Thursday 12 August 2021

Retro Games announces Amiga 500



Nintendo popularised mini consoles with its Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 2016. The Kyoto-based company wasn't the first to market but captured the imagination of gamers of all ages with its cute time capsule containing classic curated video games.

Others wanted in on the throwback action, too.

PlayStation Classic, Sega Mega Drive Mini (Sega Genesis Mini if you're in the US), PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini (TurboGrafx-16 Mini if you're in the US) and many more soon arrived on store shelves to scratch that nostalgic itch.

Now Retro Games is following up its popular C64 and VIC-20 8-bit home computer minis with 16-bit successor, the Amiga A500.



Read the official description:

“Developed by Retro Games Ltd. and distributed by Koch Media, the THEA500Mini features the perfect emulation of, not only, the original A500 (OCS) and Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) of future revisions, but also the Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) of the A1200. The A500 Mini comes with the original style 2-button mouse and newly engineered 8-button precision gamepad, allowing you to choose your control method. To compliment the on-screen keyboard, you can plug in an external standard PC keyboard for additional functionality.”

Commodore's 16-bit dream machine was synonymous with heated high school playground debates during the mid-eighties' Amiga vs Atari ST wars. As I was already the owner of an Atari VCS (Toys "R" Us was still selling games for the system in 1985), Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K and Commodore 64, my parents, rightly, did not indulge my request for an Amiga or Atari ST at Christmas. So, I had to settle for looking at screenshots of the 16-bit conversions of Atari Games' Gauntlet II and Marble Madness in magazines.

Confirmed games include: Alien Breed 3D, Another World, ATR: All Terrain Racing, Battle Chess, Cadaver, Kick Off 2, Pinball Dreams, Simon The Sorcerer, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, The Chaos Engine, Worms: The Director’s Cut, Zool: Ninja Of The ‘Nth’ Dimension. Further titles are set to be announced before launch.

“In this initial mini version of THEA500, we have created what we believe gaming fans will love, and will see as the evolution of mini games consoles”, said Paul Andrews, Managing Director at Retro Games.

“Retro Games have developed a truly unique product”, said Debbie Bestwick MBE, CEO at Team 17, “and I’m very excited to have our classic games represented in all their original glory”.

Pre-order THE A500 Mini (affiliate link) for delivery in early 2022 with a suggested retail price of £119.99. Koch Media is distributing and I hope to bring you a review in the future.

What are your memories of the Amiga A500? Let me know in the comments below.

2 comments:

  1. The Amiga 500 was one of my childhood computers, I remember having an Atari ST and some of my friends having an Amiga before we got one. I also remember there was a 500, a 600 and a 1200. There might have been a plus (+) in there too.

    I also remember the 600 wasn’t ‘as good’ as the 500. But that could be my aging brain. I think this was the first computer range where incompatibility was a thing because you’d need more RAM or a heftier CPU for certain games. They’d be Amiga games but would say Amiga 1200 only.

    For me this was the golden age of computing. The c64 has been on my buy list for a long time, I’ve got modified c64 and Amiga computers in storage with either vga or hdmi connectivity on them.

    Some of the games are just amazing. I will quite happily sit and play lemmings all night long.

    Not too sure on the game pad, hopefully you can hook a speed link competition pro usb up to it.

    Also given the keys being as required as they were, I’d probably hold out for a full size version.

    The retro gamer is spoilt for choice and even though I have Amiga forever and c64 forever emulators on my gaming pc, there’s something rather pleasing about having that emulation in some dedicated hardware.

    It’s a great time to be alive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The first time I ever got to use an Amiga was at college. An A1200 to mix original music tracks. AmigaOS was as impressive as any GUI from Apple at the time.

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