Review: The A500 Mini is a convenient if clunky way to explore the Amiga’s library

videogameschronicle.com:

The 8-bit and 16-bit console wars were all well and good, but for some players of a certain vintage (particularly in Europe) the Amiga vs Atari ST war was just as ruthless.

Fans of these popular home computers would argue back and forth about which was the best, but allow us to put that to bed by objectively stating that it was the Amiga (don’t @ us, as the kids say).

The problem with computers of the ‘80s and ‘90s is that it’s generally tricky to play their games in the 2020s without having to jump through some hoops.

As every year passes the original floppy disks Amiga games came on are one step closer to decaying and being no longer playable, meaning digital copies are the only way to preserve them.

Naturally, the obvious solution is emulation, but (legality aside) playing an Amiga game isn’t as simple as popping a ROM file into an emulator like it is with console games.

The A500 Mini is an attempt to scratch the nostalgic itch some erstwhile Amiga fans may have to play their childhood favourites again, and while it certainly has its issues it does at least make the legendary computer’s software library more readily accessible for modern players.

The A500 Mini, as the name suggests, is a miniature version of the Commodore Amiga 500.

It’s an impressively faithful recreation to a point: because of complicated licensing reasons the ‘Amiga’ branding and Commodore logo have been replaced with ‘The A500’ instead. At a glance though, it’s wonderfully authentic.

The Mini has been created by the rather generically named Retro Games, which previously released a miniature version of the Commodore 64 (similarly renamed The C64 Mini), followed by a full-sized model.

As with the C64 Mini, the A500 Mini’s keyboard doesn’t work – it’s just a