Retro Games THEA500 Mini Reboots Commodore Amiga 500 For Gaming Nostalgia
The classic Amiga 500 is getting remade and reborn as another miniature console for old school gaming (in case you're not interested in building a killer Amiga emulator yourself). While the original system was released by Commodore way back in 1987, Retro Games is behind the remake, which is officially dubbed 'The A500 Mini', sometimes stylized as THEA500 Mini. However you want to write it out, this is another nod to retro gaming.
Companies continue to try and replicate the success Nintendo had with its NES Classic and SNES Classic consoles, and that has led to some interesting projects, this being one of them. Retro Games has been especially active in the space, having rebooted the famed Commodore 64 a couple of times (in mini and full-size form factors), and the VIC20. Now it has turned its attention to the Amiga 500.
Retro Games says this is a fully licensed homage to the classic16-bit home computer, which in its original form featured a 16/32-bit CPKU, 512Kb of RAM, and several custom chips for sound and audio.
"Developed by Retro Games Ltd. and distributed by Koch Media, the THEA500 Mini 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," Retro Games says.
Like the Commodore 64, the Amiga 500 shipped in a large keyboard form factor, and so too does the A500 Mini. It also includes a two-button mouse that is molded after the original, and a newly engineered eight-button precision gamepad, both of which connect via USB.
The system draws power from a USB-C cable and outputs to 720p at 60Hz in the US, or 50Hz in Europe. There are multiple scaling options, a CRT filter, the ability to save and resume progress in games at any time, and even upgradeable firmware.
Retro Games says the system will ship with 25 built-in games. It's only announced a dozen of them for the moment (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) and reveal the rest at a later date.
That's just to get you started, though. A big perk (especially compared to Nintendo's reborn consoles) is the ability to add more titles on your own. Retro Games says you can side load more games via USB with WHDLoad support.
