Very unexpected Amiga birthday surprise

[eightbit]

So, as the story goes, back in the day I had purchased an Amiga 500 from "The Program Store" in Willowbrook Mall in Wayne NJ at some point in the late 80's. I loved the machine (as I still do!) but as time went on it ended up being traded/sold to one of my friends as I moved on to PC's. It bounced around quite a few people I knew over the years but I had lost track of it and time went on. 30 some odd years later I always wondered...what ever happened to it?

 

Fast forward to around 2021. I manage an tech support department and needed to hire someone. After so many applicants that just did not fit I had decided to advertise the position on Facebook. One of my brother's old friends reached out with interest and I had hired him. He worked on my team for the past few years but put in his notice as he wanted to move on. 

 

As we conversed on his way out he says "I have this old Amiga, I think it was yours....do you want it?". He said he was not sure if it still worked and was stored for the past few decades. Well, yes, of COURSE I want it! I have one A500 already in pristine shape, but this one is quite special!

 

That said, he shipped it and it arrived at the tail end of last week right before my 49th birthday. And, it DOES work! There were some issues, some things that needed repair and it was not kept in the best of conditions, but at the same time, not in terrible condition. 

 

So, what I have done thus far:

 

 

1. Cleaned the heck out of it. It needed it! Removed all keycaps except for those that are either soldered on (CAPS LOCK) or the keys with retention brackets. Too much risk of damage removing those due to ancient plastic (past experience)...easier to simply clean around them.

2. Reflowed the solder for both LED lights. They were not working. Somebody bent them and compromised the solder points! They are working again after a good reflow.

3. Reset two pushed in pins on the serial port. Can't imagine how those would get pushed in. Bad modem cable as some point?

4. Cut open the ram expansion box because I know the battery exploded. It did. Cut out the battery and neutralized the area with lemon juice. Cleaned with isoprop. Still would not read the RAM. Got really agressive with the cleaning. It works now as RAM. Clock battery will never function again (maybe?). Oh well.

5. Tested the RAM, CIA's, sound and floppy. All good, although the floppy drive button is cracked and the standoffs are missing.

6. Conducted further testing using a GOTEK. Amiga test kit shows a string of keys not working. The keyboard mylar is shot. I have an idea for replacing it with something much more durable soon.

7. Someone (not me) soldered a PAL/NTSC switch and did a crap job of it as well as cutting a hole. The switch DOES work however so I am leaving well enough alone. I'll get a washer to cover the hole

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 10 by eightbit

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

As a huge AMIGA fan, this is such a wonderful story, that an a500 you owned would find its way back to you is incredible! 😲You are very lucky, and I am happy for you, thanks for sharing! 😄

[phoenixdownita]

@eightbit the story says he thought it was yours but you never acknowledged that indeed it was the same exact A500 that you got back.

 

It would be weirdly funny if it wasn’t after such an interesting story, but I assume you actually ended up cleaning some of your very own crusty old sweat and exfoliated skin when you cleaned it all up. 
 

I ask anyway, this is 100% the same unit that back to you 30some years later, right?

 

 

[eightbit]

7 hours ago, phoenixdownita said:

@eightbit the story says he thought it was yours but you never acknowledged that indeed it was the same exact A500 that you got back.

 

It would be weirdly funny if it wasn’t after such an interesting story, but I assume you actually ended up cleaning some of your very own crusty old sweat and exfoliated skin when you cleaned it all up. 
 

I ask anyway, this is 100% the same unit that back to you 30some years later, right?

 

 

 

It is mine, yes! I remember because it had a very unique SN. The SN on this unit is 001975. It was unique because 1975 my birth year

 

But, it hasn't been treated very nicely, and not by me. It's getting better by the day however!

Edited June 12 by eightbit

[phoenixdownita]

4 minutes ago, eightbit said:

 

It is mine, yes! I remember because it had a very unique SN. The SN on this unit is 001975. It was unique because 1975 my birth year

 

But, it hasn't been treated very nicely, and not by me. It's getting better by the day however!

My Amiga 500 (I was in PAL land at the time) sported a kickstart rom 1.2 … what’s this unit?

 

And congrats for getting back a small part of your past you cherished.

[eightbit]

23 minutes ago, phoenixdownita said:

My Amiga 500 (I was in PAL land at the time) sported a kickstart rom 1.2 … what’s this unit?

 

And congrats for getting back a small part of your past you cherished.

This model is a little later. My neighbor had a v1.2 kickstart ROM rev 5 board with the red power light that went off when the audio filter was on. This one however is kickstart v1.3, with the green power light. Rev 6a board.

 

It is the NTSC board, but someone added a PAL/NTSC switch at some point which makes sense. And, since I have had it back I have done the 1MB chipram mod (using trapdoor as chip).

[phoenixdownita]

I never got back into Amiga until 7-8 y ago when I found a PAL CD32.

I do not collect vintage computers but only consoles so that fit.

I have never been exposed to AGA machines before and that is basically a keyboardless cdrom based A1200.

