Introducing The A500 Mini a small portable Amiga what you can take anywhere
There is WHDLoad Support, so you can add the many games which are on WHDownload to it, further expanding the 25 built-in Games with even more Games, although not all Amiga Games are in the WHDLoad format so adding the ones which have no WHDLoad Support is not yet possible (although a Software Update might enable this)
A great idea would have been to add support for Cloanto Amiga Forever’s RP9 File Format, which I am building up month by month, then just copy the RP9 files onto the USB, plug it in, and have many more PD/SW/FW Games to play, and there were some Great Games made under the PD/SW/FW Labels, and some were of course complete pants, But at least it would give users a choice of what they want to play and expansion is key with these Mini Systems
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The A500 Mini has a full User Manual available to Download
The A500 Mini is available to buy from Amazon UK or Amazon USA
Find out more at the Official Website at Retro Games
Please take a look at some YouTube for more Videos showcasing The A500 Mini
Various Hacks for The A500 Mini can be found on English Amiga Board
Try the Pandory Mod which makes The A500 Mini a Powerhouse what can Emulate several different systems, please watch the video on YouTube which explains it a bit better
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For those considering getting an A500 Mini, I will list the Pros and Cons of it below, so it gives you a better picture of it before you decide whether to buy it or not
Pros:
ADF Support was recently added via Update 1.1.1 (54.3 MB) – This is a small download, and it is easy to apply, so please do not worry about it too much, You will need an USB Stick to install the upgrade
Easy to use System for the Novice or New user to the Amiga, or for those users who want a “Plug ‘N’ Play” experience, The A500 Mini delivers on this very well
Good Selection of Games are included (see below)
Alien Breed 3D – Alien Breed: Special Edition ’92 – Another World – Arcade Pool – All Terrain Racing – Battle Chess – Cadaver – California Games – The Chaos Engine – Dragons Breath – F-16 Combat Pilot – Kick Off 2 – The Lost Patrol – Paradroid 90 – Pinball Dreams – Project-X: Special Edition ’93 – Qwak – The Sentinel – Simon the Sorcerer – Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe – Stunt Car Racer – Super Cars II – Titus the Fox – Worms: Director’s Cut – and Zool
Additional Games can be added via the built-in WHDLoad Support
Cons:
No IPF (Copy Protected Floppy Disk) support yet
No RP9 (Amiga Forever) Support yet – I have asked via Twitter for support
Non-Working Keyboard – But you can plug one in (for those who say you need another USB port, try a Keyboard with a built-in USB Hub perhaps?)
The Floppy Drive part of the machine could have easily supported a SD Card Slot if they thought about it, then you could have used it in much the same way as a GoTek Drive, load your ADF’s onto a SD Card, Slot it in, then choose the file on The A500 Mini – But alas this was not done (could be modded to allow this though)
WHDLoad Support rather pathetically supported, rather than allowing the Games to be added to the carousel, they have gone with a boring “File List” – I would have loved to see a way of adding them to the carousel, for example – Game.lha (holds the Game itself) – Game.png (holds the Game Image, for the carousel) – Game.txt (holds the Game Text for the carousel) – in much the same way a hacked Playstation Classic does it
The A500 Mini is pretty good, while I think the Built-In Game Collection is Good, there is not many of them (ie. 25) I would have liked to see more, and even then, they could have easily included TONS of PD/Shareware/Freeware Games from Launch, which is a missed opportunity really
I just hope a Software Update can enable the above features, then it would be a Gaming Powerhouse
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