SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

Fess up, guys. Who's got one of these already?

I got mine yesterday and it's fantastic. Never mind the - mostly uninteresting - games on the carousel. Get a decent size USB stick and shove a load of games on that. I picked up a 32gb one for 7 quid, stuck a shedload of Amiga games on that from an archive and I've been playing some classics ever since.

Sure, a lot of the games just aren't as great as you remember, but stuff like Slam Tilt, Arcade Pool and probably loads of others I haven't got to yet, are brilliant.

I was about to get one then some N-Go Boards became available (a ZX Spectrum Next clone) so I've been playing Next games that I bought.  I still might get one for the back catalogue of great games though. But I'm quickly running out of space for my computers lol.

Confess, I've still got my A1200 'Maxi'..... so no need,for now 

Yeah I'll be getting one soon.   

Actually, on the Spectrum Next I've been playing Mike Dailly's (yeah Lemmings guy) Shadow of the Beast scrolling demo which spured me on to get the Amiga Mini. 

Ordered one 

And also a HDMI to AV (Composite/Audio left and right) adaptor so I can run it on my 4:3 ratio monitor. 

Received the A500 Mini.   

First impressions are one of a quality product, from the packaging to the mouse and joypad. But something you can't appreciate is just how good the Mini A500 looks unless you see it in person.  If you've got any nostalgia for an Amiga you'll love this!  It's an extremely accurate replica of an Amiga 500 in small form, like the detailed models you can buy of popular vehicles or characters.

All setup and running a few Amiga Classics  and some uninteresting one's :blank: - I went through, gave them star ratings and sorted on favourites. With a 4:3 ratio monitor it fills the screen (no borders, unlike a standard modern screen). I didn't like the joypad though in actual use (Speedball 2 was awful with it) so ditched that for my wired X-Box Controller. Next up is adding more classics to a USB Stick. 

Added a load of games using WHD Load Files.    I found personally that putting the crop to minimum width and a 208 or so (depending on game) crop height gave a full screen and looked great, otherwise you get big black borders.

Just ordered one through Amazon today. Expected delivery is May 29.  My question however is Will it be programmable like a normal amiga.  (I understand that the keyboard is non-functional) But will I be able to program it in languages like Basic, Assembly, C++, or Python.

Secondly, I know that BlitzBasic is available for normal Amiga's, but whta other language packages are available for it.  I am particularly interested in assembly.

The A500 Mini is designed as a games machine, but you can hack it to get Workbench working and plug in a USB keyboard; there are a few YouTube video's showing you how:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buSU2ihFLkg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xith15zSW7k&ab_channel=RTS%3ARetroTechShed



As for coding the Amiga, some good tutorials here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/WeijuWu

Thanks Steve.

You're welcome bsisko. 

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Confess, I've still got my A1200 'Maxi'..... so no need,for now 

I like real hardware too. But the one time I got a real Amiga from Ebay (listed as working) arrived unworking (I've never had that happen with my real hardware 8-bit systems).  Plus the Amiga is massive!  Takes up so much room, so I'm quite happy to put it in with the emulated section and play those great Amiga games on this platform instead!   

Quote from: Steve Elliott on April 29, 2022, 20:26:54
Plus the Amiga is massive!  Takes up so much room, so I'm quite happy to put it in with the emulated section and play those great Amiga games on this platform instead!   

Exactly this. I've been having a blast playing some of the old games with mine.

I'm quietly hoping they will do a full size Amiga in the future because sales of this have gone so well, it seems. But please make it a replica A1200 for size reasons instead.

We don't need one of these but when's that ever stopped us buying them anyway, eh, Steve?

I reckon Qube will have one stashed away somewhere too, by now.

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Plus the Amiga is massive!  Takes up so much room, so I'm quite happy to put it in with the emulated section and play those great Amiga games on this platform instead!   

Exactly this. I've been having a blast playing some of the old games with mine.

Me too now I've added some extra games (earlier post updated).  For me it's all about the great games, for retro coding I'm going to use my Spectrum Next.

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I'm quietly hoping they will do a full size Amiga in the future because sales of this have gone so well, it seems. But please make it a replica A1200 for size reasons instead.

I'm pretty sure they won't produce an A1200 Maxi, but might produce an A600 Maxi because it was so much smaller.

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We don't need one of these but when's that ever stopped us buying them anyway, eh, Steve?

ofcourse, never say never to new shiny toys. 

If you're playing added games that run too fast on your A500 Mini (like Starglider 1) then your can follow this simple fix, until firmware is updated:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZLuhG7FYnk&t=154s&ab_channel=CrazyBurger

I've got my A500 Mini connected up to a CRT and it looks amazing!!   


I'd bought this HDMI to RCA Converter from Amazon to connect to a 4:3 ratio flat screen I had:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08THC8P24/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Then because I was so impressed with the A500 I decided to try and get it running authentically on a CRT using a RCA To RGB SCART Adaptor from Ebay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265040692007


Now this is so much more like an Amiga experience! Fantastic, it seems I have an Amiga 1200 for far less than Ebay prices (the A500 emulates a 1200 too). 

Has anyone bought a 1200 keyboard case and installed a 500 mini inside one.