Leading up to September 1989 I’d had quite a few different home computers – Sinclair ZX-81, Commodore VIC-20, and an Atari 800XL – but it was in the afternoon of a chilly September in Connecticut, 34 years ago, that I set up the first computer that I actually purchased for myself – an Amiga 500.
I used that Amiga 500 from late 1989 until early 1994 when it was replaced with a generic PC, which is about the longest I’ve ever used a single machine…
Anyway, I’ve always wanted another one just for ‘old time’s sake’ as well as maintaining access to all of the stuff I made on the Amiga over the years, but 30+ year old computers are fraught with complications such as failing components, brittle plastics, weirdly non-standard I/O, and a need for actual CRT-based monitors. And Amiga’s in general are surprisingly expensive here in the sci-fi future – a good condition A-500 that has had the 30+ year old electronics updated can command $600 to $700, and when you throw in a monitor and some shipping you’re looking at a bit over a grand for some nostalgia.
That’s twice what I spent for my original machine and its monitor…
To maintain access to my Amiga files I’ve since used a selection of software emulators such as Cloanto’s “Amiga Forever” to create ADF files, which are bit-copies of the original physical media that I can archive and load into various emulators as needed / wanted. But software emulation, while functional enough, feels ‘fake’ and I want an actual physical Amiga – but one without the above problems.
Basically I want a new A-500 made with new parts and that connects to modern peripherals such as SD cards and LCD monitors.
The current solution to this quandary is a thing called the MiSTer, which uses an Altera Cyclone-V FPGA to create system that emulates the actual circuitry of things like upright arcade machines, old home game consoles, and even a few old computers such as the Amiga.
This thing is very close to an electrical 1:1 to the original hardware of whatever core you load into it, but in its broad scope it leaves a bit to be desired when trying to get an authentic experience. For example, it will emulate anything from an Amiga 1000 to an Amiga 4000 with whatever chipset you desire (OCS, ECS, AGA) and with options for memory and ‘extras’ that never existed back in the day… But it’s weird to just dial-in more ram or processing power on your Amiga whenever you want, and the 680X0 ‘processor’ is also emulated, so there’s some weirdness there too.
And a MiSTer setup runs about $600 – if you can find one – because the DE10 nano board it’s based on can be hard to find.
Enter another FPGA project I discovered called the “MiniMig” for Mini Amiga…
This uses the same type of FPGA magic as the MISTer, but in a more authentic fashion… What the MiniMig does is use a Xilinx Spartan-III FPGA to create the custom chipset in the first-gen Amigas (Agnus, Denise, and Paula), and presents that to an actual Motorola (now Freescale) MC68SEC000 processor (basically a modern package for the old DIP 68000 CPU), an authentic 6MB memory bus, and PIC-based peripheral controller that can handle SD cards and VGA monitors.
In effect, what you get with the MiniMig is an authentic A-1000 / A-500 / A-500+ made with modern components that interfaces to modern peripherals – without all of the puffery one finds on the MiSTer – and all for a mere $350.
Soooo – I bought one as an early Christmas present for myself and it should arrive this week – customs willing – from the Great White North…
— Update —
The NOS KeyTronic keyboard and mouse for the MiniMig came in this evening.
The MiniMig only really understands PS2, so I had to source a keyboard and mouse for it as I had a worrying lack of PS2 peripherals on hand. This has been remedied with a big-ass enter key. 🙂
Listening to "1984" by Saffari