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BigD 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 15-Apr-2022 21:49:38
#281 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 11-Aug-2005
Posts: 7307
From: UK

@fishy_fis

So what configuration setting affects the high score in Tiny Bobble? I'd appreciate your help if you know please. All of the JOTD games work and Renegades Deluxe (a custom lha setup) so as far as I know it IS configured.

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number6 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 15-Apr-2022 22:00:48
#282 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 25-Mar-2005
Posts: 11540
From: In the village

@matthey

Quote:
The Amiga elites

?
sarcasm?

#6

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matthey 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 15-Apr-2022 23:48:03
#283 ]
Super Member
Joined: 14-Mar-2007
Posts: 1968
From: Kansas

tygre Quote:

I agree with what you wrote except for that bit: if I was Retro Games Ltd. I would avoid Amiga Corp. like the plague


Retro Games Ltd acquired a license from Amiga Corporation, or Cloanto before the IP was moved over, for not only THEA500 but also THEC64. They are already successful retro business partners with successful products. It looks like Michelle would like to restore the Amiga as he has gathered the Amiga IP and placed it under "Amiga Corporation" likely in homage to the original.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Corporation

Retro Games Ltd wants better hardware than emulation. They were involved with single chip SoCs for the C64 and Amiga which cost reduces the hardware and is more accurate.

Darren Melbourne Quote:

I think. Well, look, quite honestly, we, took a punt with the C64 and, again, I’ll go back in time when I say this, when we licensed the C64 back in 2001, originally, our idea was we were going to take the C64, put it onto a single chip, and then we were going to, hopefully, get that into mobile phones of the day – which if you remember were black and white and LCD.

And we thought, wouldn’t it be great to put a C64 with a SID chip and its colours into a mobile phone? As it transpired, as happens when you have these wonderful ideas, that wasn’t quite as easy as we perceived it was going to be. But what we did discover is that there was still a huge love for Commodore.

So we created the C64 direct to TV joystick back in 2004, it became the fastest selling toy product in QVC’s history. I think we sold 186,000 units in the first hour of trading, which was phenomenal. But it proved to us that there was still this great love for all things Commodore. So, as you rightly pointed out, the C64 then made the jump onto the Wii, and we were behind that. And again… they weren’t million sellers, but they would sell in decent numbers every month.

...

I’ll turn the clock back again to 2004. We managed to rebuild the entire chipset of a C64 on one chip. And when I say we, I mean there’s a genius called Jeri Ellsworth who is a lone woman who lives out in Portland, Oregon who’s an absolute genius. And I spent quite a lot of time with her. We redesigned how we wanted the chip to work, and she got it running on one chip; that is utterly unique for one person to be able to do, the job she did is normally the job of an entire fabrication factory.

We weren’t able to replicate that for the Amiga, Jeri’s off doing other marvellous things in AR and VR. We looked at doing it again but to create a bespoke solution for it would’ve been prohibitively expensive, so it is an emulation.


https://metro.co.uk/2022/04/08/a500-mini-amiga-console-interview-thats-our-passion-for-commodore-16427365/

The two businesses may have similar goals but they may be too small by themselves to do what they want. The Retro Games Ltd guys are brilliant at marketing and pros at licencing. The Amiga elite have been happy selling hundreds of PPC Amiga like systems a year and these guys sold 186,000 C64 joystick systems in one hour. The trick is getting the price down to a toy impulse buying price which is achieved by turning the system into a SoC ASIC. The Amiga has many talented FPGA programmers and even partially developed SoCs. It would take some capital to create an ASIC but then performance is many times greater, cost to produce is a fraction of emulation, customization is what is wanted and compatibility is improved. I have confidence these guys could sell the hardware. Maybe other Amiga related businesses would want to merge bringing capital as they could become superfluous if a SoC ASIC was produced as the competition would melt away if successful. Other investors could participate as stock holders.

matthey Quote:

The Amiga elites


#6 Quote:

sarcasm?


I am being facetious but there is truth to what I'm saying. Amiga like hardware that only sells a few hundred units a year is elitist. The Amiga was popular because the hardware was for the masses and not the elitist classes. The Amiga road blocks either need to step up or get out of the way.

Last edited by matthey on 15-Apr-2022 at 11:52 PM.

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number6 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 16-Apr-2022 0:29:57
#284 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 25-Mar-2005
Posts: 11540
From: In the village

@matthey

Quote:
The Amiga road blocks either need to step up or get out of the way.


