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With all the doom and gloom in the world in recent times. It’s a pleasant change with the new release of the Amiga 500 mini. It puts a smile on my face.
Amazing times we live in, to think this tiny replica and to see it sitting atop the original and yet it is capable of running later versions of Amiga AGA games, so essentially it's a min a1200 of sorts. Fantastic.
Mini plug and play consoles alongside flat screen TVs and HDD recording is about the only advances in society worth talking about. Everything else has been going backwards or down the toilet in terms of scope and quality.
The best comprehensive and balanced review I have seen so far! Thank you ! And thank you for including demos, I think as a Teenager I spent way too much time running demos like"Tech Tech" than games sometimes lol (except for Alien Breed, BattleChess, StarRay ( my 1st game with A500) and some other famous titles) I am forever "Commodore" growing up with Commodore VIC20, Then C64, Then Amiga A500....Glad to see the Commodore Legacy continues!
yep... The ONLY review i've ever heard someone mention of an on-screen keyboard (Press "M" key) based on manual... This by itself would sell the A500 mini as so many hate the 3d printed look, and it would sove the reason of having to hook up a separate keyboard., so i dunno why so many reviews on UA-cam lack this feature ...... Has Dan got an updated model/flashed (possible)? or perhaps 90% of UA-camrs just skip over this 'important part.' Maybie many think its not an important feature, but it should be number #1..
I was a fan of the tank mouse back in the day, it was part of my introduction to the Amiga and I loved its unique appearance compared to other computer mice.
Looks amazing! Great review…but am I the only one who would’ve liked the blanked out disc drive to have been an sd card slot? They could’ve added an adaptor that looked like the old discs
You're definitely not the only one, I had the same idea for an SD card slot there. A floppy disk "adapter" would have been fun, didn't think of that. As to why they didn't do it - I think it comes down to the added cost, the whole system would have been too expensive. I mean, why didn't they use a functional keyboard? Sure, it's tiny, but they could have made it work...
Of the 4.8 milions Amiga sold less than 15% had the external didk drive because they were f＊*king expensive. Then with another piece it wouldn't be a 'mini' gadget.
Good Lord I’ve not see one of these for years, and your 100% correct in your conclusions. I’ve not thought about the Amiga system in decades, my dad had a bit of a love affair with Amiga back in the day, we had a 500, 600 and 1200. They were awesome back in the day, and really they stared my love affair with computers, I now build custom pc”s, but man I loved this video great job, so I’m going to subscribe to your channel 👍
Guess what? I've watched all the other Amiga 500 mini reviews and none of them ran any scene demo's ... you're the first. You have the best review out. Thank you.
Bah... tough decision! On one hand I really like to get one of these... but on the other... I have an old original Amiga 500 sitting here which I bought of eBay last year... but it has some defect chips on the motherboard. On top of that, I'm not sure if the disk drive is working properly. BUT I just LOVE inserting Amiga disks into the drive and that distinctive special sound the Amiga makes when reading... it is definitely an old mans nostalgia, I know, but all this disk handling and the whole procedure is so gratifying in a very special way... and thanks for that extensive review, Dan!
I noticed that just like the first version of the C64 Mini, it comes pre-yellowed. And it would've been a lot nicer if they actually used Workbench for the setup UI instead of an approximate lookalike of it.
You can run Workbench 1.3 yourself though which is really suitable for the A500. It's nice it is not just A500 speed anyway. As much as i loved that machine it often tanked in some games lol
Thanks for showing Workbench running on this thing! I didn't play too many games on my A500 back in the day but I used it HEAVILY for graphics! DPaint WAS MY JAM! I don't know how I'll get it going but I pre-ordered one JUST to run DPaint again!
Beautiful little computer. Great games too. The last time I picked up an A500, it cost me £500.00 and then a further £25.00 for a TV modulator. My first games? Goldrunner, Mach-3 and Starglider. Great video, loved it.
Just ordered it from Amazon (which I swore I'd NEVER use). But the chance to have the convenience of a portable little Amiga replica was too much to resist. Thanks for the review.
@@maccagrabme - Oh it's great. If you've got the money, and want to be able to play games independently of a PC, I'd grab one. That's the only real advantage. If you're happy with the emulator though, there's no real reason to get this instead.
great review - would be nice to see another vid that really drills down on Workbench more deeply and attempting to use this as an Amiga instead of as a gaming console only
Fantastic video!!!! You have got me so excited for this. It’s on pre order and I’m booking the day off to play it. I got my first one in 1989 and my dad sold it to get an A1200 which didn’t have much backwards comparability so I gave up on it. So many games I can’t wait to add to this. With a joystick, I can’t deal with a joypad for Amiga games.
