New/Old Amiga Owner Re-homing a Boxed 500

[blainelocklair]

Hello, everyone!

 

First, Merry Christmas! I hope it has been a wonderful day for you and your families.

 

I owned an Amiga 500 back in 1989, along with a 1084 monitor. Sold them somewhere along the line. Bought a boxed A500 on eBay a few days back and it's on the way. The scene and the way the A500 connects nowadays is much different that my first setup. I will be looking to get a Gotek and SCART/HDMI setup.

 

Here's what I'm looking to find out.

 

1) Can an external Gotek be set up to boot as DF0? The A500 I'm getting has all the original docs and everything that came in the box except Workbench. I have some self-booting ROMs I can load on a Gotek.

 

2) Which external Gotek is best served for the DF0 booting purpose? I see several variations on eBay, and kind of like the one with the LCD screen that shows file names. Really focused on function over form, though, so the DF0 boot is the big picture.

 

3) Any SCART-to-HDMI cable and converter recommendations? My LED TV can force 4:3 aspect ration in HDMI, as I have a RetroTINK 2x connected and the TV can process the 480p signal in 4:3 through the HDMI. I know the A500 is not quite 4:3, but it should get pretty close. Just don't want the stretched picture look.

 

Thanks, everyone! Can't wait to play Shufflepuck Cafe with the tank mouse again. It's been a long time. ;:

 

Thanks,

Blaine

[+sm3]

Glad you are getting back into the Amiga 500!

 

While I don't have any experience with the specifics you've listed, I will tell you what I use in case you haven't heard of them:

 

https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/product/ACA500plus.html

 

https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/de/shop/product/Flickerfixer_Scandoubler.html?flifi_type=OCS_ECS

 

iComp doesn't have the cheapest stuff of course.

 

The Indivision requires a VGA monitor so that doesn't help you out with HDMI. You'll have to open the 500 up as well to pop out the Denise and plug it into the Indivision and then plug it into your Amiga PCB.

 

The ACA500plus offers a lot more than the Gotek does. It's a sidecar expansion for the Amiga 500.

 

I'm sure others will come along here and offer their experience with your specific requests.

[oracle_jedi]

The external Gotek can be used to boot the Amiga.

 

Some users simply replace the internal disk drive with a Gotek, although that typically involved cutting pieces out of the case which is a mess in my opinion. Alternatively you can buy or build a DF0/DF1 switcher that causes the Amiga to treat the drive connected to the floppy disk port as DF0 and boot from that.

 

Also if you have Kickstart 3.0/3.1 you can use the Early Boot Menu to tell the Amiga to boot from DF1.

 

I personally use an HxC2001 device which is similar in function to the Gotek but uses SD cards to store disk images instead of a USB stick. The advantage to me is that I can use the same HxC on a number of retro computers including the Amiga, a TI99/4A, the Atari ST and an old Atari PC1. That said I am not aware of any compelling reason why one variation of Gotek or HxC is inherently superior to another.

 

The ACA500+ that sm3 mentions gives you hard disk functionality provided by a pair of CF cards and the second CF card can be DOS formatted to provide for easy file transfers from a modern PC. However this now means you will need to use hard-disk adapted games using WHDLoad, and not the floppy disk images. WHDLoad is pretty good but requires a truck load of RAM to work, so make sure you get the 500+ and not the older ACA500 which only had 2MB of RAM and therefore would not load alot of WHDLoad images.

 

Connecting to LED TVs is a more subjective matter. Some modern TVs have a composite video-in and can take a signal directly from the A520 video adapter although the picture is likely to be pretty crap. sm3 above has already mentioned the Indivision adapter to use the Amiga with a VGA monitor. Another option is the XRGB Framemeister which converts the Amiga's RGB to HDMI and does alot of other nice things.

 

I hear good things about the Framemeister but I personally use an older Commodore 1084 RGB monitor so I have no personal experience.

 

One note on the ACA500/500+. Its a great expansion for the Amiga 500 but does not work on the NTSC Rev 5 machines, which are the most common Amiga 500s in North America.

 

HTH

[+sm3]

The external Gotek can be used to boot the Amiga.

 

Some users simply replace the internal disk drive with a Gotek, although that typically involved cutting pieces out of the case which is a mess in my opinion. Alternatively you can buy or build a DF0/DF1 switcher that causes the Amiga to treat the drive connected to the floppy disk port as DF0 and boot from that.

 

Also if you have Kickstart 3.0/3.1 you can use the Early Boot Menu to tell the Amiga to boot from DF1.

 

I personally use an HxC2001 device which is similar in function to the Gotek but uses SD cards to store disk images instead of a USB stick. The advantage to me is that I can use the same HxC on a number of retro computers including the Amiga, a TI99/4A, the Atari ST and an old Atari PC1. That said I am not aware of any compelling reason why one variation of Gotek or HxC is inherently superior to another.

 

The ACA500+ that sm3 mentions gives you hard disk functionality provided by a pair of CF cards and the second CF card can be DOS formatted to provide for easy file transfers from a modern PC. However this now means you will need to use hard-disk adapted games using WHDLoad, and not the floppy disk images. WHDLoad is pretty good but requires a truck load of RAM to work, so make sure you get the 500+ and not the older ACA500 which only had 2MB of RAM and therefore would not load alot of WHDLoad images.

