Pimpin' The Amiga 500 - The Obsolete Geek

[@The8BitGuy]

I have an Amiga 500 in my collection. It works, but I don't have it on display in my museum because I'm ashamed of it due to the extreme yellowing. I've been meaning to dig it out and retro-brite it so that it will look beautiful again.

[@BurstNibbler]

Commodore only house here too until inevitable PC upgrade. I was blown away by Wolfenstein 3D though, that pretty much put the tin lid on the A500 for me. I sold my Amiga and years later regretted it, but have 95% of my stuff back through WinUAE.

[@ModernVintageGamer]

great video Rob, you are most welcome with the parts and the assistance. Its always nice to help out a fellow enthusiast and cheers for the shoutout! oh and dat PVM. Great picture!

[@CrimsonCrux]

I miss my Amiga 500+, had that thing for years and so many memorable games. We always had Commodores too; started with the VIC20, C16+4, C64 then the A500+ right up into the mid 90's before the switch over to PC. Was amazed to see how much love and work still goes into Amigas even today. I can still remember the sound the disk drive made and the constant disk changes with later games on the system.

[@Snowwie88]

+CrimsonCrux Not only that but the Amiga made us all go socializing. Visiting each other, going to Amiga clubs, copying and playing games there, watching demo's and listen to music modules. And also exchanging knowledge. It was fun, and combined with great 90s (eurodance) music it was even better. What a period. But, with the arrival of pc's and internet this all vanished.

[@retrojoe1590]

I loved and love my Amiga 500! Was all Commodore 64 before that.

[@Mcdctom]

I got my Amiga 500 untill 2004 with the matching monitor. I loved that machine. It had a joystic. Wasnt in the perfect condition, but it worked without a broblem. Todays controllers, joys cant last so long. Sadly we gave it to my step brother, and it caused the end of its life. It was my comp about 6 years. I miss it so much.

[@speccysrule3678]

Hi there, lovin the channel! Over here in UK we have the ZX Spectrum, (1982-1991(?)) The first model was 16K ram or (at about 30 pounds more) 48K! Then came the 128K version in 1987. Game changer! lodes (or is that LOADs?) of software and hardware support, ALL 128K games are compatible with 48K! (Multi load) All had printer plugings/ digitisers & light pens ect, Now there are SD card readers for loading/saving and a very easy stereo up-grade for the (128K) sound chip, (Both of which I've got)! Long live old tech!!!

[@dpx]

That opening line about showing off gfx/sound to your friends brought back some memories for me. Today I have a fondness for the cga/ega PC from my childhood... but back then? I had an almost venomous jealousy for you Amiga guys! Every time I picked up a video game box and checked out the back cover: "WHOA CHECK OUT THE GRAPHI--" *Screenshots: Amiga 500 only"

[@JakalairVG]

I still need to track down a video cable for my Amiga. Then sit down and figure out all the parts to it.I know mine has a HD already in it, and has a special card in it to show overlays in videos. Very cool to see the upgrades. I was shocked to see that finding Ethernet adapters were not that hard for some of these old Amigas. My first computer was a C64 so they hold a special place in my heart.

[@spinklesoftinkles]

Held onto my Amiga 500 since my folks purchased it for the family back in the day. One day I hope to restore and perhaps customise it. Golden axe, street fighter, double dragon and super frog! Those were the days :)

[@TexRider]

I remember adding the 2.1 ship had to cut traces and add jumpers was alot of fun .. still have the old 500 with side hard drive and the turbo 28 side accelerator

[@CommodoreFan64]

Awesome will need to look into this, I had an Amiga A500 in the early 90's that I had gotten used from a local computer shop no longer in business, and while it was a great system, I need to do more for my school work at the time the Amiga could not handle well, so I upgraded to a DOS/Windows 3.11 PC. So I will be keeping my eyes open for a good priced A500, and these upgrades.

[@Eremon1]

I feel like I was ripped off by missing this machine back in the day. I loved everything Commodore and have the VIC-20. Typing out games in BASIC from magazines is a fond memory. The cassette deck and cartridges too. Then we moved on to Nintendo and eventually IBM compatible PCs.

[@protocetid]

I wish the Amiga would rise up again somehow. The NG machines are floundering at best.

[@MeroxNorway]

there was actually a harddrive controller with drive that slotted to the side of the amiga, also ram upgrades that could fit there as well, with passthrough to the disk

[@philscomputerlab]

Hello! Saw you on the 8 bit guy channel and I really like what you do! Instant sub :) Live the Amiga. I'm currently playing around with the FPGA computer, quite a cool device!