Deep inside me I knew it would end up hoard-ly the same way it ended with an XEGS … aka you want peripherals, the keyboard is always connected etc… so not really a console anymore.

And it did, I got rid of the whole XEGS setup, but the CD32 still got a keyboard then a tf328 (‘cause one has to see AB3D with fast ram as that makes it go 2x) then a year later a tf330 (‘cause I deserve a 68030 at 50mhz, in my case an EC030 no mmu as it was 10us$ cheaper yayyy) then finally a tf360 (‘cause I deserved to see the pinnacle of “what if” … I could only afford an lc060 so demos that use the fpu don’t work but it is fast, and a full 060 is stupid expensive).

I have not used it that much but I did watch Frontier (Elite II) opening sequence a number of times to reassure myself I just didn’t throw money away (I did, but I am not too regretful).

Edited June 12 by phoenixdownita

[eightbit]

Funny you mention the TerribleFire. I have a TF536 coming from Alen that is supposed to arrive this Friday. I figured getting this Amiga a bit faster and adding a hard drive (CF) for WHDLoad abilities would be cool. And, it is something I definitely would have done back in the day to my Amiga. I still don't have a KS 3.1 ROM, that is on its way but is not set to arrive for a few more weeks.

 

I remember playing on the Amiga for a few years before we started off the 16-bit console revolution with the Genesis (and TG16 before that...even though it was 8-bit) and when those systems came out while I was impressed, I was not as impressed as some of my friends as the games on the Amiga were right there.. and with MUCH better sound. 

 

It was an amazing time and the computer scene was so exciting and vibrant. Seeing the Amiga on display in the store window looping the Space Ace demo was so amazing to me at the time. 

[phoenixdownita]

My “gaming” path went from the 2600 to basically a C64, then Amiga 500, then PC (university) and PS1.

 

I did not really play with “modern” consoles until the PS1, in Europe a 8bit home computer followed by a 16bit (ST or Amiga) home computer was common until the PC took over early 90s. But gaming on the PC was clunky at best so the 32bit console generation came at the right time.

Edited June 13 by phoenixdownita

[CPUWIZ]

If you decide to get buried, it needs to go in the coffin!  That's most awesome, I lost my original Amiga 1000, that I used to develop 3 games on, when my dad died.  It was stored in Germany in his attic and got lost in the crazyness.    I had modified the crap out of it too, even had a processor brake in it to slow the 68000 down to a complete stop.

[phoenixdownita]

30 minutes ago, CPUWIZ said:

If you decide to get buried, it needs to go in the coffin!  That's most awesome, I lost my original Amiga 1000, that I used to develop 3 games on, when my dad died.  It was stored in Germany in his attic and got lost in the crazyness.    I had modified the crap out of it too, even had a processor brake in it to slow the 68000 down to a complete stop.

I was under the impression you needed a static core to literally stop the clock, which Motorola did with the 68SEC000 in 1996, what in the world did you do?

 

And of course any chance we may have played those games?

[CPUWIZ]

2 minutes ago, phoenixdownita said:

I was under the impression you needed a static core to literally stop the clock, which Motorola did with the 68SEC000 in 1996, what in the world did you do?

 

And of course any chance we may have played those games?

 

That was 40 years ago and also, if I go into that, I would have to reveal some things I rather not. LOL

 

Probably not, last one was a coding masterpiece for me though, 100% ASM from the boot sector.  I had to turn down the copy protection a bit, because the duplication factory couldn't handle it, even though I proved it by sending them a copy program to duplicate them on an Amiga. 

 

I should make a t-shirt, "Surrounded by amateurs, since 1984.". 😅. J/K

[phoenixdownita]

1 minute ago, CPUWIZ said:

 

That was 40 years ago and also, if I go into that, I would have to reveal some things I rather not. LOL

“I could tell you but then I would have to kill you” kind of vibe.

[eightbit]

Still working on the Amiga to get it a bit more presentable and usable. The original drive works, but barely. And the eject button is broken. I'll work on that eventually but for now I stuck a Gotek in here. And, that hole someone burned into the side of the case for a PAL/NTSC switch was nasty and large. I put a big beefy switch in it and not by choice. It was because the hole was just too large and I wanted to fill it. So, I gently rounded it out with a dremel and this switch fit in like a glove. Ehh, better than a hole. While I was there I desoldered the crappy wire solder job someone did, cleaned up the pads and soldered in some new switch wires.

 

 

[eightbit]

And I forgot to add I fixed the keyboard. Bad membrane. This one is a modern miracle:

 

[phoenixdownita]

It’s coming up nice, good job.

[eightbit]

4 minutes ago, phoenixdownita said:

It’s coming up nice, good job.

 

Thanks! All that is left really is to install the TerribleFire and 3.1 Kickstart ROM when they arrive, flash a CF card with a prepared hard disk image and close it up. Ohh, and wait for the proper case screws I ordered from AmigaKit in order to close it up...lol.

