This was such an amazing video! The clear coverage, strong knowledge and experience with the Amiga, and the jokes LOL seriously loved those throughout. Nice work! Thank you!
I was a Megadrive kid back in the day. Really not trying to be 'that guy' or anything, but I never could see the appeal of the Amiga other than for those getting cheap pirated games from market stalls back in the 90's (which is made all the more strange as market stalls also done swap a game plus a fiver for Megadrive and SNES games also back then). Seemed that an awful lot of Amiga games didn't have any in game music either as it seemed to be either music OR sound FX but not both running at the same time. Hardly the hallmark of an impressive system. I never grew up with an Amiga but was aware of it. I also never grew up with the P.C Engine but was impressed with the recent PC Engine Coregrafx mini as it clearly redefined what I thought old school shmups were all about. As stated, I was a Megadrive kid growing up. The Megadrive also had The Chaos Engine and Speedball 2, so why would anyone bother with an Amiga? Considering what I've just said about the Amiga's only real USP in the 90's it's also Ironic that the type of kids that had an Amiga back then were also the type of kids that did well at maths and were probably going to grow up to become accountants, bookkeepers or estate agents etc but they seemingly couldn't care less about indulging in software piracy. 😂😂 Always nice to see a new retro gaming product on the market even though I'm probably going to sit this one out.
One request I have for future emulation-based hardware reviews; please give at least some information on input latency in comparison to original hardware or an FPGA. Even if purely anecdotally perceived and not rigidly tested, it would be helpful to know. Great video as usual, Audi!
I agree it's one of DF's main purposes to test that kind of technical point. My personal experience with the A500 Mini: No significant input latency or audio latency to mention. It's probably a few frames - very much within expectations for software emulation. (This is contrary to some people's bad reports, so I was pleasantly surprised).
The successor to the C64 was the failed C128. It was still a large jump from either of those two systems. Hell, from a multimedia point of view it was ahead of pretty much anything on the market at that point, particularly from a price stand point.
@@gameguy73 yeah, I mean, as a games machine, the 128 was mostly used for 64 games. I think there might have been a small number of 128 exclusives, from memory? I don't think it was ever meant as a 'next gen' replacement; more a sort of upgraded 64 for business etc.
Thank you so much for covering this. Amiga A500 was the first computer I bought with my own money and I LOVED it. Batman Pack plus Shadow of the Beast and I was in 16bit heaven. I can see myself getting a mini to sit next to my SNES Mini, my other favourite 16bit machine.
Thanks for the wonderful review 💚 It's very informative and insightful. I think the A500 is just beautiful! The A500 has contributed so much to the evolution of our games today and was way ahead of its time. Great device for the collection 👍💚
Nostalgia overload. My dad bought me an Amiga 500 when I was 5. Or maybe he bought it for himself. Almost all of our games had been illegal copies (I do wonder if this affected the longevity of the system). Sensible soccer and Cannon Fodder should have been included but this looks amazing.
In answer to your question: yes, the rampant piracy affected both the quality of the games (little to no profit to be made from designing games to take advantage of the Amiga's hardware; cheaper to just port the Atari ST version) and also hastened the death of the Amiga as a viable platform. Developers abandoned ship to write games for the new consoles instead, which were far less susceptible to piracy.
@@Midwinter2 Thanks mate. I absolutely adored the system. One of the few games I had that wasn't pirated was Zool. The game required a physical circular card to decipher a code. Unfortunately, I lost the card and the game became unplayable. Ironic. I loved seeing my dad come back from work with new copies of games at the time and I'm sure I wasn't the only kid who just assumed that's how they were supposed to be shared. All changed now, definitely no longer normal. It would be interesting for DF to look at the impact of piracy, DRM and other early anti piracy measures, particularly due to the impact it had on some systems like the Amiga.
@@Sambrowski10 I hear you - and I'm not getting on my high horse. I had pirated copies too, though I'd say half my games were bought. I was 15 when the Amiga was released - and my father bought one about a year later (the original Amiga 1000). I adored my Amiga too. It was an amazing computer at the time - and in some respects, I find modern computers quite clunky to use by comparison.
Speed Ball 2, Great Giana Sisters, Populous, Bloodwych, International Karate, Metal Masters, North & South, Strip poker. Magic years for any young teenager who loved games.
The R-Type intro soundtrack is great. Anyways, I disagree with the "lacklustre games" argument. Except for one or two of them, they are all great classics that any true Amiga user ( I have been one until my job forced me to switch to PC ) knows and loves. Plus, the A500 Mini has been thought with the option of adding all the games you want, thanks to the nice WHDLoad implementation (and with some workaround also ADFs and HDFs... And more). To be honest, I have been more a professional Amiga user back then, although sure enough I also played tons of games. As far as concern the keyboard... Well, if it was a working one it would have been a waste. Given how small it is, it only makes sense as an aesthetic non working feature. I think this A500 Mini is a well built and well thought little piece of kit. I really love mine more than I expected to. P.S. The Amiga was not a console!! -_-
@@wayn3h Exactly, it's subjective. That means the list is good, not lacklustre. Some can like it more than others and vice versa. As I said in my comment, I have been an Amiga user, even at a professional level (when I switched to the A4000 to do my first serious jobs), for as long as this computer was relevant. I had pretty much all of them: A1000, A500, A500+, A1200, A4000 and A4000 T.
It seems like Team 17 were really on board with this project, I guess they offered their entire catalog when asked about licensing, which is a good thing because they usually publish good games to this day.
Don't understand why every company just doesn't licence their games to whoever wants to produce minis. Nintendo and Sega should be doing it as well since their mini consoles have been discontinued.
@@bigbabatunde1218 well Nintendo loves to limit the availability of their games so they can get away with charging higher than average prices on stuff that's decades old. On the other hand Sega is happy to sell collections like there's no tomorrow, you can find old Sega games in practically any platform. And they used to license their stuff to other companies to make little mini consoles back in the 2000's but after quite a few ended up being kinda crap they stopped doing so.
@@axelprino All it takes is for Sega to licence its games for an Evercade collection on a cart or two and Nintendo will be on the back foot. Rubbish games from Codemasters or other lesser known publishers is one thing but this needs to get to the next level with the big players to fully expand this retro market.
@@SuperFriendBFG Sensible Soccer, by Sensible Software, Acquired by Codemasters, Acquired by Electronic Arts and ah, well, who do you contact about anything?
Do not dismiss Dragon's Breath. You need to read the instructions before you play, but it is one of the best games included on the system and I am overjoyed to see it here. You can play it against the computer or up to two human players, and it is a fantastic strategy game with a lot of depth. It also has moody visuals and one of the best soundtracks on the Amiga, period. Don't blow past it.
While I disagree with you on some of the titles that were included- I love the video! You are a terrific edition to the DF crew. Battle Chess is awesome by the way :)
Awesome review and VERY useful!!! I just ordred my A500 mini and its coming in from Amazon tomorrow......this is my first experience with anything AMiga related at all! I have plenty of experience with PC's and most consoles from say NES & TG16 up to say.....my current gaming pc with an RTX 3090 card. I also own every system from my PSX, PSX2, PSX3, 3DO, Jaguar, Gamecube, MY BELOVED SEGA SATURN!!!! Nuff said!!!......hope i enjoy this little system and its nostalgic trip down memory lane!!!!!!!!