Excellent - been excited/worried about this since reading about it in Amiga Addict a while back - could have gone so wrong. As it happens it feels like one of the best, if not the best, of the mini consoles/formats. Only right that the best should be the one honoring the Amiga. It's clearly been done with reverence and love - everything from the form factor to the game choice is really on the money. Oh, and goes without saying, but this is the only review video that matters - I've ignored the others thrown at me by the algorithm over the last few days. Thanks for all the years of Amiga content Dan.
Thanks for this quality and detailed review. I think you've pushed me over the line, and I'll need to get one of these. I was actually an Atari ST owner back in the day, but many of the games on the A500 were also ST titles. Subscribed.
Oddly I want to see Workbench and more creative programs running, back in the day I played with Deluxe Paint and even managed to draw the Penguin from Batman Returns using just the standard tank mouse and Deluxe Paint ! Good times! 😆
I remember drawing the Alien queen and the metal skeleton Terminator with Deluxe Paint with the mouse. And no layers like Photoshop back then. One of them - I think the Alien queen - was printed in a magazine. It made my year. Wish I'd kept the mag!
I did a version of Iron Maiden’s Powerslave on Deluxe paint on my A500. I got a few spare replacements from a shop in Rotherham and years later took the whole system to them and said they could have it as I had bought a PC, just gave it to them for free as they had been so good to me when I needed replacement parts. I kinda regret my generosity!
Only Dan can truly cover the Amiga so well, thank you. (Well okay so Amiga Bill maybe as well 😄). But great review Dan, you made me desire getting one even though I’ve got more Amigas than is healthy.
15:35 Ditto. The muted grey pallet looks better in my opinion. I'm guessing you could always get the original version via WHDload and use that instead?
Dan, thanks for a good first look at what the A500 can do and what's included in the box. I never got to experience the Amigas back in the day. I went from a C128 directly to a PC clone. I'm wondering if you could do a quick video of how you got Amiga work bench desktop up & running on the A500 mini? Thank you.
Great review. And yes, even though I have actual Amiga hardware including classic and new expansions/accelerators and can run PiMiga or UAE based emulators on Mac, Linux and Windows, I still pre-ordered one just because it appears to be a really nice device to just leave hooked up to an HDMI port and play once in a while.
Great review, thanks for digging into workbench and demos! And, once again, a great job by RGL, seeing how much the updates improved the experience on theC64, can't wait to see what they'll do for this one in the future. Hope they can reuse the button remapping code for an update on theC64, that would be icing on the cake.
i'm actually now excited about this mini now,, I take back all the negativity i said about it .. Of course WinUAE-on a PC can do more, and attach .CRT cart files (Action Replay III) etc... but we all know everyone bought the Amiga to play games :)
Great video, thank you! This answered almost all my questions! One thing I am wondering... can you do the home button + save game feature on games you add yourself via USB? Or only on the provided ones?
Bought my A500 in 1987 and played a lot of Pinball Dreams on it! Have a lot of floppy disks with animations and weird Paint experiments. So the is fun to see!
If it plays all the converted Amiga WHDLoad games from Killer Gorilla in .lha format, count me in. . I remember buying my original A500 along with 1084 S back in '91. So many great memories. Generally I use FS-UAE as opposed to WINUAE. As usual, excellent review Dan👍
I always wondered regarding control pad of the CD32. 9:00 Does anyone know why the 'red' button is larger than the other ones? Just something to make people think :)
Excellent non biased review Dan, Totally agree in its current state its not for me but can see others it would be good for. If they make a Maxi version with working keyboard and add ADF support I would definitely consider purchasing it.
Glad to see a bit more of a balanced review... I think it's a shame that you can't access your own games via the front end - think that would make it much more appealing for me personally. That said, performance wise it looks great!
Looking forward to it, i did post a comment just a moment ago but for some reason it got deleted, only mentioned ive got my USB all ready to go with WHDLoad on and the fact that Retro Games Limited have said ADF support is coming in a update
I have fond memories of the Amiga but I'm not exactly tech-savvy, so this mini system certainly appeals to me. Fantastic overview of the system and each of the games included; I have the most memories here of QWAK so I think that'll be the game I will try out first. If I ever attempt the plunge in obtaining further Amiga games to play on this system, I shall have to check back to this informative video!
After learning that Retro Games Ltd and Subvert Ltd are intrinsically linked, and subsequent treatment of a certain youtube retro channel no matter how passionately I feel about the Amiga this product can be shoved where the sun don't shine.
Looking forward to this! Pre-ordered in US, so will see a bit later than our friends to the east. Had the A500 back in the day. Ruff n Tumble, Simulcra, Super Cars and Stunt Car 😊Racer are my faves.
