ScuzzBlog: Diaries February 2022 Entry 12th February 2022: Post 1: Amiga 500 - 1 MB RAM Required. Amiga 500 - 1 MB RAM Required. I read a lot of confusing replies to threads regarding memory on the Amiga 500. This relates on the whole to a misunderstanding regarding chip and fast RAM. When a new user sees that a game is in need of 1 MB RAM the responses very quickly starts talking about the AGNUS and the capability of the particular board type revision to expand the chip RAM. I thought I would dispel this myth and talk in simple terms about games requirements for the Amiga 500. The Amiga 500 originally came with 512K of RAM expandable to 1MB. That in truth is all that matters. When games developers made the games for the A500 they were never anticipating the users would start hacking their machines and upgrading chips. The way they anticipated games buyers to respond was when a game required 1 MB RAM they would procure a simple 512K RAM board and stick it in the trap door of the Amiga 500. Job done. Nothing more to say. I sense that a lot of new users are left with the idea that the AGNUS is actual RAM and they need somehow to add 1MB to the main memory through the trapdoor and then hacking jumpers on the board. And so when you see a game that requires 1MB RAM just check the trap door and if there is a card there just open the Workbench and see if the main window shows around 800 000 free. Further if you have a 1.3 Workbench disk open the SHELL/CLI and type in avail and it will advise of the memory on your computer. The board may have a switch and so make sure the RAM is 'ON'. Sadly Workbench 1.2 does not have the AVAIL command in C. To demonstrate matters I grabbed a very clean Amiga 500 that was of the 1.2 era and with the warranty seal intact had never like ever had an internal upgrade. The board is fitted with a modest 512k AMRAM expansion board and the memory under 1.2 shows 929528 and under 1.3 shows 876112. The machine is more than capable of running a 1MB game like ZOOL or Vital Light. Note that I was able to boot 1.3 on a 1.2 ROM and the 1.2 Workbench has no RAM icon on the desktop. Whilst the A500 is a very clean computer it has the most dodgy sounding floppy drive imaginable. I took a video of it working. As is with many of these very early models the power light goes out after a while of loading a disk. That is normal. I also show a few 500 RAM cards just for reference. Hopefully that all made sense. I seem to spend quite a bit of time these days telling folk about the 1MB issue. I do know that GOTEK and data pilfering with ADFs may need something different , but from a purely classic retro point of view what I state is true. Those other things are not relevant to what I do here, given that an Amiga should always have a proper floppy drive. Video of the floppy loading Amiga 500 - 1 MB RAM Required.

If you can only see this CONTENT window
then click the image above for the full site

Last updated 12th February 2022

Chandraise Kingdom

Keep the Faith
scuzzscink 2022