Were they not just pushed completely out of the way? (and for good reason)

Quote:
Retro Games Ltd acquired a license from Amiga Corporation, or Cloanto before the IP was moved over,


Minor clarification: Both the licenses and Darren's comments concerning ownership were specifically worded. "Cloanto" not "Amiga Corporation". It is that very transfer that is still being fought. Period.

#6

Last edited by number6 on 16-Apr-2022 at 12:34 AM.

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matthey 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 16-Apr-2022 1:28:35
#285 ]
Super Member
Joined: 14-Mar-2007
Posts: 1968
From: Kansas

#6 Quote:

Were they not just pushed completely out of the way? (and for good reason)


I don't know. What does it take? Someone to get nuked from orbit?

#6 Quote:

Minor clarification: Both the licenses and Darren's comments concerning ownership were specifically worded. "Cloanto" not "Amiga Corporation". It is that very transfer that is still being fought. Period.


Sounds like an attempted road block.

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number6 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 16-Apr-2022 1:33:33
#286 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 25-Mar-2005
Posts: 11540
From: In the village

@matthey

Quote:
What does it take? Someone to get nuked from orbit?


Well, we both know who used that line before. heh.

Quote:
Sounds like an attempted road block.


Just to all progress on all fronts. Other than that...not an issue. heh.

#6

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agami 
Re: THEA500 Mini is HERE!
Posted on 16-Apr-2022 3:14:51
#287 ]
Super Member
Joined: 30-Jun-2008
Posts: 1637
From: Melbourne, Australia

I think the thread Subject should be renamed.

Ce-le-brate good times, come on!


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fishy_fis 
Re: THEA500 Mini is HERE!
Posted on 16-Apr-2022 11:27:57
#288 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 29-Mar-2004
Posts: 2156
From: Australia

If anyone was wondering, this is the sort of performance the A500 mini is capable of when configured properly. Given the hardware it's pretty much exactly what a person would expect.

Pretty humble compared to a PC running WinUAE, but more than enough for most 68k software.

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BigD 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 16-Apr-2022 13:51:44
#289 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 11-Aug-2005
Posts: 7307
From: UK

@Thread

Quote:

BigD wrote:
@fishy_fis

So what configuration setting affects the high score in Tiny Bobble? I'd appreciate your help if you know please. All of the JOTD games work and Renegades Deluxe (a custom lha setup) so as far as I know it IS configured.


The solution is to hack the use of the ADF version:

See the mrv2k post #20
LINK

Works great until official ADF support is added!

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fishy_fis 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 16-Apr-2022 14:07:12
#290 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 29-Mar-2004
Posts: 2156
From: Australia

@BigD

That solution is "oudated". Even the guy in that link is using my configs now.
Mine is roughly 25x times as fast and doesn't require the use of an HDF.
You can just create directories on a USB stick directly.
Its both faster and a lot more flexible.
That config in your link also only emulates the Amiga at roughly 40mhz 030 speeds.
Mine is about 1ghz '030 speeds, has 162MB RAM (vs 18) and 8MB RTG VRAM (vs not having RTG).

Similar ideal, mine's just more optimized, flexible and aesthetic.

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number6 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 16-Apr-2022 16:25:40
#291 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 25-Mar-2005
Posts: 11540
From: In the village

@thread

created by someone who admittedly has no knowledge of Amiga

Maybe someone can learn something from vids like this?

#6

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BigD 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 16-Apr-2022 17:02:52
#292 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 11-Aug-2005
Posts: 7307
From: UK

@fishy_fis

I'm not taking anything away from your achievements but I'd settle for playing Tiny Bobble with save states and that doesn't need a 1ghz 030! I guess it's a case of setting up a hotkey and saving it to a button on the gamepad to enter the GUI and save a game state on the AmiBerry menu but I can't get it to work.

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fishy_fis 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 16-Apr-2022 18:14:18
#293 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 29-Mar-2004
Posts: 2156
From: Australia

@BigD

Not all the configuration options are available through gui.
Getting it to work properly is just a case of configuring for maximum compatibility for chipset and cpu, along with having it set up to match a real Amiga rather than having it emulate a machine that doesnt exist that is made up of hardware inside the various Amiga models + "glue" to have that mishmash of hardware work as a functioning computer.
UAE/Amiberry is capable of all sorts of mixes that dont exist in physical hardware form. This can be both a pro and a con. Some things will work that wouldnt on a real Amiga, but also stop a small percentage of things working that will work on a real Amiga. Configure it to match a real Amiga, and at most compatible settings and the game runs glitch free.