19:30 There was a very easy way around all those tedious loading times, copy the whole disc to RAM:\CHESS then assign the disc to run from that directory. Now instead of loading from the floppy, you're running from a virtual disc that was far, far faster. True, you needed expanded ram on an A500 but I think we all got those ram cards back then. My A500+ got her full 2MB very quickly.
Had it on order since i heard about it. I have c64 mini, and the nintendo mini's. Im old school uk amiga boy, i had a mix of purchased and unfortunately huge copied games collection. Not proud of it, but i was 14 at the time and now im nearly 50. I have since with a working wage, set about purchasing every game i owned as a kid now i can afford it. I cannot wait for this and will be purchasing every and any games that the pubishers release. I have done with my nintendo switch and have an enormous paid arcade archives collection and as many spectrum games like sabatour. I got gods, toki, turrican, etc, worms, superfrog, alien breed, monkey island on ios and android.offical stuff like vega and spectaculator. (everything i had as a kid i can get hold of). Lets hope more devs from the past bring out re releases for amiga.
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great review, watched few of them, was curious about the demos, thank you!
Yes, would have been nice to see some benchmarking. It would also be cool if they allowed settings to truly max out CPU speed for programs that would benefit from it.
Great in-depth video Dan. Looks like a really neat device. I have an A500 sitting here that I really need to start using more. I don't know that much about Amiga tbh, but this got me a bit excited to jump into it!
I would love to get an A600 Maxi from that company. The C64 maxi was awesome and the A600 would have the right size, the original A500 was quite chunky. /edit/ I'm very surprised they added a gamepad. We all had quickshots or competition pros. And the company has a nice joystick in the c64 mini/maxi package.
Best review by far!!! Thank you for that. It's really amazing that it can run demos and workbench. I got shocked. If i ever see that the Octamed works here also....i m gonna faint :P I have an amiga 500+ with gotek....but if the mini's price goes a little lower i think i will buy it, for all the reasons you say an the end of your video :) Keep up the good work
This looks awesome. :) As the owner of one out of the only 5000 copies sold, I'm particularly happy to see WormsDC is included. In my opinion, it is the best Worms game by far, and it's a shame so few people got to play it. I haven't bothered with any of the other mini systems, but this one I have to get.
@@Alex_Power The original Worms sold much better, I'm sure. It was released in 1995, and worked on all Amigas. It was also ported to several other platforms. WormsDC, on the other hand, was a much upgraded version only released for AGA Amigas like the A1200 and A4000, in 1997. At this point, the Amiga market had shrunk considerably, and WormsDC only targeted parts of it. As far as I know, worms DC was never released for any other platforms...until now. :)
The C64 Mini eventually became the full-size version with a functional keyboard. Wonder if they will eventually do the same with this model, that would be awesome. I'd also like to see them make a C-128 Maxi version one day, if I live that long.
Indeed. I'm certain it will happen, but the better things usually take more time. I waited forever for a version of the VICE emulator that could even run my C64 software as it used an REU. Time will tell. I wrote "WsDos v7.1" though and while that runs fine on WinVice, I'd like to see *any* emulation with reliable disk saving capability- that would certainly do for starters.@@fmlazar
I had an Amiga 500+ with a 1MB ram upgrade and used it a lot back in the day but then went onto PCs. Stored it away, and unknown to me as I didn't realise the issue, it suffered the leaking battery issue and some (not a lot of corrosion) on the board under it when I opened it up a few years ago to check on it. I didn't attempt to fix it but took photos of the corrosion and sold the complete system on Ebay to someone who'd fix it and use it. I still game on PCs but I have bought an A500 mini (I paid £86 new so caught a good deal) and have with my memory been adding all my old games onto a single USB, for nostalgia reasons but also because it's fun.
Workbench is still a commercial product, including it would unnecessarily increase the retail price. If you need it, it's easy to get. Most of the target market don't need it.
How many LCD monitors can do 50 Hz though and how to find them? Fixed 60 Hz is so, so common, unlike in the CRT days. My own monitor advertises it can do it but secretly inserts frames to generate a 60 Hz output anyway. Freesync monitors exist but will they work, or is it a gamble? Anyway, thanks for this review. It's the first one (and maybe the fourth I have seen so far) that has shown off Workbench! I was 50/50 games/productivity and would love to know more here, including if running Kickstart/WB 3.1 can be done and the performance. :)
The Amiga video you have put on Is rather interesting but when I saw the dress made by your partner wow ! That was awesome …where’s her UA-cam channel ?? Fab colour and design! Now back to Amiga review! Congrats on Amiga 500 mini review!!
