That Pi3 starter kit includes a power adapter, HDMI cable, heatsinks, and a clear case. The grand total for all of the essentials is only $91.
And almost all of the software is completely free. The entire parts list is surprisingly affordable – especially if you have input devices laying around and aren’t dead-set on acquiring a Retro Amiga case. I had so much fun, and the endeavor was so affordable, I thought some of you might want to get in on the action.
So, I snagged a Retro Amiga case and got to tinkering. Although I still own a couple of actual Amigas, they are in storage and have probably succumbed to battery and capacitor leakage at this point. When these 3D printed, Retro Amiga cases for the RPi 3 hit Etsy, I had to have one. If you’re crazy – like me – you can even overclock the Raspberry Pi 3 to squeeze even more performance from the platform. The Raspberry Pi 3, however, represents a flexible, affordable option that’s tiny, easy to configure, and can actually be many times faster than any of the original Amigas.
Thankfully, there are a myriad of ways to emulate the Amiga on virtually any platform from Android smartphones to powerful PCs. Messing around with old Amiga hardware can be fun, but it can also be costly, especially in the U.S. So loyal, that new hardware and software continue to be developed for the Amiga to this day. But one thing is certain – the Amiga still has loyal fans that can’t get enough of the platform. The rest of the Amiga’s story is a convoluted mess that’s been told ad nauseam and continues to spur heated debate to this day. It offered multimedia features that were unmatched for many years, it was affordably priced (relatively speaking), and was the first personal computer with true multi-tasking capabilities, among numerous other things.ĭespite the Amiga’s superiority, Commodore eventually imploded some 23+ years ago and took the Amiga down with it. At the time of its launch, the Amiga was the most advanced personal computer money could buy – bar none. Those of us that were around when the Amiga initially debuted knew Commodore had something special on its hands.
Dave Haynie, one of the chief engineers that worked on the Amiga back in its heyday, put it best when he said, “Amiga users make Macintosh users look like PC users”, in the Viva Amiga documentary that was released early this year.