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My Journey to Build a Fully Functional Amiga 500 Plus in a Mini-ITX Case (and Survive the Battery Damage, Fake STM32s, and 2000 Angry Sockets)
There are two kinds of retro builds: the ones where everything just clicks into place, and the ones where you spend hours soldering your way into a functional Amiga⊠only to discover you put a SIM socket in backwards. Ask me how I know. In this post, Iâm taking you along my hands-on journey to build a fully functional Amiga 500 Plus using a dense Denise board in a mini-ITX caseâincluding the keyboard/PS2 âmodern comfortâ upgrades, the FlashFloppy GOTEK stack, the joystick/drive mods, and the hilarious-but-educational detours caused by mistakes, tight tolerances, and a small army of sockets. Watch the video on YouTube Starting Point: âThis Isnât a Raspberry Piâ…
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JuiceBox: From Purple PCB to an Upgraded Power Supply (Amiga USB-C Power, Revision 2)
Thereâs a special kind of nostalgia that kicks in when youâre powering an old computer with modern bits. Itâs half engineering, half archaeologyâlike digging up a treasure chest but realizing itâs full of capacitors and optimism. In my JuiceBox series, I set out to make a compact, USB-C-powered supply for an Amigaâstarting with a purple PCB in an orange case, then pushing it through real-world use, teardown nerves, and finally an upgrade to make everything tidier (and calmer) in revision 2. watch it here Chapter 1: The Orange Case Dream (and the Purple PCB that Made It Happen) Before the JuiceBox had a name and a case, Iâd already been…
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Alicia Build: Resurrecting an Amiga 1200 into a Mini-ITX âMac Proâ-Style New Home
I didnât set out to build âanother retro computer.â I set out to resurrect an Amiga 1200 in a different form factorâonly to discover, as always, that the past has a way of handing you extra homework. Thatâs the ethos behind my âAliciaâ series: journeying forward into the future while journeying back to remember the past and learn from its lessons. In other words: yes, weâre making something tiny and powerful⊠but weâre also documenting the dents, the detours, and the surprisingly educational moments along the way. watch the Alicia build completeâPart 1 here Chapter 1: Resurrecting the Amiga⊠into an Alicia When I started this Alicia project, it really…
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How I Built a 2025-Ready ZX Spectrum Keyboard Case Without a 3D Printer (PCBWay to the Rescue)
Thereâs a special kind of retro tragedy that happens when youâre ready to print, paint, and perfect your next ZX project⊠and then your 3D printer doesnât survive the move. I hit that exact wall recentlyâright before retro stuff became the planâso I had to ask myself: can I still build a brand-new Spectrum-style case in 2025 without doing the â3D printer hobbyistâ thing? Turns out, yes⊠and it involved a sponsor, a material choice, and a level of paperwork I didnât know existed. Also: I may have invented a packing-foam soldering jig. Letâs rewind and walk through exactly what I did. Watch the video on YouTube Why I Didnât…
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I Upgraded My Amigaâs Power Connector with a Magnetic USBâC Style Hack (and a Few Soldering Gremlins)
This started as a simple âwhat if?â after I noticed my MacBook Proâs magnetic power connector. You know the feeling: no fumbling, no wiggling, just clickâand the powerâs connected. Naturally, I thought, âCould an Amiga get the same quality-of-life glow-up?â And because retro projects are basically 50% engineering and 50% accidental slapstick, I also decided it would be fun to find out whether it was even possible. Watch the video on YouTube The Juice Box: the power supply I didnât expect to love this much Before I touch the magnetic connector itself, I need to set the stage: my âJuice Boxâ power supply has been a bigger success than I…
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Breathing New Life into My Atari ST with a 3D Printed Case
For years, Iâve watched aftermarket case projects flourish for the Amiga 500 and 1200 â sleek, modern, injection-molded shells that let aging systems shine again. But the Atari ST? It’s been sadly left behind. If you’ve ever owned one, youâll know the STâs case plastics are incredibly brittle, and time hasnât been kind. So I asked myself: why not 3D print a new one? Thanks to the good folks at PCBWay, who kindly sponsored this build, I got to put that idea to the test. The Case for a New Case When the box from PCBWay arrived, I couldnât wait to tear it open. Inside was something Iâd never seen…
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The Curious Case of the ETX Amiga 2000: A Debugging Odyssey
What you see on the bench now is a working ETX-form Amiga 2000âbut to understand how we got here, we need to rewind a bit. This strange little tale really begins when I picked up the board from Cathers in Cambridge. The First Setup Fresh back from Cambridge, I wired it up with a ROM switcherâtechnically meant for an A600. Not the perfect fit, Iâll admit, but it had all the Kickstart images I needed to investigate the problem for myself. That issue? Something was seriously wrong with the displayâespecially under Kickstart 2.0 or higher. The colors were just… off. Glitching, corruption, odd effects during animation. It was like looking…
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A600 Upgrades Continue
After completing the restoration of my Amiga 600, I found myself craving a deeper challenge. Sure, I couldâve gone all out with accelerators and high-end mods, but thatâs expensive, and honestly, I wasnât looking for overkill. What I really wanted was a compact machine that stayed true to its roots while still offering a touch of modern convenienceâperfect for playing classic games. Aesthetic Masterpiece Externally, the A600 is now a thing of beauty. Itâs got a two-tone paint job with a gunmetal gray top and a pearlescent candy orange bottom. If Iâm being honest, itâs probably one of the nicest case customizations Iâve ever done. But as striking as it…
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I had to do somethingâŠ
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BlueSCSI Setup for Adaptec EZ-SCSI 4 in DOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k1i_IFYy0U Building a Retro PC with BlueSCSI: My Journey Hi everyone! I wanted to share my recent adventure in building a retro PC setup, complete with a BlueSCSI for storage emulation. What started as a simple idea turned into a learning experience filled with challenges, unexpected twists, and ultimately, a lot of satisfaction The Vision Iâve always had a soft spot for old-school PCs. After scratching my nostalgia itch with an IBM 5170, I set my sights on building a DOS gaming machineâsomething to relive the magic of Doom and Quake. For this build, I used a Baby AT motherboard. While most had transitioned to ATX by the time my…
