So it turns out my old A1200 has been in storage all these years along with a whole bunch of disks. A quick test and it still seems to run, though the image on the TV is barely visible. I’m leaving the country next week and have no time to play with it. Rather than just drop it at the recycling centre, can anyone suggest Amiga groups in Scotland that might be interested in it?

So far I’ve requested to join an Amiga Scotland Facebook group but no idea if it’s alive. Any suggestions?

Hello,

I am one of the organizers of the Amiwest show and wanted to invite everyone to join us on October 22nd and 23rd in Sacramento, California.

For those who have not heard of Amiwest, it is an Amiga-focused

computer show founded in 1998. The show features exhibits, seminars, and a banquet.

In honor of the 25th Amiwest, the organizing team has been working hard to create a fantastic show.

The exhibit hall will feature familiar faces from years past and those new to Amiwest. We are excited to be joined again by Doug Compton of 10Marc. We also have new exhibitors, Chris Hooper and Stefan Reinauer showing off their fantastic new ReA4091 ZorroIII SCSI controller.

Our seminar and speaker list are growing with both virtual and local presentations. For the first time, we welcome the legendary RJ Mical. In addition to RJ, we expect a packed schedule for 2022 with presentations covering new hardware and software projects.

The banquet speaker will be Tim Jenison of NewTek fame. This accomplished engineer created one of the most ambitious Amiga peripherals, the Video Toaster. Since then, he has moved on to explore many other fascinating challenges. Join us on Saturday, Oct 22nd, to welcome Tim to Amiwest!

For those who cannot make it in person, we invite you to tune in to our live stream.

You can find all the details on the show's website, www.amiwest.net.

Thank you!

Hello, I have recently purchased an A500 off ebay. It has been upgraded with a fat agnus. It currently has 1MB chip RAM total. It has 512k on board and a 512k trapdoor upgrade. Is there any way to get this up to 1.5MB or 2MB chip RAM? If so, what are the best options for achieving this? It has a Rev 6A motherboard.

So i just brought my A500 mini and i wanted to add more games to it, so i installed the nessesary files for my pendrive (A FAT32 MBR 16GB Kingston DataTraveler G4). When i turned on my console however, i just strated blinking and didn't output anything to the HDMI. I left it for an hour and it was still blinking.

Does anyone know how can i fix this? Any help will be useful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVzbnlXLevw

I have been looking for a mostly complete reference to Amiga video output options, mostly, but not solely for the A500, and haven't found one. I don't want to duplicate work already posted on the Web.

Ok, you just bought a real Amiga 500 and you will need a (purchasable) way to connect it to a monitor. Out of the box, it has a composite B/W port next to the 23-pin Video port that should give output good enough to test, but there are other options to get video out of the A500. Except for the black & white composite out and the internal Denise based RGB-2-HDMI (A500 & 2000) adapter, these solutions can work with most other Amigas.

Let’s get the vintage (meaning not in production), “sore thumb” option listed and why I refer to it as such: the A520. It connects to the Amiga’s 23-pin video out port; the A520 video modulator that was designed to allow TV sets to display Amiga graphics; while it provides a standard UHF RF output as well as a standard composite video output, it has three RCA connectors: RF output, color composite output, and a mono audio input - connected to the stereo Amiga output with a Y-cable. The video quality is very poor, and even the Amiga Hardware Database [http://amiga.resource.cx/ ] states that it has, “atrocious video quality.”

The easiest (but not least expensive) vintage (purchasable if available) option is to have a 30+ year old Amiga monitor and a 23-pin to VGA cable. The original monitors are available on places like eBay, and are not cheap; but since they sync to 15KHz (the standard of all the original gaming consoles), it makes them useful. Alternative vintage monitors that also sync to 15 KHz (and above) can be found at [http://15khz.wikidot.com/ ] and on that list is the same monitor Chris Edwards uses, a Dell U2410F, and I own that and a couple of Dells: ST2320L & ST2410; these need just a 23-pin Amiga to VGA adapter [ https://amigakit.amiga.store/amiga-monitor-adapter-p-183.html ] ~ <$15 USD and a VGA cable. They do not handle interlace without flickering. They do handle VGA, DVI and HDMI.