@@dinorusso5761 purtroppo non so dirtelo,io sto cercando in vhdload tutti i giochi e demo possibili,e non so dove sono,speriamo che qualcuno risponda e dica dove cercare
Nice review... pre-ordered mine after this video and got it on release date (Sweden). For a plug-and-play solution with very little faffing about, it is probably the next best thing to a real Amiga. I emulate my old A1200T productivity workstation and not a lot of games works, but all the software works great (LightWave 3D, Imagine 4.x, Octamed Soundstudio etc) and most high end demos from the demo-scene. I have made a collection of my fav games on a USB stick and... there is one or two that seems to have a problem... but all those that works... fantastic!!!! Instead of using my emulated Amiga, Vampire V4 SA, Sam460 or AmigaOne X5000, I've started using the A500 - Mini for the oldschool games. I've actually used it little too much... haha... with save-states, it makes it a bit easier to complete those hard games from back in the day, and yes... it makes those games more enjoyable as well.
that's precisely the target audience ... someone who wants to play Amiga games w/o the fuss (it's essentially a video game console with included games pretty much plug-and-play) however, even an Amiga fan with plenty of experience with emulators, actual Amigas, FPGAs etc can definitely have fun with this little gizmo - that it can even run Workbench is awesome imho
I was waiting for someone to do a simple video on how to format and set up WHD Load files on a USB stick so that they can be played on the A500 Mini. Cheers.
Great and informative review. Would go as far as saying probably one of the best A500 Mini reviews I've seen. Got it on pre-order and really looking forward to receiving it. Will be definitely adding Lemmings, Cannon Fodder, Monkey Island 1 & 2 and many more of the iconic Amiga games. Roll on 8th April!
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How long is the cord for the controller?
had a quick razz on metal slug on a 150 mb connection, massive slowdown but the platform has potential, not quite steam but an interesting concept.
Hi Dan, What's that slim flat keyboard you have on your desk, Silver & white flat keys?
@@maxabillon I actually have a Radioshack wireless keyboard that looks just like that one.
With all the doom and gloom in the world in recent times. It’s a pleasant change with the new release of the Amiga 500 mini. It puts a smile on my face.
Incidentally you can use whdload to put both Doom and Gloom games on the system lol. Gloom being a Doom clone.
😆 its just a coincidence.
Finally! A reviewer who’s testing Workbench and its applications on this. Good job Dan!!
Amazing times we live in, to think this tiny replica and to see it sitting atop the original and yet it is capable of running later versions of Amiga AGA games, so essentially it's a min a1200 of sorts. Fantastic.
Mini plug and play consoles alongside flat screen TVs and HDD recording is about the only advances in society worth talking about. Everything else has been going backwards or down the toilet in terms of scope and quality.
The size difference made my head spin.... I do like the "Look, it can be done". .. I mean if it's just to "show": Mission accomplished,
One of the better amiga mini videos I've seen . Very in depth and informative
The best comprehensive and balanced review I have seen so far! Thank you ! And thank you for including demos, I think as a Teenager I spent way too much time running demos like"Tech Tech" than games sometimes lol (except for Alien Breed, BattleChess, StarRay ( my 1st game with A500) and some other famous titles) I am forever "Commodore" growing up with Commodore VIC20, Then C64, Then Amiga A500....Glad to see the Commodore Legacy continues!
yep... The ONLY review i've ever heard someone mention of an on-screen keyboard (Press "M" key) based on manual... This by itself would sell the A500 mini as so many hate the 3d printed look, and it would sove the reason of having to hook up a separate keyboard., so i dunno why so many reviews on UA-cam lack this feature ...... Has Dan got an updated model/flashed (possible)? or perhaps 90% of UA-camrs just skip over this 'important part.'
Maybie many think its not an important feature, but it should be number #1..
I was a fan of the tank mouse back in the day, it was part of my introduction to the Amiga and I loved its unique appearance compared to other computer mice.
Looks amazing! Great review…but am I the only one who would’ve liked the blanked out disc drive to have been an sd card slot? They could’ve added an adaptor that looked like the old discs
You're definitely not the only one, I had the same idea for an SD card slot there. A floppy disk "adapter" would have been fun, didn't think of that. As to why they didn't do it - I think it comes down to the added cost, the whole system would have been too expensive. I mean, why didn't they use a functional keyboard? Sure, it's tiny, but they could have made it work...
I'm sure a person motivated enough might make a mod
wats a disc drive?
@@m1kr0kosmos I want disc drive sounds.
Of the 4.8 milions Amiga sold less than 15% had the external didk drive because they were f＊*king expensive. Then with another piece it wouldn't be a 'mini' gadget.
I wondered when you were getting yours. Got mine on preorder. Time to teach the grandchildren what gaming is all about.
