very modern things with expanded A500s.

[TjLaZer]

If you wish to hook it up to a SVGA monitor you will need a Scandoubler/Flickerfixer module that plugs in the RGB port and then hooks upto the monitor. These are pricy and rare though (over $100)

[Micropitt]

I would like to thank everybody for the comments. It looks like I have to find somewhere a Commodore Monitor.  :-)

[Andeda]

whats you location?

[motrucker]

Commodore must have made a ton of 1084 monitors. I still see  them at our local Goodwill Store! They show up on eBay too (sell cheap - but shipping is a bear). It's an excellent monitor for an A500 however.

[pjhutch]

Once you have found a monitor. You need to find out what Kickstart/Workbench you have. Randge varies from 1.2, 1.3, 2.0, 2.1 or 3.1. 3.1 is best as you can do networking incl. internet, web on that.

Also a hard disk helps to minimise disk swaps, a CBM A590 or a GVP add on via expansion port would work.

[AMC258]

What are your expectations for this computer?  There is a very large range of ways you can expand it.

You can use it as is and play lots of disk games.  You will be surprised at what this machine can do.

I started out with an A500 and expanded it to the point where I decided to switch to an A2000, and not too long after I bought an A3000 which I've been using for 10 years or so.  It's my everyday computer.

Aren't A520's still easily obtainable?  They were not that long ago.

I wouldn't mess around with the Commodore monitors.  The ones you can get always seem to be at the end of their life.  Hook the A500 up to the TV with the monochrome out (or to a VCR) and then get yourself an A520 and use the same setup in color.  A *good* TV (not too big) will give you the same results a 1084 monitor will.  If you want to do better than this, get a video card and a standard VGA monitor.  I would recommend a Cybervision 64/3D card.  I believe these are still available and they work really well with the A500.  You cannot plug it directly into the A500 though.  You can get a Bodega Bay which basically turns your A500 into an A2000 without the video slot.  I know a guy who has one he might part with if you're interested.