My solution to handle 15KHz with rock solid interlace, is the most common, and generally less expensive: the Amiga-to-SCART cable and the SCART-to-HDMI device.

[ https://amigakit.amiga.store/scart-amiga-cable-with-audio-p-226.html ] ~$12 USD. You need to then feed the signal into a SCART-to-HDMI (RGB version) [ https://www.amazon.com/Scart-Video-Converter-Scaler-Coaxial/dp/B00MUNIVRO ] ~ $30 USD; note the use of the letters, RGB, in the description.

No one in the USA/Canada either makes nor sells these Amiga to SCART cables, so AmigaKit is the cheapest and often the fastest way to obtain these. Amazon does a brisk trade in the SCART-to-HDMI converter -- just don't get the cheaper ones, they do not use the Amiga's RGB output, and won't work.

Other options:

SCART cable (yes, you still need the cable) to OSSC [ https://www.retrorgb.com/ossc.html ], these run $100 USD to $150 depending on the seller with some listed-on eBay.

One option, that works better than the OSSC and the SCART-2-HDMI, is the “RGB-2-HDMI” -- a hand soldered device (also not sold in North America) that uses the older Raspberry Pi Zero (version 1.1 or 1.3) and plugs into the Amiga's Denise chip inside the Amiga (where you then run an HDMI cable out) [ https://www.retroguru.eu/product/amiga-rgbtohdmi-adapter-rgb-to-hdmi-raspberry-pi-zero/ ]. These give a pixel perfect output to HDMI, handle interlace perfectly, and have many adjustable settings. They do, however, go inside the Amiga 500 (600 or 2000). There is an external option taking the RGB output from the video out port using a similar device [ https://texelec.com/product/rgbtohdmi-ttl/ ] ~ $109 USD.

The RGB-2-HDMI device runs at least €20 ~ $21 USD [ https://ultimatemister.com/product/amiga-rgb2hdmi/ ] and the Pi usually $40 on eBay.

One of the best devices is the Indivision ECS V3 [ http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/Indivision_ECS_V3 ] that is sold out, but a great product. It also fits inside the Amiga, in the Denise, and has some extra screen modes.

The RetroTink 2X SCART [ 2X-SCART | RetroTINK ] (which uses the Amiga’s RGB) is used by some folks (such as Paul Compton, I believe); the manufacturer (retrotink.com ~ a company located in the USA) it runs $95 USD, and has a good reputation.

The GBS 8220 or the GBS 8200 [ https://www.amazon.com/Paddsun-Converter-Output-Monitor-GBS-8200/dp/B01IBJCAIG/ ] is a “base” board used in arcade gaming systems, to give VGA out; however, it has a few issues (like needing an enclosure, and a cable to connect the RGB in), plus a few video flaws when used with the Amiga; these can be corrected by a GBS Control device [https://www.retrorgb.com/gbs-control-installation-overview.html ]. The combination device is sold on eBay from $75 USD (China).

To be thorough, the A500/1000s 86-pin expansion slot can be adapted to a Zorro I slot (the Zorro II slot has 14 extra pins and allows bus-mastering via the Buster chip) is available for purchase [ https://www.tindie.com/products/retrofletch/amiga-500-zorro-ii-slot-expander-a500-zorroii-2/ ], and there are 2 graphics cards, somewhat available for purchase (GBA++

[ http://knoppix.net/store/GBAPII-Commodore-Amiga-RTG-Video-Card-Modern-Picasso-2-Clone_154951571586.html ] and the quite popular ZZ9000 [ retrorgb.com ]). These were designed for the Zorro II slots of the A2/3/4000s. The GBA++, I believe, requires a minor modification to work with the A500.

Notable mentions:

The GGLABS A520HD is the HDTV equivalent of the classic Commodore A520 TV modulator. Instead of encoding the Amiga video signal to a low-quality composite output it converts the RGB output to a high quality YPbPr signal compatible with HDTVs with a component input. The A520HD connects to the Amiga 23-pin video port and is powered directly from the system. It is an out-of-stock item with a schematic available [ https://gglabs.us/sites/gglabs.us/files/a520hd_sch-A00.pdf]

I bought an A1200 recently and would like some recommendations