I also recommend awesome video *Echa Ekranu* 😊👍
@Skipper847 same here, just pre-ordered... can't wait to play Worms and Project X again...
Good Lord I’ve not see one of these for years, and your 100% correct in your conclusions. I’ve not thought about the Amiga system in decades, my dad had a bit of a love affair with Amiga back in the day, we had a 500, 600 and 1200. They were awesome back in the day, and really they stared my love affair with computers, I now build custom pc”s, but man I loved this video great job, so I’m going to subscribe to your channel 👍
Guess what? I've watched all the other Amiga 500 mini reviews and none of them ran any scene demo's ... you're the first. You have the best review out. Thank you.
Bah... tough decision! On one hand I really like to get one of these... but on the other... I have an old original Amiga 500 sitting here which I bought of eBay last year... but it has some defect chips on the motherboard. On top of that, I'm not sure if the disk drive is working properly. BUT I just LOVE inserting Amiga disks into the drive and that distinctive special sound the Amiga makes when reading... it is definitely an old mans nostalgia, I know, but all this disk handling and the whole procedure is so gratifying in a very special way... and thanks for that extensive review, Dan!
Excellent stuff thank you Dan! I’m looking forward to trying one out, here’s hoping they add that ADF support soon and you can show us sysinfo
A new RMC video to be excited about? 👀
I think Dan has covered everything :D
Good editing to show all that in 40mins, a concise yet full featured review.
I've watched a few other channels covering this but this is the most comprehensive I've seen so far and the most compelling argument for buying one.
I noticed that just like the first version of the C64 Mini, it comes pre-yellowed. And it would've been a lot nicer if they actually used Workbench for the setup UI instead of an approximate lookalike of it.
You can run Workbench 1.3 yourself though which is really suitable for the A500. It's nice it is not just A500 speed anyway. As much as i loved that machine it often tanked in some games lol
I also recommend a great video with the best Amiga games *Echa Ekranu*
most ppl not used to workbench would struggle with that, so an option to load workbench would be nice
Thumbs-up for the Demo part. First reviewer checking this out.
this is the amiga mini review I have been waiting for
Thanks for showing Workbench running on this thing! I didn't play too many games on my A500 back in the day but I used it HEAVILY for graphics! DPaint WAS MY JAM! I don't know how I'll get it going but I pre-ordered one JUST to run DPaint again!
Beautiful little computer. Great games too.
The last time I picked up an A500, it cost me £500.00 and then a further £25.00 for a TV modulator.
My first games? Goldrunner, Mach-3 and Starglider. Great video, loved it.
Just ordered it from Amazon (which I swore I'd NEVER use). But the chance to have the convenience of a portable little Amiga replica was too much to resist. Thanks for the review.
Welcome back Sir... got any swaps? 😊
Was it any good or is it better to use a PC emulator?
@@maccagrabme - Oh it's great. If you've got the money, and want to be able to play games independently of a PC, I'd grab one. That's the only real advantage. If you're happy with the emulator though, there's no real reason to get this instead.
Fantastic video and has made me decide 100% I need to pop to Argos today to pick one up! Let the nostalgia commence in around an hour's time! 😁👌
great review - would be nice to see another vid that really drills down on Workbench more deeply and attempting to use this as an Amiga instead of as a gaming console only
Agreed. I would love to see someone try to make a video toaster mini as well. that would be pretty cool.
I also recommend awesome video *Echa Ekranu* 😊👍
Fantastic video!!!! You have got me so excited for this. It’s on pre order and I’m booking the day off to play it. I got my first one in 1989 and my dad sold it to get an A1200 which didn’t have much backwards comparability so I gave up on it. So many games I can’t wait to add to this. With a joystick, I can’t deal with a joypad for Amiga games.
Great job Dan and you did provide more info about it than most You Tube reviewers as well.
Best video I've seen so far, I'd love to get back into OctaMed or RSI Demomaker though
Excellent - been excited/worried about this since reading about it in Amiga Addict a while back - could have gone so wrong. As it happens it feels like one of the best, if not the best, of the mini consoles/formats. Only right that the best should be the one honoring the Amiga. It's clearly been done with reverence and love - everything from the form factor to the game choice is really on the money. Oh, and goes without saying, but this is the only review video that matters - I've ignored the others thrown at me by the algorithm over the last few days. Thanks for all the years of Amiga content Dan.
Looks like a lot of thought has gone in to this, decent selection of games included. Can't wait to get Turrican 2 and Gods running on this.
Turrican, yes.... Beneath the steel sky and dark seed.
@@MrLeafsta can't wait to pick this up!
I just downloaded all 4,000 odd games for it ready for when it arrives lol
@@DEVILTAZ35 same.
Cannot wait!!!!