I can see digital foundry now experimenting more with comedy the older videos were Interesting but lacked much personality I loved that "Get out of my office" line
stardust(especially the warp sequence) and elfmania graphics still hold up today. seeing them run at this level of fedality on a 37 year old hardware is shocking. they're not even AGA titles. developed by the returnal guys also slam tilt is a zillion times better than pinball fantasies. also developed by Dice
Yes, Stardust was terrific in all respects. Elfmania was visually superb - though the gameplay could have been better. Both games are examples of the amazing results that could be achieved when the Amiga's hardware was properly exploited.
Fantastic review. Clearly some choppy waters were encountered as far as getting licenses. Sad considering classics like Lotus 2 would never be possible
After a year this finally popped up on my recommendation. Thanks RUclips. That being said, I am watching now but something before I forget. The Amiga CD32, still got mine, came with a sticky piece for the controller circle pad that made a difference. At least as long as the sticky pad lasted. Oh and the A500 also makes a great Christmas ornament :) I am also waiting for the recently announced A500 Max.
Great video! The 25 games included are not worth the price, but the ability to add more content makes it much more appealing. The Amiga 500 was an incredibly colourful and impressive machine back in the day and I am glad people are discovering some of its hidden gems, like Stardust.
Glad to see Lotus Esprit Challenge (loved I & II), also liked Super Cars series. Kick Off wasn't that bad but I preferred Sensible Soccer. My fave was IK+. A lot of games had amazing soundtracks imo! Fond memories! + The Secret of Monkey Island Rainbow Islands Cannon Fodder Super Frog Bubble Bobble Pang (also on PSNow) Star Dust Lemmings It Came From the Desert
Moonstone, Wings, Speedball, Apidya, Cannon Fodder, Pirates, Battle Isle, Ambermoon - there was so much good stuff on the Amiga. The demos, music, crackintros and other scene releases were also mighty impressive to me whenever i was at my cousins house and besieged his Amiga.
Yes, I loved my Amiga. When the Amiga was discontinued, I lost all interest in computers. Even with the high-powered computers that are around today, they are just necessary tools to me, no more. But the Amiga was something magical.
@@LinuxRenaissance Well, the recent flurry of activity around the Amiga plus nostalgia really makes me want to play Amiga games in some form. I am clueless about emulation etc - so I'll probably get this mini thing, imperfect as it may be...
Always happy to see love for the Amiga, it was huge in the UK and it's still frustrating as hell that the American management ran it into the ground. For the time, it's sound chip was head of any other machine. It was a magical Christmas when I got my A500. Sadly the examples packaged with the A500 Mini don't showcase its best graphics or gameplay. So... best games in no particular order not featured in this video? 1: Gravity Power / Gravity Force 2 - A shooter where you're in little spaceships constantly battling gravity and trying to blow each other up, with destructible scenery. Arguably the best two-player game ever. 2: Sensible Soccer - best footy game ever. Perfect stickiness of the ball, fast, breezy, perfect control with simple but adorable graphics. 3: Syndicate - Be the head of a sinister mega-global-corporation and send your four bio-mechanical agents into an isometric city to wreak havoc on rival mega-corp agents in a Bladerunner-esque world. 4: Dune - Surprisingly excellent point-and-click adventure with Risk style strategy elements. Deviates from the book's plot in an interesting fashion. Try to get the latter CD emulation if possible. 5: Dune 2 - The great granddaddy of RTS's. Still pretty good. 6: Apidya - Fantastic side-scrolling shooter where you're a heroic wasp taking on all the horrors of a bucolic English garden. 7: Canon Fodder - You'll need a keyboard and mouse for this, but it's an excellently brutal top down shooter with a surprisingly melancholic undertone. 8: K240 - Control your own mining colonies on asteroids. Rejoice in your skyscrapers. Tremble as rival mining colonies fling their missiles and ships at your cities. Laugh maniacally as your latest research and production of massive star fleets and missile silos enable you to crush the trespassing fools. 9: Second Samurai - Pretty nifty hack-and-slash platformer with some cool visuals. 10: Pinball Fantasies - Indeed pinball perfection. 11: The Settlers - First in the series and actually my favourite still. 12: Colonization - Sid Meier's Civ-type game where you colonise America. Gripping mechanics. Always play the Dutch. 13: Rainbow Islands - Whee! Ha ha!! 14: Shadow Fighter - Best beat-em-up on the Amiga with an entertaining roster of fighters, but mainly because Streetfighter 2 was infernally slow on the A500. 15: Historyline 1914-1918 - Turn based battlefield strategy game. Pretty atmospheric. 16: Basejumpers - Multiplayer game where you platform your way up a big building then all leap off the top, trying to jostle each other into flagpoles, ledges etc on your plummet down. Last one to pull the cord scores most points, with inevitable hilarious consequences. 17: Micro Machines - Charming top-down racer where you weave your way between spilt honey-nut loops on a breakfast table, etc. 18: Dyna-Blaster - It's like Super-Bomber Man to the point where the lawyers would come knocking. 19: Super Skidmarks - Probably the best and most graphically advanced top-down racer, with 3Dish graphics. You can choose to race as cows on wheels. 20: IK+ (International Karate +) - Three player fighter where pressing the button 't' makes the other player's trousers fall down, making it clearly excellent. Enjoy!
Grow up with the Amiga. Dad brought the very first Amiga 1000. Played so many games, music demo's and deluxe paints . Dad used to work on the Amiga in gaming and other things. Such a great machine and soooo many memories 👍
10/10 coverage Audi! Very niche topic big I really hope this video does well for you guys. Actually got a bunch of laughs out of me. I knew nothing about the Amiga until today but I'm gonna mess with some emulators at work tomorrow.
"If you're the kind of person that has a recall box or a MiSTer, then you're already an emulation expert and your parents are very proud of you" On the nose! That describes the scene well, though very sarcastically. Yes MiSTer is superior, but in ways that most people will never care about.
Paradroid is such a neat game, I wish we’d get a more modern remake of it. The idea of taking over robots and building an army while being able change up combat as either active or hacking (like Nier Automata does when playing as 9S) and taking back ship after ship.
I did not own an Amiga, but my friend did. I absolutely loved it and have so many fond memories of playing it with him. We used to love playing North and South, canon fodder, sensible soccer, Defender of the crown, silent service and, monkey Island, speed ball 2 and super off road.
This is so good. Audi's got his own taste and verve and I'm so glad they let him do his thing. I probably won't dive deep into the Amiga unless I become independently wealthy, play the catalog of almost every other gaming platform, get to explore Spain, the French Riviera and Amalfi coast and Northern Africa for a few years, and then have a reason to stay indoors for a few months... BUT if all that happens, I'm glad people like Audi are around to Sherpa me through the Amiga when I get to it. Speaking of another world, he's just right about Another World. Play that game.
The games that show Amiga rules: - World Sensible of Soccer - Shadow of the Beast - Flashback - Wings - It came from the desert - Dune 1 - Dune 2 - Les Voyageurs du Temps - Maniac Mansion - Xenon 2 - Indiana Jones (2x) - Defender of the Crown - Populous - Cannon Fodder - KGB - Monky Island (2x) - North & South - Lionheart - Loom - Croisière pour un Cadavre And so many more!