[@john-thomasarmstrong1469]

Roll Tide my friend! I've recently become interested in retro computers so hearing about this machine was pretty cool!

[@CGQuarterly]

This looks great! I've been wanting to pick up an Amiga 500. What's the difference between using the IDE interface that you installed, and getting one of those deals that replaces the floppy disk drive? Do you think that the IDE interface is the better option? Great video!

[@obsoletegeek]

Classic Gaming Quarterly I think the compact flash solution is the better option, simply because you can have as many Amiga games as you want installed without having to swap disks or disk images. It also makes running other applications MUCH easier! The challenge is getting the software working!

[@kcinplatinumgaming2598]

I sold a 2 x Amiga 500, 1 x 500+, 600 & 1200 last year to a guy who mods them, Im just a programmer, I have hardware background but not in to it heavily but its amazing how even to this day the Amiga & Atari ST are as big now as they were when those companies were making them .. long live 8 & 16 Bit systems ... my digital youth was only possible with computers thanks to the BBC Master, C= 64/128D, Tatung Einstein, ZX Spectrum+ 2A - zx81, Amstrad PCW - CPC, Electron to name a few I would not be who I am today ... I was a back room coder as we were called in the 80s ... Long live retro !!

[@Ehliax]

THE AST!!!! that was my first PC :-) wow!

[@MrSEA-ok2ll]

I hope people support the new Indiegogo fundraiser for new Amiga 500 cases...2 of my A500 cases have literally fallen apart, so I ordered 2 new replacements. I see you have one of those rare and expensive professional series Sony monitors...I would love one, but literally one of these off ebay these days are around $600 US with shipping...a perfect, must have line of CRTs...also, for my A1000, I ordered the new ACA500 Plus that will bring new life into my A1000 or one of my A500s...sweet video and again, I love your display.

[@acherion]

Great video, glad to see an A500 being put to good use and is well looked after. Most of the A500s I see on sale have been used and abused and are quite grimey.

[@mikehill4036]

that AST in the begining of the video was my first pc!

[@MrWaalkman]

My sidecar box is a GVP A530, with 8 meg of RAM, a SCSI drive, and a FPU. I think that I'll keep it. :)

[@beronk6672]

just brought a colection edition amiga 500 :) just 159 euros when i saw it the amiga 500 was new!!!! luckkyyyyy

[@beronk6672]

+Dami Nooki brand new was from a guy that had a store and he kept one box imaculated when commodore was bankrupt

[@sgtunix]

Well done! Keep the videos coming... :) Found you via the 8-bit guy show.

[@Bedsitdweller]

You weren't wrong about Amiga going up in price. I was thinking "but I only bought an A1200 two years ago for £45.00", they start at £100 now, but still less than what you suggest. I lost my A1200 with 420Mb HDD and 16Mb Blizzard '030 15 years ago to a flood but still have all the boxed games and mag coverdisks.

[@CaelThunderwing]

i had an A500 w/ the GVP A550accelerator board "Sidecar" (40mhz Upgrade+70mb IDE HDD) unforantly one of my few Home moves it was lost ( i didnt have many games it was an US NTSC Unit not a UK PAL unit.)

[@sjarken3979]

Kickstart 1.3 can boot ide harddrives, if you have a harddrive controller. Amiga 2000 had kickstart 1.2 or 1.3. 1.2 can not boot from harddrives, while 1.3 can. (Amiga 500 didnt have harddisk controller buildt in, but amiga 2000 had that.)

[@mootboy4861]

What was the intro music? The music with the Amiga 500 advertisement right at the start.

[@LastofAvari]

0:25 confirmed: rob is a cute dog =) Great to see another classsic Amiga running!

[@K1NGARTH3R]

How much ram do you have in that Amiga (physical and fast ram)? I love the 1.3 kickstart screen, but suppose 2.0 and upwards have there charm too :)

[@obsoletegeek]

***** 1 MB chip and 8 MB fast. The 1MB chip RAM modification is essential for WHDload!

[@kubastachu9860]

robivy64 From what we can see on video that Amiga's RAM isn't modified, it's stock 512k onboard + 512k chip expansion

[@timkovack4713]

+Kuba Stachu Actually he has 1MB Chip RAM, check 2:38 ;)

[@kubastachu9860]

Tim Kovack Actually means you are correcting someone's statement, check what I've written...

[@timkovack4713]

+Kuba Stachu Well it looked like you were trying to say it had 512k chip and 512k slow/fast RAM, but it doesn't as it shows 1MB Chip and 8MB Fast... And if he had 512k chip and 512 trapdoor modified into chip, it would show 1MB, right? ;)

[@thatguyontheright1]

Still on the fence on getting a Kipper2K board for my A500. I am not interested in the Vampire (though it would be cool with an AGA Amiga), the Kipper would be great for my needs.

