My new Rev3 ChickenLips A500.

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LezRed
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2020 7:14 am

My new Rev3 ChickenLips A500.

Post by LezRed »

This was an impulse ebay purchase, I've wanted one for ages, so when one popped up I grabbed it, expensive as it was (for an A500).

This is an earlyish Amiga 500 produced in late '87 or early '88. It has a Rev 3 motherboard, the Chickenlips, the Hi-Tek/Space Invaders keyboard and a RevA floppy drive with the soft eject.

After a wash it didn't look too bad, the case is nowhere near as yellowed as my other 500's.

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It took a bit of work to clean up, there was a fair amount of grime, and it looks like it's had a drink at some point during its life too :roll:

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Worse bit was testing, I noticed one of the mem chips looks to have been replaced and the green screen suggested another had possibily gone.

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However following advice posted on this forum by Steve in the past, I removed Agnus and put her back in, and...

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Nice :D

After reassembly I tested the joystick port with a few games of Buggy Boy and F/A-18. All seems to be working, a few sticky keys just needed a bit of encouragement to engage but all good there too. I now need to clean up the RF Shields, I'll probably just sand and paint them. There's also a small bit of damage to the back of the case that shouldn't be too hard to repair - looks like a switch was installed at some point.

No idea what I'll do with her long-term, I've another two A500's that are better to use due to expansions and I don't think I want to mess with this one too much as I don't think there's a huge number of A500's this age out there.
matt020
Posts: 292
Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2019 9:17 am
Location: West Australia

Re: My new Rev3 ChickenLips A500.

Post by matt020 »

Nice specimen. Nothing wrong with keeping it stock standard. Of all my Amigas that are enhanced/modified, I still have an A500 and an A1000 that I will never upgrade :D
dalek
Posts: 224
Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2018 11:03 am
Location: NSW Australia

Re: My new Rev3 ChickenLips A500.

Post by dalek »

Wow that looks really nice.

I'd keep it stock as you will just be constantly chasing your tail upgrading a Rev 3. Much easier ways to get a daily driver A500 just with another Rev 6/8.

That or just swap the mobo and keep the case, leds, fdd, keyboard etc. It would look chicken lips outside but less hassles inside :)
LezRed
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2020 7:14 am

Re: My new Rev3 ChickenLips A500.

Post by LezRed »

Thanks for the replies. As I already have Rev 6 A500 with an ACA500plus and a A500+ with TF536 I've decided I'm going to leave this one as is. I'll even resist the temptation to swap keyboards around - as nice as the Hi-Tek is I don't really type very much on an actual Amiga.

Unfortunately I didn't get around to tidying up the RF shield this weekend, too many other things to do. This evening I have started flicking through a new book I got to brush up my .Net and learn a bit of C# for work, only to see this gem :lol:

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