I found selection of included games as quite well chosen. All but one (Super Cars II) were known to me, and all of them where in a "good game" or "strong nostalgia" category. Nobody is going to play F-16 or Stunt Car Racer any more, but at the time those games were popular along my friends. A work friend, a longstanding amiga user, had given similar opinion on game lists when I introduced him to A500 Mini. And gamepad is perfectly fine. Directional buttons are somewhat long in motion, and buttons could be faster. But it is sturdy and works well. Primary A500 issue is lag in faster games, not a controller.
CMB AMIGA: simply THE BEST 16-bit computer IN HISTORY. A legend. A MUST HAVE. Thank you Jay Miner for so many years of happiness by his side (PAULA, DENIS & AGNUS), after another of his legends, the Atari family 8Bit XL, and of course A2600. An indelible memory.
@@PhilBaxterX68000 was a beast! But it was also far more expensive than the A500 in 1987 when it launched, and would have been way out of the reach of most kids even if it made it out of Japan. I think the price/performace ratio on the A500 was what really contributed to its success, and why it was easily the most popular version.
My dad bought us an Amiga 1000 back in 1985 and over the next few years dozens and dozens of games. Battlechess, SDI and Defender of the Crown were some of the best looking games I'd ever seen, better than anything on console at least, for a good long time.
@@fensoxx I'm sure it wouldn't be good if released now, lol. The gameplay was pretty basic. But back then I was enthralled. The graphics were insane for the time. Some fond memories playing that game with my dad.
@@phrozac yeah I was coming off the a TI99/4a and when I saw that jousting scene in Defender of the Crown on my a500 I was hooked. Just the title screen with its fonts, high resolution (for the time), and music blew me away.
It was almost the Atari Amiga. Atari pulled out and Commodore bought it. Atari released the ST in 1985 and got the headstart on the 16bit era. Many games were ports of Atari ST games by 1987 when the Amiga 500 was released.
Captain Planet, Lemmings, Bart Simpson vs The Space Mutants, Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, Sensible Soccer. Amazing stuff looking back. It was my PC before I had a PC if that makes sense.
I didn't know this existed and now I am far more excited than a cynical 47 year old is supposed to be about... well, anything. But crikey, where is Cannon Fodder, Turrican 3, Lemmings, Apidya, Chase HQ, Beneath a Steel Sky? At least you can chuck your own stuff on it though, which saves the day. It's going on the "if we get a company bonus this Christmas" list. Thanks for the wonderful video.
Personally I thought Turrican 2, was better than 3. Also, what about The Settlers, Dune II, Superfrog, Syndicate, Gods, Space Crusade, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Pirates!, Populous, Mega-Lo-Mania, James Pond 2, RodLand,, Ruff 'n' Tumble, The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Walker, Strider, Desert/Jungle Strike, It Came From The Desert, Waxworks, IK+, Moonstone, Ambermoon, BattleIsle/HistoryLine, PGA Golf, Super Skidmarks, Micro Machines, Disposable Hero, SlamTilt, Frontier: Elite 2, Theme Park, SimCity 2000, Dyna Blaster, Blood & Heimdall (I or II), along with a good old school Amiga dungeon crawler or two like Dungeon Master (1 or 2), Eye of the Beholder II, Ishar II, Hired Guns or Black Crypt. TBH, you could very easily make another list of 25 games (50 even), since there really was some great games on the Amiga.
It all comes down to legal issues like being able to license these games to be bundled with the device. Many of the companies do not even exist today or exist in a very different form. Reason why there is so many Team 17 games, is because they still exist and has been very nice since the get go when it comes to emulation and think they even released many of their disk files for free a long time ago. But yeah overall it is definitely not a good selection, but luckily not a problem since you can load anything you want nearly and I think you can even hook up a keyboard to the mini now.
It's a shame there aren't more great Amiga games - It came from the desert, Fire & Ice, Rick Dangerous, PP Hammer, Venus the Flytrap, James Pond 2: Codename Robocod, Lemmings, Flashback, Sensible (World of) Soccer, Soccer Kid, Eye of the Beholder 2, Rod Land... to name a few.
Nice list, could be my picks... only one i don't know is Venus the Flytrap. I add to the list Myth, Traps and Treasures, Lionheart, Rockn Roll, Wizkid, Wings of War...
I grew up with A500. Our first computer was ZXSpectrum, after we had an Atari 800XL and C64. But Amiga was where my true gaming and design life started - from A500 to A1200, so many great gaming memories and my first steps into digital art with PPaint and Deluxe Paint. Another World, Flashback, Alien Breed (esp Tower Assault on CD32 with the amazing cgi demo) and Alien Breed 3D - Alien Breed is such a fun Alien “ripoff”. Arcade Pool. Chaos Engine was amazing. Most of Psygnosis games as well. Sensible Soccer was my fave - agree - it was a great game. Giana Sister, Walker, even MK1 and MK2. Team17 was big on Amiga. Amiga 4000 was my first computer I used to make 3D art with Lightwave and C4D. 30 years of making art. Uff. So many great memories.
Fantastic review! Never got my hands on one of the original machines, so it's nice to see how the newer version holds up in your experienced eyes. Plus: Your borderline dry humor never fails to make me chuckle. Looking forward to more!
Great stuff Audi. It was nice to hear you mention Apidya - one of my all time favourite shooters on the Amiga, with an unbelievable soundtrack. There is an unfortunate lack of documentation about this game and its developers online, and while it's probably too niche even for DF Retro, I would love to see you guys pay tribute to this title with a deep-dive video. Keep up the good work!
Omfg, this video transported me back to November 1992...when my mum and dad surprised me on bonfire night with an amiga 600 wild, weird and wicked pack, with the quavers "push over"game, microprose f1, putty, and deluxe paint 3 packed in. From there to Sensible soccer, cannon fodder, desert strike, walker, syndicate...and on and on it went. Most of the games i got by using xcopy. Great memories.
We had an Amiga 500 Plus, Amiga 600, Amiga 1200 and Amiga CD32 (over the course of numerous years)....that was my megadrive/snes equivalent experience. I'm glad I grew up on Amiga instead of a games console...using Deluxe Paint and learning BASIC was super valuable. Weird to see the CD32 controller on the A500 Mini (in beige).
Where can I get the firmware? I it the WHDLoad file on their website? listed as 1.0.1 ? EDIT: Found it in the manual. No new firmware available on their website so far. So I am not sure what are you talking about.
Those from non PAL 50hz areas of our planet may not fully appreciate the best of Amiga from this unit. You can tell many of the games have been chosen not because they are the best games but because they work better when at 60hz or they were published by Team 17. So there is a quite a few polygonal games ( those do better forced to 60hz), RPG or adventure games that don't feature smooth scrolling effects and games that run sub 50fps natively, but not a lot of the super smooth scrolling arcade style titles that i remember - Turrican 1 + 2, Apidya, Overkill, Roadkill, Stardust, Lionheart ect. I fear those from the U.S think Amiga is only good for slow paced games and it's just not true. The lack of stuff by Psygnosis is particularly disappointing especially as NTSC version of their games ore often available. I mean... what's a classic Amiga without Turrican and Shadow of the Beast!
