Hi everyone,

THEA500 Mini was announced today. Wrote quick post on my blog about it here:

THEA500 Mini is coming!

Some of the games to be included at launch is The Chaos Engine, Kick Off 2, Speedball 2 and Simon the Sorcerer.

Anyone here going to get one?

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Kind of hope they make this available to buy on its own, painted black it be perfect CD32 controller! it is odd that a product called A500 has AGA games and a Cd32 controller. But still cool

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Does this mean the court case with Hyperion and CLoanto has been sorted. If they have a full license then who is issuing the license ???

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Will it have a working keyboard a Amiga without a working keyboard will be crap.

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@AmigaOldskooler

the news is spreading

You can change the search parameters. I chose to include text and videos and only from the last hour.

Beware early reports that have done no research.

Quote:

Amiga Corporation is no more, but some of its trademarks are held by Amiga, Inc. According to Popular Science,

etc.

It seemed obvious that after Retro Computers Ltd. secured/registered the trademark that we would see an announcement on the heels of that.

#6

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@g01df1sh

This has nothing to do directly with Hyperion.

It was Amigakit that was fighting over the trademark registration with Retro Games Ltd.

#6

Last edited by number6 on 12-Aug-2021 at 03:49 AM.

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@number6

Just updated my AmigaNG website with the details, this was a Prototype / Guess page I had up before this drop of news, I just check the number, its had 380 hits today, just in the last few hours, looks like there interest in Amiga Mini!

https://amigang.com/amigamini-thea500/

Last edited by amigang on 11-Aug-2021 at 12:07 PM.

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@amigang

I'm already seeing this in news reports referred to as "Amiga Mini" "THEA500" "THEA500 Mini" all in a rush to publish news, so be aware.
Most of these folks know nothing of the history and are just grasping at google links to tell the story before the next guy.

#6

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@number6

Quote:

It was Amigakit that was fighting over the trademark registration with Retro Computers. Ltd.

Thing is that this time it's going to be hard for em to bully with bullshit claims since distributor is 500M USD/year company which has proper legal department which with IP experience (Koch media which is part of Embracer Group).

@Rose

No worries.

I already reported that Retro Games Ltd. secured their trademark. It's registered.
I don't think many friends were made for the future here by Amigakit.

#6

Last edited by number6 on 12-Aug-2021 at 03:50 AM.

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@AmigaOldskooler

Nice!

@thread

If you have plenty of time on your hands:

hundreds of posts at RetroGames Ltd.

#6

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@AmigaOldskooler

A dream come true and a must have! Would be nice if both the gamepad and mouse where sold separatly.

@thread

utube vid

#6

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Quote:

A dream come true and a must have! Would be nice if both the gamepad and mouse where sold separatly.

The gamepad looks nice but also looks cheaply made (the CD32 controller was low quality too). The tank mice were terrible and bring back bad memories for me. How about a CBM 3 button pregnant mouse instead? Does the quality even matter? Does it matter that these are likely USB devices?

Nice eye candy and good games selection but that is about all it offers. No functional keyboard, no internet connection, only plays games and limited number of games, price is high for only playing 25 games (hardware is cheap and profit margin should be at least 50%). It should have been possible to create a full sized Amiga 1200 with functional keyboard, the ability to use unlimited Amiga games and productivity software and a connection to the internet for that price. The eye candy is likely good enough to invoke a nostalgia emotional response for impulse buying that it will sell tens of thousands of units but my initial reaction is that this is a cheap one off toy. I don't think it helps Amiga markets or the user base much either. Maybe it generates some Amiga publicity and excitement and embarrasses the current Amiga companies into creating more affordable and better quality retro Amiga products.

@matthey

Apparently it will play whdload images off of a USB. What I want to know is if it can boot into Workbench properly.

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@number6

I couldn't find any info about what is inside the A500 Mini case running this emulation? In fact, I had a hard time finding the company's website, but then I wasn't going to waste too much time looking through page after page of search results, when it didn't pop up within the first two pages of results.

I guess if you really want a bit of plastic that is molded to look like an A500, then this is the product for you. I'll pass, as there are many better ways to do Amiga emulation, as well as several cheaper ways.

Last edited by amigadave on 10-Aug-2021 at 07:47 PM.

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@amigadave

Regardless, the company link was in the facebook link I posted above:

https://retrogames.biz/thea500-mini

#6

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@Thread

It's made the IGN news section!

A500 Mini News on IGN

... it's a shame that they've never heard of Alien Breed Breed 3D anyone?

In my view any publicity is good publicity.

Q: Do I want one?
Answer: Not really.

Q: Is it the easiest way to suggest ex-Amiga owners get back into playing Amiga games with their kids?
Answer: Yes, I think it is!

Overall: Good news!

Last edited by BigD on 10-Aug-2021 at 08:14 PM.

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Mobileconnect Quote:

Apparently it will play whdload images off of a USB. What I want to know is if it can boot into Workbench properly.

It's more open ended than I originally thought then. I wonder if they licensed kickstart or used AROS. Booting into a GUI would reveal AROS or suggest a license for the AmigaOS and kickstart.

amigadave Quote:

I couldn't find any info about what is inside the A500 Mini case running this emulation? In fact, I had a hard time finding the company's website, but then I wasn't going to waste too much time looking through page after page of search results, when it didn't pop up within the first two pages of results.

I don't know either. For low end hardware, it makes sense to leave everything in FPGA as simulation is more accurate than emulation. The FleaFPGA Ohm sold for $45 without mass production. A $5-$15 more expensive FPGA would be adequate for the Mini hardware. Mass production could bring the board price below the price of the FleaFPGA Ohm while still using a FPGA. A commodity ARM SoC isn't going to make the board much cheaper and more CPU performance is not needed. A custom SoC could drop the board price significantly but requires mass production.

amigadave Quote:

I guess if you really want a bit of plastic that is molded to look like an A500, then this is the product for you. I'll pass, as there are many better ways to do Amiga emulation, as well as several cheaper ways.

The A500 Mini is probably more appealing to ex-Amiga users. It is a hardware downgrade for most current Amiga users. Existing Amiga users want a hardware upgrade with good compatibility, modern I/O and an affordable price. The right Amiga product would appeal to both ex-Amiga users and current Amiga users. It would invoke nostalgia feelings with functional eye candy and be cheap enough for impulse buying and gifting.