@thread

A somewhat off the beaten path appearance:

in one of the Intellivision reddits

#6

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@agami

Quote:

You're forgetting to account for time. People always forget to account for time. Time is money. Sure, there are those that have an abundance of time, or will easily carve out discretionary time to work on a Pi based retro/Amiga emulation system. I, as I'm sure there are many others, am time poor.

Well you do know you can buy these system pre-made from eBay and other sources, (amiGang store was selling it but looks to be closed now, oops) plus there something called the internet, you may of heard of it, you can ask people to build you a custom system if time is money.

Quote:

Furthermore, when we build something from a bunch of disparate components, we are supporting a bunch of different initiatives which are not necessarily aligned to our passion for our favourite platform. I'll always spend a little bit more if I feel that I am voting with my wallet, e.g. I'll pay extra for plant-based meats. Not because I'm vegetarian/vegan, but because I see it as the future, and I want to support further developments in this area with my $. It's also why I happily pay to keep upgrading Amiga Forever.

I kinda agree we got to support companies that make an effort, but it’s not Amiga Forever powering this system it’s actually Amiberry, a community, open source development, it kinda sad that he only get £24 a month for his efforts ( https://www.patreon.com/amiberry ) that now Retro games ltd / Cloanto are reaping the befits.

Quote:

just because something can be applied to other tasks does not mean that most people end up doing that. The Pi ecosystem consists of mainly single-purpose projects.

Yes, that up to them people / project uses, my point is more choices and uses cases are almost always better, the workbench mode or more computer features could be hidden in the advance mode of the system maybe if they where worried simple gamer couldn’t figure it out.

Let’s not forget the guy behind the Pi got the idea to do the project because all he had growing up was a Amiga A600 because that’s all his family could afford and he got to learn all about computers, programming etc on that computer, and thought why isn’t there a open small low cost computer on the market to do that today.

It just a shame the a500 mini omits that part of Amiga history and if anything re-enforces the image and memory’s of people that remember Amiga was just a gaming machine.

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@amigang

Deluxe Paint had been shown to run fine.

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@BigD

I am sure through hacks or other means, a full Amiga desktop system will run on this system, and maybe even more, but my point is it should be their from the start to do this and even encourage to use this a computer. That is what an A500 could do after all and so if this was meant to be a mini version of Amiga A500, they missed half of what the device is.

Last edited by amigang on 25-Mar-2022 at 03:59 PM.

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@amigang

legal. nuff said?
There is even a registered trademark that includes "Amiga" that simply could not be used.

This

It is not always about what one wants to do, but what one -can- do.

#6

Last edited by number6 on 25-Mar-2022 at 04:20 PM.

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@number6

Well it sad if legal crap stop them from putting AmigaOS / Workbench on their, I thought only ownership of OS 3.X source where in question? As this is A500 mini the A500 came with Workbench 1.3 so maybe they could of provided that.

Also what would be the reason for locking out adf and hdf support?

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@amigang

Perhaps saying "legal" is too harsh or represents a certainty of a problem.

Better term might be "risk". All that means is unless you have some assurance that something is safe to do, you opt for safety.

#6

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There little point in putting Workbench on it, not like one easily insert floppies or even transport files to and from. Possible? Yes. Easily? No. As a product, this is meant as a gaming device, nothing else. Of course it will be modded, very soon.

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@kolla

Plus the inclusion of Workbench would put into harsh focus the lack of a native keyboard. The form factor chosen is ideal for a mini console and for that use it is optimised. Maybe a 'Maxi' version will embrace it's full 'home computer' heritage?

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@BigD

Quote:

There little point in putting Workbench on it

I think of a few reasons, but how about to just Demonstrate the Amiga is more than just a gaming platform for the people who don’t know better.

Let’s just forget workbench for moment and say they put PPaint on it (dpaint I guess would difficult due to licensing, but PPaint should be pretty easy) it could of least had that art package as a good old throw back to painting on computer that is something I would guess most Amiga fans remember as a art package was included in most Amiga packages, parents might of shown this to their kids of what they played around with as kids, they might of enjoyed the simplicity of this kind of paint pack and produce some cool art work on it.

Retro game ltd could of held competition for best art work produce on the mini for a small prize or something that might of really shown of what art work you can do on a Amiga.

It’s also be another talking point for all the a500 mini reviews and Amiga exposure where getting at the moment, instead it’s largely just about the Amiga games.

Again I do appreciate that maybe this wasn’t the goal of the project and without the keyboard it’s hard for it to be a serious computer, but I still think it’s a missed opportunity that’s all.

Last edited by amigang on 26-Mar-2022 at 07:06 AM.

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@amigang

I agree in the sense of PPaint or even Brilliance!

However, an online game store is the missing feature most casual consumers would probably want so that they could pay for Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder, Flashback, Rainbow Islands etc easily and download to a memory stick.

I don't see why EA would have an issue with licensing if it's on a storefront and they can charge Retro Games whatever they want on a per sale basis. What else are they ever going to do with the 'Deluxe' software series?

Last edited by BigD on 26-Mar-2022 at 10:01 AM.
Last edited by BigD on 26-Mar-2022 at 10:00 AM.

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@amigang

So you have PPaint on it - how do you easily copy that nice artwork out of the box to perhaps share with your friends? USB stick? Then it needs to be exposed to the emulator, and then you quickly end up exposing more than is comfortable…

Also, the entire thing is based around whdload, so there’s another layer of abstraction to poke through. You can of course have a whdload slave with workbench and ppaint on the USB stick and then find your files in the data directory of the slave - this is even much easier than having it on the mini itself.

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@kolla

It's something to implement in the Maxi. IMHO.

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"Art challenges technology. Technology inspires the art."
John Lasseter, Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studios

@BigD

Quote:

BigD wrote: @kolla Plus the inclusion of Workbench would put into harsh focus the lack of a native keyboard. The form factor chosen is ideal for a mini console and for that use it is optimised. Maybe a 'Maxi' version will embrace it's full 'home computer' heritage?

Yep. This might be the reason. Moreover, I don't understand why they should put a workbench on it and the ability to run Amiga applications, if there's no way - currently - to bring the resulting projects out of the machine.

@BigD

Well, I don’t expect any maxi, and… why would anyone want one?
Full size C64 sure, but full size A500? Not really.

Last edited by kolla on 28-Mar-2022 at 06:43 AM.

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B5D6A1D019D5D45BCC56F4782AC220D8B3E2A6CC

@thread

Linking here since it is not available to front page.

More about Amiga and games, so I think it is on topic:

no comment

#6

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@amigang

Late watching the interview with Darren Melbourne and Chris Smith. Excellent insight into the design process and the company plans etc.
I had no idea he worked with Jeri Ellsworth on the dtv.
Also found the comments about Hyperion Roms interesting and so much more.
Very well done.

#6

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There have been many "mini" systems in recent years, but this is the first one I have felt compelled to actually order. Really looking forward to hooking this up and getting at least tangentially involved with something Amiga related again. I did have grand plans for doing more some years ago, but it proved hard to find the time with so much "real life" stuff going on. The nice thing about the A500 Mini is that it is pretty much a zero-effort proposal.

I also really appreciate that they put Worms DC on there. In my opinion it is the best of the series, and pretty much no one knows about it.

@thread

THEA500 Mini The Complete User Manual (Timestamp Chapters)

#6

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@thread

All Whdload Games

#6

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This posting, in its entirety, represents solely the perspective of the author.
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