Just adding a USB keyboard makes a huge difference to the experience of using this machine. The A500 keyboard wasn't that different to a modern PC keyboard, (unlike the C64 for example, which really needs the original layout to be usable, hence the Maxi), so using an add-on keyboard makes it feel more like using a real Amiga.
Does it have Bluetooth support? That would go a long ways for keyboards and mice so you didn’t have insane cordage everywhere. I could see one of those Bluetooth keyboard with the built in touchpad for running this bad boy from the couch.
@@fensoxx No bluetooth support but you can use wireless keyboard or controller dongles. Also mini usb hubs work great so you can plug in more than three devices - necessary if you want a mouse, keyboard, joystick and USB stick all plugged in at the same time.
Dragon's Breath is a very underrated game! I loved it as a kid, it's a very unique dragon management / strategy game, you hatch your own dragons, improve them with magic and send them to fight other dragons and destroy villages
I rather fell in love with the USB tank mouse it came with, I even ordered one as my daily driver on my PC. It's very comfy. I also liked the controller. It feels like using a Playstation DPad and the buttons are great. Very comfy to hold so I like it... I do wish it worked on my MiSTerFPGA. Seems to be a proprietary configuration. Since I develop Amiga games I got one for myself to use for QA and one for my kids to have a go on. We have workbench 3.1 running on ours and I'm even learning how to use Disney Animation Studio software. For the price, it's an AMAZING way to get started with the Amiga. So much you can do out of the box!
I remember Burning Rubber being an insanely awesome game, from the graphics and in-car view, to the nitrous, tyres and other engine mods, I was addicted to only that game. It was like a Gran Turismo prequel
I've recently been diving into the Amiga library before the mini came out and have found a couple great games if you've wanted some direction of what to look for that might be less known. First Samurai and Second Samurai and Savage are must play action games. Ciemna Strona is a must experience adventure game in Polish but completely unbeatable outside of save game hex editing. Ambermoon and Amberstar are cool precursors to the DOS RPG Albion. BloodNet is a cool mature adventure game. Australo Piticus Mechanicus is an action game with a cool name but is surprisingly fun to play.
Oh man... finally. Finally I found a person who is equaly (nay, way more) enamoured by Another World. I will never forget the first time I experienced the game together with a friend. Our young mind were blown. We couldn't believe something like that could exist and we didnt move a muscle whe the intro ended and game started as we still believed the intro was running. We couldn't even imagine the intro and the game would look the same. And that teleportation into water will forever be so satisfying.
Always a system I wanted to get into and this seems like a pretty neat little product. Thanks for the excellent review. I had a good few laughs, esp the Richard bits.
I was really hoping that as soon as you mentioned the WHDload support, the video was just starting, but I checked and it had only 3 more minutes to wrap up, as the games that came with the unit are mostly lackluster, and this channel as big as it is, showing the great games on the platform would be great and people that barely know this system would become more interested in it.
16:25 What a blasphemy! F-16 Combat Pilot was really ambitious flight sim with dynamic campaign and plethora of features that other flight sims of the time lacked. And it's not the nostalgia talking since I never played it back in the day when I had an actual Amiga 500, only now when I bought the A500 mini. My advice, plug usb keyboard (don't use the pad for this), download game manual from the net and have hours of retro flight sim fun with this one!
@@simonwest80 It wasn't a simple game. It was pretty realistic and needed some study from the included manual. I've been recently putting some vids from this game on my channel. I find this game really deep if you know what you're doing.
This was such an amazing video! The clear coverage, strong knowledge and experience with the Amiga, and the jokes LOL seriously loved those throughout. Nice work! Thank you!
Sluurp.
I also recommend video *Echa Ekranu* 👍
@@Denis_1994 Great video!
I was a Megadrive kid back in the day.
Really not trying to be 'that guy' or anything, but I never could see the appeal of the Amiga other than for those getting cheap pirated games from market stalls back in the 90's (which is made all the more strange as market stalls also done swap a game plus a fiver for Megadrive and SNES games also back then).
Seemed that an awful lot of Amiga games didn't have any in game music either as it seemed to be either music OR sound FX but not both running at the same time. Hardly the hallmark of an impressive system.
I never grew up with an Amiga but was aware of it. I also never grew up with the P.C Engine but was impressed with the recent PC Engine Coregrafx mini as it clearly redefined what I thought old school shmups were all about.
As stated, I was a Megadrive kid growing up. The Megadrive also had The Chaos Engine and Speedball 2, so why would anyone bother with an Amiga?
Considering what I've just said about the Amiga's only real USP in the 90's it's also Ironic that the type of kids that had an Amiga back then were also the type of kids that did well at maths and were probably going to grow up to become accountants, bookkeepers or estate agents etc but they seemingly couldn't care less about indulging in software piracy. 😂😂
Always nice to see a new retro gaming product on the market even though I'm probably going to sit this one out.
One request I have for future emulation-based hardware reviews; please give at least some information on input latency in comparison to original hardware or an FPGA. Even if purely anecdotally perceived and not rigidly tested, it would be helpful to know. Great video as usual, Audi!
I agree, and I feel bad for all the people who "unknowingly" will be plugging this into a TV without game mode.
Yeah, very lax for Digital Foundry of all places to omit an input latency test.
I agree it's one of DF's main purposes to test that kind of technical point. My personal experience with the A500 Mini: No significant input latency or audio latency to mention. It's probably a few frames - very much within expectations for software emulation. (This is contrary to some people's bad reports, so I was pleasantly surprised).
As great as they are I always wonder why DF overlook this.
@@rasmusolesen5307 what will happen if you don’t have a game mode?
Man I'm so old I still think Amiga graphics look really smooth.
They were such a dramatic advancement from the C64, that 8bit to 16bit shift.
The successor to the C64 was the failed C128. It was still a large jump from either of those two systems. Hell, from a multimedia point of view it was ahead of pretty much anything on the market at that point, particularly from a price stand point.
@@gameguy73 yeah, I mean, as a games machine, the 128 was mostly used for 64 games. I think there might have been a small number of 128 exclusives, from memory? I don't think it was ever meant as a 'next gen' replacement; more a sort of upgraded 64 for business etc.
The advancement of graphics and sound from the C64 to the Amiga was indeed a huge leap forward. There was a night and day difference in quality.
Im so old i still rather play my amiga games than my series x :/
I'll never forget having an amstrad cpc464 for years, then seeing shadow of the beast running on an a500. Dat parallax scrolling tho.
The "your dead to me" line got me. Didn't expect that and a good laugh.
Even though, it would be more authentic to apply those filters. Old graphics wasn't meant to be displayed in HD.☝🧐😏
Didn't know Audi was a GGmanlives fan
I ended up working at Team17 due to my childhood growing up with the Amiga!
Awesome job with this one, Audi. I think you did great work with this first solo effort. Looking forward to more!
This was a HILARIOUS episode! Really enjoyed it. 😂
Well said MJR!
MJR!! 💪😃
I also recommend video *Echa Ekranu* 😃👍
Audi is such an asset to DF. I love his humour.
"I have no idea what to do with a stick and balls. My wife can confirm this." Love Audi's humor!