[@TYNEPUNK]

great vid ! i adore amiga and that little plugin to the a500 for ide hd continues to give me hope!... how the hell does someone sit down and invent that thing, i want to shake him by the hand.. a ton of these guys who grew up with it became pros, and didnt forget their roots. as a sw engineer id like to help too, again :)

[@MysticGargoyle]

I have several Miggys at home, would you recommend this fast ram solution over the Klipper 2 board for the Amiga 600? How was the load times for WHDload games, and did you notice any lag etc with this board?

[@Fraspe]

Awesome Rob! I also have a A500 together with the A590 SCSI external harddrive. But I've been wanting to add a IDE->CF-card adapter. Thanks for the tip! How fast is it when booting into workbench and such?

[@obsoletegeek]

Fraspe It boots into WB in about 10-15 seconds. The limitation is with the 68000 processor more than the speed of the card.

[@Oxygene1841]

I still have my old amiga 500 but seriously thinking stripping it and inserting a Pi 3......how easy is it to convert?

[@RiotRetroGaming]

Nice video bud, I think the new batch of the Vampire series is going to kick the Amiga back in-line with modern pc's again... such an exciting time. It'll be great to see programs written for the bigger ram addressing/cpu processing and not having this mindset where you need to 'upgrade' just to run an app. Just like the old days I think we might see programmers writing to the resources the have. What do you think?

[@AmigaA-or2hj]

I used to have an A500, but sold it and brought a A1500 complete with 3 mb and hard drive.

[@estebanvillalobos2303]

Wow great video rob

[@LutfiO]

Hey The Obsolete Geek great video :) Please let me ask the video connection configuration? How did you connect your A500 to that beatiful CRT monitor? Did you use RGB SCART cable?

[@astrochelonian]

Hello! what are the names of the music themes playing in the background? I specially like the second one.

[@euclidalgorithm5194]

Hi - just wondering what that cool looking "switch box" on top of your monitor is?

[@vitaplex1]

i have an amiga 500 in my collection of computers

[@104d_3rr0r_vince]

I have some A1200 expanded Amigas BUT when I fire up my A500 is a great feeling. I have 3 A500 and my plus machine has an aca500 2mb fast, a fast ram expansion with another 2mb and 2mb chip. A rom switcher 1.3-3.1 cause aca softkicks one of them but takes ram space so roms chips are better. Nice vids mate, btw I like your TV :-D Subbed.

[@ljp1942]

Love my Amiga 500 love it love it love it.

[@jamespayter6948]

Great channel dude - subscribed!

[@GroovyDrifter]

You may want to replace your processor with a 68010 to get full whdload compatibility too.

[@ianthefifth7790]

Song at the beginning of the video?

[@elmariachi5133]

ROM 3.1 on an Amiga 500 is anything but optimal. Unless you where really using the A500 for office jobs, there's no advantage in anything younger than Kickstart 1.3, but newer Osses will give you compatibility problems with many old softwares,

[@boblowes]

Did you miss the part where he explained that 1.3 doesn't allow you to use an IDE device? Most of the modern mass-storage solutions on the Amiga (including the A500 and A500 Plus) use IDE to Compact Flash adapters. You need 3.1 ROMs for that.

[@lgf1978]

what you are saying now does not make any sense. Kick 1.3 is the first kickstart for the amiga system that supported autobooting from a HDD controller. from amigakit buddha page: Autoboot from Kickstart V1.3 or better

[@boblowes]

Who are you replying to?

[@lgf1978]

I pressed reply to your post (Zygma). But it was also meant for the author of the video in question.... Because the statement that 1.3 not support IDE is just plain wrong....

[@boblowes]

Well, I'm not sure where you're getting your information from, but according to the Classic Amiga Wiki (which tallies with what I remember), Kickstart 1.3 had support for booting from a SCSI hard drive, but IDE support was only introduced with Kickstart 2.05 ROM introduced with the Amiga 600, which was the first Amiga to come with an IDE hard drive interface as standard. wiki.classicamiga.com/Kickstart_Roms_Explained

[@LightSoundGate]

I recommend A500 with ACA500Plus.

[@essvee86]

I think ACA 500 is a better solution. You can add an ACA 1232 accelerator with it, and it's external, so no soldering is necessary.

[@karstenhyldgaard9039]

how do i transfer games from disks to the Flashdrive?