They should have included turrican 1 2 3 and beast 1 2 3 and battle squadron arkanoid and marble madness
Thoroughly enjoyed this video, Thanks! Get my A500 Mini later in the week so hyped!
Thanks for this quality and detailed review. I think you've pushed me over the line, and I'll need to get one of these. I was actually an Atari ST owner back in the day, but many of the games on the A500 were also ST titles. Subscribed.
Been waiting for u to review the mini amiga dan.looking forward to mine arriving mid april.
So excited to get it set up next to the other minis I have
Great video as always Dan. Loved seeing workbench on it as well. Very nice.
Oddly I want to see Workbench and more creative programs running, back in the day I played with Deluxe Paint and even managed to draw the Penguin from Batman Returns using just the standard tank mouse and Deluxe Paint ! Good times! 😆
I remember drawing the Alien queen and the metal skeleton Terminator with Deluxe Paint with the mouse. And no layers like Photoshop back then. One of them - I think the Alien queen - was printed in a magazine. It made my year. Wish I'd kept the mag!
I did a version of Iron Maiden’s Powerslave on Deluxe paint on my A500. I got a few spare replacements from a shop in Rotherham and years later took the whole system to them and said they could have it as I had bought a PC, just gave it to them for free as they had been so good to me when I needed replacement parts. I kinda regret my generosity!
The only review worth watching :) I so hope they make a full-sized version :)
I have seen several A500 Mini reviews, but this was the one I was waiting for. Thank you :-)
Only Dan can truly cover the Amiga so well, thank you.
(Well okay so Amiga Bill maybe as well 😄).
But great review Dan, you made me desire getting one even though I’ve got more Amigas than is healthy.
BEST event of 2022!!!
Love hearing SPEEDBALL! Winning title !! Still fresh !
15:35 Ditto. The muted grey pallet looks better in my opinion. I'm guessing you could always get the original version via WHDload and use that instead?
So far the only review i saw that also showed workbench and applications. 👍. Seeing D-paint on this machine was very nostalgic 🙂
Dan, thanks for a good first look at what the A500 can do and what's included in the box. I never got to experience the Amigas back in the day. I went from a C128 directly to a PC clone. I'm wondering if you could do a quick video of how you got Amiga work bench desktop up & running on the A500 mini? Thank you.
Great review. And yes, even though I have actual Amiga hardware including classic and new expansions/accelerators and can run PiMiga or UAE based emulators on Mac, Linux and Windows, I still pre-ordered one just because it appears to be a really nice device to just leave hooked up to an HDMI port and play once in a while.
Great review, thanks for digging into workbench and demos! And, once again, a great job by RGL, seeing how much the updates improved the experience on theC64, can't wait to see what they'll do for this one in the future. Hope they can reuse the button remapping code for an update on theC64, that would be icing on the cake.
i'm actually now excited about this mini now,, I take back all the negativity i said about it .. Of course WinUAE-on a PC can do more, and attach .CRT cart files (Action Replay III) etc... but we all know everyone bought the Amiga to play games :)
Wow that looks fantastic, great video. After watching this, have had to put my preorder in. I can't wait now!
Great review Dan! Thank you!
Great video, thank you! This answered almost all my questions!
One thing I am wondering... can you do the home button + save game feature on games you add yourself via USB? Or only on the provided ones?
I also wonder this, did you get an answer ?
Great vid Dan. Some of the music demos brought back memories of when I had my first amiga, when I was young.
Bought my A500 in 1987 and played a lot of Pinball Dreams on it! Have a lot of floppy disks with animations and weird Paint experiments. So the is fun to see!
If it plays all the converted Amiga WHDLoad games from Killer Gorilla in .lha format, count me in. . I remember buying my original A500 along with 1084 S back in '91. So many great memories. Generally I use FS-UAE as opposed to WINUAE. As usual, excellent review Dan👍
Greetings from Germany. Nice Review. I can´t await the release of this maschine. And i hope it comes a maxi version later.
I always wondered regarding control pad of the CD32.
9:00 Does anyone know why the 'red' button is larger than the other ones? Just something to make people think :)
Thank you, i bought one of these and your review was excellent!
Excellent non biased review Dan, Totally agree in its current state its not for me but can see others it would be good for. If they make a Maxi version with working keyboard and add ADF support I would definitely consider purchasing it.
Been waiting to hear your review!
I'm a bit late to the party but my 500 mini gets delivered tomorrow can't wait. And grate review
Glad to see a bit more of a balanced review... I think it's a shame that you can't access your own games via the front end - think that would make it much more appealing for me personally. That said, performance wise it looks great!