Thank you so much for covering this. Amiga A500 was the first computer I bought with my own money and I LOVED it. Batman Pack plus Shadow of the Beast and I was in 16bit heaven.
I can see myself getting a mini to sit next to my SNES Mini, my other favourite 16bit machine.
Clearly an Audi production through & through, much appreciated.
Love the shoutout to Kim Justice! They have an amazing channel with some of the best content on retro British developers.
Kim's doc on Ocean was one of my favourites.
*He has
Thanks for the wonderful review 💚 It's very informative and insightful. I think the A500 is just beautiful! The A500 has contributed so much to the evolution of our games today and was way ahead of its time. Great device for the collection 👍💚
👍
Better late than never.
Great video ❤ I also recommend *Echa Ekranu* ❤
😃👍
Nostalgia overload. My dad bought me an Amiga 500 when I was 5. Or maybe he bought it for himself. Almost all of our games had been illegal copies (I do wonder if this affected the longevity of the system). Sensible soccer and Cannon Fodder should have been included but this looks amazing.
In answer to your question: yes, the rampant piracy affected both the quality of the games (little to no profit to be made from designing games to take advantage of the Amiga's hardware; cheaper to just port the Atari ST version) and also hastened the death of the Amiga as a viable platform. Developers abandoned ship to write games for the new consoles instead, which were far less susceptible to piracy.
@@Midwinter2 Thanks mate. I absolutely adored the system. One of the few games I had that wasn't pirated was Zool. The game required a physical circular card to decipher a code. Unfortunately, I lost the card and the game became unplayable. Ironic. I loved seeing my dad come back from work with new copies of games at the time and I'm sure I wasn't the only kid who just assumed that's how they were supposed to be shared. All changed now, definitely no longer normal. It would be interesting for DF to look at the impact of piracy, DRM and other early anti piracy measures, particularly due to the impact it had on some systems like the Amiga.
@@Sambrowski10 I hear you - and I'm not getting on my high horse. I had pirated copies too, though I'd say half my games were bought. I was 15 when the Amiga was released - and my father bought one about a year later (the original Amiga 1000). I adored my Amiga too. It was an amazing computer at the time - and in some respects, I find modern computers quite clunky to use by comparison.
Cannon fodder 😁 keep Jools and Jops alive 👍
Love the comment about the Mister at the end. And yes, my parents are very proud, thank you 🙇
Speed Ball 2, Great Giana Sisters, Populous, Bloodwych, International Karate, Metal Masters, North & South, Strip poker. Magic years for any young teenager who loved games.
The R-Type intro soundtrack is great.
Anyways, I disagree with the "lacklustre games" argument. Except for one or two of them, they are all great classics that any true Amiga user ( I have been one until my job forced me to switch to PC ) knows and loves.
Plus, the A500 Mini has been thought with the option of adding all the games you want, thanks to the nice WHDLoad implementation (and with some workaround also ADFs and HDFs... And more).
To be honest, I have been more a professional Amiga user back then, although sure enough I also played tons of games.
As far as concern the keyboard... Well, if it was a working one it would have been a waste. Given how small it is, it only makes sense as an aesthetic non working feature.
I think this A500 Mini is a well built and well thought little piece of kit. I really love mine more than I expected to.
P.S. The Amiga was not a console!! -_-
Agree, absolute list of bangers. couple of duds but 90% of them would be on any Amiga setup I would have!
@@wayn3h
Exactly, it's subjective.
That means the list is good, not lacklustre.
Some can like it more than others and vice versa.
As I said in my comment, I have been an Amiga user, even at a professional level (when I switched to the A4000 to do my first serious jobs), for as long as this computer was relevant.
I had pretty much all of them: A1000, A500, A500+, A1200, A4000 and A4000 T.
Great review! The humor was perfect! Thanks Audi!
It seems like Team 17 were really on board with this project, I guess they offered their entire catalog when asked about licensing, which is a good thing because they usually publish good games to this day.
It also helps that Team 17 is one of the few companies from the era that's still around today.
Don't understand why every company just doesn't licence their games to whoever wants to produce minis.
Nintendo and Sega should be doing it as well since their mini consoles have been discontinued.
@@bigbabatunde1218 well Nintendo loves to limit the availability of their games so they can get away with charging higher than average prices on stuff that's decades old.
On the other hand Sega is happy to sell collections like there's no tomorrow, you can find old Sega games in practically any platform. And they used to license their stuff to other companies to make little mini consoles back in the 2000's but after quite a few ended up being kinda crap they stopped doing so.
@@axelprino All it takes is for Sega to licence its games for an Evercade collection on a cart or two and Nintendo will be on the back foot.
Rubbish games from Codemasters or other lesser known publishers is one thing but this needs to get to the next level with the big players to fully expand this retro market.
@@SuperFriendBFG Sensible Soccer, by Sensible Software, Acquired by Codemasters, Acquired by Electronic Arts and ah, well, who do you contact about anything?
Do not dismiss Dragon's Breath. You need to read the instructions before you play, but it is one of the best games included on the system and I am overjoyed to see it here. You can play it against the computer or up to two human players, and it is a fantastic strategy game with a lot of depth. It also has moody visuals and one of the best soundtracks on the Amiga, period. Don't blow past it.
While I disagree with you on some of the titles that were included- I love the video! You are a terrific edition to the DF crew. Battle Chess is awesome by the way :)
Audi's dry humour is bang on. A great informative look at the Amiga A500 Mini.
Awesome review and VERY useful!!! I just ordred my A500 mini and its coming in from Amazon tomorrow......this is my first experience with anything AMiga related at all! I have plenty of experience with PC's and most consoles from say NES & TG16 up to say.....my current gaming pc with an RTX 3090 card. I also own every system from my PSX, PSX2, PSX3, 3DO, Jaguar, Gamecube, MY BELOVED SEGA SATURN!!!! Nuff said!!!......hope i enjoy this little system and its nostalgic trip down memory lane!!!!!!!!
I can see digital foundry now experimenting more with comedy
the older videos were Interesting but lacked much personality
I loved that "Get out of my office" line
I bet you did. I bet you could watch some stand up comedy if you want to watch comedy.
@@johnboylan3832 so... You think tech videos should be absolutely devoid of humor or personality?
@@mrburns366 Yes.
@@johnboylan3832 Thankfully there are loads of other channels devoid of any humour out there for you to enjoy.
@@OriginalChrizum You going to make me leave?
stardust(especially the warp sequence) and elfmania graphics still hold up today. seeing them run at this level of fedality on a 37 year old hardware is shocking. they're not even AGA titles. developed by the returnal guys
also slam tilt is a zillion times better than pinball fantasies. also developed by Dice
no it wasnt. slamtilt was developed by liquid dezign and released by 21st Century Entertainment
yep my bad. The same publisher
Yes, Stardust was terrific in all respects. Elfmania was visually superb - though the gameplay could have been better. Both games are examples of the amazing results that could be achieved when the Amiga's hardware was properly exploited.
Fantastic review. Clearly some choppy waters were encountered as far as getting licenses. Sad considering classics like Lotus 2 would never be possible
Meh, Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix would have been better.
I just wish the little keys would click!
@@ventisette. why not both?
After a year this finally popped up on my recommendation. Thanks RUclips. That being said, I am watching now but something before I forget. The Amiga CD32, still got mine, came with a sticky piece for the controller circle pad that made a difference. At least as long as the sticky pad lasted.
