my first Amiga is on the way!

[ruthven]

Hello everyone,

I never owned an Amiga back in the day.  I was like 4 or 5 when the Amiga 1000 came out.  A friend of mine had a couple Amigas and tons of games.  I always wanted one.  I've always had a special interest for "retro computing" beginning with my very first computer, the Texas Instrument TI-99/4a--yeah, this was an extremely outdated machine for the time bracket I'm talking about--like 1991, but my parents were slow to get a PC for the house.  Anyway, it was cool and sparked my general interest in classic "home computers"--the ones that are built into a keyboard all as one piece and connect to a TV.

Eventually I got a Commodore 64.  Recently I found that the SID chip in it was dead so I replaced it with a C128...  and very soon after I got to thinking it was time to add the classic A500 to my collection.  Definitely the summit of home computer technology--a computer that could connect to a TV that was probably better (and definitely cooler) then any "personal computer" of the time.  I mean, VGA-like graphics on mid 80s hardware--got to respect that!  

So I just won my first ever Amiga (an A500) a couple days ago on eBay.  I haven't even gotten it yet and I'm posting here so obviously I'm excited.  I have a few questions as this is a new world to me:

The A500 I ordered is said to have been tested to load up with Workbench 1.2.  My understanding is that beginning with the A500 model, Kickstart was encoded directly in a ROM chip.  Does this mean that I'll need to upgrade the physical chip to load later versions of Workbench?  I heard that the original Amiga 1000 had Kickstart on disk, so I guess I'm wondering if later versions of Kickstart can also be booted from disk?  Also, I need a video adapter as I don't have an Amiga monitor (my Commodore monitor only has composite inputs).  There are some A520 video modulators on eBay right now but they're from England--the guy believes they're PAL but says he's sold a bunch to the US without any complaints... if they are PAL, would they still work with an NTSC A500?--probably a stupid question, my guess is "no".

[weirdami]

howbout thisun?

[hooligan]

Oh boy are you in trouble. If you only get a working A500 with required hardware(cables etc.) you are basicly fukced. To have any joy out of it you would need a big load of disks (games, demos). If you have never touched an Amiga before you are lost in everything but putting the disks in and out. Good luck

[pyrre]

The A500 I ordered is said to have been tested to load up with Workbench 1.2. My understanding is that beginning with the A500 model, Kickstart was encoded directly in a ROM chip.

Correct, the first amiga: The A1000 needed a flopy kontaining the kickstart image to be loaded before it could boot WB.
And yes the A500 was the first to include all in ROM chip.

Does this mean that I'll need to upgrade the physical chip to load later versions of Workbench?
I heard that the original Amiga 1000 had Kickstart on disk, so I guess I'm wondering if later versions of Kickstart can also be booted from disk?

Yes you will need to swap the physical chip to load later WB version.
However, there are some "degraders" intended for computers like A1200 and A4000, to give them kick 1.3 and compatibility. But i have never heard of "big box" kickstarts on a floppy image...

Good luck and happy playing/programing with you new Amiga 500

EDIT: edited some typewriting... :-)

[save2600]

Congrats on your purchase and welcome! And don't pay too much heed to Hooligans response. Sure - you're going to want an Amiga friendly monitor down the road, but there's nothing wrong with your Kickstart or lack of a HD. Disks and games load pretty quick, even by today's standards.

The link up above looks like a great deal. RF Modulator and an extra disk drive and you'll be set to play most of the games worth playing. Software is dirt cheap and in abundance.

Have fun with your system and remember to keep it simple! Speaking from experience, becoming obsessed with collecting hardware for the Amiga will be counter productive to your enjoyment and savings accounts ;-)

[Tenacious]

I ran a 500 with just an extra floppy drive for years.  This simple system was what made me love Amigas so much.  Nearly every time some new computing trend came along, the system could adapt and expand.  

It's a shame that there isn't too much written any more about strategies to best utilize a fun but modest system like this. Denny Atkin's "Best Amiga Tips and Secrets" is great if you can find it.

Have you been to http://www.aminet.net/ ?  It's an enormous software repository of Amiga only software, docs, and content.  There are ways to move this stuff from a more advanced Amiga or PC with internet to your system.  There are threads about it here on this site.

Your enthusiasm is contagious.  Good luck!

