A500 Newbie Suggestions & Help

[danbeaver]

Keep in mind that by the time you spend a lot of money on an A500, you could have bought something more expandable, more capable or both.  If you just want to play retro games, don't spend any more money, you have it right there.

... The issue is, once you start down the dark side of the Amiga Experience, you will be switching, changing, collecting, upgrading for the next 30 years (or is that just me?)

[motrucker]

The RAM/IDE boards the Kipper2K sells will still work fine on your A500. The price isn't bad at all, so you could just not use the ide option for now, and focus on the Gotek. The extra RAM can't hurt.
There are surely other options, but this may one of the best. I haven't heard of any trouble with revision 5 NTSC boards either .

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

If you have an 8372 Agnus (and not an 8370) go ahead and do one of the mods to convert that 512K of "slow-fast" memory in your trapdoor slot into chip mem.  1MB of chip and 8MB of fast (via something like the Kipper2K boards) will serve you a lot better than 512K of chip.

[iced_nine]

Seems I cannot get a hold of Kipper2k to acquire a board...

[giZmo350]

Seems I cannot get a hold of Kipper2k to acquire a board...

You can PM him here on AO...    kipper2k

[3583Bytes]

The Amiga 500 can be a really nice Machine if you can somehow equip it with a Flash card or IDE drive.

I was lucky that mine came with an AdIDE controller.  Its unfortunate that the 500 you have will not work with the ACA 500 because that is probably the best solution.  The Gotek floppy emulator is your second best bet and it may keep you happy enough for gaming.

If you are really planning to expand your Amiga, it may be cheaper to find a rev6 A500 on an Amiga 2000 rev 6 with a hard drive or something that is easier/cheaper to expand.

[scuzzb494]

Hmmm red power light... nice. What is the serial number.

I had to Google Gotek... not sure I like that so much. Being a purest I would conserve the A500 and look after it and use it as originally intended. I would then get an Amiga 1200. But I would say that.

Have fun.

This may interest you....

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz86.htm

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

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz360.htm

[3583Bytes]

Hmmm red power light... nice. What is the serial number.

I had to Google Gotek... not sure I like that so much. Being a purest I would conserve the A500 and look after it and use it as originally intended. I would then get an Amiga 1200. But I would say that.

Have fun.

This may interest you....

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz86.htm

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

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz360.htm

Very nice collection.  I personally did not install the Gotek to my A500.  There is no point since I have a hard drive controller.  WHDLoad is just way more convenient.

But if all I had was a stock A500 the Gotek is probably the easiest.

[iced_nine]

Well, yes, primarily I am using it for gaming, but I would also like to maybe expand on it a little bit... learn a thing or two.. things that weren't available back in 1989... :laughing: