First Reviews of the A500 Mini 69
Mike Bouma writes: I just bought the A500 Mini here in the Netherlands. The first reviews are now available.
The Guardian gives the device a 4 out of 5 score in their review: "The A500 is a robust piece of tech nostalgia that will give veteran fans many hours of nostalgic pleasure while also providing an accessible means of introducing younger family members to the Amiga scene. The colorful sprites, pounding techno soundtracks and sardonic wit of the beloved Sensible Software, Team 17 and Bitmap Brothers games retain their appeal and it has been fascinating to rediscover how much the modern independent gaming scene owes to this 35-year-old home computer."
Nintendo Life has reviewed the device, giving it an 8 out of 10 score: "As such, this is an intriguing device for anyone who is even remotely interested in tracking the development of the games industry -- and while its 120-pound price tag makes it more expensive than many of its micro-console rivals, the ability to side-load games is very welcome indeed."
Express.co.uk gives the device a 3.5 out of 5 score in their review: "Overall, the Amiga 500 Mini is a strong addition to the crowded classic console market that will appeal mostly to those that have a lot of nostalgia for this iconic PC gaming machine. And the ability to add extra games is a great little bonus which will add plenty of extra life to the system."
Furthermore, various YouTubers have reviewed the A500 Mini, including Retro Recipes, which gives the device a perfect 5 out of 5 score while stating it beats expectations.
The Guardian gives the device a 4 out of 5 score in their review: "The A500 is a robust piece of tech nostalgia that will give veteran fans many hours of nostalgic pleasure while also providing an accessible means of introducing younger family members to the Amiga scene. The colorful sprites, pounding techno soundtracks and sardonic wit of the beloved Sensible Software, Team 17 and Bitmap Brothers games retain their appeal and it has been fascinating to rediscover how much the modern independent gaming scene owes to this 35-year-old home computer."
Nintendo Life has reviewed the device, giving it an 8 out of 10 score: "As such, this is an intriguing device for anyone who is even remotely interested in tracking the development of the games industry -- and while its 120-pound price tag makes it more expensive than many of its micro-console rivals, the ability to side-load games is very welcome indeed."
Express.co.uk gives the device a 3.5 out of 5 score in their review: "Overall, the Amiga 500 Mini is a strong addition to the crowded classic console market that will appeal mostly to those that have a lot of nostalgia for this iconic PC gaming machine. And the ability to add extra games is a great little bonus which will add plenty of extra life to the system."
Furthermore, various YouTubers have reviewed the A500 Mini, including Retro Recipes, which gives the device a perfect 5 out of 5 score while stating it beats expectations.
Open-source theft (Score:5, Interesting)
This project used the Amiberry open-source emulator without permission and without releasing their modified version of the source code per the GPL. Please do not support this product or company until they do right by the open source community!
Re:Open-source theft (Score:5, Informative)
Source: https://eab.abime.net/showthre... [abime.net]
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There doesn't seem to be much there that a random tech-savvy teenager couldn't get going with a raspberry pi and retroarch.
Re:Open-source theft (Score:5, Informative)
Even if they did what you say, the emulator's GPLv3 license would still obligate them to provide source code and a mechanism for modifying the software on the device.
Judging from that forum post (which is one side of the story), the best case for the company is that they are using some other emulator. That would surprise me, given the amount of effort that goes into creating emulators like that in general, but it's not impossible.
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Judging from that forum post (which is one side of the story), the best case for the company is that they are using some other emulator. That would surprise me, given the amount of effort that goes into creating emulators like that in general, but it's not impossible.
I don't know what emulator they use. But there is also FS-UAE, which is what I've been using for the longest time, and I think there was also a third option whose name escapes me at the moment.
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FS-UAE -- like WinUAE, which FS-UAE is based on -- is licensed under GPLv2, which still has the requirements to provide source code and copyright notices to end users, and arguably has the obligation to allow modifications to the software on the device (treating PKI keys to sign images as part of the "preferred form for modification").
Re:Open-source theft (Score:4)
obligate them to provide source code and a mechanism for modifying the software on the device.
I was not aware that you were required to provide a way for the user to modify the software on the device. I assume you're referring to this clause?
"Installation Information" for a User Product means any methods, procedures, authorization keys, or other information required to install and execute modified versions of a covered work in that User Product from a modified version of its Corresponding Source. The information must suffice to ensure that the continued functioning of the modified object code is in no case prevented or interfered with solely because modification has been made.
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html That's really interesting, I learned something today.
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If they actually didn't modify the source then they don't have to "make it available" as much if it's already available elsewhere. I do wonder how the GPL responds if you use a non-GPL installer that utilizes authentication/certification/checksums for install images. No checksum=basic install and you will have to do all of the configuration yourself. Nothing would prevent you from installing but you could be prevented from having any proprietary tweaks, etc. that might be included. I can see various legit r
Re:Open-source theft (Score:4, Insightful)
If they actually didn't modify the source then they don't have to "make it available"...
It doesn't matter if they modified it not. If they are publishing binary versions of the software, they must provide the source code.
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I may not be making myself clear so I'm gonna ask for some citations since I've never seen anything address this concept in any sense. I'm specifically saying that if I, say, compiled something from kde.org with no modifications and released it to the public, if someone requested the source code I could in theory(and maybe in practice) just point them to the source I got from kde.org. The source code is "made available", just not by me specifically. Nothing seems to clarify what "make available" is, especia
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#include <std_disclaimers>
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/o... [gnu.org] spells it out fairly clearly. For commercial distribution, the distributor must be the one to provide the source code (non-commercial distribution can fall under a slightly relaxed requirement). There are lots of ways to accommodate this, both directly and creatively.
My interpretation would answer your question with: yes, you could point to the kde.org site. However, you are legally responsible for ensuring that the kde.org site continues to
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How do you know they modified the emulator?
Whether or not it's been modified doesn't actually have an impact as to whether or not there's a GPL violation.
Re: Open-source theft (Score:2)
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This project used the Amiberry open-source emulator without permission and without releasing their modified version of the source code per the GPL. Please do not support this product or company until they do right by the open source community!
And digging deeper, there are commits referring to THEA500. That should tick the box for GPL compliance (assuming that is the version used in actual product). For instance; https://github.com/retro-games... [github.com]
Tweakers.net review (Score:5, Informative)
Tweakers.net is running their indepth review of the A500 mini on their frontpage:
https://tweakers.net/reviews/1... [tweakers.net]
Here's their conclusion translated from Dutch into English:
"THEA500 Mini is a very good mini version of the Amiga 500, but also much more. The device can handle not only Amiga 500 software, but with software for practically all Amiga 1200 versions: from the Amiga 1000 to the Commodore CDTV. The emulation options are very extensive and the configuration options are endless. For 129 euros you don't get as many games as with other mini computers and the included games are not all equally iconic, but Retro Games Ltd makes up for that with the possibility to add games yourself, without being difficult. In addition, the emulator is so well preconfigured that even many of the self-added games work right out of the box with no changes, but that is mainly due to the preconfigured WHD images.
On the hardware side, it is also a must. The supplied controller and mouse work well and it is possible to connect your own peripherals. The hard core Amiga enthusiasts can also have fun with the device. The expert mode gives them the opportunity to play around with different memory configurations, blitter settings and CPU optimizations. Still, we wonder if the hardcore Amiga fan runs to the store for this. The device costs 129 euros at the time of writing and for that money there are other, cheaper solutions that can do the same. The fact that those options in some cases take more work to get it working is something the hardcore tweaker does not turn his hand for. That's why we think THEA500 Mini is mainly for the nostalgic enthusiast who doesn't want to mess around too much. You get a nice package, with all legal kickstart images and other software. The package also knows exactly how to press all the nostalgic buttons and that is also worth something. If you don't like the included games, you can always easily add your favorites yourself, provided you have the originals in your possession of course."
At https://www.lemonamiga.com/ [lemonamiga.com] you can browse through all the Amiga games and for community support the English Amiga Board is a good place to start:
https://eab.abime.net/ [abime.net]
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RetroArch
https://www.retroarch.com/ [retroarch.com]
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Is your time worthless to you?
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I don't know what the procedure is to put some external disk roms on the A500 mini, but if it's as painful as with the C64 mini, you'll sink way more time into your little gizmo than just doing the same on laptop.
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It's super easy, much easier compared to setting up WinUAE!