Oh and the A500 also makes a great Christmas ornament :) I am also waiting for the recently announced A500 Max.
Man, I love Audi's deadpan delivery. Magnificent
Great video! The 25 games included are not worth the price, but the ability to add more content makes it much more appealing. The Amiga 500 was an incredibly colourful and impressive machine back in the day and I am glad people are discovering some of its hidden gems, like Stardust.
Glad to see Lotus Esprit Challenge (loved I & II), also liked Super Cars series. Kick Off wasn't that bad but I preferred Sensible Soccer. My fave was IK+. A lot of games had amazing soundtracks imo! Fond memories!
+
The Secret of Monkey Island
Rainbow Islands
Cannon Fodder
Super Frog
Bubble Bobble
Pang (also on PSNow)
Star Dust
Lemmings
It Came From the Desert
Nice list. All great games. A couple of others I liked: Apidya, Desert Strike, Alien Breed, Speedball 2...
@@Midwinter2 Can we add Moonstone and The Chaos Engine to the list?
@@bigchinkid9052 We sure as hell can! Terrific games.
Oh Audi. Never change! This is as hilarious as it is informative
Moonstone, Wings, Speedball, Apidya, Cannon Fodder, Pirates, Battle Isle, Ambermoon - there was so much good stuff on the Amiga. The demos, music, crackintros and other scene releases were also mighty impressive to me whenever i was at my cousins house and besieged his Amiga.
Ahh Moonstone, O Moonstone.. where art thou, i miss you so on that list of games included.
Fantastic solo debut from Audi, I have no history with the Amiga family of computers but this was interesting and entertaining nonetheless.
I love his dry delivery of jokes
Unfortunately, his combination of hair styles, expressions, and even his voice keeps giving me Dreamcast Guy vibes.
Glad to see some Amiga coverage. It truly is the best gaming computer of all times for me.
Yes, I loved my Amiga. When the Amiga was discontinued, I lost all interest in computers. Even with the high-powered computers that are around today, they are just necessary tools to me, no more. But the Amiga was something magical.
@@Midwinter2 absolutely this! I will not be buying this mini, I think it's crap. But I do have a serious itch for actual Amiga 1200.
@@LinuxRenaissance Well, the recent flurry of activity around the Amiga plus nostalgia really makes me want to play Amiga games in some form. I am clueless about emulation etc - so I'll probably get this mini thing, imperfect as it may be...
" only to realise I was alone, confused and there is no keyboard here on this unit" that is a brilliant line
Always happy to see love for the Amiga, it was huge in the UK and it's still frustrating as hell that the American management ran it into the ground. For the time, it's sound chip was head of any other machine. It was a magical Christmas when I got my A500. Sadly the examples packaged with the A500 Mini don't showcase its best graphics or gameplay. So... best games in no particular order not featured in this video?
1: Gravity Power / Gravity Force 2 - A shooter where you're in little spaceships constantly battling gravity and trying to blow each other up, with destructible scenery. Arguably the best two-player game ever.
2: Sensible Soccer - best footy game ever. Perfect stickiness of the ball, fast, breezy, perfect control with simple but adorable graphics.
3: Syndicate - Be the head of a sinister mega-global-corporation and send your four bio-mechanical agents into an isometric city to wreak havoc on rival mega-corp agents in a Bladerunner-esque world.
4: Dune - Surprisingly excellent point-and-click adventure with Risk style strategy elements. Deviates from the book's plot in an interesting fashion. Try to get the latter CD emulation if possible.
5: Dune 2 - The great granddaddy of RTS's. Still pretty good.
6: Apidya - Fantastic side-scrolling shooter where you're a heroic wasp taking on all the horrors of a bucolic English garden.
7: Canon Fodder - You'll need a keyboard and mouse for this, but it's an excellently brutal top down shooter with a surprisingly melancholic undertone.
8: K240 - Control your own mining colonies on asteroids. Rejoice in your skyscrapers. Tremble as rival mining colonies fling their missiles and ships at your cities. Laugh maniacally as your latest research and production of massive star fleets and missile silos enable you to crush the trespassing fools.
9: Second Samurai - Pretty nifty hack-and-slash platformer with some cool visuals.
10: Pinball Fantasies - Indeed pinball perfection.
11: The Settlers - First in the series and actually my favourite still.
12: Colonization - Sid Meier's Civ-type game where you colonise America. Gripping mechanics. Always play the Dutch.
13: Rainbow Islands - Whee! Ha ha!!
14: Shadow Fighter - Best beat-em-up on the Amiga with an entertaining roster of fighters, but mainly because Streetfighter 2 was infernally slow on the A500.
15: Historyline 1914-1918 - Turn based battlefield strategy game. Pretty atmospheric.
16: Basejumpers - Multiplayer game where you platform your way up a big building then all leap off the top, trying to jostle each other into flagpoles, ledges etc on your plummet down. Last one to pull the cord scores most points, with inevitable hilarious consequences.
17: Micro Machines - Charming top-down racer where you weave your way between spilt honey-nut loops on a breakfast table, etc.
18: Dyna-Blaster - It's like Super-Bomber Man to the point where the lawyers would come knocking.
19: Super Skidmarks - Probably the best and most graphically advanced top-down racer, with 3Dish graphics. You can choose to race as cows on wheels.
20: IK+ (International Karate +) - Three player fighter where pressing the button 't' makes the other player's trousers fall down, making it clearly excellent.
Enjoy!
This video review:
+Informative
+Professional
+Well paced
+Humorous
+Well argued points
-Did not talk about Moonstone
1/10 Stars
Grow up with the Amiga. Dad brought the very first Amiga 1000. Played so many games, music demo's and deluxe paints .
Dad used to work on the Amiga in gaming and other things.
Such a great machine and soooo many memories 👍
We had an Amiga 1000 as well. An amazing machine - I've never experienced that magic with any other computer.
10/10 coverage Audi! Very niche topic big I really hope this video does well for you guys. Actually got a bunch of laughs out of me.
I knew nothing about the Amiga until today but I'm gonna mess with some emulators at work tomorrow.
15:15 “Node activated!” “PAHTEE POWAH!!” (slap bass, super funky synth… HEAVEN)
Having an Amiga Device without Turrican seems almost pointless to me sadly...
Kick Off 2 was awesome!
Miss some Turrican, Ruff n Tumble, or a few Core Design games in that selection
I love the comedy Audi brings to DF content. All the best from the UK!
His jokes are hit and miss to be honest.
omg the stick and balls comment... lmao
"If you're the kind of person that has a recall box or a MiSTer, then you're already an emulation expert and your parents are very proud of you" On the nose! That describes the scene well, though very sarcastically. Yes MiSTer is superior, but in ways that most people will never care about.
Paradroid is such a neat game, I wish we’d get a more modern remake of it. The idea of taking over robots and building an army while being able change up combat as either active or hacking (like Nier Automata does when playing as 9S) and taking back ship after ship.
I did not own an Amiga, but my friend did. I absolutely loved it and have so many fond memories of playing it with him. We used to love playing North and South, canon fodder, sensible soccer, Defender of the crown, silent service and, monkey Island, speed ball 2 and super off road.
