You might have ordered it on the first day or pre-ordered on Amazon last week. Either way, the A500 Mini is now in the wild. In case you haven’t been keeping up, that means you can play Amiga games on your TV like it’s 1992.
(That’s the year I left school. Crikey, I feel old all of a sudden…)
Ahem. My own A500 Mini is sitting beside me as I type this, having played a few levels of Zool, ProjectX, and Supercars II.
https://twitter.com/ChristianCawley/status/1512456749957197834
I’m planning a video review soon, and I’ve been commissioned for a full written review at www.makeuseof.com soon. But in the meantime, there is something you really need to know about the A500 Mini. Something that might get overlooked in most reviews, which will typically focus on the games.
The A500 Mini is a cinch to set up. Complete time from to unboxing to playing Zool was under five minutes, and that includes the language selection and screen refresh rate screens. Better, the carousel, while clearly similar to the one seen on the C64 Mini, is faster, slicker, and the whole thing just sits together nicely as a complete, enjoyable whole.
I spent all day waiting for the A500 Mini to arrive from Amazon, slightly miffed that not only had we failed to bag a review copy, but that Amazon hadn’t been able to deliver earlier in the day. It landed around teatime, but it was worth the wait. If you have been holding off on getting the A500 Mini for fear of a NES Mini-like disaster, you can relax. The mouse works great, the controller is a revelation (given its heritage…!) and its ready to play out of the box. And you can even load your own games if they’re packaged in WHDLoad.
You can literally order an A500 Mini now and it will come tomorrow with Amazon Prime.
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Christian Cawley is a writer and editor who covers consumer electronics, IT, and entertainment media. He has written for publications such as Computer Weekly, Linux Format, MakeUseOf.com, and Tech Radar.
He also produces podcasts, has a cigar box guitar, and of course, loves retro gaming.