 

Connecting to LED TVs is a more subjective matter. Some modern TVs have a composite video-in and can take a signal directly from the A520 video adapter although the picture is likely to be pretty crap. sm3 above has already mentioned the Indivision adapter to use the Amiga with a VGA monitor. Another option is the XRGB Framemeister which converts the Amiga's RGB to HDMI and does alot of other nice things.

 

I hear good things about the Framemeister but I personally use an older Commodore 1084 RGB monitor so I have no personal experience.

 

One note on the ACA500/500+. Its a great expansion for the Amiga 500 but does not work on the NTSC Rev 5 machines, which are the most common Amiga 500s in North America.

 

HTH

 

Good points! I completely forgot about the incompatibility with NTSC Rev 5 machines. They were supposedly looking into it but I had moved on to Rev 6A myself to get around the issue. Hopefully he doesn't have a Rev 5.

 

While I love my Amiga 500 and use it for mostly a development machine, I found the Amiga 1200 was much easier to use for a games machine. Finding ADFs that are NTSC has always been a tricky proposition. And WHDload can be a bit involved to get it all working.

 

I have an XRGB-Mini Framemeister that I purchased to use with my Commodore 64. I can recommend it if you really want HDMI output, however, it will be pricey! They stopped making them for a while but I think they are maybe in production again, I'm not sure. I have never used it with the Amiga though. One thing about the XRGB-Mini if you get one, you'll need a cable from the Amiga RGB to the mini. It comes with what looks like a Euro SCART cable but it is not. It's a JP21 so don't use it without an adapter. My XRGB-Mini is there just as a spare device for when my real monitors no longer work these days.

 

Update: Interestingly I don't see any disclaimer on the ACA500plus page now for the NTSC Rev 5 machines. Have they resolved the issue? Good question. I had the original ACA500 when I had the Rev 5 board.

 

I found a post on the English Amiga Board from Jens that states the ACA500plus works just fine now with the NTSC Rev 5 machines (which is good to know):

 

"The Rev.5 NTSC version was critical with the previous version, but it's not any more with the ACA500plus."

 

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=79303&page=21

[blainelocklair]

Very cool. Thank you both for sharing this information. I don't know which revision A500 I have because... I don't have it yet. I have been waiting for five days for the eBay shipper to get it sent out. I'll spare the details, but t should go out today or I'll end up getting a refund and buy another one.

 

I have the RetroTINK 2x, which does an amazing job of taking the 240p/480i signal from old consoles and converting it into 480p for modern TVs and sending it at 480p through HDMI. Amazing little device. I would just buy the A520 and send it through that, but I'm just not sure if the A500 can be forced into that aspect ratio so cleanly. I guess the A520 does that anyway since it was meant for NTSC TVs of the era. I don't plan to do any heavy lifting with the A500, just plunking around with games and maybe some music creation. I have 2019 plans to combine some classic 80s chip sounds with some modern music instruments in GarageBand on Mac, so the Amiga would be a nice addition to this project. Games first, though. It seems the A520 costs as much as it would cost for a SCART-to-HDMI solution for a much better output. For the ease of use, maybe the simple solution of the A520 is the better one.

 

I don't know if it's taboo to mention, but since we're talking about loading software through flash media, probably not. I've got a couple of GBs worth of .adf files that work fine in the FS-UAE emulator on Mac. I'd imagine they'd work fine being emulated on a DF0 or DF1 solution. I'm good with that. If Gotek is the simple answer, cool. If something else makes better sense, good there too.

 

I checked out the HxC2001 site. I can see where they sell the firmware, but can't find where they sell the device. Do they sell the device, or is that something to find elsewhere and then install the firmware?

 

Thanks for all of your time and help!

 

Blaine

[+sm3]

...

 

I checked out the HxC2001 site. I can see where they sell the firmware, but can't find where they sell the device. Do they sell the device, or is that something to find elsewhere and then install the firmware?

 

Thanks for all of your time and help!

 

Blaine

 

I bought my HxC from this guy: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=30 along with various Atari related items. There might be others of course that sell them. I've used it on my TRS-80 plus tried it on the Amiga and then went the ACA500 route myself.

[oracle_jedi]

I also got the Lotharek built HxC. Great guy who makes awesome stuff.

 

I also got the Amiga External floppy disk adapter. This little device saves you a bunch of hassle by turning the Amiga's external floppy disk interface into an industry standard 34-pin adapter with a 5V power connector too. The cable is just long enough to sit the HxC on top of the Amiga making it very convenient.

 

https://amigastore.eu/en/440-amiga-external-floppy-disk-drive-adapter-m1.html

[oracle_jedi]

 

I found a post on the English Amiga Board from Jens that states the ACA500plus works just fine now with the NTSC Rev 5 machines (which is good to know):

 

"The Rev.5 NTSC version was critical with the previous version, but it's not any more with the ACA500plus."

 

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=79303&page=21

 

Awesome! I am going to have to find time to pull a Rev 5 out of the closet and test this. Wont be today however, the kids want to go bowling.

[+sm3]

...

 

I also got the Amiga External floppy disk adapter. This little device saves you a bunch of hassle by turning the Amiga's external floppy disk interface into an industry standard 34-pin adapter with a 5V power connector too. The cable is just long enough to sit the HxC on top of the Amiga making it very convenient.

 

https://amigastore.eu/en/440-amiga-external-floppy-disk-drive-adapter-m1.html

 

I didn't know these existed. Would have been nice to have when I was trying out my HxC on the Amiga.