My cousin used to have an A500 but he never let me play. There was a game called Robokid with the GREATEST MUSIC of all time
I need more Audi videos in my life.
Great work, as always.
This is so good. Audi's got his own taste and verve and I'm so glad they let him do his thing.
I probably won't dive deep into the Amiga unless I become independently wealthy, play the catalog of almost every other gaming platform, get to explore Spain, the French Riviera and Amalfi coast and Northern Africa for a few years, and then have a reason to stay indoors for a few months... BUT if all that happens, I'm glad people like Audi are around to Sherpa me through the Amiga when I get to it.
Speaking of another world, he's just right about Another World. Play that game.
Audi, I really loved this video, thank you. I like your style and sense of humour, whilst keeping things informative and relevant.
This was a great review. It really reminded me of the tone you’d get reading the UK PC magazines of the 90s and 2000s.
The games that show Amiga rules:
- World Sensible of Soccer
- Shadow of the Beast
- Flashback
- Wings
- It came from the desert
- Dune 1
- Dune 2
- Les Voyageurs du Temps
- Maniac Mansion
- Xenon 2
- Indiana Jones (2x)
- Defender of the Crown
- Populous
- Cannon Fodder
- KGB
- Monky Island (2x)
- North & South
- Lionheart
- Loom
- Croisière pour un Cadavre
And so many more!
Frontier: Elite 2
Moonstone
Hired Guns
Heimdall
Robosport
Giana Sisters
Powermonger
Stunt Car Racer
Syndicate
..To name a few more.
@@V3ntilator
Bubble Bobble :)
Civilization
Hacker
The Settlers
UFO Ennemy Unknown
Unreal
too…
I found selection of included games as quite well chosen. All but one (Super Cars II) were known to me, and all of them where in a "good game" or "strong nostalgia" category. Nobody is going to play F-16 or Stunt Car Racer any more, but at the time those games were popular along my friends. A work friend, a longstanding amiga user, had given similar opinion on game lists when I introduced him to A500 Mini.
And gamepad is perfectly fine. Directional buttons are somewhat long in motion, and buttons could be faster. But it is sturdy and works well. Primary A500 issue is lag in faster games, not a controller.
CMB AMIGA: simply THE BEST 16-bit computer IN HISTORY. A legend. A MUST HAVE. Thank you Jay Miner for so many years of happiness by his side (PAULA, DENIS & AGNUS), after another of his legends, the Atari family 8Bit XL, and of course A2600. An indelible memory.
@@PhilBaxterX68000 was a beast! But it was also far more expensive than the A500 in 1987 when it launched, and would have been way out of the reach of most kids even if it made it out of Japan. I think the price/performace ratio on the A500 was what really contributed to its success, and why it was easily the most popular version.
My dad bought us an Amiga 1000 back in 1985 and over the next few years dozens and dozens of games. Battlechess, SDI and Defender of the Crown were some of the best looking games I'd ever seen, better than anything on console at least, for a good long time.
Defender of the crown was so good. Fired it up recently and got my ass handed to me… 😂
@@fensoxx I'm sure it wouldn't be good if released now, lol. The gameplay was pretty basic. But back then I was enthralled. The graphics were insane for the time. Some fond memories playing that game with my dad.
@@phrozac yeah I was coming off the a TI99/4a and when I saw that jousting scene in Defender of the Crown on my a500 I was hooked. Just the title screen with its fonts, high resolution (for the time), and music blew me away.
It was almost the Atari Amiga. Atari pulled out and Commodore bought it. Atari released the ST in 1985 and got the headstart on the 16bit era. Many games were ports of Atari ST games by 1987 when the Amiga 500 was released.
Lemmings on my Amiga 500 plus was my introduction to gaming, hooked ever since.
Captain Planet, Lemmings, Bart Simpson vs The Space Mutants, Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, Sensible Soccer. Amazing stuff looking back. It was my PC before I had a PC if that makes sense.
Audi is awesome. Great to see him do his own video. Especially on my childhood device (well A1200)
Props for using the R-Type menu music for your intro, one of my fav video game themes ever.
I didn't know this existed and now I am far more excited than a cynical 47 year old is supposed to be about... well, anything. But crikey, where is Cannon Fodder, Turrican 3, Lemmings, Apidya, Chase HQ, Beneath a Steel Sky? At least you can chuck your own stuff on it though, which saves the day. It's going on the "if we get a company bonus this Christmas" list. Thanks for the wonderful video.
Yeah, that gaming library is oof.
Personally I thought Turrican 2, was better than 3. Also, what about The Settlers, Dune II, Superfrog, Syndicate, Gods, Space Crusade, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Pirates!, Populous, Mega-Lo-Mania, James Pond 2, RodLand,, Ruff 'n' Tumble, The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Walker, Strider, Desert/Jungle Strike, It Came From The Desert, Waxworks, IK+, Moonstone, Ambermoon, BattleIsle/HistoryLine, PGA Golf, Super Skidmarks, Micro Machines, Disposable Hero, SlamTilt, Frontier: Elite 2, Theme Park, SimCity 2000, Dyna Blaster, Blood & Heimdall (I or II), along with a good old school Amiga dungeon crawler or two like Dungeon Master (1 or 2), Eye of the Beholder II, Ishar II, Hired Guns or Black Crypt.
TBH, you could very easily make another list of 25 games (50 even), since there really was some great games on the Amiga.
Just stick them on yourself, I added 250 extra games on mine they very day it arrived from Amazon, and it’s been amazing playing them again 😁
It all comes down to legal issues like being able to license these games to be bundled with the device. Many of the companies do not even exist today or exist in a very different form.
Reason why there is so many Team 17 games, is because they still exist and has been very nice since the get go when it comes to emulation and think they even released many of their disk files for free a long time ago.
But yeah overall it is definitely not a good selection, but luckily not a problem since you can load anything you want nearly and I think you can even hook up a keyboard to the mini now.
Great work on the episode Audi , it was a lot fun to watch!
It's a shame there aren't more great Amiga games - It came from the desert, Fire & Ice, Rick Dangerous, PP Hammer, Venus the Flytrap, James Pond 2: Codename Robocod, Lemmings, Flashback, Sensible (World of) Soccer, Soccer Kid, Eye of the Beholder 2, Rod Land... to name a few.
Nice list, could be my picks... only one i don't know is Venus the Flytrap. I add to the list Myth, Traps and Treasures, Lionheart, Rockn Roll, Wizkid, Wings of War...
@@Teknikfrik Venus The Flytrap is completely underrated.
Why didn't you test the Speedlink Competition Pro on this?
Does it work on this one???
I got one of these for Christmas from my sister and immediately put Aminimiga on it. It's so rad.
Great video and review, thank you ! Can we do something else than playing games with the A500 ? Word processing ? Inventory ? Accouting ?
Dang, is this Audi's first full-length fully produced video? Great job!
