Amiga 500 +

[mrmoonlight]

Hi i have just bought a Amiga 500 + and it works really well ,i was wondering where i would get a SCSI HDD controller ,so as to use a cd rom  like the guy on youtube ,i am not really sure what a SCSI HDD controller  is or what it actualy does ,apart from control the Hdd ,also how much upgrading can i do on this model Amiga ,i already have two Amiga 1200,s which need a little work on them ,but i am really impressed  at how good the games look on the Amiga 500 + and how quick it is ,as i dont think theres been any work or upgrade done on it ,any help please .

[Templario]

Now the first hand impossible, and the second too. Are very much years of Amiga 500, almost 20 years old.

[mrmoonlight]

Now the first hand impossible, and the second too. Are very much years of Amiga 500, almost 20 years old.

Hi thanks for your reply,does this mean i am wasting my time ?,i do hope not,lol

[save2600]

you like how quick the A500 is compared to the A1200? Does it have an accelerator sitting in the 68000 slot or what? If you plan on keeping the A1200's, I wouldn't waste my time trying to track down SCSI stuff, extra ram or accelerators for the A500. Much easier to procure that stuff (and cheaper too usually) for the A1200's. A500 is great for playing games off floppy. If you like to tinker, maybe build yourself an 86-pin expansion bus card to 100-pin Zorro adapter and throw a 2091 card on it or get one of my MrMKL's CF68kIDE adapters and putz around with that inside the A500...

[mrmoonlight]

you like how quick the A500 is compared to the A1200? Does it have an accelerator sitting in the 68000 slot or what? If you plan on keeping the A1200's, I wouldn't waste my time trying to track down SCSI stuff, extra ram or accelerators for the A500. Much easier to procure that stuff (and cheaper too usually) for the A1200's. A500 is great for playing games off floppy. If you like to tinker, maybe build yourself an 86-pin expansion bus card to 100-pin Zorro adapter and throw a 2091 card on it or get one of my MrMKL's CF68kIDE adapters and putz around with that inside the A500...

 Hi ,yes the 1200 has a matrix accelerator in , 3.1 roms and a Deifina  soundcard ,40 gb harddrive  cd rom  and does not boot up at the moment ,it just shows a purple screen with no loading screen pic ,i am not sure if the 3.1 roms work as i managed to bend the contacts ,but i have some new ones on the way ,so i am hoping it may boot up ,lol,but still love the 500 +

[scuzzb494]

Can you check to see if the battery is OK inside before you go any further. It really only is useful for a clock and if leaking I would remove it. What I do is rock them very very gently backward and forward till they snap off making sure I don't damage the motherboard. And if any leakage on the board I use a cotton bud and lightly clean with vinegar then neautralise with baking soda... And dry sometimes with a very light hair dryer. The last image I have here is for the inside for you to check.

The A500Plus is a very good games machine though doesn't have the flexibility of the 1200. I have included pictures here of available side cars for the machine plus some inside cards. The 500 series did have loads of various cards made but sadly the actual ones that go on the motherbaord are quite rare. The other thing is they are very old. So maybe hunt some stuff down on Ebay and keep a watchful eye for 500s that go very cheap cus you never know what may be inside.

The 500 was very suited to the sidecar range like the GVP for hard drive. I never really bothered with CD cus little was made for the 500 on CD. Better to use the 1200 with the CD. The OS was the 2.0+ series like the 600 in many ways so the interface or Workbench is more like the 1200, though not the same.

I would keep the 500+ as a working model for gaming and avoid messing with it too much. Check the battery and try to get a sidecar like the 590 or GVP. You could always get a 570 but I think you would be disappointed.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz32.htm

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz48.htm

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz382.htm

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz523.htm

As to the A1200 they are two a penny to pick up so don;t panic too much.

Amiga 1200 / 4000 Startup Colors?
The A1200 and 4000 perform several hardware checks as they start up. If the screen remains on any of the following colors on bootup, here is what they mean:

-Black
Opening screen
Initial Hardware tests passed
Initial system software tests passed
Final initialisation test passed

-Red
ROM error, reseat or replace Kickstart ROMS (this can also be caused by worn insulation covering the back end of the pins that connect an IDE cable to a hard drive, aka short).

-Green
Chip RAM error

-Blue
Custom Chip(s) error

-Yellow
68000 detected error before software trapped it (software or hardware error)

I think the purple screen could be the ROM maybe so could try just gently reseating them. You do know about the empty slots for the 3.1 and the arrows and they are two distinct ROMS

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz102.htm

Just a few thoughts there to keep you going.

[Templario]

Hi thanks for your reply,does this mean i am wasting my time ?,i do hope not,lol

No, your aren't wasting your time, only that now for Amiga 500 + is very difficult find extra hardwares, when much were made for Amiga 500, and much more for Amiga 1200, 600 and 4000 and today the new hardware for the Amiga Classics is for these models, 1200, 4000 something for 600 and very very rare for Amiga 2000 and more rare for 500 and less for 500+, but with the Amiga fans always there is hope, for somebody that have knowledge, time and money and he makes a new hardware piece for Amiga 500 and for 500+(this because the + add extraoptions with the FastAgnus, etc.).
But you can use you Amiga 500+ for floppy games.

[Zac67]

There's not much hardware for the 500 you can't use with a 500+...
I'd stick with the 1200, however; if already expanded, it's a much more powerful machine. Keep the 500+ for the games that won't run on the 1200.