I agree, hopefully someone hacks it so you can. Not sure why they didn't include this out of the box
Looking forward to it, i did post a comment just a moment ago but for some reason it got deleted, only mentioned ive got my USB all ready to go with WHDLoad on and the fact that Retro Games Limited have said ADF support is coming in a update
Great review. One of the most interesting and informative ones so far.
I grew up with a handy down A500+ in the 90s. Very excited to get this.
I have fond memories of the Amiga but I'm not exactly tech-savvy, so this mini system certainly appeals to me. Fantastic overview of the system and each of the games included; I have the most memories here of QWAK so I think that'll be the game I will try out first.
If I ever attempt the plunge in obtaining further Amiga games to play on this system, I shall have to check back to this informative video!
Look amazing mate, loved my Amiga 500, this looks mint and thanks for showing this 😀👍🏻
Thanks for the video, looks great. Can’t wait to get mine :D
Great review buddy! I’m loving the mini!
Without a doubt I'm getting this!
Great review - very, very tempted to pick one of these up.
Now I am getting hopeful we'll soon see a Mini Dreamcast.
Sega mega drive 2 out in October 2022
After learning that Retro Games Ltd and Subvert Ltd are intrinsically linked, and subsequent treatment of a certain youtube retro channel no matter how passionately I feel about the Amiga this product can be shoved where the sun don't shine.
Looking forward to this! Pre-ordered in US, so will see a bit later than our friends to the east. Had the A500 back in the day. Ruff n Tumble, Simulcra, Super Cars and Stunt Car 😊Racer are my faves.
Thanks a lot for showing the workbench.
19:30 There was a very easy way around all those tedious loading times, copy the whole disc to RAM:\CHESS then assign the disc to run from that directory. Now instead of loading from the floppy, you're running from a virtual disc that was far, far faster. True, you needed expanded ram on an A500 but I think we all got those ram cards back then. My A500+ got her full 2MB very quickly.
That only works for games and demos that don't use a custom disk format, don't have copy protection and aren't hard-coded to read from floppy.
@@Ffinity Works fine for battlechess, I did it all the time when I played on my 'miggy
Wow flashback from the past! Got mine in 1989 at age 8. Many great gaming years!
Had it on order since i heard about it. I have c64 mini, and the nintendo mini's. Im old school uk amiga boy, i had a mix of purchased and unfortunately huge copied games collection. Not proud of it, but i was 14 at the time and now im nearly 50. I have since with a working wage, set about purchasing every game i owned as a kid now i can afford it. I cannot wait for this and will be purchasing every and any games that the pubishers release. I have done with my nintendo switch and have an enormous paid arcade archives collection and as many spectrum games like sabatour. I got gods, toki, turrican, etc, worms, superfrog, alien breed, monkey island on ios and android.offical stuff like vega and spectaculator. (everything i had as a kid i can get hold of).
Lets hope more devs from the past bring out re releases for amiga.
great review, watched few of them, was curious about the demos, thank you!
Excellent review, I wondered if dPaint would work this is exactly what I want to do. Hopefully I can work out how to load it myself.
Yes, would have been nice to see some benchmarking. It would also be cool if they allowed settings to truly max out CPU speed for programs that would benefit from it.
Great review, Dan. Well done!
Great video Dan, I’m a RetroPie fan, but I’m still getting one of these to sit next to my c64 mini
Great in-depth video Dan. Looks like a really neat device. I have an A500 sitting here that I really need to start using more. I don't know that much about Amiga tbh, but this got me a bit excited to jump into it!
I’m definitely getting one of these.
I would love to get an A600 Maxi from that company.
The C64 maxi was awesome and the A600 would have the right size, the original A500 was quite chunky.
/edit/ I'm very surprised they added a gamepad. We all had quickshots or competition pros. And the company has a nice joystick in the c64 mini/maxi package.
Me too - the A600 was my baby. Spent soooo much time on it.
Best review by far!!! Thank you for that. It's really amazing that it can run demos and workbench. I got shocked. If i ever see that the Octamed works here also....i m gonna faint :P I have an amiga 500+ with gotek....but if the mini's price goes a little lower i think i will buy it, for all the reasons you say an the end of your video :) Keep up the good work
This looks awesome. :) As the owner of one out of the only 5000 copies sold, I'm particularly happy to see WormsDC is included. In my opinion, it is the best Worms game by far, and it's a shame so few people got to play it.
I haven't bothered with any of the other mini systems, but this one I have to get.
Wow, Worms only sold 5000 copies on the Amiga...they certainly made up for those sales on other platforms since
@@Alex_Power The original Worms sold much better, I'm sure. It was released in 1995, and worked on all Amigas. It was also ported to several other platforms. WormsDC, on the other hand, was a much upgraded version only released for AGA Amigas like the A1200 and A4000, in 1997. At this point, the Amiga market had shrunk considerably, and WormsDC only targeted parts of it. As far as I know, worms DC was never released for any other platforms...until now. :)
The C64 Mini eventually became the full-size version with a functional keyboard. Wonder if they will eventually do the same with this model, that would be awesome. I'd also like to see them make a C-128 Maxi version one day, if I live that long.