I grew up with A500. Our first computer was ZXSpectrum, after we had an Atari 800XL and C64. But Amiga was where my true gaming and design life started - from A500 to A1200, so many great gaming memories and my first steps into digital art with PPaint and Deluxe Paint. Another World, Flashback, Alien Breed (esp Tower Assault on CD32 with the amazing cgi demo) and Alien Breed 3D - Alien Breed is such a fun Alien “ripoff”. Arcade Pool. Chaos Engine was amazing. Most of Psygnosis games as well. Sensible Soccer was my fave - agree - it was a great game. Giana Sister, Walker, even MK1 and MK2. Team17 was big on Amiga. Amiga 4000 was my first computer I used to make 3D art with Lightwave and C4D. 30 years of making art. Uff. So many great memories.
Fantastic review! Never got my hands on one of the original machines, so it's nice to see how the newer version holds up in your experienced eyes. Plus: Your borderline dry humor never fails to make me chuckle. Looking forward to more!
Great stuff Audi. It was nice to hear you mention Apidya - one of my all time favourite shooters on the Amiga, with an unbelievable soundtrack. There is an unfortunate lack of documentation about this game and its developers online, and while it's probably too niche even for DF Retro, I would love to see you guys pay tribute to this title with a deep-dive video.
Keep up the good work!
Omfg, this video transported me back to November 1992...when my mum and dad surprised me on bonfire night with an amiga 600 wild, weird and wicked pack, with the quavers "push over"game, microprose f1, putty, and deluxe paint 3 packed in. From there to Sensible soccer, cannon fodder, desert strike, walker, syndicate...and on and on it went. Most of the games i got by using xcopy. Great memories.
We had an Amiga 500 Plus, Amiga 600, Amiga 1200 and Amiga CD32 (over the course of numerous years)....that was my megadrive/snes equivalent experience. I'm glad I grew up on Amiga instead of a games console...using Deluxe Paint and learning BASIC was super valuable. Weird to see the CD32 controller on the A500 Mini (in beige).
The firmware released today in europe increases controller compatibility so hopefully your experience is now better :-)
Where can I get the firmware? I it the WHDLoad file on their website? listed as 1.0.1 ? EDIT: Found it in the manual. No new firmware available on their website so far. So I am not sure what are you talking about.
Cant believe Cannon fodder isn't in there!
Did not expect to laugh out loud multiple times when I started watching this. Top stuff as always! 😁
Sensi is the best game ever made and Jon, Jools, Stoo are gods. No sale.
Those from non PAL 50hz areas of our planet may not fully appreciate the best of Amiga from this unit. You can tell many of the games have been chosen not because they are the best games but because they work better when at 60hz or they were published by Team 17. So there is a quite a few polygonal games ( those do better forced to 60hz), RPG or adventure games that don't feature smooth scrolling effects and games that run sub 50fps natively, but not a lot of the super smooth scrolling arcade style titles that i remember - Turrican 1 + 2, Apidya, Overkill, Roadkill, Stardust, Lionheart ect. I fear those from the U.S think Amiga is only good for slow paced games and it's just not true. The lack of stuff by Psygnosis is particularly disappointing especially as NTSC version of their games ore often available. I mean... what's a classic Amiga without Turrican and Shadow of the Beast!
Just adding a USB keyboard makes a huge difference to the experience of using this machine. The A500 keyboard wasn't that different to a modern PC keyboard, (unlike the C64 for example, which really needs the original layout to be usable, hence the Maxi), so using an add-on keyboard makes it feel more like using a real Amiga.
Does it have Bluetooth support? That would go a long ways for keyboards and mice so you didn’t have insane cordage everywhere. I could see one of those Bluetooth keyboard with the built in touchpad for running this bad boy from the couch.
@@fensoxx No bluetooth support but you can use wireless keyboard or controller dongles. Also mini usb hubs work great so you can plug in more than three devices - necessary if you want a mouse, keyboard, joystick and USB stick all plugged in at the same time.
Good video I was excited for this when I thought it would have a working keyboard.We really should have gotten a maxi version
F-16 is big in the Amiga retro community. Its often run to test machines.
Audi is brilliant! Pity that such high quality DF Retro videos that he and John makes don't get more views.
Agreed.
Really want a big version as keyboard is important for a lot of games - great video Audi
Plenty of original Amiga's available.
Dragon's Breath is a very underrated game! I loved it as a kid, it's a very unique dragon management / strategy game, you hatch your own dragons, improve them with magic and send them to fight other dragons and destroy villages
I rather fell in love with the USB tank mouse it came with, I even ordered one as my daily driver on my PC. It's very comfy. I also liked the controller. It feels like using a Playstation DPad and the buttons are great. Very comfy to hold so I like it... I do wish it worked on my MiSTerFPGA. Seems to be a proprietary configuration. Since I develop Amiga games I got one for myself to use for QA and one for my kids to have a go on. We have workbench 3.1 running on ours and I'm even learning how to use Disney Animation Studio software. For the price, it's an AMAZING way to get started with the Amiga. So much you can do out of the box!
12:38 best deadpan delivery i have ever heard
I remember Burning Rubber being an insanely awesome game, from the graphics and in-car view, to the nitrous, tyres and other engine mods, I was addicted to only that game. It was like a Gran Turismo prequel
Lmao, both times Rich said the "get out of my office" he couldn't help but smirk.
Love the tone of this video, funny and informative.
I've recently been diving into the Amiga library before the mini came out and have found a couple great games if you've wanted some direction of what to look for that might be less known. First Samurai and Second Samurai and Savage are must play action games. Ciemna Strona is a must experience adventure game in Polish but completely unbeatable outside of save game hex editing. Ambermoon and Amberstar are cool precursors to the DOS RPG Albion. BloodNet is a cool mature adventure game. Australo Piticus Mechanicus is an action game with a cool name but is surprisingly fun to play.
Oh man... finally. Finally I found a person who is equaly (nay, way more) enamoured by Another World. I will never forget the first time I experienced the game together with a friend. Our young mind were blown. We couldn't believe something like that could exist and we didnt move a muscle whe the intro ended and game started as we still believed the intro was running. We couldn't even imagine the intro and the game would look the same.
And that teleportation into water will forever be so satisfying.
Great video and Audi's sense of humour was the icing on the cake. 🙂
Arcade Pool and Master Blaster were ones of the most entertaining games ever, especially in multiplayer.
Always a system I wanted to get into and this seems like a pretty neat little product. Thanks for the excellent review. I had a good few laughs, esp the Richard bits.
I was really hoping that as soon as you mentioned the WHDload support, the video was just starting, but I checked and it had only 3 more minutes to wrap up, as the games that came with the unit are mostly lackluster, and this channel as big as it is, showing the great games on the platform would be great and people that barely know this system would become more interested in it.
Brilliant choice of the R-Type theme fir the opening, the theme tune of my childhood right there
No Xenon? No Bard's Tale? It's not an Amiga experience without those essential games. So many other classics missing.
16:25 What a blasphemy! F-16 Combat Pilot was really ambitious flight sim with dynamic campaign and plethora of features that other flight sims of the time lacked. And it's not the nostalgia talking since I never played it back in the day when I had an actual Amiga 500, only now when I bought the A500 mini. My advice, plug usb keyboard (don't use the pad for this), download game manual from the net and have hours of retro flight sim fun with this one!
The only thing I remember about this game was continuously crashing the plane and that the box could be used for a murder weapon 😂
@@simonwest80 It wasn't a simple game. It was pretty realistic and needed some study from the included manual. I've been recently putting some vids from this game on my channel. I find this game really deep if you know what you're doing.