[@ZeroWalker26]

You rely have some nice old classic stuff I love your videos but it always makes me wan´t to get the stuff my self hehe im still looking for a sharp X68000 hehe.

[@kristeremtweden1481]

we old Amiga hackers used 5 megabyte mfm harddrives and built the interface ourself from drawings from different magazines back then...slow as hell but back THEN we thought it was super fast.

[@kristeremtweden1481]

I have ll the files on how to do stuff..like the hdd-interface..the pc psu hack... the pc keyboardhack etc etc ...( the psu and the keyboardhack works for all models of amiga ) We also used serial null modem ( or parallel null modem but they where kinda risky cause they could physically burn som chips in your amiga but they where faster ) we all wanted a nic but it took a long time before that was available..first off i think was the ariadne nic for the amiga 2000 .. BUT when the amiga 600 and 1200 got pcmca slots we finally got real network connections between our amigas ( and pc's using a linux like program to read and write files to the pc )

[@roberthornibrook6344]

Curious, with this setup will be able to play every Amiga game?

[@rjnash2610]

"if you just wanna play the games..." - (just emulate :P)

[@nicholas_scott]

I loved my A500. Never really worried about a harddrive since most of the good games could not be installed on them (ie anything from Psygnosis). Later on I got the AT-ONCE PC emulator, and kept it alive for the 90s, but PCs became so cheap...

[@CP200S]

MSX community is also very prollific in hardware development. Do you know TecnoBytes?

[@stephenhoderny]

great video!! i know virtually nothing about the amiga other then its name ,, do some more vids on it explaining more sbout it,, if u could, thanks for the rad content

[@ImTheYowie]

Nice video, didnt know there were such clean solutions.. ACA 500 sticking out the left side is not ideal.. Whats that monitor your using btw? it looks fantastic!

[@obsoletegeek]

ImTheYowie Sony PVM 20M2MDU

[@mark12358]

Come back, dear T.O.G. ! Cheers, M

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

There are some games that won't work with kickstart 3.1. Why not install a dual ROM switcher? They're not too expensive. Also, not only are there new expansion devices for the Amiga, but there are even new devices for the Commodore 64 (and other old computers, too of course)! That's devotion for you. JW3HH

[@justinholmes5614]

They will on WHDLoad

[@thatguyontheright1]

WHDload will run them since it softkicks the necessary kickstart.

[@NotOrdinaryInGames]

I wish Amiga enthusiasts could transform the thing into a credible competitor against Linux and Mac.

[@joeg.1155]

This is tooooo sweeeeet...! (Amiga 4 Life!) Well done mate, kudos. Long live the Amiga!!!!! Hip hip! Hoooraay! x3, etc. ;-P

[@helgijacobsen1497]

i grow up with 64 amiga 500

[@rafamigayt]

What's the monitor you're using? Sony BVM? PVM?

[@obsoletegeek]

+rafamigayt Sony PVM 20M2MDU

[@GaryKildall]

It's important that no electronics with a magnetic field like a transformer of voltage build into devices comes in the neighbourhood of the TV/monitor CRT. Unless it has degauss function to undo magnetic alignment in the fosfor front frame.

[@DanielSmedegaardBuus]

GaryKildall, You can always use an electrical demagnetizer to undo any damage in case you don't have a degauss function 👌

[@GaryKildall]

Daniel Smedegaard Buus I know degauss equipment for reading heads of cassette tape players and I know they existed for CRT TV, but it was very expensive as a kid. Probably a fast alternating current in a copper wire electromagnet is degauss'ing too?

[@DanielSmedegaardBuus]

GaryKildall That might be how it works. I just inherited one from my grandfather 😃

[@problemsolved3293]

what kind of sony monitor is that? at 4:08

[@nicksalvatore5717]

Is that CRT a medical monitor? Looks great

[@larsschneider8496]

What is the song at 0:46? .-.

[@DuncanEscNJ]

would've been cool to showcase some more gameplay :/ cool vid tho!

[@a4000t]

Rob, What model crt are you using in the video?

[@obsoletegeek]

a4000t Sony PVM 20M2MDU

[@PrzeszczepiX]

Amiga rules!

[@trionic5]

I have memorys of using a windows 95 Dell optiplex with a Pentium 1

[@trionic5]

*Dell Dimension not optiplec

[@trionic5]

+Cameron Galat I just can't spell XD

[@tails64dsntchannel8]

i paid my A500 10€ ! even though the case is shot, it works fine

[@HansCampbell]

You can always install your Amiga 500 motherboard into a PC tower case.

