Not exactly 8-bit but...

[MN12BIRD]

I just picked up an Amiga 500 today!!! OMG!!! I'm so fucking stoked right now its not even funny!

 

Thing works great but of course I have a few questions. This is my first Amiga 16-Bit computer ever and I don't know squat about them.

 

Did they come with Hard Drives? Because this one has a 60MB HD inside but it kinda looks like someone added it (it was actually just flopping around inside when I got it!)

 

What was the "official" OS for them called? This has some kickstart heartbeat thing on there now. Is this a multitasking OS? I remember people back in the day saying Amiga had the first MT'n OS ever. Its neat and it came with the mouse too!

 

There is a port in the bottom that also has something added in there. And also an 8MB RAM expansion box that looks like it jacks onto the side. Oh and a fair amount of floppy disks.

 

It looks like the guy who had it used it for music as the HD is loaded with music programs and songs.

 

Anyway, any pointers for a total newb?

 

I'll post pics when I get it cleaned up. Right now its all apart.

 

Jake

[Rybags]

Hard drives were usually done for the 500 on sidecar type expansions (to the left of computer), but 3rd party upgrades and homebrews abound for internals.

 

Other sidecar expansions are available too like x86 PC, and many expansions also add to the system RAM.

 

The trapdoor (bottom) is most commonly used for RAM expansions, which often add a battery-backed clock.

 

Workbench 1.3 is the usual resident OS in 500s although it's a popular upgrade to add a later version (like 2.1) and have them selectable by a switch.

 

 

Pointers? Head here http://www.back2roots.org/

 

They've got most of the Amiga games for download.

[MN12BIRD]

Thanks!

 

I nearly peed when I opened it up and there was a 2.5" HDD hanging off an IDE ribbon! He even modded a HDD access LED to the thing. Didn't think that was stock.

 

Man I think I hit the ultimate jackpot. He gave me all the boxes, the RGB monitor, even extra stuff like a MAC floppy drive for some reason.

 

Oh and all for an old X-Box with one controller, no games!

 

Not bad!

[oky2000]

Thanks!

 

I nearly peed when I opened it up and there was a 2.5" HDD hanging off an IDE ribbon! He even modded a HDD access LED to the thing. Didn't think that was stock.

 

Man I think I hit the ultimate jackpot. He gave me all the boxes, the RGB monitor, even extra stuff like a MAC floppy drive for some reason.

 

Oh and all for an old X-Box with one controller, no games!

 

Not bad!

 

That sounds a lot like the ICD Novia ADD IDE card interface. It's the only A500 2.5 IDE notebook drive adaptor I know of. I think it's connected to a board which goes in the 68000 CPU socket and then the 68000 piggybacks on top of that. The IDE is worth more than everything else!

 

The Mac floppy drive is required to be used with software macintosh emulators on the Amiga as their drives use a variable speed of rotation on their 400k disk formats before they switched to PC style HD 1.4mb disks with CV speed formats.

 

If it is an 8mb RAM expansion it's highly likely it is a GVP accelerator card + RAM, again worth a lot as they are pretty rare now. The max memory using a 68000 was 2mb or 2.5mb so I'm sure it's a GVP 68030 expansion.

 

If you have all that memory you can get disks which load kickstart 2.1 from a disk into memory and then use workbench 2 without buying any expensive chips either

[MN12BIRD]

Hahaha yeah there is an extra PCB on the left side of the board with an IDE interface and the pins for the LED, that goes to a 40-pin ribbon and then on the end of that it looks like one of those 3.5" to 2.5" IDE converters.

 

Oh yeah the 8MB Expansion is called an ALFA DATA AlfaRAM External 8MB RAM for A500/500+

 

Stupid question is it okay to use Genesis controllers on this? The reason I ask (and I don't know if this is true) but I've heard using Genesis controllers on the C64 works, but it may put too much resistance on the gameports controller chip and it can fry it. I wouldn't want that to happen!

Edited March 19, 2009 by MN12BIRD

[oky2000]

Hahaha yeah there is an extra PCB on the left side of the board with an IDE interface and the pins for the LED, that goes to a 40-pin ribbon and then on the end of that it looks like one of those 3.5" to 2.5" IDE converters.

 

Oh yeah the 8MB Expansion is called an ALFA DATA AlfaRAM External 8MB RAM for A500/500+

 

Stupid question is it okay to use Genesis controllers on this? The reason I ask (and I don't know if this is true) but I've heard using Genesis controllers on the C64 works, but it may put too much resistance on the gameports controller chip and it can fry it. I wouldn't want that to happen!

 

It only happens on the C64 because of the way the joysticks are read, ie the unprotected nature of the CIA chips on the C64 IIRC, in combination with how the Megadrive (and other) pads draw extra power from the joystick port. The Amiga doesn't suffer this but the only extra button Joypads that work on games with 2 buttons being detected are the CD32 pad or compatible ones like Competition Pro's much improved pad which is pretty much identical to the UK 3 button Megadrive pads so if you ever see one for sale go for one of them on ebay

 

Interesting thing is those side expansions like the 8mb board on your A500...well if you turn them upside down and connect them to the expansion port on the A1000 (which is the other side of the machine) you can use them too!!

 

I would really love to see an internal CPU accelerator for the A500 for sale as I could use that to stick inside my A1000. Only have 2mb on it now but 8mb would be great for using live video captures as anim brushes on Dpaint, With 2mb I'm stuck with about 150 frames with 8mb I could make some impressive anim movies with video grabs of Battlestar Galactica