As for my efforts, the point wasnt about the speed of the configuration, but rather the ease of use vs what you've linked to. The references to speed was mostly just to showcase the massive difference the emulator configurations can make.

Thats probably the biggest downside to the A500 mini. How the emulators is configured. It could be much better, even if the inbuilt games do work well for the most part.

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BigD 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 16-Apr-2022 22:23:26
#294 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 11-Aug-2005
Posts: 7307
From: UK

@fishy_fis

Quote:
Configure it to match a real Amiga, and at most compatible settings and the game runs glitch free.


Some glitches are caused by the WHDLoad games being write protected, so nothing complicated there. Some games are no goers and yeah with a more perfected emulation it would probably work better but I've had 4 games fail completely out of perhaps 200 tested! That's not bad. Having no CD music on some CD32 games has been more of a nuisance than games not working at all!

Yes, I'd like Workbench and Deluxe Paint but for what it is (a console) the carousel is fine. The AmiBerry menu hack is interesting and gets a couple more ADF games working that I'd like easy access to. Other than that there's no point reinventing the wheel. It does what it says on the box.

I just wish the generic AmiBerry save state system was as simple as the carousel one!

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BigD 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 16-Apr-2022 22:58:31
#295 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 11-Aug-2005
Posts: 7307
From: UK

@fishy_fis

I've solved the save state issue with AmiBerry Menu/ADF loading in Post #29.

LINK

Keep your 1ghz 030, I'll stick the carousel and something my kids can use. A simple solution goes a long way sometimes!

Happy Easter fishy and The A500 Mini users everywhere!

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fishy_fis 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 17-Apr-2022 3:41:29
#296 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 29-Mar-2004
Posts: 2156
From: Australia

@BigD

Why do you think Ive changed or removed the carousel? I didnt.
I just tuned the system to the nth degree, improved compatibility, improved speed, increased RAM, added rtg and added the ability to use directory based harddrives (including for AmigaOS), so transferring files is painless, and added an "OSLoader" selection.
By default the system doesnt even run something as simple as AB3d particularly well. Frame time is incredibly inconsistent. After the tuning Quake runs fine, fullscreen, at 640x480.
The difference is chalk and cheese and Im surprised they let it out the door with such poorly configured emulation.

Also, not sure what issue you "solved". My setup doesnt launch the gui by default either. It never has. A person can access it, but it doesnt interfere by popping up automatically like the subpar configuration going around that you seem to be using.

Last edited by fishy_fis on 17-Apr-2022 at 03:45 AM.
Last edited by fishy_fis on 17-Apr-2022 at 03:42 AM.

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kolla 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 17-Apr-2022 7:08:26
#297 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 20-Aug-2003
Posts: 2859
From: Trondheim, Norway

@fishy_fis

So, do you consider yourself a "developer" for doing all these "modifications"? :)

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paolone 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 17-Apr-2022 11:29:20
#298 ]
Super Member
Joined: 24-Sep-2007
Posts: 1143
From: Unknown

@BigD

Quote:

I'm not taking anything away from your achievements but I'd settle for playing Tiny Bobble with save states and that doesn't need a 1ghz 030! I guess it's a case of setting up a hotkey and saving it to a button on the gamepad to enter the GUI and save a game state on the AmiBerry menu but I can't get it to work.



So You'll have to wait for a newer version of the firmware, directly supporting ADF and HDF files, as we did long ago with The C64 Mini for .d64 files. It has already been confirmed by Darren from RGL, so nothing to worry about.

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kolla 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 17-Apr-2022 12:08:54
#299 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 20-Aug-2003
Posts: 2859
From: Trondheim, Norway

@paolone

Or just bypass RGL.

https://thec64community.online/thread/1220/thea500-mini-hacking-development

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BigD 
Re: THEA500 Mini is coming!
Posted on 17-Apr-2022 17:48:48
#300 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 11-Aug-2005
Posts: 7307
From: UK

@paolone

Quote:
So You'll have to wait for a newer version of the firmware, directly supporting ADF and HDF files


No, I finally got round this by removing use_gui=yes in the UAE config file and starting the ADF games with a save state and hence you don't need to use the AmiBerry Menu each time and future save states work in the same way enabling progress. So the full solution is in #29.

LINK

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