[@kyle8952]

Once you've blew $100 on an American market A500 and added kipper's ram and IDE interface, you've spent as much as a UK market A1200 + 4MB ram expansion.

[@VSigma725]

I paid $60 for a complete working A500 but it's going to be period correct and mildly upgraded...as opposed to my A1200 which will eventually be tricked out with all the toys (accelerator, scandoubler, Gotek floppy emulator, etc). Though I might put a Gotek in the A500 too...

[@Brastius]

I'm sorry, did I miss the "pimpin" part?

[@mllarson]

I've heard that the PAL Amiga is better for playing the games due to most games being European. Do you know if the region is important? What I mean is, what is the best region to get one from so that the games work the best?

[@mllarson]

+Retro Computers Cool, thanks!

[@mllarson]

***** I'll do some research before getting anything. I've been watching Dan Wood's Amiga videos lately so I can get a pretty good idea about what's best for what I want. Thanks for the help!

[@MrKsoft]

+mllarson You can use any region system if you have Kickstart 3.1. Holding the mouse buttons down on startup will bring up an early startup menu that lets you switch into PAL mode. Or, if you don't do that, WHDload games will let you force PAL as well. I'm an NTSC A500 owner and play everything in PAL that way.

[@mllarson]

MrKsoft Cool, I'll note that down!

[@RetroMMA]

I had the same (maybe!) Klipsch speakers (mine were the 4.1s)!

[@U014B]

4:14 I didn't know you were diabetic, too. How'd you get your Lantus to do all that?

[@AbgebeSpermium]

No. Amiga 1200! I had A500 and I say A1200 is minimum bare-bones solution for Amiga OS end-of-life 3D games.

[@jerrogance]

I had the option to buy a 4000 with video toaster, with an 2000, and a 3000 for a lump sum of $600. Still Kicking myself for not buying it. lol

[@henrikwannheden7114]

Turrican rules! :D

[@Daddy137]

Can it run gta v at medium settings?

[@paulharkin9736]

+WH1T3 L1GHT Sure, just make sure you buy the floppy disk version ;)

[@only257]

Cool👻

[@PixelPickaxe]

Put a GeForce Titan X in that shit.

[@helgijacobsen1497]

many of amiga song are c64 '

[@johannesdolch]

In my Opinion, if you start modding it like that you might as well just skip the whole process and load up an emulator on your PC. If you want to take a trip down memory lane then do it right. But of course you can do whatever you like, still a good video.

[@iVTECInside]

He didn't do anything that isn't easily undone. I unfortunately can't say the same for where the PAL/NTSC switch was originally on mine.

[@johannesdolch]

What are you talking about ? I am talking about putting a modern Flash Drive expansion board in there. That has nothing to do with anything that existed at the time so your comment makes no sense whatsoever.

[@iVTECInside]

I interpreted your comment such that you didn't approve of him modding the hardware, reading it back again, I missed the bus on that. Still, he does get to use the original hardware to play. Really all he has done here is attach a different disk drive as far as the machine knows. The drives and discs are the most likely to fail on these older machines, he's eliminated that point of failure. The sound the SCSI HDD makes in the GVC sidecar I have doesn't inspire the most confidence even if that's just how they sounded. I'd love to get some sort of CF to SCSI solution for that. Alas, I'd barely use it anyway since an emulator is more convenient.

[@johannesdolch]

I can see where it is interesting from a technical standpoint, still in my personal opinion. If you are going oldschool, do it right. The imperfection is part of the fun. Actually strike that. The imperfection IS the fun. Because, as i said, if you want it perfect, just use an emulator. But I can see where it would be fun to mod the thing either in contemporary way (aka things you couldnt afford at the time) or go a different route alltogether and take a Raspberry Pi, etc. and put it into the Amiga Chassis and run an Emulator.

[@iVTECInside]

For me its totally an aging media thing. I've gone the nostalgia route as well, I bought 2 GVC sidecar (have 2 A500s) and maxed them out with RAM only a couple years ago purely because I couldn't afford one all those years ago. That's about where it stopped for me though, I fired them up a handful of times since them just for fun and got bored.

[@TexRider]

chip sorry

[@savecityofheroessavecityof5838]

once I had a Amiga 500 when it was delivered well the stupid floppy drive is broken,. Then So did every one else. That batch of Amiga 500 was so bad. Commodore suffered so much money lost The Amiga died on the market and as well as thousands of DOA While gave the boost for Windows PC to get in to the gaming market Been stuck with it every since. Now its 2017 Both Intel and AMD changed there CPU's with those stupid LGA CPU SOCKET THAT PINS SNAP OFF