[persia]

Congrats, collecting old computers is addicting.  There's something harkening back to a simpler time when you had to do everything yourself and all the OS did was load things.  It reminds me of Amateur Radio, where you can call Tajikistan on your mobile phone but there is more of a thrill when you take your hand-built transceiver and key out in the bus, throw an antenna up a tree and make contact with someone a thousand Km away.  It's almost primal, and no one else will understand.  

[klx300r]

welcome aboard..i see someone has caught the retro bug too :-D
to answer your question, yes you can use a pal computer with a NTSC monitor..i did for years but some games and demos will be slightly cut off

[weirdami]

if he gets one of those 1meg fat agnus deals, he should be able to put in a switch for pal/ntsc switchering

[ruthven]

Thanks for the welcome and info guys.  And thank you Weirdami for the link to that auction!  It has about 2 hours left from the time I'm writing this and the current price is a great deal--I'll have to wait and see what it will go for...  Anyway, I realize that I'm starting completely bare bones with this system and that I won't be able to do anything with it yet except boot Workbench 1.2--actually, I might not even be able to do that as I don't know if the disk is included and I don't yet even have a mouse!  Despite all this, I don't exactly consider myself "fukced"--I thought the unit I won was a decent deal at $20 considering it was tested working and most I've watched on eBay for the past couple years usually go between $40 and $60 before shipping.  Granted most of these systems went with a fair amount of software, but like Save2600 says, software seems to be pretty cheap on eBay, even in big lots.

And also, like Tenacious has pointed out, I was actually aware of the possibilities of transferring downloaded software from PC to the Amiga.  I didn't mention this initially because I didn't want to "open that piracy can of worms"  But just the idea of this is cool--converting a rom image of a disk to the actual Amiga disk structure so that it can be accessed by the real thing--I'm definitely going to try it! (I'm not advocating piracy--consider it for Science!!)

Anyway, while it's on my mind, I have another question: do I need an Amiga specific mouse or can I use a generic 2 button serial mouse?  I read somewhere that not only will a non-Amiga mouse not work, it might actually harm the system, which seemed a little far fetched to me.  I do have an old Tandy 2 button serial mouse that is probably from about 1985...

[InTheSand]

ruthven wrote:
...I have another question: do I need an Amiga specific mouse or can I use a generic 2 button serial mouse?

Yep, you'll need an Amiga-specific mouse. Old PC serial mice are wired up differently and yes, it's possible that you could damage the Amiga and/or mouse by attempting to plug one in.

 - Ali

P.S. Welcome to the world of Amigas!

[amigakit]

Welcome!

[kolla]

ruthven wrote:

Anyway, while it's on my mind, I have another question: do I need an Amiga specific mouse or can I use a generic 2 button serial mouse?  I read somewhere that not only will a non-Amiga mouse not work, it might actually harm the system, which seemed a little far fetched to me.  I do have an old Tandy 2 button serial mouse that is probably from about 1985...

It is not far fetched, so dont just stick in a serial port mouse, it wont work anyhow. Back in the days there were many standards for mouse/joysticks, even though many of them shared connector type, and the chips that control the ports are quite fragile.

[amigakid]

Congratz.  I do hope you have a Amiga Workbench (OS) floppies for this computer.  A Basic setup is the PSU and computer with a 3.5 floppy drive internal on it.  There are tons of games and apps out there for really cheap.  Check out lemonamiga website and take a look at a bunch of games to get an idea.  The only other thing i can recommend at the moment is getting a mouse for the computer.  You can use the keyboard, but that is no fun and can get frustrating.  If you need things for it there are a lot of good people on here that'll sell you what you need for cheap on here.  Good luck, welcome and happy computing.  Cheers!!!

[ruthven]

Thanks again guys!  There's an old "tank" style Amiga mouse on eBay now that I'll keep my eye on... that is if I'm not too stupid to miss the bid like I did last night on that deal Weirdami brought to my attention.  It had like a half hour left and I had to go shovel snow out of my driveway thinking I would remember to check back in 20 minutes.  Well, needless to say I checked back just 2 minutes too late, and the whole lot sold for less than 17 bucks!--the video modulator I need, an external floppy drive, some misc connectors, and--get this--an entire a500 computer system with power supply that the guy stated he would not charge additional shipping on because he was adding it to the lot after the fact!  Somebody got a DEAL and it was not me--I'm such an idiot for being aware of this auction and yet still missing it!

So... I'm hanging my head in shame and respectfully bowing off now.  It may be awhile before I check back as I may be stuck without a video connection for awhile.  Incidentally, if anyone has a spare A520 video modulator they wouldn't mind parting with, send me a PM.  Thanks!