 

And that will be it. This is not getting retrobrighted or anything like that. I appreciate it just the way it is. It's had a tough life being bounced around and now its time for it to retire with its original owner and just run great Amiga software.

[phoenixdownita]

May I assume Alen is 

https://alen.dreamhosters.com/terriblefire/ ?

 

if he works the same as supaduper in UK, you may not need the CF and adapter after all. Each of mine came with short ide cable + adapter + prepared cf … I never even had to ask … he did it 3 times, I think I love the guy … one price (which also looked better than anything advertised anywhere at the time (I guess at cost the extra stuff is maybe 15US$ and he couldn’t care less). Good luck.

 

(I explicitly contacted supaduper at a point in time where nobody wanted tf328 as tf330 was out for 6/8 months, and he still had them, then I kept in touch through the years, great Amiga fan, not even sure he turned up much profit but he kept telling me he was doing it to help Amiga fans get the most out of their hobby and in my case he delivered big time)

Edited June 13 by phoenixdownita

[eightbit]

You have theoption to add the CF and adapter, which I did. Alen sells them on AmiBay here:

 

https://www.amibay.com/threads/tf536-030-64-mb-ide-internal-expansion-for-the-a500.115252/

[eightbit]

Double post, I hate that.

Edited June 13 by eightbit

[phoenixdownita]

39 minutes ago, eightbit said:

You have theoption to add the CF and adapter, which I did. Alen sells them on AmiBay here:

 

https://www.amibay.com/threads/tf536-030-64-mb-ide-internal-expansion-for-the-a500.115252/

Oh, in my case there was no “option” per se in fact I was looking around for suitable length of cable, compatible adapter, brands and sizes of CF.

 

I was not in a hurry at the time so I waited for the package to arrive from the UK (in my case a tf328 + kipper cd32 riser) and surprise surprise didn’t have to look for the extras, I thanked him and he said it made him happy to help out keep the hobby affordable which was the whole point of Steven making the tf in the first place.

 

Then a year or two later I had to have the tf330 (saw a yt video from CRG comparing side by side stock cd32, tf328 and tf330 and got obsessed) and they were starting to climb on price on eBay (reliable overclockable to 50mhz ec030rp somehow where not common anymore) and I think I saw oc to 40mhz ec030rp versions showing up. I contacted supaduper and he beat that 40mhz version price with a reliable oc to 50mhz ec030rp and for little more I could have had a gold top full 030rc (I declined but the delta would have been maybe 15-20 us$), at any rate again the board arrived with cable, adapter and cf at no extra cost … and he didn’t even mention it, I asked if I could just reuse what he sent with the tf328 and he said yes … but again no need.

 

By the time I got the tf360 (I already had purchased an lc060 couple years earlier, lol, Steven actually quit developing tf for a while, I paid 39us$ for the cpu so even if it was a dud or tf360 would not appear I was fine with it) I just asked if he still included those extras and yup … and still cheaper than anything advertised even in the face of a more expensive GBP vs US$ … had I bought it 4mo earlier I would have saved 10/15% on the exchange rate.

 

I never dealt with alenppc so I cannot comment, I heard he does good job and supports his boards, I know supaduper won me over (I guess not good for the environment due to transatlantic transportation if we want to find a flaw in my choice).

Not sure he still does that tbh, my experience was strung along quite a few years, or maybe I remember it wrong.

Edited June 13 by phoenixdownita

[eightbit]

Stephen actually calls out Alen (Alen Marks) as being one of the trusted builders of his boards at around the 51:30 mark:

 

 

I also place yet one more order

 

https://retrorewind.ca/amigaos-3.2?search=R-AM-OS32

 

I have 3.1.4 ROM coming, but I figured why not upgrade this to the even more current 3.2.2. I was watching an install video on Workbench 3.2. I didn't realize the hard drive size limitation of the older WB 3.1 (4GB) was overcome and you can make large hard drives with the latest version. That is a game changer for me.

Edited June 13 by eightbit

[Daedalus2097]

To be fair, the hard drive size limit was overcome with OS 3.5 in 1999. 3.1.4 and 3.2 inherited many of the core components from 3.5 and 3.9, including Workbench, the filesystems and scsi.device.

Edited June 14 by Daedalus2097

[eightbit]

10 hours ago, Daedalus2097 said:

To be fair, the hard drive size limit was overcome with OS 3.5 in 1999. 3.1.4 and 3.2 inherited many of the core components from 3.5 and 3.9, including Workbench, the filesystems and scsi.device.

 

I was well out of the Amiga scene by then. I unfortunately never got to experience any machines beyond the ECS chipset.

[Daedalus2097]

Yeah, that's a pretty common story for most users it seems. I'm one of the outliers, using my Amiga non-stop since the '90s until today, and as my main machine well into the '00s when the PC slowly started taking over more and more tasks.

 

3.5 and 3.9 were great upgrades, but were aimed at significantly expanded machines so 3.1.4 and 3.2 are a better fit for modern users with more modest upgrades, while still keeping many of the core improvements from 3.9.