THEA500 Mini is a homage to the 1980s heyday of 16-bit personal computing. It's inspired by the 1987 release of the Amiga 500, which featured a 16/32-bit CPU, 512Kb of RAM, and an array of custom chips for producing best-in-class sound and video.
Play one of the included 25 classic Amiga games selected from a simple to use carousel, including all-time greats Another World, Simon The Sorcerer, The Chaos Engine, and Worms, or side-load your own games via USB stick with full WHDLoad support and an array of options to choose from. Plus, save and resume your game at any time to help you finish those punishingly difficult classics.
The THEA500 Mini features the perfect emulation of not only the original A500 (OCS) and Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) of future revisions, but also the Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) of the A1200.
The THEA500 Mini comes with the original style two-button mouse and newly engineered eight-button precision gamepad, allowing you to choose your control method. To complement the on-screen keyboard, you can plug in an external standard PC keyboard for additional functionality.
Over the past few months, the final list of included games has been announced, cumulating in today’s final game announcement, the seminal Stunt Car Racer from industry legend Geoff Crammond.
Other recently announced games include Arcade Pool and Project-X Special Edition 93 from Team 17, F-16 Combat Pilot from Digital Integration and Super Cars II from Gremlin.
- Alien Breed 3D
- Alien Breed: Special Edition'92
- Another World
- Arcade Pool
- ATR: All Terrain Racing
- Battle Chess
- Cadaver
- California Games
- The Chaos Engine
- Dragons Breath
- F-16 Combat Pilot
- Kick Off 2
- The Lost Patrol
- Paradroid 90
- Pinball Dreams
- Project-X: Special Edition 93
- Qwak
- The Sentinel
- Simon the Sorcerer
- Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
- Stunt Car Racer
- Super Cars II
- Titus The Fox: To Marrakech And Back
- Worms: The Director's Cut
- Zool: Ninja Of The "Nth" Dimension
This brings the full games list to 25, each one a highly regarded and critically acclaimed Amiga classic. In addition, if you own other original Amiga games, these can be played via USB stick utilizing the WHDLoad functionality of the THEA500, with users able to tweak setup, controller options and display settings.
The launch stock of the THEA500 Mini is expected to leave the manufacturing plant in early January 2022. In addition, due to many fan requests, standalone packs of the mouse and gamepad will also be made available in select territories.
“Over the last couple of months, my team has been hard at work finalizing the firmware of the THEA500 Mini, as well as working closely with our manufacturing partners to ensure the highest production quality,” said Chris Smith, CTO at Retro Games. “And as a commitment to our very loyal fans, we will also be shortly putting out a new Christmas THEC64 firmware update.”
“In addition, we have in the past excelled at the unboxing experience and feel that this time we have surpassed expectations and will be bringing you our best-looking product yet,” said Paul Andrews, Managing Director at Retro Games.
Included in the box with THEA500 Mini is a 6-foot wired USB classic mouse, a 6-foot wired precision 8-button gamepad, a USB-A to USB-C power cable (PSU not included) and an HDMI cable (both 6-feet in length) allowing for full compatibility with all modern TVs. Other features include a save game function, selectable 50Hz or 60Hz screen refresh rates, a CRT filter and multiple scaling options. Also upload your own files, games and firmware revisions via USB flash drive (not included).
Developed by Retro Games Ltd. and distributed by Koch Media, THEA500 Mini will enter retail on April 30, 2022 (March 25 in Europe) for $139.99/€129.99.