The love of taking retro consoles and making miniature versions of them, bundling them with lots of fan-favourite games and flogging them for the amusement of us older gamers continues as Retro Games announce THEA500 Mini. This homage to the Commodore Amiga 500 is one mini version I am genuinely looking forward to especially as it comes with plenty of classic Amiga games.
The 1987 Amiga 500 (A500) featured a 16/32-bit CPU, 512Kb of RAM and an array of custom chips that often ended debates in the playground about whether the A500 was superior to the Atari ST. Don’t get me wrong, the Atari ST was great, just that most games were better on the Amiga.
THEA500 Mini features a perfect emulation of the original as well as a Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) of future revisions and the Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) of the A1200.
When it comes to games, there will be 25 classic Amiga games, including the all-time greats 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 more, plus there will be the ability to load in games via a USB stick. Best of all, there’s a save game function.
Those of you who remember playing the the A500 will remember buying the trusty old joystick (though none of the daft ones like the Bart Simpson shaped one), but instead of a joystick Retro Games have come up with a 8-button precision gamepad (with a 6ft wire) that looks a very similar design to that used by the Amiga CD32 controller. There will also be the inclusion of a remake of the lovely, clunky, uncomfortable 2-button mouse (also with a 6ft wire). There’s an on-screen keyboard but the option to use a standard PC keyboard is available. I just hope they include enough USB ports for using the controller, USB stick with games, mouse and keyboard.
“In this initial mini version of THEA500, we have created what we believe gaming fans will love, and will see as the evolution of mini games consoles”, said Paul Andrews, Managing Director at Retro Games.
“Retro Games have developed a truly unique product”, said Debbie Bestwick MBE, CEO at Team 17, “and I’m very excited to have our classic games represented in all their original glory”.
The THEA500 Mini will arrive in early 2022 with a suggested price tag of £119.99/ €129.99/ $139.99 US/ $199.99 AUS.