The C-64 maxi should have included a C-128 mode given the power of thehardware.
Indeed. I'm certain it will happen, but the better things usually take more time. I waited forever for a version of the VICE emulator that could even run my C64 software as it used an REU. Time will tell. I wrote "WsDos v7.1" though and while that runs fine on WinVice, I'd like to see *any* emulation with reliable disk saving capability- that would certainly do for starters.@@fmlazar
I had an Amiga 500+ with a 1MB ram upgrade and used it a lot back in the day but then went onto PCs. Stored it away, and unknown to me as I didn't realise the issue, it suffered the leaking battery issue and some (not a lot of corrosion) on the board under it when I opened it up a few years ago to check on it. I didn't attempt to fix it but took photos of the corrosion and sold the complete system on Ebay to someone who'd fix it and use it. I still game on PCs but I have bought an A500 mini (I paid £86 new so caught a good deal) and have with my memory been adding all my old games onto a single USB, for nostalgia reasons but also because it's fun.
Fantastic review Dan - thank you. I was hoping Workbench would be included by default. I get the target audience etc. but a shame nonetheless.
Yes, agreed with Workbench!
Workbench is still a commercial product, including it would unnecessarily increase the retail price. If you need it, it's easy to get. Most of the target market don't need it.
Them game settings are going to come in handy when getting Hostages to run at the right speed. Love that game and its in lha format too.
Hostages was great!
How many LCD monitors can do 50 Hz though and how to find them? Fixed 60 Hz is so, so common, unlike in the CRT days. My own monitor advertises it can do it but secretly inserts frames to generate a 60 Hz output anyway. Freesync monitors exist but will they work, or is it a gamble?
Anyway, thanks for this review. It's the first one (and maybe the fourth I have seen so far) that has shown off Workbench! I was 50/50 games/productivity and would love to know more here, including if running Kickstart/WB 3.1 can be done and the performance. :)
This x1000.
Great review i can’t wait for release day.
The Amiga video you have put on Is rather interesting but when I saw the dress made by your partner wow ! That was awesome …where’s her UA-cam channel ?? Fab colour and design!
Now back to Amiga review! Congrats on Amiga 500 mini review!!
Complimenti per la recensione Dan,perfetta
Scusami sai dove trovare il workbench in formato whdload?
@@dinorusso5761 purtroppo non so dirtelo,io sto cercando in vhdload tutti i giochi e demo possibili,e non so dove sono,speriamo che qualcuno risponda e dica dove cercare
Excellent review (again). Thanks Dan.
Great video! Thank you!
Fantastic video 😊👍
Nice review... pre-ordered mine after this video and got it on release date (Sweden). For a plug-and-play solution with very little faffing about, it is probably the next best thing to a real Amiga. I emulate my old A1200T productivity workstation and not a lot of games works, but all the software works great (LightWave 3D, Imagine 4.x, Octamed Soundstudio etc) and most high end demos from the demo-scene.
I have made a collection of my fav games on a USB stick and... there is one or two that seems to have a problem... but all those that works... fantastic!!!! Instead of using my emulated Amiga, Vampire V4 SA, Sam460 or AmigaOne X5000, I've started using the A500 - Mini for the oldschool games. I've actually used it little too much... haha... with save-states, it makes it a bit easier to complete those hard games from back in the day, and yes... it makes those games more enjoyable as well.
Was waiting for this review. Decent little device!
that's precisely the target audience ... someone who wants to play Amiga games w/o the fuss (it's essentially a video game console with included games pretty much plug-and-play)
however, even an Amiga fan with plenty of experience with emulators, actual Amigas, FPGAs etc can definitely have fun with this little gizmo - that it can even run Workbench is awesome imho
the amiga 500 demos take me back some awsome TUNESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Did I detect a bit of an Adam and Joe homage in the form of 'sport ball'? lol
Fantastic review, and fantastic video as ever.
The IT Crowd...it's an excellent episode.
superb review
I was waiting for someone to do a simple video on how to format and set up WHD Load files on a USB stick so that they can be played on the A500 Mini. Cheers.
Great and informative review. Would go as far as saying probably one of the best A500 Mini reviews I've seen.
Got it on pre-order and really looking forward to receiving it. Will be definitely adding Lemmings, Cannon Fodder, Monkey Island 1 & 2 and many more of the iconic Amiga games. Roll on 8th April!
Amiga demo Scene was just impressive.