[Xanxi]

People, why discourage him?
The 500 Plus is a great computer, the first amiga i ever owned, and it is very upgradable.
First of all, remember that ACA520 are coming, and they should offer a passthrough for A1200 CPU expansion. Imagine an A500 Plus with a Blizzard PPC board (and there is room for it the large A500 case).
Then, there i a lot of expansions for the A500 side slots, either IDE or SCSI controllers, RAM expansions, etc, that usually sell rather cheap compared to other amiga hardware and are not rare. A590 is a good choice and of course works with the 500 Plus.
He can also use a zorro adapter for the side slot and use anything from RTG boards to a Deneb.
And finally, the A500 Plus can be fitted with the Indivision ECS, which is not only cheaper than its AGA counterpart but also a lot more powerful and can almost become a mini RTG board.

[Boudicca]

Such appalling negativity from some on this one. 500 had plenty of scsi stuff. GVP for one. Scsi CDroms are as common as muck.

Just check out ebay for GVP HD8+ Sidecare..Job done.

[stachu100]

I have GVP A530 accelerator for sale.
030@40MHz CPU + FPU, 8MB FAST FAM, 2,1GB SCSI
Working great with A500+
This will give your computer big boost.

Please PM me if you are interested

[danwood]

Now the first hand impossible, and the second too. Are very much years of Amiga 500, almost 20 years old.

Adding a CD-ROM to the A500+ is certainly not impossible, in fact Commodore released their only CD expansion for the A500/+ actually.

Try to find an A570 CD-ROM Drive: http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/a570cd.html

You can then use any CD-ROM titles for the CDTV, it essentially turns your A500 into a CDTV, and useful for stuff like Aminet/Fred Fish collections.

I believe there is an expansion on the back of the A570 for connecting an SCSI interface, but not sure if this ever materialised.  

You can get the A590 Hard disk from Commodore: http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=534

But as they both use the edge connector, you couldn't have both connected at once.

[ognix]

Hi i have just bought a Amiga 500 + and it works really well ,i was wondering where i would get a SCSI HDD controller ,so as to use a cd rom  like the guy on youtube ,i am not really sure what a SCSI HDD controller  is or what it actualy does ,apart from control the Hdd ,also how much upgrading can i do on this model Amiga ,i already have two Amiga 1200,s which need a little work on them ,but i am really impressed  at how good the games look on the Amiga 500 + and how quick it is ,as i dont think theres been any work or upgrade done on it ,any help please .

A SCSI controller is pretty much "equivalent" (please forgive me but to make things simple) to an IDE controller, but it is/was much flexible and intelligent.
A (advanced) SCSI controller was faster than IDE counterparts, and can manage not only hard disks, CD-ROM/DVD drives and ZIPs, but also other mass storage devices, like tape backups (useful in those days) and image flatbed (A4) scanners.

In a SCSI controller you can connect up to 7 devices of whatever kind: each device has a different number assigned by you.

Nowadays EIDE/Serial ATA and USB substitute all SCSI connecting flexibility and improves it (especially USB).

I own an A500+ and I have an Oktagon 508 sidecar SCSI controller, something similar to the A590 from Commodore.
With it I have connected a 800MB Quantum hard disk inside its case, and an external SCSI CD-ROM drive.

Beside this, I can suggest you to get a sidecar IDE controller: it would make your life easier for finding hard disk and CD-ROM drive (normally even in the junkyard  ).
An example is the AT-BUS 508, pretty much like my Oktagon but IDE.
The only thing in this case is adapting an external case for placing the IDE CD-ROM and let the flat cable going from the controller to the drive (I'm not aware of external IDE cases, like SCSI ones).
Hope I figured you out.

About spending money and time on Amiga 500 and so on...
Speaking frankly, spending money on Amiga hardware today IS somehow illogical for the average PC/computer user, but it's a different matter: as I wrote in an old thread, is like with old cars.

You can get better running with new ones, with more comforts, generally.
But the old ones, the one you like, despite begin less powerful and less comfortable, gives you such nice feelings the new one don't.
The same with Amiga, and between Amiga models.
I have an A500, an A500+, an A1200, A1000, A600 and a not working A4000 motherboard: probably my preferred one is the A500/+, probably because it was my first, and recently I also bought an Apollo 520 to get some more "power" out of it.

That's not better to leave it for the A1200: it's a matter of perspective... and budget, of course!  

BY!

[Zac67]

He can also use a zorro adapter for the side slot and use anything from RTG boards to a Deneb.

Good luck plugging a Deneb into a slingshot adapter...

No, seriously: if hardware is already present a 500 can be a nice machine. But I'd take a 1200 any day when it comes to using and upgrading the system.
- adding an HDD is peanuts (simple IDE vs. external SCSI controller + disk)
- adding a CDROM is easier/cheaper
- adding RAM is much cheaper
- no need to add a cheap accelerator, '020 inside
- no need for 2 MB chip RAM upgrade
- no need to upgrade Agnus/Denise to get VGAish video - a simple alternative to RTG
- no / less clunky external expansions

[Xanxi]

Good luck plugging a Deneb into a slingshot adapter...

No, seriously: if hardware is already present a 500 can be a nice machine. But I'd take a 1200 any day when it comes to using and upgrading the system.
- adding an HDD is peanuts (simple IDE vs. external SCSI controller + disk)
- adding a CDROM is easier/cheaper
- adding RAM is much cheaper
- no need to add a cheap accelerator, '020 inside
- no need for 2 MB chip RAM upgrade
- no need to upgrade Agnus/Denise to get VGAish video - a simple alternative to RTG
- no / less clunky external expansions

I still do not agree. I'm thinking you may have been an amiga user only after the coming of the AGA era, because 80's users are really bound to the A500 and A2000. I feel just like that myself, even if my main amiga is an A1200 because indeed it is the more convenient as i have a 060 accelerator for it. However, my A500 Plus is here too and will gain again a good place on my desk when i move to a larger flat. Hopefully, it will be when the ACA520 will be available .