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I think that what you're really paying for with this product is the licensed ROMs. I'd love to play Worms in an emulator, but I don't have the hardware to try ripping the floppies.
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Re: Tweakers.net review (Score:2)
Re: Tweakers.net review (Score:2)
Why the fuck do you care?
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It's also somewhat limiting. If you buy something like Amiga Forever, not only is it cheaper, you can not only play games but also use Amiga software, and even develop your own. It includes a licence for the ROMs so even if Amiga Forever stops being supported you can keep using the latest version of your preferred emulator.
You get quite a lot of software included with Amiga Forever too.
I suppose the A500 Mini has a market for those who really just want plug-and-play. The controller looks nice.
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You don't even have to buy all of it if you want to get up and going with a reasonable set of ROMs. You just buy Amiga forever essentials [google.com] on Android and then copy the files elsewhere. The app it comes with is garbage but irrelevant for this purpose. $1.99 on the play store for an Amiga ROM license, sweet. At that price, there's no reason not to pay, even though it's trivial to find all the ROMs you can eat and then some.
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If you value your time enough to not want to install software, are you really going to play old games?
Yes.
I'm pushing 50 and my responsibilities aren't the same as what they were when I was younger. When I have an inkling to play an old game from my youth and I've managed to carve a spare hour out of my day to do it will I:
A) Spend that time tracking down suitable emulation software, finding reputable sites which store the still copyrighted ROMs that can't be included with the emulator, liking them to the emulator, configuring the emulator, fix the inevitable emulator incompatibilities with my hardware?
B)
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Is your time worthless to you?
You're asking this of a gamer? Please.
Games are cool and all (Score:2)
Re: Games are cool and all (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: Games are cool and all (Score:5, Interesting)
Because Amiga OS didn't use file extensions to determine file type, and supported long file names from day one, we used to name all our music files "mod.name of track" just to screw with DOS and Windoze 95 users.
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It didn't screw with Win95 users very hard. It was a PITA for DOS users, though. PC users were playing MODs on DOS before Windows was even popular, IIRC the program was called modplay.
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I don't know which one your referring to, but MOD trackers are still very much around: I use Renoise all the time [renoise.com], and they currently make a stand-alone tracker [polyend.com] (although, it's purpose sort of mystifies me due to the fact the same amount of money can get you a --y'know-- computer...)
It seems try as they might, a simpler, more efficient, more powerful means of arranging samples has yet to be invented
Re: Games are cool and all (Score:2)
What is it? (Score:2, Informative)
It seriously took me until about halfway through the summary to realize what an A500 was.
Re: What is it? (Score:4, Informative)
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So i guess you dated yourself, lol.
Anybody who is a Xennial or younger missed these things' heyday. It was all about the PC in the early 90s.
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Well, born in 80, but wasn't really into gaming until early 90's. SO yeah, I guess i did :)
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MCA was an IBM PS/2 thing. Amiga used Zorro in their desktops, but the A500 didn't have that.
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The A500 has a Zorro slot on the side. Just like the A1000 had, but on the other side.
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The A500 side expansion slot isn't Zorro - it's a 68k local bus slot. You could connect all sorts of things to it, though. Even adapters for Zorro, ISA VME, and PCI cards.
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The A500 side slot is Zorro. It is indeed a 68k local bus slot, which is exactly what the first Zorro bus was.
Zorro II, introduced with the A2000, has additional pins, and yes, there are adapters turning the Zorro into a Zorro II.
Cute little nostalgia device.. but (Score:3)
I really wish the emulation quality was better on this thing. It took me a matter of minutes before I ran into the first issues with games that run just fine on my desktop emulator. Then there's the issue of it currently supporting only WHDLoad, and it fails to load a good subset of those (best guess is that they require a writable volume, and that the A500 mini does not support that). Supposedly ADF/HDF support is coming down the line, which might improve things.
As it stands, it's a nice looking piece of hardware running subpar emulation. It does get you Amiga games in your living room with a dedicated device and controllers with minimum fuzz. Even given the issues, I decided to not return it. Somewhat motivated by the hopes of sales leading to a full size version like they did for the C64.
I can't imagine why anyone would want this... (Score:2)
Re:I can't imagine why anyone would want this... (Score:5, Informative)
But it has a keyboard, and I've spent more than that for a keyboard, so I guess...
Actually, it doesn't; the keyboard is non-functional.
It is basically just an emulator board in a plastic case that resembles a shrunken Amiga. IMHO, it would just make more sense for someone who wants that sort of thing to get a Raspberry Pi 400 instead. Hell, that even gets you a functional keyboard.
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Haha you have no idea about the retro computing scene then. The Commodore 64 mini sold very well from the same company.
Granted retro computing is a niche market, but it's big enough they'll sell thousands of units easily. And even for those that weren't around back then, retro games have an appeal.
Goddammit editors, EDIT! (Score:5, Insightful)
I learnt back in grade school that a title should be descriptive enough that a reader can understand what is being talked about. I shouldn't need to read three frigging paragraphs to know it's an Amiga mini-PC.
GO BACK TO SCHOOL.
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The Amiga icon alone should be enough of a hint, on a self-declared "news for nerds" forum.
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The Amiga icon alone should be enough of a hint
No it isn't. The Icons on Slashdot have long stopped making sense, do very little to link to a core story, and above all a good portion of Slashdot users don't have a clue what that icon even means.
Hell we've seen enough editors not have a clue what icons mean given the number of times they use the DEC logo every time the wrod "digital" appears in a story.
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You have to understand that the current management only runs the site so that it can claim the slashdot brand on other projects. Check out slashdot on YouTube. It’s kind of cool to actually see the mods with your own eyes.
You’ll notice they’re pretty young and probably couldn’t identify a pdp11 alongside a bunch of old S-100 clones.
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If you have any familiarity with Commodore computers you would instantly know what an A500 is and it isn't too much of a leap to then figure out what an A500mini is. The headline is fine for the intended audience.
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If you have any familiarity with Commodore computers
Have you been to Slashdot? I mean post Y2K bug. Most readers here (the intended audience) don't have a fucking clue what a Commodore is (or that icon that accompanies the story).
But sure if you want to be a gatekeeping neckbeard growling at others who aren't "in the know" then by all means continue to flush Slashdot down the toilet of irrelevance it has been in for the past couple of years already.
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Why would any younger users come here?
The only thing flushing slashdot down the toilet is the negligent moderation and armies of shills posters that noticed they could post here anonymously until it was thankfully disabled.
Nostalgia ony gets you so far (Score:2)
I had an Amiga 500 back in the day. I *loved* that thing. Used it all the way up until 1997, when I got my first PC.
But, the sad fact is, very VERY few Amiga games hold up. And the really good ones are available on other platforms, with better graphics.
The only Amiga-exclusive game that is worth playing is Wizkid. Because there is nothing else like it.
I want A1200 mini with 3D card emulation included! (Score:1)
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You mean phase 5 support? Were there actually a lot of games that supported it? The Amiga scene had pretty well petered out in the USA by the time those cards came out, they didn't appeal to the same users as the Amiga itself because they were more expensive than the computer.
Does not run Workbench? (Score:3)
Video Toaster (Score:4, Funny)
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Just buy a mister paganism and a atgames legend ultimate to use as a display/controller. Lots of spare space inside for a mister setup. I know it’s more expensive but most of us have lots of money and not a lot of space for a thousand repro gaming consoles.
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Hahah mister FPGA. Not paganism. Though it is close to magic.
Who is this made for? (Score:2)
This would be kinda cool if I couldn’t smoke it with my gaming PC. My main complaint would be having another crappy ARM machine sitting around.
I never owned a 500 (Score:2)
But I had a number of Amiga computers from 1986 until I left the country in 2002
It wasn/t just games that made the Amiga, it was the OS and the multitasking.
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I still have my 2000 and the Video Toaster for it (but not the drive array for the Toaster). I'd be interested in a mini version of an Amiga that hooks up to a USB keyboard and mouse, but I may as well just use UAE.
Awesome that this exists (Score:2)
I was never into Amiga stuff (having an Atari ST, or a Timex-Sinclair depending on the timeframe). But I think it's awesome Amiga fans get a system like this to enjoy, and be able to play with again.
I wonder if soemthing like this would actually be good if you had kids? Would they shun it being not as capable as modern computers? Or would they embrace the quirk?